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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:49:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16518-8.txt b/16518-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75f73e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16518-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2281 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day's Tour, by Percy Fitzgerald + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Day's Tour + A Journey through France and Belgium by Calais, Tournay, + Orchies, Douai, Arras, Béthune, Lille, Comines, Ypres, + Hazebrouck, Berg + +Author: Percy Fitzgerald + +Release Date: August 12, 2005 [EBook #16518] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + + + + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: PRICE ONE SHILLING. + +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.] + +[Illustration] + + + A DAY'S TOUR + + A Journey through France and Belgium + + BY + + _CALAIS, TOURNAY, ORCHIES, DOUAI, ARRAS, BETHUNE, + LILLE, COMINES, YPRES, HAZEBROUCK, + BERGUES, AND ST. OMER_ + + WITH A FEW SKETCHES + + BY + PERCY FITZGERALD + +[Illustration] + + + London + CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY + 1887 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This trifle is intended as an illustration of the little story in +'Evenings at Home' called 'Eyes and No Eyes,' where the prudent boy +saw so much during his walk, and his companion nothing at all. +Travelling has become so serious a business from its labours and +accompaniments, that the result often seems to fall short of what was +expected, and the means seem to overpower the end. On the other hand, +a visit to unpretending places in an unpretending way often produces +unexpected entertainment for the contemplative man. Some such +experiment was the following, where everything was a surprise because +little was expected. The epicurean tourist will be facetious on the +loss of sleep and comfort, money, etc.; but to a person in good health +and spirits these are but trifling inconveniences. + + ATHENÆUM CLUB, + _August, 1887_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. IN TOWN + + II. DOVER + + III. THE PACKET + + IV. CALAIS + + V. TOURNAY + + VI. DOUAI + + VII. ARRAS + + VIII. LILLE + + IX. YPRES + + X. BERGUES + + XI. ST. OMER + + XII. ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS + + + + +A DAY'S TOUR. + + + + + +I. + +_IN TOWN._ + + +It is London, of a bright sultry August day, when the flags seem +scorching to the feet, and the sun beats down fiercely. It has yet a +certain inviting attraction. There is a general air of bustle, and the +provincial, trundled along in his cab, his trunks over his head, looks +out with a certain awe and sense of delight, noting, as he skirts the +Park, the gay colours glistening among the dusty trees, the figures +flitting past, the riders, the carriages, all suggesting a foreign +capital. The great city never looks so brilliant or so stately as on +one of these 'broiling' days. One calls up with a sort of wistfulness +the great and picturesque cities abroad, with their grand streets and +palaces, ever a delightful novelty. We long to be away, to be crossing +over that night--enjoying a cool fresh passage, all troubles and +monotony left behind. + +On one such day this year--a Wednesday--these mixed impressions and +longings presented themselves with unwonted force and iteration. So +wistful and sudden a craving for snapping all ties and hurrying away +was after all spasmodic, perhaps whimsical; but it was quickened by +that sultry, melting air of the parks and the tropical look of the +streets. The pavements seemed to glare fiercely like furnaces; there +was an air of languid Eastern enjoyment. The very dogs 'snoozed' +pleasantly in shady corners, and all seemed happy as if enjoying a +holiday. + +How delightful and enviable those families--the father, mother, and +fair daughters, now setting off gaily with their huge boxes--who +to-morrow would be beside the ever-delightful Rhine, posting on to +Cologne and Coblentz. What a welcome ring in those names! Stale, +hackneyed as it is, there comes a thrill as we get the first glimpse +of the silvery placid waters and their majestic windings. Even the +hotels, the bustle, and the people, holiday and festive, all seem +novel and gay. With some people this fairy look of things foreign +never 'stales,' even with repetition. It is as with the illusions of +the stage, which in some natures will triumph over the rudest, +coarsest shocks. + +Well, that sweltering day stole by. The very cabmen on their 'stands' +nodded in blissful dreams. The motley colours in the Park--a stray +cardinal-coloured parasol or two added to the effect--glinted behind +the trees. The image of the happy tourists in the foreign streets grew +more vivid. The restlessness increased every hour, and was not to be +'laid.' + +Living within a stone's-throw of Victoria Station, I find a strange +and ever new sensation in seeing the night express and its passengers +starting for foreign lands--some wistful and anxious, others supremely +happy. It is next in interest to the play. The carriages are marked +'CALAIS,' 'PARIS,' etc. It is even curious to think that, within three +hours or so, they will be on foreign soil, among the French spires, +sabots, blouses, gendarmes, etc. These are trivial and fanciful +notions, but help to fortify what one has of the little faiths of +life, and what one wise man, at least, has said: that it is the +smaller unpretending things of life that make up its pleasures, +particularly those that come unexpectedly, and from which we hope but +little. + +When all these thoughts were thus tumultuously busy, an odd _bizarre_ +idea presented itself. By an unusual concatenation, there was before +me but a strictly-tightened space of leisure that could not be +expanded. Friday must be spent at home. This was Wednesday, already +three-quarters spent; but there was the coming night and the whole of +Thursday. But Friday morning imperatively required that the traveller +should be found back at home again. The whole span, the _irreducible +maximum_, not to be stretched by any contrivance beyond about thirty +hours. Something could be done, but not much. As I thought of the +strict and narrow limits, it seemed that these were some precious +golden hours, and never to recur again; the opportunity must be +seized, or lost for ever! As I walked the sunshiny streets, images +rose of the bright streets abroad, their quaint old towers, and +town-halls, and marketplaces, and churches, red-capped fisherwomen--all +this scenery was 'set,'--properties and decorations--and the foreign +play seemed to open before my eyes and invite me. + +There is an Eastern story of a man who dipped his head into a tub of +water, and who there and then mysteriously passed through a long +series of events: was married, had children, saw them grow up, was +taken prisoner by barbarians, confined long in gaol, was finally +tried, sentenced, and led out to execution, with the scimitar about to +descend, when of a sudden--he drew his head out of the water. And lo! +all these marvels had passed in a second! What if there were to be +magically crowded into those few hours all that could possibly be +seen--sea and land, old towns in different countries, strange people, +cathedrals, town-halls, streets, etc.? It would be like some wild, +fitful dream. And on the Friday I would draw my head, as it were, out +of the tub. But it would need the nicest balancing and calculation, +not a minute to be lost, everything to be measured and jointed +together beforehand. + +There was something piquant in this notion. Was not life short? and +precious hours were too often wasted carelessly and dawdled away. It +might even be worth while to see how much could be seen in these few +hours. In a few moments the resolution was taken, and I was walking +down to Victoria, and in two hours was in Snargate Street, Dover. + + + + +II. + +_DOVER._ + + +Dover has an old-fashioned dignity of its own; the town, harbour, +ports, and people seem, as it were, consecrated to packets. There is +an antique and reverend grayness in its old inns, old streets, old +houses, all clustered and huddled into the little sheltered +amphitheatre, as if trying to get down close by their pride, the +packets. For centuries it has been the threshold, the _hall-door_, of +England. It is the last inn, as it were, from which we depart to see +foreign lands. History, too, comes back on us: we think of 'expresses' +in fast sloops or fishing-boats; of landings at Dover, and taking post +for London in war-time; how kings have embarked, princesses +disembarked--all in that awkward, yet snug harbour. A most curious +element in this feeling is the faint French flavour reaching +across--by day the white hills yonder, by night the glimmering lights +on the opposite coast. The inns, too, have a nautical, seaport air, +running along the beach, as they should do, and some of the older ones +having a bulging stern-post look about their lower windows. Even the +frowning, fortress-like coloured pile, the Lord Warden, thrusts its +shoulders forward on the right, and advances well out into the sea, as +if to be the first to attract the arrivals. There is a quaint relish, +too, in the dingy, old-fashioned marine terrace of dirty tawny brick, +its green verandas and _jalousies_, which lend quite a tropical air. +Behind them, in shelter, are little dark squares, of a darker stone, +with glimpses of the sea and packets just at the corners. Indeed, at +every point wherever there is a slit or crevice, a mast or some +cordage is sure to show itself, reminding us how much we are of the +packet, packety. Ports of this kind, with all their people and +incidents, seem to be devised for travellers; with their flaring +lights, _up-all-night_ hotels, the railway winding through the narrow +streets, the piers, the stormy waters, the packets lying by all the +piers and filling every convenient space. The old Dover of Turner's +well-known picture, or indeed of twenty years ago, with its 'dumpy' +steamers, its little harbour, and rude appliances for travel, was a +very different Dover from what it is now. There was then no rolling +down in luxurious trains to an Admiralty Pier. The stoutest heart +might shrink, or at least feel dismally uncomfortable, as he found +himself discharged from the station near midnight of a blowy, +tempestuous night, and saw his effects shouldered by a porter, whom he +was invited to follow down to the pier, where the funnel of the +'Horsetend' or Calais boat is moaning dismally. Few lights were +twinkling in the winding old-fashioned streets; but the near vicinity +of ocean was felt uncomfortably in harsh blasts and whistling sounds. +The little old harbour, like that of some fishing-place, offered +scarcely any room. The much-buffeted steamer lay bobbing and springing +at its moorings, while a dingy oil-lamp marked the gangway. A +comforting welcome awaited us from some old salt, who uttered the +cheering announcement that it was 'agoin' to be a roughish night.' + +On this night there was an entertainment announced at the 'Rooms,' and +to pass away the time I looked in. It was an elocutionist one, +entitled 'Merry-Making Moments, or, Spanker's Wallet of Varieties,' +with a portrait of Spanker on the bills opening the wallet with an +expression of delight or surprise. This was his 'Grand Competition +Night,' when a 'magnificent goblet' was competed for by all comers, +which I had already seen in a shop window, a blue ribbon reposing in +_dégagé_ fashion across it. If a tumbler of the precious metal could +be called a magnificent goblet--it was scarcely bigger--it deserved +the title. The poor operator was declaiming as I entered, in +unmistakable Scotch, the history of 'Little Breeches,' and giving it +with due pathos. I am bound to say that a sort of balcony which hung +out at the end was well filled by the unwashed takers, or at least +donees, of sixpenny tickets. There was a purpose in this, as will be +seen. After being taken through 'The Raven,' and 'The Dying Burglar,' +the competition began. This was certainly the most diverting portion +of the entertainment, from its genuineness, the eagerness of the +competitors, and their ill-disguised jealousy. There were four +candidates. A doctor-looking man with a beard, and who had the air +either of reading familiar prayers to his household with good parsonic +effect, or of having tried the stage, uttered his lines with a very +superior air, as though the thing were not in doubt. Better than he, +however, was one, probably a draper's assistant, who competed with a +wild and panting fashion, tossing his arms, now raising, now dropping +his voice, and every _h_, too. But a shabby man, who looked as if he +had once practised tailoring, next stepped on the platform, and at +once revealed himself as the local poet. Encouraged by the generous +applause, he announced that he would recite some lines 'he 'ad wrote +on the great storm which committed such 'avoc on hour pier.' There +were local descriptions, and local names, which always touched the +true chord. Notably an allusion to a virtuous magnate then, I believe, +at rest: + + 'Amongst the var'ous noble works, + It should be widely known, + 'Twas WILLIAM BROWN' _(applause)_ 'that gave _this_ town + The Dover's Sailors' 'OME!' _(applause)_. + +Need I say that when the votes came to be taken, this poet received +the cup? His joy and mantling smiles I shall not forget, though the +donor gave it to him with unconcealed disgust; it showed what +universal suffrage led to. The doctor and the other defeated +candidates, who had been asked to retire to a private room during the +process of decision, were now obliged to emerge in mortified +procession, there being no other mode of egress. The doctor's face was +a study. The second part was to follow. But it was now growing late, +and time and mail-packets wait for no man. + + + + +III. + +_THE PACKET._ + + +As I come forth from the Elocution Contest, I find that night has +closed in. Not a ripple is on the far-stretching blue waste. From the +high cliffs that overhang the town and its amphitheatre can be seen +the faintly outlined harbour, where the white-chimneyed packet snoozes +as it were, the smoke curling upwards, almost straight. The sea-air +blows fresh and welcome, though it does not beat on a 'fevered brow.' +There is a busy hum and clatter in the streets, filled with soldiers +and sailors and chattering sojourners. Now do the lamps begin to +twinkle lazily. There is hardly a breath stirring, and the great +chalk-cliffs gleam out in a ghostly fashion, like mammoth wave-crests. + +As it draws on to ten o'clock, the path to the Admiralty Pier begins +to darken with flitting figures hurrying down past the fortress-like +Lord Warden, now ablaze and getting ready its hospice for the night; +the town shows itself an amphitheatre of dotted lights--while down +below white vapours issue walrus-like from the sonorous +'scrannel-pipes' of the steamer. Gradually the bustle increases, and +more shadowy figures come hurrying down, walking behind their baggage +trundled before them. Now a faint scream, from afar off inland, behind +the cliffs, gives token that the trains, which have been tearing +headlong down from town since eight o'clock, are nearing us; while the +railway-gates fast closed, and porters on the watch with green lamps, +show that the expresses are due. It is a rather impressive sight to +wait at the closed gates of the pier and watch these two outward-bound +expresses arrive. After a shriek, prolonged and sustained, the great +trains from Victoria and Ludgate, which met on the way and became one, +come thundering on, the enormous and powerful engine glaring fiercely, +flashing its lamps, and making the pier tremble. Compartment after +compartment of first-class carriages flit by, each lit up so +refulgently as to show the crowded passengers, with their rugs and +bundles dispersed about them. It is a curious change to see the +solitary pier, jutting out into the waves, all of a sudden thus +populated with grand company, flashing lights, and saloon-like +splendour--ambassadors, it may be, generals for the seat of war, great +merchants like the Rothschilds, great singers or actors, princes, +dukes, millionnaires, orators, writers, 'beauties,' brides and +bridegrooms, all ranged side by side in those cells, or _vis-à-vis_. +That face under the old-fashioned travelling-cap may be that of a +prime minister, and that other gentlemanly person a swindling +bank-director flying from justice. + +During the more crowded time of the travelling season it is not +undramatic, and certainly entertaining, to stand on the deck of the +little boat, looking up at the vast pier and platform some twenty or +thirty feet above one's head, and see the flood of passengers +descending in ceaseless procession; and more wonderful still, the +baggage being hurled down the 'shoots.' On nights of pressure this may +take nearly an hour, and yet not a second appears to be lost. One +gazes in wonder at the vast brass-bound chests swooping down and +caught so deftly by the nimble mariners; the great black-domed ladies' +dress-baskets and boxes; American and French trunks, each with its +national mark on it. Every instant the pile is growing. It seems like +building a mansion with vast blocks of stone piled up on each other. +Hat-boxes and light leather cases are sent bounding down like +footballs, gradually and by slow degrees forming the mountain. + +What secrets in these chests! what tales associated with them! Bridal +trousseaux, jewels, letters, relics of those loved and gone; here the +stately paraphernalia of a family assumed to be rich and prosperous, +who in truth are in flight, hurrying away with their goods. Here, +again, the newly bought 'box' of the bride, with her initials gaudily +emblazoned; and the showy, glittering chests of the Americans. + +There is a physiognomy in luggage, distinct as in clothes; and a +strange variety, not uninteresting. How significant, for instance, of +the owner is the weather-beaten, battered old portmanteau of the +travelling bachelor, embrowned with age, out of shape, yet still +strong and serviceable!--a business-like receptacle, which, like him, +has travelled thousands of miles, been rudely knocked about, weighed, +carried hither and thither, encrusted with the badges of hotels as an +old vessel is with barnacles, grim and reserved like its master, and +never lost or gone astray. + +Now the engines and their trains glide away home. The shadowy figures +stand round in crowds. To the reflecting mind there is something +bewildering and even mournful in the survey of this huge agglomeration +and of its owners, the muffled, shadowy figures, some three hundred in +number, grouped together, and who will be dispersed again in a few +hours. + +A yacht-voyage could not be more tranquilly delightful than this +pleasant moonlight transit. We are scarcely clear of the twinkling +lights of the Dover amphitheatre, grown more and more distant, when +those of the opposite coast appear to draw near and yet nearer. Often +as one has crossed, the sense of a new and strange impression is never +wanting. The sense of calm and silence, the great waste of sea, the +monotonous 'plash' of the paddle-wheels, the sort of solitude in the +midst of such a crowd, the gradually lengthening distance behind, with +the lessening, as gradual, in front, and the always novel feeling of +approach to a new country--these elements impart a sort of dreamy, +poetical feeling to the scene. Even the calm resignation of the +wrapped-up shadows seated in a sort of retreat, and devoted to their +own thoughts or slumbers, add to this effect. With which comes the +thought of the brave little vessels, which through day and night, year +after year, dance over these uncertain waters in 'all weathers,' as it +is termed. When the night is black as Erebus, and the sea in its fury +boiling and raging over the pier, the Lord Warden with its +storm-shutters up, and timid guests removed to more sheltered +quarters, the very stones of the pier shaken from their places by the +violence of the monster outside--the little craft, wrapping its mantle +about its head, goes out fearlessly, and, emerging from the harbour to +be flung about, battered with wild fury, forces her way on through the +night, which its gallant sailors call, with truth, 'an awful one.' + +While busy with these thoughts I take note of a little scene of +comedy, or perhaps of a farcical kind, which is going on near me, in +which two 'Harrys' of the purest kind were engaged, and whose oddities +lightened the tediousness of the passage. One had seen foreign parts, +and was therefore regarded with reverence by his companion. + +They were promenading the deck, and the following dialogue was borne +to me in snatches: + +First Harry (interrogatively, and astonished): 'Eh? no! Now, really?' + +Second Harry: 'Oh, Lord bless yer, yes! It comes quite easy, you know' +(or 'yer know'). 'A little trouble at first; but, Lord bless yer' +(this benediction was imparted many times during the conversation), +'it ain't such a difficult thing at all.' + +I now found they were speaking of acquiring the French language--a +matter the difficulty of which they thought had been absurdly +overrated. Then the second Harry: 'Of course it is! Suppose you're in +a Caffy, and want some wine; you just call to the waiter, and you +say--' + +First Harry (who seems to think that the secret has already been +communicated): 'Dear me; yes, to be sure--to be sure! I never thought +of that. A Caffy?' + +Second Harry: 'Oh, Lor' bless yer, it comes as easy as--that! Well, +you go say to the fellow--just as you would say to an English +waiter--"_Don-ny maw_"--(pause)--"_dee Vinne_."' + +First Harry (amazed): 'So _that's_ the way! Dear, dear me! Vinne!' + +Second Harry: 'O' course it is the way! Suppose you want yer way to +the railway, you just go ask for the "_Sheemin--dee--Fur_." _Fur_, you +know, means "rail" in French--_Sheemin_ is "the road," you know.' + +Again lost in wonder at the simplicity of what is popularly supposed +to be so thorny, the other Harry could only repeat: + +'So that's it! What is it, again? _Sheemin_--' + +_'Sheemin dee Fur.'_ + +Later, in the fuss and bustle of the 'eating hall,' this 'Harry,' more +obstreperous than ever by contact with the foreigners, again attracted +my attention. Everywhere I heard his voice; he was rampant. + +'When the chap laid hold of my bag, "Halloo," says I; "hands off, old +boy," says I. + +"'Eel Fo!" says he. + +'"Eel-pie!" says I. "Blow your _Fo_," says I, and didn't he grin like +an ape? I declare I thought I'd have split when he came again with his +"_Eel Fo_!"' + +He was then in his element. Everything new to him was 'a guy,' or 'so +rum,' or 'the queerest go you ever.' One of the two declared that, 'in +all his experience and in all his life he had never heard sich a lingo +as French;' and further, that 'one of their light porters at +Bucklersbury would eat half a dozen of them Frenchmen for a bender.' + +This strange, grotesque dialogue I repeat textually almost; and, it +may be conceived, it was entertaining in a high degree. _'Sheemin dee +Fur'_ was the exact phonetic pronunciation, and the whole scene +lingers pleasantly in the memory. + + + + +IV. + +_CALAIS._ + + +But it is now close on midnight, and we are drawing near land; the eye +of the French _phare_ grows fiercer and more glaring, until, close on +midnight, the traveller finds the blinding light flashed full on him, +as the vessel rushes past the wickerwork pier-head. One or two beings, +whose unhappy constitution it is to be miserable and wretched at the +very whisper of the word 'SEA,' drag themselves up from below, +rejoicing that here is CALAIS. Beyond rises the clustered town +confined within its walls. As we glide in between the friendly arms of +the openwork pier, the shadowy outlines of the low-lying town take +shape and enlarge, dotted with lamps as though pricked over with +pin-holes. The fiery clock of the station, that sits up all night from +year's end to year's end; the dark figures with tumbrils, and a stray +coach waiting; the yellow gateway and drawbridge of the fortress just +beyond, and the chiming of _carillons_ in a wheezy fashion from the +old watch-tower within, make up a picture. + +[Illustration: HOGARTH'S GATE (CALAIS)] + +[Illustration: HALL OF THE STAPLE, (Calais)] + +Such, indeed, it used to be--not without its poetry, too; but the old +Calais days are gone. Now the travellers land far away down the pier, +at the new-fangled 'Calais Maritime,' forsooth! and do not even +approach the old town. The fishing-boats, laid up side by side along +the piers, are shadowy. It seems a scene in a play. The great sea is +behind us and all round. It is a curious feeling, thinking of the +nervous unrest of the place, that has gone on for a century, and that +will probably go on for centuries more. Certainly, to a person who has +never been abroad, this midnight scene would be a picture not without +a flavour of romance. But such glimpses of poetry are held intrusive +in these matter-of-fact days. + +There is more than an hour to wait, whilst the passengers gorge in the +huge _salle_, and the baggage is got ashore. So I wander away up to +the town. + +How picturesque that stroll! Not wholly levelled are the old yellow +walls; the railway-station with its one eye, and clock that never +sleeps, opens its jaws with a cheerful bright light, like an inn fire; +dark figures in cowls, soldiers, sailors, flit about; curiously-shaped +tumbrils for the baggage lie up in ordinary. Here is the old arched +gate, ditch, and drawbridge; Hogarth's old bridge and archway, where +he drew the 'Roast Beef of Old England.' Passing over the bridge into +the town unchallenged, I find a narrow street with yellow houses--the +white shutters, the porches, the first glance of which affects one so +curiously and reveals France. Here is the Place of Arms in the centre, +whence all streets radiate. What more picturesque scene!--the moon +above, the irregular houses straggling round, the quaint old +town-hall, with its elegant tower, and rather wheezy but most musical +chimes; its neighbour, the black, solemn watch-tower, rising rude and +abrupt, seven centuries old, whence there used to be strict look-out +for the English. Down one of these side streets is a tall building, +with its long rows of windows and shutters and closed door +(Quillacq's, now Dessein's), once a favourite house--the 'Silver +Lion,' mentioned in the old memoirs, visited by Hogarth, and where, +twenty years ago, there used to be a crowd of guests. Standing in the +centre, I note a stray roysterer issuing from some long-closed _café_, +hurrying home, while the _carillons_ in their airy _rococo_-looking +tower play their melodious tunes in a wheezy jangle that is +interesting and novel. This chime has a celebrity in this quarter of +France. I stayed long in the centre of that solitary _place_, +listening to that midnight music. + +It is a curious, not unromantic feeling, that of wandering about a +strange town at midnight, and the effect increases as, leaving the +_place_, I turn down a little by-street--the Rue de Guise--closed at +the end by a beautiful building or fragment, unmistakably English in +character. Behind it spreads the veil of blue sky, illuminated by the +moon, with drifting white clouds passing lazily across. This is the +entrance to the Hôtel de Guise--a gate-tower and archway, pure +Tudor-English in character, and, like many an old house in the English +counties, elegant and almost piquant in its design. The arch is +flanked by slight hexagonal _tourelles_, each capped by a pinnacle +decorated with niches in front. Within is a little courtyard, and +fragments of the building running round in the same Tudor style, but +given up to squalor and decay, evidently let out to poor lodgers. +This charming fragment excites a deep melancholy, as it is a neglected +survival, and may disappear at any moment--the French having little +interest in these English monuments, indeed, being eager to efface +them when they can. It is always striking to see this on some tranquil +night, as I do now--and Calais is oftenest seen at midnight--and think +of the Earl of Warwick, the 'deputy,' and of the English wool-staple +merchants who traded here. Here lodged Henry VIII. in 1520; and twelve +years later Francis I., when on a visit to Henry, took up his abode in +this palace. + +[Illustration: BELFRY, CALAIS.] + +Crossing the _place_ again, I come on the grim old church, built by +the English, where were married our own King Richard II. and Isabelle +of Valois--a curious memory to recur as we listen to the 'high mass' +of a Calais Sunday. But the author of 'Modern Painters' has furnished +the old church with its best poetical interpretation. 'I cannot find +words,' he says in a noble passage,' to express the intense pleasure I +have always felt at first finding myself, after some prolonged stay in +England, at the foot of the tower of Calais Church. The large neglect, +the noble unsightliness of it, the record of its years, written so +vividly, yet without sign of weakness or decay; its stern vastness and +gloom, eaten away by the Channel winds, and overgrown with bitter +sea-grass. I cannot tell half the strange pleasures and thoughts that +come about me at the sight of the old tower.' Most interesting of all +is the grim, rusted, and gaunt watch-tower, before alluded to, which +rises out of a block of modern houses in the _place_ itself. It can be +seen afar off from the approaching vessel, and until comparatively +late times this venerable servant had done the charity of lighthouse +work for a couple of centuries at least. + +But one of the pleasantest associations connected with the town was +the old Dessein's Hotel, which had somehow an inexpressibly +old-fashioned charm, for it had a grace like some disused château. +Some of the prettiest passages in Sterne's writings are associated +with this place. We see the figures of the monk, the well-known host, +the lady and the _petit-maître_: to say nothing of the old +_désobligeante_. Even of late years it was impossible to look at the +old building, which remained unchanged, without calling up the image +of Mr. Sterne, and the curious airy conversation--sprinkled with what +execrable French both in grammar and spelling!--that took place at the +gate. An air of the old times pervaded it strongly: it was like +opening an old _garde de vin_. You passed out of the _place_ and found +yourself in the Rue Royale--newly named Rue Leveux--and there, +Dessein's stood before you, with its long yellow wall, archway and +spacious courts, on each side a number of quaint gables or _mansardes_, +sharp-roofed. Over the wall was seen the foliage of tall and handsome +trees. There is a coloured print representing this entrance, with the +meeting of the 'little master' and the lady--painted by Leslie--and +which gives a good idea of the place. In the last century the courtyard +used to be filled with posting-carriages, and the well-known _remise_ +lay here in a corner. Behind the house stretched large, well-stocked +gardens, with which the guests at the hotel used to be recreated; +while at the bottom of the garden, but opening into another street, +was the theatre, built by the original Dessein, belonging to the hotel, +and still used. This garden was wild and luxuriant, the birds singing, +while the courtyard was dusty and weed-grown. + +This charming picture has ever been a captivating one for the +traveller. It seemed like an old country-house transferred to town. +There was something indescribable in the tranquil flavour of the +place, its yellow gamboge tint alternated with green vineries, its +spacious courtyard and handsome chambers. It was bound up with +innumerable old associations. Thackeray describes, with an almost +poetical affection and sympathy, the night he spent there. He called +up the image of Sterne in his 'black satin smalls,' and talked with +him. They used to show his room, regularly marked, as I have seen it, +'STERNES'S ROOM, NO. 31,' with its mezzotint, after Sir +Joshua, hung over the chimney-piece. But this tradition received a +shock some sixty years since. An inquisitive and sceptical traveller +fancied he saw an inscription or date lurking behind the vine-leaves +that so luxuriantly covered the old house, and sent up a man on a +ladder to clear away the foliage. This operation led to the discovery +of a tablet, dated two years too late for the authenticity of the +building in which 'Sterne's room' was. The waiter, however, in nowise +disconcerted, said the matter could be easily 'arranged' by selecting +another room in an unquestioned portion of the building! To make up, +however, there was a room labelled 'SIR WALTER SCOTT'S ROOM,' with +his portrait; and of this there could be no reasonable question. + + +------+ + | AD | + | 1770 | + +------+ + +In later years it did not flourish much, but gently decayed. +Everything seemed in a state of mild sleepy abandonment and decay till +about the year 1861, when the Desseins gave over business. The town, +much straitened for room, and cramped within its fortifications, had +long been casting hungry eyes on this spacious area. Strange to say, +even in the prosaic pages of our own 'Bradshaw,' the epitaph of 'old +Dessein's' is to be read among its advertisements: + + 'CALAIS. + + 'HÔTEL DESSEIN.--L. Dessein, the proprietor, has the + honour to inform his numerous patrons, and travellers in + general, that after the 1st of January his establishment will + be transferred to the Hôtel Quillacq, which has been entirely + done up, and will take the name of HÔTEL DESSEIN. The + premises of the old Hôtel Dessein having been purchased by the + town of Calais, it ceases to be an Hôtel for Travellers.' + +Still, in this new function it was 'old Dessein's,' and you were shown +'Sterne's room,' etc. I recall wandering through it of a holiday, +surveying the usual museum specimens--the old stones, invariable +spear-heads, stuffed animals; in short, the usual rather heterogeneous +collection, made up of 'voluntary contributions,' prompted half by the +vanity of the donor and half by his indifference to the objects +presented. We had not, indeed, the 'old pump' or the parish stocks, as +at Little Pedlington, but there were things as interesting. Here were +a few old pictures given by the Government, and labelled in writing; +the car of Blanchard's balloon, and a cutting from a newspaper +describing his arrival; portraits of the 'Citizen King' in his white +trousers; ditto of Napoleon III., name pasted over; the flagstone, +with an inscription, celebrating the landing of Louis XVIII., removed +from the pier--in deference to Republican sensitiveness--no doubt to +be restored again in deference to monarchical feelings; and, of +course, a number of the usual uninteresting cases containing white +cards, and much cotton, pins, and insects, stuffed birds, and +symmetrically-arranged dried specimens, the invariable Indian gourds, +and arrows, and moccasins, which 'no gentlemanly collection should be +without.' Never, during many a visit, did I omit wandering up to see +this pleasing, old, but ghostly memorial. It may be conceived what a +shock it was when, on a recent visit, I found it gone--razed--carted +away. I searched and searched--fancied I had mistaken the street; but +no! it was gone for ever. During M. Jules Ferry's last administration, +when the rage for 'Communal schools' set in, this tempting site had +been seized upon, the interesting old place levelled, and a +factory-like red-brick pile rapidly erected in its place. It was +impossible not to feel a pang at this discovery; I felt that Calais +without its Dessein's had lost its charm. Madame Dessein, a +grand-niece or nearly-related descendant of _le grand Dessein_, still +directs at Quillacq's--a pleasing old lady. + +There is still a half hour before me, while the gorgers in 'Maritime +Calais' are busy feeding against time; and while I stand in the +_place_, listening to the wheezy old chimes, I recall a pleasant +excursion, and a holiday that was spent there, at the time when the +annual _fêtes_ were being celebrated. Never was there a brighter day: +all seemed to be new, and the very quintessence of what was +foreign--the gay houses of different heights and patterns were decked +with streamers, their parti-coloured blinds, devices, and balconies +running round the _place_, and furnishing gaudy detail. Here there +used to be plenty of movement, when the Lafitte diligences went +clattering by, starting for Paris, before the voracious railway +marched victoriously in and swallowed diligence, horses, +postilions--bells, boots and all! The gay crowd passing across the +_place_ was making for the huge iron-gray cathedral, quite ponderous +and fortress-like in its character. Here is the grand _messe_ going +on, the Swiss being seen afar off, standing with his halbert under the +great arch, while between, down to the door, are the crowded +congregation and the convenient chairs. Overhead the ancient organ is +pealing out with rich sound, while the sun streams in through the +dim-painted glass on the old-fashioned costumes of the fish-women, +just falling on their gold earrings _en passant_. There is a dreamy +air about this function, which associated itself, in some strange way, +with bygone days of childhood, and it is hard to think that about two +or three hours before the spectator was in all the prose of London. + +For those who love novel and picturesque memories or scenes, there are +few things more effective or pleasant to think of than one of these +Sunday mornings in a strange unfamiliar French town, when every +corner, and every house and figure--welcome novelty!