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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/9480-8.txt b/9480-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..329f096 --- /dev/null +++ b/9480-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6709 @@ +Project Gutenberg's In the Heart of Vosges, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +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: In the Heart of Vosges + And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Posting Date: March 30, 2014 [EBook #9480] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 4, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES + +[Illustration] + +AND OTHER SKETCHES BY A "DEVIOUS TRAVELLER" + +BY + +MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS + +OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION_ + +1911 + + + +"I travel not to look for Gascons in Sicily. I have left them at +home."--Montaigne. + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +Some of these sketches now appear for the first time, others have been +published serially, whilst certain portions, curtailed or enlarged +respectively, are reprinted from a former work long since out of print. +Yet again I might entitle this volume, "Scenes from Unfrequented France," +many spots being here described by an English traveller for the first +time. + +My warmest thanks are due to M. Maurice Barrès for permission to +reproduce two illustrations by M. Georges Conrad from his famous romance, +_Au Service de l'Allemagne_; also to M. André Hallays for the use of +two views from his _À Travers l'Alsace_; and to the publishers of +both authors, MM. Fayard and Perrin, for their serviceableness in the +matter. + +Nor must I omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Sampson Low & +Co., to whom I owe the reproduction of Gustave Doré's infantine _tours +de force_; and to Messrs. Rivington, who have allowed large reprints +from the work published by them over twenty years ago. + +And last but not least, I thank the Rev. Albert Cadier, the son of my old +friend, the much respected pastor of Osse, for the loan of his charming +photographs. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + +I GÉRARDMER AND ITS ENVIRONS + +II THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +III IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY + +IV FROM BARR TO STRASBURG + +V THE "MARVELLOUS BOY" OF ALSACE + +VI QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +VII AN IMMORTALIZER + +VIII TOULOUSE + +IX MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +X MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + +XI AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +XII PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +XIII GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +XIV LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +ST. ODILE + +PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW + +PROVINS, THE CAPITOL + +PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS + +GÉRARDMER + +A VOSGIAN SCENE + +CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER + +THE PINNACLE OF ODILE + +ETTENHEIM + +COLMAR + +GUSTAVE DORÉ, INFANTINE SKETCH + +GUSTAVE DORÉ, DO + +OSSE + +NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER + +ORCUM + +ARRAS, LA PETITE PLACE + + + +I + +GÉRARDMER AND ENVIRONS + +[Illustration: PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW] + +The traveller bound to eastern France has a choice of many routes, none +perhaps offering more attractions than the great Strasburg line by way of +Meaux, Châlons-sur-Marne, Nancy, and Épinal. But the journey must be made +leisurely. The country between Paris and Meaux is deservedly dear to +French artists, and although Champagne is a flat region, beautiful only +by virtue of fertility and highly developed agriculture, it is rich in +old churches and fine architectural remains. By the Troyes-Belfort route, +Provins may be visited. This is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of +the mediaeval walled-in town in France. To my thinking, neither +Carcassonne, Semur nor Guérande surpass Hégésippe Moreau's little +birthplace in beauty and picturesqueness. The acropolis of Brie also +possesses a long and poetic history, being the seat of an art-loving +prince, and the haunt of troubadours. A word to the epicure as well as +the archaeologist. The bit of railway from Châlons-sur-Marne to Nancy +affords a series of gastronomic delectations. At Épernay travellers are +just allowed time to drink a glass of champagne at the buffet, half a +franc only being charged. At Bar-le-Duc little neatly-packed jars of the +raspberry jam for which the town is famous are brought to the doors of +the railway carriage. Further on at Commercy, you are enticed to regale +upon unrivalled cakes called "Madeleines de Commercy," and not a town, I +believe, of this favoured district is without its speciality in the shape +of delicate cates or drinks. + +Châlons-sur-Marne, moreover, possesses one of the very best hotels in +provincial France--the hotel with the queer name--another inducement for +us to idle on the way. The town itself is in no way remarkable, but it +abounds in magnificent old churches of various epochs--some falling into +decay, others restored, one and all deserving attention. St. Jean is +especially noteworthy, its beautiful interior showing much exquisite +tracery and almost a fanciful arrangement of transepts. It is very rich +in good modern glass. But the gem of gems is not to be found in Châlons +itself; more interesting and beautiful than its massive cathedral and +church of Notre Dame, than St. Jean even, is the exquisite church of +Notre Dame de l'Épine, situated in a poor hamlet a few miles beyond the +octroi gates. We have here, indeed, a veritable cathedral in a +wilderness, nothing to be imagined more graceful than the airy open +colonnades of its two spires, light as a handful of wheat ears loosely +bound together. The colour of the grey stone gives solemnity to the rest +of the exterior, which is massive and astonishingly rich in the grotesque +element. We carefully studied the gargoyles round the roof, and, in spite +of defacements, made out most of them--here a grinning demon with a +struggling human being in its clutch--there an odd beast, part human, +part pig, clothed in a kind of jacket, playing a harp--dozens of comic, +hideous, heterogeneous figures in various attitudes and travesties. + +[Illustration: Provins, The Capitol] + +Notre Dame de l'Épine--originally commemorative of a famous shrine--has +been restored, and purists in architecture will pass it by as an +achievement of Gothic art in the period of its decline, but it is +extremely beautiful nevertheless. On the way from Châlons-sur-Marne to +Nancy we catch glimpses of other noble churches that stand out from the +flat landscape as imposingly as Ely Cathedral. These are Notre Dame of +Vitry le François and St. Étienne of Toul, formerly a cathedral, both +places to be stopped at by leisurely tourists. + +The fair, the _triste_ city of Nancy! There is an indescribable charm +in the sad yet stately capital of ancient Lorraine. No life in its +quiet streets, no movement in its handsome squares, nevertheless Nancy +is one of the wealthiest, most elegant cities in France! Hither +flocked rich Alsatian families after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, +and perhaps its proximity to the lost provinces in part accounts for the +subdued, dreamy aspect of the place as a whole. A strikingly beautiful +city it is, with its splendid monuments of the house of Lorraine, and +handsome modern streets bearing evidence of much prosperity in these +days. In half-an-hour you may get an unforgettable glimpse of the Place +Stanislas, with its bronze gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great +capital; of the beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine, on +horseback, under an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and +its airy colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte +de la Craffe, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. + +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly a day or two should be devoted to it, and here, as at +Châlons-sur-Marne, creature comforts are to be had in the hotels. In the +Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of Charles +le Téméraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of that +Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver plate, +and wore on the battlefield diamonds worth half a million. In a little +church outside the town, commemorative of this victory, are collected the +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine--the _chapelle ronde_, as the +splendid little mausoleum is designated--with its imposing monuments in +black marble, and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and +beautiful whole. Graceful and beautiful also are the monuments in the +church itself, and those of another church, Des Cordeliers, close to the +Ducal Palace. + +[Illustration: PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS] + +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are to be fairly enchanted by the marble statues of the +four doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Grégoire, St. Léon, and +St. Jerome. These are the work of Nicolas Drouin, a native of Nancy, and +formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a whole +than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary observer. +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the fine, dignified figure of +St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. We would +fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain return to all +else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. From Nancy by way of +Épinal we may easily reach the heart of the Vosges. + +[Illustration: GÉRARDMER] + +How sweet and pastoral are these cool resting-places in the heart of the +Vosges! Gérardmer and many another as yet unfrequented by the tourist +world, and unsophisticated in spite of railways and bathing seasons. The +Vosges has long been a favourite playground of our French neighbours, +although ignored by the devotees of Cook and Gaze, and within late years, +not a rustic spot possessed of a mineral spring but has become +metamorphosed into a second Plombières. Gérardmer--"_Sans Gérardmer et +un peu Nancy, que serait la Lorraine?_" says the proverb--is resorted +to, however, rather for its rusticity and beauty than for any curative +properties of its sparkling waters. Also in some degree for the sake of +urban distraction. The French mind when bent on holiday-making is social +in the extreme, and the day spent amid the forest nooks and murmuring +streams of Gérardmer winds up with music and dancing. One of the chief +attractions of the big hotel in which we are so wholesomely housed is +evidently the enormous salon given up after dinner to the waltz, country +dance, and quadrille. Our hostess with much ease and tact looks in, +paying her respects, to one visitor after another, and all is enjoyment +and mirth till eleven o'clock, when the large family party, for so our +French fellowship may be called, breaks up. These socialities, giving as +they do the amiable aspect of French character, will not perhaps +constitute an extra charm of Gérardmer in the eyes of the more morose +English tourist. After many hours spent in the open air most of us prefer +the quiet of our own rooms. The country, too, is so fresh and delicious +that we want nothing in the shape of social distraction. Drawing-room +amenities seem a waste of time under such circumstances. Nevertheless the +glimpses of French life thus obtained are pleasant, and make us realize +the fact that we are off the beaten track, living among French folks, for +the time separated from insular ways and modes of thought. Our fellowship +is a very varied and animated one. We number among the guests a member of +the French ministry--a writer on the staff of Figaro--a grandson of one +of the most devoted and unfortunate generals of the first Napoleon, known +as "the bravest of the brave," with his elegant wife--the head of one of +the largest commercial houses in eastern France--deputies, diplomats, +artists, with many family parties belonging to the middle and upper ranks +of society, a very strong Alsatian element predominating. Needless to add +that people make themselves agreeable to each other without any +introduction. For the time being at least distinctions are set aside, and +fraternity is the order of the day. + +I do not aver that my country-people have never heard of Gérardmer, but +certainly those who stray hither are few and far between. Fortunately for +the lover of nature no English writer has as yet popularized the Vosges. +An Eden-like freshness pervades its valleys and forests, made ever +musical with cascades, a pastoral simplicity characterizes its +inhabitants. Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out +in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure! + +It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gérardmer and its +lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the +popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late +Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, +have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend +their holidays and their money on French soil. Thus enterprise has been +stimulated in various quarters, and we find really good accommodation in +out-of-the-way spots not mentioned in guide-books of a few years' date. +Gérardmer is now reached by rail in two hours from Épinal, on the great +Strasburg line, but those who prefer a drive across country may approach +it from Plombières, Remiremont, Colmar and Münster, and other attractive +routes. Once arrived at Gérardmer, the traveller will certainly not care +to hurry away. No site in the Vosges is better suited for excursionizing +in all directions, and the place itself is full of quiet charm. There is +wonderful sweetness and solace in these undulating hill-sides, clothed +with brightest green, their little tossing rivers and sunny glades all +framed by solemn hills--I should rather say mountains--pitchy black with +the solemn pine. You may search far and wide for a picture so engaging as +Gérardmer when the sun shines, its gold-green slopes sprinkled with white +châlets, its red-roofed village clustered about a rustic church tower, +and at its feet the loveliest little lake in the world, from which rise +gently the fir-clad heights. + +And no monotony! You climb the inviting hills and woods day by day, week +after week, ever to find fresh enchantment. Not a bend of road or winding +mountain-path but discloses a new scene--here a fairy glen, with graceful +birch or alder breaking the expanse of dimpled green; there a spinny of +larch or of Scotch fir cresting a verdant monticule; now we come upon a +little Arcadian home nestled on the hill-side, the spinning-wheel hushed +whilst the housewife turns her hay or cuts her patch of rye or wheat +growing just outside her door. Now we follow the musical little river +Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow +loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred +with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, +trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever +indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense +of coolness. Deep down, entombed amid smiling green hills and frowning +forest peaks, lies the pearl of Gérardmer, its sweet lake, a sheet of +turquoise in early morn, silvery bright when the noon-day sun flashes +upon it, and on grey, sunless days gloomy as Acheron itself. + +[Illustration: A VOSGIAN SCENE] + +Travellers stinted for time cannot properly enjoy the pastoral scenes, +not the least charm of which is the frank, pleasant character of the +people. Wherever we go we make friends and hear confidences. To these +peasant folks, who live so secluded from the outer world, the annual +influx of visitors from July to September is a positive boon, moral as +well as material. The women are especially confidential, inviting us into +their homely yet not poverty-stricken kitchens, keeping us as long as +they can whilst they chat about their own lives or ask us questions. The +beauty, politeness, and clear direct speech of the children, are +remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare. +As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed +by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not +infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people +gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being +suitable for tillage. + +Gérardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery +and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands, +whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use. +Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in +winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations +are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its +real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters. + +One chief feature in Gérardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings +bearing the inscription _"École Communale"_ and how stringently the +new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from +the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under +the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of +the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad, +others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed. + +Our first week at Gérardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes +would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we +set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, +and the goal of every traveller in these regions. + +[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER] + +There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gérardmer, a +little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude +and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours +only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gérardmer into a dreary place, +but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less +majestic and solemn. One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, +so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the +culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually +ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gérardmer, +till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the +Schlucht. For the first half-hour we skirt the alder-fringed banks of the +tossing, foaming little river Vologne, as it winds amid lawny spaces, on +either side the fir-clad ridges rising like ramparts. Here all is +gentleness and golden calm, but soon we quit this warm, sunny region, and +enter the dark forest road curling upwards to the airy pinnacle to which +we are bound. More than once we have to halt on our way. One must stop to +look at the cascade made by the Vologne, never surely fuller than now, +one of the prettiest cascades in the world, masses of snow-white foam +tumbling over a long, uneven stair of granite through the midst of a +fairy glen. The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we +continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, +and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving +forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and +Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest +environment. Deep down they lie, the two silvery sheets of water with +their verdant holms, making a little world of peace and beauty, a toy +dropped amid Titanic awfulness and splendour. The vantage ground is on +the edge of a dizzy precipice, but the picture thus sternly framed is too +exquisite to be easily abandoned. We gaze and gaze in spite of the vast +height from which we contemplate it; and when at last we tear ourselves +away from the engaging scene, we are in a region all ruggedness and +sublimity, on either side rocky scarps and gloomy forests, with reminders +by the wayside that we are approaching an Alpine flora. Nothing can be +wilder or more solitary than the scene. For the greater part, the forests +through which our road is cut are unfrequented, except by the wild boar, +deer, and wild cat, and in winter time the fine mountain roads are +rendered impenetrable by the accumulation of snow. + +This approach to the Col is by a tunnel cut in the granite, fit entrance +to one of the wildest regions in France. The road now makes a sudden bend +towards the châlet cresting the Col, and we are able in a moment to +realize its tremendous position. + +From our little châlet we look upon what seems no mere cleft in a +mountain chain, but in the vast globe itself. This huge hollow, brought +about by some strange geological perturbation, is the valley of Münster, +no longer a part of French territory, but of Prussian Elsass. The road we +have come by lies behind us, but another as formidable winds under the +upper mountain ridge towards Münster, whilst the pedestrian may follow a +tiny green footpath that will lead him thither, right through the heart +of the pass. Looking deep down we discern here and there scattered +châlets amid green spaces far away. These are the homesteads or +_chaumes_ of the herdsmen, all smiling cheerfulness now, but +deserted in winter. Except for such little dwellings, barely +discernible, so distant are they, there is no break in the solitary +scene, no sign of life at all. + +The châlet is a fair hostelry for unfastidious travellers, its chief +drawback being the propensity of tourists to get up at three o'clock in +the morning in order to behold the sunrise from the Hoheneck. Good beds, +good food, and from the windows, one of the finest prospects in the +world, might well tempt many to linger here in spite of the disturbance +above mentioned. For the lover of flowers this halting-place would be +delightful. + +Next morning the day dawned fair, and by eight o'clock we set off with a +guide for the ascent of the Hoheneck, rather, I should say, for a long +ramble over gently undulating green and flowery ways. After climbing a +little beechwood, all was smoothness under our feet, and the long +_détour_ we had to make in order to reach the summit was a series of +the gentlest ascents, a wandering over fair meadow-land several thousand +feet above the sea-level. Here we found the large yellow gentian, used in +the fabrication of absinthe, and the bright yellow arnica, whilst instead +of the snow-white flower of the Alpine anemone, the ground was now +silvery with its feathery seed; the dark purple pansy of the Vosges was +also rare. We were a month too late for the season of flowers, but the +foxglove and the bright pink Epilobium still bloomed in great luxuriance. + +It was a walk to remember. The air was brisk and genial, the blue sky +lightly flecked with clouds, the turf fragrant with wild thyme, and +before our eyes we had a panorama every moment gaining in extent and +grandeur. As yet indeed the scene, the features of which we tried to make +out, looked more like cloudland than solid reality. On clear days are +discerned here, far beyond the rounded summits of the Vosges chain, the +Rhine Valley, the Black Forest, the Jura range, and the snow-capped Alps. +To-day we saw grand masses of mountains piled one above the other, and +higher still a pageantry of azure and gold that seemed to belong to the +clouds. + +No morning could promise fairer, but hardly had we reached the goal of +our walk when from far below came an ominous sound of thunder, and we saw +heavy rain-clouds dropping upon the heights we had left behind. + +All hope of a fine prospect was now at an end, but instead we had a +compensating spectacle. For thick and fast the clouds came pouring into +one chasm after another, drifting in all directions, here a mere +transparent veil drawn across the violet hills, there a golden splendour +as of some smaller sun shining on a green little world. At one moment the +whole vast scene was blurred and blotted with chill winter mist; soon a +break was visible, and far away we gazed on a span of serene amethystine +sky, barred with lines of bright gold. Not one, but a dozen, horizons--a +dozen heavens--seemed there, whilst the thunder that reached us from +below seemed too remote to threaten. But at last the clouds gathered in +form and volume, hiding the little firmaments of violet and amber; the +bright blue sky, bending over the green oasis--all vanished as if by +magic. We could see no more, and nothing remained but to go back, and the +quicker the better. The storm, our guide said, was too far off to reach +us yet, and we might reach the châlet without being drenched to the skin, +as we fortunately did. No sooner, however, were we fairly under shelter +than the rain poured down in torrents and the thunder pealed overhead. In +no part of France are thunderstorms so frequent and so destructive as +here, nowhere is the climate less to be depended on. A big umbrella, +stout shoes, and a waterproof are as necessary in the Vosges as in our +own Lake district. + +We had, however, a fine afternoon for our drive back, a quick downhill +journey along the edge of a tremendous precipice, clothed with +beech-trees and brushwood. A most beautiful road it is, and the two +little lakes looked lovely in the sunshine, encircled by gold-green +swards and a delicate screen of alder branches. Through pastures white +with meadow-sweet the turbulent, crystal-clear little river Vologne +flowed merrily, making dozens of tiny cascades, turning a dozen +mill-wheels in its course. All the air was fragrant with newly-turned +hay, and never, we thought, had Gérardmer and its lake made a more +captivating picture. + +Excursions innumerable may be made from Gérardmer. We may drive across +country to Remiremont, to Plombières, to Wesserling, to Colmar, to St. +Dié, whilst these places in turn make very good centres for excursions. +On no account must a visit to La Bresse be omitted. This is one of the +most ancient towns in the Vosges. Like some of the villages in the Morvan +and in the department of La Nièvre, La Bresse remained till the +Revolution an independent commune, a republic in miniature. The heads of +families of both sexes took part in the election of magistrates, and from +this patriarchal legislation there was seldom any appeal to the higher +court--namely, that of Nancy. La Bresse is still a rich commune by +reason of its forests and industries. The sound of the mill-wheel and +hammer now disturbs these mountain solitudes, and although so isolated by +natural position, this little town is no longer cut off from cosmopolitan +influence. The little tavern is developing into a very fair inn. In the +summer tourists from all parts of France pass through it, in carriages, +on foot, occasionally on horseback. Most likely it now possesses a +railway station, a newspaper kiosk, and a big hotel, as at Gérardmer! + +As we drop down upon La Bresse after our climb of two hours and more, we +seem to be at the world's end. Our road has led us higher and higher by +dense forests and wild granite parapets, tasselled with fern and +foxglove, till we suddenly wheel round upon a little straggling town +marvellously placed. Deep down it lies, amid fairy-like greenery and +silvery streams, whilst high above tower the rugged forest peaks and +far-off blue mountains, in striking contrast. + +The sloping green banks, starred with the grass of Parnassus, and musical +with a dozen streams, the pastoral dwellings, each with its patch of +flower garden and croft; the glades, dells and natural terraces are all +sunny and gracious as can be; but round about and high above frown +inaccessible granite peaks, and pitchy-black forest summits, impenetrable +even at this time of the year. As we look down we see that roads have +been cut round the mountain sides, and that tiny homesteads are perched +wherever vantage ground is to be had, yet the impression is one of +isolation and wildness. The town lies in no narrow cleft, as is the case +with many little manufacturing towns in the Jura, but in a vast opening +and falling back of the meeting hills and mountain tops, so that it is +seen from far and wide, and long before it is approached. We had made the +first part of our journey at a snail's pace. No sooner were we on the +verge of the hills looking down upon La Bresse, than we set off at a +desperate rate, spinning breathlessly round one mountain spur after +another, till we were suddenly landed in the village street, dropped, as +it seemed, from a balloon. + +A curious feature to be noted in all the places I have mentioned is the +outer wooden casing of the houses. This is done as a protection against +the cold, the Vosges possessing, with the Auvergne and the Limousin, the +severest climate in France. La Bresse, like Gérardmer and other sweet +valleys of these regions, is disfigured by huge factories, yet none can +regret the fact, seeing what well-being these industries bring to the +people. Beggars are numerous, but we are told they are strangers, who +merely invade these regions during the tourist season. + +Remiremont, our next halting-place, may be reached by a pleasant carriage +drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with +half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the +beautiful valley of the Moselle--a prospect which is missed by road. +Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gérardmer, +but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The +engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets +are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with +encircling fir-woods. Like Gérardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont +lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and +wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round +about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting +prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the +street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower +gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and +cheerfulness. + +The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around +its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in +their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hôtel de Ville. These +high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle, +and more than one _chanoinesse_, when defied by feudal neighbours, +mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble +birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and +personal charm of Renan's _Abbesse de Jouarre_. + +There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid +the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time--a little +chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the +adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and +orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which +Remiremont is placed are some curious prehistoric stones. But more +inviting than the steep climb under a burning sun--for the weather has +changed on a sudden--is the drive to the Vallée d'Hérival, a drive so +cool, so soothing, so delicious, that we fancy we can never feel heated, +languid, or irritated any more. + +The isolated dwellings of the dalesfolk in the midst of tremendous +solitudes--little pastoral scenes such as Corot loved to paint--and +hemmed round by the sternest, most rugged nature, are one of the +characteristics of Vosges scenery. We also find beside tossing rivers and +glittering cascades a solitary linen factory or saw-mill, with the +modern-looking villa of the employer, and clustered round it the cottages +of the work-people. No sooner does the road curl again than we are once +more in a solitude as complete as if we were in some primeval forest of +the new world. We come suddenly upon the Vallée d'Hérival, but the deep +close gorge we gaze upon is only the beginning of the valley within +valley we have come to see. Our road makes a loop round the valley so +that we see it from two levels, and under two aspects. As we return, +winding upwards on higher ground, we get glimpses of sunny dimpled sward +through the dark stems of the majestic fir-trees towering over our head. +There is every gradation of form and colour in the picture, from the ripe +warm gold barring the branches of the firs, to the pale silveriness of +their upper foliage; from the gigantic trees rising from the gorge below, +each seeming to fill a chasm, to the airy, graceful birch, a mere toy +beside it. Rare butterflies abound, but we see few birds. + +The hardy pedestrian is an enviable person here, for although excellent +carriages are to be had, some of the most interesting excursions must be +made on foot. + +I do not suppose that matters are very greatly changed in hotels here +since my visit so many years ago. In certain respects travellers fare +well. They may feast like Lucullus on fresh trout and on the dainty +aniseed cakes which are a local speciality. But hygienic arrangements +were almost prehistoric, and although politeness itself, mine host and +hostess showed strange nonchalance towards their guests. Thus, when +ringing and ringing again for our tea and bread and butter between seven +and eight o'clock, the chamber--not maid, but man--informed us that +Madame had gone to mass, and everything was locked up till her return. + +Even the fastidious tourist, however, will hardly care to exchange his +somewhat rough and noisy quarters at Remiremont for the cosmopolitan +comforts of Plombières within such easy reach. It is a pretty drive of an +hour and a half to Plombières, and all is prettiness there--its little +park, its tiny lake, its toy town. + +It is surely one of the hottest places in the world, and like Spa, of +which it reminds me, must be one of the most wearisome. Just such a +promenade, with a sleepy band, just such a casino, just such a routine. +This favourite resort of the third Napoleon has of late years seen many +rivals springing up. Vittel, Bains, Bussang--all in the Vosges--yet it +continues to hold up its head. The site is really charming, but so close +is the valley in which the town lies, that it is a veritable hothouse, +and the reverse, we should think, of what an invalid wants. Plombières +has always had illustrious visitors--Montaigne, who upon several +occasions took the waters here--Maupertuis, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the +Empress Josephine, and a host of historic personages. But the emperor may +be called the creator of Plombières. The park, the fine road to +Remiremont, the handsome Bain Napoleon (now National), the church, all +these owe their existence to him, and during the imperial visits the +remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road +along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant +and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going +of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont +and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place, +making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere +throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit +more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on +the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of +Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of +that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too +vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of +the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been +enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side +of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of +circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain--French at +heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this +feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of +Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the +supporters of retaliation, such journals as _L'Alsacien-Lorrain_, +and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But +the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No +wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French +tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines, +they flock to Gérardmer and other family resorts. And if some +Frenchwoman--maybe, sober matron--dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and +dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is +too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each +other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of +patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief +charms. You must here live with French people, whether you will or no. +Insular reserve cannot resist the prevailing friendliness and +good-fellowship. How long such a state of things will exist, who can say? +Fortunately for the lover of nature, most of the places I have mentioned +are too unobtrusive ever to become popular. "Nothing to see here, and +nothing to do," would surely be the verdict of most globe-trotters even +on sweet Gérardmer itself! + + + +II + +THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +The notion of here reprinting my notes of Alsatian travel was suggested +by a recent French work--_À travers l'Alsace en flânant_, from the +pen of M. André Hallays. This delightful writer had already published +several volumes dealing with various French provinces, more especially +from an archaeological point of view. In his latest and not least +fascinating _flânerie_ he gives the experiences of several holiday +tours in Germanized France. + +My own sojourns, made at intervals among French friends, _annexés_ +both of Alsace and Lorraine, were chiefly undertaken in order to realize +the condition of the German Emperor's French subjects. But I naturally +visited many picturesque sites and historic monuments in both, the +forfeited territories being especially rich. Whilst volume after volume +of late years have appeared devoted to French travel, holiday tourists +innumerable jotting their brief experiences of well-known regions, +strangely enough no English writer has followed my own example. No work +has here appeared upon Alsace and Lorraine. On the other side of the +Channel a vast literature on the subject has sprung up. Novels, travels, +reminiscences, pamphlets on political and economic questions, one and all +breathing the same spirit, continue to appear in undiminished numbers. + +Ardent spirits still fan the flame of revolt. The burning thirst for +re-integration remains unquenched. Garbed in crape, the marble figure of +Strasburg still holds her place on the Place de la Concorde. The French +language, although rigidly prohibited throughout Germanized France, is +studied and upheld more sedulously than before Sedan. And after the lapse +of forty years a German minister lately averred that French Alsatians +were more French than ever. _Les Noëllets_ of René Bazin, M. Maurice +Barrès' impassioned series, _Les Bastions de l'Est_, enjoy immense +popularity, and within the last few months have appeared two volumes +which fully confirm the views of their forerunners--M. Hallays' +impressions of many wayfarings and _Après quarante ans_ by M. Jules +Claretie, the versatile, brilliant and much respected administrator-general +of the Comédie Française. + +Whilst in these days of peace and arbitration propaganda the crime of +enforced denationalization seems more heinous than ever, there appears +little likelihood of the country conquered by Louis XIV., and re-conquered +by German arms a century and a half later, again waving the Tricolour. + +Let us hope, however, that some _via media_ may be found, and that +if not recovering its lost privilege, the passionately coveted French +name, as a federal state Alsace and Lorraine may become independent and +prosperous. + +For a comprehensive study of Alsace and its characteristics, alike +social, artistic and intellectual, readers must go to M. Hallays' volume. +In every development this writer shows that a special stamp may be found. +Neither Teutonic nor Gallic, art and handicrafts reveal indigenous +growth, and the same feature may be studied in town and village, in +palace, cathedral and cottage. + +We must remember that we are here dealing with a region of very ancient +civilization. Taste has been slowly developed, artistic culture is of no +mushroom growth. Alsace formed the highroad between Italy and Flanders. +In M. Hallays' words, already during the Renaissance, aesthetic Alsace +blended the lessons of north and south, her genius was a product of good +sense, experience and a feeling of proportion. And he points out how in +the eighteenth century French taste influenced Alsatian faïence, woven +stuffs, ironwork, sculpture, wood-carving and furniture, even peasant +interiors being thereby modified. "Alsace," he writes, "holds us +spell-bound by the originality of culture and temperament found among her +inhabitants. It has generally been taken for granted that native genius +is here a mere blend of French and German character, that Alsatian +sentiment appertains to the latter stock, intellectual development to the +former, that the inhabitants think in French and imagine in German. There +is a certain leaven of truth in these assumptions, but when we hold +continued intercourse with all classes, listen to their speech, +familiarize ourselves with their modes of life and mental outlook, we +arrive again and again at one conclusion: we say to ourselves, here is an +element which is neither Teutonic nor Gallic. I cannot undertake to +particularize, I only note in my pages those instances that occur by the +way. And the conviction that we are here penetrating a little world +hitherto unknown to us, such novelty being revealed in every stroll and +chat, lends extraordinary interest to our peregrination." + +It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us. +Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may +find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the +art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read +but weighty writer, Mme. de Staël, has truly averred that the most +beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing +no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic +regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with +indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until +the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire, +being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both +provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace, +Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and +militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was +ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and +passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution, +a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French +king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of +her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps +sore and will not be comforted. + +Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a +strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization +after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has +produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly +roll-call. + +The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young +soldier of Strasburg--not, however, Alsatian born--who, in April, 1792, +composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the +current of civilization. By an irony of destiny the Tricolour no longer +waves over the cradle of the Marseillaise! + +That witty writer, Edmond About, as well as the "Heavenly Twins" of +Alsatian fiction, was born in Lorraine, but all three so thoroughly +identified themselves with this province that they must be regarded as +her sons. Those travellers who, like myself, have visited Edmond About's +woodland retreat in Saverne can understand the bitterness with which he +penned his volume--_Alsace 1870-1_--and the concluding lines of the +preface-- + +"If I have here uttered an untrue syllable, I give M. de Bismarck +permission to treat my modest dwelling as if it were a villa of Saint +Cloud." + +The literary brethren whose pictures of Alsatian peasant life, both in +war and peace, have become world-wide classics, suffered no less than +their brilliant contemporary, and their works written after annexation +breathe equal bitterness. The celebrated partnership which began in 1848 +and lasted for a quarter of a century, has been thus described by Edmond +About: "The two friends see each other very rarely, whether in Paris or +in the Vosges. When they do meet, they together elaborate the scheme of +a new work. Then Erckmann writes it. Chatrian corrects it--and sometimes +puts it in the fire!" One at least of their plays enjoys equal +popularity with the novel from which it is drawn. To have witnessed +_L'Ami Fritz_ at Molière's house in the last decade of the nineteenth +century was an experience to remember. That consummate artist, Got, was +at his very best--if the superlative in such a case is applicable--as +the good old Rabbi. No less enchanting was Mlle. Reichenbach, the +_doyenne_ of the Comédie Française, as Suzel. Of this charming artist +Sarcey wrote that, having attained her sixteenth year, there she made +the long-stop, never oldening with others. _L'Ami Fritz_ is, in reality, +a German bucolic, the scene being laid in Bavaria. But it has long been +accepted as a classic, and on the stage it becomes thoroughly French. +This delightful story was written in 1864, that is to say, before any +war-cloud had arisen over the eastern frontier, and before the evocation +of a fiend as terrible, the anti-Jewish