--are gay as the +costumes and colours in an opera. The night before it was, perhaps, +the horrors of the packet, the cribbing in the cabin, the unutterable +squalor and roughness of all things, the lowest depth of hard, ugly +prose, together with the rudest buffeting and agitation, and poignant +suffering; but, in a few hours, what a 'blessed' change! Now there is +the softness of a dream in the bright cathedral church crowded to the +door, the rites and figures seen afar off, the fuming incense, the +music, the architecture! + +During these musings the fiercely glaring clock warns me that time is +running out; but a more singular monitor is the great lighthouse which +rises at the entrance of the town, and goes through its extraordinary, +almost fiendish, performance all the night long. This is truly a +phenomenon. Lighthouses are usually relegated to some pier-end, and +display their gyrations to the congenial ocean. But conceive a monster +of this sort almost _in_ the town itself, revolving ceaselessly, +flashing and flaring into every street and corner of a street, like +some Patagonian policeman with a giant 'bull's-eye.' A more singular, +unearthly effect cannot be conceived. Wherever I stand, in shadow or +out of it, this sudden flashing pursues me. It might be called the +'Demon Lighthouse.' For a moment, in picturesque gloom, watching the +shadows cast by the Hogarthian gateway, I may be thinking of our great +English painter sitting sketching the lean Frenchwomen, noting, too, +the portal where the English arms used to be, when suddenly the 'Demon +Lighthouse' directs his glare full on me, describes a sweep, is gone, +and all is dark again. It suggests the policeman going his rounds. How +the exile forced to sojourn here must detest this obtrusive beacon of +the first class! It must become maddening in time for the eyes. Even +in bed it has the effect of mild sheet-lightning. Municipality of +Calais! move it away at once to a rational spot--to the end of the +pier, where a lighthouse ought to be. + + + + +V. + +_TOURNAY._ + + +But now back to 'Maritime Calais,' down to the pier, where a strange +busy contrast awaits us. All is now bustle. In the great 'hall' +hundreds are finishing their 'gorging,' paying bills, etc., while on +the platform the last boxes and chests are being tumbled into the +waggons with the peculiar tumbling, crashing sound which is so +foreign. Guards and officials in cloaks and hoods pace up and down, +and are beginning to chant their favourite '_En voiture, messieurs_!' +Soon all are packed into their carriages, which in France always +present an old-fashioned mail-coach air with their protuberant bodies +and panels. By one o'clock the signal is given, the lights flash +slowly by, and we are rolling away, off into the black night. +'Maritime Calais' is left to well-earned repose; but for an hour or so +only, until the returning mail arrives, when it will wake up again--a +troubled and troublous nightmare sort of existence. Now for a plunge +into Cimmerian night, with that dull, sustained buzz outside, as of +some gigantic machinery whirling round, which seems a sort of +lullaby, contrived mercifully to make the traveller drowsy and enwrap +him in gentle sleep. Railway sleeping is, after all, a not +unrefreshing form of slumber. There is the grateful 'nod, nod, +nodding,' with the sudden jerk of an awakening; until the nodding +becomes more overpowering, and one settles into a deep and profound +sleep. Ugh! how chilly it gets! And the machinery--or is it the +sea?--still roaring in one's ear. + +What, stopping! and by the roadside, it seems; the day breaking, the +atmosphere cold, steel-blue, and misty. Rubbing the pane, a few +surviving lights are seen twinkling--a picture surely something +Moslem. For there, separated by low-lying fields, rise clustered +Byzantine towers and belfries, with strangely-quaint German-looking +spires of the Nuremberg pattern, but all dimly outlined and mysterious +in their grayness. + +There was an extraordinary and original feeling in this approach: the +old fortifications, or what remained of them, rising before me; the +gloom, the mystery, the widening streak of day, and perfect +solitariness. As I admired the shadowy belfry which rose so supreme +and asserted itself among the spires, there broke out of a sudden a +perfect _charivari_ of bells--jangling, chiming, rioting, from various +churches, while amid all was conspicuous the deep, solemn BOOM! BOOM! +like the slow baying of a hound. + +It is five o'clock, but it might be the middle of the night, so dark +is it. This magic city, which seems like one of those in Albert +Dürer's cuts, rises at a distance as if within walls. I stand in the +roadside alone, deserted, the sole traveller set down. The train has +flown on into the night with a shriek. The sleepy porter wonders, and +looks at me askance. + +As I take my way from the station and gradually approach the city--for +there is a broad stretch between it and the railway unfilled by +houses--I see the striking and impressive picture growing and +enlarging. The jangling and the solemn occasional boom still go on: +meant to give note that the day is opening. Nothing more awe-inspiring +or poetical can be conceived than this 'cock-crow' promenade. Here are +little portals suddenly opening on the stage, with muffled figures +darting out, and worthy Belgians tripping from their houses--betimes, +indeed--and hurrying away to mass. Thus to make the acquaintance of +that grandest and most astonishing of old cathedrals, is to do so +under the best and most suitable conditions: very different from the +guide and cicerone business, which belongs to later hours of the day. +I stand in the open _place_, under its shadow, and lift my eyes with +wonder to the amazing and crowded cluster of spires and towers: its +antique air, and even look of shattered dilapidation showing that the +restorer has not been at his work. There was no smugness or trimness, +or spick-and-spanness, but an awful and reverent austerity. And with +an antique appropriateness to its functions the Flemish women, crones +and maidens, all in their becoming cashmere hoods, and cloaks, and +neat frills, still hurry on to the old Dom. Near me rose the antique +_beffroi_, from whose jaws still kept booming the old bell, with a +fine clang, the same that had often pealed out to rouse the burghers +to discord and tumult. It pealed on, hoarse and even cracked, but +persistently melodious, disregarding the contending clamours of its +neighbours, just as some old baritone of the opera, reduced and broken +down, will exhibit his 'phrasing'--all that is left to him. Quaint old +burgher city, indeed, with the true flavour, though beshrew them for +meddling with the fortifications! + +That little scene in this _place_ of Tournay is always a pleasant, +picturesque memory. + +I entered with the others. Within the cathedral was the side chapel, +with its black oak screen, and a tawny-cheeked Belgian priest at the +altar beginning the mass. Scattered round and picturesquely grouped +were the crones and maidens aforesaid, on their wicker-chairs. A few +surviving lamps twinkled fitfully, and shadowy figures crossed as if +on the stage. But aloft, what an overpowering immensity, all vaulted +shadows, the huge pillars soaring upward to be lost in a Cimmerian +gloom! + +Around me I saw grouped picturesquely in scattered order, and kneeling +on their _prie-dieux_, the honest burghers, women and men, the former +arrayed in the comfortable and not unpicturesque black Flemish cloaks +with the silk hoods--handsome and effective garments, and almost +universal. The devotional rite of the mass, deeply impressive, was +over in twenty minutes, and all trooped away to their daily work. +There was a suggestion here, in this modest, unpretending exercise, in +contrast to the great fane itself, of the undeveloped power to expand, +as it were, on Sundays and feast-days, when the cathedral would +display all its resources, and its huge area be crowded to the doors +with worshippers, and the great rites celebrated in all their full +magnificence. + +Behind the great altar I came upon an imposing monument, conceived +after an original and comprehensive idea. It was to the memory of _all +the bishops and canons_ of the cathedral! This wholesale idea may be +commended to our chapters at home. It might save the too monotonous +repetition of recumbent bishops, who, after being exhibited at the +Academy, finally encumber valuable space in their own cathedrals. + +The suggestiveness of the great bell-tower, owing to the peculiar +emphasis and purpose given to it, is constantly felt in the old +Belgian cities. It still conveys its old antique purpose--the defence +of the burghers, a watchful sentinel who, on the alarm, clanged out +danger, the sound piercing from that eyry to the remotest lane, and +bringing the valiant citizens rushing to the great central square. It +is impossible to look up at one of these monuments, grim and solitary, +without feeling the whole spirit of the Belgian history, and calling +up Philip van Artevelde and the Ghentish troubles. + +In the smaller cities the presence of this significant landmark is +almost invariable. There is ever the lone and lorn tower, belfry, or +spire painted in dark sad colours, seen from afar off, rising from the +decayed little town below; often of some antique, original shape that +pleases, and yet with a gloomy misanthropical air, as of total +abandonment. They are rusted and abrased. From their ancient jaws we +hear the husky, jangling chimes, musical and melancholy, the +disorderly rambling notes and tunes of a gigantic musical box. Towards +the close of some summer evening, as the train flies on, we see the +sun setting on the grim walls of some dead city, and on the clustered +houses. Within the walls are the formal rows of trees planted in +regimental order which fringe and shelter them; while rises the dark, +copper-coloured tower, often unfinished and ragged, but solemn and +funereal, or else capped by some quaint lantern, from whose jaws +presently issue the muffled tones of the chimes, halting and broken, +and hoarse and wheezy with centuries of work. Often we pass on; +sometimes we descend, and walk up to the little town and wander +through its deserted streets. We are struck with wonder at some vast +and noble church, cathedral-like in its proportions, and nearly always +original--such variety is there in these antique Belgian fanes--and +facing it some rustic mouldering town-hall of surprising beauty. There +are a few little shops, a few old houses, but the generality have +their doors closed. There is hardly a soul to be seen, certainly not a +cart. There are innumerable dead cities of this pattern. + +Coming out, I find it broad day. A few natives with their baskets are +hurrying to the train. I note, rising above the houses, two or three +other solemn spires and grim churches, which have an inexpressibly sad +and abandoned air, from their dark grimed tones which contrast with +the bright gay hues of the modern houses that crowd upon them. There +is one grave, imposing tower, with a hood like a monk's. Then I wander +to the handsome triangle-shaped _place_, with its statue to Margaret +of Parma--erst Governor of the Netherlands, and whose memory is +regarded with affection. Here is the old belfry, which has been so +clamorous, standing apart, like those of Ghent, Dunkirk, and a few +other towns; an effective structure, though fitted by modern restorers +with an entirely new 'head'--not, however, ineffective of its kind. + +The day is now fairly opened. There is a goodly muster of +market-women and labourers at the handsome station, which, like every +station of the first rank in Belgium, bears its name 'writ large.' It +is just striking five as we hurry away, and in some half an hour we +arrive at ORCHIES--one of those new spick-and-span little towns, +useful after their kind, but disagreeable to the æsthetic eye. +Everything here is of that meanest kind of brick, 'pointed,' as it is +called, with staring white, such as it is seen in the smaller Belgian +stations. Feeling somewhat degraded by this contact, I was glad to be +hurried away, and within an hour find we are approaching one of the +greater French cities. + + + + +VI. + +_DOUAI._ + + +Now begin to flit past us signs unmistakable of an approaching +fortified town. Here are significant green banks and mounds cut to +angles and geometrical patterns, soft and enticing, enriched with +luxuriant trees, but treacherous--smiling on the confiding houses and +gardens which one day may be levelled at a few hours' notice. Next +come compact masses of Vauban brick, ripe and ruddy, of beautiful, +smooth workmanship; stately military gateways and drawbridges, with a +patch of red trousering--a soldier on his fat Normandy 'punch' ambling +lazily over; and the peaceful cart with its Flemish horses. The +brick-work is sliced through, as with a cheese-knife, to admit the +railway, giving a complete section of the work. We are, in short, at +one of the great _places fortes_ of France, Douai, where the curious +traveller had best avoid sketching, or taking notes--a serious +offence. Here I lingered pleasantly for nearly three hours, and, +having duly breakfasted, noted its air of snug comfort and +prosperity. There is here a famous arsenal--ever busy--one of the +most important in France, and it has besides some welcome bits of +artistic architecture. + +It was when wandering down a darkish street, that I came on a most +original building, the old _Mairie_, enriched with a belfry of +delightfully graceful pattern. It might be a problem how to combine a +bell-tower with offices for municipal work, and we know in our land +how such a 'job' would be carried out by 'the architect to the Board.' +But all over Flemish France and Belgium proper we find an +inexhaustible fancy and fertility in such designs. It is always +difficult to describe architectural beauties. This had its tower in +the centre, flanked by two short wings. Everything was original--the +disposition of the windows, the air of space and largeness. Yet the +whole was small, I note that in all these Flemish bell-towers, the +topmost portion invariably develops into something charmingly +fantastic, into cupolas and short, little galleries and lanterns +superimposed, the mixture of solidity and airiness being astonishing. +It is appropriate and fitting that this grace should attend on what +are the sweetest musical instruments conceivable. Mr. Haweis, who is +the poet of Flemish bells, has let us into the secret. 'The fragment +of aërial music,' he tells us, 'which floats like a heavenly sigh over +the Belgian city and dies away every few minutes, seems to set all +life and time to celestial music. It is full of sweet harmonies, and +can be played in pianoforte score, treble and bass. After a week in a +Belgian town, time seems dull without the music in the air that +mingled so sweetly with all waking moods without disturbing them, and +stole into our dreams without troubling our sleep. I do not say that +such carillons would be a success in London. In Belgium the towers are +high above the towns--Antwerp, Mechlin, Bruges--and partially +isolated. The sound falls softly, and the population is not so dense +as in London. Their habit and taste have accustomed the citizens to +accept this music for ever floating in the upper air as part of the +city's life--the most spiritual, poetical, and recreative part of it. +Nothing of the kind has ever been tried in London. The crashing peals +of a dozen large bells banged violently with clapper instead of softly +struck with hammer, the exasperating dong, or ding, dong, of the +Ritualist temple over the way, or the hoarse, gong-like roar of Big +Ben--that is all we know about bells in London, and no form of church +discipline could be more ferocious. Bell noise and bell music are two +different things.' This fanciful tower had its four corner towerlets, +suggesting the old burly Scotch pattern, which indeed came from +France; while the vane on the top still characteristically flourishes +the national Flemish lion. + +Most bizarre, not to say extravagant, was the great cathedral, which +was laid out on strange 'lines,' having a huge circular chapel or +pavilion of immense height in front, whose round roof was capped by a +vast bulbous spire, in shape something after the pattern of a gigantic +mangel-wurzel! This astonishing decoration had a quaint and +extraordinary effect, seen, as it was, from any part of the city. Next +came the nave, whilst the transepts straggled about wildly, and a +gigantic fortress-like tower reared itself from the middle. Correct +judges will tell us that all this is debased work, and 'corrupt +style;' but, nevertheless, I confess to being both astonished and +pleased. + +This was the great festival of the _Corpus Domini_, and, indeed, +already all available bells in the place had been jangling noisily. It +was now barely seven o'clock, yet on entering the vast nave I found +that the 'Grand Mass' had begun, and the whole was full to the door, +while in the great choir were ranged about a hundred young girls +waiting to make their first Communion. A vast number of gala carriages +were waiting at the doors to take the candidates home, and for the +rest of the day they would promenade the city in their veils and +flowers, receiving congratulations. There was a pleasant provincial +simplicity in all this and in all that followed, which brought back +certain old Sundays of a childhood spent on a hill overlooking Havre. +I liked to see the stout red-cheeked choristers perspiring with their +work, and singing with a rough stentoriousness, just as I had seen +them in the village church of Sanvic. And there was the organist +playing away at his raised seat in the body of the church, as if in a +pew, visible to the naked eye of all; while two cantors in copes +clapped pieces of wood together as a signal for the congregation to +kneel or rise. Most quaint of all were the surpliced instrumentalists +with their braying bassoon and ophicleide: not to forget the +double-bass player who 'sawed' away for the bare life of him. The ever +visible organist voluntarized ravishingly and in really fine style. I +should like to have heard him at his own proper instrument, aloft, in +the gallery yonder, quite an enormous structure of florid pipes in +stories and groups, with angels blowing trumpets and flying saints. +It seemed like the stern of one of the Armada vessels. How he would +have made the pillars quiver! how the ripe old notes would have +_twanged_ and brayed into the darkest recesses! + +The Mass being over, the Swiss, a tall, fierce fellow, arrayed in a +feathered cocked-hat, rich _scarlet_ regimentals and boots, now showed +an extra restlessness. The Bishop of Douai, a smooth, polished +prelate, began his sermon, which he delivered from a chair, in clear +tones and good elocution. When the ceremonies were over, the whole +congregation gathered at the door to see the young ladies taken away +by their friends. Then I resumed my exploring. + +On a cheerful-looking _place_, which, with its trees and kiosque, +recalled the _Place Verte_ at Antwerp, I noticed a large building of +the pattern so common in France for colleges and convents--a vast +expanse of whiteness or blankness, and a yet vaster array of long +windows. It appeared to be a cavalry barrack for soldiers. The bugles +sounded through the archway, and orderlies were riding in and out. +This monotonous building, I found, had once been the English college +for priests, where the celebrated Douai or Douay Bible had been +translated. This rare book--a joy for the bibliophile--was published +about 1608, and, as is well known, was the first Catholic version in +English of the Scriptures. Here, then, was the cradle of millions of +copies distributed over the face of the earth. It was a curious +sensation to pass by this homely-looking edifice, with the adjoining +chapel, as it appeared to be--now apparently a riding-school. I also +came upon many a fine old Spanish house, and toiled down in the sun +to the Rue des Foulons, where there were some elaborate specimens. + +Short as had been my term of residence, I somehow seemed to know Douai +very well. I had gathered what is called 'an idea of the place.' Its +ways, manners, and customs seemed familiar to me. So I took my way +from the old town with a sort of regret, having seen a great deal. + + + + +VII. + +_ARRAS._ + + +It is just eleven o'clock, and here we are coming to a charming town, +which few travellers have probably visited, and of which that genial +and experienced traveller, Charles Dickens, wrote in astonished +delight, and where in 1862 he spent his birthday. 'Here I find,' he +says, 'a grand _place_, so very remarkable and picturesque, that it is +astonishing how people miss it.' This is old Arras; and I confess it +alone seems worth a long day's, not to say night's, journey, to see. +It is fortified, and, as in such towns, we have to make our way to it +from the station by an umbrageous country road; for it is fenced, as a +gentleman's country seat might be, and strictly enclosed by the usual +mounds, ditches, and walls, but all so picturesquely disguised in rich +greenery as to be positively inviting. Even low down in the deep +ditches grew symmetrical avenues of straight trees, abundant in their +leaves and branches, which filled them quite up. The gates seem +monumental works of art, and picturesque to a degree; while over the +walls--and what noble specimens of brickwork, or tiling rather, are +these old Vauban walls!--peep with curious mystery the upper stories +and roofs of houses with an air of smiling security. I catch a glimpse +of the elegant belfry, the embroidered spires, and mosque-like +cupolas, all a little rusted, yet cheerful-looking. Dickens's _place_, +or two _places_ rather--for there is the greater and the less--display +to us a really lovely town-hall in the centre, the roof dotted over +with rows of windows, while an airy lace-work spire, with a ducal +crown as the finish, rises lightly. On to its sides are encrusted +other buildings of Renaissance order, while behind is a mansion still +more astonishingly embroidered in sculptured stone, with a colonnade +of vast extent. Around the _place_ itself stretches a vast number of +Spanish mansions, with the usual charmingly 'escalloped' roof, all +resting on a prolonged colonnade or piazza, strange, old-fashioned, +and original, running round to a vast extent, which the sensible town +has decreed is never to be interfered with. A more pleasing, +refreshing, and novel collection of objects for the ordinary traveller +of artistic taste to see without trouble or expense, it would be +impossible to conceive. Yet everyone hurries by to see the somewhat +stale glories of Ghent and Brussels. + +[Illustration: ARRAS.] + +There was a general fat contented air of _bourgeois_ comfort about the +sleepy old-fashioned, handsome Prefecture--in short, a capital +background for the old provincial life as described by Balzac. But the +_place_, with its inimitable Spanish houses and colonnades--under +which you can shop--and that most elegant of spires, sister to that of +Antwerp, which it recalls, will never pass from the memory. A +beautiful object of this kind, thus seen, is surely a present, and a +valuable one too. + +A spire is often the expression of the whole town. How much is +suggested by the well-known, familiar cathedral spire at Antwerp, as, +of some fresh morning, we come winding up the tortuous Scheldt, the +sad, low-lying plains and boulders lying on either hand, monotonous +and dispiriting, yet novel in their way; the cream-coloured, +lace-worked spire rising ever before us in all its elegant grace, +pointing the way, growing by degrees, never for an instant out of +sight. It seems a fitting introduction to the noble, historical, and +poetical city to which it belongs. It _is_ surely ANTWERP! We +see Charles V., and Philip, and the exciting troubles of the Gueux, +the Dutch, the Flemings, the argosies from all countries in the great +days of its trade. Such is the mysterious power of association, which +it ever exerts on the 'reminiscent.' How different, and how much more +profitable, too, is this mode of approaching the place, than the other +more vulgar one of the railway terminus, with the cabs and omnibuses +waiting, and the convenient journey to the hotel. + +These old cities--Lille, Douai, and Valenciennes--all boast their +gateways, usually named after the city to which the road leads. Thus +we have 'Porte de Paris,' 'Porte de Lille,' etc. I confess to a deep +interest in all gateways of this kind; they have a sort of poetry or +romance associated with them; they are grim, yet hospitable, at times +and seasons having a mysterious suggestion. There are towns where the +traveller finds the gate obdurately closed between ten o'clock at +night and six in the morning. These old gates have a state and +flamboyant majesty about them, as, in Lille, the Porte de Paris is +associated with the glories of Louis XIV.; while in Douai there is +one of an old pattern--it is said of the thirteenth century--with +curious towers and spires. Even at Calais there is a fine and majestic +structure, 'Porte de Richelieu,' on the town side, through which every +market cart and carriage used to trundle. There are florid devices +inscribed on it; but now that the walls on each side are levelled, +this patriarchal monument has but a ludicrous effect, for it is left +standing alone, unsupported and purposeless. The carts and tramcars +find their way round by new and more convenient roads made on each +side. + +How pleasant is that careless wandering up through some strange and +unfamiliar place, led by a sort of instinct which habit soon +furnishes! In some of the French 'Guides,' minute directions are given +for the explorer, who is bidden to take the street to right or to +left, after leaving the station, etc. But there is a piquancy in this +uncertainty as compared with the odious guidance of the _laquais de +place_. I loathe the tribe. Here was to be clearly noted the languid, +lazy French town where nothing seemed to be doing, but everyone +appeared to be comfortable--'the fat, contented, stubble +goose'--another type of town altogether from your thriving Lilles and +Rouens. + +The pleasure in surveying this extraordinary combination of beautiful +objects, the richness and variety of the work, the long lines broken +by the charming and, as they are called, 'escalloped' gables, the +Spanish balconies, the pillars, light and shade, and shops, made it +almost incredible that such a thing was to be found in a poor obscure +French town, visited by but few travellers. On market-day, when the +whole is filled up with country folks, their wares and their stalls +sheltered from the sun by gaily-tinted awnings, the bustle and +glinting colours, and general _va et vient_, impart a fitting dramatic +air. Then are the old Spanish houses set off becomingly. + +This old town has other curious things to exhibit, such as the +enormous old Abbey of St. Vaast--with its huge expansive roof, which +somehow seems to dominate the place, and thrusts forward some fragment +or other--where a regiment might lodge. Its spacious gardens are +converted to secular uses. Then I find myself at the old-new +cathedral, begun about a century ago, and finished about fifty years +since--a 'poorish' heartless edifice in the bald Italian manner, and +quite unsuited to these old Flemish cities. I come out on a terrace +with a huge flight of steps which leads to a lower portion of the +city. This, indeed, leads down from the _haute_ to the _basse ville_; +and it is stated that a great portion of this upper town is supported +upon catacombs or caves from which the white stone of the belfry and +town-hall was quarried. It is a curious feeling to be shown the house +in which Robespierre was born, which, for the benefit of the curious +it may be stated, is to be found in the Rue des Rapporteurs, close to +the theatre. Arras was a famous Jacobin centre, and from the balcony +of this theatre, Lebon, one of the Jacobins, directed the executions, +which took place abundantly on the pretty _place_. + +[Illustration: BETHUNE.] + +Thus much, then, for Arras, where one would have liked to linger, nay, +to stay a week or a few days. But this wishing to stay a week at a +picturesque place is often a dangerous pitfall, as the amiable +Charles Collins has shown in his own quaint style. Has anyone, he +asks, ever, 'on arriving at some place he has never visited before, +taken a sudden fancy to it, committed himself to apartments for a +month certain, gone on praising the locality and all that belongs to +it, ferreting out concealed attractions, attaching undue importance to +them, undervaluing obvious defects: has he gone on in this way for +three weeks,' or rather three days, 'out of his month, then suddenly +broken down, found out his mistake, and pined in secret for +deliverance?' So it would be, as I conceive, at Bruges, or perhaps at +St. Omer. There you indeed appreciate the dead-alive city 'in all its +quiddity.' But a few days in a 'dead-alive' city, were it the most +picturesque in the world, would be intolerable. + +By noon, when the sun has grown oppressively hot, I find myself set +down at a sort of rural town, once flourishing, and of some +importance--Bethune. A mile's walk on a parched road led up the hill +to this languishing, decayed little place. It had its forlorn omnibus, +and altogether suggested the general desolation of, say, Peterborough. +Had it remained in Flemish hands, it would now have been flourishing. +I doubt if any English visitor ever troubles its stagnant repose. Yet +it boasts its 'grand' _place_, imposing enough as a memorial of +departed greatness, and, as usual, a Flemish relic, in the shape of a +charming belfry and town-hall combined. It was really truly +'fantastical' from the airiness of its little cupolas and galleries, +and was in tolerable order. Like the old Calais watch-tower, it was +caked round by, and embedded in, old houses, and had its four curious +gargoyles still doing work. + +On this 'grand' _place_ I noticed an old house bearing date '1625,' +and some wonderful feats in the way of red-tiled roofing, of which +there were enormous stretches, all narrow, sinuous, and suggesting +Nuremberg. I confess to having spent a rather weary hour here, and +sped away by the next train. + + + + +VIII. + +_LILLE._ + + +Two o'clock. We are on the road again; the sun is shining, and we are +speeding on rapidly--changing from Flanders to France--which is but an +hour or so away. Here the bright day is well forward. Now the welcome +fat Flemish country takes military shape, for here comes the scarp, +the angled ditch, the endless brick walling and embankment--a genuine +fortified town of the first class--LILLE. Here, too, many travellers +give but a glance from the window and hurry on. Yet an interesting +place in its way. Its bright main streets seem as gay and glittering +as those of Paris, with the additional air of snug provincial comfort. +To one accustomed for months to the solemn sobriety of our English +capital, with its work-a-day, not to say dingy look, nothing is more +exhilarating or gay than one of these first-class French provincial +towns, such as Marseilles, Bordeaux, or this Lille. There is a +glittering air of substantial opulence, with an attempt--and a +successful one--at fine boulevards and fine trees. + +The approach to Lille recalled the protracted approach to some great +English manufacturing town, the tall chimneys flying by the +carriage-windows a good quarter of an hour before the town was +reached. A handsome, rich, and imposing city, though content to accept +a cast-off station from Paris, as a poor relative would accept a +cast-off suit of clothes. The fine façade was actually transported +here stone by stone, and a much more imposing one erected in its +place. + +The prevailing one-horse tram-cars seem to suit the Flemish +associations. The Belgians have taken kindly and universally to them, +and find them to be 'exactly in their way.' The fat Flemish horse +ambles along lazily, his bells jingling. No matter how narrow or +winding the street, the car threads its way. The old burgher of the +Middle Ages might have relished it. The old disused town-hall is +quaint enough with its elaborately-carved _façade_, with a high double +roof and dormers, and a lantern surmounting all. A bit of true +'Low-Countries' work; but one often forgets that we are in French +Flanders. Entertaining hours could be spent here with profit, simply +in wandering from spot to spot, eschewing the 'town valet' and +professional picture guide. It is an extraordinary craze, by the way, +that our countrymen will want always 'to see the pictures,' as though +that were the object of travelling. + +[Illustration: BOURSE. LILLE.] + +One gazes with pleasure and some surprise at its handsome streets, +where everyone seems to live and thrive. There is a general air of +opulence. The new streets, built under the last empire on the Paris +model, offer the same rich and effective detail of gilded inscriptions +running across the houses, balconies and flowers, with the luxurious +_cafés_ below, and languid _flaneurs_ sitting down to their +_absinthe_ or coffee among the orange-trees. These imposing mansions, +built with judicious loans--the 'OBLIGATIONS OF THE CITY OF +LILLE' are quoted on the Exchanges--are already dark and rusted, +and harmonize with the older portions. At every turn there is a +suggestion of Brussels, and nowhere so much as on the fine _place_, +where the embroidered old Spanish houses aforesaid are abundant. + +The old cathedral, imposing with its clustered apses and great length +and loftiness, and restored façade, would be the show of any English +town. The Lillois scarcely appreciate it, as a few years ago they +ordered a brand-new one from 'Messrs. Clutton and Burgess, of London,' +not yet complete, and not very striking in its modern effects and +decorations. These vast old churches of the fourth or fifth class are +always imposing from their size and pretensions and elaborateness of +work, and are found in France and Belgium almost by the hundred. And +so I wander on through the showy streets, thinking what stirring +scenes this complacent old city has witnessed, what tale of siege and +battle--Spaniard, Frenchman, and Fleming, Louis the Great, the refuge +of Louis XVIII. after his flight. All the time there is the pleasant +musical jangle going on of tramcars below and bell-chimes aloft. But +of all things in Lille, or indeed elsewhere, there is nothing more +striking than the old Bourse--the great square venerable block, +blackened all over with age, its innumerable windows, high roof, and +cornices, all elaborately and floridly wrought in decayed carvings. +With this dark and venerable mass is piquantly contrasted the garish +row of glittering shops filled with gaudy wares which forms the +lowest story. Within is the noble court with a colonnade of pillars +and arches in the florid Spanish style; in the centre a splendid +bronze statue of the First Napoleon in his robes, which is so wrought +as to harmonize admirably with the rest. In the same congenial +spirit--a note of Belgian art which is quite unfamiliar to us--the +walls of the colonnade are decorated with memorials of famous 'Stock +Exchange' worthies and merchants, and nothing could be more skilful +than the enrichment of these conventional records, which are made to +harmonize by florid rococo decorations with the Spanish _genre_ and +encrusted with bronzes and marbles. This admirable and original +monument is in itself worth a journey to see. + +Who has been at Commines? though we are all familiar enough with the +name of Philip of 'that ilk.' I saw how patriarchal life must be at +Commines from a family repairing thither, who filled the whole +compartment. This was a lady arrayed in as much jet-work as she could +well carry, and who must have been an admirable _femme de ménage_, for +she brought with her three little girls, and two obstreperous boys who +kept saying every minute 'maman!' in a sort of whine or expostulation, +and two _aides-de-camp_ maids in spotless fly-away caps. With these +assistants she was on perfect terms, and the maids conversed with her +and dissented from her opinions on the happiest terms of equality. +When taking my ticket I was asked to say would I go to Commines in +France or to Commines in Belgium, for it seems that, by an odd +arrangement, half the town is in one country and half in the other! +Each has a station of its own. This curious partition I did not quite +comprehend at first, and I shall not forget the indignant style in +which, on my asking 'was this the French Commines,' I was answered +that '_of course_ it was Commines in Belgium.' Here was yet another +piquant bell-tower seen rising above trees and houses, long before we +even came near to it. I was pursued by these pretty monuments, and I +could hear this one jangling away musically yet wheezily. + +It is past noon now as we hurry by unfamiliar stations, where the +invariable _abbé_ waits with his bundle or breviary in hand, or +peasant women with baskets stand waiting for other trains. There is a +sense of melancholy in noting these strange faces and figures--whom +you thus pass by, to whom you are unknown, whom you will never see +again, and who care not if you were dead and buried. (And why should +they?) Then we hurry away northwards. + + + + +IX. + +_YPRES._ + + +As the fierce heat of the sun began to relax and the evening drew +on--it was close on half-past six o'clock--we found ourselves in +Belgium once more. Suddenly, on the right, I noted, with some trees +interposed, a sort of clustered town with whitened buildings, which +suggested forcibly the view of an English cathedral town seen from the +railway. The most important of the group was a great tower with its +four spires. I knew instinctively that this was the famous old +town-hall, the most astonishing and overpowering of all Belgian +monuments. + +Here we halted half an hour. The sun was going down; the air was cool; +and there was that strange tinge of sadness abroad, with which the air +seems to be charged towards eventide, as we, strangers and pilgrims in +a foreign country, look from afar off at some such unfamiliar objects. +There were a number of Flemings here returning from some meeting where +they had been contending at their national game--shooting at the +popinjay. Near to every small town and village I passed, I had noted +an enormously tall white post with iron rods projecting at the top. +This was the target, and it was highly amusing and characteristic to +watch these burghers gathered round and firing at the bird or some +other object on the top. Now they were all returning carrying their +bows, and in high good-humour. A young and rubicund priest was of the +party, regarded evidently with affection and pride by his companions; +for all that he seemed to say and do was applauded, and greeted with +obstreperous Flemish laughter. When an old woman came to offer cakes +from her basket for sale, he convulsed his friends by facetious +remarks as he made his selection from the basket, depreciating or +criticizing their quality with sham disgust, delighting none so much +as the venerable vendor herself. Every one wore a curious black silk +cap, as a gala headpiece. + +When they had gone their way, I set off on mine up to the old town. +The approach was encouraging. A grand sweep faced me of old walls, +rusted, but stout and vigorous, with corner towers rising out of a moat; +then came a spacious bridge leading into a wide, encouraging-looking +street of sound handsome houses. But, strange! not a single cab, +restaurant, or hotel--nay, hardly a soul to be seen, save a few +rustics in their blouses! It was all dead! I walked on, and at an +abrupt turn emerged on the huge expanse of the _place_, and was +literally dumbfoundered. + +Now, of all the sights that I have ever seen, it must be confessed +that this offered the greatest surprise and astonishment. It was +bewildering. On the left spread away, almost a city itself, the vast, +enormous town-hall--a vista of countless arches and windows, its roof +dotted with windows, and so deep, expansive, and capacious that it +alone seemed as though it might have lodged an army. In the centre +rose the enormous square tower--massive--rock-like--launching itself +aloft into Gothic spires and towers. All along the sides ran a +perspective of statues and carvings. This astonishing work would take +some minutes of brisk motion to walk down from end to end. It is +really a wonder of the world, and, in the phrase applied to more +ordinary things, 'seemed to take your breath away.' It is the largest, +longest, most massive, solid, and enduring thing that can be +conceived. + +It has been restored with wonderful care and delicacy. By one of the +bizarre arrangements--not uncommon in Flanders--a building of another +kind, half Italian, with a round arched arcade, has been added on at +the corner, and the effect is odd and yet pleasing. Behind rises a +grim crag of a cathedral--solemn and mysterious--adding to the effect +of this imposing combination, a sort of gloomy shadow overhanging all. +The church, on entering, is found overpowering and original of its +kind, with its vast arches and massive roof of groined stone. Truly an +astonishing monument! The worst of such visits is that only a faint +impression is left: and to gather the full import of such a monument +one should stay for a few days at least, and grow familiar with it. At +first all is strange. Every portion claims attention at once; but +after a few visits the grim old monument seems to relax and become +accessible; he lets you see his good points and treasures by degrees. +But who could live in a Dead City, even for a day? Having seen these +two wonders, I tried to explore the place, which took some walking, +but nothing else was to be found. Its streets were wide, the houses +handsome--a few necessary shops; but no cabs--no tramway--no carts +even, and hardly any people. It was dead--all dead from end to end. +The strangest sign of mortality, however, was that not a single +restaurant or house of refection was to be found, not even on the +spacious and justly called _Grande Place_! One might have starved or +famished without relief. Nay, there was hardly a public-house or +drinking-shop. + +[Illustration: YPRES] + +However, the great monument itself more than supplied this absence of +vitality. One could never be weary of surveying its overpowering +proportions, its nobility, its unshaken strength, its vast length, and +flourishing air. Yet how curious to think that it was now quite +purposeless, had no meaning or use! Over four hundred feet long, it +was once the seat of bustle and thriving business, for which the +building itself was not too large. The hall on the ground seems to +stretch from end to end. Here was the great mart for linens--the +_toiles flamandes_--once celebrated over Europe. Now, desolate is the +dwelling of Morna! A few little local offices transact the stunted +shrunken local business of the place; the post, the municipal offices, +each filling up two or three of the arches, in ludicrous contrast to +the unemployed vastness of the rest. It has been fancifully supposed +that the name Diaper, as applied to linens, was supplied by this town, +which was the seat of the trade, and _Toile d'Ypres_ might be +supposed, speciously enough, to have some connection with the place. + + + + +X. + +_BERGUES._ + + +But _en route_ again, for the sands are fast running out. Old +fortified towns, particularly such as have been protected by 'the +great Vauban,' are found to be a serious nuisance to the inhabitants, +however picturesque they may seem to the tourist; for the place, +constricted and wrapped in bandages, as it were, cannot expand its +lungs. Many of the old fortressed towns, such as Ostend, Courtrai, +Calais, have recently demolished their fortifications at great cost +and with much benefit to themselves. There is something picturesque +and original in the first sight of a place like Arras, or St. Omer, +with the rich and lavish greenery, luxuriant trees, banks of grass by +which the 'fosse' and grim walls are masked. Others are of a grim and +hostile character, and show their teeth, as it were. + +Dunkirk, a fortress of the 'first class,' fortified on the modern +system, and therefore to the careless spectator scarcely appearing to +be fortified at all--is a place of such extreme platitude, that the +belated wayfarer longs to escape almost as soon as he arrives. There +is literally nothing to be seen. But a few miles away, there is to be +found a place which will indemnify the disgusted traveller, viz., +BERGUES. As the train slackens speed I begin to take note of rich +green banks with abundant trees planted in files, such as Uncle Toby +would have relished in his garden. There is the sound as of passing +over a military bridge, with other tokens of the fortified town. There +it lies--close to the station, while the invariable belfry and heavy +church rise from the centre, in friendly companionship. I have noted +the air of sadness in these lone, lorn monuments, which perhaps arises +from the sense of their vast age and all they have looked down upon. +Men and women, and houses, dynasties and invaders, and burgomasters, +have all passed away in endless succession; but _they_ remain, and +have borne the buffetings of storms and gales and wars and tumults. As +we turn out of the station, a small avenue lined with trees leads +straight to the entrance. The bright snowy-looking _place_ basks in +the setting sun, while the tops of the red-tiled roofs seem to peep at +us over the walls. At the end of the avenue the sturdy gateway greets +us cheerfully, labelled 'Porte de Biene,' flanked by two short and +burly towers that rise out of the water; while right and left, the old +brick walls, red and rusted, stretch away, flanked by corner towers. +The moat runs round the whole, filled with the usual stagnant water. I +enter, and then see what a tiny compact little place it is--a perfect +miniature town with many streets, one running round the walls; all the +houses sound and compact and no higher than two stories, so as to keep +snug and sheltered under the walls, and not draw the enemy's fire. The +whole seems to be about the size of the Green Park at home, and you +can walk right across, from gate to gate, in about three minutes. It +is bright, and clean 'as a new pin,' and there are red-legged soldiers +drumming and otherwise employed. + +Almost at once we come on the _place_, and here we are rewarded with +something that is worth travelling even from Dover to see. There +stands the old church, grim, rusted, and weather-beaten, rising in +gloomy pride, huge enough to serve a great town; while facing it is +the belfry before alluded to, one of the most elegant, coquettish, and +original of these always interesting structures. The amateur of +Flemish architecture is ever prepared for something pleasing in this +direction, for the variety of the belfries is infinite; but this +specimen fills one with special delight. It rises to a great height in +the usual square tower-shape, but at each corner is flanked by a +quaint, old-fashioned _tourelle_ or towerlet, while in the centre is +an airy elegant lantern of wood, where a musical peal of bells, hung +in rows, chimes all day long in a most melodious way. Each of these +towerlets is capped by a long, graceful peak or minaret. This elegant +structure has always been justly admired by the architect, and in the +wonderful folio of etchings by Coney, done more than fifty years ago, +will be found a picturesque and accurate sketch. + +[Illustration: BERGUES.] + +It seemed a city of the dead. Now rang out the husky tinkling of the +chimes which never flag, as in all Flemish cities, day or night. It +supplies the lack of company, and has a comforting effect for the +solitary man. From afar off comes occasionally the sound of the drum +or the bugle, fit accompaniment for such surroundings. At the foot of +the belfry was an antique building in another style, with a small +open colonnade, which, though out of harmony, was still not +inappropriate. The only thing jarring was a pretentious modern +town-hall, in the style of one of our own vestry buildings, 'erected +out of the rates,' and which must have cost a huge sum. It was of a +genteel Italian aspect, so it is plain that French local +administrators are, in matters of taste, pretty much as such folk are +with us. One could have lingered long here, looking at this charming +and graceful work, which its surroundings became quite as much as it +did its surroundings. + +While thus engaged it was curious to find that not a soul crossed the +_place_. Indeed, during my whole sojourn in the town, a period of +about half an hour, I did not see above a dozen people. There were but +few shops; yet all was bright, sound, in good condition. There was no +sign of decay or decaying; but all seemed to sleep. It was a French +'dead city.' But it surely lives and will live, by its remarkable bell +tower, which at this moment is chiming away, with a melodious +huskiness, its gay tunes, repeated every quarter of an hour, while as +the hour comes round there breaks out a general and clamorous +_charivari_. + + + + +XI. + +_ST. OMER._ + + +After leaving this wonderful place, I was now speeding on once more +back into France. In all these shifts and changes the _douanier_ farce +was carefully gone through. I was regularly invited to descend, even +though baggageless, and to pass through the searching-room, making +heroic protest as I did so that '_I had nothing to declare_.' It was +easy to distinguish the two nations in their fashion of performing +this function, the French taking it _au sérieux_, and going through it +histrionically, as it were; the Belgian being more careless and +good-natured. There lingers still the habit of 'leading' or +_plombé_-ing a clumsy, troublesome relic of old times. Such small +articles as hat-cases, hand-bags, etc., are subjected to it; an +officer devoted to the duty comes with a huge pair of 'pincers' with +some neat little leaden discs, which he squeezes on the strings which +have tied up the article. + +Now we fly past the flourishing Poperinghe--a bustling, thriving +place, out of which lift themselves with sad solemnity a few tall +iron-gray churches, and another--yet one more--elegant belfry. There +seems something quaint in the name of Poperinghe, though it is hardly +so grotesque as that of another town I passed by, 'Bully Greny.' + +As this long day was at last closing in, I noticed from the window a +bright-looking town nestling, as it were, in rich green velvet and +dark plantation, with a bright, snug-looking gate, drawbridge, etc. +One of these gates was piquant enough, having a sort of pavilion +perched on the top. Here there was a quaint sort of 'surprise' in a +clock, the hours of which are struck by a mechanical figure known to +the town as 'Mathurin.' There was something very tempting in the look +of the place, betokening plenty of flowers and shaded walks and +umbrageous groves. Most conspicuous, however, was the magnificent +abbey ruin, suggesting Fountains Abbey, with its tall, striking, and +wholly perfect tower. This is the Abbey of St. Bertin, one of the most +striking and almost bewildering monuments that could be conceived. I +look up at the superb tower, sharp in its details, and wonder at its +fine proportions; then turn to the ruined aisles, and with a sort of +grief recall that this, one of the wonders of France, had been in +perfect condition not a hundred years ago, and at the time of the +Revolution had been stripped, unroofed, and purposely reduced to its +present condition! This disgrace reflects upon the Jacobins--Goths and +Vandals indeed. + +The streets of this old town, as it is remarked by one of the Guide +Books, 'want animation'--an amiable circumlocution. Nothing so +deserted or lonely can be conceived, and the phenomenon of 'grass +literally growing in the streets' is here to be seen in perfection. +There appeared to be no vehicles, and the few shops carry on but a +mild business. A few English families are said to repair hither for +economy. I recognise a peculiar shabby shooting-coat which betokens +the exile, accounted for by the pathetic fact that he clings to his +superannuated garment, long after it is worn out, for the reason that +it 'was made in London.' There is a rich and beautiful church +here--Notre Dame--with a deeply embayed porch full of lavish detail. +Here, too, rises the image of John Kemble, who actually studied for +the priesthood at the English College. + +By this time the day has gone, and darkness has set in. It is time to +think of journeying home. Yet on the way to Calais there are still +some objects to be seen _en passant_. Most travellers are familiar +with Hazebrouck, the place of 'bifurcation,' a frontier between France +and Belgium. Yet this is known for a church with a most elegant spire +rising from a tower, but of this we can only have a glimpse. And, on +the road to Bergues, I had noted that strange, German-named little +town--Cassel--perched on an umbrageous hill, which has its quaint +mediæval town-hall. But I may not pause to study it. The hours are +shrinking; but little margin is left. By midnight I am back in Calais +once more, listening to its old wheezy chimes. It seems like an old +friend, to which I have returned after a long, long absence, so many +events have been crowded into the day. It still wants some interval to +the hour past midnight, when the packet sails. + + + + +XII. + +_ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS._ + + +As I wandered down to the end of the long pier, which stretched out +its long arm, bent like an elbow, looking, like all French piers, as +if made of frail wickerwork, I thought of a day, some years ago, when +that eminent inventor, Bessemer, conceived the captivating idea of +constructing a steamboat that should abolish sea-sickness for ever! +The principle was that of a huge swinging saloon, moved by hydraulic +power, while a man directed the movement by a sort of spirit-level. +Previously the inventor had set up a model in his garden, where a +number of scientists saw the section of a ship rocking violently by +steam. I recall that pleasant day down at Denmark Hill, with all the +engineers assembled, who were thus going to sea in a garden. A small +steam-engine worked the apparatus--a kind of a section of a +boat--which was tossed up and down violently; while in the centre was +balanced a small platform, on which we experimenters stood. On large +tables were laid out the working plans of the grand Bessemer +steamship, to be brought out presently by a company. + +A year and more passed away, the new vessel was completed, and nearly +the same party again invited to see the result, and make trial of it. +I repaired with the rest. Nothing more generous or hospitable could be +conceived. There was to be a banquet at Calais, with a free ticket on +to Paris. It was a gloomy iron-gray morning. The strange outlandish +vessel, which had an engine at each end, was crowded with +_connoisseurs_. But I was struck with the figure of the amiable and +brilliant inventor, who was depressed, and received the premature +congratulations of his friends somewhat ruefully. We could see the +curious 'swinging saloon' fitted into the vessel, with the ingenious +hydraulic leverage by which it could be kept nicely balanced. But it +was to be noted that the saloon was braced firmly to the sides of its +containing vessel; in fact, it was given out that, owing to some +defect in its mechanism, the thing could not be worked that day. +Nothing could be handsomer than this saloon, with its fittings and +decorations. But, strange to say, it was at once seen that the +principle was faulty, and the whole impracticable. It was obvious that +the centre of gravity of so enormous a weight being brought to the +side would imperil the stability of the vessel. The bulk to be moved +was so vast, that it was likely to get out of control, and scarcely +likely to obey the slight lever which worked it. There were many +shakings of the engineering heads, and some smiles, with many an '_I +told you so_.' Even to the outsiders it seemed Utopian. + +However, the gloomy voyage was duly made. One of the most experienced +captains known on the route, Captain Pittock, had been chosen to pilot +the venture. He had plainly a distrust of his charge and the +new-fangled notion. Soon we were nearing Calais. Here was the +lighthouse, and here the two embracing arms of the wickerwork pier. I +was standing at the bows, and could see the crowds on the shore +waiting. Suddenly, as the word was given to starboard or 'port,' the +malignant thing, instead of obeying, took the reverse direction, and +bore straight _into_ the pier on the left! Down crashed the huge +flag-staff of our vessel in fragments, falling among us--and there +were some narrow escapes. She calmly forced her way down the pier for +nearly a hundred yards, literally crunching and smashing it up into +fragments, and sweeping the whole away. I looked back on the +disastrous course, and saw the whole clear behind us! As we gazed on +this sudden wreck, I am ashamed to say there was a roar of laughter, +for never was a _surprise_ of so bewildering a character sprung upon +human nature. The faces of the poor captain and his sailors, who could +scarcely restrain their maledictions on the ill-conditioned 'brute,' +betrayed mortification and vexation in the most poignant fashion. The +confusion was extraordinary. She was now with difficulty brought over +to the other pier. This, though done ever so gently, brought fresh +damage, as the mere contact crunched and dislocated most of the +timbers. The ill-assured party defiled ashore, and we made for the +banqueting-room between rows of half-jeering, half-sympathizing +spectators. The speakers at the symposium required all their tact to +deal with the disheartening subject. The only thing to be done was to +'have confidence' in the invention--much as a Gladstonian in +difficulty invites the world to 'leave all to the skill of our great +chief.' But, alas! this would not do just now. The vessel was, in +fact, unsteerable; the enormous weight of the engines at the bows +prevented her obeying the helm. The party set off to Paris--such as +were in spirits to do so--and the shareholders in the company must +have had aching hearts enough. + +Some years later, walking by the Thames bank, not far from Woolwich, I +came upon some masses of rusted metal, long lying there. There were +the huge cranks of paddle-wheels, a cylinder, and some boiler metal. +These, I was informed, were the fragments of the unlucky steamship +that was to abolish sea-sickness! As I now walked to the end of the +solitary pier--the very one I had seen swept away so unceremoniously--the +recollection of this day came back to me. There was an element of grim +comedy in the transaction when I recalled that the Calais harbour +officials sent in--and reasonably--a huge claim for the mischief done +to the pier; but the company soon satisfied _that_ by speedily +going 'into liquidation.' There was no resource, so the Frenchmen +had to rebuild their pier at their own cost. + +Close to Calais is a notable place enough, flourishing, too, founded +after the great war by one Webster, an English laceman. It has grown +up, with broad stately streets, in which, it is said, some four or +five thousand Britons live and thrive. As you walk along you see the +familiar names, 'Smith and Co.,' 'Brown and Co.,' etc., displayed on +huge brass plates at the doors in true native style. Indeed, the whole +air of the place offers a suggestion of Belfast, these downright +colonists having stamped their ways and manners in solid style on the +place. Poor old original Calais had long made protest against the +constriction she was suffering; the wall and ditch, and the single +gate of issue towards the country, named after Richelieu, seeming to +check all hope of improvement. Reasons of state were urged. But a few +years ago Government gave way, the walls towards the country-side were +thrown down, the ditch filled up, and some tremendous 'navigator' work +was carried out. The place can now draw its breath. + +On my last visit I had attended the theatre, a music-hall adaptable to +plays, concerts, or to 'les meetings.' It was a new, raw place, very +different from the little old theatre in the garden of Dessein's, +where the famous Duchess of Kingston attended a performance over a +hundred and twenty years ago. This place bore the dignified title of +the 'Hippodrome Theatre,' and a grand 'national' drama was going on, +entitled + + 'THE CUIRASSIER OF REICHSHOFEN.' + +Here we had the grand tale of French heroism and real victory, which +an ungenerous foe persisted in calling defeat. A gallant Frenchman, +who played the hero, had nearly run his daring course, having done +prodigies of valour on that fateful and fatal day. The crisis of the +drama was reached almost as I entered, the cuirassier coming in with +his head bound up in a bloody towel! After relating the horrors of +that awful charge in an impassioned strain, he wound up by declaring +that _'He and Death'_ were the only two left upon the field! It need +not be said there were abundant groans for the Germans and cheers for +the glorious Frenchmen. + +Now at last down to the vessel, as the wheezy chimes give out that it +is close on two o'clock a.m. All seems dozing at 'Maritime Calais.' +The fishing-boats lie close together, interlaced in black network, +snoozing, as it were, after their labours. Afar off the little town +still maintains its fortress-like air and its picturesque aspect, the +dark central spires rising like shadows, the few lights twinkling. The +whole scene is deliciously tranquil. The plashing of the water seems +to invite slumber, or at least a temporary doze, to which the +traveller, after his long day and night, is justly entitled. How +strange those old days, when the exiles for debt abounded here! They +were in multitudes then, and had a sort of society among themselves in +this Alsatia. That gentleman in a high stock and a short-waisted +coat--the late Mr. Brummell surely, walking in this direction? Is he +pursued by this agitated crowd, hurrying after him with a low roaring, +like the sound of the waves?... + + * * * * * + +I am roused up with a start. What a change! The whole is alive and +bustling, black shadowy figures are hurrying by. The white-funnelled +steamer has come up, and is moaning dismally, eager to get away. +Behind is the long international train of illuminated chambers, fresh +from Paris and just come in, pouring out its men and women, who have +arrived from all quarters of the world. They stream on board in a +shadowy procession, laden with their bundles. Lower down, I hear the +_crashing_ of trunks discharged upon the earth! I go on board with +the rest, sit down in a corner, and recall nothing till I find myself +on the chill platform of Victoria Station--time, six o'clock a.m. + +It was surely a dream, or like a dream!--a dream a little over thirty +hours long. And what strange objects, all blended and confused +together!--towers, towns, gateways, drawbridges, religious rites and +processions, pealing organs and jangling chimes, long dusty roads +lined with regimental trees, blouses, fishwomen's caps, _sabots_, +savoury and unsavoury smells, France dissolving into Belgium, Belgium +into France, France into Belgium again; in short, one bewildering +kaleidoscope! A day and two nights had gone, during all which time I +had been on my legs, and had travelled nigh six hundred miles! Dream +or no dream, it had been a very welcome show or panorama, new ideas +and sights appearing at every turn. + +And here is my little _'orario'_: + + O'clock. + + 1. Victoria, depart 5.0 + 2. Dover, arrive 7.0 + " depart 10.0 + 3. Calais, arrive 12.44 + " depart 1.0 + 4. Tournay, arrive 4.13 + " depart 5.1 + 5. Orchies, arrive 6.8 + " depart 6.29 + 6. Douai, arrive 7.6 + " depart 10.8 + 7. Arras, arrive 10.52 + " depart 11.17 + 8. Bethune, arrive 12.6 + " depart 1.1 + 9. Lille, arrive 2.44 + " depart 4.40 + 10. Comines, arrive 5.19 + " depart 5.57 + 11. Ypres 6.42 + 12. Hazebrouck 7.50 + 13. Cassel 8.18 + 14. Bergues, arrive 9.6 + " depart 10.4 + 15. St. Omer 11.37 + 16. Calais 12.14 + 17. Dover 4.0 + 18. Victoria 6.0 + + Time on journey 37 hours + +This, of course, is more than a day, but it will be seen that eight +hours were spent on English soil, and certainly nearly twelve in +inaction. + + +THE END. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + +[Illustration: PEARS' SOAP + +A Specialty for Children] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day's Tour, by Percy Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + +***** This file should be named 16518-8.txt or 16518-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/1/16518/ + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Day's Tour + A Journey through France and Belgium by Calais, Tournay, + Orchies, Douai, Arras, Béthune, Lille, Comines, Ypres, + Hazebrouck, Berg + +Author: Percy Fitzgerald + +Release Date: August 12, 2005 [EBook #16518] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + + + + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h5>PRICE ONE SHILLING.</h5> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;"> +<img src="images/img01.jpg" width="409" height="523" alt="Title Page" title="" /> +</div> +<h5>CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.</h5> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 537px;"> +<img src="images/img02.png" width="537" height="403" alt="Map of route" title="" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>A DAY'S TOUR</h1> +<br /> +<h2>A Journey through France and Belgium</h2> +<br /> +<div class="center small" >BY</div> +<br /> +<div class="center"><i>CALAIS, TOURNAY, ORCHIES, DOUAI, ARRAS, BETHUNE,<br /> +LILLE, COMINES, YPRES, HAZEBROUCK,<br /> +BERGUES, AND ST. OMER</i></div><br /> +<br /> +<div class="center">WITH A FEW SKETCHES</div> +<br /><br /> +<div class="center small">BY</div> +<div class="center big">PERCY FITZGERALD</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 126px;"> +<img src="images/img03.png" width="126" height="150" alt="Decorative motif" title="" /> +</div> + + +<div class="center"><b>London</b></div> +<div class="center">CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY<br /> +1887</div><br /> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<img src="images/img04.png" width="75" height="275" alt="Illuminated T" title="" align="left" /><br /><br /> +<p>his trifle is intended as an illustration of the little story in +'Evenings at Home' called 'Eyes and No Eyes,' where the prudent boy +saw so much during his walk, and his companion nothing at all. +Travelling has become so serious a business from its labours and +accompaniments, that the result often seems to fall short of what was +expected, and the means seem to overpower the end. On the other hand, +a visit to unpretending places in an unpretending way often produces +unexpected entertainment for the contemplative man. Some such +experiment was the following, where everything was a surprise because +little was expected. The epicurean tourist will be facetious on the +loss of sleep and comfort, money, etc.; but to a person in good health +and spirits these are but trifling inconveniences.</p> + +<div class="right"><span class="smcap">Athenæum Club</span>,<br /> +<i>August, 1887.</i></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<ol> +<li><a href="#A_DAYS_TOUR">IN TOWN</a></li> +<li><a href="#II">DOVER</a></li> +<li><a href="#III">THE PACKET</a></li> +<li><a href="#IV">CALAIS</a></li> +<li><a href="#V">TOURNAY</a></li> +<li><a href="#VI">DOUAI</a></li> +<li><a href="#VII">ARRAS</a></li> +<li><a href="#VIII">LILLE</a></li> +<li><a href="#IX">YPRES</a></li> +<li><a href="#X">BERGUES</a></li> +<li><a href="#XI">ST. OMER</a></li> +<li><a href="#XII">ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A DAY'S TOUR.</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_DAYS_TOUR" id="A_DAYS_TOUR"></a>I.</h2> + +<h3><i>IN TOWN.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img06.png" width="75" height="163" alt="Illuminated I" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>t is London, of a bright sultry August day, when the flags seem +scorching to the feet, and the sun beats down fiercely. It has yet a +certain inviting attraction. There is a general air of bustle, and the +provincial, trundled along in his cab, his trunks over his head, looks +out with a certain awe and sense of delight, noting, as he skirts the +Park, the gay colours glistening among the dusty trees, the figures +flitting past, the riders, the carriages, all suggesting a foreign +capital. The great city never looks so brilliant or so stately as on +one of these 'broiling' days. One calls up with a sort of wistfulness +the great and picturesque cities abroad, with their grand streets and +palaces, ever a delightful novelty. We long to be away, to be crossing +over that night—enjoying a cool fresh passage, all troubles and +monotony left behind.</p> + +<p>On one such day this year—a Wednesday—these mixed impressions and +longings presented themselves with unwonted force and iteration. So +wistful and sudden a craving for snapping all ties and hurrying away +was after all spasmodic, perhaps whimsical; but it was quickened by +that sultry, melting air of the parks and the tropical look of the +streets. The pavements seemed to glare fiercely like furnaces; there +was an air of languid Eastern enjoyment. The very dogs 'snoozed' +pleasantly in shady corners, and all seemed happy as if enjoying a +holiday.</p> + +<p>How delightful and enviable those families—the father, mother, and +fair daughters, now setting off gaily with their huge boxes—who +to-morrow would be beside the ever-delightful Rhine, posting on to +Cologne and Coblentz. What a welcome ring in those names! Stale, +hackneyed as it is, there comes a thrill as we get the first glimpse +of the silvery placid waters and their majestic windings. Even the +hotels, the bustle, and the people, holiday and festive, all seem +novel and gay. With some people this fairy look of things foreign +never 'stales,' even with repetition. It is as with the illusions of +the stage, which in some natures will triumph over the rudest, +coarsest shocks.</p> + +<p>Well, that sweltering day stole by. The very cabmen on their 'stands' +nodded in blissful dreams. The motley colours in the Park—a stray +cardinal-coloured parasol or two added to the effect—glinted behind +the trees. The image of the happy tourists in the foreign streets grew +more vivid. The restlessness increased every hour, and was not to be +'laid.'</p> + +<p>Living within a stone's-throw of Victoria Station, I find a strange +and ever new sensation in seeing the night express and its passengers +starting for foreign lands—some wistful and anxious, others supremely +happy. It is next in interest to the play. The carriages are marked +'<span class="smcap">Calais</span>,' '<span class="smcap">Paris</span>,' etc. It is even curious to think that, within three +hours or so, they will be on foreign soil, among the French spires, +sabots, blouses, gendarmes, etc. These are trivial and fanciful +notions, but help to fortify what one has of the little faiths of +life, and what one wise man, at least, has said: that it is the +smaller unpretending things of life that make up its pleasures, +particularly those that come unexpectedly, and from which we hope but +little.</p> + +<p>When all these thoughts were thus tumultuously busy, an odd <i>bizarre</i> +idea presented itself. By an unusual concatenation, there was before +me but a strictly-tightened space of leisure that could not be +expanded. Friday must be spent at home. This was Wednesday, already +three-quarters spent; but there was the coming night and the whole of +Thursday. But Friday morning imperatively required that the traveller +should be found back at home again. The whole span, the <i>irreducible +maximum</i>, not to be stretched by any contrivance beyond about thirty +hours. Something could be done, but not much. As I thought of the +strict and narrow limits, it seemed that these were some precious +golden hours, and never to recur again; the opportunity must be +seized, or lost for ever! As I walked the sunshiny streets, images +rose of the bright streets abroad, their quaint old towers, and +town-halls, and marketplaces, and churches, red-capped fisherwomen—all +this scenery was 'set,'—properties and decorations—and the foreign +play seemed to open before my eyes and invite me.</p> + +<p>There is an Eastern story of a man who dipped his head into a tub of +water, and who there and then mysteriously passed through a long +series of events: was married, had children, saw them grow up, was +taken prisoner by barbarians, confined long in gaol, was finally +tried, sentenced, and led out to execution, with the scimitar about to +descend, when of a sudden—he drew his head out of the water. And lo! +all these marvels had passed in a second! What if there were to be +magically crowded into those few hours all that could possibly be +seen—sea and land, old towns in different countries, strange people, +cathedrals, town-halls, streets, etc.? It would be like some wild, +fitful dream. And on the Friday I would draw my head, as it were, out +of the tub. But it would need the nicest balancing and calculation, +not a minute to be lost, everything to be measured and jointed +together beforehand.</p> + +<p>There was something piquant in this notion. Was not life short? and +precious hours were too often wasted carelessly and dawdled away. It +might even be worth while to see how much could be seen in these few +hours. In a few moments the resolution was taken, and I was walking +down to Victoria, and in two hours was in Snargate Street, Dover.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + +<h3><i>DOVER.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img010.png" width="75" height="250" alt="Illuminated D" title="" align="left" /><br /><br /> +<p>over has an old-fashioned dignity of its own; the town, harbour, +ports, and people seem, as it were, consecrated to packets. There is +an antique and reverend grayness in its old inns, old streets, old +houses, all clustered and huddled into the little sheltered +amphitheatre, as if trying to get down close by their pride, the +packets. For centuries it has been the threshold, the <i>hall-door</i>, of +England. It is the last inn, as it were, from which we depart to see +foreign lands. History, too, comes back on us: we think of 'expresses' +in fast sloops or fishing-boats; of landings at Dover, and taking post +for London in war-time; how kings have embarked, princesses +disembarked—all in that awkward, yet snug harbour. A most curious +element in this feeling is the faint French flavour reaching +across—by day the white hills yonder, by night the glimmering lights +on the opposite coast. The inns, too, have a nautical, seaport air, +running along the beach, as they should do, and some of the older ones +having a bulging stern-post look about their lower windows. Even the +frowning, fortress-like coloured pile, the Lord Warden, thrusts its +shoulders forward on the right, and advances well out into the sea, as +if to be the first to attract the arrivals. There is a quaint relish, +too, in the dingy, old-fashioned marine terrace of dirty tawny brick, +its green verandas and <i>jalousies</i>, which lend quite a tropical air. +Behind them, in shelter, are little dark squares, of a darker stone, +with glimpses of the sea and packets just at the corners. Indeed, at +every point wherever there is a slit or crevice, a mast or some +cordage is sure to show itself, reminding us how much we are of the +packet, packety. Ports of this kind, with all their people and +incidents, seem to be devised for travellers; with their flaring +lights, <i>up-all-night</i> hotels, the railway winding through the narrow +streets, the piers, the stormy waters, the packets lying by all the +piers and filling every convenient space. The old Dover of Turner's +well-known picture, or indeed of twenty years ago, with its 'dumpy' +steamers, its little harbour, and rude appliances for travel, was a +very different Dover from what it is now. There was then no rolling +down in luxurious trains to an Admiralty Pier. The stoutest heart +might shrink, or at least feel dismally uncomfortable, as he found +himself discharged from the station near midnight of a blowy, +tempestuous night, and saw his effects shouldered by a porter, whom he +was invited to follow down to the pier, where the funnel of the +'Horsetend' or Calais boat is moaning dismally. Few lights were +twinkling in the winding old-fashioned streets; but the near vicinity +of ocean was felt uncomfortably in harsh blasts and whistling sounds. +The little old harbour, like that of some fishing-place, offered +scarcely any room. The much-buffeted steamer lay bobbing and springing +at its moorings, while a dingy oil-lamp marked the gangway. A +comforting welcome awaited us from some old salt, who uttered the +cheering announcement that it was 'agoin' to be a roughish night.'</p> + +<p>On this night there was an entertainment announced at the 'Rooms,' and +to pass away the time I looked in. It was an elocutionist one, +entitled 'Merry-Making Moments, or, Spanker's Wallet of Varieties,' +with a portrait of Spanker on the bills opening the wallet with an +expression of delight or surprise. This was his 'Grand Competition +Night,' when a 'magnificent goblet' was competed for by all comers, +which I had already seen in a shop window, a blue ribbon reposing in +<i>dégagé</i> fashion across it. If a tumbler of the precious metal could +be called a magnificent goblet—it was scarcely bigger—it deserved +the title. The poor operator was declaiming as I entered, in +unmistakable Scotch, the history of 'Little Breeches,' and giving it +with due pathos. I am bound to say that a sort of balcony which hung +out at the end was well filled by the unwashed takers, or at least +donees, of sixpenny tickets. There was a purpose in this, as will be +seen. After being taken through 'The Raven,' and 'The Dying Burglar,' +the competition began. This was certainly the most diverting portion +of the entertainment, from its genuineness, the eagerness of the +competitors, and their ill-disguised jealousy. There were four +candidates. A doctor-looking man with a beard, and who had the air +either of reading familiar prayers to his household with good parsonic +effect, or of having tried the stage, uttered his lines with a very +superior air, as though the thing were not in doubt. Better than he, +however, was one, probably a draper's assistant, who competed with a +wild and panting fashion, tossing his arms, now raising, now dropping +his voice, and every <i>h</i>, too. But a shabby man, who looked as if he +had once practised tailoring, next stepped on the platform, and at +once revealed himself as the local poet. Encouraged by the generous +applause, he announced that he would recite some lines 'he 'ad wrote +on the great storm which committed such 'avoc on hour pier.' There +were local descriptions, and local names, which always touched the +true chord. Notably an allusion to a virtuous magnate then, I believe, +at rest:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Amongst the var'ous noble works,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It should be widely known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas <span class="smcap">William Brown</span>' <i>(applause)</i> 'that gave <i>this</i> town<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Dover's Sailors' '<span class="smcap">Ome</span>!' <i>(applause)</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Need I say that when the votes came to be taken, this poet received +the cup? His joy and mantling smiles I shall not forget, though the +donor gave it to him with unconcealed disgust; it showed what +universal suffrage led to. The doctor and the other defeated +candidates, who had been asked to retire to a private room during the +process of decision, were now obliged to emerge in mortified +procession, there being no other mode of egress. The doctor's face was +a study. The second part was to follow. But it was now growing late, +and time and mail-packets wait for no man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE PACKET.