crusade culminating in the +Dreyfus crime. + +It is painful to reflect that whilst twenty years ago the engaging old +Jew of this piece was vociferously acclaimed on the first French stage, +the drama of a gifted Jewish writer has this year been banned in Paris! + +Edmond About and Erckmann and Chatrian belong to the same period as +another native, and more famous, genius, the precocious, superabundantly +endowed Gustave Doré. Of this "admirable Crichton" I give a sketch. + +For mere holiday-makers in search of exhilaration and beauty, Alsace +offers attractions innumerable, sites grandiose and idyllic, picturesque +ruins, superb forests, old churches of rare interest and many a splendid +historic pile. + +There are naturally drawbacks to intense lovers of France. Throughout M. +Hallays' volume he acknowledges the courtesy of German officials, a fact +to which I had borne testimony when first journalizing my own +experiences. Certain aspects of enforced Germanization can but afflict +all outsiders. There is firstly that obtrusive militarism from which we +cannot for a moment escape. Again, a no less false note strikes us in +matters aesthetic. Modern German taste in art, architecture and +decoration do not harmonize with the ancientness and historic severity of +Alsace. The restoration of Hohkönigsburg and the new quarters of +Strasburg are instances in point. All who visited the German art section +of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 will understand this dis-harmony. + +The reminiscences of my second and third journeys in Alsace and Lorraine +having already appeared in volume form, still in print (_East of +Paris_), are therefore omitted here. For the benefit of English +travellers in the annexed portion of the last-named province I cite a +passage from M. Maurice Barrès' beautiful story, _Colette Baudoche_. +His hero is German and his heroine French, a charming _Messine_ or +native of Metz. In company of Colette's mother and a friend or two, the +_fiancés_ take part in a little festival held at Gorze, a village +near the blood-stained fields of Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour-- + +"At Gorze, church, lime-trees, dwellings and folks belong to the olden +time, that is to say, all are very French.... In crossing the square the +five holiday-makers halted before the Hôtel de Ville and read with +interest a commemorative inscription on the walls. A tablet records +English generosity in 1870, when, after the carnage and devastation of +successive battles, money, roots and seeds were distributed among the +peasants by a relief committee. The inspection over, the little party +gaily sat down to dinner in an inn close by, regaling themselves with +fried English potatoes, descendants of those sent across the Manche forty +years before." + +As I re-read this passage I think sadly how the tribute from such a pen +would have rejoiced the two moving spirits of that famous relief +committee--Sir John Robinson and Mr. Bullock Hall, both long since +passed, away. To the whilom editor of the _Daily News_ both +initiative and realization were mainly owing, the latter being the +laborious and devoted agent of distribution. + +But an omission caused bitterness. Whilst Mr. Bullock Hall most +deservedly received the Red Ribbon, his leader was overlooked. The tens +of thousands of pounds collected by Sir John Robinson which may be said +to have kept alive starving people and vivified deserts, were gratefully +acknowledged by the French Government. By some unaccountable +misconception, the decoration here only gratified one good friend of +France. + +"I should much have liked the Legion of Honour," sighed the kindly old +editor to me, a year or two before he died. + +I add that my second sojourn in Alsace-Lorraine was made at Sir John's +suggestion, the series of papers dealing with Metz, Strasburg, and its +neighbourhood appearing from day to day in the _Daily News_. + +English tourists must step aside and read the tablet on the Hôtel de +Ville of Gorze, reminder, by the way, of the Entente Cordiale! + + + +III + +IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY + +The Vosges and Alsace-Lorraine must be taken together, as the tourist is +constantly compelled to zigzag across the new frontier. Many of the most +interesting points of departure for excursionizing in the Vosges lie in +Alsace-Lorraine, while few travellers who have got so far as Gérardmer +or St. Dié will not be tempted to continue their journey, at least as far +as the beautiful valleys of Munster and St. Marie-aux-Mines, both +peopled by French people under German domination. Arrived at either of +these places, the tourist will be at a loss which route to take of the +many open to him. On the one hand are the austere sites of the Vosges, +impenetrable forests darkening the rounded mountain tops, granite +precipices silvered with perpetual cascades, awful ravines hardly less +gloomy in the noonday sun than in wintry storms, and as a relief to these +sombre features, the sunniest little homesteads perched on airy terraces +of gold-green; crystal streams making vocal the flowery meadow and the +mossy dell, and lovely little lakes shut in by rounded hills, made double +in their mirror. In Alsace-Lorraine we find a wholly different landscape, +and are at once reminded that we are in one of the fairest and most +productive districts of Europe. All the vast Alsatian plain in September +is a-bloom with fruit garden and orchard, vineyard and cornfield, whilst +as a gracious framework, a romantic background to the picture, are the +vineclad heights crested with ruined castles and fortresses worthy to be +compared to Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein. We had made a leisurely +journey from Gérardmer to St. Dié, bishopric and _chef-lieu_ of the +department of the Vosges, without feeling sure of our next move. +Fortunately a French acquaintance advised us to drive to +St. Marie-aux-Mines, one of the most wonderful little spots in these +regions, of which we had never before heard. A word or two, however, +concerning St. Dié itself, one of the most ancient monastic foundations +in France. The town is pleasant enough, and the big hotel not bad, as +French hotels go. But in the Vosges, the tourist gets somewhat spoiled +in the matter of hotels. Wherever we go our hosts are so much interested +in us, and make so much of us, that we feel aggrieved at sinking into +mere numbers three or four. Many of these little inns offer homely +accommodation, but the landlord and landlady themselves wait upon the +guests, unless, which often happens, the host is cook, no piece of +ill-fortune for the traveller! These good people have none of the false +shame often conspicuous among the same class in England. At Remiremont, +our hostess came bustling down at the last moment saying how she had +hurried to change her dress in order to bid us good-bye. Here the +son-in-law, a fine handsome fellow, was the cook, and when dinner was +served he used to emerge from his kitchen and chat with the guests or +play with his children in the cool evening hour. There is none of that +differentiation of labour witnessed in England, and on the whole the +stranger fares none the worse. With regard to French hotels generally +the absence of competition in large towns strikes an English mind. At +St. Dié, as in many other places, there was at the time of my visit but +one hotel, which had doubtless been handed down from generation to +generation, simply because no rival aroused a spirit of emulation. + +St. Dié has a pleasant environment in the valley of the Meurthe, and may +be made the centre of many excursions. Its picturesque old Romanesque +cathedral of red sandstone, about which are grouped noble elms, grows +upon the eye; more interesting and beautiful by far are the Gothic +cloisters leading from within to the smaller church adjoining. These +delicate arcades, in part restored, form a quadrangle. Greenery fills the +open space, and wild antirrhinum and harebell brighten the grey walls. +Springing from one side is an out-of-door pulpit carved in stone, a +striking and suggestive object in the midst of the quiet scene. We should +like to know what was preached from that stone pulpit, and what manner of +man was the preacher. The bright green space, the delicate arcades of +soft grey, the bits of foliage here and there, with the two silent +churches blocking in all, make up an impressive scene. + +We wanted the country, however, rather than the towns, so after a few +days at St. Dié, hired a carriage to take us to St. Marie-aux-Mines or +Markirch, on the German side of the frontier, and not accessible from +this side by rail. We enter Alsace, indeed, by a needle's eye, so narrow +the pass in which St. Marie lies. Here a word of warning to the tourist. +Be sure to examine your carriage and horses well before starting. We were +provided for our difficult drive with what Spenser calls "two unequal +beasts," namely, a trotting horse and a horse that could only canter, +with a very uncomfortable carriage, the turnout costing over a +pound--pretty well, that, for a three hours' drive. However, in spite of +discomfort, we would not have missed the journey on any account. The +site of this little cotton-spinning town is one of the most extraordinary +in the world. We first traverse a fruitful, well cultivated plain, +watered by the sluggish Meurthe, then begin to ascend a spur of the +western chain of the Vosges, formerly dividing the two French +departments of Vosges and Haut Rhin, now marking the boundaries of +France and German Elsass. Down below, amid the hanging orchards, +flower-gardens and hayfields, we were on French soil, but the flagstaff, +just discernible on yonder green pinnacles, marks the line of +demarcation between France and the conquered territory of the German +empire. For the matter of that, the Prussian helmet makes the fact +patent. As surely as we have set foot in the Reich, we see one of these +gleaming casques, so hateful still in French eyes. They seem to spring +from the ground like Jason's warriors from the dragon's teeth. This new +frontier divided in olden times the dominions of Alsace and Lorraine, +when it was the custom to say of many villages that the bread was +kneaded in one country and baked in the other. + +Nothing could be more lovely than the dim violet hills far away, and the +virginal freshness of the pastoral scenery around. But only a +stout-hearted pedestrian can properly enjoy this beautiful region. We +had followed the example of another party of tourists in front of us, +and accomplished a fair climb on foot, and when we had wound and wound +our way up the lofty green mountain to the flagstaff before mentioned, +we wanted to do the rest of our journey on foot also. But alike +compassion for the beasts and energy had gone far enough, we were only +too glad to reseat ourselves, and drive, or rather be whirled, down to +St. Marie-aux-Mines in the vehicle. Do what we would there was no +persuading our driver to slacken pace enough so as to admit of a full +enjoyment of the prospect that unfolded before us. + +The wonderful little town! Black pearl set in the richest casket! This +commonplace, flourishing centre of cotton spinning, woollen, and +cretonne manufacture, built in red brick, lies in the narrow, beautiful +valley of the Lièpvrette, as it is called from the babbling river of +that name. But there is really no valley at all. The congeries of +red-roofed houses, factory chimneys and church towers, Catholic and +Protestant, is hemmed round by a narrow gorge, wedged in between the +hills which are just parted so as to admit of such an intrusion, no +more. The green convolutions of the mountain sides are literally folded +round the town, a pile of green velvet spread fan-like in a draper's +window has not softer, neater folds! As we enter it from the St. Dié side +we find just room for a carriage to wind along the little river and the +narrow street. But at the other end the valley opens, and St. +Marie-aux-mines spreads itself out. Here are factories, handsome country +houses, and walks up-hill and down-hill in abundance. Just above the +town, over the widening gorge, is a deliciously cool pine-wood which +commands a vast prospect--the busy little town caught in the toils of +the green hills; the fertile valley of the Meurthe as we gaze in the +direction from which we have come; the no less fertile plains of +Lorraine before us; close under and around us, many a dell and woodland +covert with scattered homes of dalesfolk in sunny places and slanting +hills covered with pines. It is curious to reflect that St. +Marie-aux-Mines, mentioned as Markirch in ancient charts, did not become +entirely French till the eighteenth century. Originally the inhabitants +on the left bank of the Lièpvrette were subjects of the Dukes of +Lorraine, spoke French, and belonged to the Catholic persuasion, whilst +those dwelling on the right bank of the river, adhered to the seigneury +of Ribeaupaire, and formed a Protestant German-speaking community. +Alsace, as everybody knows, was annexed to France by right--rather +wrong--of conquest under Louis XIV., but it was not till a century later +that Lorraine became a part of French territory, and the fusion of +races, a task so slowly accomplished, has now to be undone, if, indeed, +such undoing is possible! + +The hotel here is a mere _auberge_ adapted to the needs of the +_commis-voyageur_, but our host and hostess are charming. As is the +fashion in these parts, they serve their guests and take the greatest +possible interest in their movements and comfort. We would willingly have +spent some days at Marie-aux-Mines--no better headquarters for +excursionizing in these regions!--but too much remained for us to do and +to see in Alsace. We dared not loiter on the way. + +Everywhere we find plenty of French tourists, many of them doing their +holiday travel in the most economical fashion. We are in the habit of +regarding the French as a stay-at-home nation, and it is easy to see how +such a mistake arises. English people seldom travel in out-of-the-way +France, and our neighbours seldom travel elsewhere. Thus holiday-makers +of the two nations do not come in contact. Wherever we go we encounter +bands of pedestrians or family parties thoroughly enjoying themselves. +Nothing ruffles a French mind when bent on holiday-making. The good-nature, +_bonhomie_, and accommodating spirit displayed under trying +circumstances might be imitated by certain insular tourists with advantage. + +From St. Marie-aux-Mines we journeyed to Gustave Doré's favourite resort, +Barr, a close, unsavoury little town enough, but in the midst of +bewitching scenery. "An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour," sings +Spenser, and at Barr we get the sweet and the sour strangely mixed. The +narrow streets smell of tanneries and less wholesome nuisances, not a +breath of fresh pure air is to be had from one end of the town to the +other. But our pretty, gracious landlady, an Alsacienne, and her husband, +the master of the house and _chef de cuisine_ as well, equally +handsome and courteous, took so much pains to make us comfortable that +we stayed on and on. Not a thousand bad smells could drive us away! Yet +there is accommodation for the traveller among the vineyards outside the +town, and also near the railway station, so Barr need not be avoided on +account of its unsavouriness. No sooner are you beyond the dingy streets +than all is beauty, pastoralness and romance. Every green peak is crested +with ruined keep or tower, at the foot of the meeting hills lie peaceful +little villages, each with its lofty church spire, whilst all the air is +fragrant with pine-woods and newly turned hay. + +These pine-woods and frowning ruins set like sentinels on every green +hill or rocky eminence, recall many of Doré's happiest efforts. "_Le +pauvre garçon_," our hostess said. "_Comme il était content chez +nous_!" I can fancy how Doré would enjoy the family life of our little +old-fashioned hotel, how he would play with the children, chat with +master and mistress, and make himself agreeable all round. One can also +fancy how animated conversation would become if it chanced to take a +patriotic turn. For people speak their thoughts in Alsace,--nowhere more +freely. In season and out of season, the same sentiment comes to the +surface. "_Nous sommes plus Français que les Français_." This is the +universal expression of feeling that greeted our ears throughout our +wanderings. Such, at least, was formerly the case. The men, women and +children, rich and poor, learned and simple, gave utterance to the same +expression of feeling. Barr is a town of between six and seven thousand +souls, about twenty of whom are Prussians. A pleasant position, truly, +for the twenty officials! And what we see at Barr is the case throughout +the newly acquired German dominion. Alike the highest as well as the +humblest functionary of the imperial government is completely shut off +from intercourse with his French neighbours. + +Barr lies near so much romantic scenery that the tourist in these parts +had better try the little hotel amid the mines. For, in spite of the +picturesque stork's nest close by, an excellent ordinary and the most +delightful host and hostess in the world, I cannot recommend a sojourn in +the heart of the town. The best plan of all were to halt here simply for +the sake of the excursion to St. Odile--St. Odile leads nowhither--then +hire a carriage, and make leisurely way across country by the Hohwald, +and the Champ de Feu to Rothau, Oberlin's country, thence to Strasburg. +In our own case, the fascinations of our hosts overcame our repugnance to +Barr itself, so we stayed on, every day making long drives into the +fresh, quiet, beautiful country. One of the sweet spots we discovered for +the benefit of any English folks who may chance to stray in that region +is the Hohwald, a _ville giatura_ long in vogue with the inhabitants +of Strasburg and neighbouring towns, but not mentioned in any English +guide-book at the time of my visit. + +We are reminded all the way of Rhineland. The same terraced vineyards, +the same limestone crags, each with its feudal tower, the same fertility +and richness everywhere. Our road winds for miles amid avenues of +fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are +stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and +fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this +magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must +be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut +woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are +to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts. +I followed the _curé_ and sacristan as they took a path that wound high +above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained +a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire, +and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine façade of the +castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with +massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the +neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with +greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are +indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird, +fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers +past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to +rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they +will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild +visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of +Doré's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood, +jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite +familiar to us in the pages of his _Dante_ and _Don Quixote._ + +The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is +the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road +green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling +amid the alders, the noisy little river. + +The Hohwald is the creation of a woman; that is to say, the Hohwald of +holiday-makers, tourists and tired brain-workers. "Can you imagine," +wrote M. Edmond About, forty years ago, "an inn at the world's end that +cost a hundred thousand francs in the building? I assure you the owner +will soon have recouped her outlay. She had not a centime to begin with, +this courageous lady, left a widow without resources, and a son to bring +up. The happy thought occurred to her of a summer resort in the heart of +these glorious woods, within easy reach of Strasburg." There are gardens +and reception-rooms in common, and here as at Gérardmer croquet, music +and the dance offer an extra attraction. It must be admitted that these +big family hotels, in attractive country places with prices adapted to +all travellers, have many advantages over our own seaside lodgings. +People get much more for their money, better food, better accommodation, +with agreeable society into the bargain, and a relief from the harass of +housekeeping. The children, too, find companionship, to the great relief +of parents and nursemaids. + +The Hohwald proper is a tiny village numbering a few hundred souls, +situated in the midst of magnificent forests at the foot of the famous +Champ de Feu. This is a plateau on one of the loftiest summits of the +Vosges, and very curious from a geological point of view. To explore it +properly you must be a good pedestrian. Much, indeed, of the finest +scenery of these regions is beyond reach of travellers who cannot walk +five or six hours a day. + +Any one, however, may drive to St. Odile, and St. Odile is the great +excursion of Alsace. Who cares a straw for the saint and her story now? +But all tourists must be grateful to the Bishop of Strasburg, who keeps a +comfortable little inn at the top of the mountain, and, beyond the +prohibition of meat on fast-days, smoking, noise and levity of manner on +all days, makes you very comfortable for next to nothing. + +The fact is, this noble plateau, commanding as splendid a natural +panorama as any in Europe, at the time I write of the property of +Monseigneur of Strasburg, was once a famous shrine and a convent of +cloistered men and women vowed to sanctity and prayer. The convent was +closed at the time of the French Revolution, and the entire property, +convent, mountain and prospect, remained in the hands of private +possessors till 1853, when the prelate of that day repurchased the whole, +restored the conventual building, put in some lay brethren to cultivate +the soil, and some lay sisters, who wear the garb of nuns, but have taken +no vows upon them except of piety, to keep the little inn and make +tourists comfortable. No arrangement could be better, and I advise any +one in want of pure air, superb scenery, and complete quiet, to betake +himself to St. Odile. + +Here again I must intercalate. Since these lines were jotted down, many +changes, and apparently none for the better, have taken place here. +Intending tourists must take both M. Hallays' volume and Maurice Barrès' +_Au Service d'Allemagne_ for recent accounts of this holiday resort. +The splendid natural features remain intact. + +The way from Barr lies through prosperous villages, enriched by +manufactories, yet abounding in pastoral graces. There are English-like +parks and fine châteaux of rich manufacturers; but contrasted with these +nothing like abject poverty. The houses of working-folk are clean, each +with its flower-garden, the children are neatly dressed, no squalor or +look of discontent to be seen anywhere. Every hamlet has its beautiful +spire, whilst the country is the fairest, richest conceivable; in the +woods is seen every variety of fir and pine, mingled with the lighter +foliage of chestnut and acacia, whilst every orchard has its walnut and +mulberry trees, not to speak of pear and plum. One of the chief +manufactures of these parts is that of paints and colours: there are also +ribbon and cotton factories. Rich as is the country naturally, its chief +wealth arises from these industries. In every village you hear the hum of +machinery. + +You may lessen the distance from Barr to St. Odile by one-half if you +make the journey on foot, winding upwards amid the vine-clad hills, at +every turn coming upon one of those grand old ruins, as plentiful here as +in Rhineland, and quite as romantic and beautiful. The drive is a slow +and toilsome ascent of three hours and a half. As soon as we quit the +villages and climb the mountain road cut amid the pines, we are in a +superb and solitary scene. No sound of millwheels or steam-hammers is +heard here, only the summer breeze stirring the lofty pine branches, the +hum of insects, and the trickling of mountain streams. The dark-leaved +henbane is in brilliant yellow flower, and the purple foxglove in +striking contrast; but the wealth of summer flowers is over. + +Who would choose to live on Ararat? Yet it is something to reach a +pinnacle from whence you may survey more than one kingdom. The prospect +from St. Odile is one to gaze on for a day, and to make us dizzy in +dreams ever after. From the umbrageous terrace in front of the +convent--cool and breezy on this, one of the hottest days of a hot +season--we see, as from a balloon, a wonderful bit of the world spread +out like a map at our feet. The vast plain of Alsace, the valley of the +Rhine, the Swiss mountains, the Black Forest, Bâle, and Strasburg--all +these we dominate from our airy pinnacle close, at it seems, under the +blue vault of heaven. But though they were there, we did not see them: +for the day, as so often happens on such occasions, was misty. We had +none the less a novel and wonderful prospect. As we sit on this cool +terrace, under the shady mulberry trees, and look far beyond the +richly-wooded mountain we have scaled on our way, we gradually make +out some details of the fast panorama, one feature after another +becoming visible as stars shining faintly in a misty heaven. Villages +and little towns past counting, each with its conspicuous spire, break +the monotony of the enormous plain. Here and there, miles away, a curl +of white vapour indicates the passage of some railway train, whilst in +this upper stillness sweet sounds of church bells reach us from +hamlets close underneath the convent. Nothing can be more solid, +fresher, or more brilliant than the rich beech- and pine-woods running +sheer from our airy eminence to the level world below, nothing more +visionary, slumberous, or dimmer than that wide expanse teeming, as we +know, with busy human life, yet flat and motionless as a picture. + +[Illustration] + +On clear nights the electric lights of the railway station at Strasburg +are seen from this point; but far more attractive than the prospects from +St. Odile is its prehistoric wall. Before the wall, however, came the +dinner, which deserves mention. It was Friday, so in company of priests, +nuns, monks and divers pious pilgrims, with a sprinkling of fashionable +ladies from Strasburg, and tourists generally, we sat down to a very fair +_menu_ for a fast-day, to wit: rice-soup, turnips and potatoes, +eggs, perch, macaroni-cheese, custard pudding, gruyère cheese, and fair +vin ordinaire. Two shillings was charged per head, and I must say people +got their money's worth, for appetites seem keen in these parts. The +mother-superior, a kindly old woman, evidently belonging to the working +class, bustled about and shook hands with each of her guests. After +dinner we were shown the bedrooms, which are very clean; for board and +lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger +of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical +hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that +all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing. +However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are +very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we +always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us +welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us +to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this +famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications +similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not +far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be +compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness. + +We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb +for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which +the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily +lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although +where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is +inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered +with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful +notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled +together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The +points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly +we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive +constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no +doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been +hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of +pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and +dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and +in many places mortised together. We find no trace of cement, a fact +disproving the hypothesis that the wall may have been of Roman origin. We +must doubtless go much farther back, and associate these primitive +builders with such relics of prehistoric times as the stones of Carnac +and Lokmariaker. And not to seek so wide for analogies, do we not see +here the handiwork of the same rude architects I have before alluded to +in my Vosges travels, who flung a stone bridge across the forest gorge +above Remiremont and raised in close proximity the stupendous monolith of +Kirlinkin? The prehistoric stone monuments scattered about these regions +are as yet new to the English archaeologist, and form one of the most +interesting features of Vosges and Alsatian travel. + +We may follow these lightly superimposed blocks of stone for miles, and +the _enceinte_ has been traced round the entire plateau, which was +thus defended from enemies on all sides. As we continue our walk on the +inner side of the wall we get lovely views of the dim violet hills, the +vast golden plain, and, close underneath, luxuriant forests. Eagles are +flying hither and thither, and except for an occasional tourist or two, +the scene is perfectly solitary. An hour's walk brings us to the +Menelstein, a vast and lofty platform of stone, ascended by a stair, both +untouched by the hand of man. Never was a more formidable redoubt raised +by engineering skill. Nature here helped her primitive builders well. +From a terrace due to the natural formation of the rock, we obtain +another of those grand and varied panoramas so numerous in this part of +the world, but the beauty nearer at hand is more enticing. Nothing can +exceed the freshness and charm of our homeward walk. We are now no longer +following the wall, but free to enjoy the breezy, heather-scented +plateau, and the broken, romantic outline of St. Odile, the Wartburg of +Alsace, as the saint herself was its Holy Elizabeth, and with as romantic +a story for those with a taste for such legends. + +Here and there on the remoter wooded peaks are stately ruins of feudal +castles, whilst all the way our path lies amid bright foliage of young +forest trees, chestnut and oak, pine and acacia, and the ground is purple +with heather. Blocks of the conglomerate used in the construction of the +so-called Pagan Wall meet us at every turn, and as we gaze down the steep +sides of the promontory we can trace its massive outline. A scene not +soon to be forgotten! The still, solitary field of Carnac, with its +avenues of monoliths, is not more impressive than these Cyclopean walls, +thrown as a girdle round the green slopes of St. Odile. + +We would fain have stayed here some time, but much more still remained to +be seen and accomplished in Alsace. Rothau, the district known as the Ban +de la Roche, where Oberlin laboured for sixty years, Thann, Wesserling, +with a sojourn among French subjects of the German Empire at +Mulhouse--all these things had to be done, and the bright summer days +were drawing to an end. + + + +IV + +FROM BARR TO STRASBURG, MULHOUSE AND BELFORT + +The opening sentences of this chapter, written many years ago, are no +longer applicable. Were I to revisit Alsace-Lorraine at the present time, +I should only hear French speech among intimate friends and in private, +so strictly of late years has the law of lèse-majesté been, and is still, +enforced. + +Nothing strikes the sojourner in Alsace-Lorraine more forcibly than the +outspokenness of its inhabitants regarding Prussian rule. Young and old, +rich and poor, wise and simple alike unburden themselves to their +chance-made English acquaintance with a candour that is at the same time +amusing and pathetic. For the most part no heed whatever is paid to +possible German listeners. At the ordinaries of country hotels, by the +shop door, in the railway carriage, Alsatians will pour out their +hearts, especially the women, who, as two pretty sisters assured us, are +not interfered with, be their conversation of the most treasonable kind. +We travelled with these two charming girls from Barr to Rothau, and they +corroborated what we had already heard at Barr and other places. The +Prussian inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine--for the most part Government +officials--are completely shut off from all social intercourse with the +French population, the latter, of course, still forming the vast +majority. Thus at Barr, a town consisting of over six thousand +inhabitants, only a score or two are Prussians, who are employed in the +railway and postal service, the police, the survey of forests, etc. The +position of these officials is far from agreeable, although, on the +other hand, there is compensation in the shape of higher pay, and much +more material comfort, even luxury, than are to be had in the +Fatherland. Alsace-Lorraine, especially by comparison with Prussia, may +be called a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey. The vine +ripens on these warm hill-sides and rocky terraces, the plain produces +abundant variety of fruit and vegetables, the streams abound with trout +and the forests with game. No wonder, therefore, that whilst thousands +of patriotic Alsatians have already quitted the country, thousands of +Prussians are ready to fill their places. But the Alsatian exodus is far +from finished. At first, as was only natural, the inhabitants could not +realize the annexation. They refused to believe that the Prussian +occupation was final, so, for the most part, stayed on, hoping against +hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born +since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or +French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in +their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and +renounce the cherished _patrie_ and _tricolor_ for ever. + + +The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of +things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the +poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade +it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army. +For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of +life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken +account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons +across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education. +The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another +grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore +under the necessity of providing private masters for their children, +unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue. +And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in +Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural +population speak a _patois_ made up of bad German and equally bad +French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most +patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in +this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation +of races that has been going on for many generations. + +Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In +Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of +the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women +graceful and often exceedingly lovely, French piquancy and symmetrical +proportions combined with Teutonic fairness of complexion, blonde hair, +and blue eyes. + +I will now continue my journey from Barr to Strasburg by way of the Ban +de la Roche, Oberlin's country. A railway connects Barr with Rothau, a +very pleasant halting-place in the midst of sweet pastoral scenery. It is +another of those resorts in Alsace whither holiday folks flock from +Strasburg and other towns during the long vacation, in quest of health, +recreation and society. + +Rothau is a very prosperous little town, with large factories, handsome +châteaux of mill-owners, and trim little cottages, having flowers in all +the windows and a trellised vine in every garden. Pomegranates and +oleanders are in full bloom here and there, and the general aspect is +bright and cheerful. At Rothau are several _blanchisseries_ or +laundries, on a large scale, employing many hands, besides dye-works and +saw-mills. Through the town runs the little river Bruche, and the whole +district, known as the Ban de la Roche, a hundred years ago one of the +dreariest regions in France, is now all smiling fertility. The principal +building is its handsome Protestant church--for here we are among +Protestants, although of a less zealous temper than their fore-fathers, +the fervid Anabaptists. I attended morning service, and although an +eloquent preacher from Paris officiated, the audience was small, and the +general impression that of coldness and want of animation. + +From the sweet, fragrant valley of Rothau a road winds amid green hills +and by the tumbling river to the little old-world village of Foudai, +where Oberlin lies buried. The tiny church and shady churchyard lie above +the village, and a more out-of-the-way spot than Foudai itself can hardly +be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to +pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly +called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the +plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of +the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty +years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that +of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among +his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in +order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of +his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German +narrative, _Des Goldmachers Dorf_. Nor does it require any lively +fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and +his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil +is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the +more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system +of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river +turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to +account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and +comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less +so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding +amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in +half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fête day. Young and old in +Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the +children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among +these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at +Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage +lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the +pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six +pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the +costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts +showed us many relics of Oberlin, the handsome cabinets and presses of +carved oak, in which were stored the family wardrobe and other +treasures, and in the study the table on which he habitually wrote. +This is a charming upper room with wide views over the green hills and +sunny, peaceful valley. + +We were offered hospitality for days, nay, weeks, if we chose to stay, +and even the use of Oberlin's study to sit and write in! A summer might +be pleasantly spent here, with quiet mornings in this cheerful chamber, +full of pious memories, and in the afternoon long rambles with the +children over the peaceful hills. From Foudai, too, you may climb the +wild rocky plateau known as the Champ de Feu--no spot in the Vosges chain +is more interesting from a geological point of view. + +After much pleasant talk we took leave of our kind hosts, not going away, +however, without visiting the church. A tablet with medallion portrait of +Oberlin bears the touching inscription that for fifty-nine years he was +"the father of this parish." Then we drove back as we had come, stopping +at Foudai to rest the horse and drink tea. We were served in a cool +little parlour opening on to a garden, and, so tempting looked the tiny +inn that we regretted we could not stay there a week. A pleasant pastoral +country rather than romantic or picturesque is the Ban de la Roche, but +close at hand is the lofty Donon, which may be climbed from Rothau or +Foudai, and there are many other excursions within reach. + +Here, for the present, the romance of Alsace travel ends, and all is +prose of a somewhat painful kind. The first object that attracted our +attention on reaching Strasburg was the new railway station, of which we +had already heard so much. This handsome structure, erected by the German +Government at an enormous cost, had only been recently opened, and so +great was the soreness of feeling excited by certain allegorical +bas-reliefs decorating the façade that for many days after the opening +of the station police-officers in plain clothes carefully watched the +crowd of spectators, carrying off the more seditious to prison. To say +the least of it, these mural decorations are not in the best of taste, +and at any rate it would have been better to have withheld them for a +time. The two small bas-reliefs in question bear respectively the +inscription, "_Im alten, und im neuen Reich_" ("In the old and new +Empire"), improved by a stander-by, to the great relish of others, thus, +"_Im alten, reich, im neuen, arm_" ("In the old, rich, in the new, +poor"). They give a somewhat ideal representation of the surrender of +Strasburg to the German Emperor. But the bombardment of their city, the +destruction of public monuments and the loss of life and property +thereby occasioned, were as yet fresh in the memories of the +inhabitants, and they needed no such reminder of the new state of +things. Their better feelings towards Germany had been bombarded out of +them, as an Alsacienne wittily observed to the Duchess of Baden after +the surrender. The duchess, daughter to the Emperor William, made the +round of the hospitals, and not a single Alsatian soldier but turned his +face to the wall, whereupon she expressed her astonishment at not +finding a better sentiment. Nor can the lover of art help drawing a +painful contrast between the Strasburg of the old and the new _régime_. +There was very little to see at Strasburg except the cathedral at this +time. The Library, with its 300,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts--the +priceless _Hortus Deliciarium_ of the twelfth century, richly +illuminated and ornamented with miniatures invaluable to the student of +men and manners of the Middle Ages, the missal of Louis XII., bearing +his arms, the _Recueil de Prières_ of the eighth century--all these had +been completely destroyed by the ruthless Prussian bombardment. The +Museum, rich in _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the French school, both of sculpture +and painting, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, all shared the same fate, not to speak of buildings of lesser +importance, including four hundred private dwellings, and of the fifteen +hundred civilians, men, women and children, killed and wounded by the +shells. The fine church of St. Thomas suffered greatly. Nor was the +cathedral spared, and it would doubtless have perished altogether, too, +but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city. On my second visit +ten years later I found immense changes, new German architecture to be +seen everywhere. + + +Strasburg is said to contain a much larger German element than any other +city of Alsace-Lorraine, but the most casual observer soon finds out how +it stands with the bulk of the people. The first thing that attracted our +notice in a shop window was a coloured illustration representing the +funeral procession of Gambetta, as it wound slowly past the veiled statue +of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde. These displays of patriotic +feeling are forbidden, but they come to the fore all the same. Here, as +elsewhere, the clinging to the old country is pathetically--sometimes +comically--apparent. A rough peasant girl, employed as chambermaid in the +hotel at which we stayed, amused me not a little by her tirades against +the Prussians, spoken in a language that was neither German nor French, +but a mixture of both--the delectable tongue of Alsace! + +Strasburg is now a vast camp, with that perpetual noisy military parade +so wearisome in Berlin and other German cities, and, as I have said, +there was