</i></h3> + +<img src="images/img014.png" width="75" height="219" alt="Illuminated A" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>s I come forth from the Elocution Contest, I find that night has +closed in. Not a ripple is on the far-stretching blue waste. From the +high cliffs that overhang the town and its amphitheatre can be seen +the faintly outlined harbour, where the white-chimneyed packet snoozes +as it were, the smoke curling upwards, almost straight. The sea-air +blows fresh and welcome, though it does not beat on a 'fevered brow.' +There is a busy hum and clatter in the streets, filled with soldiers +and sailors and chattering sojourners. Now do the lamps begin to +twinkle lazily. There is hardly a breath stirring, and the great +chalk-cliffs gleam out in a ghostly fashion, like mammoth wave-crests.</p> + +<p>As it draws on to ten o'clock, the path to the Admiralty Pier begins +to darken with flitting figures hurrying down past the fortress-like +Lord Warden, now ablaze and getting ready its hospice for the night; +the town shows itself an amphitheatre of dotted lights—while down +below white vapours issue walrus-like from the sonorous +'scrannel-pipes' of the steamer. Gradually the bustle increases, and +more shadowy figures come hurrying down, walking behind their baggage +trundled before them. Now a faint scream, from afar off inland, behind +the cliffs, gives token that the trains, which have been tearing +headlong down from town since eight o'clock, are nearing us; while the +railway-gates fast closed, and porters on the watch with green lamps, +show that the expresses are due. It is a rather impressive sight to +wait at the closed gates of the pier and watch these two outward-bound +expresses arrive. After a shriek, prolonged and sustained, the great +trains from Victoria and Ludgate, which met on the way and became one, +come thundering on, the enormous and powerful engine glaring fiercely, +flashing its lamps, and making the pier tremble. Compartment after +compartment of first-class carriages flit by, each lit up so +refulgently as to show the crowded passengers, with their rugs and +bundles dispersed about them. It is a curious change to see the +solitary pier, jutting out into the waves, all of a sudden thus +populated with grand company, flashing lights, and saloon-like +splendour—ambassadors, it may be, generals for the seat of war, great +merchants like the Rothschilds, great singers or actors, princes, +dukes, millionnaires, orators, writers, 'beauties,' brides and +bridegrooms, all ranged side by side in those cells, or <i>vis-à-vis</i>. +That face under the old-fashioned travelling-cap may be that of a +prime minister, and that other gentlemanly person a swindling +bank-director flying from justice.</p> + +<p>During the more crowded time of the travelling season it is not +undramatic, and certainly entertaining, to stand on the deck of the +little boat, looking up at the vast pier and platform some twenty or +thirty feet above one's head, and see the flood of passengers +descending in ceaseless procession; and more wonderful still, the +baggage being hurled down the 'shoots.' On nights of pressure this may +take nearly an hour, and yet not a second appears to be lost. One +gazes in wonder at the vast brass-bound chests swooping down and +caught so deftly by the nimble mariners; the great black-domed ladies' +dress-baskets and boxes; American and French trunks, each with its +national mark on it. Every instant the pile is growing. It seems like +building a mansion with vast blocks of stone piled up on each other. +Hat-boxes and light leather cases are sent bounding down like +footballs, gradually and by slow degrees forming the mountain.</p> + +<p>What secrets in these chests! what tales associated with them! Bridal +trousseaux, jewels, letters, relics of those loved and gone; here the +stately paraphernalia of a family assumed to be rich and prosperous, +who in truth are in flight, hurrying away with their goods. Here, +again, the newly bought 'box' of the bride, with her initials gaudily +emblazoned; and the showy, glittering chests of the Americans.</p> + +<p>There is a physiognomy in luggage, distinct as in clothes; and a +strange variety, not uninteresting. How significant, for instance, of +the owner is the weather-beaten, battered old portmanteau of the +travelling bachelor, embrowned with age, out of shape, yet still +strong and serviceable!—a business-like receptacle, which, like him, +has travelled thousands of miles, been rudely knocked about, weighed, +carried hither and thither, encrusted with the badges of hotels as an +old vessel is with barnacles, grim and reserved like its master, and +never lost or gone astray.</p> + +<p>Now the engines and their trains glide away home. The shadowy figures +stand round in crowds. To the reflecting mind there is something +bewildering and even mournful in the survey of this huge agglomeration +and of its owners, the muffled, shadowy figures, some three hundred in +number, grouped together, and who will be dispersed again in a few +hours.</p> + +<p>A yacht-voyage could not be more tranquilly delightful than this +pleasant moonlight transit. We are scarcely clear of the twinkling +lights of the Dover amphitheatre, grown more and more distant, when +those of the opposite coast appear to draw near and yet nearer. Often +as one has crossed, the sense of a new and strange impression is never +wanting. The sense of calm and silence, the great waste of sea, the +monotonous 'plash' of the paddle-wheels, the sort of solitude in the +midst of such a crowd, the gradually lengthening distance behind, with +the lessening, as gradual, in front, and the always novel feeling of +approach to a new country—these elements impart a sort of dreamy, +poetical feeling to the scene. Even the calm resignation of the +wrapped-up shadows seated in a sort of retreat, and devoted to their +own thoughts or slumbers, add to this effect. With which comes the +thought of the brave little vessels, which through day and night, year +after year, dance over these uncertain waters in 'all weathers,' as it +is termed. When the night is black as Erebus, and the sea in its fury +boiling and raging over the pier, the Lord Warden with its +storm-shutters up, and timid guests removed to more sheltered +quarters, the very stones of the pier shaken from their places by the +violence of the monster outside—the little craft, wrapping its mantle +about its head, goes out fearlessly, and, emerging from the harbour to +be flung about, battered with wild fury, forces her way on through the +night, which its gallant sailors call, with truth, 'an awful one.'</p> + +<p>While busy with these thoughts I take note of a little scene of +comedy, or perhaps of a farcical kind, which is going on near me, in +which two 'Harrys' of the purest kind were engaged, and whose oddities +lightened the tediousness of the passage. One had seen foreign parts, +and was therefore regarded with reverence by his companion.</p> + +<p>They were promenading the deck, and the following dialogue was borne +to me in snatches:</p> + +<p>First Harry (interrogatively, and astonished): 'Eh? no! Now, really?'</p> + +<p>Second Harry: 'Oh, Lord bless yer, yes! It comes quite easy, you know' +(or 'yer know'). 'A little trouble at first; but, Lord bless yer' +(this benediction was imparted many times during the conversation), +'it ain't such a difficult thing at all.'</p> + +<p>I now found they were speaking of acquiring the French language—a +matter the difficulty of which they thought had been absurdly +overrated. Then the second Harry: 'Of course it is! Suppose you're in +a Caffy, and want some wine; you just call to the waiter, and you +say—'</p> + +<p>First Harry (who seems to think that the secret has already been +communicated): 'Dear me; yes, to be sure—to be sure! I never thought +of that. A Caffy?'</p> + +<p>Second Harry: 'Oh, Lor' bless yer, it comes as easy as—that! Well, +you go say to the fellow—just as you would say to an English +waiter—"<i>Don-ny maw</i>"—(pause)—"<i>dee Vinne</i>."'</p> + +<p>First Harry (amazed): 'So <i>that's</i> the way! Dear, dear me! Vinne!'</p> + +<p>Second Harry: 'O' course it is the way! Suppose you want yer way to +the railway, you just go ask for the "<i>Sheemin—dee—Fur</i>." <i>Fur</i>, you +know, means "rail" in French—<i>Sheemin</i> is "the road," you know.'</p> + +<p>Again lost in wonder at the simplicity of what is popularly supposed +to be so thorny, the other Harry could only repeat:</p> + +<p>'So that's it! What is it, again? <i>Sheemin</i>—'</p> + +<p><i>'Sheemin dee Fur.'</i></p> + +<p>Later, in the fuss and bustle of the 'eating hall,' this 'Harry,' more +obstreperous than ever by contact with the foreigners, again attracted +my attention. Everywhere I heard his voice; he was rampant.</p> + +<p>'When the chap laid hold of my bag, "Halloo," says I; "hands off, old +boy," says I.</p> + +<p>"'Eel Fo!" says he.</p> + +<p>'"Eel-pie!" says I. "Blow your <i>Fo</i>," says I, and didn't he grin like +an ape? I declare I thought I'd have split when he came again with his +"<i>Eel Fo</i>!"'</p> + +<p>He was then in his element. Everything new to him was 'a guy,' or 'so +rum,' or 'the queerest go you ever.' One of the two declared that, 'in +all his experience and in all his life he had never heard sich a lingo +as French;' and further, that 'one of their light porters at +Bucklersbury would eat half a dozen of them Frenchmen for a bender.'</p> + +<p>This strange, grotesque dialogue I repeat textually almost; and, it +may be conceived, it was entertaining in a high degree. <i>'Sheemin dee +Fur'</i> was the exact phonetic pronunciation, and the whole scene +lingers pleasantly in the memory.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + +<h3><i>CALAIS.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img021.png" width="75" height="249" alt="Illuminated B" title="" align="left" /><br /><br /> +<p>ut it is now close on midnight, and we are drawing near land; the eye +of the French <i>phare</i> grows fiercer and more glaring, until, close on +midnight, the traveller finds the blinding light flashed full on him, +as the vessel rushes past the wickerwork pier-head. One or two beings, +whose unhappy constitution it is to be miserable and wretched at the +very whisper of the word '<span class="smcap">sea</span>,' drag themselves up from below, +rejoicing that here is <span class="smcap">Calais</span>. Beyond rises the clustered town +confined within its walls. As we glide in between the friendly arms of +the openwork pier, the shadowy outlines of the low-lying town take +shape and enlarge, dotted with lamps as though pricked over with +pin-holes. The fiery clock of the station, that sits up all night from +year's end to year's end; the dark figures with tumbrils, and a stray +coach waiting; the yellow gateway and drawbridge of the fortress just +beyond, and the chiming of <i>carillons</i> in a wheezy fashion from the +old watch-tower within, make up a picture.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/img022.png" width="700" height="417" alt="HOGARTH'S GATE (CALAIS); HALL OF THE STAPLE, (Calais)" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Such, indeed, it used to be—not without its poetry, too; but the old +Calais days are gone. Now the travellers land far away down the pier, +at the new-fangled 'Calais Maritime,' forsooth! and do not even +approach the old town. The fishing-boats, laid up side by side along +the piers, are shadowy. It seems a scene in a play. The great sea is +behind us and all round. It is a curious feeling, thinking of the +nervous unrest of the place, that has gone on for a century, and that +will probably go on for centuries more. Certainly, to a person who has +never been abroad, this midnight scene would be a picture not without +a flavour of romance. But such glimpses of poetry are held intrusive +in these matter-of-fact days.</p> + +<p>There is more than an hour to wait, whilst the passengers gorge in the +huge <i>salle</i>, and the baggage is got ashore. So I wander away up to +the town.</p> + +<p>How picturesque that stroll! Not wholly levelled are the old yellow +walls; the railway-station with its one eye, and clock that never +sleeps, opens its jaws with a cheerful bright light, like an inn fire; +dark figures in cowls, soldiers, sailors, flit about; curiously-shaped +tumbrils for the baggage lie up in ordinary. Here is the old arched +gate, ditch, and drawbridge; Hogarth's old bridge and archway, where +he drew the 'Roast Beef of Old England.' Passing over the bridge into +the town unchallenged, I find a narrow street with yellow houses—the +white shutters, the porches, the first glance of which affects one so +curiously and reveals France. Here is the Place of Arms in the centre, +whence all streets radiate. What more picturesque scene!—the moon +above, the irregular houses straggling round, the quaint old +town-hall, with its elegant tower, and rather wheezy but most musical +chimes; its neighbour, the black, solemn watch-tower, rising rude and +abrupt, seven centuries old, whence there used to be strict look-out +for the English. Down one of these side streets is a tall building, +with its long rows of windows and shutters and closed door +(Quillacq's, now Dessein's), once a favourite house—the 'Silver +Lion,' mentioned in the old memoirs, visited by Hogarth, and where, +twenty years ago, there used to be a crowd of guests. Standing in the +centre, I note a stray roysterer issuing from some long-closed <i>café</i>, +hurrying home, while the <i>carillons</i> in their airy <i>rococo</i>-looking +tower play their melodious tunes in a wheezy jangle that is +interesting and novel. This chime has a celebrity in this quarter of +France. I stayed long in the centre of that solitary <i>place</i>, +listening to that midnight music.</p> + +<p>It is a curious, not unromantic feeling, that of wandering about a +strange town at midnight, and the effect increases as, leaving the +<i>place</i>, I turn down a little by-street—the Rue de Guise—closed at +the end by a beautiful building or fragment, unmistakably English in +character. Behind it spreads the veil of blue sky, illuminated by the +moon, with drifting white clouds passing lazily across. This is the +entrance to the Hôtel de Guise—a gate-tower and archway, pure +Tudor-English in character, and, like many an old house in the English +counties, elegant and almost piquant in its design. The arch is +flanked by slight hexagonal <i>tourelles</i>, each capped by a pinnacle +decorated with niches in front. Within is a little courtyard, and +fragments of the building running round in the same Tudor style, but +given up to squalor and decay, evidently let out to poor lodgers. +This charming fragment excites a deep melancholy, as it is a neglected +survival, and may disappear at any moment—the French having little +interest in these English monuments, indeed, being eager to efface +them when they can. It is always striking to see this on some tranquil +night, as I do now—and Calais is oftenest seen at midnight—and think +of the Earl of Warwick, the 'deputy,' and of the English wool-staple +merchants who traded here. Here lodged Henry VIII. in 1520; and twelve +years later Francis I., when on a visit to Henry, took up his abode in +this palace.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 513px;"> +<img src="images/img025.jpg" width="513" height="566" alt="BELFRY, CALAIS." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Crossing the <i>place</i> again, I come on the grim old church, built by +the English, where were married our own King Richard II. and Isabelle +of Valois—a curious memory to recur as we listen to the 'high mass' +of a Calais Sunday. But the author of 'Modern Painters' has furnished +the old church with its best poetical interpretation. 'I cannot find +words,' he says in a noble passage,' to express the intense pleasure I +have always felt at first finding myself, after some prolonged stay in +England, at the foot of the tower of Calais Church. The large neglect, +the noble unsightliness of it, the record of its years, written so +vividly, yet without sign of weakness or decay; its stern vastness and +gloom, eaten away by the Channel winds, and overgrown with bitter +sea-grass. I cannot tell half the strange pleasures and thoughts that +come about me at the sight of the old tower.' Most interesting of all +is the grim, rusted, and gaunt watch-tower, before alluded to, which +rises out of a block of modern houses in the <i>place</i> itself. It can be +seen afar off from the approaching vessel, and until comparatively +late times this venerable servant had done the charity of lighthouse +work for a couple of centuries at least.</p> + +<p>But one of the pleasantest associations connected with the town was +the old Dessein's Hotel, which had somehow an inexpressibly +old-fashioned charm, for it had a grace like some disused château. +Some of the prettiest passages in Sterne's writings are associated +with this place. We see the figures of the monk, the well-known host, +the lady and the <i>petit-maître</i>: to say nothing of the old +<i>désobligeante</i>. Even of late years it was impossible to look at the +old building, which remained unchanged, without calling up the image +of Mr. Sterne, and the curious airy conversation—sprinkled with what +execrable French both in grammar and spelling!—that took place at the +gate. An air of the old times pervaded it strongly: it was like +opening an old <i>garde de vin</i>. You passed out of the <i>place</i> and found +yourself in the Rue Royale—newly named Rue Leveux—and there, +Dessein's stood before you, with its long yellow wall, archway and +spacious courts, on each side a number of quaint gables or <i>mansardes</i>, +sharp-roofed. Over the wall was seen the foliage of tall and handsome +trees. There is a coloured print representing this entrance, with the +meeting of the 'little master' and the lady—painted by Leslie—and +which gives a good idea of the place. In the last century the courtyard +used to be filled with posting-carriages, and the well-known <i>remise</i> +lay here in a corner. Behind the house stretched large, well-stocked +gardens, with which the guests at the hotel used to be recreated; +while at the bottom of the garden, but opening into another street, +was the theatre, built by the original Dessein, belonging to the hotel, +and still used. This garden was wild and luxuriant, the birds singing, +while the courtyard was dusty and weed-grown.</p> + +<p>This charming picture has ever been a captivating one for the +traveller. It seemed like an old country-house transferred to town. +There was something indescribable in the tranquil flavour of the +place, its yellow gamboge tint alternated with green vineries, its +spacious courtyard and handsome chambers. It was bound up with +innumerable old associations. Thackeray describes, with an almost +poetical affection and sympathy, the night he spent there. He called +up the image of Sterne in his 'black satin smalls,' and talked with +him. They used to show his room, regularly marked, as I have seen it, +'<span class="smcap">Sternes's Room, No. 31</span>,' with its mezzotint, after Sir +Joshua, hung over the chimney-piece. But this tradition received a +shock some sixty years since. An inquisitive and sceptical traveller +fancied he saw an inscription or date lurking behind the vine-leaves +that so luxuriantly covered the old house, and sent up a man on a +ladder to clear away the foliage. This operation led to the discovery +of a tablet, dated two years too late for</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/img028.png" width="150" height="130" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>the authenticity of the building in which 'Sterne's room' was. The +waiter, however, in nowise disconcerted, said the matter could be +easily 'arranged' by selecting another room in an unquestioned portion +of the building! To make up, however, there was a room labelled +'<span class="smcap">Sir Walter Scott's Room</span>,' with his portrait; and of this +there could be no reasonable question.</p> + +<p>In later years it did not flourish much, but gently decayed. +Everything seemed in a state of mild sleepy abandonment and decay till +about the year 1861, when the Desseins gave over business. The town, +much straitened for room, and cramped within its fortifications, had +long been casting hungry eyes on this spacious area. Strange to say, +even in the prosaic pages of our own 'Bradshaw,' the epitaph of 'old +Dessein's' is to be read among its advertisements:</p> + + +<div class="center">'CALAIS.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> '<span class="smcap">Hôtel Dessein</span>.—L. Dessein, the proprietor, has the + honour to inform his numerous patrons, and travellers in + general, that after the 1st of January his establishment will + be transferred to the Hôtel Quillacq, which has been entirely + done up, and will take the name of <span class="smcap">Hôtel Dessein</span>. The + premises of the old Hôtel Dessein having been purchased by the + town of Calais, it ceases to be an Hôtel for Travellers.'</p></div> + +<p>Still, in this new function it was 'old Dessein's,' and you were shown +'Sterne's room,' etc. I recall wandering through it of a holiday, +surveying the usual museum specimens—the old stones, invariable +spear-heads, stuffed animals; in short, the usual rather heterogeneous +collection, made up of 'voluntary contributions,' prompted half by the +vanity of the donor and half by his indifference to the objects +presented. We had not, indeed, the 'old pump' or the parish stocks, as +at Little Pedlington, but there were things as interesting. Here were +a few old pictures given by the Government, and labelled in writing; +the car of Blanchard's balloon, and a cutting from a newspaper +describing his arrival; portraits of the 'Citizen King' in his white +trousers; ditto of Napoleon III., name pasted over; the flagstone, +with an inscription, celebrating the landing of Louis XVIII., removed +from the pier—in deference to Republican sensitiveness—no doubt to +be restored again in deference to monarchical feelings; and, of +course, a number of the usual uninteresting cases containing white +cards, and much cotton, pins, and insects, stuffed birds, and +symmetrically-arranged dried specimens, the invariable Indian gourds, +and arrows, and moccasins, which 'no gentlemanly collection should be +without.' Never, during many a visit, did I omit wandering up to see +this pleasing, old, but ghostly memorial. It may be conceived what a +shock it was when, on a recent visit, I found it gone—razed—carted +away. I searched and searched—fancied I had mistaken the street; but +no! it was gone for ever. During M. Jules Ferry's last administration, +when the rage for 'Communal schools' set in, this tempting site had +been seized upon, the interesting old place levelled, and a +factory-like red-brick pile rapidly erected in its place. It was +impossible not to feel a pang at this discovery; I felt that Calais +without its Dessein's had lost its charm. Madame Dessein, a +grand-niece or nearly-related descendant of <i>le grand Dessein</i>, still +directs at Quillacq's—a pleasing old lady.</p> + +<p>There is still a half hour before me, while the gorgers in 'Maritime +Calais' are busy feeding against time; and while I stand in the +<i>place</i>, listening to the wheezy old chimes, I recall a pleasant +excursion, and a holiday that was spent there, at the time when the +annual <i>fêtes</i> were being celebrated. Never was there a brighter day: +all seemed to be new, and the very quintessence of what was +foreign—the gay houses of different heights and patterns were decked +with streamers, their parti-coloured blinds, devices, and balconies +running round the <i>place</i>, and furnishing gaudy detail. Here there +used to be plenty of movement, when the Lafitte diligences went +clattering by, starting for Paris, before the voracious railway +marched victoriously in and swallowed diligence, horses, +postilions—bells, boots and all! The gay crowd passing across the +<i>place</i> was making for the huge iron-gray cathedral, quite ponderous +and fortress-like in its character. Here is the grand <i>messe</i> going +on, the Swiss being seen afar off, standing with his halbert under the +great arch, while between, down to the door, are the crowded +congregation and the convenient chairs. Overhead the ancient organ is +pealing out with rich sound, while the sun streams in through the +dim-painted glass on the old-fashioned costumes of the fish-women, +just falling on their gold earrings <i>en passant</i>. There is a dreamy +air about this function, which associated itself, in some strange way, +with bygone days of childhood, and it is hard to think that about two +or three hours before the spectator was in all the prose of London.</p> + +<p>For those who love novel and picturesque memories or scenes, there are +few things more effective or pleasant to think of than one of these +Sunday mornings in a strange unfamiliar French town, when every +corner, and every house and figure—welcome novelty!—are gay as the +costumes and colours in an opera. The night before it was, perhaps, +the horrors of the packet, the cribbing in the cabin, the unutterable +squalor and roughness of all things, the lowest depth of hard, ugly +prose, together with the rudest buffeting and agitation, and poignant +suffering; but, in a few hours, what a 'blessed' change! Now there is +the softness of a dream in the bright cathedral church crowded to the +door, the rites and figures seen afar off, the fuming incense, the +music, the architecture!</p> + +<p>During these musings the fiercely glaring clock warns me that time is +running out; but a more singular monitor is the great lighthouse which +rises at the entrance of the town, and goes through its extraordinary, +almost fiendish, performance all the night long. This is truly a +phenomenon. Lighthouses are usually relegated to some pier-end, and +display their gyrations to the congenial ocean. But conceive a monster +of this sort almost <i>in</i> the town itself, revolving ceaselessly, +flashing and flaring into every street and corner of a street, like +some Patagonian policeman with a giant 'bull's-eye.' A more singular, +unearthly effect cannot be conceived. Wherever I stand, in shadow or +out of it, this sudden flashing pursues me. It might be called the +'Demon Lighthouse.' For a moment, in picturesque gloom, watching the +shadows cast by the Hogarthian gateway, I may be thinking of our great +English painter sitting sketching the lean Frenchwomen, noting, too, +the portal where the English arms used to be, when suddenly the 'Demon +Lighthouse' directs his glare full on me, describes a sweep, is gone, +and all is dark again. It suggests the policeman going his rounds. How +the exile forced to sojourn here must detest this obtrusive beacon of +the first class! It must become maddening in time for the eyes. Even +in bed it has the effect of mild sheet-lightning. Municipality of +Calais! move it away at once to a rational spot—to the end of the +pier, where a lighthouse ought to be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + +<h3><i>TOURNAY.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img034.png" width="75" height="155" alt="Illuminated B" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>ut now back to 'Maritime Calais,' down to the pier, where a strange +busy contrast awaits us. All is now bustle. In the great 'hall' +hundreds are finishing their 'gorging,' paying bills, etc., while on +the platform the last boxes and chests are being tumbled into the +waggons with the peculiar tumbling, crashing sound which is so +foreign. Guards and officials in cloaks and hoods pace up and down, +and are beginning to chant their favourite '<i>En voiture, messieurs</i>!' +Soon all are packed into their carriages, which in France always +present an old-fashioned mail-coach air with their protuberant bodies +and panels. By one o'clock the signal is given, the lights flash +slowly by, and we are rolling away, off into the black night. +'Maritime Calais' is left to well-earned repose; but for an hour or so +only, until the returning mail arrives, when it will wake up again—a +troubled and troublous nightmare sort of existence. Now for a plunge +into Cimmerian night, with that dull, sustained buzz outside, as of +some gigantic machinery whirling round, which seems a sort of +lullaby, contrived mercifully to make the traveller drowsy and enwrap +him in gentle sleep. Railway sleeping is, after all, a not +unrefreshing form of slumber. There is the grateful 'nod, nod, +nodding,' with the sudden jerk of an awakening; until the nodding +becomes more overpowering, and one settles into a deep and profound +sleep. Ugh! how chilly it gets! And the machinery—or is it the +sea?—still roaring in one's ear.</p> + +<p>What, stopping! and by the roadside, it seems; the day breaking, the +atmosphere cold, steel-blue, and misty. Rubbing the pane, a few +surviving lights are seen twinkling—a picture surely something +Moslem. For there, separated by low-lying fields, rise clustered +Byzantine towers and belfries, with strangely-quaint German-looking +spires of the Nuremberg pattern, but all dimly outlined and mysterious +in their grayness.</p> + +<p>There was an extraordinary and original feeling in this approach: the +old fortifications, or what remained of them, rising before me; the +gloom, the mystery, the widening streak of day, and perfect +solitariness. As I admired the shadowy belfry which rose so supreme +and asserted itself among the spires, there broke out of a sudden a +perfect <i>charivari</i> of bells—jangling, chiming, rioting, from various +churches, while amid all was conspicuous the deep, solemn <span class="smcap">boom</span>! <span class="smcap">boom</span>! +like the slow baying of a hound.</p> + +<p>It is five o'clock, but it might be the middle of the night, so dark +is it. This magic city, which seems like one of those in Albert +Dürer's cuts, rises at a distance as if within walls. I stand in the +roadside alone, deserted, the sole traveller set down. The train has +flown on into the night with a shriek. The sleepy porter wonders, and +looks at me askance.</p> + +<p>As I take my way from the station and gradually approach the city—for +there is a broad stretch between it and the railway unfilled by +houses—I see the striking and impressive picture growing and +enlarging. The jangling and the solemn occasional boom still go on: +meant to give note that the day is opening. Nothing more awe-inspiring +or poetical can be conceived than this 'cock-crow' promenade. Here are +little portals suddenly opening on the stage, with muffled figures +darting out, and worthy Belgians tripping from their houses—betimes, +indeed—and hurrying away to mass. Thus to make the acquaintance of +that grandest and most astonishing of old cathedrals, is to do so +under the best and most suitable conditions: very different from the +guide and cicerone business, which belongs to later hours of the day. +I stand in the open <i>place</i>, under its shadow, and lift my eyes with +wonder to the amazing and crowded cluster of spires and towers: its +antique air, and even look of shattered dilapidation showing that the +restorer has not been at his work. There was no smugness or trimness, +or spick-and-spanness, but an awful and reverent austerity. And with +an antique appropriateness to its functions the Flemish women, crones +and maidens, all in their becoming cashmere hoods, and cloaks, and +neat frills, still hurry on to the old Dom. Near me rose the antique +<i>beffroi</i>, from whose jaws still kept booming the old bell, with a +fine clang, the same that had often pealed out to rouse the burghers +to discord and tumult. It pealed on, hoarse and even cracked, but +persistently melodious, disregarding the contending clamours of its +neighbours, just as some old baritone of the opera, reduced and broken +down, will exhibit his 'phrasing'—all that is left to him. Quaint old +burgher city, indeed, with the true flavour, though beshrew them for +meddling with the fortifications!</p> + +<p>That little scene in this <i>place</i> of Tournay is always a pleasant, +picturesque memory.</p> + +<p>I entered with the others. Within the cathedral was the side chapel, +with its black oak screen, and a tawny-cheeked Belgian priest at the +altar beginning the mass. Scattered round and picturesquely grouped +were the crones and maidens aforesaid, on their wicker-chairs. A few +surviving lamps twinkled fitfully, and shadowy figures crossed as if +on the stage. But aloft, what an overpowering immensity, all vaulted +shadows, the huge pillars soaring upward to be lost in a Cimmerian +gloom!</p> + +<p>Around me I saw grouped picturesquely in scattered order, and kneeling +on their <i>prie-dieux</i>, the honest burghers, women and men, the former +arrayed in the comfortable and not unpicturesque black Flemish cloaks +with the silk hoods—handsome and effective garments, and almost +universal. The devotional rite of the mass, deeply impressive, was +over in twenty minutes, and all trooped away to their daily work. +There was a suggestion here, in this modest, unpretending exercise, in +contrast to the great fane itself, of the undeveloped power to expand, +as it were, on Sundays and feast-days, when the cathedral would +display all its resources, and its huge area be crowded to the doors +with worshippers, and the great rites celebrated in all their full +magnificence.</p> + +<p>Behind the great altar I came upon an imposing monument, conceived +after an original and comprehensive idea. It was to the memory of <i>all +the bishops and canons</i> of the cathedral! This wholesale idea may be +commended to our chapters at home. It might save the too monotonous +repetition of recumbent bishops, who, after being exhibited at the +Academy, finally encumber valuable space in their own cathedrals.</p> + +<p>The suggestiveness of the great bell-tower, owing to the peculiar +emphasis and purpose given to it, is constantly felt in the old +Belgian cities. It still conveys its old antique purpose—the defence +of the burghers, a watchful sentinel who, on the alarm, clanged out +danger, the sound piercing from that eyry to the remotest lane, and +bringing the valiant citizens rushing to the great central square. It +is impossible to look up at one of these monuments, grim and solitary, +without feeling the whole spirit of the Belgian history, and calling +up Philip van Artevelde and the Ghentish troubles.</p> + +<p>In the smaller cities the presence of this significant landmark is +almost invariable. There is ever the lone and lorn tower, belfry, or +spire painted in dark sad colours, seen from afar off, rising from the +decayed little town below; often of some antique, original shape that +pleases, and yet with a gloomy misanthropical air, as of total +abandonment. They are rusted and abrased. From their ancient jaws we +hear the husky, jangling chimes, musical and melancholy, the +disorderly rambling notes and tunes of a gigantic musical box. Towards +the close of some summer evening, as the train flies on, we see the +sun setting on the grim walls of some dead city, and on the clustered +houses. Within the walls are the formal rows of trees planted in +regimental order which fringe and shelter them; while rises the dark, +copper-coloured tower, often unfinished and ragged, but solemn and +funereal, or else capped by some quaint lantern, from whose jaws +presently issue the muffled tones of the chimes, halting and broken, +and hoarse and wheezy with centuries of work. Often we pass on; +sometimes we descend, and walk up to the little town and wander +through its deserted streets. We are struck with wonder at some vast +and noble church, cathedral-like in its proportions, and nearly always +original—such variety is there in these antique Belgian fanes—and +facing it some rustic mouldering town-hall of surprising beauty. There +are a few little shops, a few old houses, but the generality have +their doors closed. There is hardly a soul to be seen, certainly not a +cart. There are innumerable dead cities of this pattern.</p> + +<p>Coming out, I find it broad day. A few natives with their baskets are +hurrying to the train. I note, rising above the houses, two or three +other solemn spires and grim churches, which have an inexpressibly sad +and abandoned air, from their dark grimed tones which contrast with +the bright gay hues of the modern houses that crowd upon them. There +is one grave, imposing tower, with a hood like a monk's. Then I wander +to the handsome triangle-shaped <i>place</i>, with its statue to Margaret +of Parma—erst Governor of the Netherlands, and whose memory is +regarded with affection. Here is the old belfry, which has been so +clamorous, standing apart, like those of Ghent, Dunkirk, and a few +other towns; an effective structure, though fitted by modern restorers +with an entirely new 'head'—not, however, ineffective of its kind.</p> + +<p>The day is now fairly opened. There is a goodly muster of +market-women and labourers at the handsome station, which, like every +station of the first rank in Belgium, bears its name 'writ large.' It +is just striking five as we hurry away, and in some half an hour we +arrive at <span class="smcap">Orchies</span>—one of those new spick-and-span little towns, +useful after their kind, but disagreeable to the æsthetic eye. +Everything here is of that meanest kind of brick, 'pointed,' as it is +called, with staring white, such as it is seen in the smaller Belgian +stations. Feeling somewhat degraded by this contact, I was glad to be +hurried away, and within an hour find we are approaching one of the +greater French cities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + +<h3><i>DOUAI.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img041.png" width="75" height="261" alt="Illuminated N" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>ow begin to flit past us signs unmistakable of an approaching +fortified town. Here are significant green banks and mounds cut to +angles and geometrical patterns, soft and enticing, enriched with +luxuriant trees, but treacherous—smiling on the confiding houses and +gardens which one day may be levelled at a few hours' notice. Next +come compact masses of Vauban brick, ripe and ruddy, of beautiful, +smooth workmanship; stately military gateways and drawbridges, with a +patch of red trousering—a soldier on his fat Normandy 'punch' ambling +lazily over; and the peaceful cart with its Flemish horses. The +brick-work is sliced through, as with a cheese-knife, to admit the +railway, giving a complete section of the work. We are, in short, at +one of the great <i>places fortes</i> of France, Douai, where the curious +traveller had best avoid sketching, or taking notes—a serious +offence. Here I lingered pleasantly for nearly three hours, and, +having duly breakfasted, noted its air of snug comfort and +prosperity. There is here a famous arsenal—ever busy—one of the +most important in France, and it has besides some welcome bits of +artistic architecture.</p> + +<p>It was when wandering down a darkish street, that I came on a most +original building, the old <i>Mairie</i>, enriched with a belfry of +delightfully graceful pattern. It might be a problem how to combine a +bell-tower with offices for municipal work, and we know in our land +how such a 'job' would be carried out by 'the architect to the Board.' +But all over Flemish France and Belgium proper we find an +inexhaustible fancy and fertility in such designs. It is always +difficult to describe architectural beauties. This had its tower in +the centre, flanked by two short wings. Everything was original—the +disposition of the windows, the air of space and largeness. Yet the +whole was small, I note that in all these Flemish bell-towers, the +topmost portion invariably develops into something charmingly +fantastic, into cupolas and short, little galleries and lanterns +superimposed, the mixture of solidity and airiness being astonishing. +It is appropriate and fitting that this grace should attend on what +are the sweetest musical instruments conceivable. Mr. Haweis, who is +the poet of Flemish bells, has let us into the secret. 'The fragment +of aërial music,' he tells us, 'which floats like a heavenly sigh over +the Belgian city and dies away every few minutes, seems to set all +life and time to celestial music. It is full of sweet harmonies, and +can be played in pianoforte score, treble and bass. After a week in a +Belgian town, time seems dull without the music in the air that +mingled so sweetly with all waking moods without disturbing them, and +stole into our dreams without troubling our sleep. I do not say that +such carillons would be a success in London. In Belgium the towers are +high above the towns—Antwerp, Mechlin, Bruges—and partially +isolated. The sound falls softly, and the population is not so dense +as in London. Their habit and taste have accustomed the citizens to +accept this music for ever floating in the upper air as part of the +city's life—the most spiritual, poetical, and recreative part of it. +Nothing of the kind has ever been tried in London. The crashing peals +of a dozen large bells banged violently with clapper instead of softly +struck with hammer, the exasperating dong, or ding, dong, of the +Ritualist temple over the way, or the hoarse, gong-like roar of Big +Ben—that is all we know about bells in London, and no form of church +discipline could be more ferocious. Bell noise and bell music are two +different things.' This fanciful tower had its four corner towerlets, +suggesting the old burly Scotch pattern, which indeed came from +France; while the vane on the top still characteristically flourishes +the national Flemish lion.</p> + +<p>Most bizarre, not to say extravagant, was the great cathedral, which +was laid out on strange 'lines,' having a huge circular chapel or +pavilion of immense height in front, whose round roof was capped by a +vast bulbous spire, in shape something after the pattern of a gigantic +mangel-wurzel! This astonishing decoration had a quaint and +extraordinary effect, seen, as it was, from any part of the city. Next +came the nave, whilst the transepts straggled about wildly, and a +gigantic fortress-like tower reared itself from the middle. Correct +judges will tell us that all this is debased work, and 'corrupt +style;' but, nevertheless, I confess to being both astonished and +pleased.</p> + +<p>This was the great festival of the <i>Corpus Domini</i>, and, indeed, +already all available bells in the place had been jangling noisily. It +was now barely seven o'clock, yet on entering the vast nave I found +that the 'Grand Mass' had begun, and the whole was full to the door, +while in the great choir were ranged about a hundred young girls +waiting to make their first Communion. A vast number of gala carriages +were waiting at the doors to take the candidates home, and for the +rest of the day they would promenade the city in their veils and +flowers, receiving congratulations. There was a pleasant provincial +simplicity in all this and in all that followed, which brought back +certain old Sundays of a childhood spent on a hill overlooking Havre. +I liked to see the stout red-cheeked choristers perspiring with their +work, and singing with a rough stentoriousness, just as I had seen +them in the village church of Sanvic. And there was the organist +playing away at his raised seat in the body of the church, as if in a +pew, visible to the naked eye of all; while two cantors in copes +clapped pieces of wood together as a signal for the congregation to +kneel or rise. Most quaint of all were the surpliced instrumentalists +with their braying bassoon and ophicleide: not to forget the +double-bass player who 'sawed' away for the bare life of him. The ever +visible organist voluntarized ravishingly and in really fine style. I +should like to have heard him at his own proper instrument, aloft, in +the gallery yonder, quite an enormous structure of florid pipes in +stories and groups, with angels blowing trumpets and flying saints. +It seemed like the stern of one of the Armada vessels. How he would +have made the pillars quiver! how the ripe old notes would have +<i>twanged</i> and brayed into the darkest recesses!</p> + +<p>The Mass being over, the Swiss, a tall, fierce fellow, arrayed in a +feathered cocked-hat, rich <i>scarlet</i> regimentals and boots, now showed +an extra restlessness. The Bishop of Douai, a smooth, polished +prelate, began his sermon, which he delivered from a chair, in clear +tones and good elocution. When the ceremonies were over, the whole +congregation gathered at the door to see the young ladies taken away +by their friends. Then I resumed my exploring.</p> + +<p>On a cheerful-looking <i>place</i>, which, with its trees and kiosque, +recalled the <i>Place Verte</i> at Antwerp, I noticed a large building of +the pattern so common in France for colleges and convents—a vast +expanse of whiteness or blankness, and a yet vaster array of long +windows. It appeared to be a cavalry barrack for soldiers. The bugles +sounded through the archway, and orderlies were riding in and out. +This monotonous building, I found, had once been the English college +for priests, where the celebrated Douai or Douay Bible had been +translated. This rare book—a joy for the bibliophile—was published +about 1608, and, as is well known, was the first Catholic version in +English of the Scriptures. Here, then, was the cradle of millions of +copies distributed over the face of the earth. It was a curious +sensation to pass by this homely-looking edifice, with the adjoining +chapel, as it appeared to be—now apparently a riding-school. I also +came upon many a fine old Spanish house, and toiled down in the sun +to the Rue des Foulons, where there were some elaborate specimens.</p> + +<p>Short as had been my term of residence, I somehow seemed to know Douai +very well. I had gathered what is called 'an idea of the place.' Its +ways, manners, and customs seemed familiar to me. So I took my way +from the old town with a sort of regret, having seen a great deal.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + +<h3><i>ARRAS.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img047.png" width="75" height="279" alt="Illuminated I" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>t is just eleven o'clock, and here we are coming to a charming town, +which few travellers have probably visited, and of which that genial +and experienced traveller, Charles Dickens, wrote in astonished +delight, and where in 1862 he spent his birthday. 'Here I find,' he +says, 'a grand <i>place</i>, so very remarkable and picturesque, that it is +astonishing how people miss it.' This is old Arras; and I confess it +alone seems worth a long day's, not to say night's, journey, to see. +It is fortified, and, as in such towns, we have to make our way to it +from the station by an umbrageous country road; for it is fenced, as a +gentleman's country seat might be, and strictly enclosed by the usual +mounds, ditches, and walls, but all so picturesquely disguised in rich +greenery as to be positively inviting. Even low down in the deep +ditches grew symmetrical avenues of straight trees, abundant in their +leaves and branches, which filled them quite up. The gates seem +monumental works of art, and picturesque to a degree; while over the +walls—and what noble specimens of brickwork, or tiling rather, are +these old Vauban walls!—peep with curious mystery the upper stories +and roofs of houses with an air of smiling security. I catch a glimpse +of the elegant belfry, the embroidered spires, and mosque-like +cupolas, all a little rusted, yet cheerful-looking. Dickens's <i>place</i>, +or two <i>places</i> rather—for there is the greater and the less—display +to us a really lovely town-hall in the centre, the roof dotted over +with rows of windows, while an airy lace-work spire, with a ducal +crown as the finish, rises lightly. On to its sides are encrusted +other buildings of Renaissance order, while behind is a mansion still +more astonishingly embroidered in sculptured stone, with a colonnade +of vast extent. Around the <i>place</i> itself stretches a vast number of +Spanish mansions, with the usual charmingly 'escalloped' roof, all +resting on a prolonged colonnade or piazza, strange, old-fashioned, +and original, running round to a vast extent, which the sensible town +has decreed is never to be interfered with. A more pleasing, +refreshing, and novel collection of objects for the ordinary traveller +of artistic taste to see without trouble or expense, it would be +impossible to conceive. Yet everyone hurries by to see the somewhat +stale glories of Ghent and Brussels.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/img048.png" width="700" height="549" alt="ARRAS." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>There was a general fat contented air of <i>bourgeois</i> comfort about the +sleepy old-fashioned, handsome Prefecture—in short, a capital +background for the old provincial life as described by Balzac. But the +<i>place</i>, with its inimitable Spanish houses and colonnades—under +which you can shop—and that most elegant of spires, sister to that of +Antwerp, which it recalls, will never pass from the memory. A +beautiful object of this kind, thus seen, is surely a present, and a +valuable one too.</p> + +<p>A spire is often the expression of the whole town. How much is +suggested by the well-known, familiar cathedral spire at Antwerp, as, +of some fresh morning, we come winding up the tortuous Scheldt, the +sad, low-lying plains and boulders lying on either hand, monotonous +and dispiriting, yet novel in their way; the cream-coloured, +lace-worked spire rising ever before us in all its elegant grace, +pointing the way, growing by degrees, never for an instant out of +sight. It seems a fitting introduction to the noble, historical, and +poetical city to which it belongs. It <i>is</i> surely <span class="smcap">Antwerp</span>! We +see Charles V., and Philip, and the exciting troubles of the Gueux, +the Dutch, the Flemings, the argosies from all countries in the great +days of its trade. Such is the mysterious power of association, which +it ever exerts on the 'reminiscent.' How different, and how much more +profitable, too, is this mode of approaching the place, than the other +more vulgar one of the railway terminus, with the cabs and omnibuses +waiting, and the convenient journey to the hotel.</p> + +<p>These old cities—Lille, Douai, and Valenciennes—all boast their +gateways, usually named after the city to which the road leads. Thus +we have 'Porte de Paris,' 'Porte de Lille,' etc. I confess to a deep +interest in all gateways of this kind; they have a sort of poetry or +romance associated with them; they are grim, yet hospitable, at times +and seasons having a mysterious suggestion. There are towns where the +traveller finds the gate obdurately closed between ten o'clock at +night and six in the morning. These old gates have a state and +flamboyant majesty about them, as, in Lille, the Porte de Paris is +associated with the glories of Louis XIV.; while in Douai there is +one of an old pattern—it is said of the thirteenth century—with +curious towers and spires. Even at Calais there is a fine and majestic +structure, 'Porte de Richelieu,' on the town side, through which every +market cart and carriage used to trundle. There are florid devices +inscribed on it; but now that the walls on each side are levelled, +this patriarchal monument has but a ludicrous effect, for it is left +standing alone, unsupported and purposeless. The carts and tramcars +find their way round by new and more convenient roads made on each +side.</p> + +<p>How pleasant is that careless wandering up through some strange and +unfamiliar place, led by a sort of instinct which habit soon +furnishes! In some of the French 'Guides,' minute directions are given +for the explorer, who is bidden to take the street to right or to +left, after leaving the station, etc. But there is a piquancy in this +uncertainty as compared with the odious guidance of the <i>laquais de +place</i>. I loathe the tribe. Here was to be clearly noted the languid, +lazy French town where nothing seemed to be doing, but everyone +appeared to be comfortable—'the fat, contented, stubble +goose'—another type of town altogether from your thriving Lilles and +Rouens.</p> + +<p>The pleasure in surveying this extraordinary combination of beautiful +objects, the richness and variety of the work, the long lines broken +by the charming and, as they are called, 'escalloped' gables, the +Spanish balconies, the pillars, light and shade, and shops, made it +almost incredible that such a thing was to be found in a poor obscure +French town, visited by but few travellers. On market-day, when the +whole is filled up with country folks, their wares and their stalls +sheltered from the sun by gaily-tinted awnings, the bustle and +glinting colours, and general <i>va et vient</i>, impart a fitting dramatic +air. Then are the old Spanish houses set off becomingly.</p> + +<p>This old town has other curious things to exhibit, such as the +enormous old Abbey of St. Vaast—with its huge expansive roof, which +somehow seems to dominate the place, and thrusts forward some fragment +or other—where a regiment might lodge. Its spacious gardens are +converted to secular uses. Then I find myself at the old-new +cathedral, begun about a century ago, and finished about fifty years +since—a 'poorish' heartless edifice in the bald Italian manner, and +quite unsuited to these old Flemish cities. I come out on a terrace +with a huge flight of steps which leads to a lower portion of the +city. This, indeed, leads down from the <i>haute</i> to the <i>basse ville</i>; +and it is stated that a great portion of this upper town is supported +upon catacombs or caves from which the white stone of the belfry and +town-hall was quarried. It is a curious feeling to be shown the house +in which Robespierre was born, which, for the benefit of the curious +it may be stated, is to be found in the Rue des Rapporteurs, close to +the theatre. Arras was a famous Jacobin centre, and from the balcony +of this theatre, Lebon, one of the Jacobins, directed the executions, +which took place abundantly on the pretty <i>place</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;"> +<img src="images/img053.png" width="421" height="550" alt="BETHUNE." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Thus much, then, for Arras, where one would have liked to linger, nay, +to stay a week or a few days. But this wishing to stay a week at a +picturesque place is often a dangerous pitfall, as the amiable +Charles Collins has shown in his own quaint style. Has anyone, he +asks, ever, 'on arriving at some place he has never visited before, +taken a sudden fancy to it, committed himself to apartments for a +month certain, gone on praising the locality and all that belongs to +it, ferreting out concealed attractions, attaching undue importance to +them, undervaluing obvious defects: has he gone on in this way for +three weeks,' or rather three days, 'out of his month, then suddenly +broken down, found out his mistake, and pined in secret for +deliverance?' So it would be, as I conceive, at Bruges, or perhaps at +St. Omer. There you indeed appreciate the dead-alive city 'in all its +quiddity.' But a few days in a 'dead-alive' city, were it the most +picturesque in the world, would be intolerable.</p> + +<p>By noon, when the sun has grown oppressively hot, I find myself set +down at a sort of rural town, once flourishing, and of some +importance—Bethune. A mile's walk on a parched road led up the hill +to this languishing, decayed little place. It had its forlorn omnibus, +and altogether suggested the general desolation of, say, Peterborough. +Had it remained in Flemish hands, it would now have been flourishing. +I doubt if any English visitor ever troubles its stagnant repose. Yet +it boasts its 'grand' <i>place</i>, imposing enough as a memorial of +departed greatness, and, as usual, a Flemish relic, in the shape of a +charming belfry and town-hall combined. It was really truly +'fantastical' from the airiness of its little cupolas and galleries, +and was in tolerable order. Like the old Calais watch-tower, it was +caked round by, and embedded in, old houses, and had its four curious +gargoyles still doing work.</p> + +<p>On this 'grand' <i>place</i> I noticed an old house bearing date '1625,' +and some wonderful feats in the way of red-tiled roofing, of which +there were enormous stretches, all narrow, sinuous, and suggesting +Nuremberg. I confess to having spent a rather weary hour here, and +sped away by the next train.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>LILLE.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img04.png" width="75" height="275" alt="Illuminated T" title="" align="left" /><br /><br /> +<p>wo o'clock. We are on the road again; the sun is shining, and we are +speeding on rapidly—changing from Flanders to France—which is but an +hour or so away. Here the bright day is well forward. Now the welcome +fat Flemish country takes military shape, for here comes the scarp, +the angled ditch, the endless brick walling and embankment—a genuine +fortified town of the first class—<span class="smcap">Lille</span>. Here, too, many travellers +give but a glance from the window and hurry on. Yet an interesting +place in its way. Its bright main streets seem as gay and glittering +as those of Paris, with the additional air of snug provincial comfort. +To one accustomed for months to the solemn sobriety of our English +capital, with its work-a-day, not to say dingy look, nothing is more +exhilarating or gay than one of these first-class French provincial +towns, such as Marseilles, Bordeaux, or this Lille. There is a +glittering air of substantial opulence, with an attempt—and a +successful one—at fine boulevards and fine trees.</p> + +<p>The approach to Lille recalled the protracted approach to some great +English manufacturing town, the tall chimneys flying by the +carriage-windows a good quarter of an hour before the town was +reached. A handsome, rich, and imposing city, though content to accept +a cast-off station from Paris, as a poor relative would accept a +cast-off suit of clothes. The fine façade was actually transported +here stone by stone, and a much more imposing one erected in its +place.</p> + +<p>The prevailing one-horse tram-cars seem to suit the Flemish +associations. The Belgians have taken kindly and universally to them, +and find them to be 'exactly in their way.' The fat Flemish horse +ambles along lazily, his bells jingling. No matter how narrow or +winding the street, the car threads its way. The old burgher of the +Middle Ages might have relished it. The old disused town-hall is +quaint enough with its elaborately-carved <i>façade</i>, with a high double +roof and dormers, and a lantern surmounting all. A bit of true +'Low-Countries' work; but one often forgets that we are in French +Flanders. Entertaining hours could be spent here with profit, simply +in wandering from spot to spot, eschewing the 'town valet' and +professional picture guide. It is an extraordinary craze, by the way, +that our countrymen will want always 'to see the pictures,' as though +that were the object of travelling.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/img058.png" width="650" height="554" alt="BOURSE. LILLE." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>One gazes with pleasure and some surprise at its handsome streets, +where everyone seems to live and thrive. There is a general air of +opulence. The new streets, built under the last empire on the Paris +model, offer the same rich and effective detail of gilded inscriptions +running across the houses, balconies and flowers, with the luxurious +<i>cafés</i> below, and languid <i>flaneurs</i> sitting down to their +<i>absinthe</i> or coffee among the orange-trees. These imposing mansions, +built with judicious loans—the '<span class="smcap">Obligations of the City of +Lille</span>' are quoted on the Exchanges—are already dark and rusted, +and harmonize with the older portions. At every turn there is a +suggestion of Brussels, and nowhere so much as on the fine <i>place</i>, +where the embroidered old Spanish houses aforesaid are abundant.</p> + +<p>The old cathedral, imposing with its clustered apses and great length +and loftiness, and restored façade, would be the show of any English +town. The Lillois scarcely appreciate it, as a few years ago they +ordered a brand-new one from 'Messrs. Clutton and Burgess, of London,' +not yet complete, and not very striking in its modern effects and +decorations. These vast old churches of the fourth or fifth class are +always imposing from their size and pretensions and elaborateness of +work, and are found in France and Belgium almost by the hundred. And +so I wander on through the showy streets, thinking what stirring +scenes this complacent old city has witnessed, what tale of siege and +battle—Spaniard, Frenchman, and Fleming, Louis the Great, the refuge +of Louis XVIII. after his flight. All the time there is the pleasant +musical jangle going on of tramcars below and bell-chimes aloft. But +of all things in Lille, or indeed elsewhere, there is nothing more +striking than the old Bourse—the great square venerable block, +blackened all over with age, its innumerable windows, high roof, and +cornices, all elaborately and floridly wrought in decayed carvings. +With this dark and venerable mass is piquantly contrasted the garish +row of glittering shops filled with gaudy wares which forms the +lowest story. Within is the noble court with a colonnade of pillars +and arches in the florid Spanish style; in the centre a splendid +bronze statue of the First Napoleon in his robes, which is so wrought +as to harmonize admirably with the rest. In the same congenial +spirit—a note of Belgian art which is quite unfamiliar to us—the +walls of the colonnade are decorated with memorials of famous 'Stock +Exchange' worthies and merchants, and nothing could be more skilful +than the enrichment of these conventional records, which are made to +harmonize by florid rococo decorations with the Spanish <i>genre</i> and +encrusted with bronzes and marbles. This admirable and original +monument is in itself worth a journey to see.</p> + +<p>Who has been at Commines? though we are all familiar enough with the +name of Philip of 'that ilk.' I saw how patriarchal life must be at +Commines from a family repairing thither, who filled the whole +compartment. This was a lady arrayed in as much jet-work as she could +well carry, and who must have been an admirable <i>femme de ménage</i>, for +she brought with her three little girls, and two obstreperous boys who +kept saying every minute 'maman!' in a sort of whine or expostulation, +and two <i>aides-de-camp</i> maids in spotless fly-away caps. With these +assistants she was on perfect terms, and the maids conversed with her +and dissented from her opinions on the happiest terms of equality. +When taking my ticket I was asked to say would I go to Commines in +France or to Commines in Belgium, for it seems that, by an odd +arrangement, half the town is in one country and half in the other! +Each has a station of its own. This curious partition I did not quite +comprehend at first, and I shall not forget the indignant style in +which, on my asking 'was this the French Commines,' I was answered +that '<i>of course</i> it was Commines in Belgium.' Here was yet another +piquant bell-tower seen rising above trees and houses, long before we +even came near to it. I was pursued by these pretty monuments, and I +could hear this one jangling away musically yet wheezily.</p> + +<p>It is past noon now as we hurry by unfamiliar stations, where the +invariable <i>abbé</i> waits with his bundle or breviary in hand, or +peasant women with baskets stand waiting for other trains. There is a +sense of melancholy in noting these strange faces and figures—whom +you thus pass by, to whom you are unknown, whom you will never see +again, and who care not if you were dead and buried. (And why should +they?) Then we hurry away northwards.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + +<h3><i>YPRES.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img062.png" width="95" height="127" alt="Illuminated A" title="" align="left"/><br /> +<p>s the fierce heat of the sun began to relax and the evening drew +on—it was close on half-past six o'clock—we found ourselves in +Belgium once more. Suddenly, on the right, I noted, with some trees +interposed, a sort of clustered town with whitened buildings, which +suggested forcibly the view of an English cathedral town seen from the +railway. The most important of the group was a great tower with its +four spires. I knew instinctively that this was the famous old +town-hall, the most astonishing and overpowering of all Belgian +monuments.</p> + +<p>Here we halted half an hour. The sun was going down; the air was cool; +and there was that strange tinge of sadness abroad, with which the air +seems to be charged towards eventide, as we, strangers and pilgrims in +a foreign country, look from afar off at some such unfamiliar objects. +There were a number of Flemings here returning from some meeting where +they had been contending at their national game—shooting at the +popinjay. Near to every small town and village I passed, I had noted +an enormously tall white post with iron rods projecting at the top. +This was the target, and it was highly amusing and characteristic to +watch these burghers gathered round and firing at the bird or some +other object on the top. Now they were all returning carrying their +bows, and in high good-humour. A young and rubicund priest was of the +party, regarded evidently with affection and pride by his companions; +for all that he seemed to say and do was applauded, and greeted with +obstreperous Flemish laughter. When an old woman came to offer cakes +from her basket for sale, he convulsed his friends by facetious +remarks as he made his selection from the basket, depreciating or +criticizing their quality with sham disgust, delighting none so much +as the venerable vendor herself. Every one wore a curious black silk +cap, as a gala headpiece.</p> + +<p>When they had gone their way, I set off on mine up to the old town. +The approach was encouraging. A grand sweep faced me of old walls, +rusted, but stout and vigorous, with corner towers rising out of a moat; +then came a spacious bridge leading into a wide, encouraging-looking +street of sound handsome houses. But, strange! not a single cab, +restaurant, or hotel—nay, hardly a soul to be seen, save a few +rustics in their blouses! It was all dead! I walked on, and at an +abrupt turn emerged on the huge expanse of the <i>place</i>, and was +literally dumbfoundered.</p> + +<p>Now, of all the sights that I have ever seen, it must be confessed +that this offered the greatest surprise and astonishment. It was +bewildering. On the left spread away, almost a city itself, the vast, +enormous town-hall—a vista of countless arches and windows, its roof +dotted with windows, and so deep, expansive, and capacious that it +alone seemed as though it might have lodged an army. In the centre +rose the enormous square tower—massive—rock-like—launching itself +aloft into Gothic spires and towers. All along the sides ran a +perspective of statues and carvings. This astonishing work would take +some minutes of brisk motion to walk down from end to end. It is +really a wonder of the world, and, in the phrase applied to more +ordinary things, 'seemed to take your breath away.' It is the largest, +longest, most massive, solid, and enduring thing that can be +conceived.</p> + +<p>It has been restored with wonderful care and delicacy. By one of the +bizarre arrangements—not uncommon in Flanders—a building of another +kind, half Italian, with a round arched arcade, has been added on at +the corner, and the effect is odd and yet pleasing. Behind rises a +grim crag of a cathedral—solemn and mysterious—adding to the effect +of this imposing combination, a sort of gloomy shadow overhanging all. +The church, on entering, is found overpowering and original of its +kind, with its vast arches and massive roof of groined stone. Truly an +astonishing monument! The worst of such visits is that only a faint +impression is left: and to gather the full import of such a monument +one should stay for a few days at least, and grow familiar with it. At +first all is strange. Every portion claims attention at once; but +after a few visits the grim old monument seems to relax and become +accessible; he lets you see his good points and treasures by degrees. +But who could live in a Dead City, even for a day? Having seen these +two wonders, I tried to explore the place, which took some walking, +but nothing else was to be found. Its streets were wide, the houses +handsome—a few necessary shops; but no cabs—no tramway—no carts +even, and hardly any people. It was dead—all dead from end to end. +The strangest sign of mortality, however, was that not a single +restaurant or house of refection was to be found, not even on the +spacious and justly called <i>Grande Place</i>! One might have starved or +famished without relief. Nay, there was hardly a public-house or +drinking-shop.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 460px;"> +<img src="images/img065.png" width="460" height="550" alt="YPRES" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>However, the great monument itself more than supplied this absence of +vitality. One could never be weary of surveying its overpowering +proportions, its nobility, its unshaken strength, its vast length, and +flourishing air. Yet how curious to think that it was now quite +purposeless, had no meaning or use! Over four hundred feet long, it +was once the seat of bustle and thriving business, for which the +building itself was not too large. The hall on the ground seems to +stretch from end to end. Here was the great mart for linens—the +<i>toiles flamandes</i>—once celebrated over Europe. Now, desolate is the +dwelling of Morna! A few little local offices transact the stunted +shrunken local business of the place; the post, the municipal offices, +each filling up two or three of the arches, in ludicrous contrast to +the unemployed vastness of the rest. It has been fancifully supposed +that the name Diaper, as applied to linens, was supplied by this town, +which was the seat of the trade, and <i>Toile d'Ypres</i> might be +supposed, speciously enough, to have some connection with the place.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2> + +<h3><i>BERGUES.</i></h3> + + + +<img src="images/img067.png" width="95" height="108" alt="Illuminated B" title="" align="left" /><br /><br /> +<p>ut <i>en route</i> again, for the sands are fast running out. Old +fortified towns, particularly such as have been protected by 'the +great Vauban,' are found to be a serious nuisance to the inhabitants, +however picturesque they may seem to the tourist; for the place, +constricted and wrapped in bandages, as it were, cannot expand its +lungs. Many of the old fortressed towns, such as Ostend, Courtrai, +Calais, have recently demolished their fortifications at great cost +and with much benefit to themselves. There is something picturesque +and original in the first sight of a place like Arras, or St. Omer, +with the rich and lavish greenery, luxuriant trees, banks of grass by +which the 'fosse' and grim walls are masked. Others are of a grim and +hostile character, and show their teeth, as it were.</p> + +<p>Dunkirk, a fortress of the 'first class,' fortified on the modern +system, and therefore to the careless spectator scarcely appearing to +be fortified at all—is a place of such extreme platitude, that the +belated wayfarer longs to escape almost as soon as he arrives. There +is literally nothing to be seen. But a few miles away, there is to be +found a place which will indemnify the disgusted traveller, viz., +BERGUES. As the train slackens speed I begin to take note of rich +green banks with abundant trees planted in files, such as Uncle Toby +would have relished in his garden. There is the sound as of passing +over a military bridge, with other tokens of the fortified town. There +it lies—close to the station, while the invariable belfry and heavy +church rise from the centre, in friendly companionship. I have noted +the air of sadness in these lone, lorn monuments, which perhaps arises +from the sense of their vast age and all they have looked down upon. +Men and women, and houses, dynasties and invaders, and burgomasters, +have all passed away in endless succession; but <i>they</i> remain, and +have borne the buffetings of storms and gales and wars and tumults. As +we turn out of the station, a small avenue lined with trees leads +straight to the entrance. The bright snowy-looking <i>place</i> basks in +the setting sun, while the tops of the red-tiled roofs seem to peep at +us over the walls. At the end of the avenue the sturdy gateway greets +us cheerfully, labelled 'Porte de Biene,' flanked by two short and +burly towers that rise out of the water; while right and left, the old +brick walls, red and rusted, stretch away, flanked by corner towers. +The moat runs round the whole, filled with the usual stagnant water. I +enter, and then see what a tiny compact little place it is—a perfect +miniature town with many streets, one running round the walls; all the +houses sound and compact and no higher than two stories, so as to keep +snug and sheltered under the walls, and not draw the enemy's fire. The +whole seems to be about the size of the Green Park at home, and you +can walk right across, from gate to gate, in about three minutes. It +is bright, and clean 'as a new pin,' and there are red-legged soldiers +drumming and otherwise employed.</p> + +<p>Almost at once we come on the <i>place</i>, and here we are rewarded with +something that is worth travelling even from Dover to see. There +stands the old church, grim, rusted, and weather-beaten, rising in +gloomy pride, huge enough to serve a great town; while facing it is +the belfry before alluded to, one of the most elegant, coquettish, and +original of these always interesting structures. The amateur of +Flemish architecture is ever prepared for something pleasing in this +direction, for the variety of the belfries is infinite; but this +specimen fills one with special delight. It rises to a great height in +the usual square tower-shape, but at each corner is flanked by a +quaint, old-fashioned <i>tourelle</i> or towerlet, while in the centre is +an airy elegant lantern of wood, where a musical peal of bells, hung +in rows, chimes all day long in a most melodious way. Each of these +towerlets is capped by a long, graceful peak or minaret. This elegant +structure has always been justly admired by the architect, and in the +wonderful folio of etchings by Coney, done more than fifty years ago, +will be found a picturesque and accurate sketch.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 449px;"> +<img src="images/img070.png" width="449" height="550" alt="BERGUES." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>It seemed a city of the dead. Now rang out the husky tinkling of the +chimes which never flag, as in all Flemish cities, day or night. It +supplies the lack of company, and has a comforting effect for the +solitary man. From afar off comes occasionally the sound of the drum +or the bugle, fit accompaniment for such surroundings. At the foot of +the belfry was an antique building in another style, with a small +open colonnade, which, though out of harmony, was still not +inappropriate. The only thing jarring was a pretentious modern +town-hall, in the style of one of our own vestry buildings, 'erected +out of the rates,' and which must have cost a huge sum. It was of a +genteel Italian aspect, so it is plain that French local +administrators are, in matters of taste, pretty much as such folk are +with us. One could have lingered long here, looking at this charming +and graceful work, which its surroundings became quite as much as it +did its surroundings.</p> + +<p>While thus engaged it was curious to find that not a soul crossed the +<i>place</i>. Indeed, during my whole sojourn in the town, a period of +about half an hour, I did not see above a dozen people. There were but +few shops; yet all was bright, sound, in good condition. There was no +sign of decay or decaying; but all seemed to sleep. It was a French +'dead city.' But it surely lives and will live, by its remarkable bell +tower, which at this moment is chiming away, with a melodious +huskiness, its gay tunes, repeated every quarter of an hour, while as +the hour comes round there breaks out a general and clamorous +<i>charivari</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2> + +<h3><i>ST. OMER.</i></h3> + + +<img src="images/img062.png" width="95" height="127" alt="Illuminated A" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>fter leaving this wonderful place, I was now speeding on once more +back into France. In all these shifts and changes the <i>douanier</i> farce +was carefully gone through. I was regularly invited to descend, even +though baggageless, and to pass through the searching-room, making +heroic protest as I did so that '<i>I had nothing to declare</i>.' It was +easy to distinguish the two nations in their fashion of performing +this function, the French taking it <i>au sérieux</i>, and going through it +histrionically, as it were; the Belgian being more careless and +good-natured. There lingers still the habit of 'leading' or +<i>plombé</i>-ing a clumsy, troublesome relic of old times. Such small +articles as hat-cases, hand-bags, etc., are subjected to it; an +officer devoted to the duty comes with a huge pair of 'pincers' with +some neat little leaden discs, which he squeezes on the strings which +have tied up the article.</p> + +<p>Now we fly past the flourishing Poperinghe—a bustling, thriving +place, out of which lift themselves with sad solemnity a few tall +iron-gray churches, and another—yet one more—elegant belfry. There +seems something quaint in the name of Poperinghe, though it is hardly +so grotesque as that of another town I passed by, 'Bully Greny.'</p> + +<p>As this long day was at last closing in, I noticed from the window a +bright-looking town nestling, as it were, in rich green velvet and +dark plantation, with a bright, snug-looking gate, drawbridge, etc. +One of these gates was piquant enough, having a sort of pavilion +perched on the top. Here there was a quaint sort of 'surprise' in a +clock, the hours of which are struck by a mechanical figure known to +the town as 'Mathurin.' There was something very tempting in the look +of the place, betokening plenty of flowers and shaded walks and +umbrageous groves. Most conspicuous, however, was the magnificent +abbey ruin, suggesting Fountains Abbey, with its tall, striking, and +wholly perfect tower. This is the Abbey of St. Bertin, one of the most +striking and almost bewildering monuments that could be conceived. I +look up at the superb tower, sharp in its details, and wonder at its +fine proportions; then turn to the ruined aisles, and with a sort of +grief recall that this, one of the wonders of France, had been in +perfect condition not a hundred years ago, and at the time of the +Revolution had been stripped, unroofed, and purposely reduced to its +present condition! This disgrace reflects upon the Jacobins—Goths and +Vandals indeed.