very little to see. It was a relief to get to Mulhouse, the +comparatively quiet and thoroughly French city of Mulhouse, in spite of +all attempts to make it German. But for the imperial eagle placed over +public offices and the sprinkling of Prussian helmets and Prussian +physiognomies, we could hardly suppose ourselves outside the French +border. The shops are French. French is the language of the better +classes, and French and Jews make up the bulk of the population. The Jews +from time immemorial have swarmed in Alsace, where, I am sorry to say, +they seemed to be little liked. + +This thoroughly French appearance of Mulhouse, to be accounted for, +moreover, by an intensely patriotic clinging to the mother country, +naturally occasions great vexation to the German authorities. It is, +perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that undignified provocations and +reprisals should be the consequence. Thus the law forbids the putting up +of French signboards or names over shop doors in any but the German +language. This is evaded by withholding all else except the surname of +the individual, which is of course the same in both languages. + +One instance more I give of the small annoyances to which the French +residents of Mulhouse are subject, a trifling one, yet sufficient to +irritate. Eight months after the annexation, orders were sent round to +the pastors and clergy generally to offer up prayers for the Emperor +William every Sunday. The order was obeyed, for refusal would have been +assuredly followed by dismissal, but the prayer is ungraciously +performed. The French pastors invoke the blessing of Heaven on +"_l'Empereur qui nous gouverne_". The pastors who perform the +service in German, pray not for "our Emperor," as is the apparently loyal +fashion in the Fatherland, but for "the Emperor." These things are +trifling grievances, but, on the other hand, the Prussians have theirs +also. Not even the officials of highest rank are received into any kind +of society whatever. Mulhouse possesses a charming zoological garden, +free to subscribers only, who have to be balloted for. Twenty years after +the annexation not a single Prussian has ever been able to obtain access +to this garden. + +Even the very poorest contrive to show their intense patriotism. It is +the rule of the German government to give twenty-five marks to any poor +woman giving birth to twins. The wife of a French workman during my +sojourn at Mulhouse had three sons at a birth, but though in very poor +circumstances, refused to claim the donation. "My sons shall never be +Prussian," she said, "and that gift would make them so." + +The real thorn in the flesh of the annexed Alsatians is, however, as I +have before pointed out, military service, and the enforced German +education. All who have read Alphonse Daudet's charming little story, +_La dernière leçon de Français_, will be able to realize the +painfulness of the truth, somewhat rudely brought home to French parents. +Their children must henceforth receive a German education, or none at +all, for this is what the law amounts to in the great majority of cases. +Rich people, of course, and those who are only well-to-do, can send their +sons to the Lycée, opened at Belfort since the annexation, but the rest +have to submit, or, by dint of great sacrifice, obtain private French +teaching. And, whilst even Alsatians are quite ready to render justice to +the forbearance and tact often shown by officials, an inquisitorial and +prying system is pursued, as vexatious to the patriotic as enforced +vaccination to the Peculiar People or school attendance to the poor. One +lady was visited at seven o'clock in the morning by the functionary +charged with the unpleasant mission of finding out where her boy was +educated. "Tell those who sent you," said the indignant mother, "that my +son shall never belong to you. We will give up our home, our prospects, +everything; but our children shall never be Prussians." True enough, the +family have since emigrated. No one who has not stayed in Alsace among +Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, +nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the +true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known +outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and +character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a +ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. + +[Illustration: ETTENHEIM] + +"Nous ne sommes pas heureux à Mulhouse" were almost the first words +addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean +Dollfus. + +And how could it be otherwise? M. Dollfus, as well as other +representatives of the French subjects of Prussia in the Reichstag, had +protested against the annexation of Alsace in vain. They pointed out the +heavy cost to the German empire of these provinces, in consequence of the +vast military force required to maintain them, the undying bitterness +aroused, the moral, intellectual, and material interests at stake. I use +the word intellectual advisedly, for, amongst other instances in point, I +was assured that the book trade in Mulhouse had greatly declined since +the annexation. The student class has diminished, many reading people +have gone, and those who remain feel too uncertain about the future to +accumulate libraries. Moreover, the ordeal that all have gone through has +depressed intellectual as well as social life. Mulhouse has been too much +saddened to recover herself as yet, although eminently a literary place, +and a sociable one in the old happy French days. The balls, soirées and +reunions, that formerly made Mulhouse one of the friendliest as well as +the busiest towns in the world, have almost ceased. People take their +pleasures very soberly. + +It is hardly possible to write of Mulhouse without consecrating a page +or two to M. Jean Dollfus, a name already familiar to some English +readers. The career of such a man forms part of contemporary history, +and for sixty years the great cotton-printer of Mulhouse, the +indefatigable philanthropist--the fellow-worker with Cobden, +Arles-Dufour, and others in the cause of Free Trade--and the ardent +patriot, had been before the world. + +The year before my visit was celebrated, with a splendour that would be +ridiculed in a novel, the diamond wedding of the head of the numerous +house of Dollfus, the silver and the golden having been already kept in +due form. + +Mulhouse might well be proud of such a fête, for it was unique, and the +first gala-day since the annexation. When M. Dollfus looked out of his +window in the morning, he found the familiar street transformed as if by +magic into a bright green avenue abundantly adorned with flowers. The +change had been effected in the night by means of young fir-trees +transplanted from the forest. The day was kept as a general holiday. +From an early hour the improvised avenue was thronged with visitors of +all ranks bearing cards, letters of congratulation or flowers. The great +Dollfus works were closed, and the five thousand workmen with their +wives, children and superannuated parents, were not only feasted but +enriched. After the banquet every man, woman and child received a present +in money, the oldest and those who had remained longest in the employ of +M. Dollfus being presented with forty francs. But the crowning sight of +the day was the board spread for the Dollfus family and the gathering of +the clan, as it may indeed be called. There was the head of the house, +firm as a rock still, in spite of his eighty-two years; beside him the +partner of sixty of those years, his devoted wife; next according to age, +their numerous sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; duly +following came the grandsons and grand-daughters, then the +great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and lastly, the babies of their +fifth generation, all accompanied by their nurses in the picturesque +costume of Alsace and Lorraine. This patriarchal assemblage numbered +between one and two hundred guests. On the table were represented, in the +artistic confectionery for which Mulhouse is famous, some of the leading +events of M. Dollfus's busy life. Here in sugar was a model of the +achievement which will ever do honour to the name of Jean Dollfus, +namely, the _cités ouvrières_, and what was no less a triumph of the +confectioner's skill, a group representing the romantic ride of M. and +Mme. Dollfus on camels towards the Algerian Sahara when visiting the +African colony some twenty years before. + +This patriarchal festival is said to have cost M. Dollfus half a million +of francs, a bagatelle in a career devoted to giving! The bare conception +of what this good man has bestowed takes one's breath away! Not that he +was alone; never was a city more prolific of generous men than Mulhouse, +but Jean Dollfus, _"Le Père Jean,"_ as he is called, stood at the +head. He received with one hand to bestow with the other, and not only on +behalf of the national, intellectual and spiritual wants of his own +workmen and his own community--the Dollfus family are Protestant--but +indiscriminately benefiting Protestant, Catholic, Jew; founding schools, +hospitals, libraries, refuges, churches, for all. + +We see at a glance after what fashion the great manufacturers set to work +here to solve the problem before them. The life of ease and the life of +toil are seen side by side, and all the brighter influences of the one +brought to bear on the other. The tall factory chimneys are unsightly +here as elsewhere, and nothing can be uglier than the steam tramways, +noisily running through the streets. But close to the factories and +workshops are the cheerful villas and gardens of their owners, whilst +near at hand the workmen's dwellings offer an exterior equally +attractive. These _cités ouvrières_ form indeed a suburb in +themselves, and a very pleasant suburb too. Many middle-class families in +England might be glad to own such a home, a semi-detached cottage or +villa standing in a pretty garden with flowers and trees and plots of +turf. Some of the cottages are models of trimness and taste, others of +course are less well kept, a few have a neglected appearance. The general +aspect, however, is one of thrift and prosperity, and it must be borne in +mind that each dwelling and plot of ground are the property of the owner, +gradually acquired by him out of his earnings, thanks to the initiative +of M. Dollfus and his fellow-workers. "It is by such means as these that +we have combated Socialism," said M. Dollfus to me; and the gradual +transformation of the workman into an owner of property, is but one of +the numerous efforts made at Mulhouse to lighten, in so far as is +practicable, the burden of toil. + +These pleasant avenues are very animated on Sundays, especially when a +universal christening of babies is going on. The workmen at Mulhouse are +paid once a fortnight, in some cases monthly, and it is usually after +pay-day that such celebrations occur. We saw one Sunday afternoon quite +a procession of carriages returning from the church to the _cité +ouvrière_, for upon these occasions nobody goes on foot. There were +certainly a dozen christening parties, all well dressed, and the babies +in the finest white muslin and embroidery. A very large proportion of the +artisans here are Catholics, and as one instance among others of the +liberality prevailing here, I mention that one of the latest donations of +M. Dollfus is the piece of ground, close to the _cité ouvrière_, on +which now stands the new, florid Catholic church. + +There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been +opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French +pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Köchlins, to their +native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French +as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among +the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of +De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71 +that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was +withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The +bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse. + +I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real +pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a +charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the +Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and +suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of +existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase +a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden +I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the +Black Forest. + +Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of +Notre Dame des Trois Épis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann, +with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and +the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of +the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account +be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully +is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave +and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later +period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty, +and no less so the façade and side porch, both very richly decorated. +One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a +place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance +and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish +community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve +their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up. + +[Illustration: COLMAR] + +Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge +from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort--the +heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid +rock--the little Protestant town of Montbéliard, and Besançon. Belfort is +well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and +purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin +saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort" +comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly +industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many +communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country +between Montbéliard and Besançon, well worth seeing, if only from the +railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on +the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid +the _détour_ by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages +many. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + + + +V + +THE 'MARVELLOUS BOY' OF ALSACE + +I + +It is especially at Strasburg that travellers are reminded of another +"marvellous boy," who, if he did not "perish in his pride," certainly +shortened his days by overreaching ambition and the brooding bitterness +waiting upon shattered hopes. + +Gustave Doré was born and reared under the shadow of Strasburg +Cathedral. The majestic spire, a world in itself, became indeed a world +to this imaginative prodigy. He may be said to have learned the minster +of minsters by heart, as before him Victor Hugo had familiarized himself +with Notre Dame. The unbreeched artist of four summers never tired of +scrutinizing the statues, monsters, gargoyles and other outer +ornamentations, while the story of the pious architect Erwin and of his +inspirer, Sabine, was equally dear. Never did genius more clearly +exhibit the influence of early environment. True child of Alsace, he +revelled in local folklore and legend. The eerie and the fantastic had +the same fascination for him as sacred story, and the lives of the +saints, gnomes, elves, werewolves and sorcerers bewitched no less than +martyrs, miracle-workers and angels. + +His play-hours would be spent within the precincts of the cathedral, +whilst the long winter evenings were beguiled with fairy-tales and +fables, his mother and nurse reading or reciting these, their little +listener being always busy with pen or pencil. Something much more than +mere precocity is shown in these almost infantine sketches. Exorbitant +fancy is here much less striking than sureness of touch, outlined +figures drawn between the age of five and ten displaying remarkable +precision and point, each line of the silhouette telling. At six he +celebrated his first school prize with an illustrated letter, two +portraits and a mannikin surmounting the text. + +[Footnote: See his life by Blanch Roosevelt, Sampson Low & Co. 1885; +also the French translation of the same, 1886.] + +His groups of peasants and portraits, made three or four years later, +possess almost a Rembrandt strength, unfortunately passion for the +grotesque and the fanciful often lending a touch of caricature. +Downright ugliness must have had an especial charm for the future +illustrator of the _Inferno_, his unconscious models sketched by the +way being uncomely as the immortal Pickwick and his fellows of Phiz. A +devotee of Gothic art, he reproduced the mediæval monstrosities adorning +cornice and pinnacle in human types. Equally devoted to nature out of +doors, the same taste predominated. What he loved and sought was ever +the savage, the legend-haunted, the ghoulish, seats and ambuscades of +kelpie, hobgoblin, brownie and their kind. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, ÆTAT EIGHT YEARS] + +From the nursery upwards, if the term can be applied to French children, +his life was a succession of artistic abnormalities and _tours de +force_. The bantling in petticoats who could astound his elders with +wonderfully accurate silhouettes, continued to surprise them in other +ways. His memory was no less amazing than his draughtsmanship. When +seven years of age, he was taken to the opera and witnessed _Robert le +Diable_. On returning home he accurately narrated every scene. + +At eight he broke his right arm, but became as if by magic ambidextrous, +whilst confined to bed, cheerily drawing all day long with the left +hand. At ten he witnessed a grand public ceremony. In 1840 Strasburg +celebrated the inauguration of a monument to Gutenberg, the festival +being one of extraordinary splendour. Fifteen cars represented the +industrial corporations of the city, each symbolically adorned, and in +each riding figures suitably travestied and occupied, men, women and +children wearing the costumes of the period represented. Among the +corporations figured the _Peintres-verriers_, or painters on stained +glass, their car proving especially attractive to one small looker-on. + +Intoxicated by the colour and movement of the fête, garlanded and +beflagged streets, the symbolic carriages, the bands, civic and +military, and the prevailing enthusiasm, the child determined to get up +an apotheosis of his own: in other words, to repeat the performance on a +smaller scale. Which he did. Cars, costumes, banners and decorations +were all designed by this imp of ten. With the approval of his +professors and the collaboration of his school-fellows, the Doré +procession, consisting of four highly decorated cars, drawn by boys, +defiled before the college authorities and made the round of the +cathedral, the youthful impresario at its head. The car of the painters +on glass was conspicuously elaborate, a star copied from a Cathedral +window showing the superscription, _G. Doré, fecit_. Small wonder is it +that the adoring mother of an equally adoring son should have believed +in him from the first, and seen in these beginnings the dawn of genius, +the advent, indeed, of a second Michael Angelo or Titian. + +The more practical father might chide such overreaching vaticinations, +might reiterate-- + +"Do not fill the boy's head with nonsense." + +The answer would be-- + +"I know it. Our son is a genius." + +And Doré _père_ gave way, under circumstances curious enough. + + +II + + +In 1847 the family visited Paris, there to Gustave's delight spending +four months. Loitering one day in the neighbourhood of the Bourse, his +eye lighted upon comic papers with cuts published by MM. Auber and +Philipon. Their shop windows were full of caricatures, and after a long +and intent gaze the boy returned home, in two or three days presenting +himself before the proprietors with half-a-dozen drawings much in the +style of those witnessed. The benevolent but businesslike M. Philipon +examined the sketches attentively, put several questions to his young +visitor, and, finding that the step had been taken surreptitiously, +immediately sat down and wrote to M. and Mme. Doré. He urged them with +all the inducements he could command to allow their son the free choice +of a career, assuring them of his future. + +A few days later an agreement was signed by father and publisher to this +effect: During three years the latter was to receive upon certain terms +a weekly cartoon from the sixteen-year-old artist, who, on his side, +bound himself to offer no sketches elsewhere. + +[Footnote: This document was reproduced in _Le Figaro_ of +December 4, 1848.] + +Meanwhile, Gustave would pursue his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne, +his patron promising to look after his health and well-being. The +arrangement answered, and in _Le Journal pour rire_ the weekly +caricature signed by Doré soon noised his fame abroad. Ugly, even +hideous, as were many of these caricatures, they did double duty, paying +the lad's school expenses, and paving the way to better things. Of +caricature Doré soon tired, and after this early period never returned +to it. Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation +should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically +speaking, Doré passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the +word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This +undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon +found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune. + +Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. +Doré with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and +historic hôtel of the Rue St. Dominique. Here Doré lived for the rest of +his too short life. + +The house had belonged to the family of Saint Simon, that terrible +observer under whose gaze even Louis XIV. is said to have quailed. So +aver historians of the period. The associations of his home immediately +quickened Doré's inventive faculties. He at once set to work and +organized a brilliant set of _tableaux vivants_, illustrating scenes +from the immortal Mémoires. The undertaking proved a great social +success, and henceforth we hear of galas, soirées, theatricals and other +entertainments increasing in splendour with the young artist's +vogue--and means. + +The history of the next twenty years reads like a page from the _Arabian +Nights_. Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite +the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's +ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and +disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of +literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Doré reached the +first rank at twenty, his _Rabelais_ setting the seal on his renown. So +immense was the success of this truly colossal undertaking and of its +successors, the _Don Quixote_, the _Contes de fées_ of Perrault +and the rest, that he meditated nothing less than the illustration of +cosmopolitan _chefs 'd' oeuvre, en bloc_, a series which should include +every great imaginative work of the Western world! Thus in 1855 we find +him noting the following projects, to be carried out in ten years' +time:--illustrations of Æschylus, Lucan, Ovid, Shakespeare, Goethe +_(Faust)_, Lamartine _(Méditations)_, Racine, Corneille, Schiller, +Boccaccio, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives--these names among others. The +jottings in question were written for a friend who had undertaken to +write the artist's biography. + + +The _Rabelais, Don Quixote, The Inferno_, and several more of these +sumptuous volumes were brought out in England. Forty years ago Doré's +bold and richly imaginative work was in great favour here; indeed, +throughout his life he was much more appreciated by ourselves than by +his countrymen. All the drawings were done straight upon wood. Lavish in +daily life, generous of the generous, Doré showed the same lavishness in +his procedure. Some curious particulars are given upon this head. +Fabulous sums were spent upon his blocks, even small ones costing as +much as four pounds apiece. He must always have the very best wood, no +matter the cost, and it was only the whitest, smoothest and glossiest +boxwood that satisfied him. Enormous sums were spent upon this material, +and to his honour be it recorded, that no matter the destination of a +block, the same cost, thought and minute manipulation were expended upon +a trifling commission as upon one involving thousands of pounds. The +penny paper was treated precisely the same as the volume to be brought +out at two guineas. In the zenith of his fame as an illustrator, at a +time when tip-top authors and editors were all clamouring for his +drawings, he did not despise humbler admirers and clients. His delight +in his work was only equalled by quite abnormal physical and mental +powers. Sleep, food, fresh air, everything was forgotten in the +engrossment of work. At this time he would often give himself three +hours of sleep only. + +Doré's ambition--rather, one of his ambitions--was to perfect wood +engraving as an art, hence his indifference to the cost of production. +Hence, doubtless, his persistence in drawing on wood without preliminary +sketch or copy. + +Perhaps such obsession was natural. How could he foresee the variety of +new methods that were so soon to transform book illustration? Anyhow, +herein partly lies the explanation of the following notice in a +second-hand book catalogue, 1911-- + +"No. 355. Gustave Doré: _Dante's Inferno_, with 76 full-page +illustrations by Doré. 4to, gilt top, binding soiled, but otherwise good +copy. _42s._ for _3s. 6d._ London, n.d." + +A leading London publisher consulted by me on the subject, writes +as follows-- + +"Doré's works are no longer in vogue. One of the reasons lies in the +fact that his pictures were done by the old engraved process. He drew +them straight on wood, and there are, accordingly, no original drawings +to be reproduced by modern methods." + +The words "fatal facility" cannot be applied to so consummate a +draughtsman as the illustrator of Dante, Cervantes and Victor Hugo. But +Doré's almost superhuman memory was no less of a pitfall than manual +dexterity. The following story will partly explain his dislike of +facsimile and duplication. + +An intimate friend, named Bourdelin, relates how one day during the +siege of Paris, the pair found themselves by the Courbevoie bridge. One +side of this bridge was guarded by French gendarmes, the other by +German officers, Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, a dozen in all. For a +quarter of an hour the two Frenchmen lingered, Doré intently gazing on +the group opposite. On returning home some hours later he produced a +sketch-book and in Bourdelin's presence swiftly outlined the twelve +figures, exactly reproducing not only physiognomic divergences but +every detail of costume! Poor Doré! In those ardently patriotic days he +entirely relied upon victory and drew an anticipatory picture of France +triumphant, entitled, "Le Passage du Rhin." But the French never +crossed the Rhine, and the drawing was given to this friend with the +words: "My sketch has no longer any _raison d'être_. Keep it in memory +of our fallacious hopes." + + +III + + +In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Doré decided to +leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded +genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that +could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. + +A reader of Ariosto, he had not taken to heart one of his most memorable +verses, those mellifluous lines in which the poet dwells upon the +laboriousness of intellectual achievement. Nor when illustrating the +_Arabian Nights_ had the wonderful story of Hasan of El-Basrah +evidently brought home to him the same moral. + +Between a Doré and his object--so he deemed--existed neither "seven +valleys nor seven seas, nor seven mountains of vast magnitude." A Doré +needed no assistance of the flying Jinn and the wandering stars on his +way, no flying horse, "which when he went along flew, and when he flew +the dust overtook him not." + +Without the equipment of training, without recognition of such a +handicap, he entered upon his new career. + +In 1854 for the first time two pictures signed by Doré appeared on the +walls of the Salon. But the canvases passed unnoticed. The Parisians +would not take the would-be painter seriously, and the following year's +experience proved hardly less disheartening. Of four pictures sent in, +three were accepted, one of these being a historic subject, the other +two being landscapes. The first, "La Bataille de l'Alma," evoked +considerable criticism. The rural scenes were hung, as Edmond About +expressed it, so high as to need a telescope. + +Both About and Th. Gautier believed in their friend's newly-developed +talent, but art-critics and the public held aloof. No medal was decreed +by the jury, and, accustomed as he had been to triumph after triumph, +his fondest hopes for the second time deceived, Doré grew bitter and +acrimonious. That his failure had anything to do with the real question +at issue, namely, his genius as a historic painter, he would never for a +moment admit. Jealousy, cabals, prejudice only were accountable. + +The half dozen years following were divided between delightfully gay and +varied sociabilities, feverishly prolonged working hours and foreign +travel. The millions of francs earned by his illustrations gave him +everything he wanted but one, that one, in his eyes, worth all the rest. + +Travel, a splendid studio, largesses--he was generosity itself--all +these were within his reach. The craved-for renown remained ungraspable. + +Even visits to his favourite resort, Barr, brought disenchantment. He +found old acquaintances and the country folks generally wanting in +appreciation. With greater and lesser men, he subacidly said to himself +that a man was no prophet in his own country. + +Ten years after the fiasco of his first canvases in the Salon came an +invitation to England and the alluring project of a Doré gallery. The +Doré Bible and Tennyson, with other works, had paved the way for a right +royal reception. The streets of London, as he could well believe, were +paved with gold. But many were the _contra_. "I feel the presentiment," +he wrote to a friend, "that if I betake myself to England, I shall break +with my own country and lose prestige and influence in France. I cannot +exist without my friends, my habits and my _pot-au-feu_. Folks tell me +that England is a land of fogs, that the sun never shines there, that +the inhabitants are cold, and that I should most likely suffer from +sea-sickness in crossing the Manche. To sum up, England is a long way +off, and I have a great mind to give up the project." + +Friendly persuasion, self-interest, wounded self-love carried the day. +Reluctantly he decided upon the redoubtable sea-voyage. Whether he +suffered from sea-sickness or no we are not told. In any case the visit +was repeated, John Bull according the great Alsatian, as he was called, +what France had so persistently withheld. + +Doré was here accorded the first rank among historic painters. His +gallery in Bond Street became one of the London sights; in fashionable +society, if not in the close ring of the great Victorian artists, he +made a leading figure. Royalty patronized and welcomed him. The Queen +bought one of his pictures ("Le Psalterion," now at Windsor), and invited +him to Balmoral. The heir-apparent, the late King, admired his talent +and relished his society. By the clerical world he was especially +esteemed, being looked upon as a second Leonardo da Vinci. And, in fine, +Doré must be regarded as an anticipator of the Entente cordiale. +"Gustave Doré," his compatriots would say, "he is half an Englishman!" +Forty years ago our popular favourite might indeed have believed in the +fulfilment of his dream. The Thorwaldsen Gallery of Copenhagen had ever +dazzled his imagination. Bond Street was not Paris, certainly, but in +the greatest metropolis of the world his memory would be for ever +perpetuated. Turning to the dithyrambic utterances of the London Press +at the time we can hardly wonder at the hallucination. + +Here are one or two passages culled from leading dailies and weeklies-- + +"In gravity and magnitude of purpose, no less than in the scope and +power of his imagination, he towers like a Colossus among his +contemporaries. Compared with such a work as 'Christ leaving the +Prætorium,' the pictures in Burlington House look like the production of +a race of dwarfs whose mental faculties are as diminutive as their +stature. And it is not alone the efforts of the English School of +Painting that appear puny in presence of so great and gigantic an +undertaking; the work of all the existing schools of Europe sinks into +equal insignificance, and we must go back to the Italian painters of the +sixteenth century to find a picture worthy of being classed with this +latest and most stupendous achievement of the great French master." + +Elsewhere we read-- + +"The most marvellous picture of the present age is to be seen at 35, New +Bond Street. The subject is 'Christ leaving the Prætorium,' The painter +is the world-renowned Gustave Doré." + +A journal devoted to art-criticism wrote-- + +"In 'The Christian Martyrs' we have a striking, thrilling and +ennobling picture." + +And so on, and so on. Yet at this time among "the dwarfs" of Burlington +House then exhibiting was Millais, and contemporaneously with Doré in +our midst, 1870-1, was Daubigny, whose tiniest canvases now fetch their +thousands! + +It was during Doré's apogee in England that a well-known French amateur, +also visiting our shores, was thus addressed by an English friend: "Come +with me to Bond Street, you will there see the work of your greatest +living painter." + +"_Our_ greatest painter!" exclaimed the other. "You mean your own. Doré +is our first draughtsman of France, yes, but painter, never, neither the +greatest nor great; at least we were ignorant of the fact till informed +of it by yourself and your country-people." + +Doré knew well how matters stood, and bitterly resented the attitude of +his own nation. Accorded a princely welcome across the Manche, his work +worth its weight in gold on the other side of the Atlantic, in France he +was looked at askance, even as a painter ignored. He regarded himself as +shut out from his rightful heritage, and the victim, if not of a +conspiracy, of a cabal. His school playmates and close friends, Taine, +Edmond About and Th. Gautier, might be on his side; perhaps, with +reservations, Rossini and a few other eminent associates also. But the +prescient, unerring verdict of the collective "man in the street"-- + +"The people's voice, the proof and echo of all human fame"-- + +he missed; resentment preyed upon his spirits, undermined his vitality, +and doubtless had something to do with his premature breakdown. + +The Doré gallery indeed proved his Capua, the long-stop to his fame. + + +IV + + +As a personality the would-be Titian, Dürer, Thorwaldsen and Benvenuto +Cellini in one presents an engaging figure. His domestic life makes very +pleasant reading. We find no dark holes and corners in the career of one +who may be said to have remained a boy to the end, at fifty as at five +full of freak and initiative, clingingly attached to a devoted and +richly-endowed mother, and the ebullient spirit of a happy home. With +his rapidly increasing fortune, the historic house in the Rue Dominique +became an artistic, musical and dramatic centre. His fêtes were worthy +of a millionaire, and, alike in those private theatricals, _tableaux +vivants_ or concerts, he ever took a leading part. An accomplished +violinist, Doré found in music a never-failing stimulant and +refreshment. Rossini was one of his circle, among others were the two +Gautiers, the two Dumas, Carolus Duran, Liszt, Gounod, Patti, Alboni and +Nilsson, Mme. Doré, still handsome and alert in her old age, proudly +doing the honours of what was now called the Hôtel Doré. By his literary +and artistic brethren the many-faceted genius and exhilarating host was +fully appreciated. Generosities he ever freely indulged in, the wealth +of such rapid attainment being dispensed with an ungrudgeful hand. To +works of charity the great illustrator gave largely, but we hear of no +untoward misreckonings, nor bills drawn upon time, health or talents. +With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh +commandment. + +Meantime, as the years wore on, again and again he bid desperately for +the suffrages withheld, his legitimately won renown held by him of small +account. To his American biographer he said, on showing her some of his +pictures: "I illustrate books in order to pay for my colours and +paint-brushes. I was born a painter." + +On the lady's companion, an American officer, naively asking if +certain canvases were designed for London or Paris, he answered with +bitter irony-- + +"Paris, forsooth! I do not paint well enough for Paris." As he spoke his +face became clouded. The gay, jovial host of a few minutes before sighed +deeply, and during their visit could not shake off depression. + +Two crowning humiliations came before the one real sorrow of his life, +the loss of that gifted mother who was alike his boon companion, closest +confidante and enthusiastic Egeria. Perpetually seeking laurels in new +fields, in 1877 he made his _début_ as a sculptor. The marble group, "La +Parque et l'Amour," signed G. Doré, won a _succès d'estime_, no more. +In the following year was opened the great international exhibition on the +Champ de Mars, Doré's enormous monumental vase being conspicuously +placed over one of the porticoes. This astounding achievement in bronze, +appropriately named the "Poème de la Vigne," created quite a sensation +at the time. Reproductions appeared in papers of all countries +containing a printing press or photographic machine. But for the +artist's name, doubtless his work would have attained the gold medal and +other honours. The Brobdingnagian vase, so wonderfully decorated with +flowers, animals and arabesques, was passed over by the jury. + +Equally mortifying was the fate of his marble group in the same year's +Salon. This subject, "La Gloire," had a place of honour in the sculpture +gallery and won universal suffrages. The critics echoed popular +approval. The jury remained passive. It was in the midst of these +unnecessarily crushing defeats--for why, indeed, should any mortal have +craved more than mortal success?--that Mme. Doré's forces gave way. From +that time till her death, which occurred two years later, her son's +place was by her side, floutings, projects, health and pleasure, +forgotten, his entire thoughts being given to the invalid. No more +beautiful picture of filial devotion could suggest itself to the painter +of domestic subjects than this, Doré with table and sketching materials +seated in his mother's sick-room, or at night ministering to her in +wakeful moments. At dawn he would snatch a few hours' sleep, but that +was all. No wonder that his own health should give way so soon after the +death-blow of her loss. + +"My friend," he wrote to an English boon companion, on March 16, 1881, +"she is no more. I am alone. You are a clergyman, I entreat you to pray +for the repose of her beloved soul and the preservation of my reason." + +A few days later he wrote to the same friend of his "frightful +solitude," adding his regret at not having anticipated such a blank and +made for himself a home--in other words, taken a wife. + +Some kind matchmaking friends set to work and found, so at least they +fancied, a bride exactly calculated to render him happy. + +But on January 23, 1883, Doré died, prematurely aged and broken +down by grief, corroding disappointment and quite frenzied overwork +and ambition. + +He never attained recognition as a historic painter among his +country-folks. One canvas, however, "Tobit and the Angel," is placed in +the Luxembourg, and his monument to Dumas ornaments the capital. His +renown as an illustrator remains high as ever in France. And one, that +one, the passionately desired prize of every Frenchman, became his: in +1861 he was decorated with the Red Ribbon. Six of Doré's great religious +subjects retain their place in the Bond Street Gallery, but for reasons +given above his wonderfully imaginative illustrations are here +forgotten. + +The superb edition of the _Enid_ (Moxon, 1868), a folio bound in royal +purple and gold, and printed on paper thick as vellum, the volume +weighing four pounds, awakens melancholy reflections. What would have +been poor Doré's feelings had he lived to see such a guinea's worth, and +cheap at the price, gladly sold, rather got rid of, for three shillings! + +Doré's last work, the unconventional monument to the elder Dumas, was +left unfinished. + +Completed by another hand, the group now forms a conspicuous object in +the Avenue Villiers, Paris. + +The striking figure of the great quadroon, with his short crisped +locks, suggests a closer relationship to the race thus apostrophized by +Walt Whitman-- + + "You, dim descended, black, divine souled African...." + +He surmounts a lofty pedestal, on the base being seated a homely group, +three working folks, a mob-capped woman reading a Dumas novel to two +companions, evidently her father and husband, sons of the soil, drinking +in every word, their attitude of the most complete absorption. +Classicists and purists in art doubtless look askance at a work which +would certainly have enchanted the sovereign romancer. + +"Will folks read my stories when I am gone, doctor?" he asked as he lay +a-dying. The good physician easily reassured his patient. "When we have +patients awaiting some much-dreaded operation in hospital," he replied, +"we have only to give them one of your novels. Straightway they forget +everything else." And Dumas--"the great, the humane," as a charming poet +has called him--died happy. As well he might, in so far as his fame was +concerned. _La Tulipe Noire_ would alone have assured his future. + + + +VI + +QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is +to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the +lodestar ahead. The way to almost any place of renown, natural, historic +or artistic, is sure to teem with as much interest as that to which we +are bound. So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is +French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every +town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we +set out. Thus it has ever been my rule to indulge in the most +preposterous peregrination, taking no account whatever of days, seasons +or possible cons, hearkening only to the pros, and never so much as +glancing at the calendar. Such protracted zigzaggeries have been made +easy to the "devious traveller" by one unusual advantage. Just as +pioneers in Australasia find Salvation Army shelters scattered +throughout remotest regions, so, fortunately, have I ever been able to +count upon "harbour and good company" during my thirty-five years of +French sojourn and travel. + +To reach a certain Pyrenean valley in which I was to spend a holiday +would only have meant a night's dash by express from Paris. Instead, I +followed the south-eastern route, halting at--Heaven knows how +many!