</p> + +<p>The streets of this old town, as it is remarked by one of the Guide +Books, 'want animation'—an amiable circumlocution. Nothing so +deserted or lonely can be conceived, and the phenomenon of 'grass +literally growing in the streets' is here to be seen in perfection. +There appeared to be no vehicles, and the few shops carry on but a +mild business. A few English families are said to repair hither for +economy. I recognise a peculiar shabby shooting-coat which betokens +the exile, accounted for by the pathetic fact that he clings to his +superannuated garment, long after it is worn out, for the reason that +it 'was made in London.' There is a rich and beautiful church +here—Notre Dame—with a deeply embayed porch full of lavish detail. +Here, too, rises the image of John Kemble, who actually studied for +the priesthood at the English College.</p> + +<p>By this time the day has gone, and darkness has set in. It is time to +think of journeying home. Yet on the way to Calais there are still +some objects to be seen <i>en passant</i>. Most travellers are familiar +with Hazebrouck, the place of 'bifurcation,' a frontier between France +and Belgium. Yet this is known for a church with a most elegant spire +rising from a tower, but of this we can only have a glimpse. And, on +the road to Bergues, I had noted that strange, German-named little +town—Cassel—perched on an umbrageous hill, which has its quaint +mediæval town-hall. But I may not pause to study it. The hours are +shrinking; but little margin is left. By midnight I am back in Calais +once more, listening to its old wheezy chimes. It seems like an old +friend, to which I have returned after a long, long absence, so many +events have been crowded into the day. It still wants some interval to +the hour past midnight, when the packet sails.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2> + +<h3><i>ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS.</i></h3> + +<img src="images/img062.png" width="95" height="127" alt="Illuminated A" title="" align="left" /><br /> +<p>s I wandered down to the end of the long pier, which stretched out +its long arm, bent like an elbow, looking, like all French piers, as +if made of frail wickerwork, I thought of a day, some years ago, when +that eminent inventor, Bessemer, conceived the captivating idea of +constructing a steamboat that should abolish sea-sickness for ever! +The principle was that of a huge swinging saloon, moved by hydraulic +power, while a man directed the movement by a sort of spirit-level. +Previously the inventor had set up a model in his garden, where a +number of scientists saw the section of a ship rocking violently by +steam. I recall that pleasant day down at Denmark Hill, with all the +engineers assembled, who were thus going to sea in a garden. A small +steam-engine worked the apparatus—a kind of a section of a +boat—which was tossed up and down violently; while in the centre was +balanced a small platform, on which we experimenters stood. On large +tables were laid out the working plans of the grand Bessemer +steamship, to be brought out presently by a company.</p> + +<p>A year and more passed away, the new vessel was completed, and nearly +the same party again invited to see the result, and make trial of it. +I repaired with the rest. Nothing more generous or hospitable could be +conceived. There was to be a banquet at Calais, with a free ticket on +to Paris. It was a gloomy iron-gray morning. The strange outlandish +vessel, which had an engine at each end, was crowded with +<i>connoisseurs</i>. But I was struck with the figure of the amiable and +brilliant inventor, who was depressed, and received the premature +congratulations of his friends somewhat ruefully. We could see the +curious 'swinging saloon' fitted into the vessel, with the ingenious +hydraulic leverage by which it could be kept nicely balanced. But it +was to be noted that the saloon was braced firmly to the sides of its +containing vessel; in fact, it was given out that, owing to some +defect in its mechanism, the thing could not be worked that day. +Nothing could be handsomer than this saloon, with its fittings and +decorations. But, strange to say, it was at once seen that the +principle was faulty, and the whole impracticable. It was obvious that +the centre of gravity of so enormous a weight being brought to the +side would imperil the stability of the vessel. The bulk to be moved +was so vast, that it was likely to get out of control, and scarcely +likely to obey the slight lever which worked it. There were many +shakings of the engineering heads, and some smiles, with many an '<i>I +told you so</i>.' Even to the outsiders it seemed Utopian.</p> + +<p>However, the gloomy voyage was duly made. One of the most experienced +captains known on the route, Captain Pittock, had been chosen to pilot +the venture. He had plainly a distrust of his charge and the +new-fangled notion. Soon we were nearing Calais. Here was the +lighthouse, and here the two embracing arms of the wickerwork pier. I +was standing at the bows, and could see the crowds on the shore +waiting. Suddenly, as the word was given to starboard or 'port,' the +malignant thing, instead of obeying, took the reverse direction, and +bore straight <i>into</i> the pier on the left! Down crashed the huge +flag-staff of our vessel in fragments, falling among us—and there +were some narrow escapes. She calmly forced her way down the pier for +nearly a hundred yards, literally crunching and smashing it up into +fragments, and sweeping the whole away. I looked back on the +disastrous course, and saw the whole clear behind us! As we gazed on +this sudden wreck, I am ashamed to say there was a roar of laughter, +for never was a <i>surprise</i> of so bewildering a character sprung upon +human nature. The faces of the poor captain and his sailors, who could +scarcely restrain their maledictions on the ill-conditioned 'brute,' +betrayed mortification and vexation in the most poignant fashion. The +confusion was extraordinary. She was now with difficulty brought over +to the other pier. This, though done ever so gently, brought fresh +damage, as the mere contact crunched and dislocated most of the +timbers. The ill-assured party defiled ashore, and we made for the +banqueting-room between rows of half-jeering, half-sympathizing +spectators. The speakers at the symposium required all their tact to +deal with the disheartening subject. The only thing to be done was to +'have confidence' in the invention—much as a Gladstonian in +difficulty invites the world to 'leave all to the skill of our great +chief.' But, alas! this would not do just now. The vessel was, in +fact, unsteerable; the enormous weight of the engines at the bows +prevented her obeying the helm. The party set off to Paris—such as +were in spirits to do so—and the shareholders in the company must +have had aching hearts enough.</p> + +<p>Some years later, walking by the Thames bank, not far from Woolwich, I +came upon some masses of rusted metal, long lying there. There were +the huge cranks of paddle-wheels, a cylinder, and some boiler metal. +These, I was informed, were the fragments of the unlucky steamship +that was to abolish sea-sickness! As I now walked to the end of the +solitary pier—the very one I had seen swept away so unceremoniously—the +recollection of this day came back to me. There was an element of grim +comedy in the transaction when I recalled that the Calais harbour +officials sent in—and reasonably—a huge claim for the mischief done +to the pier; but the company soon satisfied <i>that</i> by speedily +going 'into liquidation.' There was no resource, so the Frenchmen +had to rebuild their pier at their own cost.</p> + +<p>Close to Calais is a notable place enough, flourishing, too, founded +after the great war by one Webster, an English laceman. It has grown +up, with broad stately streets, in which, it is said, some four or +five thousand Britons live and thrive. As you walk along you see the +familiar names, 'Smith and Co.,' 'Brown and Co.,' etc., displayed on +huge brass plates at the doors in true native style. Indeed, the whole +air of the place offers a suggestion of Belfast, these downright +colonists having stamped their ways and manners in solid style on the +place. Poor old original Calais had long made protest against the +constriction she was suffering; the wall and ditch, and the single +gate of issue towards the country, named after Richelieu, seeming to +check all hope of improvement. Reasons of state were urged. But a few +years ago Government gave way, the walls towards the country-side were +thrown down, the ditch filled up, and some tremendous 'navigator' work +was carried out. The place can now draw its breath.</p> + +<p>On my last visit I had attended the theatre, a music-hall adaptable to +plays, concerts, or to 'les meetings.' It was a new, raw place, very +different from the little old theatre in the garden of Dessein's, +where the famous Duchess of Kingston attended a performance over a +hundred and twenty years ago. This place bore the dignified title of +the 'Hippodrome Theatre,' and a grand 'national' drama was going on, +entitled</p> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">'The Cuirassier of Reichshofen.'</span></div> + +<p>Here we had the grand tale of French heroism and real victory, which +an ungenerous foe persisted in calling defeat. A gallant Frenchman, +who played the hero, had nearly run his daring course, having done +prodigies of valour on that fateful and fatal day. The crisis of the +drama was reached almost as I entered, the cuirassier coming in with +his head bound up in a bloody towel! After relating the horrors of +that awful charge in an impassioned strain, he wound up by declaring +that <i>'He and Death'</i> were the only two left upon the field! It need +not be said there were abundant groans for the Germans and cheers for +the glorious Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>Now at last down to the vessel, as the wheezy chimes give out that it +is close on two o'clock a.m. All seems dozing at 'Maritime Calais.' +The fishing-boats lie close together, interlaced in black network, +snoozing, as it were, after their labours. Afar off the little town +still maintains its fortress-like air and its picturesque aspect, the +dark central spires rising like shadows, the few lights twinkling. The +whole scene is deliciously tranquil. The plashing of the water seems +to invite slumber, or at least a temporary doze, to which the +traveller, after his long day and night, is justly entitled. How +strange those old days, when the exiles for debt abounded here! They +were in multitudes then, and had a sort of society among themselves in +this Alsatia. That gentleman in a high stock and a short-waisted +coat—the late Mr. Brummell surely, walking in this direction? Is he +pursued by this agitated crowd, hurrying after him with a low roaring, +like the sound of the waves?...</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I am roused up with a start. What a change! The whole is alive and +bustling, black shadowy figures are hurrying by. The white-funnelled +steamer has come up, and is moaning dismally, eager to get away. +Behind is the long international train of illuminated chambers, fresh +from Paris and just come in, pouring out its men and women, who have +arrived from all quarters of the world. They stream on board in a +shadowy procession, laden with their bundles. Lower down, I hear the +<i>crashing</i> of trunks discharged upon the earth! I go on board with +the rest, sit down in a corner, and recall nothing till I find myself +on the chill platform of Victoria Station—time, six o'clock a.m.</p> + +<p>It was surely a dream, or like a dream!—a dream a little over thirty +hours long. And what strange objects, all blended and confused +together!—towers, towns, gateways, drawbridges, religious rites and +processions, pealing organs and jangling chimes, long dusty roads +lined with regimental trees, blouses, fishwomen's caps, <i>sabots</i>, +savoury and unsavoury smells, France dissolving into Belgium, Belgium +into France, France into Belgium again; in short, one bewildering +kaleidoscope! A day and two nights had gone, during all which time I +had been on my legs, and had travelled nigh six hundred miles! Dream +or no dream, it had been a very welcome show or panorama, new ideas +and sights appearing at every turn.</p> + +<p>And here is my little <i>'orario'</i>:</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td width="45%"> </td><td align='right'>O'clock.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1. Victoria, depart</td><td align='right'>5.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2. Dover, arrive</td><td align='right'>7.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>10.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3. Calais, arrive</td><td align='right'>12.44</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart </td><td align='right'>1.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4. Tournay, arrive</td><td align='right'>4.13</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>5.1 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>5. Orchies, arrive</td><td align='right'>6.8 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>6.29</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>6. Douai, arrive</td><td align='right'>7.6 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart </td><td align='right'>10.8 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>7. Arras, arrive</td><td align='right'> 10.52</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>11.17</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>8. Bethune, arrive</td><td align='right'>12.6 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>1.1 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>9. Lille, arrive</td><td align='right'> 2.44</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'> 4.40</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>10. Comines, arrive</td><td align='right'>5.19</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>5.57</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>11. Ypres</td><td align='right'>6.42</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>12. Hazebrouck</td><td align='right'> 7.50</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>13. Cassel</td><td align='right'> 8.18</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>14. Bergues, arrive</td><td align='right'>9.6 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " depart</td><td align='right'>10.4 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>15. St. Omer</td><td align='right'>11.37</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>16. Calais</td><td align='right'>12.14</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>17. Dover</td><td align='right'>4.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>18. Victoria</td><td align='right'> 6.0 </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'>Time on journey 37 hours</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>This, of course, is more than a day, but it will be seen that eight +hours were spent on English soil, and certainly nearly twelve in +inaction.</p> + +<div class="center"><br /><br />THE END.</div> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<div class="center small">BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/img083.jpg" width="383" height="554" alt="PEARS' SOAP; A Specialty for Children" title="" /> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day's Tour, by Percy Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + +***** This file should be named 16518-h.htm or 16518-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/1/16518/ + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Day's Tour + A Journey through France and Belgium by Calais, Tournay, + Orchies, Douai, Arras, Bethune, Lille, Comines, Ypres, + Hazebrouck, Berg + +Author: Percy Fitzgerald + +Release Date: August 12, 2005 [EBook #16518] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + + + + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliotheque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: PRICE ONE SHILLING. + +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.] + +[Illustration] + + + A DAY'S TOUR + + A Journey through France and Belgium + + BY + + _CALAIS, TOURNAY, ORCHIES, DOUAI, ARRAS, BETHUNE, + LILLE, COMINES, YPRES, HAZEBROUCK, + BERGUES, AND ST. OMER_ + + WITH A FEW SKETCHES + + BY + PERCY FITZGERALD + +[Illustration] + + + London + CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY + 1887 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This trifle is intended as an illustration of the little story in +'Evenings at Home' called 'Eyes and No Eyes,' where the prudent boy +saw so much during his walk, and his companion nothing at all. +Travelling has become so serious a business from its labours and +accompaniments, that the result often seems to fall short of what was +expected, and the means seem to overpower the end. On the other hand, +a visit to unpretending places in an unpretending way often produces +unexpected entertainment for the contemplative man. Some such +experiment was the following, where everything was a surprise because +little was expected. The epicurean tourist will be facetious on the +loss of sleep and comfort, money, etc.; but to a person in good health +and spirits these are but trifling inconveniences. + + ATHENAEUM CLUB, + _August, 1887_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. IN TOWN + + II. DOVER + + III. THE PACKET + + IV. CALAIS + + V. TOURNAY + + VI. DOUAI + + VII. ARRAS + + VIII. LILLE + + IX. YPRES + + X. BERGUES + + XI. ST. OMER + + XII. ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS + + + + +A DAY'S TOUR. + + + + + +I. + +_IN TOWN._ + + +It is London, of a bright sultry August day, when the flags seem +scorching to the feet, and the sun beats down fiercely. It has yet a +certain inviting attraction. There is a general air of bustle, and the +provincial, trundled along in his cab, his trunks over his head, looks +out with a certain awe and sense of delight, noting, as he skirts the +Park, the gay colours glistening among the dusty trees, the figures +flitting past, the riders, the carriages, all suggesting a foreign +capital. The great city never looks so brilliant or so stately as on +one of these 'broiling' days. One calls up with a sort of wistfulness +the great and picturesque cities abroad, with their grand streets and +palaces, ever a delightful novelty. We long to be away, to be crossing +over that night--enjoying a cool fresh passage, all troubles and +monotony left behind. + +On one such day this year--a Wednesday--these mixed impressions and +longings presented themselves with unwonted force and iteration. So +wistful and sudden a craving for snapping all ties and hurrying away +was after all spasmodic, perhaps whimsical; but it was quickened by +that sultry, melting air of the parks and the tropical look of the +streets. The pavements seemed to glare fiercely like furnaces; there +was an air of languid Eastern enjoyment. The very dogs 'snoozed' +pleasantly in shady corners, and all seemed happy as if enjoying a +holiday. + +How delightful and enviable those families--the father, mother, and +fair daughters, now setting off gaily with their huge boxes--who +to-morrow would be beside the ever-delightful Rhine, posting on to +Cologne and Coblentz. What a welcome ring in those names! Stale, +hackneyed as it is, there comes a thrill as we get the first glimpse +of the silvery placid waters and their majestic windings. Even the +hotels, the bustle, and the people, holiday and festive, all seem +novel and gay. With some people this fairy look of things foreign +never 'stales,' even with repetition. It is as with the illusions of +the stage, which in some natures will triumph over the rudest, +coarsest shocks. + +Well, that sweltering day stole by. The very cabmen on their 'stands' +nodded in blissful dreams. The motley colours in the Park--a stray +cardinal-coloured parasol or two added to the effect--glinted behind +the trees. The image of the happy tourists in the foreign streets grew +more vivid. The restlessness increased every hour, and was not to be +'laid.' + +Living within a stone's-throw of Victoria Station, I find a strange +and ever new sensation in seeing the night express and its passengers +starting for foreign lands--some wistful and anxious, others supremely +happy. It is next in interest to the play. The carriages are marked +'CALAIS,' 'PARIS,' etc. It is even curious to think that, within three +hours or so, they will be on foreign soil, among the French spires, +sabots, blouses, gendarmes, etc. These are trivial and fanciful +notions, but help to fortify what one has of the little faiths of +life, and what one wise man, at least, has said: that it is the +smaller unpretending things of life that make up its pleasures, +particularly those that come unexpectedly, and from which we hope but +little. + +When all these thoughts were thus tumultuously busy, an odd _bizarre_ +idea presented itself. By an unusual concatenation, there was before +me but a strictly-tightened space of leisure that could not be +expanded. Friday must be spent at home. This was Wednesday, already +three-quarters spent; but there was the coming night and the whole of +Thursday. But Friday morning imperatively required that the traveller +should be found back at home again. The whole span, the _irreducible +maximum_, not to be stretched by any contrivance beyond about thirty +hours. Something could be done, but not much. As I thought of the +strict and narrow limits, it seemed that these were some precious +golden hours, and never to recur again; the opportunity must be +seized, or lost for ever! As I walked the sunshiny streets, images +rose of the bright streets abroad, their quaint old towers, and +town-halls, and marketplaces, and churches, red-capped fisherwomen--all +this scenery was 'set,'--properties and decorations--and the foreign +play seemed to open before my eyes and invite me. + +There is an Eastern story of a man who dipped his head into a tub of +water, and who there and then mysteriously passed through a long +series of events: was married, had children, saw them grow up, was +taken prisoner by barbarians, confined long in gaol, was finally +tried, sentenced, and led out to execution, with the scimitar about to +descend, when of a sudden--he drew his head out of the water. And lo! +all these marvels had passed in a second! What if there were to be +magically crowded into those few hours all that could possibly be +seen--sea and land, old towns in different countries, strange people, +cathedrals, town-halls, streets, etc.? It would be like some wild, +fitful dream. And on the Friday I would draw my head, as it were, out +of the tub. But it would need the nicest balancing and calculation, +not a minute to be lost, everything to be measured and jointed +together beforehand. + +There was something piquant in this notion. Was not life short? and +precious hours were too often wasted carelessly and dawdled away. It +might even be worth while to see how much could be seen in these few +hours. In a few moments the resolution was taken, and I was walking +down to Victoria, and in two hours was in Snargate Street, Dover. + + + + +II. + +_DOVER._ + + +Dover has an old-fashioned dignity of its own; the town, harbour, +ports, and people seem, as it were, consecrated to packets. There is +an antique and reverend grayness in its old inns, old streets, old +houses, all clustered and huddled into the little sheltered +amphitheatre, as if trying to get down close by their pride, the +packets. For centuries it has been the threshold, the _hall-door_, of +England. It is the last inn, as it were, from which we depart to see +foreign lands. History, too, comes back on us: we think of 'expresses' +in fast sloops or fishing-boats; of landings at Dover, and taking post +for London in war-time; how kings have embarked, princesses +disembarked--all in that awkward, yet snug harbour. A most curious +element in this feeling is the faint French flavour reaching +across--by day the white hills yonder, by night the glimmering lights +on the opposite coast. The inns, too, have a nautical, seaport air, +running along the beach, as they should do, and some of the older ones +having a bulging stern-post look about their lower windows. Even the +frowning, fortress-like coloured pile, the Lord Warden, thrusts its +shoulders forward on the right, and advances well out into the sea, as +if to be the first to attract the arrivals. There is a quaint relish, +too, in the dingy, old-fashioned marine terrace of dirty tawny brick, +its green verandas and _jalousies_, which lend quite a tropical air. +Behind them, in shelter, are little dark squares, of a darker stone, +with glimpses of the sea and packets just at the corners. Indeed, at +every point wherever there is a slit or crevice, a mast or some +cordage is sure to show itself, reminding us how much we are of the +packet, packety. Ports of this kind, with all their people and +incidents, seem to be devised for travellers; with their flaring +lights, _up-all-night_ hotels, the railway winding through the narrow +streets, the piers, the stormy waters, the packets lying by all the +piers and filling every convenient space. The old Dover of Turner's +well-known picture, or indeed of twenty years ago, with its 'dumpy' +steamers, its little harbour, and rude appliances for travel, was a +very different Dover from what it is now. There was then no rolling +down in luxurious trains to an Admiralty Pier. The stoutest heart +might shrink, or at least feel dismally uncomfortable, as he found +himself discharged from the station near midnight of a blowy, +tempestuous night, and saw his effects shouldered by a porter, whom he +was invited to follow down to the pier, where the funnel of the +'Horsetend' or Calais boat is moaning dismally. Few lights were +twinkling in the winding old-fashioned streets; but the near vicinity +of ocean was felt uncomfortably in harsh blasts and whistling sounds. +The little old harbour, like that of some fishing-place, offered +scarcely any room. The much-buffeted steamer lay bobbing and springing +at its moorings, while a dingy oil-lamp marked the gangway. A +comforting welcome awaited us from some old salt, who uttered the +cheering announcement that it was 'agoin' to be a roughish night.' + +On this night there was an entertainment announced at the 'Rooms,' and +to pass away the time I looked in. It was an elocutionist one, +entitled 'Merry-Making Moments, or, Spanker's Wallet of Varieties,' +with a portrait of Spanker on the bills opening the wallet with an +expression of delight or surprise. This was his 'Grand Competition +Night,' when a 'magnificent goblet' was competed for by all comers, +which I had already seen in a shop window, a blue ribbon reposing in +_degage_ fashion across it. If a tumbler of the precious metal could +be called a magnificent goblet--it was scarcely bigger--it deserved +the title. The poor operator was declaiming as I entered, in +unmistakable Scotch, the history of 'Little Breeches,' and giving it +with due pathos. I am bound to say that a sort of balcony which hung +out at the end was well filled by the unwashed takers, or at least +donees, of sixpenny tickets. There was a purpose in this, as will be +seen. After being taken through 'The Raven,' and 'The Dying Burglar,' +the competition began. This was certainly the most diverting portion +of the entertainment, from its genuineness, the eagerness of the +competitors, and their ill-disguised jealousy. There were four +candidates. A doctor-looking man with a beard, and who had the air +either of reading familiar prayers to his household with good parsonic +effect, or of having tried the stage, uttered his lines with a very +superior air, as though the thing were not in doubt. Better than he, +however, was one, probably a draper's assistant, who competed with a +wild and panting fashion, tossing his arms, now raising, now dropping +his voice, and every _h_, too. But a shabby man, who looked as if he +had once practised tailoring, next stepped on the platform, and at +once revealed himself as the local poet. Encouraged by the generous +applause, he announced that he would recite some lines 'he 'ad wrote +on the great storm which committed such 'avoc on hour pier.' There +were local descriptions, and local names, which always touched the +true chord. Notably an allusion to a virtuous magnate then, I believe, +at rest: + + 'Amongst the var'ous noble works, + It should be widely known, + 'Twas WILLIAM BROWN' _(applause)_ 'that gave _this_ town + The Dover's Sailors' 'OME!' _(applause)_. + +Need I say that when the votes came to be taken, this poet received +the cup? His joy and mantling smiles I shall not forget, though the +donor gave it to him with unconcealed disgust; it showed what +universal suffrage led to. The doctor and the other defeated +candidates, who had been asked to retire to a private room during the +process of decision, were now obliged to emerge in mortified +procession, there being no other mode of egress. The doctor's face was +a study. The second part was to follow. But it was now growing late, +and time and mail-packets wait for no man. + + + + +III. + +_THE PACKET._ + + +As I come forth from the Elocution Contest, I find that night has +closed in. Not a ripple is on the far-stretching blue waste. From the +high cliffs that overhang the town and its amphitheatre can be seen +the faintly outlined harbour, where the white-chimneyed packet snoozes +as it were, the smoke curling upwards, almost straight. The sea-air +blows fresh and welcome, though it does not beat on a 'fevered brow.' +There is a busy hum and clatter in the streets, filled with soldiers +and sailors and chattering sojourners. Now do the lamps begin to +twinkle lazily. There is hardly a breath stirring, and the great +chalk-cliffs gleam out in a ghostly fashion, like mammoth wave-crests. + +As it draws on to ten o'clock, the path to the Admiralty Pier begins +to darken with flitting figures hurrying down past the fortress-like +Lord Warden, now ablaze and getting ready its hospice for the night; +the town shows itself an amphitheatre of dotted lights--while down +below white vapours issue walrus-like from the sonorous +'scrannel-pipes' of the steamer. Gradually the bustle increases, and +more shadowy figures come hurrying down, walking behind their baggage +trundled before them. Now a faint scream, from afar off inland, behind +the cliffs, gives token that the trains, which have been tearing +headlong down from town since eight o'clock, are nearing us; while the +railway-gates fast closed, and porters on the watch with green lamps, +show that the expresses are due. It is a rather impressive sight to +wait at the closed gates of the pier and watch these two outward-bound +expresses arrive. After a shriek, prolonged and sustained, the great +trains from Victoria and Ludgate, which met on the way and became one, +come thundering on, the enormous and powerful engine glaring fiercely, +flashing its lamps, and making the pier tremble. Compartment after +compartment of first-class carriages flit by, each lit up so +refulgently as to show the crowded passengers, with their rugs and +bundles dispersed about them. It is a curious change to see the +solitary pier, jutting out into the waves, all of a sudden thus +populated with grand company, flashing lights, and saloon-like +splendour--ambassadors, it may be, generals for the seat of war, great +merchants like the Rothschilds, great singers or actors, princes, +dukes, millionnaires, orators, writers, 'beauties,' brides and +bridegrooms, all ranged side by side in those cells, or _vis-a-vis_. +That face under the old-fashioned travelling-cap may be that of a +prime minister, and that other gentlemanly person a swindling +bank-director flying from justice. + +During the more crowded time of the travelling season it is not +undramatic, and certainly entertaining, to stand on the deck of the +little boat, looking up at the vast pier and platform some twenty or +thirty feet above one's head, and see the flood of passengers +descending in ceaseless procession; and more wonderful still, the +baggage being hurled down the 'shoots.' On nights of pressure this may +take nearly an hour, and yet not a second appears to be lost. One +gazes in wonder at the vast brass-bound chests swooping down and +caught so deftly by the nimble mariners; the great black-domed ladies' +dress-baskets and boxes; American and French trunks, each with its +national mark on it. Every instant the pile is growing. It seems like +building a mansion with vast blocks of stone piled up on each other. +Hat-boxes and light leather cases are sent bounding down like +footballs, gradually and by slow degrees forming the mountain. + +What secrets in these chests! what tales associated with them! Bridal +trousseaux, jewels, letters, relics of those loved and gone; here the +stately paraphernalia of a family assumed to be rich and prosperous, +who in truth are in flight, hurrying away with their goods. Here, +again, the newly bought 'box' of the bride, with her initials gaudily +emblazoned; and the showy, glittering chests of the Americans. + +There is a physiognomy in luggage, distinct as in clothes; and a +strange variety, not uninteresting. How significant, for instance, of +the owner is the weather-beaten, battered old portmanteau of the +travelling bachelor, embrowned with age, out of shape, yet still +strong and serviceable!--a business-like receptacle, which, like him, +has travelled thousands of miles, been rudely knocked about, weighed, +carried hither and thither, encrusted with the badges of hotels as an +old vessel is with barnacles, grim and reserved like its master, and +never lost or gone astray. + +Now the engines and their trains glide away home. The shadowy figures +stand round in crowds. To the reflecting mind there is something +bewildering and even mournful in the survey of this huge agglomeration +and of its owners, the muffled, shadowy figures, some three hundred in +number, grouped together, and who will be dispersed again in a few +hours. + +A yacht-voyage could not be more tranquilly delightful than this +pleasant moonlight transit. We are scarcely clear of the twinkling +lights of the Dover amphitheatre, grown more and more distant, when +those of the opposite coast appear to draw near and yet nearer. Often +as one has crossed, the sense of a new and strange impression is never +wanting. The sense of calm and silence, the great waste of sea, the +monotonous 'plash' of the paddle-wheels, the sort of solitude in the +midst of such a crowd, the gradually lengthening distance behind, with +the lessening, as gradual, in front, and the always novel feeling of +approach to a new country--these elements impart a sort of dreamy, +poetical feeling to the scene. Even the calm resignation of the +wrapped-up shadows seated in a sort of retreat, and devoted to their +own thoughts or slumbers, add to this effect. With which comes the +thought of the brave little vessels, which through day and night, year +after year, dance over these uncertain waters in 'all weathers,' as it +is termed. When the night is black as Erebus, and the sea in its fury +boiling and raging over the pier, the Lord Warden with its +storm-shutters up, and timid guests removed to more sheltered +quarters, the very stones of the pier shaken from their places by the +violence of the monster outside--the little craft, wrapping its mantle +about its head, goes out fearlessly, and, emerging from the harbour to +be flung about, battered with wild fury, forces her way on through the +night, which its gallant sailors call, with truth, 'an awful one.' + +While busy with these thoughts I take note of a little scene of +comedy, or perhaps of a farcical kind, which is going on near me, in +which two 'Harrys' of the purest kind were engaged, and whose oddities +lightened the tediousness of the passage. One had seen foreign parts, +and was therefore regarded with reverence by his companion. + +They were promenading the deck, and the following dialogue was borne +to me in snatches: + +First Harry (interrogatively, and astonished): 'Eh? no! Now, really?' + +Second Harry: 'Oh, Lord bless yer, yes! It comes quite easy, you know' +(or 'yer know'). 'A little trouble at first; but, Lord bless yer' +(this benediction was imparted many times during the conversation), +'it ain't such a difficult thing at all.' + +I now found they were speaking of acquiring the French language--a +matter the difficulty of which they thought had been absurdly +overrated. Then the second Harry: 'Of course it is! Suppose you're in +a Caffy, and want some wine; you just call to the waiter, and you +say--' + +First Harry (who seems to think that the secret has already been +communicated): 'Dear me; yes, to be sure--to be sure! I never thought +of that. A Caffy?' + +Second Harry: 'Oh, Lor' bless yer, it comes as easy as--that! Well, +you go say to the fellow--just as you would say to an English +waiter--"_Don-ny maw_"--(pause)--"_dee Vinne_."' + +First Harry (amazed): 'So _that's_ the way! Dear, dear me! Vinne!' + +Second Harry: 'O' course it is the way! Suppose you want yer way to +the railway, you just go ask for the "_Sheemin--dee--Fur_." _Fur_, you +know, means "rail" in French--_Sheemin_ is "the road," you know.' + +Again lost in wonder at the simplicity of what is popularly supposed +to be so thorny, the other Harry could only repeat: + +'So that's it! What is it, again? _Sheemin_--' + +_'Sheemin dee Fur.'