--already familiar and delightful places between Paris and Dijon, +Dijon and Lyons, Lyons and Nîmes; from the latter city being bound for +almost as many more before reaching my destination. + +Quite naturally I would often find myself on the track of that "wise and +honest traveller," so John Morley calls Arthur Young. + +Half-way between Nîmes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at +which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a +disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." + +But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I +went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and +odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery-- + +"Here I am!" + +As a rule I am entirely of Montaigne's opinion. "When I travel in +Sicily," said the philosopher of Gascony, "it is not to find Gascons." +Dearly as we love home and home-folk, the gist of travel lies in +oppositeness and surprises. We do not visit the uttermost ends of the +globe in search of next-door neighbours. That cordial "Here I am!" +however, had an unmistakable accent, just a delightful suspicion of +French. My host was a gallant naval officer long since retired from +service, with his English wife and two daughters, spending the long +vacation in his country home. + +High above the little village of Quissac rises the residence of +beneficent owners, master and mistress, alas! long since gone to their +rest. From its terrace the eye commands a vast and beautiful panorama, a +richly cultivated plain dotted with villages and framed by the blue +Cévennes. Tea served after English fashion and by a dear countrywoman, +everywhere _"le confortable Anglais"_ admittedly unattainable by French +housewives, could not for a single moment make me forget that I was in +France. And when the dinner gong sounded came the final, the +unequivocal, proof of distance. + +Imagine dining out of doors and in evening dress at eight o'clock in the +last week of August! The table was set on the wide balcony of the upper +floor, high above lawn and bosquets, the most chilly person having here +nothing to fear. It is above all things the French climate that +transports us so far from home and makes us feel ourselves hundreds, +nay, thousands of miles away. + +I have elsewhere, perhaps ofttimes, dwelt on the luminosity of the +atmosphere in southern and south-western France. To-night not a breath +was stirring, the outer radiance was the radiance of stars only, yet so +limpid, so lustrous the air that cloudless moonlight could hardly have +made every object seem clearer, more distinct. The feeling inspired by +such conditions is that of enchantment. For the nonce we may yield to a +spell, fancy ourselves in Armida's enchanted garden or other "delightful +land of Faëry." + +Not for long, however! Pleasant practical matters soon recall us to the +life of every day. That laborious, out-of-door existence, which seems +sordid in superfine English eyes, but which is never without the gaiety +that enchanted Goldsmith and Sterne a hundred and fifty years ago. + +Whilst host and guest dined on the balcony, the farming folk and such of +the household as could be spared were enjoying a starlit supper +elsewhere. Later, my hostess took me downstairs and introduced her +English visitor to a merry but strictly decorous party having a special +bit of sward to themselves, bailiff, vintagers, stockmen, dairywoman, +washerwoman and odd hands making up a round dozen of men, women and +boys. All seemed quite at home, and chatted easily with their employer +and the visitor, by no means perturbed, rather pleased by the intrusion. + +And here I will mention one of those incidents that lead English +observers into so many misconceptions concerning French rural life. +Little things that seem sordid, even brutifying to insular eyes, really +arise from incompatible standards. + +The Frenchman's ideal of material comfort begins and ends with solvency, +the sense of absolute security from want in old age. Small comforts he +sets little store by; provided that he gets a good dinner, lesser +considerations go. I do not hesitate to say that the comforts enjoyed by +our own farm-servants half a century ago were far in excess of those +thought more than sufficient by French labourers and their employers. On +the following day my hosts took me round the farmery, fowl-run, +piggeries, neat-houses and stalls being inspected one by one. When we +came to the last named, I noticed at the door of the long building and +on a level with the feeding troughs for oxen, a bed-shaped wooden box +piled up with fresh clean straw. + +"That is where our stockman sleeps," explained the lady. + +Here, then, quite contentedly slept the herdsman of a large estate in +nineteenth-century France, whilst his English compeers two generations +before, and in much humbler employ, had their tidy bedroom and +comfortable bed under the farmer's roof. What would my own Suffolk +ploughmen have said to the notion of spending the night in an ox-stall? +But _autres pays, autres moeurs_. In Déroulède's fine little poem, "Bon +gîte", a famished, foot-sore soldier returning home is generously +entreated by a poor housewife. When she sets about preparing a bed for +him, he remonstrates-- + + "Good dame, what means that new-made bed, + Those sheets so finely spun? + On heaped-up straw in cattle-shed, + I'd snore till rise of sun." + +The compensations for apparent hardship in the case of French peasants +are many and great. In Henry James's great series of dissolving views +called _The American Scene_, he describes the heterogeneous masses as +having "a promoted look". The French proletariat have not a promoted +look, rather one of inherited, traditional stability and self-respect. +One and all, moreover, are promoting themselves, rising by a slow +evolutionary process from the condition of wage-earner to that of +metayer, tenant, lastly freeholder. + +Although the immediate environs of Quissac and Sauve are not remarkable, +magnificent prospects are obtained a little farther afield--our drives +and walks abounded in interest--and associations! Strange but true it is +that we can hardly halt anywhere in France without coming upon historic, +literary or artistic memorials. Every town and village is redolent of +tradition, hardly a spot but is glorified by genius! + +Thus, half-an-hour's drive from our village still stands the château +and birthplace of Florian, the Pollux of fabulists, La Fontaine being +the Castor, no other stars of similar magnitude shining in their +especial arc. + +Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born here in 1755, just sixty years +after the great fabulist's death. Nephew of a marquis, himself +nephew-in-law of Voltaire, endowed with native wit and gaiety, the young +man was a welcome guest at Fernay, and no wonder! His enchanting fables +did not see the light till after Voltaire's death, but we will hope that +some of them had delighted his host in recitation. Many of us who loved +French in early years have a warm corner in our hearts for "Numa +Pompilius", but Florian will live as the second fabulist of France, to +my own thinking twin of his forerunner. + +How full of wisdom, wit and sparkle are these apologues! Take, for +instance, the following, which to the best of my ability I have rendered +into our mother tongue-- + + VANITY (LE PETIT CHIEN). + + I + Once on a time and far away, + The elephant stood first in might, + He had by many a forest fray + At last usurped the lion's right. + On peace and reign unquestioned bent, + The ruler in his pride of place, + Forthwith to life-long banishment + Doomed members of the lion race. + + II + Dispirited, their best laid low, + The vanquished could but yield to fate, + And turn their backs upon the foe + In silence nursing grief and hate. + A poodle neatly cropped and clipped, + With tasselled tail made leonine, + On hearing of the stern rescript, + Straightway set up a piteous whine. + + III + "Alas!" he moaned. "Ah, woe is me! + Where, tyrant, shall I shelter find; + Advancing years what will they be, + My home and comforts left behind?" + A spaniel hastened at the cry, + "Come, mate, what's this to-do about?" + "Oh, oh," the other gulped reply, + "For exile we must all set out!" + + IV + "Must all?" "No, you are safe, good friend; + The cruel law smites us alone; + Here undisturbed your days may end, + The lions must perforce begone." + "The lions? Brother, pray with these, + What part or lot have such as you?" + "What part, forsooth? You love to tease; + You know I am a lion too." + +[Footnote: The first translation appeared with others in _French Men, +Women and Books_, 1910. The second was lately issued in the +_Westminster Gazette_.] + +Here is another, a poem of essential worldly wisdom, to be bracketed +with Browning's equally oracular "The Statue and the Bust," fable and +poem forming a compendium. + + THE FLIGHTY PURPOSE + (LE PAYSAN AND LA RIVIERE). + + "I now intend to change my ways"-- + Thus Juan said--"No more for me + A round on round of idle days + 'Mid soul-debasing company. + I've pleasure woo'd from year to year + As by a siren onward lured, + At last of roystering, once held dear, + I'm as a man of sickness cured." + + "Unto the world I bid farewell, + My mind to retrospection give, + Remote as hermit in his cell, + For wisdom and wise friends I'll live." + "Is Thursday's worldling, Friday's sage? + Too good such news," I bantering spoke. + "How oft you've vowed to turn the page, + Each promise vanishing like smoke!" + + "And when the start?" "Next week--not this." + "Ah, you but play with words again." + "Nay, do not doubt me; hard it is + To break at once a life-long chain." + Came we unto the riverside, + Where motionless a rustic sate, + His gaze fixed on the flowing tide. + "Ho, mate, why thus so still and squat?" + + "Good sirs, bound to yon town am I; + No bridge anear, I sit and sit + Until these waters have run dry, + So that afoot I get to it." + "A living parable behold, + My friend!" quoth I. "Upon the brim + You, too, will gaze until you're old, + But never boldly take a swim!" + +As far as I know, no memorial has as yet been raised to the fabulist +either at Quissac or at Sauve, but as long as the French language lasts +successive generations will keep his memory green. Certain of his fables +every little scholar knows by heart. + +Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from +Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing +described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a +name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress. + +"From Ganges", wrote the great Suffolk farmer in July 1787, "to the +mountain of rough ground which I crossed" (in the direction of +Montdardier), "the ride has been the most interesting which I have +taken in France; the efforts of industry the most vigorous, the +animation the most lively. An activity has been here that has swept away +all difficulties before it and clothed the very rocks with verdure. It +would be a disgrace to common sense to ask the cause; the enjoyment of +property must have done it. _Give a man the sure possession of a bleak +rock, and he will turn it into a garden_." The italics are my own. When +will Arthur Young have his tablet in Westminster Abbey, I wonder? + +The department of the Gard offers an anomaly of the greatest historic +interest. Here and here only throughout the length and breadth of France +villages are found without a Catholic church, communities that have held +fast to Protestantism and the right of private judgment from generation +to generation during hundreds of years. Elsewhere, in the Côte d'Or, for +instance, as I have described in a former work, Protestantism was +completely stamped out by the Revocation, whole villages are now +ultramontane, having abjured, the alternatives placed before them being +confiscation of property, separation of children and parents, +banishment, prison and death. + +[Footnote: See _Friendly Faces_, chap. xvi.] + +The supremacy of the reformed faith may be gathered from the following +facts: A few years back, of the six deputies representing this +department five were Protestant and the sixth was a Jew. The _Conseil +Général_ or provincial council numbered twenty-three Protestants as +against seventeen Catholics. The seven members of the Board of Hospitals +at Nîmes, three of the four inspectors of public health, nine of the +twelve head-mistresses of girls' schools, twenty-nine of forty rural +magistrates, were Protestants. + +My host belonged to the same faith, as indeed do most of his class and +the great captains of local industry. It is not as in Michelet's +fondly-loved St. Georges de Didonne, where only the lowly and the toiler +have kept the faith aflame. + +But whilst neighbours now live peacefully side by side, a gulf still +divides Catholic and Protestant. Although half a millennium has elapsed +since the greatest crime of modern history, the two bodies remain apart: +French _annexés_ of Alsace-Lorraine and Germans are not more completely +divided. Mixed marriages are of rarest occurrence, intercourse limited +to the conventional and the obligatory. There are historic curses that +defy lustration. St. Bartholomew is one of these. I must now say +something about the country-folks. Calls upon our rustic neighbours, +long chats with affable housewives, and rounds of farmery, vineyard and +field attracted me more than the magnificent panoramas to be obtained +from Corconne and other villages within an easy drive. + +George Sand has ever been regarded as a poetizer of rural life, an +arch-idealist of her humbler country-folks. At Quissac I made more than +one acquaintance that might have stepped out of _La petite Fadette_ or +_La mare au Diable_. + +One old woman might have been "la paisible amie," the tranquil friend, +to whom the novelist dedicated a novel. Neat, contented, active and +self-respecting, she enjoyed a life-interest in two acres and a cottage, +her live stock consisting of a goat, a pig and poultry, her invested +capital government stock representing a hundred pounds. Meagre as may +seem these resources, she was by no means to be pitied or inclined to +pity herself, earning a few francs here and there by charing, selling +her little crops, what eggs and chickens she could spare, above all +things being perfectly independent. + +A charming idyll the great Sand could have found here. The owner of a +thirty-acre farm had lately died, leaving it with all he possessed to +two adopted children, a young married couple who for years had acted +respectively as steward and housekeeper. We are bound to infer that on +the one hand there had been affection and gratitude, on the other the +same qualities with conscientiousness in business matters. The +foster-father was childless and a widower, but, among the humble as well +as the rich French, ambition of posthumous remembrance often actuates +impersonal bequests. This worthy Jacques Bonhomme might have made an +heir of his native village, leaving money for a new school-house or some +other public edifice. Very frequently towns and even villages become +legatees of the childless, and the worthy man would have been quite sure +of a statue, a memorial tablet, or at least of having his name added to +a street or square. + +Before taking leave of Quissac I must mention one curious fact. + +The Proteus of Odyssean story or the King's daughter and the Efreet in +the "Second Royal Mendicant's Adventure," could not more easily +transform themselves than the French peasant. Husbandman to-day, +mechanic on the morrow, at one season he plies the pruning-hook, at +another he turns the lathe. This adaptability of the French mind, +strange to say, is nowhere seen to greater advantage than in +out-of-the-way regions, just where are mental torpidity and unbendable +routine. Not one of Millet's blue-bloused countrymen but masters a dozen +handicrafts. + +Thus, whilst the heraldic insignia of Sauve should be a trident, those +of Quissac should be surmounted by an old shoe! In the former place the +forked branches of the _Celtis australis_ or nettle tree, _Ulmaceæ_, +afford a most profitable occupation. From its tripartite boughs are made +yearly thousands upon thousands of the three-pronged forks used in +agriculture. The wood, whilst very durable, is yielding, and lends +itself to manipulation. + +In Florian's birthplace folks make a good living out of old boots and +shoes! Some native genius discovered that, however well worn footgear +may be, valuable bits of leather may remain in the sole. These fragments +are preserved, and from them boot heels are made; the _débris_, boots, +shoes and slippers, no matter the material, find their way to the soil +as manure. But this subject if pursued further would lead to a lane, +metaphorically speaking, without a turning, that is to say to a treatise +on French rural economy. + + + +VII + +AN IMMORTALIZER + +In Renan's exquisitely phrased preface to his _Drames Philosophiques_ +occurs the following sentence which I render into English _tant bien que +mal_: "Side by side are the history of fact and the history of the +ideal, the latter materially speaking of what has never taken place, but +which, in the ideal sense, has happened a thousand times." + +Who when visiting the beautiful little town of Saumur thinks of the +historic figures connected with its name? Even the grand personality of +Duplessis Morny sinks into insignificance by comparison with that of the +miser's daughter, the gentle, ill-starred Eugénie Grandet! And who when +Carcassonne first breaks upon his view thinks of aught but Nadaud's +immortal peasant and his plaint-- + + "I'm growing old, just three score year, + In wet and dry, in dust and mire, + I've sweated, never getting near + Fulfilment of my heart's desire. + Ah, well I see that bliss below + 'Tis Heaven's will to vouchsafe none, + Harvest and vintage come and go, + I've never got to Carcassonne!" + +The tragi-comic poem of six eight-lined verses ending thus-- + + "So sighed a peasant of Limoux, + A worthy neighbour bent and worn. + 'Ho, friend,' quoth I, 'I'll go with you. + We'll sally forth to-morrow morn.' + And true enough away we hied, + But when our goal was almost won, + God rest his soul!--the good man died, + He never got to Carcassonne!" + +No lover of France certainly should die without having seen Carcassonne, +foremost of what I will call the pictorial Quadrilateral, no formidable +array after the manner of their Austrian cognominal, but lovely, +dreamlike things. These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as +when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the +Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guérande, scene of +Balzac's _Béatrix_. To my thinking, and I have visited each, there is +little to choose between the first two, but exquisite as is the little +Briard acropolis, those imaginary "topless towers of Ilium" of Nadaud's +peasant bear the palm. That first view of Carcassonne as we approach it +in the railway of itself repays a long and tedious journey. A vision +rather than reality, structure of pearly clouds in mid-heaven, seems +that opaline pile lightly touched with gold. We expect it to evaporate +at evenfall! Vanish it does not, nor wholly bring disillusion, so fair +and harmonious are the vistas caught in one circuit of the citadel, mere +matter of twenty minutes. + +But the place by this time has become so familiar to travellers in +France and readers of French travel, that I will here confine myself to +its glorifier, author of a song that has toured the world. + +The first biography of the French Tom Moore, published last year, gives +no history of this much translated poem. Had, indeed, some worthy +vine-grower poured out such a plaint in the poet's ears? Very probably, +for one and all of Nadaud's rural poems breathe the very essence of the +fields, the inmost nature of the peasant, from first to last they reveal +Jacques Bonhomme to us, his conceptions of life, his mentality and +limitations. + +[Footnote: My own rendering of this piece and many other of Nadaud's +songs and ballads are given in _French Men, Women and Books_, 1910. +American translators have admirably translated _Carcassonne_.] + +Nadaud's career is uneventful, but from one point of view, far from +being noteless, he was pre-eminently the happy man. His biographer (A. +Varloy) tells us of a smooth, much relished, even an exuberant +existence. The son of an excellent bourgeois, whose ancestry, +nevertheless, like that of many another, could be traced for six hundred +years, his early surroundings were the least lyric imaginable. + +He was born at Roubaix, the flourishing seat of manufacture near Lille, +which, although a mere _chef-lieu du canton_, does more business with +the Bank of France than the big cities of Toulouse, Nîmes, Montpellier +and others thrice its size. Dress fabrics, cloths and exquisite napery +are the products of Roubaix and its suburb; vainly, however, does any +uncommercial traveller endeavour to see the weavers at work. Grimy walls +and crowded factory chimneys are relieved at Roubaix by gardens public +and private, and the town is endowed with museums, libraries, art and +technical schools. But Nadaud, like Cyrano de Bergerac, if asked what +gave him most delectation, would certainly have replied-- + + "Lorsque j'ai fait un vers et que je l'aime, + Je me paye en me le chantant à moi-même." + +Here is the boy's daily programme when a twelve-year-old student at the +Collège Rollin, Paris. The marvel is that the poetic instinct survived +such routine, marvellous also the fact that the dry-as-dust in authority +was a well-known translator of Walter Scott. If anything could have +conjured the Wizard of the North from his grave it was surely these +particulars written by Gustave Nadaud to his father on the 19th of +October, 1833-- + +"Five-thirty, rise; five-forty-five, studies till seven-thirty; +breakfast and recreation from seven-thirty till eight; from eight till +ten, school; from ten to a quarter past, recreation; from a quarter past +ten till half past twelve, school; then dinner and recreation from one +till two. School from two till half past four; collation from half past +four till a quarter past five; school from a quarter past five till +eight. Supper and to bed." + +Poetry here was, however, a healthy plant, and in his school-days this +born song-writer would scribble verses on his copy-books and read Racine +for his own amusement. Turning his back upon the mill-wheels of his +native town and an assured future in a Parisian business house, like Gil +Bias's friend, _il s'est jeté dans le bel esprit_--in other words, he +betook himself to the career of a troubadour. Never, surely, did master +of song-craft write and sing so many ditties! + +Quitting school with a tip-top certificate both as to conduct and +application, Gustave Nadaud quickly won fame if not fortune. Hardly of +age, he wrote somewhat Bohemian effusions that at once made the round of +Parisian music-halls. + +The revolution, if it brought topsy-turvydom in politics, like its great +forerunner '89 brought the apogee of song. The popular young lyrist, +ballader and minstrel, for Nadaud accompanied himself on the piano, now +made a curious compact, agreeing to write songs for twenty years, a firm +named Heugel paying him six thousand francs yearly by way of +remuneration. + +Two hundred and forty pounds a year should seem enough for a young man, +a bachelor brought up in bourgeois simplicity. But the cost of living in +Paris was apparently as high sixty years ago as now. In 1856-7 he wrote +to a friend: "How upon such an income I contrived to live and frequent +Parisian salons without ever asking a farthing of any one, only those +who have been poor can tell." The salons spoken of were not only +aristocratic but Imperial, the late Princess Mathilde being an +enthusiastic hostess and patroness. Several operettas were composed by +Nadaud for her receptions and philanthropic entertainments. Here is a +sketch of the French Tom Moore in 1868 by a witty contributor of the +_Figaro_-- + +"Nadaud then seated himself at the piano, and of the words he sang I +give you full measure, the impression produced by his performance I +cannot hope to convey. Quite indescribable was the concord of voice and +hands, on the music as on wings each syllable being lightly borne, yet +its meaning thereby intensified. In one's memory only can such delight +be revived and reproduced." + +With other poets, artists and musicians Nadaud cast vocation to the +winds in 1870-1, working in field and other hospitals. "I did my best to +act the part of a poor little sister of charity," he wrote to a friend. +His patriotic poem, "La grande blessée," was written during that +terrible apprenticeship. + +With Nadaud henceforward it was a case of roses, roses all the way. +Existence he had ever taken easily, warm friendships doing duty for a +domestic circle. And did he not write-- + + "I dreamed of an ideal love + And Benedick remain?" + +His songs proved a mine of wealth, and the sumptuously illustrated +edition got up by friends and admirers brought him 80,000 francs, with +which he purchased a villa, christened Carcassonne, at Nice, therein +spending sunny and sunny-tempered days and dispensing large-hearted +hospitality. To luckless brethren of the lyre he held out an ungrudgeful +hand, alas! meeting with scant return. The one bitterness of his life, +indeed, was due to ingratitude. Among his papers after death was found +the following note-- + +"Throughout the last thirty years I have lent sums, large considering +my means, to friends, comrades and entire strangers. Never, never, +never has a single centime been repaid by a single one of these +borrowers. I now vow to myself, never under any circumstances whatever +to lend money again!" + +Poor song-writers, nevertheless, he posthumously befriended. By his will +with the bulk of his property was founded "La petite Caisse des +chansonniers," a benefit society for less happy Nadauds to come. By aid +of these funds, lyrists and ballad-writers unable to find publishers +would be held on their onward path. Full of honours, Nadaud died in +1893, monuments being erected to his memory, streets named after him, +and undiminished popularity keeping his name alive. + +And the honour denied to Béranger, to Victor Hugo, to Balzac, the +coveted sword and braided coat of the Forty were Nadaud's also. With the +witty Piron he could not ironically anticipate his own epitaph thus-- + +"Here lies Nadaud who was nothing, not even an Academician!" + +Before taking leave of Carcassonne, poetic and picturesque, the most +inveterate anti-sightseer should peep into its museum. For this little +_chef-lieu_ of the Aude, with a population under thirty thousand, +possesses what, indeed, hardly a French townling lacks, namely, a +picture-gallery. If not remarkable from an artistic point of view, the +collection serves to demonstrate the persistent, self-denying and +constant devotion to culture in France. Times may be peaceful or stormy, +seasons may prove disastrous, the withered, thin and blasted ears of +corn may devour the seven ears full and golden, the ship of State may be +caught in a tornado and lurch alarmingly--all the same "the man in the +street," "the rascal many," to quote Spenser, will have a museum in +which, with wife and hopefuls, to spend their Sunday afternoons. The +local museum is no less of a necessity to Jacques Bonhomme than his +daily _pot-au-feu_, that dish of soup which, according to Michelet, +engenders the national amiability. + +The splendid public library--the determinative is used in the sense of +comparison--numbers just upon a volume per head, and the art school, +school of music, and other institutions tell the same story. Culture +throughout the country seems indigenous, to spread of itself, and, above +all things, to reach all classes. Culture on French soil is gratuitous, +ever free as air! We must never overlook that primary fact. + +One or two more noticeable facts about Carcassonne. Here was born that +eccentric revolutionary and poetic genius, Fabre d'Eglantine, of whom I +have written elsewhere. + + [Footnote: See Literary Rambles in France, 1906] + +Yet another historic note. From St. Vincent's tower during the +Convention, 1792-5, were taken those measurements, the outcome of which +was the metric system. Two mathematicians, by name Delambre and Méchain, +were charged with the necessary calculations, the _mètre_, or a +ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles and the equator +(32,808 English feet), being made the unit of length. Uniformity of +weight followed, and became law in 1799. + +But to touch upon historic Carcassonne is to glance upon an almost +interminable perspective. The chronicle of this charming little city +on the bright blue Aude has been penned and re-penned in blood and +tears. In 1560 Carcassonne suffered a preliminary Saint Bartholomew, a +general massacre of Protestants announcing the evil days to follow; +days that after five hundred years have left their trace, moral as +well as material. + + + +VIII + +TOULOUSE + +A zigzaggery, indeed, was this journey from Nîmes to my Pyrenean valley. +That metropolis of art and most heroic town, Montauban, I could not on +any account miss. Toulouse necessarily had to be taken on the way to +Ingres-ville, as I feel inclined to call the great painter's birthplace +and apotheosis. But why write of Toulouse? The magnificent city, its +public gardens, churches, superbly housed museums and art galleries, its +promenades, drives and panoramas are all particularized by Murray, +Joanne and Baedeker. Here, however, as elsewhere, are one or two +features which do not come within the province of a guide-book. + +The only city throughout France that welcomed the Inquisition was +among the first to open a _Lycée pour jeunes filles._ In accordance +with the acts of 1880-82 public day schools for girls were opened +throughout France; that of Toulouse being fairly representative, I +will describe my visit. + +The school was now closed for the long vacation, but a junior mistress +in temporary charge gave us friendliest welcome, and showed us over the +building and annexes. She evidently took immense and quite natural +pride in the little world within world of which she formed a part. Her +only regret was that we could not see the scholars at work. Here may be +noted the wide field thrown open to educated women by the above-named +acts, from under-mistresses to _Madame la directrice_, the position +being one of dignity and provision for life, pensions being the reward +of long service. + +The course of study is prepared by the rector of the Toulousain Academy, +and the rules of management by the municipal council, thus the programme +of instruction bears the signature of the former, whilst the prospectus, +dealing with fees, practical details, is signed by the mayor in the name +of the latter. + +We find a decree passed by the town council in 1887 to the effect that +in the case of two sisters a fourth of the sum-total of fees should be +remitted, of three, a half, of four, three-quarters, and of five, the +entire amount. Even the outfit of the boarders must be approved by the +same authority. A neat costume is obligatory, and the number and +material of undergarments is specified with the utmost minuteness. +Besides a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes, each student must +bring three pairs of boots, thirty pocket-handkerchiefs, a bonnet-box, +umbrella, parasol, and so forth. + +Such regulations may at first sight look trivial and unnecessary, but +there is much to be said on the other side. From the beginning of the +term to the end, the matron, whose province is quite apart from that of +the head-mistress, is never worried about the pupils' dress, no shoes in +need of repair, no garments to be mended, no letters to be written +begging Mme. A. to send her daughter a warm petticoat, Mme. B. to +forward a hair-brush, and so on. Again, the uniform obligatory on +boarders prevents those petty jealousies and rivalries provoked by fine +clothes in girls' schools. Alike the child of the millionaire and of the +small official wear the same simple dress. + +Children are admitted to the lower school between the ages of five and +twelve, the classes being in the hands of certificated mistresses. The +upper school, at which pupils are received from twelve years and +upwards, and are expected to remain five years, offers a complete course +of study, lady teachers being aided by professors of the Faculté des +Lettres and of the Lycée for youths. Students who have remained +throughout the entire period, and have satisfactorily passed final +examinations, receive a certificate entitling them to admission into the +great training college of Sèvres or to offer themselves as teachers in +schools and families. + +The curriculum is certainly modest compared with that obligatory on +candidates for London University, Girton College, or our senior local +examination; but it is an enormous improvement on the old conventual +system, and several points are worthy of imitation. Thus a girl quitting +the Lycée would have attained, first and foremost, a thorough knowledge +of her own language and its literature; she would also possess a fair +notion of French common law, of domestic economy, including needlework +of the more useful kind, the cutting out and making up of clothes, and +the like. Gymnastics are practised daily. In the matter of religion the +municipality of Toulouse shows absolute impartiality. No sectarian +teaching enters into the programme, but Catholics and Protestants and +Jews in residence can receive instruction from their respective +ministers. + +The Lycée competes formidably with the convents as regards fees. +Twenty-eight pounds yearly cover the expense of board, education, and +medical attendance at the upper school; twenty-four at the lower; day +boarders pay from twelve to fifteen pounds a year; books, the use of the +school omnibus, and laundress being extras. Three hundred scholars in +all attended during the scholastic year ending July 1891. + +Day-pupils not using the school omnibus must be accompanied to and from +the school, and here an interesting point is to be touched upon. In so +far as was practicable, the Lycée for girls has been modelled on the +plan of the time-honoured establishments for boys. As yet a uniform +curriculum to begin with was out of the question; the programme is +already too ambitious in the eyes of many, whilst ardent advocates of +the higher education of women in France regret that the vices as well as +the virtues of the existing system have been retained. Educationists and +advanced thinkers generally would fain see a less strait-laced routine, +a less stringent supervision, more freedom for play of character. The +Lycée student, boy or girl, youth or maiden, is as strictly guarded as a +criminal; not for a moment are these citizens of the future trusted to +themselves. + +In the vast dormitory of the high school here we see thirty neat +compartments with partitions between, containing bed and toilet +requisites, and at the extreme end of the room, commanding a view of +the rest, is the bed of the under-mistress in charge, _surveillante_ as +she is called. Sleeping or waking, the students are watched. This +massing together of numbers and perpetual supervision no longer find +universal favour. + +But I am here writing of fifteen years ago. Doubtless were I to repeat +my visit I should find progressive changes too numerous for detail. +Happy little middle-class Parisians now run to and from their Lycées +unattended. Young ladies in society imitate their Anglo-Saxon sisters +and have shaken off that incubus, _la promeneuse_ or walking chaperon. + +Works on social France, as is the case with almanacs, encyclopædias and +the rest, require yearly revision. Manners and customs change no less +quickly than headgear and skirts. + +Charles Lamb would have lived ecstatically at the Languedocian capital. +It is a metropolis of beggardom, a mendicant's Mecca, a citadel of Jules +Richepin's cherished _Gueux_. Here, indeed, Elia need not have lamented +over the decay of beggars, "the all sweeping besom of societarian +reformation--your only modern Alcides' club to rid time of its +abuses--is uplift with many-handed sway to extirpate the last fluttering +tatters of the bugbear _Mendicity_. Scrips, wallets, bags, staves, dogs +and crutches, the whole mendicant fraternity with all their baggage are +fast hasting out of the purlieus of this eleventh persecution." + +No, here is what the best beloved of English humorists calls "the oldest +and the honourablest form of pauperism," here his vision would have +feasted on "Rags, the Beggars' robes and graceful insignia of his +profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected +to show himself in public." "He is never out of fashion," adds Lamb, "or +limpeth outwardly behind it. He is not required to wear court mourning. +He weareth all colours, fearing none. His costume hath undergone less +change than the Quaker's. He is the only man in the universe who is not +obliged to study appearances." + +Here, too, would the unmatchable writer have gazed upon more than one +"grand fragment, as good as an Elgin marble." And alas! many deformities +more terrible still, and which, perhaps, would have damped even Lamb's +ardour. For in the Toulouse of 1894, as in the London of sixty years +before, its mendicants "were so many of its sights, its Lions." The city +literally swarmed with beggars. At every turn we came upon some living +torso, distorted limb and hideous sore. Begging seemed to be the +accepted livelihood of cripples, blind folk and the infirm. Let us hope +that by this time something better has been devised for them all. Was it +here that Richepin partly studied the mendicant fraternity, giving us in +poetry his astounding appreciation, psychological and linguistic? And +perhaps the bard of the beggars, like the English humorist, would wish +his _pauvres Gueux_ to be left unmolested. + +The sights of Toulouse would occupy a conscientious traveller many days. +The least leisurely should find time to visit the tiny square called +_place du Salin_. Here took place the innumerable _autos-da-fé_ of the +Toulousain Inquisition, and here, so late as 1618, the celebrated +physician and scientist Vanini was atrociously done to death by that +truly infernal tribunal, and for what? For simply differing from the +obscurantism of his age, and having opinions of his own. + +The atrocious sentence passed on Vanini was in part remitted, evidently +public opinion already making itself felt. His tongue was cut out, but +strangulation preceded the burning alive. Here one cannot help noting +the illogical, the puerile--if such words are applicable to devilish +wickedness--aspect of such Inquisitorial sentences. If these +hounders-down of common-sense and the reasoning faculty really believed, +as they affected to believe, that men who possessed and exercised both +qualities were thereby doomed to eternal torments, why set up the +horrible and costly paraphernalia of the Inquisition? After all, no +matter how ingeniously inventive might be their persecutors, they could +only be made to endure terminable and comparatively insignificant +torments, not a millionth millionth fraction of eternity! + +Refreshing it is to turn to the Toulouse of minstrelsy. The proud seat +of the troubadours, the Academy of the Gay Science and of the poetic +tourneys revived in our own day! Mistral's name has long been European, +and other English writers have charmingly described the _Feux Floraux_ +of the olden time and the society of _Lou Felibrige_ with its revival of +Provençal literature. But forty years ago, and twenty years before his +masterpiece had found a translator here, he was known and highly +esteemed by a great Englishman. + +In Mill's _Correspondence_ (1910) we find a beautiful letter, and +written in fine stately French, from the philosopher to the poet, dated +Avignon, October 1869. + +Mill had sent Mistral the French translation of his essay, "The +Subjection of Women," and in answer to the other's thanks and flattering +assurance of his own conversion, he wrote: "Parmi toutes les adhésions +qui ont été données à la thèse de mon petit livre, je ne sais s'il y en +a aucune qui m'ont fait plus de plaisir que la vôtre." + +The letter as a whole is most interesting, and ends with a +characterization, a strikingly beautiful passage in the life and +teaching of Jesus Christ. Hard were it to match this appreciation among +orthodox writers. + +So transparent is the atmosphere here that the Pyrenees appear within an +hour's ride: they are in reality sixty miles off! Lovely are the clearly +outlined forms, flecked with light and shadow, the snowy patches being +perfectly distinct. + + + +IX + +MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +An hour by rail from Toulouse lies the ancient city of Montauban, as far +as I know unnoticed by English tourists since Arthur Young's time. This +superbly placed _chef-lieu_ of the Tarn and Garonne is alike an artistic +shrine and a palladium of religious liberty. Here was born that strongly +individualized and much contested genius, Dominique Ingres, and here +Protestantism withstood the League, De Luyne's besieging army and the +dragonnades of Louis XIV. + +The city of Ingres may be thought of by itself; there is plenty of food +for reflection here without recalling the prude whose virtue caused more +mischief than the vices of all the Montespans and Dubarrys put together. +Let us forget the Maintenon terror at Montauban, the breaking up of +families, the sending to the galleys of good men and women, the +torturings, the roastings alive, and turn to the delightful and soothing +souvenirs of genius! Every French town that has given birth to shining +talent is straightway turned into a Walhalla. This ancient town, so +strikingly placed, breathes of Ingres, attracts the traveller by the +magic of the painter's name, has become an art pilgrimage. The noble +monument erected by the townsfolk to their great citizen and the +picture-gallery he bequeathed his native city well repay a much longer +journey than that from Toulouse. We see here to what high levels public +spirit and local munificence can rise in France. We see also how close, +after all, are the ties that knit Frenchman and Frenchman, how the glory +of one is made the pride of all. The bronze statue of the painter, with +the vast and costly bas-relief imitating his "Apotheosis of Homer" in +the Louvre, stand in the public walk, the beauty of which aroused even +Arthur Young's enthusiasm. "The promenade," he wrote in June 1787, "is +finely situated. Built on the highest part of the rampart, and +commanding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richest in +Europe, which extends on one side to the sea and in front to the +Pyrenees, whose towering masses heaped one upon another in a stupendous +manner, and covered with snow, offer a variety of lights and shades from +indented forms and the immensity of their projections. This prospect, +which contains a semicircle of a hundred miles in diameter, has an +oceanic vastness in which the eye loses itself; an almost boundless +scene of cultivation; an animated but confused mass of infinitely varied +parts, melting gradually into the distant obscure, from which emerges +the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their silvered heads above +the clouds." + +The Ingres Museum contains, I should say, more works from the hand of a +single master than were ever before collected under the same roof. +Upwards of a thousand sketches, many of great power and beauty, are +here, besides several portraits and one masterpiece, the Christ in the +Temple, brilliant as a canvas of Holman Hunt, although the work of an +octogenarian. The painter's easel, palette, and brushes, his violin, the +golden laurel-wreath presented to him by his native town, and other +relics are reverently gazed at on Sundays by artisans, soldiers and +peasant-folk. The local museum in France is something more than a little +centre of culture, a place in which to breathe beauty and delight. It is +a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple +of fame. Therein the young are taught to revere excellence, and here the +ambitious are stimulated by worthy achievement. + +Ingres-ville recalls an existence stormy as the history of Montauban +itself. This stronghold of reform throughout her vicissitudes did not +show a bolder, more determined front to the foe than did her great +citizen his own enemies and detractors. Dominique Ingres and his +life-story favour those physicists who discern in native soil and +surroundings the formative influences of aptitudes and character. The +man and his birthplace matched each other. Indomitableness characterized +both, and to understand both we must know something of their respective +histories. To Montauban Henri Martin's great history does ample justice, +to her illustrious son contemporary writers have recently paid worthy +tributes. + +[Footnote: See _Les Grands Artistes--Ingres_, par J. Mommeja, +Paris, Laurens; _Le Roman d'amour de M. Ingres_, par H. Lapauze, Paris, +Lafitte, 1911.] + +"When a writer is praised above his merits in his own times," wrote +Savage Landor, "he is certain of being estimated below them in the +times succeeding." In the case of Ingres, opposition and contumely were +followed by perhaps excessive laudation whilst he lived, after his +death ensuing a long period of reaction. Time has now set the seal upon +his fame. The great Montalbanais has been finally received into the +national Walhalla. + +The father of the so-called French Raphaël, writes his biographer, was +not even a Giovanni Santi. Joseph Ingres, in the words of M. Momméja, +was _un petit ornemaniste_, a fabricator of knick-knacks, turning out +models in clay, busts in plaster, miniatures and other trifles for sale +at country fairs. Who can say, this humble craftsman may yet have had +much to do with his son's aspirations? + +An inferior artist can appraise his masters. From the humble artificer +and purveyor of bagatelles the youth not only imbibed a passion for +art and technical knowledge: he inherited the next best thing to a +calling, in other words, a love of music. From the palette throughout +his long life Ingres would turn with never-abated enthusiasm to his +adored violin. + +The learned monograph above-named gives a succinct and judicial account +of the painter's career. The second writer mentioned tells the story of +his inner life; one, indeed, of perpetual and universal interest. + +For to this sturdy young bourgeois early came a crisis. He found himself +suddenly at the parting of the ways, on the one hand beckoning +Conscience, on the other ambition in the flattering shape of Destiny. To +which voice would he hearken? Would love and plighted troth overrule +that insistent siren song, Vocation? Would he yield, as have done +thousands of well-intentioned men and women before him, to self-interest +and worldly wisdom? The problem to be solved by this brilliantly endowed +artist just twenty-six--how many a historic parallel does it recall! +What three words can convey so much pathos, heroism and generosity as +"il gran riffiuto?"