_ + +Later, in the fuss and bustle of the 'eating hall,' this 'Harry,' more +obstreperous than ever by contact with the foreigners, again attracted +my attention. Everywhere I heard his voice; he was rampant. + +'When the chap laid hold of my bag, "Halloo," says I; "hands off, old +boy," says I. + +"'Eel Fo!" says he. + +'"Eel-pie!" says I. "Blow your _Fo_," says I, and didn't he grin like +an ape? I declare I thought I'd have split when he came again with his +"_Eel Fo_!"' + +He was then in his element. Everything new to him was 'a guy,' or 'so +rum,' or 'the queerest go you ever.' One of the two declared that, 'in +all his experience and in all his life he had never heard sich a lingo +as French;' and further, that 'one of their light porters at +Bucklersbury would eat half a dozen of them Frenchmen for a bender.' + +This strange, grotesque dialogue I repeat textually almost; and, it +may be conceived, it was entertaining in a high degree. _'Sheemin dee +Fur'_ was the exact phonetic pronunciation, and the whole scene +lingers pleasantly in the memory. + + + + +IV. + +_CALAIS._ + + +But it is now close on midnight, and we are drawing near land; the eye +of the French _phare_ grows fiercer and more glaring, until, close on +midnight, the traveller finds the blinding light flashed full on him, +as the vessel rushes past the wickerwork pier-head. One or two beings, +whose unhappy constitution it is to be miserable and wretched at the +very whisper of the word 'SEA,' drag themselves up from below, +rejoicing that here is CALAIS. Beyond rises the clustered town +confined within its walls. As we glide in between the friendly arms of +the openwork pier, the shadowy outlines of the low-lying town take +shape and enlarge, dotted with lamps as though pricked over with +pin-holes. The fiery clock of the station, that sits up all night from +year's end to year's end; the dark figures with tumbrils, and a stray +coach waiting; the yellow gateway and drawbridge of the fortress just +beyond, and the chiming of _carillons_ in a wheezy fashion from the +old watch-tower within, make up a picture. + +[Illustration: HOGARTH'S GATE (CALAIS)] + +[Illustration: HALL OF THE STAPLE, (Calais)] + +Such, indeed, it used to be--not without its poetry, too; but the old +Calais days are gone. Now the travellers land far away down the pier, +at the new-fangled 'Calais Maritime,' forsooth! and do not even +approach the old town. The fishing-boats, laid up side by side along +the piers, are shadowy. It seems a scene in a play. The great sea is +behind us and all round. It is a curious feeling, thinking of the +nervous unrest of the place, that has gone on for a century, and that +will probably go on for centuries more. Certainly, to a person who has +never been abroad, this midnight scene would be a picture not without +a flavour of romance. But such glimpses of poetry are held intrusive +in these matter-of-fact days. + +There is more than an hour to wait, whilst the passengers gorge in the +huge _salle_, and the baggage is got ashore. So I wander away up to +the town. + +How picturesque that stroll! Not wholly levelled are the old yellow +walls; the railway-station with its one eye, and clock that never +sleeps, opens its jaws with a cheerful bright light, like an inn fire; +dark figures in cowls, soldiers, sailors, flit about; curiously-shaped +tumbrils for the baggage lie up in ordinary. Here is the old arched +gate, ditch, and drawbridge; Hogarth's old bridge and archway, where +he drew the 'Roast Beef of Old England.' Passing over the bridge into +the town unchallenged, I find a narrow street with yellow houses--the +white shutters, the porches, the first glance of which affects one so +curiously and reveals France. Here is the Place of Arms in the centre, +whence all streets radiate. What more picturesque scene!--the moon +above, the irregular houses straggling round, the quaint old +town-hall, with its elegant tower, and rather wheezy but most musical +chimes; its neighbour, the black, solemn watch-tower, rising rude and +abrupt, seven centuries old, whence there used to be strict look-out +for the English. Down one of these side streets is a tall building, +with its long rows of windows and shutters and closed door +(Quillacq's, now Dessein's), once a favourite house--the 'Silver +Lion,' mentioned in the old memoirs, visited by Hogarth, and where, +twenty years ago, there used to be a crowd of guests. Standing in the +centre, I note a stray roysterer issuing from some long-closed _cafe_, +hurrying home, while the _carillons_ in their airy _rococo_-looking +tower play their melodious tunes in a wheezy jangle that is +interesting and novel. This chime has a celebrity in this quarter of +France. I stayed long in the centre of that solitary _place_, +listening to that midnight music. + +It is a curious, not unromantic feeling, that of wandering about a +strange town at midnight, and the effect increases as, leaving the +_place_, I turn down a little by-street--the Rue de Guise--closed at +the end by a beautiful building or fragment, unmistakably English in +character. Behind it spreads the veil of blue sky, illuminated by the +moon, with drifting white clouds passing lazily across. This is the +entrance to the Hotel de Guise--a gate-tower and archway, pure +Tudor-English in character, and, like many an old house in the English +counties, elegant and almost piquant in its design. The arch is +flanked by slight hexagonal _tourelles_, each capped by a pinnacle +decorated with niches in front. Within is a little courtyard, and +fragments of the building running round in the same Tudor style, but +given up to squalor and decay, evidently let out to poor lodgers. +This charming fragment excites a deep melancholy, as it is a neglected +survival, and may disappear at any moment--the French having little +interest in these English monuments, indeed, being eager to efface +them when they can. It is always striking to see this on some tranquil +night, as I do now--and Calais is oftenest seen at midnight--and think +of the Earl of Warwick, the 'deputy,' and of the English wool-staple +merchants who traded here. Here lodged Henry VIII. in 1520; and twelve +years later Francis I., when on a visit to Henry, took up his abode in +this palace. + +[Illustration: BELFRY, CALAIS.] + +Crossing the _place_ again, I come on the grim old church, built by +the English, where were married our own King Richard II. and Isabelle +of Valois--a curious memory to recur as we listen to the 'high mass' +of a Calais Sunday. But the author of 'Modern Painters' has furnished +the old church with its best poetical interpretation. 'I cannot find +words,' he says in a noble passage,' to express the intense pleasure I +have always felt at first finding myself, after some prolonged stay in +England, at the foot of the tower of Calais Church. The large neglect, +the noble unsightliness of it, the record of its years, written so +vividly, yet without sign of weakness or decay; its stern vastness and +gloom, eaten away by the Channel winds, and overgrown with bitter +sea-grass. I cannot tell half the strange pleasures and thoughts that +come about me at the sight of the old tower.' Most interesting of all +is the grim, rusted, and gaunt watch-tower, before alluded to, which +rises out of a block of modern houses in the _place_ itself. It can be +seen afar off from the approaching vessel, and until comparatively +late times this venerable servant had done the charity of lighthouse +work for a couple of centuries at least. + +But one of the pleasantest associations connected with the town was +the old Dessein's Hotel, which had somehow an inexpressibly +old-fashioned charm, for it had a grace like some disused chateau. +Some of the prettiest passages in Sterne's writings are associated +with this place. We see the figures of the monk, the well-known host, +the lady and the _petit-maitre_: to say nothing of the old +_desobligeante_. Even of late years it was impossible to look at the +old building, which remained unchanged, without calling up the image +of Mr. Sterne, and the curious airy conversation--sprinkled with what +execrable French both in grammar and spelling!--that took place at the +gate. An air of the old times pervaded it strongly: it was like +opening an old _garde de vin_. You passed out of the _place_ and found +yourself in the Rue Royale--newly named Rue Leveux--and there, +Dessein's stood before you, with its long yellow wall, archway and +spacious courts, on each side a number of quaint gables or _mansardes_, +sharp-roofed. Over the wall was seen the foliage of tall and handsome +trees. There is a coloured print representing this entrance, with the +meeting of the 'little master' and the lady--painted by Leslie--and +which gives a good idea of the place. In the last century the courtyard +used to be filled with posting-carriages, and the well-known _remise_ +lay here in a corner. Behind the house stretched large, well-stocked +gardens, with which the guests at the hotel used to be recreated; +while at the bottom of the garden, but opening into another street, +was the theatre, built by the original Dessein, belonging to the hotel, +and still used. This garden was wild and luxuriant, the birds singing, +while the courtyard was dusty and weed-grown. + +This charming picture has ever been a captivating one for the +traveller. It seemed like an old country-house transferred to town. +There was something indescribable in the tranquil flavour of the +place, its yellow gamboge tint alternated with green vineries, its +spacious courtyard and handsome chambers. It was bound up with +innumerable old associations. Thackeray describes, with an almost +poetical affection and sympathy, the night he spent there. He called +up the image of Sterne in his 'black satin smalls,' and talked with +him. They used to show his room, regularly marked, as I have seen it, +'STERNES'S ROOM, NO. 31,' with its mezzotint, after Sir +Joshua, hung over the chimney-piece. But this tradition received a +shock some sixty years since. An inquisitive and sceptical traveller +fancied he saw an inscription or date lurking behind the vine-leaves +that so luxuriantly covered the old house, and sent up a man on a +ladder to clear away the foliage. This operation led to the discovery +of a tablet, dated two years too late for the authenticity of the +building in which 'Sterne's room' was. The waiter, however, in nowise +disconcerted, said the matter could be easily 'arranged' by selecting +another room in an unquestioned portion of the building! To make up, +however, there was a room labelled 'SIR WALTER SCOTT'S ROOM,' with +his portrait; and of this there could be no reasonable question. + + +------+ + | AD | + | 1770 | + +------+ + +In later years it did not flourish much, but gently decayed. +Everything seemed in a state of mild sleepy abandonment and decay till +about the year 1861, when the Desseins gave over business. The town, +much straitened for room, and cramped within its fortifications, had +long been casting hungry eyes on this spacious area. Strange to say, +even in the prosaic pages of our own 'Bradshaw,' the epitaph of 'old +Dessein's' is to be read among its advertisements: + + 'CALAIS. + + 'HOTEL DESSEIN.--L. Dessein, the proprietor, has the + honour to inform his numerous patrons, and travellers in + general, that after the 1st of January his establishment will + be transferred to the Hotel Quillacq, which has been entirely + done up, and will take the name of HOTEL DESSEIN. The + premises of the old Hotel Dessein having been purchased by the + town of Calais, it ceases to be an Hotel for Travellers.' + +Still, in this new function it was 'old Dessein's,' and you were shown +'Sterne's room,' etc. I recall wandering through it of a holiday, +surveying the usual museum specimens--the old stones, invariable +spear-heads, stuffed animals; in short, the usual rather heterogeneous +collection, made up of 'voluntary contributions,' prompted half by the +vanity of the donor and half by his indifference to the objects +presented. We had not, indeed, the 'old pump' or the parish stocks, as +at Little Pedlington, but there were things as interesting. Here were +a few old pictures given by the Government, and labelled in writing; +the car of Blanchard's balloon, and a cutting from a newspaper +describing his arrival; portraits of the 'Citizen King' in his white +trousers; ditto of Napoleon III., name pasted over; the flagstone, +with an inscription, celebrating the landing of Louis XVIII., removed +from the pier--in deference to Republican sensitiveness--no doubt to +be restored again in deference to monarchical feelings; and, of +course, a number of the usual uninteresting cases containing white +cards, and much cotton, pins, and insects, stuffed birds, and +symmetrically-arranged dried specimens, the invariable Indian gourds, +and arrows, and moccasins, which 'no gentlemanly collection should be +without.' Never, during many a visit, did I omit wandering up to see +this pleasing, old, but ghostly memorial. It may be conceived what a +shock it was when, on a recent visit, I found it gone--razed--carted +away. I searched and searched--fancied I had mistaken the street; but +no! it was gone for ever. During M. Jules Ferry's last administration, +when the rage for 'Communal schools' set in, this tempting site had +been seized upon, the interesting old place levelled, and a +factory-like red-brick pile rapidly erected in its place. It was +impossible not to feel a pang at this discovery; I felt that Calais +without its Dessein's had lost its charm. Madame Dessein, a +grand-niece or nearly-related descendant of _le grand Dessein_, still +directs at Quillacq's--a pleasing old lady. + +There is still a half hour before me, while the gorgers in 'Maritime +Calais' are busy feeding against time; and while I stand in the +_place_, listening to the wheezy old chimes, I recall a pleasant +excursion, and a holiday that was spent there, at the time when the +annual _fetes_ were being celebrated. Never was there a brighter day: +all seemed to be new, and the very quintessence of what was +foreign--the gay houses of different heights and patterns were decked +with streamers, their parti-coloured blinds, devices, and balconies +running round the _place_, and furnishing gaudy detail. Here there +used to be plenty of movement, when the Lafitte diligences went +clattering by, starting for Paris, before the voracious railway +marched victoriously in and swallowed diligence, horses, +postilions--bells, boots and all! The gay crowd passing across the +_place_ was making for the huge iron-gray cathedral, quite ponderous +and fortress-like in its character. Here is the grand _messe_ going +on, the Swiss being seen afar off, standing with his halbert under the +great arch, while between, down to the door, are the crowded +congregation and the convenient chairs. Overhead the ancient organ is +pealing out with rich sound, while the sun streams in through the +dim-painted glass on the old-fashioned costumes of the fish-women, +just falling on their gold earrings _en passant_. There is a dreamy +air about this function, which associated itself, in some strange way, +with bygone days of childhood, and it is hard to think that about two +or three hours before the spectator was in all the prose of London. + +For those who love novel and picturesque memories or scenes, there are +few things more effective or pleasant to think of than one of these +Sunday mornings in a strange unfamiliar French town, when every +corner, and every house and figure--welcome novelty!--are gay as the +costumes and colours in an opera. The night before it was, perhaps, +the horrors of the packet, the cribbing in the cabin, the unutterable +squalor and roughness of all things, the lowest depth of hard, ugly +prose, together with the rudest buffeting and agitation, and poignant +suffering; but, in a few hours, what a 'blessed' change! Now there is +the softness of a dream in the bright cathedral church crowded to the +door, the rites and figures seen afar off, the fuming incense, the +music, the architecture! + +During these musings the fiercely glaring clock warns me that time is +running out; but a more singular monitor is the great lighthouse which +rises at the entrance of the town, and goes through its extraordinary, +almost fiendish, performance all the night long. This is truly a +phenomenon. Lighthouses are usually relegated to some pier-end, and +display their gyrations to the congenial ocean. But conceive a monster +of this sort almost _in_ the town itself, revolving ceaselessly, +flashing and flaring into every street and corner of a street, like +some Patagonian policeman with a giant 'bull's-eye.' A more singular, +unearthly effect cannot be conceived. Wherever I stand, in shadow or +out of it, this sudden flashing pursues me. It might be called the +'Demon Lighthouse.' For a moment, in picturesque gloom, watching the +shadows cast by the Hogarthian gateway, I may be thinking of our great +English painter sitting sketching the lean Frenchwomen, noting, too, +the portal where the English arms used to be, when suddenly the 'Demon +Lighthouse' directs his glare full on me, describes a sweep, is gone, +and all is dark again. It suggests the policeman going his rounds. How +the exile forced to sojourn here must detest this obtrusive beacon of +the first class! It must become maddening in time for the eyes. Even +in bed it has the effect of mild sheet-lightning. Municipality of +Calais! move it away at once to a rational spot--to the end of the +pier, where a lighthouse ought to be. + + + + +V. + +_TOURNAY._ + + +But now back to 'Maritime Calais,' down to the pier, where a strange +busy contrast awaits us. All is now bustle. In the great 'hall' +hundreds are finishing their 'gorging,' paying bills, etc., while on +the platform the last boxes and chests are being tumbled into the +waggons with the peculiar tumbling, crashing sound which is so +foreign. Guards and officials in cloaks and hoods pace up and down, +and are beginning to chant their favourite '_En voiture, messieurs_!' +Soon all are packed into their carriages, which in France always +present an old-fashioned mail-coach air with their protuberant bodies +and panels. By one o'clock the signal is given, the lights flash +slowly by, and we are rolling away, off into the black night. +'Maritime Calais' is left to well-earned repose; but for an hour or so +only, until the returning mail arrives, when it will wake up again--a +troubled and troublous nightmare sort of existence. Now for a plunge +into Cimmerian night, with that dull, sustained buzz outside, as of +some gigantic machinery whirling round, which seems a sort of +lullaby, contrived mercifully to make the traveller drowsy and enwrap +him in gentle sleep. Railway sleeping is, after all, a not +unrefreshing form of slumber. There is the grateful 'nod, nod, +nodding,' with the sudden jerk of an awakening; until the nodding +becomes more overpowering, and one settles into a deep and profound +sleep. Ugh! how chilly it gets! And the machinery--or is it the +sea?--still roaring in one's ear. + +What, stopping! and by the roadside, it seems; the day breaking, the +atmosphere cold, steel-blue, and misty. Rubbing the pane, a few +surviving lights are seen twinkling--a picture surely something +Moslem. For there, separated by low-lying fields, rise clustered +Byzantine towers and belfries, with strangely-quaint German-looking +spires of the Nuremberg pattern, but all dimly outlined and mysterious +in their grayness. + +There was an extraordinary and original feeling in this approach: the +old fortifications, or what remained of them, rising before me; the +gloom, the mystery, the widening streak of day, and perfect +solitariness. As I admired the shadowy belfry which rose so supreme +and asserted itself among the spires, there broke out of a sudden a +perfect _charivari_ of bells--jangling, chiming, rioting, from various +churches, while amid all was conspicuous the deep, solemn BOOM! BOOM! +like the slow baying of a hound. + +It is five o'clock, but it might be the middle of the night, so dark +is it. This magic city, which seems like one of those in Albert +Duerer's cuts, rises at a distance as if within walls. I stand in the +roadside alone, deserted, the sole traveller set down. The train has +flown on into the night with a shriek. The sleepy porter wonders, and +looks at me askance. + +As I take my way from the station and gradually approach the city--for +there is a broad stretch between it and the railway unfilled by +houses--I see the striking and impressive picture growing and +enlarging. The jangling and the solemn occasional boom still go on: +meant to give note that the day is opening. Nothing more awe-inspiring +or poetical can be conceived than this 'cock-crow' promenade. Here are +little portals suddenly opening on the stage, with muffled figures +darting out, and worthy Belgians tripping from their houses--betimes, +indeed--and hurrying away to mass. Thus to make the acquaintance of +that grandest and most astonishing of old cathedrals, is to do so +under the best and most suitable conditions: very different from the +guide and cicerone business, which belongs to later hours of the day. +I stand in the open _place_, under its shadow, and lift my eyes with +wonder to the amazing and crowded cluster of spires and towers: its +antique air, and even look of shattered dilapidation showing that the +restorer has not been at his work. There was no smugness or trimness, +or spick-and-spanness, but an awful and reverent austerity. And with +an antique appropriateness to its functions the Flemish women, crones +and maidens, all in their becoming cashmere hoods, and cloaks, and +neat frills, still hurry on to the old Dom. Near me rose the antique +_beffroi_, from whose jaws still kept booming the old bell, with a +fine clang, the same that had often pealed out to rouse the burghers +to discord and tumult. It pealed on, hoarse and even cracked, but +persistently melodious, disregarding the contending clamours of its +neighbours, just as some old baritone of the opera, reduced and broken +down, will exhibit his 'phrasing'--all that is left to him. Quaint old +burgher city, indeed, with the true flavour, though beshrew them for +meddling with the fortifications! + +That little scene in this _place_ of Tournay is always a pleasant, +picturesque memory. + +I entered with the others. Within the cathedral was the side chapel, +with its black oak screen, and a tawny-cheeked Belgian priest at the +altar beginning the mass. Scattered round and picturesquely grouped +were the crones and maidens aforesaid, on their wicker-chairs. A few +surviving lamps twinkled fitfully, and shadowy figures crossed as if +on the stage. But aloft, what an overpowering immensity, all vaulted +shadows, the huge pillars soaring upward to be lost in a Cimmerian +gloom! + +Around me I saw grouped picturesquely in scattered order, and kneeling +on their _prie-dieux_, the honest burghers, women and men, the former +arrayed in the comfortable and not unpicturesque black Flemish cloaks +with the silk hoods--handsome and effective garments, and almost +universal. The devotional rite of the mass, deeply impressive, was +over in twenty minutes, and all trooped away to their daily work. +There was a suggestion here, in this modest, unpretending exercise, in +contrast to the great fane itself, of the undeveloped power to expand, +as it were, on Sundays and feast-days, when the cathedral would +display all its resources, and its huge area be crowded to the doors +with worshippers, and the great rites celebrated in all their full +magnificence. + +Behind the great altar I came upon an imposing monument, conceived +after an original and comprehensive idea. It was to the memory of _all +the bishops and canons_ of the cathedral! This wholesale idea may be +commended to our chapters at home. It might save the too monotonous +repetition of recumbent bishops, who, after being exhibited at the +Academy, finally encumber valuable space in their own cathedrals. + +The suggestiveness of the great bell-tower, owing to the peculiar +emphasis and purpose given to it, is constantly felt in the old +Belgian cities. It still conveys its old antique purpose--the defence +of the burghers, a watchful sentinel who, on the alarm, clanged out +danger, the sound piercing from that eyry to the remotest lane, and +bringing the valiant citizens rushing to the great central square. It +is impossible to look up at one of these monuments, grim and solitary, +without feeling the whole spirit of the Belgian history, and calling +up Philip van Artevelde and the Ghentish troubles. + +In the smaller cities the presence of this significant landmark is +almost invariable. There is ever the lone and lorn tower, belfry, or +spire painted in dark sad colours, seen from afar off, rising from the +decayed little town below; often of some antique, original shape that +pleases, and yet with a gloomy misanthropical air, as of total +abandonment. They are rusted and abrased. From their ancient jaws we +hear the husky, jangling chimes, musical and melancholy, the +disorderly rambling notes and tunes of a gigantic musical box. Towards +the close of some summer evening, as the train flies on, we see the +sun setting on the grim walls of some dead city, and on the clustered +houses. Within the walls are the formal rows of trees planted in +regimental order which fringe and shelter them; while rises the dark, +copper-coloured tower, often unfinished and ragged, but solemn and +funereal, or else capped by some quaint lantern, from whose jaws +presently issue the muffled tones of the chimes, halting and broken, +and hoarse and wheezy with centuries of work. Often we pass on; +sometimes we descend, and walk up to the little town and wander +through its deserted streets. We are struck with wonder at some vast +and noble church, cathedral-like in its proportions, and nearly always +original--such variety is there in these antique Belgian fanes--and +facing it some rustic mouldering town-hall of surprising beauty. There +are a few little shops, a few old houses, but the generality have +their doors closed. There is hardly a soul to be seen, certainly not a +cart. There are innumerable dead cities of this pattern. + +Coming out, I find it broad day. A few natives with their baskets are +hurrying to the train. I note, rising above the houses, two or three +other solemn spires and grim churches, which have an inexpressibly sad +and abandoned air, from their dark grimed tones which contrast with +the bright gay hues of the modern houses that crowd upon them. There +is one grave, imposing tower, with a hood like a monk's. Then I wander +to the handsome triangle-shaped _place_, with its statue to Margaret +of Parma--erst Governor of the Netherlands, and whose memory is +regarded with affection. Here is the old belfry, which has been so +clamorous, standing apart, like those of Ghent, Dunkirk, and a few +other towns; an effective structure, though fitted by modern restorers +with an entirely new 'head'--not, however, ineffective of its kind. + +The day is now fairly opened. There is a goodly muster of +market-women and labourers at the handsome station, which, like every +station of the first rank in Belgium, bears its name 'writ large.' It +is just striking five as we hurry away, and in some half an hour we +arrive at ORCHIES--one of those new spick-and-span little towns, +useful after their kind, but disagreeable to the aesthetic eye. +Everything here is of that meanest kind of brick, 'pointed,' as it is +called, with staring white, such as it is seen in the smaller Belgian +stations. Feeling somewhat degraded by this contact, I was glad to be +hurried away, and within an hour find we are approaching one of the +greater French cities. + + + + +VI. + +_DOUAI._ + + +Now begin to flit past us signs unmistakable of an approaching +fortified town. Here are significant green banks and mounds cut to +angles and geometrical patterns, soft and enticing, enriched with +luxuriant trees, but treacherous--smiling on the confiding houses and +gardens which one day may be levelled at a few hours' notice. Next +come compact masses of Vauban brick, ripe and ruddy, of beautiful, +smooth workmanship; stately military gateways and drawbridges, with a +patch of red trousering--a soldier on his fat Normandy 'punch' ambling +lazily over; and the peaceful cart with its Flemish horses. The +brick-work is sliced through, as with a cheese-knife, to admit the +railway, giving a complete section of the work. We are, in short, at +one of the great _places fortes_ of France, Douai, where the curious +traveller had best avoid sketching, or taking notes--a serious +offence. Here I lingered pleasantly for nearly three hours, and, +having duly breakfasted, noted its air of snug comfort and +prosperity. There is here a famous arsenal--ever busy--one of the +most important in France, and it has besides some welcome bits of +artistic architecture. + +It was when wandering down a darkish street, that I came on a most +original building, the old _Mairie_, enriched with a belfry of +delightfully graceful pattern. It might be a problem how to combine a +bell-tower with offices for municipal work, and we know in our land +how such a 'job' would be carried out by 'the architect to the Board.' +But all over Flemish France and Belgium proper we find an +inexhaustible fancy and fertility in such designs. It is always +difficult to describe architectural beauties. This had its tower in +the centre, flanked by two short wings. Everything was original--the +disposition of the windows, the air of space and largeness. Yet the +whole was small, I note that in all these Flemish bell-towers, the +topmost portion invariably develops into something charmingly +fantastic, into cupolas and short, little galleries and lanterns +superimposed, the mixture of solidity and airiness being astonishing. +It is appropriate and fitting that this grace should attend on what +are the sweetest musical instruments conceivable. Mr. Haweis, who is +the poet of Flemish bells, has let us into the secret. 'The fragment +of aerial music,' he tells us, 'which floats like a heavenly sigh over +the Belgian city and dies away every few minutes, seems to set all +life and time to celestial music. It is full of sweet harmonies, and +can be played in pianoforte score, treble and bass. After a week in a +Belgian town, time seems dull without the music in the air that +mingled so sweetly with all waking moods without disturbing them, and +stole into our dreams without troubling our sleep. I do not say that +such carillons would be a success in London. In Belgium the towers are +high above the towns--Antwerp, Mechlin, Bruges--and partially +isolated. The sound falls softly, and the population is not so dense +as in London. Their habit and taste have accustomed the citizens to +accept this music for ever floating in the upper air as part of the +city's life--the most spiritual, poetical, and recreative part of it. +Nothing of the kind has ever been tried in London. The crashing peals +of a dozen large bells banged violently with clapper instead of softly +struck with hammer, the exasperating dong, or ding, dong, of the +Ritualist temple over the way, or the hoarse, gong-like roar of Big +Ben--that is all we know about bells in London, and no form of church +discipline could be more ferocious. Bell noise and bell music are two +different things.' This fanciful tower had its four corner towerlets, +suggesting the old burly Scotch pattern, which indeed came from +France; while the vane on the top still characteristically flourishes +the national Flemish lion. + +Most bizarre, not to say extravagant, was the great cathedral, which +was laid out on strange 'lines,' having a huge circular chapel or +pavilion of immense height in front, whose round roof was capped by a +vast bulbous spire, in shape something after the pattern of a gigantic +mangel-wurzel! This astonishing decoration had a quaint and +extraordinary effect, seen, as it was, from any part of the city. Next +came the nave, whilst the transepts straggled about wildly, and a +gigantic fortress-like tower reared itself from the middle. Correct +judges will tell us that all this is debased work, and 'corrupt +style;' but, nevertheless, I confess to being both astonished and +pleased. + +This was the great festival of the _Corpus Domini_, and, indeed, +already all available bells in the place had been jangling noisily. It +was now barely seven o'clock, yet on entering the vast nave I found +that the 'Grand Mass' had begun, and the whole was full to the door, +while in the great choir were ranged about a hundred young girls +waiting to make their first Communion. A vast number of gala carriages +were waiting at the doors to take the candidates home, and for the +rest of the day they would promenade the city in their veils and +flowers, receiving congratulations. There was a pleasant provincial +simplicity in all this and in all that followed, which brought back +certain old Sundays of a childhood spent on a hill overlooking Havre. +I liked to see the stout red-cheeked choristers perspiring with their +work, and singing with a rough stentoriousness, just as I had seen +them in the village church of Sanvic. And there was the organist +playing away at his raised seat in the body of the church, as if in a +pew, visible to the naked eye of all; while two cantors in copes +clapped pieces of wood together as a signal for the congregation to +kneel or rise. Most quaint of all were the surpliced instrumentalists +with their braying bassoon and ophicleide: not to forget the +double-bass player who 'sawed' away for the bare life of him. The ever +visible organist voluntarized ravishingly and in really fine style. I +should like to have heard him at his own proper instrument, aloft, in +the gallery yonder, quite an enormous structure of florid pipes in +stories and groups, with angels blowing trumpets and flying saints. +It seemed like the stern of one of the Armada vessels. How he would +have made the pillars quiver! how the ripe old notes would have +_twanged_ and brayed into the darkest recesses! + +The Mass being over, the Swiss, a tall, fierce fellow, arrayed in a +feathered cocked-hat, rich _scarlet_ regimentals and boots, now showed +an extra restlessness. The Bishop of Douai, a smooth, polished +prelate, began his sermon, which he delivered from a chair, in clear +tones and good elocution. When the ceremonies were over, the whole +congregation gathered at the door to see the young ladies taken away +by their friends. Then I resumed my exploring. + +On a cheerful-looking _place_, which, with its trees and kiosque, +recalled the _Place Verte_ at Antwerp, I noticed a large building of +the pattern so common in France for colleges and convents--a vast +expanse of whiteness or blankness, and a yet vaster array of long +windows. It appeared to be a cavalry barrack for soldiers. The bugles +sounded through the archway, and orderlies were riding in and out. +This monotonous building, I found, had once been the English college +for priests, where the celebrated Douai or Douay Bible had been +translated. This rare book--a joy for the bibliophile--was published +about 1608, and, as is well known, was the first Catholic version in +English of the Scriptures. Here, then, was the cradle of millions of +copies distributed over the face of the earth. It was a curious +sensation to pass by this homely-looking edifice, with the adjoining +chapel, as it appeared to be--now apparently a riding-school. I also +came upon many a fine old Spanish house, and toiled down in the sun +to the Rue des Foulons, where there were some elaborate specimens. + +Short as had been my term of residence, I somehow seemed to know Douai +very well. I had gathered what is called 'an idea of the place.' Its +ways, manners, and customs seemed familiar to me. So I took my way +from the old town with a sort of regret, having seen a great deal. + + + + +VII. + +_ARRAS._ + + +It is just eleven o'clock, and here we are coming to a charming town, +which few travellers have probably visited, and of which that genial +and experienced traveller, Charles Dickens, wrote in astonished +delight, and where in 1862 he spent his birthday. 'Here I find,' he +says, 'a grand _place_, so very remarkable and picturesque, that it is +astonishing how people miss it.' This is old Arras; and I confess it +alone seems worth a long day's, not to say night's, journey, to see. +It is fortified, and, as in such towns, we have to make our way to it +from the station by an umbrageous country road; for it is fenced, as a +gentleman's country seat might be, and strictly enclosed by the usual +mounds, ditches, and walls, but all so picturesquely disguised in rich +greenery as to be positively inviting. Even low down in the deep +ditches grew symmetrical avenues of straight trees, abundant in their +leaves and branches, which filled them quite up. The gates seem +monumental works of art, and picturesque to a degree; while over the +walls--and what noble specimens of brickwork, or tiling rather, are +these old Vauban walls!--peep with curious mystery the upper stories +and roofs of houses with an air of smiling security. I catch a glimpse +of the elegant belfry, the embroidered spires, and mosque-like +cupolas, all a little rusted, yet cheerful-looking. Dickens's _place_, +or two _places_ rather--for there is the greater and the less--display +to us a really lovely town-hall in the centre, the roof dotted over +with rows of windows, while an airy lace-work spire, with a ducal +crown as the finish, rises lightly. On to its sides are encrusted +other buildings of Renaissance order, while behind is a mansion still +more astonishingly embroidered in sculptured stone, with a colonnade +of vast extent. Around the _place_ itself stretches a vast number of +Spanish mansions, with the usual charmingly 'escalloped' roof, all +resting on a prolonged colonnade or piazza, strange, old-fashioned, +and original, running round to a vast extent, which the sensible town +has decreed is never to be interfered with. A more pleasing, +refreshing, and novel collection of objects for the ordinary traveller +of artistic taste to see without trouble or expense, it would be +impossible to conceive. Yet everyone hurries by to see the somewhat +stale glories of Ghent and Brussels. + +[Illustration: ARRAS.] + +There was a general fat contented air of _bourgeois_ comfort about the +sleepy old-fashioned, handsome Prefecture--in short, a capital +background for the old provincial life as described by Balzac. But the +_place_, with its inimitable Spanish houses and colonnades--under +which you can shop--and that most elegant of spires, sister to that of +Antwerp, which it recalls, will never pass from the memory. A +beautiful object of this kind, thus seen, is surely a present, and a +valuable one too. + +A spire is often the expression of the whole town. How much is +suggested by the well-known, familiar cathedral spire at Antwerp, as, +of some fresh morning, we come winding up the tortuous Scheldt, the +sad, low-lying plains and boulders lying on either hand, monotonous +and dispiriting, yet novel in their way; the cream-coloured, +lace-worked spire rising ever before us in all its elegant grace, +pointing the way, growing by degrees, never for an instant out of +sight. It seems a fitting introduction to the noble, historical, and +poetical city to which it belongs. It _is_ surely ANTWERP! We +see Charles V., and Philip, and the exciting troubles of the Gueux, +the Dutch, the Flemings, the argosies from all countries in the great +days of its trade. Such is the mysterious power of association, which +it ever exerts on the 'reminiscent.' How different, and how much more +profitable, too, is this mode of approaching the place, than the other +more vulgar one of the railway terminus, with the cabs and omnibuses +waiting, and the convenient journey to the hotel. + +These old cities--Lille, Douai, and Valenciennes--all boast their +gateways, usually named after the city to which the road leads. Thus +we have 'Porte de Paris,' 'Porte de Lille,' etc. I confess to a deep +interest in all gateways of this kind; they have a sort of poetry or +romance associated with them; they are grim, yet hospitable, at times +and seasons having a mysterious suggestion. There are towns where the +traveller finds the gate obdurately closed between ten o'clock at +night and six in the morning. These old gates have a state and +flamboyant majesty about them, as, in Lille, the Porte de Paris is +associated with the glories of Louis XIV.; while in Douai there is +one of an old pattern--it is said of the thirteenth century--with +curious towers and spires. Even at Calais there is a fine and majestic +structure, 'Porte de Richelieu,' on the town side, through which every +market cart and carriage used to trundle. There are florid devices +inscribed on it; but now that the walls on each side are levelled, +this patriarchal monument has but a ludicrous effect, for it is left +standing alone, unsupported and purposeless. The carts and tramcars +find their way round by new and more convenient roads made on each +side. + +How pleasant is that careless wandering up through some strange and +unfamiliar place, led by a sort of instinct which habit soon +furnishes! In some of the French 'Guides,' minute directions are given +for the explorer, who is bidden to take the street to right or to +left, after leaving the station, etc. But there is a piquancy in this +uncertainty as compared with the odious guidance of the _laquais de +place_. I loathe the tribe. Here was to be clearly noted the languid, +lazy French town where nothing seemed to be doing, but everyone +appeared to be comfortable--'the fat, contented, stubble +goose'--another type of town altogether from your thriving Lilles and +Rouens. + +The pleasure in surveying this extraordinary combination of beautiful +objects, the richness and variety of the work, the long lines broken +by the charming and, as they are called, 'escalloped' gables, the +Spanish balconies, the pillars, light and shade, and shops, made it +almost incredible that such a thing was to be found in a poor obscure +French town, visited by but few travellers. On market-day, when the +whole is filled up with country folks, their wares and their stalls +sheltered from the sun by gaily-tinted awnings, the bustle and +glinting colours, and general _va et vient_, impart a fitting dramatic +air. Then are the old Spanish houses set off becomingly. + +This old town has other curious things to exhibit, such as the +enormous old Abbey of St. Vaast--with its huge expansive roof, which +somehow seems to dominate the place, and thrusts forward some fragment +or other--where a regiment might lodge. Its spacious gardens are +converted to secular uses. Then I find myself at the old-new +cathedral, begun about a century ago, and finished about fifty years +since--a 'poorish' heartless edifice in the bald Italian manner, and +quite unsuited to these old Flemish cities. I come out on a terrace +with a huge flight of steps which leads to a lower portion of the +city. This, indeed, leads down from the _haute_ to the _basse ville_; +and it is stated that a great portion of this upper town is supported +upon catacombs or caves from which the white stone of the belfry and +town-hall was quarried. It is a curious feeling to be shown the house +in which Robespierre was born, which, for the benefit of the curious +it may be stated, is to be found in the Rue des Rapporteurs, close to +the theatre. Arras was a famous Jacobin centre, and from the balcony +of this theatre, Lebon, one of the Jacobins, directed the executions, +which took place abundantly on the pretty _place_. + +[Illustration: BETHUNE.] + +Thus much, then, for Arras, where one would have liked to linger, nay, +to stay a week or a few days. But this wishing to stay a week at a +picturesque place is often a dangerous pitfall, as the amiable +Charles Collins has shown in his own quaint style. Has anyone, he +asks, ever, 'on arriving at some place he has never visited before, +taken a sudden fancy to it, committed himself to apartments for a +month certain, gone on praising the locality and all that belongs to +it, ferreting out concealed attractions, attaching undue importance to +them, undervaluing obvious defects: has he gone on in this way for +three weeks,' or rather three days, 'out of his month, then suddenly +broken down, found out his mistake, and pined in secret for +deliverance?' So it would be, as I conceive, at Bruges, or perhaps at +St. Omer. There you indeed appreciate the dead-alive city 'in all its +quiddity.' But a few days in a 'dead-alive' city, were it the most +picturesque in the world, would be intolerable. + +By noon, when the sun has grown oppressively hot, I find myself set +down at a sort of rural town, once flourishing, and of some +importance--Bethune. A mile's walk on a parched road led up the hill +to this languishing, decayed little place. It had its forlorn omnibus, +and altogether suggested the general desolation of, say, Peterborough. +Had it remained in Flemish hands, it would now have been flourishing. +I doubt if any English visitor ever troubles its stagnant repose. Yet +it boasts its 'grand' _place_, imposing enough as a memorial of +departed greatness, and, as usual, a Flemish relic, in the shape of a +charming belfry and town-hall combined. It was really truly +'fantastical' from the airiness of its little cupolas and galleries, +and was in tolerable order. Like the old Calais watch-tower, it was +caked round by, and embedded in, old houses, and had its four curious +gargoyles still doing work. + +On this 'grand' _place_ I noticed an old house bearing date '1625,' +and some wonderful feats in the way of red-tiled roofing, of which +there were enormous stretches, all narrow, sinuous, and suggesting +Nuremberg. I confess to having spent a rather weary hour here, and +sped away by the next train. + + + + +VIII. + +_LILLE._ + + +Two o'clock. We are on the road again; the sun is shining, and we are +speeding on rapidly--changing from Flanders to France--which is but an +hour or so away. Here the bright day is well forward. Now the welcome +fat Flemish country takes military shape, for here comes the scarp, +the angled ditch, the endless brick walling and embankment--a genuine +fortified town of the first class--LILLE. Here, too, many travellers +give but a glance from the window and hurry on. Yet an interesting +place in its way. Its bright main streets seem as gay and glittering +as those of Paris, with the additional air of snug provincial comfort. +To one accustomed for months to the solemn sobriety of our English +capital, with its work-a-day, not to say dingy look, nothing is more +exhilarating or gay than one of these first-class French provincial +towns, such as Marseilles, Bordeaux, or this Lille. There is a +glittering air of substantial opulence, with an attempt--and a +successful one--at fine boulevards and fine trees. + +The approach to Lille recalled the protracted approach to some great +English manufacturing town, the tall chimneys flying by the +carriage-windows a good quarter of an hour before the town was +reached. A handsome, rich, and imposing city, though content to accept +a cast-off station from Paris, as a poor relative would accept a +cast-off suit of clothes. The fine facade was actually transported +here stone by stone, and a much more imposing one erected in its +place. + +The prevailing one-horse tram-cars seem to suit the Flemish +associations. The Belgians have taken kindly and universally to them, +and find them to be 'exactly in their way.' The fat Flemish horse +ambles along lazily, his bells jingling. No matter how narrow or +winding the street, the car threads its way. The old burgher of the +Middle Ages might have relished it. The old disused town-hall is +quaint enough with its elaborately-carved _facade_, with a high double +roof and dormers, and a lantern surmounting all. A bit of true +'Low-Countries' work; but one often forgets that we are in French +Flanders. Entertaining hours could be spent here with profit, simply +in wandering from spot to spot, eschewing the 'town valet' and +professional picture guide. It is an extraordinary craze, by the way, +that our countrymen will want always 'to see the pictures,' as though +that were the object of travelling. + +[Illustration: BOURSE. LILLE.] + +One gazes with pleasure and some surprise at its handsome streets, +where everyone seems to live and thrive. There is a general air of +opulence. The new streets, built under the last empire on the Paris +model, offer the same rich and effective detail of gilded inscriptions +running across the houses, balconies and flowers, with the luxurious +_cafes_ below, and languid _flaneurs_ sitting down to their +_absinthe_ or coffee among the orange-trees. These imposing mansions, +built with judicious loans--the 'OBLIGATIONS OF THE CITY OF +LILLE' are quoted on the Exchanges--are already dark and rusted, +and harmonize with the older portions. At every turn there is a +suggestion of Brussels, and nowhere so much as on the fine _place_, +where the embroidered old Spanish houses aforesaid are abundant. + +The old cathedral, imposing with its clustered apses and great length +and loftiness, and restored facade, would be the show of any English +town. The Lillois scarcely appreciate it, as a few years ago they +ordered a brand-new one from 'Messrs. Clutton and Burgess, of London,' +not yet complete, and not very striking in its modern effects and +decorations. These vast old churches of the fourth or fifth class are +always imposing from their size and pretensions and elaborateness of +work, and are found in France and Belgium almost by the hundred. And +so I wander on through the showy streets, thinking what stirring +scenes this complacent old city has witnessed, what tale of siege and +battle--Spaniard, Frenchman, and Fleming, Louis the Great, the refuge +of Louis XVIII. after his flight. All the time there is the pleasant +musical jangle going on of tramcars below and bell-chimes aloft. But +of all things in Lille, or indeed elsewhere, there is nothing more +striking than the old Bourse--the great square venerable block, +blackened all over with age, its innumerable windows, high roof, and +cornices, all elaborately and floridly wrought in decayed carvings. +With this dark and venerable mass is piquantly contrasted the garish +row of glittering shops filled with gaudy wares which forms the +lowest story. Within is the noble court with a colonnade of pillars +and arches in the florid Spanish style; in the centre a splendid +bronze statue of the First Napoleon in his robes, which is so wrought +as to harmonize admirably with the rest. In the same congenial +spirit--a note of Belgian art which is quite unfamiliar to us--the +walls of the colonnade are decorated with memorials of famous 'Stock +Exchange' worthies and merchants, and nothing could be more skilful +than the enrichment of these conventional records, which are made to +harmonize by florid rococo decorations with the Spanish _genre_ and +encrusted with bronzes and marbles. This admirable and original +monument is in itself worth a journey to see. + +Who has been at Commines? though we are all familiar enough with the +name of Philip of 'that ilk.' I saw how patriarchal life must be at +Commines from a family repairing thither, who filled the whole +compartment. This was a lady arrayed in as much jet-work as she could +well carry, and who must have been an admirable _femme de menage_, for +she brought with her three little girls, and two obstreperous boys who +kept saying every minute 'maman!' in a sort of whine or expostulation, +and two _aides-de-camp_ maids in spotless fly-away caps. With these +assistants she was on perfect terms, and the maids conversed with her +and dissented from her opinions on the happiest terms of equality. +When taking my ticket I was asked to say would I go to Commines in +France or to Commines in Belgium, for it seems that, by an odd +arrangement, half the town is in one country and half in the other! +Each has a station of its own. This curious partition I did not quite +comprehend at first, and I shall not forget the indignant style in +which, on my asking 'was this the French Commines,' I was answered +that '_of course_ it was Commines in Belgium.' Here was yet another +piquant bell-tower seen rising above trees and houses, long before we +even came near to it. I was pursued by these pretty monuments, and I +could hear this one jangling away musically yet wheezily. + +It is past noon now as we hurry by unfamiliar stations, where the +invariable _abbe_ waits with his bundle or breviary in hand, or +peasant women with baskets stand waiting for other trains. There is a +sense of melancholy in noting these strange faces and figures--whom +you thus pass by, to whom you are unknown, whom you will never see +again, and who care not if you were dead and buried. (And why should +they?) Then we hurry away northwards. + + + + +IX. + +_YPRES._ + + +As the fierce heat of the sun began to relax and the evening drew +on--it was close on half-past six o'clock--we found ourselves in +Belgium once more. Suddenly, on the right, I noted, with some trees +interposed, a sort of clustered town with whitened buildings, which +suggested forcibly the view of an English cathedral town seen from the +railway. The most important of the group was a great tower with its +four spires. I knew instinctively that this was the famous old +town-hall, the most astonishing and overpowering of all Belgian +monuments. + +Here we halted half an hour. The sun was going down; the air was cool; +and there was that strange tinge of sadness abroad, with which the air +seems to be charged towards eventide, as we, strangers and pilgrims in +a foreign country, look from afar off at some such unfamiliar objects. +There were a number of Flemings here returning from some meeting where +they had been contending at their national game--shooting at the +popinjay. Near to every small town and village I passed, I had noted +an enormously tall white post with iron rods projecting at the top. +This was the target, and it was highly amusing and characteristic to +watch these burghers gathered round and firing at the bird or some +other object on the top. Now they were all returning carrying their +bows, and in high good-humour. A young and rubicund priest was of the +party, regarded evidently with affection and pride by his companions; +for all that he seemed to say and do was applauded, and greeted with +obstreperous Flemish laughter. When an old woman came to offer cakes +from her basket for sale, he convulsed his friends by facetious +remarks as he made his selection from the basket, depreciating or +criticizing their quality with sham disgust, delighting none so much +as the venerable vendor herself. Every one wore a curious black silk +cap, as a gala headpiece. + +When they had gone their way, I set off on mine up to the old town. +The approach was encouraging. A grand sweep faced me of old walls, +rusted, but stout and vigorous, with corner towers rising out of a moat; +then came a spacious bridge leading into a wide, encouraging-looking +street of sound handsome houses. But, strange! not a single cab, +restaurant, or hotel--nay, hardly a soul to be seen, save a few +rustics in their blouses! It was all dead! I walked on, and at an +abrupt turn emerged on the huge expanse of the _place_, and was +literally dumbfoundered. + +Now, of all the sights that I have ever seen, it must be confessed +that this offered the greatest surprise and astonishment. It was +bewildering. On the left spread away, almost a city itself, the vast, +enormous town-hall--a vista of countless arches and windows, its roof +dotted with windows, and so deep, expansive, and capacious that it +alone seemed as though it might have lodged an army. In the centre +rose the enormous square tower--massive--rock-like--launching itself +aloft into Gothic spires and towers. All along the sides ran a +perspective of statues and carvings. This astonishing work would take +some minutes of brisk motion to walk down from end to end. It is +really a wonder of the world, and, in the phrase applied to more +ordinary things, 'seemed to take your breath away.' It is the largest, +longest, most massive, solid, and enduring thing that can be +conceived. + +It has been restored with wonderful care and delicacy. By one of the +bizarre arrangements--not uncommon in Flanders--a building of another +kind, half Italian, with a round arched arcade, has been added on at +the corner, and the effect is odd and yet pleasing. Behind rises a +grim crag of a cathedral--solemn and mysterious--adding to the effect +of this imposing combination, a sort of gloomy shadow overhanging all. +The church, on entering, is found overpowering and original of its +kind, with its vast arches and massive roof of groined stone. Truly an +astonishing monument! The worst of such visits is that only a faint +impression is left: and to gather the full import of such a monument +one should stay for a few days at least, and grow familiar with it. At +first all is strange. Every portion claims attention at once; but +after a few visits the grim old monument seems to relax and become +accessible; he lets you see his good points and treasures by degrees. +But who could live in a Dead City, even for a day? Having seen these +two wonders, I tried to explore the place, which took some walking, +but nothing else was to be found. Its streets were wide, the houses +handsome--a few necessary shops; but no cabs--no tramway--no carts +even, and hardly any people. It was dead--all dead from end to end. +The strangest sign of mortality, however, was that not a single +restaurant or house of refection was to be found, not even on the +spacious and justly called _Grande Place_! One might have starved or +famished without relief. Nay, there was hardly a public-house or +drinking-shop. + +[Illustration: YPRES] + +However, the great monument itself more than supplied this absence of +vitality. One could never be weary of surveying its overpowering +proportions, its nobility, its unshaken strength, its vast length, and +flourishing air. Yet how curious to think that it was now quite +purposeless, had no meaning or use! Over four hundred feet long, it +was once the seat of bustle and thriving business, for which the +building itself was not too large. The hall on the ground seems to +stretch from end to end. Here was the great mart for linens--the +_toiles flamandes_--once celebrated over Europe. Now, desolate is the +dwelling of Morna! A few little local offices transact the stunted +shrunken local business of the place; the post, the municipal offices, +each filling up two or three of the arches, in ludicrous contrast to +the unemployed vastness of the rest. It has been fancifully supposed +that the name Diaper, as applied to linens, was supplied by this town, +which was the seat of the trade, and _Toile d'Ypres_ might be +supposed, speciously enough, to have some connection with the place. + + + + +X. + +_BERGUES._ + + +But _en route_ again, for the sands are fast running out. Old +fortified towns, particularly such as have been protected by 'the +great Vauban,' are found to be a serious nuisance to the inhabitants, +however picturesque they may seem to the tourist; for the place, +constricted and wrapped in bandages, as it were, cannot expand its +lungs. Many of the old fortressed towns, such as Ostend, Courtrai, +Calais, have recently demolished their fortifications at great cost +and with much benefit to themselves. There is something picturesque +and original in the first sight of a place like Arras, or St. Omer, +with the rich and lavish greenery, luxuriant trees, banks of grass by +which the 'fosse' and grim walls are masked. Others are of a grim and +hostile character, and show their teeth, as it were. + +Dunkirk, a fortress of the 'first class,' fortified on the modern +system, and therefore to the careless spectator scarcely appearing to +be fortified at all--is a place of such extreme platitude, that the +belated wayfarer longs to escape almost as soon as he arrives. There +is literally nothing to be seen. But a few miles away, there is to be +found a place which will indemnify the disgusted traveller, viz., +BERGUES. As the train slackens speed I begin to take note of rich +green banks with abundant trees planted in files, such as Uncle Toby +would have relished in his garden. There is the sound as of passing +over a military bridge, with other tokens of the fortified town. There +it lies--close to the station, while the invariable belfry and heavy +church rise from the centre, in friendly companionship. I have noted +the air of sadness in these lone, lorn monuments, which perhaps arises +from the sense of their vast age and all they have looked down upon. +Men and women, and houses, dynasties and invaders, and burgomasters, +have all passed away in endless succession; but _they_ remain, and +have borne the buffetings of storms and gales and wars and tumults. As +we turn out of the station, a small avenue lined with trees leads +straight to the entrance. The bright snowy-looking _place_ basks in +the setting sun, while the tops of the red-tiled roofs seem to peep at +us over the walls. At the end of the avenue the sturdy gateway greets +us cheerfully, labelled 'Porte de Biene,' flanked by two short and +burly towers that rise out of the water; while right and left, the old +brick walls, red and rusted, stretch away, flanked by corner towers. +The moat runs round the whole, filled with the usual stagnant water. I +enter, and then see what a tiny compact little place it is--a perfect +miniature town with many streets, one running round the walls; all the +houses sound and compact and no higher than two stories, so as to keep +snug and sheltered under the walls, and not draw the enemy's fire. The +whole seems to be about the size of the Green Park at home, and you +can walk right across, from gate to gate, in about three minutes. It +is bright, and clean 'as a new pin,' and there are red-legged soldiers +drumming and otherwise employed. + +Almost at once we come on the _place_, and here we are rewarded with +something that is worth travelling even from Dover to see. There +stands the old church, grim, rusted, and weather-beaten, rising in +gloomy pride, huge enough to serve a great town; while facing it is +the belfry before alluded to, one of the most elegant, coquettish, and +original of these always interesting structures. The amateur of +Flemish architecture is ever prepared for something pleasing in this +direction, for the variety of the belfries is infinite; but this +specimen fills one with special delight. It rises to a great height in +the usual square tower-shape, but at each corner is flanked by a +quaint, old-fashioned _tourelle_ or towerlet, while in the centre is +an airy elegant lantern of wood, where a musical peal of bells, hung +in rows, chimes all day long in a most melodious way. Each of these +towerlets is capped by a long, graceful peak or minaret. This elegant +structure has always been justly admired by the architect, and in the +wonderful folio of etchings by Coney, done more than fifty years ago, +will be found a picturesque and accurate sketch. + +[Illustration: BERGUES.] + +It seemed a city of the dead. Now rang out the husky tinkling of the +chimes which never flag, as in all Flemish cities, day or night. It +supplies the lack of company, and has a comforting effect for the +solitary man. From afar off comes occasionally the sound of the drum +or the bugle, fit accompaniment for such surroundings. At the foot of +the belfry was an antique building in another style, with a small +open colonnade, which, though out of harmony, was still not +inappropriate. The only thing jarring was a pretentious modern +town-hall, in the style of one of our own vestry buildings, 'erected +out of the rates,' and which must have cost a huge sum. It was of a +genteel Italian aspect, so it is plain that French local +administrators are, in matters of taste, pretty much as such folk are +with us. One could have lingered long here, looking at this charming +and graceful work, which its surroundings became quite as much as it +did its surroundings. + +While thus engaged it was curious to find that not a soul crossed the +_place_. Indeed, during my whole sojourn in the town, a period of +about half an hour, I did not see above a dozen people. There were but +few shops; yet all was bright, sound, in good condition. There was no +sign of decay or decaying; but all seemed to sleep. It was a French +'dead city.' But it surely lives and will live, by its remarkable bell +tower, which at this moment is chiming away, with a melodious +huskiness, its gay tunes, repeated every quarter of an hour, while as +the hour comes round there breaks out a general and clamorous +_charivari_. + + + + +XI. + +_ST. OMER._ + + +After leaving this wonderful place, I was now speeding on once more +back into France. In all these shifts and changes the _douanier_ farce +was carefully gone through. I was regularly invited to descend, even +though baggageless, and to pass through the searching-room, making +heroic protest as I did so that '_I had nothing to declare_.' It was +easy to distinguish the two nations in their fashion of performing +this function, the French taking it _au serieux_, and going through it +histrionically, as it were; the Belgian being more careless and +good-natured. There lingers still the habit of 'leading' or +_plombe_-ing a clumsy, troublesome relic of old times. Such small +articles as hat-cases, hand-bags, etc., are subjected to it; an +officer devoted to the duty comes with a huge pair of 'pincers' with +some neat little leaden discs, which he squeezes on the strings which +have tied up the article. + +Now we fly past the flourishing Poperinghe--a bustling, thriving +place, out of which lift themselves with sad solemnity a few tall +iron-gray churches, and another--yet one more--elegant belfry. There +seems something quaint in the name of Poperinghe, though it is hardly +so grotesque as that of another town I passed by, 'Bully Greny.' + +As this long day was at last closing in, I noticed from the window a +bright-looking town nestling, as it were, in rich green velvet and +dark plantation, with a bright, snug-looking gate, drawbridge, etc. +One of these gates was piquant enough, having a sort of pavilion +perched on the top. Here there was a quaint sort of 'surprise' in a +clock, the hours of which are struck by a mechanical figure known to +the town as 'Mathurin.' There was something very tempting in the look +of the place, betokening plenty of flowers and shaded walks and +umbrageous groves. Most conspicuous, however, was the magnificent +abbey ruin, suggesting Fountains Abbey, with its tall, striking, and +wholly perfect tower. This is the Abbey of St. Bertin, one of the most +striking and almost bewildering monuments that could be conceived. I +look up at the superb tower, sharp in its details, and wonder at its +fine proportions; then turn to the ruined aisles, and with a sort of +grief recall that this, one of the wonders of France, had been in +perfect condition not a hundred years ago, and at the time of the +Revolution had been stripped, unroofed, and purposely reduced to its +present condition! This disgrace reflects upon the Jacobins--Goths and +Vandals indeed. + +The streets of this old town, as it is remarked by one of the Guide +Books, 'want animation'--an amiable circumlocution. Nothing so +deserted or lonely can be conceived, and the phenomenon of 'grass +literally growing in the streets' is here to be seen in perfection. +There appeared to be no vehicles, and the few shops carry on but a +mild business. A few English families are said to repair hither for +economy. I recognise a peculiar shabby shooting-coat which betokens +the exile, accounted for by the pathetic fact that he clings to his +superannuated garment, long after it is worn out, for the reason that +it 'was made in London.' There is a rich and beautiful church +here--Notre Dame--with a deeply embayed porch full of lavish detail. +Here, too, rises the image of John Kemble, who actually studied for +the priesthood at the English College. + +By this time the day has gone, and darkness has set in. It is time to +think of journeying home. Yet on the way to Calais there are still +some objects to be seen _en passant_. Most travellers are familiar +with Hazebrouck, the place of 'bifurcation,' a frontier between France +and Belgium. Yet this is known for a church with a most elegant spire +rising from a tower, but of this we can only have a glimpse. And, on +the road to Bergues, I had noted that strange, German-named little +town--Cassel--perched on an umbrageous hill, which has its quaint +mediaeval town-hall. But I may not pause to study it. The hours are +shrinking; but little margin is left. By midnight I am back in Calais +once more, listening to its old wheezy chimes. It seems like an old +friend, to which I have returned after a long, long absence, so many +events have been crowded into the day. It still wants some interval to +the hour past midnight, when the packet sails. + + + + +XII. + +_ST. PIERRE LES CALAIS._ + + +As I wandered down to the end of the long pier, which stretched out +its long arm, bent like an elbow, looking, like all French piers, as +if made of frail wickerwork, I thought of a day, some years ago, when +that eminent inventor, Bessemer, conceived the captivating idea of +constructing a steamboat that should abolish sea-sickness for ever! +The principle was that of a huge swinging saloon, moved by hydraulic +power, while a man directed the movement by a sort of spirit-level. +Previously the inventor had set up a model in his garden, where a +number of scientists saw the section of a ship rocking violently by +steam. I recall that pleasant day down at Denmark Hill, with all the +engineers assembled, who were thus going to sea in a garden. A small +steam-engine worked the apparatus--a kind of a section of a +boat--which was tossed up and down violently; while in the centre was +balanced a small platform, on which we experimenters stood. On large +tables were laid out the working plans of the grand Bessemer +steamship, to be brought out presently by a company. + +A year and more passed away, the new vessel was completed, and nearly +the same party again invited to see the result, and make trial of it. +I repaired with the rest. Nothing more generous or hospitable could be +conceived. There was to be a banquet at Calais, with a free ticket on +to Paris. It was a gloomy iron-gray morning. The strange outlandish +vessel, which had an engine at each end, was crowded with +_connoisseurs_. But I was struck with the figure of the amiable and +brilliant inventor, who was depressed, and received the premature +congratulations of his friends somewhat ruefully. We could see the +curious 'swinging saloon' fitted into the vessel, with the ingenious +hydraulic leverage by which it could be kept nicely balanced. But it +was to be noted that the saloon was braced firmly to the sides of its +containing vessel; in fact, it was given out that, owing to some +defect in its mechanism, the thing could not be worked that day. +Nothing could be handsomer than this saloon, with its fittings and +decorations. But, strange to say, it was at once seen that the +principle was faulty, and the whole impracticable. It was obvious that +the centre of gravity of so enormous a weight being brought to the +side would imperil the stability of the vessel. The bulk to be moved +was so vast, that it was likely to get out of control, and scarcely +likely to obey the slight lever which worked it. There were many +shakings of the engineering heads, and some smiles, with many an '_I +told you so_.' Even to the outsiders it seemed Utopian. + +However, the gloomy voyage was duly made. One of the most experienced +captains known on the route, Captain Pittock, had been chosen to pilot +the venture. He had plainly a distrust of his charge and the +new-fangled notion. Soon we were nearing Calais. Here was the +lighthouse, and here the two embracing arms of the wickerwork pier. I +was standing at the bows, and could see the crowds on the shore +waiting. Suddenly, as the word was given to starboard or 'port,' the +malignant thing, instead of obeying, took the reverse direction, and +bore straight _into_ the pier on the left! Down crashed the huge +flag-staff of our vessel in fragments, falling among us--and there +were some narrow escapes. She calmly forced her way down the pier for +nearly a hundred yards, literally crunching and smashing it up into +fragments, and sweeping the whole away. I looked back on the +disastrous course, and saw the whole clear behind us! As we gazed on +this sudden wreck, I am ashamed to say there was a roar of laughter, +for never was a _surprise_ of so bewildering a character sprung upon +human nature. The faces of the poor captain and his sailors, who could +scarcely restrain their maledictions on the ill-conditioned 'brute,' +betrayed mortification and vexation in the most poignant fashion. The +confusion was extraordinary. She was now with difficulty brought over +to the other pier. This, though done ever so gently, brought fresh +damage, as the mere contact crunched and dislocated most of the +timbers. The ill-assured party defiled ashore, and we made for the +banqueting-room between rows of half-jeering, half-sympathizing +spectators. The speakers at the symposium required all their tact to +deal with the disheartening subject. The only thing to be done was to +'have confidence' in the invention--much as a Gladstonian in +difficulty invites the world to 'leave all to the skill of our great +chief.' But, alas! this would not do just now. The vessel was, in +fact, unsteerable; the enormous weight of the engines at the bows +prevented her obeying the helm. The party set off to Paris--such as +were in spirits to do so--and the shareholders in the company must +have had aching hearts enough. + +Some years later, walking by the Thames bank, not far from Woolwich, I +came upon some masses of rusted metal, long lying there. There were +the huge cranks of paddle-wheels, a cylinder, and some boiler metal. +These, I was informed, were the fragments of the unlucky steamship +that was to abolish sea-sickness! As I now walked to the end of the +solitary pier--the very one I had seen swept away so unceremoniously--the +recollection of this day came back to me. There was an element of grim +comedy in the transaction when I recalled that the Calais harbour +officials sent in--and reasonably--a huge claim for the mischief done +to the pier; but the company soon satisfied _that_ by speedily +going 'into liquidation.' There was no resource, so the Frenchmen +had to rebuild their pier at their own cost. + +Close to Calais is a notable place enough, flourishing, too, founded +after the great war by one Webster, an English laceman. It has grown +up, with broad stately streets, in which, it is said, some four or +five thousand Britons live and thrive. As you walk along you see the +familiar names, 'Smith and Co.,' 'Brown and Co.,' etc., displayed on +huge brass plates at the doors in true native style. Indeed, the whole +air of the place offers a suggestion of Belfast, these downright +colonists having stamped their ways and manners in solid style on the +place. Poor old original Calais had long made protest against the +constriction she was suffering; the wall and ditch, and the single +gate of issue towards the country, named after Richelieu, seeming to +check all hope of improvement. Reasons of state were urged. But a few +years ago Government gave way, the walls towards the country-side were +thrown down, the ditch filled up, and some tremendous 'navigator' work +was carried out. The place can now draw its breath. + +On my last visit I had attended the theatre, a music-hall adaptable to +plays, concerts, or to 'les meetings.' It was a new, raw place, very +different from the little old theatre in the garden of Dessein's, +where the famous Duchess of Kingston attended a performance over a +hundred and twenty years ago. This place bore the dignified title of +the 'Hippodrome Theatre,' and a grand 'national' drama was going on, +entitled + + 'THE CUIRASSIER OF REICHSHOFEN.' + +Here we had the grand tale of French heroism and real victory, which +an ungenerous foe persisted in calling defeat. A gallant Frenchman, +who played the hero, had nearly run his daring course, having done +prodigies of valour on that fateful and fatal day. The crisis of the +drama was reached almost as I entered, the cuirassier coming in with +his head bound up in a bloody towel! After relating the horrors of +that awful charge in an impassioned strain, he wound up by declaring +that _'He and Death'_ were the only two left upon the field! It need +not be said there were abundant groans for the Germans and cheers for +the glorious Frenchmen. + +Now at last down to the vessel, as the wheezy chimes give out that it +is close on two o'clock a.m. All seems dozing at 'Maritime Calais.' +The fishing-boats lie close together, interlaced in black network, +snoozing, as it were, after their labours. Afar off the little town +still maintains its fortress-like air and its picturesque aspect, the +dark central spires rising like shadows, the few lights twinkling. The +whole scene is deliciously tranquil. The plashing of the water seems +to invite slumber, or at least a temporary doze, to which the +traveller, after his long day and night, is justly entitled. How +strange those old days, when the exiles for debt abounded here! They +were in multitudes then, and had a sort of society among themselves in +this Alsatia. That gentleman in a high stock and a short-waisted +coat--the late Mr. Brummell surely, walking in this direction? Is he +pursued by this agitated crowd, hurrying after him with a low roaring, +like the sound of the waves?... + + * * * * * + +I am roused up with a start. What a change! The whole is alive and +bustling, black shadowy figures are hurrying by. The white-funnelled +steamer has come up, and is moaning dismally, eager to get away. +Behind is the long international train of illuminated chambers, fresh +from Paris and just come in, pouring out its men and women, who have +arrived from all quarters of the world. They stream on board in a +shadowy procession, laden with their bundles. Lower down, I hear the +_crashing_ of trunks discharged upon the earth! I go on board with +the rest, sit down in a corner, and recall nothing till I find myself +on the chill platform of Victoria Station--time, six o'clock a.m. + +It was surely a dream, or like a dream!--a dream a little over thirty +hours long. And what strange objects, all blended and confused +together!--towers, towns, gateways, drawbridges, religious rites and +processions, pealing organs and jangling chimes, long dusty roads +lined with regimental trees, blouses, fishwomen's caps, _sabots_, +savoury and unsavoury smells, France dissolving into Belgium, Belgium +into France, France into Belgium again; in short, one bewildering +kaleidoscope! A day and two nights had gone, during all which time I +had been on my legs, and had travelled nigh six hundred miles! Dream +or no dream, it had been a very welcome show or panorama, new ideas +and sights appearing at every turn. + +And here is my little _'orario'_: + + O'clock. + + 1. Victoria, depart 5.0 + 2. Dover, arrive 7.0 + " depart 10.0 + 3. Calais, arrive 12.44 + " depart 1.0 + 4. Tournay, arrive 4.13 + " depart 5.1 + 5. Orchies, arrive 6.8 + " depart 6.29 + 6. Douai, arrive 7.6 + " depart 10.8 + 7. Arras, arrive 10.52 + " depart 11.17 + 8. Bethune, arrive 12.6 + " depart 1.1 + 9. Lille, arrive 2.44 + " depart 4.40 + 10. Comines, arrive 5.19 + " depart 5.57 + 11. Ypres 6.42 + 12. Hazebrouck 7.50 + 13. Cassel 8.18 + 14. Bergues, arrive 9.6 + " depart 10.4 + 15. St. Omer 11.37 + 16. Calais 12.14 + 17. Dover 4.0 + 18. Victoria 6.0 + + Time on journey 37 hours + +This, of course, is more than a day, but it will be seen that eight +hours were spent on English soil, and certainly nearly twelve in +inaction. + + +THE END. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + +[Illustration: PEARS' SOAP + +A Specialty for Children] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day's Tour, by Percy Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY'S TOUR *** + +***** This file should be named 16518.txt or 16518.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/1/16518/ + +Produced by From images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliotheque nationale de France) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr., Robert Connal, Karen Dalrymple and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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