--the great renunciation. Does the French language +contain a more touching record than that of the great Navarre's farewell +to his Huguenot brethren? What bitter tears shed Jeanne d'Albret's son +ere he could bring himself to sacrifice conscience on the altar of +expediency and a great career! + +At the age of twenty we find Dominique Ingres studying in Paris under +David, then in his apogee. + +The son of an obscure provincial, however promising, would hardly be +overwhelmed with hospitalities; all the more welcome came the +friendliness of an honourable magistrate and his wife, by name +Forestier. During five years the young man had lived on terms of +closest intimacy with these good folks, under his eyes growing up their +only daughter. + +Alas! poor Julie. Mighty, says Goethe, is the god of propinquity. On +Dominique's part attachment seems to have come insensibly, as a matter +of course and despite the precariousness of his position. M. Forestier +encouraged the young man's advances. To Julie love for the brilliant +winner of the Prix de Rome became an absorption, her very life. Not +particularly endowed by Nature--we have her portrait in M. Momméja's +volume--she described her own physiognomy as "not at all remarkable, but +expressive of candour and goodness of heart." For Julie, as we shall +see, turned her love-story into a little novel, only unearthed the other +day by M. Lapauze. + +The Prix de Rome meant, of course, a call to Rome, the worthy magistrate +exacting from his prospective son-in-law a promise that in twelve +months' time he would return. During that interval correspondence went +on apace not only between the affianced lovers, but between M. Forestier +and Ingres, the former taking affectionate and not uncritical interest +in the other's projects. For Ingres was before all things a projector, +anticipating by decades the achievements of his later years. The glow of +enthusiasm, the fever of creativeness were at its height. Italy +possessed Ingres' entire being when the crisis came. + +After delays, excuses, pleadings, Julie's father lost patience. He would +brook no further tergiversations. Ingres must choose between Italy and +Paris; in other words, so the artist interpreted it, between art and +marriage, a proud destiny or self-extinction. + +Never had a young artist more completely fallen under the spell of +Italy. The recall seemed a death-blow. "On my knees," he wrote to Julie, +whom he really loved, "I implore you not to ask this. It is impossible +for me to quit immediately a land so full of marvel." + +But the practical M. Forestier would not give way. Ingres' persistence +looked like folly, even madness in his eyes. The young man was with +difficulty living from hand to mouth, portraits and small orders barely +keeping the wolf from the door. The return home and marriage would +ensure his future materially and socially, and up to a certain point +render him independent of malevolent criticism. For already Ingres was +fiercely attacked by Parisian authorities on art: he had become +important enough to be a target. After cruellest heart-searching and +prolonged self-reproach, _il gran riffiuto_ was made, youthful passion, +worldly advantages--and plighted faith--were cast to the winds. +Henceforth he would live for his palette only, defying poverty, +detraction and fiercely antagonistic opinion; if failing in allegiance +to others, at least remaining staunch to his first, best, highest self, +his genius. + +Julie, the third imperishable Julie of French romance, never married. +Let us hope that the writing of her artless little autobiography called +a novel brought consolation. Did she ever forgive the recalcitrant? Her +story, _Emma, ou la fiancée,_ ends with the aphorism: "Without the +scrupulous fulfilment of the given word, there can be neither happiness +nor inner peace." + +Did that backsliding in early life disturb the great painter's stormy +but dazzling career? Who can say? We learn that Ingres was twice, and, +according to accredited reports, happily, married. His first wife, a +humbly-born maiden from his native province, died in 1849, leaving the +septuagenarian so desolate, helpless and stricken that kindly +interveners set to work and re-married him. The second Mme. Ingres, +although thirty years his junior, gave him, his biographer tells us, +"that domestic peace and happiness of which for a brief space he had +been deprived." Heaped with honours, named by Napoleon III. Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour, Senator, Member of the Institut, Ingres +died in 1869. Within a year of ninety, he was Dominique Ingres to the +last, undertaking new works with the enthusiasm and vitality of Titian. +A few days before his death he gave a musical party, favourite works of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven being performed by skilled amateurs. His +funeral was a veritable apotheosis, disciples, admirers and detractors +swelling the enormous cortège. + +Those who, like myself, have times without number contemplated the +master's _opus magnum_ in the Louvre, and have studied his art as +represented in the provincial museums, will quit the Musée Ingres with +mixed feelings. It must occur to many that, perhaps, after all, _il gran +riffiuto_ of opposite kind might have better served art and the artist's +fame. Had he returned to France--and to Julie--at the stipulated period, +the following eighteen years being spent not on Italian but on native +soil, how different the result! Then of his work he could have said, as +did Chantecler of his song-- + + "Mon chant + Qui n'est pas de ces chants qu'on chante en cherchant + Mais qu'on reçoit du sol natal comme une sève." + +Would not most of us willingly give Ingres' greatest classical and +historic canvases for one or two portraits, say that of Bertin, or, +better still, for a group like that of the Stamiti family? What a +portrait gallery he would have bequeathed, how would he have made the +men and women of his time live again before us! + +[Footnote: Both are reproduced, with many other works, in M. +Momméja's volume.] + +Ingres, the artist, ever felt sure of himself. Did the lover look back, +regretting the broken word, the wrong done to another? We do not know. +His life was throughout upright, austere, free from blot; born and bred +a Catholic, he had doubtless Huguenot blood in his veins, many of his +most striking characteristics pointed to this inference. + +A word more concerning Montauban itself. The stronghold of reform, that +defied all Richelieu's attempts to take it, is to this day essentially a +Protestant town. Half of its inhabitants have remained faithful to the +faith of their ancestors. Tourists will note the abundance of cypress +trees marking Huguenot graves, the capital of Tarn and Garonne is a +veritable Calvinistic _Campo Santo_. After the Revocation, many families +fled hence to England, their descendants to this day loving and +reverencing the country which gave them a home. + +Montauban, as we should expect, has raised a splendid monument to its +one great citizen. + +Since writing these lines, an Ingres exhibition has been opened in the +Georges Petit Gallery, Paris. Apropos of this event, the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_ (May 15, 1911) contains a striking paper by the art-critic, M. +de Sizeraine. Some of the conclusions here arrived at are startling. +Certain authorities on art are said to regard the great Montalbanais as +a victim of daltonism--in other words, colour-blind! + +In company of the mere amateur, this authority turns with relief from +the master's historical and allegorical pieces to his wonderfully +speaking portraits. Here, he says, all is simple, nothing is +commonplace, nothing is unexpected, and yet nothing resembles what we +have seen elsewhere; we find no embellishment, no stultification. He +adds: "In art, as in literature, works which survive are perhaps those +in which the artist or writer has put the most of himself, not those in +which he has had most faith. The "Voeu de Louis XIII," the "Thétis" of +Ingres, we may compare to Voltaire's _Henriade_ and to the +_Franciade_ of Ronsard, all belong to the category of the +_opus magnum_ that has failed, and of which its creator is proud." +With the following charming simile the essay closes-- + +"Posterity is a great lady, she passes, reviews the _opus magnum, la +grande machine_ disdainfully, satirically; all seems lost, the artist +condemned. But by chance she catches sight of a neglected picture turned +to the wall in a corner or passage, some happy inspiration that has cost +its author little pains, but in which he has not striven beyond his +powers, and in which he has put the best of himself. The _grande dame_ +catches it up, holds it to the light. 'Ha! here is something pretty!' +she cries. And the artist's fame is assured." + +Has not Victor Hugo focused the same truth in a line-- + + "Ici-bas, le joli c'est le nécessaire!" + +And our own Keats also-- + + "For 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty should be first in might." + + + +X + +MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + + + + Osse, la bien aimée + Toi, du vallon + Le choix, la fille aînée + Le vrai fleuron! + C'est sur toi qu'est fixée + Dans son amour, + La première pensée + Du roi du jour + Comme à sa fiancée + L'amant accourt. + Xavier Navarrot. + + +Between Toulouse and Tarbes the scenery is quite unlike that of the +Gard and the Aude. Instead of the interminable vineyards round about +Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne, we gaze here upon a varied landscape. +Following the Garonne with the refrain of Nadaud's famous song in +our minds-- + + "Si la Garonne avait voulu,"-- + +we traverse a vast plain or low vale rich in many-coloured crops: +buckwheat, sweeps of creamy blossom, dark-green rye, bluish-green Indian +corn with silvery flower-head, and purple clover, and here and there a +patch of vine are mingled together before us; in the far distance the +Pyrenees, as yet mere purple clouds against the horizon. + +We soon note a peculiarity of this region--vines trained to trees, a +method in vogue a hundred years ago. "Here," wrote Arthur Young, when +riding from Toulouse to St. Martory on his way to Luchon, "for the first +time I see rows of maples with vines trained in festoons from tree to +tree"; and farther on he adds, "medlars, plums, cherries, maples in +every hedge with vines trained." The straggling vine-branches have a +curious effect, but the brightness of the leafage is pleasant to the +eye. No matter how it grows, to my thinking the vine is a lovely thing. + +The rich plain passed, we reach the slopes of the Pyrenees, their wooded +sides presenting a strange, even grotesque, appearance, owing to the +mathematical regularity with which the woods are cut, portions being +close shaven, others left intact in close juxtaposition, solid phalanxes +of trees and clearings at right angles. The fancy conjures up a +Brobdingnagian wheat-field partially cut in the green stage. Sad havoc +is thus made of once beautiful scenes, richly-wooded slopes having lost +half their foliage. + +A hundred years ago Lourdes was a mere mountain fortress, a State prison +to which unhappy persons were consigned by _lettres de cachet_. +Apologists of the Ancien Régime assert, in the first place, that these +Bastilles were comfortable, even luxurious retreats; in the second, that +_lettres de cachet_ were useful and necessary; in the third, that +neither Bastilles nor _lettres de cachet_ were resorted to on the eve +of the Revolution. Let us hear what Arthur Young has to say on the +subject. "I take the road to Lourdes," he writes in August 1787, "where +is a castle on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping State +prisoners, sent hither by _lettres de cachet_. Seven or eight are known +to be here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and many for +life--torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from the bosom of +domestic comfort, from wives, children, friends, and hurried, for crimes +unknown to themselves, most probably for virtues, to languish in this +detested abode, and die of despair. Oh liberty, liberty!" + +Great is the contrast between the lovely entourage of this notorious +place and the triviality and vulgar nature of its commerce. The one +long, winding street may be described as a vast bazaar, more suited to +Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims than to holders of railway tickets and +contemporaries of the Eiffel Tower. + +A brisk trade is done here, the place wearing the aspect of a huge fair. +Rosaries, crosses, votive tablets, ornamental cans for holding the +miraculous waters, drinking-cups, candles, photographs, images, medals +are sold by millions. The traffic in these wares goes on all day long, +the poorest "pilgrim" taking away souvenirs. + +The Lourdes of theology begins where the Lourdes of bartering ends. As +we quit the long street of bazaars and brand-new hotels, the first +glimpse gives us an insight into its life and meaning, makes us feel +that we ought to have been living two or three hundred years ago. We +glance back at the railway station, wondering whether a halt were wise, +whether indeed the gibbet, wheel, and stake were not really prepared for +heretics like ourselves! + +The votive church built on the outer side of the rock from which flows +the miraculous fountain is a basilica of sumptuous proportions, +representing an outlay of many millions of francs. Its portico, with +horse-shoe staircase in marble, spans the opening of the green hills, +behind which lie grotto and spring. We are reminded of the enormous +church now crowning the height of Montmartre at Paris; here, as there +and at Chartres, is a complete underground church of vast proportions. +The whole structure is very handsome, the grey and white building-stone +standing out against verdant hills and dark rocks. A beautifully +laid-out little garden with a statue of the miracle-working Virgin lies +between church and town. + +Looking from the lofty platform on the other side of the upper church, +we behold a strange scene. The space below is black with people, +hundreds and thousands of pilgrims, so called, priests and nuns being in +full force, one and all shouting and gesticulating with fierce zealotry, +a priest or two holding forth from a temporary pulpit. + +Between these closely-serried masses is a ghastly array. On litters, +stretchers, beds, chairs, lie the deformed, the sick, the moribund, +awaiting their turn to be sprinkled with the miraculous waters or +blessed by the bishop. These poor people, many of whom are in the last +stage of illness, have for bearers, volunteers; these are priests, young +gentlemen of good family, and others, who wear badges and leather +traces, by which they attach themselves to their burden. + +All day long masses are held inside the church and in the open air; at a +given signal the congregation stretching out their arms in the form of a +cross, prostrating themselves on the ground, kissing the dust. + +We must descend the broad flight of steps in order to obtain a good view +of the grotto, an oval opening in the rocks made to look like a +stalactite cave, with scores and hundreds of _ex-votos_ in the shape +of crutches. Judging from this display, there should be no more lame folks +left in France. The Virgin of Lourdes must have healed them all. In a +niche of the grotto stands an image of the Virgin, and behind, +perpetually lighted with candles, an altar, at which mass is celebrated +several times daily. + +On one side, the rock has been pierced in several places, deliciously +pure, cool water issuing from the taps. Crowds are always collected +here, impatient to drink of the miraculous fountain, and to fill vessels +for use at home. We see tired, heated invalids, and apparently dying +persons, drinking cups of this ice-cold water; enough, one would think, +to kill them outright. Close by is a little shop full of trifles for +sale, but so thronged at all hours of the day that you cannot get +attended to; purchasers lay down their money, take up the object +desired, and walk away. Here may be bought a medal for two sous, or a +crucifix priced at several hundred francs. + +The praying, chanting, and prostrating are at their height when the +violet-robed figure of a bishop is caught sight of, tripping down a +side-path leading from the town. Blessing any who chance to meet him on +the way, chatting pleasantly with his companion, a portly gentleman +wearing the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour, the bishop hastens +towards the grotto, dons his sacerdotal robes of ivory-white and gold, +and celebrates mass. The ceremony over, there is a general stir. +Adjusting their harness, the bearers form a procession, the bishop +emerges from the grotto, and one by one the thirty and odd litters are +drawn before him to be sprinkled, blessed--and healed! alas, such, +doubtless, is the fond delusion of many. + +The sight of so many human wrecks, torsos and living skeletons all agog +for life, health, and restoration, is even less heart-breaking than that +of their companions. Here we see a mother bending with agonized looks +over some white-faced, wasted boy, whose days, even hours, are clearly +numbered; there a father of a wizen-faced, terribly deformed girl, a +mite to look at, but fast approaching womanhood, brought hither to be +put straight and beautiful. Next our eye lights on the emaciated form of +a young man evidently in the last stage of consumption, his own face +hopeful still, but what forlornness in that of the adoring sister by his +side! These are spectacles to make the least susceptible weep. Grotesque +is the sight of a priest who must be ninety at least; what further +miracle can he expect, having already lived the life of three +generations? + +The last litter drawn by, the enormous crowd breaks up; tall candles are +offered to those standing near, and a procession is formed, headed by +the bishop under his gold and white baldachin, a large number of priests +following behind, then several hundred men, women, and children, the +black and white robes of the priests and nuns being conspicuous. +Chanting as they go, outsiders falling on their knees at the approach of +the baldachin, the pilgrims now wind in solemn procession round the +statue in front of the church, and finally enter, when another religious +celebration takes place. Services are going on all day long and late +into the night. Hardly do these devotees give themselves time for meals, +which are a scramble at best, every hotel and boarding-house much +overcrowded. The _table d'hôte_ dinner, or one or two dishes, are +hastily swallowed, and the praying, chanting, marching and prostrating +begin afresh. At eight o'clock from afar comes the sound of pilgrims' +voices as the procession winds towards the grotto. + +There is picturesqueness in these nocturnal celebrations, the tapers +twinkling against the dark heavens, the voices dying away in the +distance. Superstition has its season as well as sulphur-baths and +chalybeate springs. The railway station is a scene of indescribable +confusion; enormous contingents come for a few hours only, the numbered +trains that brought them are drawn up outside the main lines awaiting +their departure. Here we are hustled by a motley throng; fashionable +ladies bedizened with rosaries, badges, and medallions; elegant young +gentlemen, the _jeunesse dorée_ of a vanished _régime_, proudly +wearing the pilgrim's badge, all travelling third-class and in humble +company for their soul's good; peasant women from Brittany in charming +costumes; a very, very few blue blouses of elderly civilians'; enormous +numbers wearing religious garb. + +It seems a pity that a bargain could not be struck by France and +Germany, the Emperor William receiving Lourdes in exchange for Metz or +Strasburg! Lourdes must represent a princely revenue, far in excess, I +should say, of any profit the Prussian Government will ever make out of +the annexed provinces; and as nobody lives there, and visitors only +remain a day or two, it would not matter to the most patriotic French +pilgrim going to whom the place belonged. + +The tourist brings evil as well as good in his track, and the tax upon +glorious scenery here is not the globe-trotter but the mendicant. +Gavarnie is, without doubt, as grandiose a scene as Western Europe can +show. In certain elements of grandeur none other can compete with it. +But until a balloon service is organized between Luz and the famous +Cirque it is impossible to make the journey with an unruffled temper. +The traveller's way is beset by juvenile vagrants, bare-faced and +importunate as Neapolitans or Arabs. Lovers of aerial navigation have +otherwise not much left to wish for. Nothing can be more like a ride in +cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to +Gavarnie. The splendid rock-hewn road is just broad enough to admit of +two carriages abreast. On one side are lofty, shelving rocks, on the +other a stone coping two feet high, nothing else to separate us from the +awful abyss below, a ravine deep as the measure of St. Paul's Cathedral +from base to apex of golden cross. We hear the thunder of the river as +it dashes below by mountains two-thirds the height of Mont Blanc, their +dark, almost perpendicular sides wreathed with cloud, on their summits +gleaming never-melted snow, here and there the sombre parapets streaked +with silvery cascades. At intervals the Titanic scene is relieved by +glimpses of pastoral grace and loveliness, and such relief is necessary +even to those who can gaze without giddiness on such awfulness. Between +gorge and gorge lie level spaces, amid dazzlingly-green meadows the +river flows calm and crystal clear, the form and hue of every pebble +distinct as the pieces of a mosaic. Looking upwards we see hanging +gardens and what may be called farmlets, tiny homesteads with minute +patches of wheat, Indian corn, and clover on an incline so steep as to +look vertical. Most beautiful and refreshing to the eye are the little +hayfields sloping from the river, the freshly-mown hay in cocks or being +turned, the shorn pasture around bright as emerald. Harvest during the +year 1891 was late, and in the first week of September corn was still +standing; nowhere, surely, corn so amber-tinted, so golden, nowhere, +surely, ripened so near the clouds. In the tiny chalets perched on the +mountain ridges, folks literally dwell in cloudland, and enjoy a kind of +supernal existence, having for near neighbours the eagles in their +eyries and the fleet-footed chamois or izard. + +These vast panoramas--towering rocks of manifold shape, Alp rising above +Alp snow-capped or green-tinted, terrace upon terrace of fields and +homesteads--show every variety of savage grandeur and soft beauty till +we gradually reach the threshold of Gavarnie. This is aptly called +"chaos" which we might fancifully suppose the leavings, "the fragments +that were left," of the semicircular wall now visible, thrown up by +transhuman builders, insurmountable barrier between heaven and earth. No +sooner does the awful amphitheatre break upon the view, than we discern +the white line of the principal fall, a slender silvery column reaching, +so it seems, from star-land and moon-land to earth; river of some upper +world that has overleaped the boundaries of our own. No words can convey +the remotest idea of such a scene. + +We may say with regard to scenery what Lessing says of pictures, we only +see in both what we bring with us to the view. More disconcerting than +the importunities of beggars and donkey-drivers are the supercilious +remarks of tourists. To most, of course, the whole thing is "a sad +disappointment." Everything must necessarily be a disappointment to some +beholders; and with critics of a certain order, the mere fact of not +being pleased implies superiority. The hour's walk from the village to +the Cirque is an event also in the life of the flower-lover. We have +hardly eyes for Gavarnie, so completely is our gaze fascinated by the +large luminous gold and silver stars gleaming conspicuously from the +brilliant turf. These are the glorious flower-heads of the white and +yellow Pyrenean thistle that open in sunshine as do sea-anemones, +sending out lovely fringes, sunrays and moonbeams not more strikingly +contrasted. As we rush hither and thither to gather them--if we +can--their roots are veritable tentaculae, other lovely flowers are to +be had in plenty, the beautiful deep-blue Pyrenean gentian, monk's-hood +in rich purple blossom, rose-coloured antirrhinum, an exquisite little +yellow sedum, with rare ferns. On one side, a narrow bridle-path winds +round the mountain towards Spain; on the other, cottage-farms dot the +green slopes; between both, parting the valley, flows the Gave, here a +quietly meandering streamlet, whilst before us rises Gavarnie; a scene +to which one poet only--perhaps the only one capable of grappling with +such a subject--has done justice-- + + "Cirque, hippodrome, + Stage whereon Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, London, Rome, + With their myriads could find place, whereon Paris at ease + Might float, as at sundown a swarm of bees, + Gavarnie, dream, miracle!" + + [Footnote: "Un cirque, un hippodrome, + Un théâtre où Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, Londres, Rome, + Avec leurs millions d'hommes pourraient s'asseoir. + Ou Paris flotterait comme un essaim du soir. + Gavarnie!--un miracle! un rêve!"--Victor Hugo, "Dieu."] + +How to give some faint conception of the indescribable? Perhaps the +great French poet has best succeeded in a single line-- + + "L'impossible est ici debout." + +We feel, indeed, that we are here brought face to face with the +impossible. + +Let the reader then conjure up a solid mass of rock threefold the +circumference of St. Paul's Cathedral; let him imagine the façade of +this natural masonry of itself exceeding the compass of our great +Protestant minster; then in imagination let him lift his eyes from stage +to stage, platform to platform, the lower nearly three times the height +of St. Paul's from base to apex of golden cross, the higher that of four +such altitudes; their gloomy parapets streaked with glistening white +lines, one a vast column of water, although their shelving sides show +patches of never-melted snows; around, framing in the stupendous scene, +mountain peaks, each unlike its majestic brother, each in height +reaching to the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Such is Gavarnie. + +My next halting-place was a remote Pyrenean village admirably adapted +for the study of rural life. Within a few hours' journey of the Spanish +frontier, Osse lies in the beautiful valley of Aspe, and is reached by +way of Pau and Oloron. At the latter town the railway ends, and we have +to drive sixteen miles across country, a delightful expedition in +favourable weather. The twin towns, old and new Oloron, present the +contrast so often seen throughout France, picturesque, imposing +antiquity beside utilitarian ugliness and uniformity. The open suburban +spaces present the appearance of an enormous drying-ground, in which are +hung the blankets of the entire department. Blankets, woollen girdles or +sashes, men's bonnets are manufactured here. "Pipers, blue bonnets, and +oatmeal," wrote an English traveller a hundred years ago, "are found in +Catalonia, Auvergne, and Suabia as well as in Lochaber." We are now in +the ancient kingdom of Beam, with a portion of Navarre added to the +French crown by Henry IV, and, two hundred years later, named the +department of the Basses Pyrenées. + +[Illustration: OSSE] + +Every turn of the road reveals new features as we journey towards Osse, +having always in view the little Gave d'Aspe, after the manner of +Pyrenean rivers, making cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools on its way. +Most beautiful are these mountain streams, their waters of pure, deep +green, their surface broken by coruscations of dazzlingly white foam and +spray, their murmur ever in our ears. When far away we hardly miss the +grand contours of the Pyrenees more than the music of their rushing +waters. No tourists meet us here, yet whither shall we go for scenes +sublimer or more engaging? On either side of the broadening velvety +green valley, with its tumbling stream, rises a rampart of stately +peaks, each unlike its neighbour, each having a graciousness and +grandeur of its own. Here and there amid these vast solitudes is seen a +white glittering thread breaking the dark masses of shelving rock, +mountain torrent falling into the river from a height of several hundred +feet. Few and far between are the herdsmen's châlets and scattered +cornfields and meadows, and we have the excellent carriage road to +ourselves. Yet two or three villages of considerable size are passed on +the way; of one, an inland spa much frequented by the peasants, I shall +make mention presently. + +For three hours we have wound slowly upward, and, as our destination is +approached, the valley opens wide, showing white-walled, grey-roofed +hamlets and small towns all singularly alike. The mountains soon close +round abruptly on all sides, making us feel as if we had reached the +world's end. On the other side of those snow-capped peaks, here so +majestically massed before our gaze, lies Spain. We are in a part of +France thoroughly French, yet within a few hours of a country strikingly +contrasted with it; manners, customs, modes of thought, institutions +radically different. + +[Illustration: NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER] + +The remoteness and isolation of Osse explain the existence of a little +Protestant community in these mountain fastnesses. For centuries the +Reformed faith has been upheld here. Not, however, unmolested. A tablet +in the neat little church tells how the original place of Protestant +worship was pulled down by order of the king in 1685, and only +reconstructed towards the close of the following century. Without +church, without pastor, forbidden to assemble, obliged to bury their +dead in field or garden, these dales-folk and mountaineers yet clung +tenaciously to their religion. One compromise, and one only, they made. +Peasant property has existed in the Pyrenees from time immemorial, and +in order to legitimize their children and enjoy the privilege of +bequeathing property, the Protestants of the Vallée d'Aspe were married +according to the rites of the Romish Church. In our own days, here as +elsewhere throughout France, the religious tenets handed down from +father to son are adhered to without wavering, and at the same time +without apparent enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants live amicably +side by side; but intermarriages are rare, and conversions from Rome to +rationalism infrequent. The Sunday services of the little Protestant +church are often attended by Catholics. Strangers passing through Osse, +market-folk, peasants and others, never fail to inspect it curiously. +The Protestant pastor is looked up to with respect and affection alike +by Catholic and Protestant neighbours. The rival churches neither lose +nor gain adherents to any extent. This fact is curious, especially in a +spot where Protestantism is seen at its best. It shows the extreme +conservatism and stability of the French character, often set down as +revolutionary and fickle. In England folks often and avowedly change +their religion several times during their lives. Is not the solemn +reception into Rome of instructed men and women among ourselves a matter +of every day? In France it is otherwise, and when a change is made we +shall generally find that the step is no retrograde one. + +If the social aspect is encouraging at Osse, the same may be said of +peasant property. Even a Zola must admit some good in a community +unstained by crime during a period of twenty years, and bound by ties of +brotherhood which render want impossible. A beautiful spirit of +humanity, a delicacy rare among the most polished societies, +characterize these frugal sons and daughters of the soil. Nor is +consideration for others confined to fellow-beings only. The animal is +treated as the friend, not the slave of man. "We have no need of the Loi +Grammont here," said a resident to me; and personal observation +confirmed the statement. + +As sordidness carried to the pitch of brutality is often imputed to the +French peasant, let me relate an incident that occurred hereabouts, not +long before my visit. The land is minutely divided, many possessing a +cottage and field only. One of these very small owners was suddenly +ruined by the falling of a rock, his cottage, cow and pig being +destroyed. Without saying a word, his neighbours, like himself in very +humble circumstances, made up a purse of five hundred francs, a large +sum with such donors, and, too delicate-minded to offer the gift +themselves, deputed an outsider to do it anonymously. Another instance +in point came to my knowledge. This was of a young woman servant, who, +during the illness of her employer, refused to accept wages. "You shall +pay me some other time," said the girl to her mistress; "I am sure you +can ill afford to give me the money now." + +Peasant property and rural life generally here presented to me some +wholly new features; one of these is the almost entire +self-sufficingness of very small holdings, their owners neither buying +nor selling, making their little crops and stock almost completely supply +their needs. Thus on a field or two, enough flax is grown with which to +spin linen for home use, enough wheat and Indian corn for the year's +bread-making, maize being mixed with wheaten flour; again, pigs and +poultry are reared for domestic consumption--expenditure being reduced +to the minimum. Coffee is a luxury seldom indulged in, a few drink +home-grown wine, but all are large milk-drinkers. The poorest is a good +customer of the dairy farmer. + +I was at first greatly puzzled by the information of a neighbour that he +kept cows for the purpose of selling milk. Osse being sixteen miles from +a railway station, possessing neither semi-detached villas, hotels, +boarding-houses, convents, barracks, nor schools, and a population of +from three to four hundred only, most of these small farmers--who were +his patrons? + +I afterwards learned that the "ha'porth of milk," which means much more +in all senses than with us, takes the place of tea, coffee, beer, to say +nothing of more pernicious drinks, with the majority. New milk from the +cow costs about a penny a quart, and perhaps if we could obtain a +similar commodity at the same price in England, even gin might be +supplanted. Eggs and butter are also very cheap; but as the peasants +rear poultry exclusively for their own use, it is by no means easy at +Osse to procure a chicken. A little, a very little money goes to the +shoemaker and general dealer, and fuel has to be bought; this item is +inconsiderable, the peasants being allowed to cart wood from the +communal forests for the sum of five or six francs yearly. The village +is chiefly made up of farmhouses; on the mountain-sides and in the +valley are the châlets and shepherds' huts, abandoned in winter. The +homesteads are massed round the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, +most having a narrow strip of garden and balcony carried along the upper +storey, which does duty as a drying-ground. + +One of these secluded hamlets, with its slated roofs, white walls, and +brown shutters, closely resembles another; but Osse stands alone in +possessing a Protestant church and community. + +Although the little centre of a purely agricultural region, we find +here one of those small, specific industries, as characteristic of +French districts as soil and produce. Folks being great water-drinkers, +they will have their drinking-water in a state of perfection. Some +native genius long ago invented a vessel which answers the requirement +of the most fastidious. This is a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, +bound with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being kept +exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels remains cool throughout the +hottest hours of the hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly +durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds of years. The +turning and encasing of yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars is a +flourishing manufacture at Osse. + +Here may be seen and studied peasant property in many stages. I would +again remark that any comparison between the condition of the English +agricultural labourer and the French peasant proprietor is irrelevant +and inconclusive. In the cottage of a small owner at Osse, for +instance, we may discover features to shock us, often a total absence +of the neatness and veneer of the Sussex ploughman's home. Our disgust +is trifling compared with that of the humblest, most hard-working +owner of the soil, when he learns under what conditions lives his +English compeer. To till another's ground for ten or eleven shillings +a week, inhabit a house from which at a week's notice that other can +eject him, possess neither home, field nor garden, and have no kind of +provision against old age, such a state of things appears to our +artless listener wholly inconceivable, incommensurate with modern +civilization and bare justice. + +As an instance of the futility of comparisons, I will mention one +experience. I was returning home late one afternoon when a +poorly-dressed, sunburnt woman overtook me. She bore on her head a +basket of bracken, and her appearance was such that in any other country +I should have expected a demand for alms. Greeting me, however, +cheerfully and politely, she at once entered into conversation. She had +seen me at church on Sunday, and went on to speak of the pastor, with +what esteem both Catholics and Protestants regarded him, then of the +people, their mode of life and condition generally. + +"No," she said, in answer to my inquiry, "there is no real want here, +and no vagrancy. Everybody has his bit of land, or can find work. I come +from our vineyard on the hillside yonder, and am now returning home to +supper in the village--our farmhouse is there". She was a widow, she +added, and with her son did the work of their little farm, the +daughter-in-law minding the house and baby. They reared horses for sale, +possessed a couple of cows, besides pigs and poultry. + +The good manners, intelligence, urbanity, and quiet contentment of this +good woman were very striking. She had beautiful white teeth, and was +not prematurely aged, only very sun-burnt and shabby, her black stuff +dress blue with age and mended in many places, her partially bare feet +thrust in sabots. The women here wear toeless or footless stockings, the +upper part of the foot being bare. I presume this is an economy, as +wooden shoes wear out stockings. We chatted of England, of +Protestantism, and many topics before bidding each other good-night. +There was no constraint on her part, and no familiarity. She talked +fluently and naturally, just as one first-class lady traveller might do +to a fellow-passenger. Yet, if not here in contact with the zero of +peasant property, we are considering its most modest phase. + +A step higher and we found an instance of the levelling process +characteristic of every stage of French society, yet hardly to be looked +for in a remote Pyrenean village. In one of our afternoon rambles we +overtook a farmeress, and accepted an invitation to accompany her home. +She tripped cheerfully beside us; although a Catholic, on friendliest +terms with her Protestant neighbours. Her thin white feet in toeless +stockings and sabots, well-worn woollen petticoat, black stuff jacket, +headgear of an old black silk handkerchief, would have suggested +anything but the truth to the uninitiated. Here also the unwary stranger +might have fumbled for a spare coin. She had a kindly, intelligent face, +and spoke volubly in patois, having very little command of French. It +was, indeed, necessary for me to converse by the medium of an +interpreter. On approaching the village we were overtaken by a slight, +handsome youth conducting a muck-wagon. This was her younger son, and +his easy, well-bred greeting, and correct French, prepared me for the +piece of intelligence to follow. The wearer of peasant's garb, carting +manure, had passed his examination of Bachelor of Arts and Science, had, +in fact, received the education of a gentleman. In his case, the +patrimony being small, a professional career meant an uphill fight, but +doubtless, with many another, he would attain his end. + +The farmhouse was large, and, as is unusual here, apart from stables and +cow-shed, the kitchen and outhouse being on the ground floor, the young +men's bedrooms above. Our hostess slept in a large, curtained +four-poster, occupying a corner of the kitchen. A handsome wardrobe of +solid oak stood in a conspicuous place, but held only a portion of the +family linen. These humble housewives count their sheets by the dozen of +dozens, and linen is still spun at home, although not on the scale of +former days. The better-off purchase strong, unbleached goods of local +manufacture. Here and there I saw old women plying spindle and distaff, +but the spinning-wheel no longer hums in every cottage doorway. + +Meantime our hospitable entertainer--it is ever the women who wait on +their guests--brought out home-grown wine, somewhat sour to the +unaccustomed palate, and, as a corrective, home-made brandy, which, with +sugar, formed an agreeable liqueur, walnuts--everything, indeed, that +she had. We were also invited to taste the bread made of wheaten and +maize flour mixed, a heavy, clammy compound answering Mrs. Squeers's +requirement of "filling for the price." It is said to be very wholesome +and nutritious. + +The kitchen floor, as usual, had an unsecured look, but was clean swept, +and on shelves stood rows of earthen and copper cooking-vessels and the +yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars before mentioned. The façade of the +house, with its shutters and balcony, was cheerful enough, but just +opposite the front door lay a large heap of farmhouse manure awaiting +transfer to the pastures. A little, a very little, is needed to make +these premises healthful and comfortable. The removal of the +manure-heap, stables, and cow-shed; a neat garden plot, a flowering +creeper on the wall, and the aspect would be in accordance with the +material condition of the owner. + +The property shared by this widow and her two sons consisted of between +five and six acres, made up of arable land and meadow. They kept four +cows, four mares for purposes of horse-breeding, and a little poultry. +Milch cows here are occasionally used on the farm, an anomaly among a +population extremely gentle to animals. + +My next visits were paid on a Sunday afternoon, when everybody is at +home to friends and neighbours. Protestant initiative in the matter of +the seventh day test has been uniformly followed, alike man and beast +enjoy complete repose. As there are no cabarets and no trippers to +disturb the public peace, the tranquillity is unbroken. + +Our first call was upon an elder of the Protestant Church, and one of +the wealthier peasants of the community. The farmhouse was on the usual +Pyrenean plan, stables and neat-houses occupying the ground floor, an +outer wooden staircase leading to kitchen, parlour, and bedrooms; on the +other side a balcony overlooking a narrow strip of garden. + +Our host, dressed in black cloth trousers, black alpaca blouse, and +spotless, faultlessly-ironed linen, received us with great cordiality +and the ease of a well-bred man. His mother lived with him, a charming +old lady, like himself peasant-born, but having excellent manners. She +wore the traditional black hood of aged and widowed Huguenot women, and +her daughter-in-law and little granddaughter, neat stuff gowns and +coloured cashmere kerchiefs tied under the chin. + +We were first ushered into the vast kitchen or "living room," as it +would be called in some parts of England, to-day with every other part +of the house in apple-pie order. Large oak presses, rows of earthen and +copper cooking-vessels, an enormous flour-bin, with plain deal table and +chairs, made up the furniture, from one part of the ceiling hanging +large quantities of ears of Indian corn to dry. Here bread is baked once +a week, and all the cooking and meals take place. + +Leading out of the kitchen was the salon or drawing-room, the first I +had ever seen in a peasant farmer's house. A handsome tapestry +table-cover, chimney ornaments, mirror, sofa, armchairs, rugs, betokened +not only solid means but taste. We were next shown the grandmother's +bedchamber, which was handsomely furnished with every modern +requirement, white toilet-covers and bed-quilt, window-curtains, rug, +wash-stand; any lady unsatisfied here would be hard indeed to please. +The room of master and mistress was on the same plan, only much larger, +and one most-unlooked-for item caught my eye. This was a towel-horse +(perhaps the comfortably-appointed parsonage had set the fashion?), a +luxury never seen in France except in brand-new hotels. As a rule the +towel is hung in a cupboard. We were then shown several other bedrooms, +all equally suggestive of comfort and good taste; yet the owner was a +peasant, prided himself on being so, and had no intention of bringing up +his children to any other condition. His farm consisted of a few +hectares only, but was very productive. We saw his cows, of which he is +very fond, the gentle creatures making signs of joy at their master's +approach. Four or five cows, as many horses for breeding purposes, a few +sheep, pigs, and poultry made up his stock. All that I saw of this +family gave me a very high notion of intelligence, morality, thrift and +benevolence. + +Very feelingly all spoke of their animals and of the duty of human +beings towards the animal world generally. It was the first time I had +heard such a tone taken by French peasants, but I was here, be it +remembered, among Protestants. The horrible excuse made in Italy and +Brittany for cruelty to beasts, "Ce ne sont pas des chrétiens," finds no +acceptance among these mountaineers. + +Our second visit brought us into contact with the bourgeois element. The +farmhouse, of much better appearance than the rest, also stood in the +village. The holding was about the size of that just described. The +young mistress was dressed in conventional style, had passed an +examination at a girls' Lycée, entitling her to the _brevet supérieur_ +or higher certificate, her husband wore the dress of a country +gentleman, and we were ushered into a drawing-room furnished with piano, +pictures, a Japanese cabinet, carpets, and curtains. + +The bedrooms might have been fitted up by an upholsterer of Tottenham +Court Road. It must be borne in mind that I am not describing the +wealthy farmers of the Seine and Marne or La Venidée. + +The fact that these young people let a part of their large, +well-furnished house need not surprise us. There is no poverty here, but +no riches. I do not suppose that any one of the small landowners to whom +I was introduced could retire to-morrow and live on his savings. I dare +aver that one and all are in receipt of a small income from invested +capital, and have a provision against sickness and old age. + +The master of the house showed me his stock, five or six handsome cows +of cross breed, in value from £10 to £16, the latter the maximum price +here. We next saw several beautiful mares and young colts, and four +horned sheep. Sheepkeeping and farming are seldom carried on together, +and this young farmer was striking out a new path for himself. He told +me that he intended to rear and fatten sheep, also to use artificial +manure. Up to the present time, guanos and phosphates are all but +unknown in these regions, only farmhouse dung is used, cows being partly +kept for that purpose. Although the land is very productive, my +informant assured me that much remained to be done by departure from +routine and the adoption of advanced methods. The cross-breeding of +stock was another subject he had taken up. Such initiators are needed in +districts remote from agricultural schools, model farms, and State-paid +chairs of agriculture. + +Each of the four instances just given differed from the other. The first +showed us peasant property in its simplest development, a little family +contentedly living on their bit of land, making its produce suffice for +daily needs, independent of marts and markets as the members of a +primitive community. + +The second stage showed us a wholly dissimilar condition, yet not +without its ideal side. We were brought face to face with that +transitional phase of society and pacific revolution, of happiest augury +for the future. From the peasant ranks are now recruited contingents +that will make civil wars impossible, men who carry into politics +learning and the arts, those solid qualities that have made rural France +the admiration of the world, and more than once saved her Republic. + +The first instance exemplified the intense conservatism of the French +peasant. Liberal in politics, enlightened in religion, open to the +reception of new ideas, here was nevertheless a man absolutely satisfied +with social conditions as they affected himself and his children, +utterly devoid of envy or worldly ambition. To reap the benefits of his +toil, deserve the esteem of his neighbours, bequeath his little estate, +improved and enriched, to his heirs, surely this was no contemptible +ideal either. + +The last case differed from the other three. We were now reminded of the +English tenant, or even gentleman-farmer--with a difference. Alike master +and mistress had received a good education and seen something of the +world; they could enjoy music and books. But in spite of her _brevet +supérieur_, the wife attended to her dairy; and although the husband +was a gentleman in manners and appearance, he looked after the stock. +They lived, too, on friendliest terms with their less-instructed and +homelier neighbours, the black alpaca blouse and coloured kerchief, +doing duty for bonnet, being conspicuous at their Sunday receptions. Not +even a Zola can charge French village-life with the snobbishness so +conspicuous in England. It will be amply shown from the foregoing +examples that peasant property is no fixed condition to be arbitrarily +dealt with after the manner of certain economists. On the contrary, it +is many-phased; the fullest and widest development of modern France is +indeed modern France itself. The peasant owner of the soil has attained +the highest position in his own country. No other class can boast of +such social, moral and material ascendency. He is the acknowledged +arbitrator of the fortunes of France. + +I will now cite two facts illustrating the bright side of peasant +property in its humblest phase, where we have been told to expect +sordidness, even brutality. The land hereabouts, as I have before +stated, is excessively divided, the holdings being from two and a half +acres in extent and upwards. It often happens that the younger children +of these small owners give up their share of the little family estate +without claiming a centime of compensation, and seek their fortunes in +the towns. They betake themselves to handicrafts and trade, in their +turn purchasing land with the savings from daily wages. + +Again, it is supposed that the life of the peasant owner is one of +uniform, unbroken drudgery, his daily existence hardly more elevated +than that of the ox harnessed to his plough. Who ever heard of an +English labourer taking a fourteen days' rest at the seaside? When did a +rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton? They order these +things better in France. + +Between Osse and Oloron stands Escot, long famous for its warm springs. +The principal patrons of this modest watering-place are the peasants. It +is their Carlsbad, their Homburg, many taking a season as regularly as +the late King Edward. The thing is done with thoroughness, but at a +minimum of cost. They pay half a franc daily for a room, and another +half-franc for the waters, cooking their meals in the general kitchen of +the establishment. Where the French peasant believes, his faith is +phenomenal. Some of these valetudinarians drink as many as forty-six +glasses of mineral water a day! What must be their capacities in robust +health? The bourgeois or civilian element is not absent. Hither from Pau +and Oloron come clerks and small functionaries with their families. +Newspapers are read and discussed in company. We may be sure that the +rustic spa is a little centre of sociability and enlightenment. + +Let me now say something about the crops of this sweet Pyrenean +valley. The chief of these are corn, maize, rye, potatoes, and clover; +the soil being too dry and poor for turnips and beetroot. Flax is +grown in small quantities, and here and there we seen vines, but the +wine is thin and sour. + +From time immemorial, artificial irrigation has been carried on in the +Vallée d'Aspe, and most beautiful is the appearance of the brilliantly +green pastures, intersected by miniature canals in every direction; the +sweet pastoral landscape framed by mountain peaks of loveliest colour +and majestic shape. These well-watered grasslands produce two or even +three crops a year; the second, or _regain_ as it is called, was being +got in early in September, and harvest having taken place early, clover +was already springing up on the cleared cornfields. Everywhere men and +women were afield making hay or scattering manure on the meadows, the +latter sometimes being done with the hands. + +All these small farmers keep donkeys and mules, and on market-days the +roads are alive with cavalcades; the men wearing gay waist-sashes, flat +cloth caps, or berets, the women coloured kerchiefs. The type is +uniform--medium stature, spareness, dark eyes and hair, and olive +complexion predominating. Within the last thirty years the general +health and physique have immensely improved, owing to better food and +wholesomer dwellings. Goître and other maladies arising from +insufficient diet have disappeared. Epidemics, I was assured, seldom +work havoc in this valley; and though much remains to be done in the way +of drainage and sanitation, the villages have a clean, cheerful look. + +The last ailment that would occur to us proves most fatal to those +hardy country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as +the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality +arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend +oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was +tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. +Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises +from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks +above tempts us to linger abroad. + +The scenery is grandiose and most beautiful. Above the white-walled, +grey-roofed villages and townlings scattered about the open, rise +sharp-pointed green hills or monticules, one gently overtopping the +other; surmounting these, lofty barren peaks, recalling the volcanic +chains of Auvergne, the highest snow-capped point twice the altitude of +the Puy de Dôme, two-thirds that of Mont Blanc. + +Whichever way we go we find delightful scenery. Hidden behind the folded +hills, approached by lovely little glades and winding bridle-path, +tosses and foams the Gave d'Aspe, its banks thickly set with willow and +salicornia, its solitary coves inviting the bather. The witchery of +these mountain streams grows upon us in the Pyrenees. We hunger for the +music of their cascades when far away. The sun-lit, snow-lit peaks, +towering into the brilliant blue heavens, are not deserted as they +appear. Shepherd farmers throughout the summer dwell in huts here, and +welcome visitors with great affability. + +Let me narrate a fact interesting alike to the naturalist and +meteorologist. On the 7th September, 1891, the heat on one of these +summits, nine thousand feet above the sea-level, was so intense that a +little flock of sheep were seen literally hugging the snow, laying their +faces against the cool masses, huddled about them, as shivering mortals +round a fire in winter. And, a little way off, the eye-witnesses of this +strange scene gathered deep blue irises in full bloom. + +[Illustration: ORCUM] + +On the lower slopes the farmers leave their horses to graze, giving them +a look from time to time. One beautiful young horse lost its life just +before my arrival, unwarily approaching a precipitous incline. As a rule +accidents are very rare. + +The izard or Pyrenean chamois, although hunted as game, is not yet a +survival here, nor the eagle and bear, the latter only making its +appearance in winter-time. + +Tent-life in these mountain-sides is quite safe and practicable. Who can +say? A generation hence and these magnificent Alps may be tunnelled by +railways, crowned by monster hotels, peopled from July to October with +tourists in search of disappointments. + +At present the Vallée d'Aspe is the peacefullest in the world. Alike on +week-days and Sundays the current of life flows smoothly. Every morning +from the open windows of the parsonage may be heard the sweet, simple +hymns of the Lutheran Church, master and mistress, servants and +children, uniting in daily thanksgiving and prayer. + +And a wholesome corrective is the Sunday service after the sights +of Lourdes. + +The little congregation was striking. Within the altar railings stood +two _anciens_, or elders, of the church, middle-aged men, tall, +stalwart, the one fair as a Saxon, the other dark as a Spaniard. Both +wore the dress of the well-to-do peasant, short black alpaca blouses, +black cloth trousers, and spotless collars and cuffs, and both worthily +represented those indomitable ancestors who neither wavered nor lost +heart under direst persecution. + +By the time the pastor ascended the reading-desk, the cheerful, +well-kept little church was full, the men in black blouses, the women +wearing neat stuff or print gowns, with silk handkerchiefs tied under +the chin, widows and the aged, the sombre black-hooded garment, +enveloping head and figure, of Huguenot matrons of old--supposed to have +suggested the conventual garb. + +Among the rest were two or three Catholics, peasants of the +neighbourhood, come to look on and listen. The simple, intelligible +service, the quiet fervour of the assembly, might well impress a +sceptical beholder. Even more impressive is the inscription over the +door. A tablet records how the first Protestant church was pulled down +by order of the king after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +rebuilt on the declaration of religious liberty by the National +Assembly. Gazing on that inscription and the little crowd of +worshippers, a sentence of Tacitus came into my mind. Recording how not +only the biographers of good men were banished or put to death, but +their works publicly burnt by order of Domitian, the historian, whose +sentences are volumes condensed, adds: "They fancied, forsooth"--he is +speaking of the tyrant and his satellites--"that all records of these +actions being destroyed, mankind could never approve of them." An +illusion shared by enemies of intellectual liberty, from the Caesars to +their latest imitator, unhappily not wholly dispelled in our own day. + +Whether the homeward journey is made through the Landes by way of +Bayonne and Bordeaux, or through the Eastern Pyrenees by way of +Perpignan, we are brought face to face with scenes of strangest +transformation. In the former region the agency has been artificial, the +shifting sands being fixed and solidified by plantations on a gigantic +scale, and large tracts rendered fertile by artificial irrigation; in +the latter, Nature has prepared the field, the more laborious portion of +the husbandman's task is already done. + +"The districts of sand, as white as snow and so loose as to blow," seen +by Arthur Young towards the close of the last century, can hardly be +said to exist in our own day. Even within twenty-five years the changes +are so great as to render entire regions hardly recognizable. The +stilts, or _chanques_, of which our word "shanks" is supposed to be the +origin, become rarer and rarer. The creation of forests and sinking of +wells, drainage, artificial manures and canals are rapidly fertilizing a +once arid region; with the aspect of the country a proportionate change +taking place in the material condition of the people. + +No less startling is the transformation of lagoon into salt marsh, and +marsh into cultivable soil, witnessed between the Spanish frontier, +Perpignan and Nîmes. + +Quitting Cerbère, the little town at which travellers from Barcelona +re-enter French territory, we follow the coast, traversing a region long +lost to fame and the world, but boasting of a brilliant history before +the real history of France began. + +We are here in presence of geological changes affected neither by shock +nor convulsion, nor yet by infinitesimally slow degrees. A few +centuries have sufficed to alter the entire contour of the coast and +reverse the once brilliant destinies of maritime cities. With the +recorded experience of mediaeval writers at hand, we can localize +lagoons and inland seas where to-day we find belts of luxuriant +cultivation. In a lifetime falling short of the Psalmist's threescore +years and ten observations may be made that necessitate the +reconstruction of local maps. + +The charming little watering-place of Banyulssur-Mer, reached soon after +passing the Spanish frontier, is the only place on this coast, except +Cette, without a history. The town is built in the form of an +amphitheatre, its lovely little bay surrounded by rich southern +vegetation. The oleanders and magnolias in full bloom, gardens and +vineyards, are no less strikingly contrasted with the barrenness and +monotony that follows, than Banyuls itself, spick and span, brand-new, +with the buried cities scattered on the way, ancient as Tyre and Sidon, +and once as flourishing. There is much sadness yet poetic charm in the +landscape sweeps of silvery-green olive or bluish salicornia against a +pale-blue sky, dull-brown fishing villages bordering sleepy lagoons, +stretches of white sand, with here and there a glimpse of the purple, +rock-hemmed sea. Little of life animates this coast, in many spots the +custom-house officer and a fisherman or two being the sole inhabitants, +their nearest neighbours removed from them by many miles. Only the +flamingo, the heron, and the sea-gull people these solitudes, within the +last few years broken by the whistle of the locomotive. We are following +the direct line of railway between Barcelona and Paris. + +The first of the buried cities is the musically-named Elne, anciently +Illiberis, now a poor little town of the department of the Eastern +Pyrenees, hardly, indeed, more than a village, but boasting a wondrous +pedigree. We see dull-brown walls, ilex groves, and above low-lying +walls the gleaming sea. This apparently deserted place occupies the site +of city upon city. Seaport, metropolis, emporium had here reached their +meridian of splendour before the Greek and the Roman set foot in Gaul. +Already in Pliny's time the glories of the Elne had become tradition. We +must go farther back than Phoenician civilization for the beginnings of +this town, halting-place of Hannibal and his army on their march towards +Rome. The great Constantine endeavoured to resuscitate the fallen city, +and for a brief space Elne became populous and animated. With other once +flourishing seaports it has been gradually isolated from the sea, and +the same process is still going on. + +Just beyond Perpignan a lofty tower, rising amid vineyards and pastures, +marks the site of Ruscino, another ancient city and former seaport. The +Tour de Roussillon is all that now remains of a place once important +enough to give its name to a province. Le Roussillon, from which was +formed the department of the Pyrénées Orientales, became French by the +treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Here also the great Carthaginian halted, +and here, we learn, he met with a friendly reception. + +Monotonous as are these wide horizons and vast stretches of marsh and +lagoon, they appeal to the lover of solitude and of the more pensive +aspects of nature. The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of +glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, +too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills. Not cities only seem +interred here: the railway hurries us through a world in which all is +hushed and inanimate, as if, indeed, mankind no less than good fortune +had deserted it. The prevailing uniformity is broken by the +picturesquely placed little town of Salses and the white cliffs of +Leucate. Strabo and Pomponius Mela describe minutely the floating +islands or masses of marine plants moving freely on the lake of Salses. +Here, as elsewhere, the coastline is undergoing slow but steady +modification, yet we are in presence of phenomena that engaged the +attention of writers two thousand years ago. + +From this point till we approach Cette the region defies definition. It +is impossible to determine nicely where the land ends and the sea +begins. The railway follows a succession of inland salt lakes and +lagoons, with isolated fishermen's cabins, reminding us of +lake-dwellings. In some places the hut is approached by a narrow strip +of solid ground, on either side surrounded by water, just admitting the +passage of a single pedestrian. The scene is unspeakably desolate. Only +sea-birds keep the fisher-folk company; only the railway recalls the +busy world far away. + +Of magnificent aspect is Narbonne, the Celtic Venice, as it rises above +the level landscape. The great seaport described by Greek historians six +centuries before our own era, the splendid capital of Narbonese Gaul, +rival of the Roman Nîmes and of the Greek Arles, is now as dull a +provincial town as any throughout France. Invasions, sieges, plagues, +incendiaries, most of all religious persecutions, ruined the mediæval +Narbonne. The Jewish element prevailed in its most prosperous phase, and +M. Renan in his history of Averroës shows how much of this prosperity +and intellectual pre-eminence was due to the Jews. The cruel edicts of +Philip Augustus against the race proved no less disastrous here than the +expulsion of Huguenots elsewhere later. The decadence of Narbonne as a +port is due to natural causes. Formerly surrounded by lagoons affording +free communication with the sea, the Languedocian Venice has gradually +lost her advantageous position. The transitional stage induced such +unhealthy climatic conditions that at one period there seemed a +likelihood of the city being abandoned altogether. In proportion as the +marsh solidified the general health improved. Day by day the slow but +sure process continues, and when the remaining salt lakes shall have +become dry land, this region, now barren and desolate, will blossom like +the rose. The hygienic and atmospheric effects of the _Eucalyptus +globulus_ in Algeria are hardly more striking than the amelioration +wrought here in a natural way. The Algerian traveller of twenty-five +years ago now finds noble forests of blue gum tree, where, on his first +visit, his heart was wrung by the spectacle of a fever-stricken +population. On the coast of Languedoc the change has been slower. It has +taken not only a generation but a century to transform pestilential +tracts into zones of healthfulness and fertility. + +An interesting fact, illustrating the effect of physical agencies upon +human affairs, must be here mentioned. Till within the last few years +this town counted a considerable Protestant community. The ravages of +the phylloxera in the neighbouring vineyards caused a wholesale exodus +of vine-growers belonging to the Reformed Church, and in 1886 the number +had dwindled to such an extent that the services of a pastor were no +longer required. The minister in charge was transferred elsewhere. + +The dull little town of Agde is another ancient site. Its name is alike +a poem and a history. The secure harbourage afforded by this sheltered +bay won for the place the name of Good Fortune, [Greek: agathae tuchae], +whence Agathe, Agde. A Greek settlement, its fine old church was in part +constructed of the materials of a temple to Diana of Ephesus. Agde +possesses interest of another kind. It is built of lava, the solitary +peak rising behind it, called Le Pic de St. Loup, being the southern +extremity of that chain of extinct volcanoes beginning with Mont Mezenc +in the Cantal. A pathetic souvenir is attached to this lonely crater. At +a time when geological ardour was rare, a Bishop of Agde, St. Simon by +name, devoted years of patient investigation to the volcanic rocks in +his diocese. The result of his studies were recorded in letters to a +learned friend, but the Revolution stopped the poor bishop's +discoveries. He perished by the guillotine during the Terror. The +celebrated founder of socialism in France was his nephew. + + + +XI + +AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +The friendly visit of a few Russian naval officers lately put the +country into as great a commotion as a hostile invasion. I started +southward from Lyons on the 12th October, 1893, amid scenes of wholly +indescribable confusion; railway stations a mere compact phalanx of +excited tourists bound for Toulon, with no immediate prospect of getting +an inch farther, railway officials at their wits' end, carriage after +carriage hooked on to the already enormously long train, and yet crowds +upon crowds left behind. Every train was, of course, late; and on the +heels of each followed supplementary ones, all packed to their utmost +capacity. As we steamed into the different stations "Vive la Russie!" +greeted our ears. The air seemed filled with the sound; never surely was +such a delirium witnessed in France since the fever heat of 1789! + +At Valence, Montélimar, Avignon, Arles, the same tumult reigned; but +before reaching the second place, the regulation number of carriages, +twenty-five, had been exceeded, and as hardly one per cent of the +travellers alighted, we could only pass by the disconcerted multitudes +awaiting places. And a mixed company was ours--the fashionable world, +select and otherwise, the demi-monde in silks and in tatters, +musicians, travelling companies of actors and showmen, decorated +functionaries, children, poodles, all bound for the Russian fleet! + +At Marseilles, a bitter disappointment awaited some, I fear, many. No +sooner were we fairly within the brilliantly-lighted, crowded station, +and before the train had come to a standstill, than a stentorian voice +was heard from one end of the platform to the other, crying-- + +"LOOK TO YOUR PURSES!" + +And as the gorged carriages slowly discharged their burden, the stream +of passengers wending towards the door marked "Way out," a yet louder +and more awe-inspiring voice came from above, the official being perched +high as an orator in the pulpit, repeating the same words-- + +"ATTENTION À VOTRE PORTE-MONNAIE!" + +The dismay of the thwarted pickpockets may be better imagined than +described. Many, doubtless, had come from great distances, confident of +a golden harvest. Let us hope that the authorities of Toulon were +equally on the alert. Marseilles no more resembles Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, than those cities resemble each other. Less elegant than Lyons, +less majestic than Bordeaux, gayer by far than Nantes, the capital of +Southern France has a stamp of its own. Today, as three thousand years +ago, Marseilles may be called the threshold of the East. In these hot, +bustling, noisy streets, Paris is quiet by comparison; London a Trappist +monastery! Orientals, or what our French neighbours call exotics, are so +common that no one looks at them. Japanese and Chinese, Hindus, +Tonquinois, Annamites, Moors, Arabs, all are here, and in native dress; +and writing letters in the salon of your hotel, your _vis-à-vis_ at the +_table d'hôte_, your fellow sightseers, east and west, to-day as of old, +here come into friendly contact; and side by side with the East is the +glowing life of the South. We seem no longer in France, but in a great +cosmopolitan mart that belongs to the whole world. + +The Marseillais, nevertheless, are French; and Marseilles, to their +thinking, is the veritable metropolis. "If Paris had but her +Cannebière," they say, "she would be a little Marseilles!" + +Superbly situated, magnificently endowed as to climate, the _chef-lieu_ +of the Bouches du Rhône must be called a slatternly beauty; whilst +embellishing herself, putting on her jewels and splendid attire, she +has forgotten to wash her face and trim her hair! Not in Horatian +phrase, dainty in her neatness, Marseilles does herself injustice. Lyons +is clean swept, spick and span as a toy town; Bordeaux is coquettish as +her charming Bordelaise; Nantes, certainly, is not particularly careful +of appearances. But Marseilles is dirty, unswept, littered from end to +end; you might suppose that every householder had just moved, leaving +their odds and ends in the streets, if, indeed, these beautifully-shaded +walks can be so called. The city in its development has laid out alleys +and boulevards instead of merely making ways, with the result that in +spite of brilliant sky and burning sun, coolness and shadow are ever to +be had. The Cannebière, with its blue sky, glowing foliage and gay, +nonchalant, heterogeneous crowds, reminds me of the Rambla of Barcelona. +Indeed, the two cities have many points of resemblance. Marseilles is +greatly changed from the Marseilles I visited twenty-five years ago, to +say nothing of Arthur Young's description of 1789. The only advantage +with which he accredited the city was that of possessing newspapers. Its +port, he wrote, was a horsepond compared to that of Bordeaux; the number +of country houses dotting the hills disappointingly small. At the +present time, suburban Marseilles, like suburban London, encroaches +year by year upon the country; another generation, and the sea-coast +from Toulon to the Italian frontier will show one unbroken line of +country houses. Of this no one can doubt who sees what is going on in +the way of building. + +But it is not only by beautiful villas and gardens that the city has +embellished itself. What with the lavishness of the municipality, public +companies, and the orthodox, noble public buildings, docks, warehouses, +schools, churches, gardens, promenades, have rendered Marseilles the +most sumptuous French capital after Paris. Neither Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, can compare with it for sumptuosity. In the Palais de +Longchamps, the splendour of municipal decoration reaches its acme; the +horsepond Arthur Young sneered at now affords accommodation of 340 +acres, with warehouses, said to be the finest in the world; last, but +not least, comes the enormous Byzantine Cathedral not yet finished, +built at the cost of a quarter of a million sterling. Other new churches +and public buildings without number have sprung up of late years, the +crowning glory of Marseilles being its Palais de Longchamps. + +This magnificent group of buildings may be called a much enlarged and +much more grandiose Trocadéro. Worthily do these colossal Tritons and +sea-horses commemorate the great achievement of modern Marseilles; +namely, the conveying of a river to its very doors. Hither, over a +distance of fifty-four miles, are brought the abundant waters of the +Durance; as we stand near, their cascades falling with the thunder of +our own Lodore. But having got the river and given the citizens more +than enough water with which to turn their mills, supply their domestic +wants, fertilize suburban fields and gardens, the Town Council seem +satisfied. The streets are certainly, one and all, watered with rushing +streams, greatly to the public health and comfort. A complete system of +drainage is needed to render the work complete. When we learn that even +Nice is not yet drained from end to end, we need not be astonished at +tardy progress elsewhere. Sanitation is ever the last thing thought of +by French authorities. Late in the afternoon we saw two or three men +slowly sweeping one street. No regular cleaning seems to take place. Get +well out of the city, by the sea-shore, or into the Prado--an avenue of +splendid villas--and all is swept and garnished. The central +thoroughfares, so glowing with life and colour, and so animated by day +and night, are malodorous, littered, dirty. It is a delightful drive by +the sea, over against the Château d'If, forts frowning above the rock, +the deep blue waves, yellowish-brown shore, and green foliage, all in +striking contrast. + +We with difficulty realize that Marseilles is not the second city in +France. The reason is obvious. Lyons lies less compactly together, its +thickly-peopled Guillotière seems a town apart; the population of Lyons, +moreover, is a sedentary one, whilst the Marseillais, being seafarers, +are perpetually abroad. The character, too, is quite different, less +expansive, less excitable, less emotional in the great silk-weaving +capital, here gay, noisy, nonchalant. Nobody seems to find the cares of +the day a burden, all to have some of the sunshine of the place in their +composition. "Mon bon," a Marsellais calls his neighbour; there is no +stillness anywhere. Everybody is "Mon bon" to everybody. + +The out-of-door, rollicking, careless life, more especially strikes a +northerner. We seem here as remote from ordinary surroundings as if +suddenly transported to Benares. The commercial prosperity of the first +French sea-port is attested by its lavish public works, and number of +country houses, a disappointing handful in Arthur Young's time. Hardly a +householder, however modest his means, who does not possess a cottage or +châlet; the richer having palatial villas and gardens. Nothing can +convey a greater notion of ease and wealth than the prospect of suburban +Marseilles, its green hills, rising above the sea, thickly dotted with +summer houses in every part. + +All who wish to realize the advance of French cities since 1870-71 +should visit Marseilles. Only those who knew it long ago can measure the +change, and greater changes still are necessary ere its sanitary +conditions match climate and situation. + +From Marseilles to Nice, from the land of the olive to that of the palm, +is a long and wearisome journey. That tyrannical monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée Railway Company, gives only slow trains, except +to travellers provided with through tickets; and these so inconveniently +arranged, that travellers unprovided with refreshments, have no +opportunity of procuring any on the way. Whenever we travel by railway +in France we are reminded of the crying need for competition. The +all-omnipotent P.-L.-M. does as it pleases, and it is quite useless for +travellers to complain. Every inch of the way points to the future of +the Riviera--a future not far off. A few years hence and the sea-coast +from Marseilles to Mentone will be one unbroken line of hotels and +villas. The process is proceeding at a rapid rate. When Arthur Young +made this journey a century ago, he described the country around Toulon +thus: "Nine-tenths are waste mountain, and a wretched country of pines, +box, and miserable aromatics." At the present time, the brilliant red +soil, emerald crops, and gold and purple leafage of stripped vine, make +up a picture of wondrous fertility. At every point we see vineyards of +recent creation; whilst not an inch of soil between the olive trees is +wasted. On the 28th of October the landscape was bright with autumn +crops, some to be _répiqué_, or planted out according to the Chinese +system before mentioned. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger at Nice is its Italian +population. These black-eyed, dark-complexioned, raven-haired, +easy-going folks form as distinct a type as the fresh-complexioned, +blue-eyed Alsatian. That the Niçois are French at heart is self-evident, +and no wonder, when we compare their present condition with that of the +past. We see no beggars or ragged, wretched-looking people. If the +municipal authorities have set themselves the task of putting down +mendicity, they have succeeded. French enterprise, French capital is +enriching the population from one end of the Alpes Maritimes to the +other. At the present time there must be tens of thousands of workmen +employed in the building of hotels and villas between Marseilles and +Ventimille. That the Riviera will finally be overbuilt no one can +doubt; much of the original beauty of the country is already destroyed +by this piling up of bricks and mortar, more beauty is doomed. But +meantime work is brisk, wages are high, and the Post Office savings bank +and private banks tell their own tale. + +Of course the valetudinarians contribute to the general prosperity, a +prosperity which it is difficult for residents in an English +watering-place to realize. Thus I take up a Hastings newspaper to find a +long list of lodging-house keepers summoned for non-payment of taxes. +Arrived at Nice, a laundress employed by my hostess immediately came to +see if I had any clothes for her. On bringing back the linen she +deposited it in my room, saying I could pay her when fetching the next +bundle. I let her go, but called her back, thinking that perhaps the +poor woman had earned nothing for months and was in distress. My hostess +afterwards informed me with a smile that this good woman had £2,500 in +the bank. I could multiply instances in point. + +If the condition of the working classes has immensely improved, the cost +of living has not stood still. A householder informed me that prices of +provisions, servants' wages, house rent and other items of domestic +economy have tripled within the last twenty years. There is every +prospect that this increase will continue. Last winter hotels and +boarding-houses at Nice were all full; fast as new ones are built, they +fill to overflowing. And, of course, the majority of visitors are rich. +No others should come; they are not wanted. + +In studying the rural population we must bear in mind one fact--namely, +the line of demarcation separating the well-to-do peasants of the plain +from the poor and frugal mountaineer. Follow the mule track from Mentone +to Castillon, and we find a condition of things for squalor and poverty +unmatched throughout France. Visit an olive-grower in the valley of the +Var, and we are once more amid normal conditions of peasant property. My +first visit was to the land of Goshen. + +Provided with a letter of introduction to a farmer, I set off for the +village of St. Martin du Var, a village of five hundred and odd souls, +only within the last year or two accessible by railway. The new line, +which was to have connected Nice with Digne and Cap, had been stopped +short half-way, the enterprising little company who projected it being +thereby brought to the verge of ruin. This fiasco, due, I am told, to +the jealous interference of the P.-L.-M., is a great misfortune to +travellers, the line partially opened up leading through a most wildly +picturesque and lovely region, and being also of great commercial and +strategic importance. But that terrible monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, will tolerate no rivals. Folks bound from Gap +to Nice must still make the long round by way of Marseilles in order +to please the Company; merchandise--and, in case of a war with Italy, +which may Heaven avert!--soldiers and ammunition must do the same. + +The pretty new "Gare du Sud" invites patronage, and three services are +performed daily. On this little line exists no third class. I imagine, +then, that either the very poor are too poor to take train at all, or +that there are none unable to pay second-class fare. In company of +priests, peasants, and soldiers, I took a second-class place, the guard +joining us and comfortably reading a newspaper as soon as we were +fairly off. + +It is a superb little journey to St. Martin du Var. The line may be +described as a succession of tunnels, our way lying between lofty +limestone cliffs and the Var, at the present time almost dry. As we +slowly advance, the valley widens, and on either side are broad belts +of verdure and fertility; fields, orchards, gardens, olive trees +feathering the lower slopes, here and there, little villages perched +high above the valley. One charming feature of the landscape is the +aspen; so silvery were its upper leaves in the sun that at first I +took them for snow-white blossoms. These verdant stretches on either +side of the river were formerly mere waste, redeemed and rendered +cultivable by means of dykes. + +My destination is reached in an hour, a charmingly placed village amid +beautiful mountain scenery, over against it towering the hamlet of La +Roquette, apparently inaccessible as cloudland. Here a tributary +stream joins the Var, the long winding valley, surrounded by lofty +crags and olive-clad slopes, affording a delightful and most +exhilarating prospect. The weather on this 20th of October was that of +a perfect day in July. + +St. Martin du Var has its Mairie, handsome communal schools, and large +public walks or recreation ground, a parallelogram planted with trees. +The place has a neglected, Italian aspect; at the same time an aspect of +ease and contentment. The black-eyed, olive-complexioned, +Italian-looking children are uniformly well dressed, with good shoes and +stockings. French children, even of the poorest class, are always +decently shod. + +I found my host at dinner with his wife, little daughter, and +sister-in-law. The first impression of an uninitiated traveller would be +of poverty. The large bare kitchen was unswept and untidy; the family +dishes--soup, vegetables, olives, good white bread, wine--were placed on +the table without cloth or table-cover. As will be seen, these +hard-working, frugal people were rich; in England they would have +servants to wait upon them, fine furniture, and wear fashionable +clothes. My letter of introduction slowly read and digested, the head of +the family placed himself at my disposal. We set off on a round of +inspection, the burning mid-day sun here tempered by a delicious breeze. + +We first visited the olive-presses and corn-mill--this farmer was +village miller as well as olive grower--all worked by water-power and +erected by himself at a heavy outlay. Formerly these presses and mills +were worked by horses and mules after the manner of old-fashioned +threshing-machines, but in Provence as in Brittany, progress is now the +order of the day. + +In order to supply these mills, a little canal was dug at my host's own +expense, and made to communicate with the waters of the Var; thus a good +supply is always at hand. + +The enormous olive-presses and vats are now being got in for the first +or October harvest. This is the harvest of windfalls or fallen fruit, +green or black as the case may be, and used for making an inferior kind +of oil. The second harvest or gathering of the olives remaining on the +trees takes place in April. Linen is spread below, and the berries +gently shaken off. I may add that the periods of olive harvests vary in +different regions, often being earlier or later. An olive tree produces +on an average a net return of twelve francs, the best returns being +alternate or biennial; the roots are manured from time to time, +otherwise the culture is inexpensive. The trees are of great age and, +indeed, are seldom known to die. The "immortal olive" is, indeed, no +fiction. In this especial district no olive trees have, within living +memory, been killed by frost, as was the case in Spain some years ago. +Nevertheless, the peaks around St. Martin du Var are tipped with snow in +winter. The olive harvests and necessary preparations require a large +number of hands, the wages of men averaging three francs, of women, the +half. Thus at the time I write of, day labourers in remote regions of +Provence receive just upon fourteen shillings and sixpence per week; +whereas I read in the English papers that Essex farmers are reducing the +pittance of twelve and even ten shillings per week for able-bodied men. + +Ten days later, my cicerone said that the first harvest would be in +active progress, and he most cordially invited me to revisit him for +the purpose of looking on. From the lees of the crushed berries a +third and much inferior oil is made and used in the manufacture of +soap, just as what is called _piquette_ or sour wine is made in +Brittany from the lees of crushed grapes. I was assured by this farmer +that the impurity of olive oil we so often complain of in England, +arises from adulteration at the hands of retailers. Table oil as it +issues from the presses of the grower is absolutely pure; merchants add +inferior qualities or poppy oil, described by me in an earlier page, +and which my present host looked upon with supreme contempt. The olive, +with the vine and tobacco, attains the maximum of agricultural profits. +This farmer alone sells oil to the annual value of several thousand +pounds, and to the smaller owner also it is the principal source of +income. Peasant owners or tenants of an acre or two grow a little corn +as well, this chiefly for their own use. + +The interior of the corn-mill presented an amusing scene. Two or three +peasants were squabbling with my host's subordinate over their sacks of +flour; one might have supposed from the commotion going on and the +general air of vindictive remonstrance that we were suddenly transported +to a seigneurial mill. A few conciliatory words from the master put all +straight, and soon after we saw the good folks, one of them an old +woman, trotting off on donkeys with their sack of corn slung before +them. I need hardly say that the talk of these country-people among +themselves is always in patois, not a word of which is intelligible to +the uninitiated. + +Just above the mills are groves of magnificent old olive trees, and +alongside the little railway were bright strips of lucerne and pasture, +folks here and there getting in their tiny crops of hay. + +The iron road is not yet regarded as an unmixed good. My host told me +that local carters and carriers had been obliged in consequence to sell +their horses and carts and betake themselves to day labour. Such +drawbacks are, of course, inevitable, but the ulterior advantage +effected by the railway is unquestionable. I should say that nowhere are +life and property safer than in these mountain-hemmed valleys. The +landlady of the little hotel at St. Martin du Var assured me that she +always left her front door open all night. Nothing had ever happened to +alarm her but the invasion of three English ladies at midnight, one of +these of gigantic stature and armed with a huge stick. The trio were +making a pedestrian journey across country, apparently taking this +security for granted. Neither brigands nor burglars could have given +the poor woman a greater fright than the untimely appearance of my +countrywomen. + +It was now too hot to visit the open tracts of pasture and cultivation +alongside the Var. The farmer's wife proposed a shady walk to a +neighbouring farm instead, our errand being to procure milk for my five +o'clock tea. Without hat or umbrella, my companion set off, chatting as +we went. She explained to me that on Sundays she wore bonnet and mantle +after the fashion of a _bourgeoise_; in other words, she dressed like a +lady, but that neither in summer nor winter at any other time did she +cover her head. She was a pleasant-mannered, intelligent, affable woman, +almost toothless, as are so many well-to-do middle-aged folks in France. +Dentists must fare badly throughout the country. No one ever seems to +have a guinea to spend upon false teeth. + +We were soon out of the village, and passing the pretty garden of the +Gendarmerie, reached a scene of unimaginable, unforgettable beauty. +Never shall I forget the splendour of the olive trees set around a +wide, brilliantly green meadow; near the farmhouse groves of +pomegranate, orange and lemon with ripening fruit; beside these, medlar +and hawthorn trees (_cratoegus azarolus_), the golden leafage and +coral-red fruit of the latter having a striking effect; beyond, silvery +peaks, and, above all, a heaven of warm, yet not too dazzling blue. At +the farther end of the meadow, in which a solitary cow grazed at will, +a labourer was preparing a ribbon-like strip of land for corn, beside +him, pretending to work too, his little son of five years. My hostess +held up her jug and stated her errand, proposing that the cow should be +milked a trifle earlier in order to suit my convenience. The man +good-naturedly replied that, as far as the matter concerned himself, he +was agreeable enough, but that the cow was not so easily to be put out +of her way. She was milked regularly as clockwork at a quarter to five, +the clock had only just struck four; he might leave his work and take +her home, but not a drop of milk would she give before the proper time! +Leaving our jug, we roamed about this little paradise, unwilling to +quit a scene of unblemished beauty. A more bewitching spot I do not +recall; and it seemed entirely shut off from the world, on all sides, +unbroken quiet, nothing to mar the exquisiteness of emerald turf, +glossy foliage of orange and lemon trees, silvery olive in striking +contrast, and above, a cloudless sky. In the heart of a primeval forest +we could not feel more alone. + +The thought occurred to me how perfect were such a holiday resort could +a clean little lodging be found near! With some attention to +cleanliness and sanitation, the little hotel at St. Martin du Var might +satisfy the unfastidious. I am bound to admit that in French phrase it +leaves much to desire. + +My host gave me a good deal of interesting information about the place +and the people. Excellent communal schools with lay teachers of both +sexes have been opened under French régime; and the village of five +hundred and odd souls has, of course, its Mairie, Hôtel de Ville, and +Gendarmerie, governing itself after the manner of French villages. + +Whilst the ladies of the house chatted with me they knitted away at +socks and stockings, in coarse, bright-coloured wool. Such articles are +never bought, the home-made substitute being much more economical in the +end. As an instance of the solid comfort of these apparently frugal +folks, let me mention their homespun linen sheets. My hostess showed me +some coarse bed-linen lately woven for her in the village. Calico +sheets, she said, were much cheaper, but she preferred this durable +home-spun even at three times the price. An old woman in the village +still plied the loom, working up neighbours' materials at three francs a +day. The flax has to be purchased also, so that the homespun sheet is a +luxury; "and at the same time," the housewife added, "a work of +charity. This poor old woman lives by her loom. It is a satisfaction to +help her to a mouthful of bread." + +The moon had risen when I took leave, hostess, little daughter, and +sister all accompanying me to the station, reiterating their wish to see +me again. Nothing, indeed, would have been pleasanter than to idle away +weeks amid this adorable scenery and these charming people. But life is +short and France is immense. The genially uttered _au revoir_ becomes +too often a mere figure of speech. + +I add, by the way, that the little daughter, now trotting daily to the +village school, is sure to have a handsome dowry by and by. Four +thousand pounds is no unusual portion of a rich peasant's daughter in +these regions. As an old resident at Nice informed me, "The peasants are +richer than the _bourgeoisie_"--as they deserve to be, seeing their +self-denial and thrift. + + + +XII + +PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +Pessicarz is a hamlet not mentioned in either French or English +guide-books; yet the drive thither is far more beautiful than the +regulation excursions given in tourists' itineraries. The road winds in +corkscrew fashion above the exquisite bay and city, gleaming as if built +of marble, amid scenes of unbroken solitude. Between groves of veteran +olives and rocks rising higher and higher, we climb for an hour and a +half, then leaving behind us the wide panorama of Nice, Cimiez, the sea, +and villa-dotted hills, take a winding inland road, as beautiful as can +be imagined. Here, nestled amid chestnut woods, lay the little farm I +had come to see, consisting of three hectares let at a rent of five +hundred francs (between seven and eight acres, rented at twenty pounds a +year), the products being shared between owner and tenant. This modified +system of _métayage_ or half profits is common here, and certainly +affords a stepping-stone to better things. By dint of uncompromising +economy, the metayer may ultimately become a small owner. The farmhouse +was substantially built and occupied by both landlord and tenant, the +latter with his family living on the ground floor. This arrangement +probably answers two purposes, economy is effected, and fraud prevented +on the part of the metayer. Pigs and poultry are noisy animals, and if a +dishonest tenant wanted to smuggle any of these away by night, they +would certainly betray him. The housewife, in the absence of her +husband, received me very kindly. I was of course introduced by a +neighbour, who explained my errand, and she at once offered to show me +round. She was a sturdy, good-natured-looking woman, very well-dressed +and speaking French fairly. The first thing she did was to show me her +poultry, of which she was evidently very proud. This she accomplished by +calling out in a loud voice, "Poules, poules, poules" ("chickens, +chickens, chickens"), as if addressing children, whereupon they came +fluttering out of the chestnut woods, fifty or more, some of fine breed. +These fowls are kept for laying, and not for market, the eggs being sent +daily into Nice. She then asked me indoors, the large kitchen being on +one side of the door, the outhouses on the other. Beyond the kitchen was +a large bedroom, her children, she explained, sleeping upstairs. Both +rooms were smoke-dried to the colour of mahogany, unswept and very +untidy, but the good woman seemed quite sensible of these disadvantages +and apologized on account of narrow space. A large supply of clothes +hung upon pegs in the bed-chamber, and it possessed also a very handsome +old upright clock. The kitchen, besides stores of cooking utensils, had +a stand for best china, and on the walls were numerous unframed +pictures. I mention these trifling details to show that even among the +poorer peasant farmers something is found for ornament; they do not live +as Zola would have us believe, for sordid gains alone. + +We next visited the pigs, of which she possessed about a dozen in three +separate styes. These are fed only upon grain and the kitchen wash +supplied from hotels; but she assured me that the disgusting story I +had heard at Nice was true. There are certain pork-rearing +establishments in the department at which carrion is purchased and +boiled down for fattening pigs. My hostess seemed quite alive to the +unwholesomeness of such a practice, and we had a long talk about pigs, +of which I happen to know something; that they are dirt-loving animals +is quite a mistake; none more thoroughly enjoy a good litter of clean +straw. I was glad to find this good woman entirely of the same opinion. +She informed me with evident satisfaction that fresh straw was always +thrown down on one side of the piggery at night, and that the animals +always selected it for repose. + +The first lot were commodiously housed, but I reasoned with her with +regard to the other two, the pig-styes being mere caverns without light +or air, and the poor creatures grunting piteously to be let out. She +told me that they were always let out at sundown, and heard what I had +to say about pigs requiring air, let us hope to some purpose. Certainly, +departmental professors have an uphill task before them in +out-of-the-way regions. These poor people are said to be extremely +frugal as a rule, but too apt to squander their years' savings at a +paternal fête, wedding or any other festivity. Generations must elapse +ere they are raised to the level of the typical French peasant. On the +score of health they may compare favourably with any race. A fruit and +vegetable diet seems sufficient in this climate. Besides her poultry and +pigs my farmeress had not much to show me; but a plot of flowers for +market, a little corn, and a few olive trees added grist to the mill. On +the whole, want of comfort, cleanliness, and order apart, I should say +that even such a condition contrasts favourably with that of an English +agricultural labourer. Without doubt, were we to inquire closely into +matters, we should discover a sum of money invested or laid by for +future purchases utterly beyond the reach of a Suffolk ploughman. + +Just below the little farm I visited a philanthropic experiment +interesting to English visitors. This was an agricultural orphanage +founded by an Englishman two years before, seventeen waifs and strays +having been handed over to him by the Municipal Council of Nice. The +education of the poor little lads is examined once a year by a school +inspector, in other respects the protégés are left to their new patron. +Here they are taught household and farm work, fruit and flower culture, +the business of the dairy, carpentering, and other trades; being +afterwards placed out. I question whether an English Board of Guardians +would so readily hand over seventeen workhouse lads to a foreigner, but +it is to be hoped that the Niçois authorities will have no reason to +regret their confidence. The boys do no work on Sundays, and once a year +have a ten days' tramp in the country; the buildings are spacious and +airy, but I was sorry to see a plank-bed used as a punishment. + +Indeed, I should say that the system pursued savours too much of the +military. Here, be it remembered, no juvenile criminals are under +restraint, only foundlings guilty of burdening society. Whether this +school exists still I know not. + +Very different was the impression produced by the State Horticultural +College recently opened at Antibes. + +Around the lovely little bay the country still remains pastoral and +unspoiled; a mile or two from the railway station and we are in the +midst of rural scenes, tiny farms border the road, patches of corn, +clover, vineyard, and flower-garden--flowers form the chief harvest of +these sea-board peasants--orange, lemon and olive groves with here and +there a group of palms, beyond these the violet hills and dazzling blue +sea, such is the scenery, and could a decent little lodging be found in +its midst, the holiday resort were perfect. + +One drawback to existence is the treatment of animals. As I drove +towards the college a countryman passed with a cart and pair of horses, +the hindmost had two raw places on his haunches as large as a penny +piece. I hope and believe that in England such an offender would have +got seven days' imprisonment. The Italians, as we all know, have no +feeling for animals, and the race here is semi-Italian--wholly so, if we +may judge by physiognomy and complexion. + +Until the foundation of the Horticultural College here, the only one in +existence on French soil was that of Versailles. Whilst farm-schools +have been opened in various parts of the country, and special branches +have their separate institutions, the teaching of horticulture remained +somewhat in abeyance. Forestry is studied at Nancy, husbandry in general +at Rennes, Grignan, and Amiens, the culture of the vine at Montpellier, +drainage and irrigation at Quimperlé, all these great schools being made +accessible to poorer students by means of scholarships. + +In no other region of France could a Horticultural College be so +appropriately placed as in the department of the Alpes Maritimes. It is +not only one vast flower-garden, but at the same time a vast +conservatory, the choice flowers exported for princely tables in winter +being all reared under glass. How necessary, then, that every detail of +this delightful and elaborate culture should be taught the people, whose +mainstay it is, a large proportion being as entirely dependent upon +flowers as the honey bee! Here, and in the neighbourhood of Nice, they +are cultivated for market and exportation, not for perfume distilleries +as at Grasse. + +The State School of Antibes was created by the Minister of Agriculture +in 1891, and is so unlike anything of the kind in England that a brief +description will be welcome. The first point to be noted is its +essentially democratic spirit. When did a farm-labourer's son among +ourselves learn any more of agriculture than his father or +fellow-workmen could teach him? At Antibes, as in the numerous +farm-schools (fermes-écoles) now established throughout France, the +pupils are chiefly recruited from the peasant class. + +How, will it be asked, can a small tenant farmer or owner of three or +four acres afford to lose his son's earnings as soon as he quits school, +much less to pay even a small sum for his education? The difficulty is +met thus: in the first place, the yearly sum for board, lodging and +teaching is reduced to the minimum, viz. five hundred francs a year; in +the second, large numbers of scholarships are open to pupils who have +successfully passed the examination of primary schools, and whose +parents can prove their inability to pay the fees. No matter how poor he +may be, the French peasant takes a long look ahead. He makes up his mind +to forfeit his son's help or earnings for a year or two in view of the +ulterior advantage. A youth having studied at Antibes, would come out +with instruction worth much more than the temporary loss of time and +money. That parents do reason in this way is self-evident. On the +occasion of my visit, of the twenty-seven students by far the larger +proportion were exhibitioners, sons of small owners or tenants. Lads are +admitted from fourteen years and upwards, and must produce the +certificate of primary studies, answering to that of our Sixth Standard, +or pass an entrance examination. The school is under State supervision, +the teaching staff consisting of certificated professors. The discipline +is of the simplest, yet, I was assured, quite efficacious. If a lad, +free scholar or otherwise, misbehaves himself, he is called before the +director and warned that a second reprimand only will be given, the +necessity of a third entailing expulsion. No more rational treatment +could be devised. + +Besides practical teaching in the fields and gardens, consisting as yet +of only twenty-five hectares, or nearly sixty acres, a somewhat +bewildering course of study is given. The list of subjects begins well. +First, a lad is here taught his duties as the head of a family, a +citizen, and a man of business. Then come geography, history, +arithmetic, book-keeping, trigonometry, linear drawing, mechanics, +chemistry, physics, natural history, botany, geology, _agrologie_, or +the study of soils, irrigation, political economy. Whilst farming +generally is taught, the speciality of the school is fruit and flower +culture. A beautiful avenue of palm and orange trees leads from the +road to the block of buildings, the director's house standing just +outside. I was fortunate in finding this gentleman at home, and he +welcomed me with the courtesy, I may say cordiality, I have ever +received from professors of agriculture and practical farmers in France. + +We immediately set out for our survey, my companion informing me, to my +surprise, that the gardens I now gazed on so admiringly formed a mere +wilderness a few years ago, that is to say, until their purchase by the +State. The palm and orange trees had been brought hither and +transplanted, everything else had sprung up on the roughly-cleared +ground. Palm trees are reared on the school lands for exportation to +Holland, there, of course, to be kept under glass; ere long the +exportation of palms and orange trees will doubtless become as +considerable as that of hothouse flowers. + +I was shown magnificent palms fifteen years old, and nurseries of tiny +trees, at this stage of their existence unlovely as birch brooms. +Hitherto, majestic although its appearance, the palm of the Riviera has +not produced dates. The director is devoting much time to this subject, +and hopes ere long to gather his crop. + +As we passed between the orange trees, here and there the deep green +glossy fruit turning to gold, I heard the same report as at Pessicarz. +At neither place can the lads resist helping themselves to the unripe +oranges. Sour apples and green oranges seem quite irresistible to +hobbledehoys. The trees were laden with fruit, and, unless blown off by +a storm, the crop would be heavy. An orange tree on an average produces +to the value of two hundred francs. + +I was next taken to the newly-created vineyards, some consisting of +French grafts on American stock, others American plants; but vines are +capricious, and one vineyard looked sickly enough, although free from +parasites. The climate did not suit it, that was all. + +But by far the most important and interesting crops here are the +hothouse flowers. I fancy few English folks think of glass-houses in +connection with the Riviera. Yet the chief business of horticulturists +during a large portion of the year is in the conservatory. Brilliant as +is the winter sun, the nights are cold and the fall of temperature +after sundown extremely rapid. Only the hardier flowers, therefore, +remain out of doors. + +I was now shown the glass-houses being made ready for the winter. All +the choice flowers, roses, carnations and others, sent to Paris, London, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, are grown under glass. Roses thus cultivated +will bring four francs per dozen to the grower; I was even told of +choicest kinds sold from the conservatories at a franc each. It may +easily be conceived how profitable is this commerce, destined without +doubt to become more so as the culture of flowers improves. New +varieties are ever in demand for royal or millionaires' tables, bridal +bouquets, funeral wreaths. I was told the discoverer or creator of a +blue carnation would make his fortune. I confess this commercial aspect +of flowers takes something from their poetry. Give me a cottager's plot +of sweet-williams and columbine instead of the floral paragon evolved +for the gratification of the curious! As we strolled about we came upon +groups of students at work. All politely raised their hats when we +passed, and by their look and manner might have been taken for young +gentlemen. + +A great future doubtless awaits this delightfully placed Horticultural +School. Whilst the object primarily aimed at by the State is the +education of native gardeners and floriculturists, other results may be +confidently expected. No rule keeps out foreigners, and just as our +Indian candidates for the Forestry service prepare themselves at Nancy, +so intending fruit-growers in Tasmania will in time betake themselves to +Antibes. A colonial, as well as an international element is pretty sure +to be added. French subjects beyond seas will certainly avail themselves +of privileges not to be had at home, carrying away with them knowledge +of the greatest service in tropical France. Horticulture as a science +must gain greatly by such a centre, new methods being tried, improved +systems put into practice. In any case, the department may fairly be +congratulated on its recent acquisition, one, alas, we have to set +against very serious drawbacks! In these intensely hot and glaring days +of mid-October, the only way of enjoying life is to betake oneself to a +sailing-boat. Few English folks realize the torture of mosquito-invaded +nights on the Riviera. As to mosquito curtains, they afford a remedy +ofttimes worse than the disease, keeping out what little air is to be +had and admitting, here and there, one mosquito of slenderer bulk and +more indomitable temper than the rest. After two or three utterly +sleepless nights the most enthusiastic traveller will sigh for grey +English skies, pattering drops and undisturbed sleep. At sea, you may +escape both blinding glare and mosquito bites. A boat is also the only +means of realizing the beauty of the coast. Most beautiful is the +roundabout sail from Cannes to the Île St. Marguerite: I say roundabout, +because, if the wind is adverse, the boatmen have to make a circuit, +going out of their course to the length of four or five miles. Every +tourist knows the story of the Iron Mask; few are perhaps aware that in +the horrible prison in which Louis XIV kept him for seventeen years, +Protestants were also incarcerated, their only crime being that they +would not perjure themselves, in other words, feign certain beliefs to +please the tyrant. + +At the present time the cells adjoining the historic dungeon of the +Masque de Fer are more cheerfully occupied. Soldiers are placed there +for slight breaches of discipline, their confinement varying from twelve +hours to a few days. We heard two or three occupants gaily whiling away +the time by singing patriotic songs, under the circumstances the best +thing they could do. Lovely indeed was the twenty minutes' sail back to +Cannes, the sea, deep indigo, the sky, intensest blue, white villas +dotting the green hills, far away the violet mountains. When we betake +ourselves to the railway or carriage road, we must make one comparison +very unfavourable to English landscape. Here building stone, as bricks +and mortar with us, is daily and hourly invading pastoral scenes, but +the hideous advertizing board is absent in France. We do not come upon +monster advertisements of antibilious pills, hair dye, or soap amid +olive groves and vineyards. Let us hope that the vulgarization +permitted among ourselves will not be imitated by our neighbours. + +In 1789 Arthur Young described the stretch of country between Fréjus +and Cannes as a desert, "not one mile in twenty cultivated." Will +Europe and America, with the entire civilized world, furnish +valetudinarians in sufficient numbers to fill the hotels, villas, and +boarding houses now rising at every stage of the same way? The matter +seems problematic, yet last winter accommodation at Nice barely +sufficed for the influx of visitors. + +Nice is the most beautiful city in France, I am tempted to say the most +beautiful city I ever beheld. It is the last in which I should choose to +live or even winter. + +Site, sumptuosity, climate, vegetation here attain their acme; so far, +indeed, Nice may be pronounced flawless. During a certain portion of the +year, existence, considered from the physical and material point of +view, were surely here perfect. When we come to the social and moral +aspect of the most popular health resort in Europe, a very different +conclusion is forced upon us. + +Blest in itself, Nice is cursed in its surroundings. So near is that +plague spot of Europe, Monte Carlo, that it may almost be regarded as a +suburb. For a few pence, in half-an-hour, you may transport yourself +from a veritable earthly Paradise to what can only be described as a +gilded Inferno. Unfortunately evil is more contagious than good. Certain +medical authorities aver that the atmosphere of Mentone used to be +impregnated with microbes of phthisis; the germs of moral disease +infecting the immediate neighbourhood of Nice are far more appalling. +Nor are symptoms wanting of the spread of that moral disease. The +municipal council of this beautiful city, like Esau, had just sold their +birthright for a mess of pottage. They had conceded the right of +gambling to the Casino, the proprietors purchasing the right by certain +outlays in the way of improvements, a new public garden, and so on. As +yet roulette and rouge-et-noir are not permitted at Nice, the gambling +at present carried on being apparently harmless. It is in reality even +more insidious, being a stepping-stone to vice, a gradual initiation +into desperate play. Just as addiction to absinthe is imbibed by potions +quite innocuous in the beginning, so the new Casino at Nice schools the +gamester from the outset, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees preparing +him for ruin, dishonour and suicide. + +The game played is called _Petits Chevaux_, and somewhat resembles our +nursery game of steeplechase. The stakes are only two francs, but as +there are eight to each horse, and you may take as many as you please, +it is quite easy to lose several hundred francs in one evening--or, for +the matter of that, one afternoon. Here, as at Monte Carlo, the gambling +rooms remain open from noon till midnight. The buildings are on an +imposing scale: reading rooms, a winter garden, concerts, entertainments +of various kinds blinding the uninitiated to the real attraction of the +place, namely, the miniature horses spinning around the tables. +Already--I write of October--eager crowds stood around, and we heard +the incessant chink of falling coin. This modified form of gambling is +especially dangerous to the young. Parents, who on no account would let +their children toss a five-franc piece on to the tables of Monte Carlo, +see no harm in watching them play at _petits chevaux_. They should, +first of all, make a certain ghastly pilgrimage I will now relate. + +Monaco does not as yet, politically speaking, form a part of French +territory; from a geographical point of view we are obliged so to regard +it. Thus French geographers and writers of handbooks include the tiny +principality, which for the good of humanity, let us hope, may ere long +be swallowed up by an earthquake--or moralized! The traveller then is +advised to take train to Monaco, and, arrived at the little station, +whisper his errand in the cab-driver's ear, "To the suicides' cemetery." + +For the matter of that, it is an easy walk enough for all who can stand +the burning sun and glare of white walls and buildings. Very lovely, +too, is the scene as we slowly wind upwards, the road bordered with +aloes and cypresses; above, handsome villas standing amid orange groves +and flowers; below, the sparkling sea. + +A French cemetery, with its wreaths of beadwork and artificial violets, +has ever a most depressing appearance. That of Monaco is like any other, +we find the usual magnificence, and usual tinsel. Many beautiful trees, +shrubs, and flowers, however, relieve the gloom, and every inch is +exquisitely kept. + +Quite apart from this vast burial-ground, on the other side of the main +entrance, is a small enclosure, walled in and having a gate of open +ironwork always locked. Here, in close proximity to heaps of garden +rubbish, broken bottles and other refuse, rest the suicides of Monte +Carlo, buried by the parish gravedigger, without funeral and without any +kind of religious ceremony. Each grave is marked by an upright bit of +wood, somewhat larger than that by which gardeners mark their seeds, and +on which is painted a number, nothing more. Apart from these, are +stakes driven into the ground which mark as yet unappropriated spots. +The indescribable dreariness of the scene is heightened by two +monumental stones garlanded with wreaths and surrounded by flowers. The +first records the memory of a young artisan, and was raised by his +fellow-workmen; the second commemorates brotherly and sisterly +affection. Both suicides were driven to self-murder by play. The +remainder are mere numbers. There are poor gamesters as well as rich, +and it is only or chiefly these who are put into the ground here. The +bodies of rich folks' relatives, if identified, are immediately removed, +and, by means of family influence, interred with religious rites. Many +suicides are buried at Nice and Mentone, but the larger proportion, +farther off still. Not to descant further on this grim topic, let me now +say something about Monte Carlo itself. + +Never anywhere was snare more plainly set in the sight of any bird. +There is little in the way of amusement that you do not get for nothing +here, a beautiful pleasure-ground, reading-rooms as luxurious and +well-supplied as those of a West End club, one of the best orchestras in +Europe, and all without cost of a farthing. + +The very lavishness arouses suspicion in the minds of the wary. Why +should we be supplied, not only with every English newspaper we ever +heard of, but with _Punch_, _Truth_, and similar publications to boot? Why +should Germans, Russians, Dutch, every other European nation, receive +treatment equally generous? Again, to be able to sit down at elegant +writing-tables and use up a quire of fine notepaper and a packet of +envelopes to match, if we chose, how is all this managed? The concerts +awaken a feeling of even intenser bewilderment. Not so much as a penny +are we allowed to pay for a programme, to say nothing of the trained +musicians. Where is the compensation of such liberality? + +The gambling tables, crowded even at three o'clock on an October +afternoon, answer our question. The season begins later, but gamblers +cannot wait. "Faites le jeu, messieurs; messieurs, faites le jeu," is +already heard from noon to midnight, and the faster people ruin +themselves and send a pistol shot through their heads, the faster others +take their place. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how many once +respectable lives, heads of families, even wives and mothers, are being +gradually lured on to bankruptcy and suicide. + +In cruellest contrast to the moral degradation fostered below, is the +enormous cathedral, at the time of my visit in course of erection +directly above the gambling rooms. The millions of francs expended on +this sumptuous basilica were supplied by the proprietors of the Casino +and the Prince of Monaco. Nothing can strike the stranger with a +stronger sense of incongruity--a church rising from the very heart of a +Pandemonium! + +Monaco is a pretty, toy-like, Lilliputian kingdom compared with which +the smallest German principality of former days was enormous. Curiously +enough, whilst Monte Carlo is peopled with gamesters, the only tenants +of Monaco seem to be priests, nuns and their pupils. The miniature +capital, state and kingdom in one, consists chiefly of convents and +seminaries, and wherever you go you come upon these Jesuit fathers with +their carefully-guarded troops of lads in uniform. A survey of the +entire principality of Monaco, Monte Carlo included, requires about a +quarter of an hour. Nowhere, surely, on the face of the civilized globe +is so much mischief contained in so small a space. Fortunately, the +poisonous atmosphere of the Casino does not seem to affect the native +poor. Everywhere we are struck by the thrifty, sober, hard-working +population; beggars or ragged, wretched-looking creatures are very rare. +If the authorities of the Alpes Maritimes have set themselves to put +down vagrancy, they have certainly succeeded. + +Nice is a home for the millionaire and the working man. The intermediate +class is not wanted. Visitors are expected to have money, are welcomed +on that account, and if they have to look to pounds, shillings, and +pence, had much better remain at home. + +Woe betide the needy invalid sent thither in search of sunshine! +Sunshine is indeed a far more expensive luxury on the Riviera than we +imagine, seeing that only rooms with a north aspect are cheap, and a +sunless room is much more comfortless and unwholesome than a well-warmed +one, no matter its aspect, in England. The only cheap commodity, one +unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet. In October, that is +to say, before the arrival of winter visitors, flowers are to be had for +the asking; on the market-place an enormous bouquet of tuberoses, +violets, carnations, myrtle, priced at two or three francs, the price in +Paris being twenty. Fruit also I found cheap, figs fourpence a dozen, +and other kinds in proportion. This market is the great sight of Nice, +and seen on a cloudless day--indeed it would be difficult to see it on +any other--is a glory of colour of which it is impossible to give the +remotest notion. I was somewhat taken aback to find Sunday less +observed here as a day of rest than in any other French town I know, and +not many French towns are unknown to me. The flower and fruit markets +were crowded, drapers', grocers', booksellers' shops open all day long, +traffic unbroken as usual. I should have imagined that a city, for +generations taken possession of by English visitors, would by this time +have fallen into our habit of respecting Sunday alike in the interests +of man and beast. Of churches, both English and American, there is no +lack. Let us hope that the Protestant clergy will turn their attention +to this subject. Let us hope also that the entire English-speaking +community will second their efforts in this direction. Further, I will +put in a good word for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals founded at Nice some years since, and sadly in need of funds. +The Society is backed up by the Government in accordance with the +admirable Loi Grammont, but, as is the case with local societies in +England, requires extraneous help. Surely rich English valetudinarians +will not let this humane work stand still, seeing, as they must do +daily, the urgent necessity of such interference! From the windows of a +beautiful villa on the road to Villefranche, I saw baskets of chickens +brought in from Italy, the half of which were dead or dying from +suffocation. As the owner of the villa said, "Not even self-interest +teaches this Italian humanity." By packing his fowls so as to afford +them breathing space, he would double his gains. The habit of cruelty is +too inveterate. My host assured me that large numbers of poultry sent +across the frontier are suffocated on the way. + +Horrible also is the pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo. Hundreds of these +wretched birds are killed for sport every day during the winter. The +wounded or escaped fly back after a while to be shot at next day. + +The word "villa" calls for comment. Such a designation is appropriate +here. The palatial villas of Nice, standing amid orangeries and palm +groves, are worthy of their Roman forerunners. For the future I shall +resent the term as applied in England to eight-roomed, semi-detached +constructions, poorly built, and with a square yard of flower-bed in +front. Many of the Niçois villas are veritable palaces, and what adds to +their sumptuousness is the indoor greenery, dwarf palms, india-rubber +trees, and other handsome evergreens decorating corridor and +landing-places. The English misnomer has, nevertheless, compensations in +snug little kitchen and decent servant's bedroom. I looked over a +handsome villa here, type, I imagine, of the rest. The servants' +bedrooms were mere closets with openings on to a dark corridor, no +windows, fireplace, cupboard, or any convenience. The kitchen was a +long, narrow room, after the manner of French kitchens, with space by +the window for two or three chairs. I ventured to ask the mistress of +the house where the servants sat when work was done. Her answer was +suggestive-- + +"They have no time to sit anywhere." + +It will be seen that our grey skies and mean-looking dwellings have +compensations. + + + +XIII + +GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +"Nine hours' rolling at anchor" was Arthur Young's experience of a +Channel passage in 1787, and on the return journey he was compelled to +wait three days for a wind. Two years later, what is in our own time a +delightful little pleasure cruise of one hour and a quarter, the journey +from Dover to Calais occupied fourteen hours. + +We might suppose from the hundreds of thousands of English travellers +who yearly cross the Manche, that Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders +would overflow with them, that we should hear English speech wherever we +go, and find ourselves amid more distinctly English surroundings than +even in Switzerland or Norway; but no such thing. From the moment I +quitted Boulogne to that of my departure from Calais, having made the +round by way of Hesdin, Arras, Vitry-en-Artois, Douai, Lille, St. Omer, +I no more encountered an English tourist than on the Causses of the +Lozère a few years before. Many years later, on going over much of the +same ground, with a halt at Étaples and Le Touquet, it was much the +same. Yet such a tour, costing so little as regards money, time and +fatigue, teems with interest of very varied and unlooked-for kind. + +Every inch of ground is historic to begin with, and has contributed its +page to Anglo-French annals or English romance. We may take the little +railway from Hesdin to Abbeville, traversing the forest of Crécy, and +drive across the cornfields to Agincourt. We may stop at Montreuil, +which now looks well, not only "on the map," but from the railway +carriage, reviving our recollections of Tristram Shandy. At Douai we +find eighty English boys playing cricket and football under the eye of +English Benedictine monks--their college being a survival of the +persecutions of Good Queen Bess. + +And to come down from history and romance to astounding prose, we find, +a few years ago, Roubaix, a town of 114,000 souls, that is to say, a +fourth of the population of Lyons--a town whose financial transactions +with the Bank of France exceed those of Rheims, Nîmes, Toulouse, or +Montpellier, represented by a man of the people, the important functions +of mayor being filled by the proprietor of a humble _estaminet_ and +vendor of newspapers, character and convictions only having raised the +Socialist leader to such a post! + +In rural districts there is also much to learn. Peasant property exists +more or less in every part of France, but we are here more especially in +presence of agriculture on a large scale. In the Pas-de-Calais and the +Nord we find high farming in right good earnest, holdings of from ten to +fifteen hundred acres conducted on the footing of large industrial +concerns, capital, science and enterprise being alike brought to bear +upon the cultivation of the soil and by private individuals. + +I travelled from Boulogne to Hesdin, in time for the first beautiful +effect of spring-tide flower and foliage. The blackthorn and pear trees +were already in full blossom, and the elm, poplar and chestnut just +bursting into leaf. Everything was very advanced, and around the +one-storeyed, white-washed cottages the lilacs showed masses of bloom, +field and garden being a month ahead of less favoured years. + + * * * * * + +Near Étaples the wide estuary of the Canche showed clear, lake-like +sheets of water amid the brilliant greenery; later are passed sandy +downs with few trees or breaks in the landscape. This part of France +should be seen during the budding season; of itself unpicturesque, it is +yet beautified by the early foliage. Hesdin is an ancient, quiet little +town on the Canche, with tanneries making pictures--and smells--by the +river, unpaved streets, and a very curious bit of civic architecture, +the triple-storeyed portico of the Hôtel de Ville. Its 7000 and odd +souls were soon to have their museum, the nucleus being a splendid set +of tapestries representing the battle of Agincourt, in loveliest shades +of subdued blue and grey. The little inn is very clean and comfortable; +for five francs a day you obtain the services of the master, who is +cook; the mistress, who is chambermaid; and the daughters of the house, +who wait at table. Such, at least, was my experience. + + * * * * * + +My errand was to the neighbouring village of Hauteville-Caumont, whither +I drove one afternoon. Quitting the town in a north-easterly direction, +we enter one of those long, straight French roads that really seem as if +they would never come to an end. The solitude of the scene around is +astonishing to English eyes. For miles we only meet two road-menders and +an itinerant glazier. On either side, far as the glance could reach, +stretches the chessboard landscape--an expanse oceanic in its vastness +of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land +prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this +plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness +of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays +of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level +uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips +here and there, showing tiny combes and bits of refreshing wood. The +houses, whether of large landowner, functionary or peasant, are +invariably one-storeyed, the white walls, brown tiles, or thatched roof +having an old-fashioned, rustic effect. One might suppose earthquakes +were common from this habit of living on the ground floor. The dryness +of the climate doubtless obviates risk of damp. Much more graceful are +the little orchards of these homesteads than the mathematically planted +cider apples seen here in all stages of growth. Even the blossoms of +such trees later on cannot compare with the glory of an orchard, in the +old acceptance of the word, having reached maturity in the natural way. +Certain portions of rural France are too geometrical. That I must admit. + +Exquisitely clean, to use a farmer's expression, are these sweeps of +corn and ploughed land, belonging to different owners, yet apparently +without division. Only boundary stones at intervals mark the limits. +Here we find no infinitesimal subdivision and no multiplicity of crops. +Wheat, clover, oats form the triennial course, other crops being rye, +potatoes, Swede turnips, sainfoin and the _oeillette_ or oil poppy. The +cider apple is also an important product. + +I found my friend's friend at home, and after a chat with madame and her +daughter, we set out for our round of inspection. This gentleman farmed +his own land, a beautifully cultivated estate of several hundred acres; +here and there a neighbour's field dovetailed into his own, but for the +greater part lying compactly together. The first object that attracted +my notice was a weather-beaten old windmill--sole survivor of myriads +formerly studding the country. This antiquated structure might have been +the identical one slashed at by Don Quixote. Iron grey, dilapidated, +solitary, it rose between green fields and blue sky, like a lighthouse +in mid-ocean. These mills are still used for crushing rye, the mash +being mixed with roots for cattle, and the straw used here, as +elsewhere, for _liage_ or tying up wheatsheaves. The tenacity of this +straw makes it very valuable for such purposes. + +Corn, rye and sainfoin were already very advanced, all here testifying +to highly scientific farming; and elsewhere roots were being sown. The +soil is prepared by a process called _marnage_, _i.e_. dug up to the +extent of three feet, the _marne_ or clayey soil being brought to the +surface. A very valuable manure is that of the scoria or residue of +dephosphated steel, formerly thrown away as worthless, but now largely +imported from Hungary for agricultural purposes. Nitrate is also largely +used to enrich the soil. Sixty years ago the Pas-de-Calais possessed +large forests. Here at Caumont vast tracts have been cleared and brought +under culture since that time. These denuded plateaux, at a considerable +elevation above the sea-level, are naturally very dry and very cold in +winter, the climate being gradually modified by the almost total absence +of trees. Wisely has the present Government interdicted further +destruction; forests are now created instead, and we find private +individuals planting instead of hacking down. Lucerne is not much +cultivated, and my host told me an interesting fact concerning it; in +order to grow lucerne, farmers must procure seeds of local growers. +Seeds from the south of France do not produce robust plants. + +The purple-flowered poppy, cultivated for the production of oil, must +form a charming crop in summer, and is a most important product. I was +assured that oil procured from crushed seeds is the only kind absolutely +free from flavour, and as such superior even to that of olives. Of equal +importance is the cider apple. + +The economic results of war are curiously exemplified here. During the +war of 1871 German troops were stationed in the neighbouring department +of the Somme, and there acquired the habit of drinking cider. So +agreeable was found this drink that cider apples are now largely +exported to Germany, and just as a Frenchman now demands his Bock at a +café, so in his Biergarten the German calls for cider. + +My host informed me that all his own apples, grown for commerce, went +over the northern frontier. Cider is said to render the imbiber +gout-proof and rheumatism-proof, but requires a long apprenticeship to +render it palatable. The profits of an apple orchard are threefold. +There is the crop gathered in October, which will produce in fair +seasons 150 francs per hectare, and the two grass crops, apple trees not +hurting the pasture. + +The labourer's harvest here are his potato-fed pigs. In our walks we +came upon men and women sowing potatoes on their bit of hired land; for +the most part their bit of land is tilled on Sundays, a neighbour's +horse being hired or borrowed for the purpose. Thus neither man nor +beast rest on the seventh day, and as a natural consequence church-going +gradually falls into abeyance. My host deplored this habit of turning +Sunday into a veritable _corvée_ for both human beings and cattle, but +said that change of system must be very slow. + +On the whole, the condition of the agricultural labourer here contrasts +very unfavourably with that of the peasant owner described elsewhere. + +The same drawbacks exist as in England. Land for the most part being +held by large owners, accommodation for poorer neighbours is +insufficient. Many able-bodied workmen migrate to the towns, simply +because they cannot get houses to live in; such one-storeyed dwellings +as exist have an uncared-for look, neither are the village folks so well +dressed as in regions of peasant property. In fact, I should say, after +a very wide experience, that peasant property invariably uplifts and +non-propertied labour drags down. This seems to me a conclusion +mathematically demonstrable. + +Mayor of his commune, my host was a man of progress and philanthropy in +the widest sense of the word. He had lately brought about the opening of +an infant school here, and dwelt on the beneficial results; children not +being admitted to the communal schools under the age of seven, were +otherwise thrown on the streets all day. Infant schools are generally +found in the larger communes. Intersecting my host's vast stretches of +field and ploughed land lay the old strategic road from Rouen to St. +Omer, a broad band of dazzling white thrown across the tremendous +panorama. An immense plain is spread before us as a map, now crudely +brilliant in hue, two months later to show blending gold and purple. +Vast, too, the views obtained on the homeward drive. Over against Hesdin +rises its forest--holiday ground of rich and poor, as yet undiscovered +by the tourist. From this friendly little town a charming woodland +journey may be made by the railway now leading through the forest of +Crécy to Abbeville. + +Between Hesdin and Arras the geometrically planted cider apple trees and +poplars growing in parallel lines are without beauty, but by the railway +are bits of waste ground covered with cowslip, wind flowers, +cuckoo-pint, and dandelion. On the top of lofty elms here and there are +dark masses; these are the nests of the magpie, and apparently quite +safe from molestation. + +By the wayside we see evidences of peasant ownership on the most modest +scale, women cutting their tiny patch of rye, as green food for cattle, +sowing their potato field, or keeping a few sheep. Everywhere lilacs +are in full bloom, and the pear and cherry trees burdened with blossom +as snow. Everything is a month ahead of ordinary years. I write of +April 1893. + +The Hôtel St. Pol at Arras looks, I should say, precisely as it did in +Robespierre's time. The furniture certainly belongs to that epoch, +sanitary arrangements have made little advance, and the bare staircases +and floors do not appear as if they had been well swept, much less +scoured, since the fall of the Bastille. It is a rambling, I should say +rat-haunted, old place, but fairly quiet and comfortable, with civil +men-servants and no kind of pretence. + +Arras itself, that is to say its Petite Place, is a specimen of +Renaissance architecture hardly to be matched even in France. The +Flemish gables and Spanish arcades, not a vestige of modernization +marring the effect, make a unique picture. Above all rises the first of +those noble belfry towers met by the traveller on this round, souvenirs +of civic rights hardly won and stoutly maintained. The first object +looked for will be Robespierre's birthplace, an eminently respectable +middle-class abode, now occupied by a personage almost as generally +distasteful as that of the Conventionnel himself, namely, a +process-server or bailiff. A bright little lad whom I interrogated on +the way testified the liveliest interest in my quest, and would not lose +sight of me till I had discovered the right house. It is a +yellow-walled, yellow-shuttered, symbolically atrabilious-looking place, +with twenty-three front windows. Robespierre's parents must have been in +decent circumstances when their son Maximilian was born, and perhaps the +reverses of early life had no small share in determining his after +career. Left an orphan in early life, he owed his education and start in +life to charity. The fastidious, poetic, austere country lawyer, unlike +his fellow-conventionnels, was no born orator. Thoughts that breathe and +words that burn did not drop from his lips as from Danton's. His +carefully prepared speeches, even in the apogee of his popularity, were +often interrupted by the cry "Cut it short" or "Keep to the point." The +exponent of Rousseau was ofttimes "long preaching," like St. Paul. + +But there are early utterances of Robespierre's that constitute in +themselves a revolution, when, for instance, in 1789 he pleaded for the +admission of Jews, non-Catholics, and actors to political rights. "The +Jews," he protested, "have been maligned in history. Their reputed vices +arise from the ignominy into which they have been plunged." And although +his later discourses breathe a spirit of frenzied vindictiveness, +certain passages recall that "humane and spiritual element" commented +upon by Charles Nodier. This is especially noticeable in what is called +his _discours-testament_, the speech delivered on the eve of Thermidor. +At one moment, with positive ferocity, he lashes the memory of former +friends and colleagues sent by himself to the guillotine; at another he +dilates upon the virtue of magnanimity in lofty, Platonic strains. + +[ILLUSTRATION: ARRAS, LA PETITE PALACE] + +With Danton's implacable foe it was indeed a case of "Roses, roses, all +the way. Thus I enter, and thus I go." Twenty-four hours after that +peroration he awaited his doom, an object of ruthless execration. And +visitors are still occasionally shown in the Hôtel des Archives the +table on which was endured his short but terrible retribution. + +A public day school for girls exists at Arras, but the higher education +of women--we must never lose sight of the fact--is sternly denounced by +Catholic authorities. Lay schools and lay teachers for girls are not +only unfashionable, they are immoral in the eyes of the orthodox. + +The museum and public library, 40,000 and odd volumes, of this town +of 26,000 souls are both magnificent and magnificently housed in the +ancient Abbaye de St. Vaast, adjoining cathedral, bishopric and +public garden. + +Besides pictures, statuary, natural history and archaeological +collections, occupying three storeys, is a room devoted exclusively to +local talent and souvenirs. Among the numerous bequests of generous +citizens is a collection of _faïence_ lately left by a tradeswoman, +whose portrait commemorates the deed. Some fine specimens of ancient +tapestry of Arras, hence the name arras, chiefly in shades of grey and +blue, and also specimens of the delicate hand-made Arras lace, are here. +There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used +in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles. + +Quite a third of the visitors thronging these sumptuous rooms were young +recruits. A modern picture of Eustache St. Pierre and his companions, at +the feet of Edward III and his kneeling Queen, evoked much admiration. I +heard one young soldier explaining the subject to a little group. There +were also many family parties, and some blue blouses. How delightful +such a place of resort-not so much in July weather, on this 9th of April +one might fancy it harvest time!--but on bleak, rainy, uninviting days! +One of the officials advised me to visit the recently erected Ecole des +Beaux Arts at the other end of the town, which I did. I would here note +the pride taken in their public collections by all concerned. This +elderly man, most likely an old soldier, seemed as proud of the museum +as if it were his own especial property. + +I was at once shown over the spacious, airy, well-kept building--school +of art and conservatorium of music in one, both built, set on foot, and +maintained by the municipality. Here youths and girls of all ranks can +obtain a thorough artistic and musical training without a fraction of +cost. The classes are held in separate rooms, and boys in addition learn +modelling and mechanical drawing. + +The school was opened four years ago, and already numbers eighty +students of both sexes, girls meeting two afternoons a week, boys every +evening. Arras also possesses an École Normale or large training school +for female teachers. + +On this brilliant Sunday afternoon, although many small shops were open, +I noted the cessation of street traffic. Every one seemed abroad, and +business at a standstill. All the newspaper kiosks were closed. + +Next morning soon after eight o'clock I was off to Vitry-en-Artois for +a day's farming. At the little station I was met by a friend's +friend--a typical young Frenchman, gaiety itself, amiable, easy, all +his faculties alert--and driven by him in a little English dogcart to +the neighbouring village. Twenty-five minutes brought us to our +destination--house and model farm of a neighbour, upwards of twelve +hundred acres, all cultivated on the most approved methods. Our host +now took my young friend's reins, he seating himself behind, and we +drove slowly over a large portion of the estate, taking a zigzag course +across the fields. There are here three kinds of soil--dry, chalky and +unproductive, rich loam, and light intermediate. In spite of the +drought of the last few weeks, the crops are very luxuriant, and quite +a month ahead of former seasons. + +This estate of six hundred and odd hectares is a specimen of high +farming on a large scale, such as I had never before witnessed in +France. I do not exaggerate when I say that from end to end could not +be discerned a single weed. Of course, the expense of cultivation on +such a scale is very great, and hardly remunerative at the present +price of wheat. + +Sixty hectares, _i.e._ nearly 150 acres, are planted with wheat, and +two-thirds of that superficies with beetroot. The young corn was as +advanced as in June with us, some kinds of richer growth than others, +and showing different shades of green, each tract absolutely weedless, +and giving evidence of highest cultivation. Fourteen hectolitres per +hectare of corn is the average, forty the maximum. Besides beetroot for +sugar, clover and sainfoin are grown, little or no barley, and neither +turnips nor mangel-wurzel. + +[Footnote: Hectolitre = 2 bushels 3 pecks.] + +The land is just now prepared for planting beetroot, by far the most +important crop here, and on which I shall have much to say. Henceforth, +indeed, the farming I describe may be called industrial, purely +agricultural products being secondary. + +On the importance of beetroot sugar it is hardly necessary to dwell at +length. A few preliminary facts, however, may be acceptable. Up till the +year 1812, cane sugar only was known in France; the discovery of +beetroot sugar dates from the Continental blockade of that period. In +1885 the amount of raw sugar produced from beetroot throughout France +was 90 millions of kilos. In 1873 the sum-total had reached 400 +millions. The consumption of sugar per head here is nevertheless +one-third less than among ourselves. + +[Footnote: Kilogramme = 2 lb. 3 oz.] + +We come now to see the results of fiscal regulation upon agriculture. +Formerly duty was paid not upon the root itself but its product. This is +now changed, and, the beetroot being taxed, the grower strives after +that kind producing the largest percentage of saccharine matter. Hardly +less important is the residue. The pulp of the crushed beetroot in +these regions forms the staple food of cows, pigs and sheep. Mixed with +chopped straw, it is stored for winter use in mounds by small +cultivators, in enormous cellars constructed on purpose by large owners. +Horses refuse to eat this mixture, which has a peculiar odour, scenting +farm premises from end to end. The chief manure used is that produced on +the farm and nitrates. On this especial estate dried fish from Sweden +had been tried, and, as on the farm before mentioned, chalky land is dug +to the depth of three feet, the better soil being put on the top. This +is the process called _marnage_. We now drove for miles right across the +wide stretches of young wheat and land prepared for beetroot. The wheels +of our light cart, the host said, would do good rather than harm. Horse +beans, planted a few weeks before, were well up; colza also was pretty +forward. Pastures there were none. Although the cornfields were as clean +as royal gardens we came upon parties of women, girls and boys hoeing +here and there. The rows of young wheat showed as much uniformity as a +newly-planted vineyard. + +Ploughing and harrowing were being done chiefly by horses, only a few +oxen being used. My host told me that his animals were never worked on +Sundays. On week-days they remain longer afield than with us, but a +halt of an hour or two is made for food and rest at mid-day. Another +crop to be mentioned is what is called _hivernage_ or winter fodder, +_i.e._ lentils planted between rows of rye, the latter being grown +merely to protect the other. On my query as to the school attendance of +boys and girls employed in agriculture, my host said that authorities +are by no means rigid; at certain seasons of the year, indeed, they are +not expected to attend. Among some large landowners we find tolerably +conservative notions even in France. Over-education, they say, is +unfitting the people for manual labour, putting them out of their place, +and so forth. + +Moles are not exterminated. "They do more good than harm," said my host, +"and I like them." I had heard the same thing at Caumont, where were +many mole-hills. Here and there, dove-tailed into these enormous fields, +were small patches farmed by the peasants, rarely their own property. +Their condition was described as neither that of prosperity nor want. +"They get along." That was the verdict. + +In our long drive across weedless corn and clover fields we came upon a +small wood, a recent plantation of our host. Even this bit of greenery +made a pleasant break in the uniform landscape. We then drove home, and +inspected the premises on foot. Everything was on a colossal scale, +and trim as a Dutch interior. The vast collection of machinery included +the latest French, English, Belgian and American inventions. Steam +engines are fixtures, the consumption of coal being 160 tons yearly per +300 hectares. + +We are thus brought face to face with the agriculture of the future, +ancient methods and appliances being supplanted one by one, manual +labour reduced to the minimum, the cultivation of the soil become purely +mechanical. The idyllic element vanishes from rural life and all savours +of Chicago! Stables and neat-houses were the perfection of cleanliness +and airiness. Here for the first time I saw sheep stabled like cows and +horses. Their quarters were very clean, and littered with fresh straw. +They go afield for a portion of the day, but, as I have before +mentioned, pastures are few and far between. + +The enormous underground store-houses for beetroot, pulp and chopped +straw were now almost empty. At midday, the oxen were led home and fell +to their strange food with appetite, its moistness being undoubtedly an +advantage in dry weather. The cart horses were being fed with boiled +barley, and looked in first-rate condition. Indeed, all the animals +seemed as happy and well-cared for as my host's scores upon scores of +pet birds. Birds, however, are capricious, and nothing would induce a +beautiful green parrot to cry, "Vive la France" in my presence. After an +animated breakfast--thoroughly French breakfast, the best of everything +cooked and served in the best possible manner--we took leave, and my +young friend drove me back to Vitry to call upon his own family. + +M.D., senior, is a miller, and the family dwelling, which adjoins his +huge water-mill, is very prettily situated on the Scarpe. We entered +by a little wooden bridge running outside, a conservatory filled with +exotics and ferns lending the place a fairy look. I never saw anything +in rural France that more fascinated me than this water-mill with its +crystal clear waters and surrounding foliage. M.D. with his three sons +quitted their occupation as we drove up. Madame and her young daughter +joined us in the cool salon, and we chatted pleasantly for a quarter +of an hour. + +I was much struck with the head of the family, an elderly man with blue +eyes, fine features, and a thoughtful expression. He spoke sadly of the +effect of American competition, and admitted that protection could offer +but a mere palliative. Hitherto I had found a keenly protectionist bias +among French agriculturists. Of England and the English he spoke with +much sympathy, although at this time we were as yet far from the Entente +Cordiale. "C'est le plus grand peuple au monde" ("It is the greatest +nation in the world"), he said. + +Nothing could equal the ease and cordiality with which this charming +family received me. The miller with his three elder sons had come +straight from the mill. Well-educated gentlemen are not ashamed of +manual labour in France. How I wished I could have spent days, nay +weeks, in the neighbourhood of the water-mill! + + + +XIV + +LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + +Only three museums in France date prior to the Revolution, those of +Rheims, founded in 1748, and of Dijon and Nancy, founded in 1787. The +opening in Paris of the Muséum Français in 1792, consisting of the royal +collections and art treasures of suppressed convents, was the beginning +of a great movement in this direction. At Lille the municipal +authorities first got together a few pictures in the convent of the +Récollets, and Watteau the painter was deputed to draw up a catalogue. +On the 12th May, 1795, the collection consisted of 583 pictures and 58 +engravings. On the 1st September, 1801, the consuls decreed the +formation of departmental museums and distribution of public art +treasures. It was not, however, till 1848 that the municipal council of +Lille set to work in earnest upon the enrichment of the museum, now one +of the finest in provincial cities. The present superb building was +erected entirely at the expense of the municipality, and was only opened +two years ago. It has recently been enriched by art treasures worth a +million of francs, the gift of a rich citizen and his wife, tapestries, +_faïence_, furniture, enamels, ivories, illuminated MSS., rare bindings, +engraved gems. Before that time the unrivalled collection of drawings by +old masters had lent the Lille museum a value especially its own. + +The collections are open every day, Sundays included. Being entirely +built of stone, there is little risk of fire. Thieves are guarded +against by two caretakers inside the building at night and two patrols +outside. It is an enormous structure, and arranged with much taste. + +The old wall still encircles the inner town, and very pretty is the +contrast of grey stone and fresh spring foliage; lilacs in full bloom, +also the almond, cherry, pear tree, and many others. + +Lille nowadays recalls quite other thoughts than those suggested by +Tristram Shandy. It may be described as a town within towns, the +manufacturing centres around having gradually developed into large rival +municipalities. Among these are Tourcoing, Croix, and Roubaix, now more +than half as large as Lille itself. I stayed a week at Lille, and had I +remained there a year, in one respect should have come away no whit the +wiser. The manufactories, one and all, are inaccessible as the interior +of a Carmelite convent. Queen Victoria could get inside the monastery of +the Grande Chartreuse, but I question whether Her Majesty would have +been permitted to see over a manufactory of thread gloves at Lille! + +Such jealousy has doubtless its reason. Most likely trade secrets have +been filched by foreign rivals under the guise of the ordinary tourist. +Be this as it may, the confection of a tablecloth or piece of beige is +kept as profoundly secret as that of the famous pepper tarts of Prince +Bedreddin or the life-sustaining cordial of celebrated fasters. + +In the hope of winning over a feminine mind, I drove with a friend to +one of the largest factories at Croix, the property of a lady. + +Here, as at Mulhouse, mill-owners live in the midst of their works. They +do not leave business cares behind them, after English fashion, dwelling +as far away as possible from factory chimneys. The premises of Mme. C. +are on a magnificent scale; all in red brick, fresh as if erected +yesterday, the mistress's house--a vast mansion--being a little removed +from these and surrounded by elegantly-arranged grounds. A good deal of +bowing and scraping had to be got through before we were even admitted +to the portress's lodge, as much more ceremonial before the portress +could be induced to convey our errand to one of the numerous clerks in a +counting-house close by. At length, and after many dubious shakes of the +head and murmurs of surprise at our audacity, the card was transmitted +to the mansion. + +A polite summons to the great lady's presence raised our hopes. There +seemed at least some faint hope of success. Traversing the gravelled +path, as we did so catching sight of madame's coach-house and half-dozen +carriages, landau, brougham, brake, and how many more! we reached the +front door. Here the clerk left us, and a footman in livery, with no +little ceremony, ushered us into the first of a suite of reception +rooms, all fitted up in the modern style, and having abundance of ferns +and exotics. + +At the end of the last salon a fashionably dressed lady, typically +French in feature, manners and deportment, sat talking to two gentlemen. +She very graciously advanced to meet us, held out a small white hand +covered with rings, and with the sweetest smile heard my modestly +reiterated request to be allowed a glimpse of the factory. Would that I +could convey the gesture, expression of face and tone of voice with +which she replied, in the fewest possible words! + +After that inimitable, unforgettable "Jamais, jamais, jamais!" there was +nothing to do but make our bow and retire, discomfiture being amply +atoned by the little scene just described. + +We next drove straight through Lille to the vast park or Bois, as it is +called, not many years since acquired by the town as a pleasure-ground. +Very wisely, the pretty, irregular stretch of glade, dell and wood has +been left as it was, only a few paths, seats and plantations being +added. No manufacturing town in France is better off in this respect. +Wide, handsome boulevards lead to the Bois and pretty botanical garden, +many private mansions having beautiful grounds, but walled in completely +as those of cloistered convents. The fresh spring greenery and multitude +of flowering trees and shrubs make suburban Lille look its best; outside +the town every cottage has a bit of ground and a tree or two. + +During this second week of April the weather suddenly changed. Rain +fell, and a keen east wind rendered fires and winter garments once +more indispensable. On one of these cold, windy days I went with +Lille friends to Roubaix, as cold and windy a town, I should say, as +any in France. + +A preliminary word or two must be said about Roubaix, the city of +strikes, pre-eminently the Socialist city. + +City we may indeed call it, and it is one of rapidly increasing +dimensions. In the beginning of the century Roubaix numbered 8000 souls +only. Its population is now 114,000. Since 1862 the number of its +machines has quintupled. Every week 600 tons of wool are brought to the +mills. As I have before mentioned, more business is transacted with the +Bank of France by this _cheflieu_ of a canton than by Toulouse, Rheims, +Nîmes, or Montpellier. The speciality of Roubaix is its dress stuffs and +woollen materials, large quantities of which are exported to America. To +see these soft, delicate fabrics we must visit Regent Street and other +fashionable quarters, not an inch is to be caught sight of here. + +Roubaix is a handsome town, with every possible softening down of grimy +factory walls and tall chimneys. A broad, well-built street leads to the +Hôtel de Ville; another equally wide street, with mansions of wealthy +mill-owners and adjacent factories, leads to the new Boulevard de Paris +and pretty public park, where a band plays on Sunday afternoons. + +But my first object was to obtain an interview with the Socialist mayor, +a man of whom I had heard much. A friend residing at Lille kindly paved +the way by sending his own card with mine, the messenger bringing back a +courteous reply. Unfortunately, the Conseil-Général then sitting at +Lille curtailed the time at the mayor's disposal, but before one o'clock +he would be pleased to receive me, he sent word. Accordingly, conducted +by my friend's clerk, I set out for the Town Hall. + +We waited some little time in the vestibule, the chief magistrate of +Roubaix being very busy. Deputy-mayors, adjoints, were coming and going, +and liveried officials bustled about, glancing at me from time to time, +but without any impertinent curiosity. Impertinent curiosity, by the +way, we rarely meet with in France. People seem of opinion that +everybody must be the best judge of his or her own business. I was +finally ushered into the council chamber, where the mayor and three +deputy-mayors sat at a long table covered with green baize, transacting +business. He very courteously bade me take a seat beside him, and we at +once entered into conversation. The working man's representative of what +was then the city _par excellence_ of strikes and socialism is a +remarkable-looking man in middle life. Tall, angular, beardless, with +the head of a leader, he would be noticed anywhere. There was a look of +indomitable conviction in his face, and a quiet dignity from which +neither his shabby clothes nor his humble calling detract. Can any +indeed well be humbler? The first magistrate of a city of a hundred and +fourteen thousand souls, a large percentage of whom are educated, +wealthy men of the world, keeps, as I have said, a small _estaminet_ or +café in which smoking is permitted, and sells newspapers, himself early +in the morning making up and delivering his bundles to the various +retailers. Here, indeed, we have the principles of the Republic--Liberty, +Equality, Fraternity--carried out to their logical conclusion. +Without money, without social position, this man owes his present +dignity to sheer force of character and conviction. We chatted of +socialism and the phases of it more immediately connected with Roubaix, +on which latter subject I ventured to beg a little information. + +[Footnote: I give Littré's meaning of _estaminet_.] + +"We must go to the fountain-head," he replied very affably. "I regret +that time does not permit me to enter into particulars now; but leave me +your English address. The information required shall be forwarded." + +We then talked of socialism in England, of his English friends, and he +was much interested to learn that I had once seen the great Marx and +heard him speak at a meeting of the International in Holborn twenty-five +years before. + +Then I told him, what perhaps he knew, of the liberty accorded by our +Government to hold meetings in Trafalgar Square, and we spoke of +Gladstone. "A good democrat, but born too early for socialism--the +future of the world. One cannot take to socialism at eighty-three years +of age," I said. + +"No, that is somewhat late in the day," was the smiling reply. + +I took leave, much pleased with my reception. From a certain point of +view, the socialist mayor of Roubaix was one of the most interesting +personalities I had met in France. + +Roubaix has been endowed by the State with a handsome museum, +library, technical and art school, the latter for young men only. +These may belong to any nationality, and obtain their professional or +artistic training free of charge. The exhibition of students' work +sufficiently proclaims the excellence of the teaching. Here we saw +very clever studies from the living model, a variety of designs, and, +most interesting of all, fabrics prepared, dyed and woven entirely by +the students. + +The admirably arranged library is open to all, and we were courteously +shown some of its choicest treasures. These are not bibliographical +curiosities, but albums containing specimens of Lyons silk, a marvellous +display of taste and skill. Gems, butterflies' wings, feathers of +tropical birds are not more brilliant than these hues, while each design +is thoroughly artistic, and in its way an achievement. + +The picture gallery contains a good portrait of the veteran song-writer +Nadaud, author of the immortal "Carcassonne." Many Germans and Belgians, +engaged in commerce, spend years here, going away when their fortunes +are made. More advantageous to the place are those capitalists who take +root, identifying themselves with local interests. Such is the case with +a large English firm at Croix, who have founded a Protestant church and +schools for their workpeople. + +Let me record the spectacle presented by the museum on Sunday afternoon +during the brilliant weather of April 1893. What most struck me was the +presence of poorly-dressed boys; they evidently belonged to the least +prosperous working class, and came in by twos and threes. Nothing could +equal the good behaviour of these lads, or their interest in everything. +Many young shop-women were also there, and, as usual, a large contingent +of soldiers and recruits. + +Few shops remained open after mid-day, except one or two very large +groceries, at which fresh vegetables were sold. It is pleasant to note a +gradual diminution of Sunday labour throughout France. + +The celebration of May-Day, which date occurred soon after my visit, was +not calculated either to alarm the Republic or the world in general. It +was a monster manifestation in favour of the Three Eights, and I think +few of us, were we suddenly transformed into Roubaix machinists, would +not speedily become Three Eighters as well. + +At five o'clock in the morning the firing of cannon announced the annual +"Fête du Travail," or workmen's holiday, not accorded by Act of +Parliament, but claimed by the people as a legitimate privilege. + +Unwonted calm prevailed in certain quarters. Instead of men, women, boys +and girls pouring by tens of thousands into the factories, the streets +leading to them were empty. In one or two cases, where machinery had +been set in motion and doors opened, public opinion immediately effected +a stoppage of work. Instead, therefore, of being imprisoned from +half-past five in the morning till seven or eight at night, the entire +Roubaisien population had freed itself to enjoy "a sunshine holiday." +Such a day cannot be too long, and at a quarter past seven vast crowds +had collected before the Hôtel de Ville. + +Here a surprise was in store for the boldest Three Eighter going. The +tricolour had been hoisted down, and replaced, not by a red flag, but by +a large transparency, showing the following device in red letters upon +a white ground:-- + + FÊTE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL, + 1er Mai 1893. + + Huit Heures du Travail, + Huit Heures du Loisir, + Huit Heures du Repos. + +[Footnote: Translation-International festival of labour; eight hours' +work, eight hours' leisure, eight hours' repose.] + +The mayor, in undress, that is to say in garments of every day, having +surveyed these preparations, returned to his _estaminet_, the Plat d'Or, +and there folded his newspapers as usual for the day's distribution. + +In the meantime the finishing touch was put to other decorations, +consisting of flags, devices and red drapery, everywhere the Three +Eights being conspicuous. + +A monster procession was then formed, headed by the Town Council and a +vast number of bands. There was the music of the Fire Brigade, the +socialist brass band, the children's choir, the Choral Society of +Roubaix, the Franco-Belgian Choral Society, and many others. Twenty +thousand persons took part in this procession, the men wearing red +neckties and a red flower in their button-holes, the forty-seven groups +of the workmen's federation bearing banners, all singing, bands +playing, drums beating, cannons firing as they went. + +At mid-day the defile was made before the Hôtel de Ville, and delegates +of the different socialist groups were formally received by the mayor +and deputy-mayors, wearing their tricolour scarves of office. + +I must say the mayor's speech was a model of conciseness, good sense +and, it must be added, courtesy; addressing himself first to his +fellow-townswomen, then to his fellow-townsmen, he thanked the labour +party for the grandiose celebration of the day, dwelt on the +determination of the municipal council to watch over the workmen's +interests, then begged all to enjoy themselves thoroughly, taking care +to maintain the public peace. + +Toasts were drunk, the mayor's health with especial enthusiasm, but when +at the stroke of noon he waved the tricolour and an enormous number of +pigeons were let loose, not to be fired at but admired as they flew away +in all directions, their tricolour ribbons fluttering, the general +delight knew no bounds. "Long live our mayor," resounded from every +mouth, "Vive le citoyen Carrette!" + +The rest of the day was devoted to harmless, out-of-door amusements: a +balloon ascent, on the car being conspicuous in red, "Les trois huits," +concerts, gymnastic contests, finally dancing and illuminations. + +Thus ended the first of May, 1893, in Lille. + + * * * * * + +St. Omer is a clean, well-built and sleepy little town, with some fine +old churches. The mellow tone of the street architecture, especially +under a burning blue sky, is very soothing; all the houses have a +yellowish or pinkish hue. + +The town abounds in convents and seminaries, and the chief business of +well-to-do ladies seems that of going to church. In the cathedral are +many votive tablets to "Our Lady of Miracles"--one of the numerous +miracle-working Virgins in France. Here we read the thanksgiving of a +young man miraculously preserved throughout his four years' military +service; there, one records how, after praying fervently for a certain +boon, after many years the Virgin had granted his prayer. Parents +commemorate miraculous favours bestowed on their children, and so on. + +The ancient ramparts at this time were in course of demolition, and the +belt of boulevards which are to replace them will be a great +improvement. The town is protected by newly-constructed works. Needless +to say, it possesses a public library, on the usual principle--one +citizen one book,--a museum, and small picture gallery. The population +is 21,000. + +I was cordially received by a friend's friend, foremost resident in the +place, and owner of a large distillery. As usual, the private dwelling, +with coach-house, stables and garden adjoined the business premises. The +_genièvre_ or gin, so called from the juniper used in flavouring it, +here manufactured, is a choice liqueur, not the cheap intoxicant of our +own public-houses. Liqueurs are always placed with coffee on French +breakfast-tables. Every one takes a teaspoonful as a help to digestion. + +French people are greatly astonished at the absence of liqueurs in +England. The excellence of French digestions generally would not seem to +discredit the habit. In the fabrication of gin here only the corn of rye +is used, and in small quantities, the juniper berry; it is ready for +drinking in six months, although improved by keeping. I saw also curaçoa +in its various stages. The orange peel used in the manufacture of this +liqueur is soaked in alcohol for four months. + +My object, however, was to see the high farming on an extensive scale +for which this region is famous. Accordingly my host, accompanied by his +amiable wife, placed themselves, their carriage, and time at my +disposal, and we set out for a long round. + +In harvest time the aspect of the country must be one of extreme +richness. The enormous sweeps of corn, clover, and beetroot have no +division from each other or the road; no hedges are to be seen, and not +a tree in the middle of the crops, few trees, indeed, anywhere. +Everywhere, on this 17th of April, the corn was a month ahead of former +seasons, and, in spite of the long drought, very flourishing. + +The first farm visited consists of 360 hectares (just upon 900 acres), +all in the highest cultivation, and conducted strictly on the footing of +a large industrial concern, with offices, counting-house, carpenters', +saddlers' and wheelwrights' shops, smithies, mills and machinery, every +agricultural process down to grinding the corn being performed on the +premises, and by workmen in the employ of the owner. + +As we enter these vast premises, and hear the buzz of machinery, we feel +the complete prosaicization of rustic life. The farmhouse scenes of my +own childhood in Suffolk, the idyllic descriptions of George Eliot, no +more resemble actualities than the poetic spinning-wheel of olden times +the loom of latest invention. Utility is the object aimed at, +incontestably with great results, but in effect unromantic as Chicago. +It is high farming made to pay. All was bustle and activity as we made +the round of the premises, beginning with the vast machinery and +workshops. These walled-in buildings, divided into two portions, each +covering three-quarters of an acre, reminded me of nothing so much as of +the caravanserais of Algerian travel twenty-five years ago. Once the +doors are bolted none can enter, yet to render security doubly sure dogs +are chained up in every corner--we will hope, let loose at night. + +I will not here go into agricultural details, only adding a few +particulars. + +The splendid wheat, clover, bean and rye crops attested the +excellence of the farming. Dovetailing into these enormous fields +were small patches of peasant owners or tenants, all without division +or apparent boundary. + +In the villages I was struck by the tidy appearance of the children +coming out of school. The usual verdict on peasant proprietors +hereabouts was that they do not accumulate, neither are they in want. +Very little, if any, beggary meets the eye, either in town or country. +We then drove to the château, with its English grounds, of the Vicomte +de----, friend of my host, and an ardent admirer of England and English +ways. This gentleman looked, indeed, like an English squire, and spoke +our tongue. He had visited King Edward, then Prince of Wales, at +Sandringham. As an illustration of his lavish method of doing things, I +mention a quantity of building stone lately ordered from Valenciennes. +This stone, for the purpose of building offices, had cost £800. In this +part of France clerks and counting-houses seem an indispensable feature +of farm premises. An enormous bell for summoning work-people to work or +meals is always conspicuous. The whole thing has a commercial aspect. + +Here we saw some magnificent animals, among these a prize bull of +Flemish breed. It was said to be very fierce, and on this account had a +ring in its nose. This cruel custom is now, I believe, prohibited here +by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On the other +hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in +Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card +of membership over offenders _in terrorem_. + +We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in +his agricultural pursuits. High farming was nevertheless here the order +of the day. + +We next drove to Clairmarais, a village some miles off in quite another +direction, coming in sight of magnificent forests. Our errand was to +the ancient Cistercian abbey, now the property of a capitalist, and +turned into the business premises of his large farm. Of the original +monastery, founded in 1140, hardly a trace remains. Abutting on the +outer wall is the chapel, and before it a small enclosed flower-garden +full of wallflowers and flowering shrubs, a bit of prettiness welcome to +the eye. Just beyond, too, was an old-fashioned, irregularly planted +orchard, with young cattle grazing under the bloom-laden trees, the turf +dazzlingly bright, but less so than the young corn and rye, now ready +for first harvesting. + +The vaulted kitchens with vast fireplaces are relics of the ancient +abbey, and even now form most picturesque interiors. At a long wooden +table in one sat a blue-bloused group drinking cider out of huge yellow +mugs--scene for a painter. Another, fitted up as a dairy, was hardly +less of a picture. On shelves in the dark, antiquated chamber lay large, +red-earthen pans full of cream for cheese-making. The brown-robed figure +of a lay brother would have seemed appropriate in either place. + +Outside these all was modernization and hard prose. We saw the shepherd +returning with his sheep from the herbage, the young lambs bleating +pitifully in an inner shed. It is the custom here to send the sheep +afield during the day, the lambs meantime being fed on hay. Here again, +I should say, is a commercial mistake. The lamb of pasture-fed animals +must be incontestably superior. Humanity here seems on the side of +utilitarianism. Who can say? Perhaps the inferiority of French meat in +certain regions arises from this habit of stabling cattle and sheep. The +drive from Clairmarais to St. Omer took us through a quite different and +much more attractive country. We were now in the marais, an amphibious +stretch of country, cut up into gardens and only accessible by tiny +canals. It is a small Holland. This vast stretch of market garden, +intersected by waterways just admitting the passage of a boat, is very +productive. Three pounds per hectare is often paid in rent. The early +vegetables, conveyed by boat to St. Omer, are largely exported to +England. Every inch of ground is turned to account, the turf-bordered, +canal-bound gardens making a pretty scene, above the green levels +intersected by gleaming water the fine towers of St. Omer clearly +outlined against the brilliant sky. + +The English colony of former days vanished on the outbreak of the last +war, not to return. A few young English Catholics still prepare for the +priesthood here, and eighty more were at this time pursuing their +studies at Douai, under the charge of English Benedictines. "Why," +impatiently asked Arthur Young in 1788, "are Catholics to emigrate in +order to be ill-educated abroad, instead of being allowed institutions +that would educate them well at home?" + +The disabilities he reprobates have long since been removed, but +English-speaking seminarists still flock to Douai. + +Here I close this agricultural and industrial round in Picardy and +French Flanders, regions so near home, yet so unfamiliar to most of us! +And here I close what, in many respects, may be called another round in +unfrequented France. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Heart of Vosges, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + +***** This file should be named 9480-8.txt or 9480-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/8/9480/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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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: In the Heart of Vosges + And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Posting Date: March 30, 2014 [EBook #9480] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 4, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +<br /><br /><br /> +IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES +</h1> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration] +</p> + +<p class="t3b"> +AND OTHER SKETCHES BY A "DEVIOUS TRAVELLER" +</p> + +<p class="t3b"> +BY +</p> + +<p class="t2"> +MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +<i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION</i> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +1911 +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +"I travel not to look for Gascons in Sicily. I have left them at +home."—Montaigne. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +PREFATORY NOTE +</h3> + +<p> +Some of these sketches now appear for the first time, others have been +published serially, whilst certain portions, curtailed or enlarged +respectively, are reprinted from a former work long since out of print. +Yet again I might entitle this volume, "Scenes from Unfrequented France," +many spots being here described by an English traveller for the first +time. +</p> + +<p> +My warmest thanks are due to M. Maurice Barrès for permission to +reproduce two illustrations by M. Georges Conrad from his famous romance, +<i>Au Service de l'Allemagne</i>; also to M. André Hallays for the use of +two views from his <i>À Travers l'Alsace</i>; and to the publishers of +both authors, MM. Fayard and Perrin, for their serviceableness in the +matter. +</p> + +<p> +Nor must I omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Sampson Low & +Co., to whom I owe the reproduction of Gustave Doré's infantine <i>tours +de force</i>; and to Messrs. Rivington, who have allowed large reprints +from the work published by them over twenty years ago. +</p> + +<p> +And last but not least, I thank the Rev. Albert Cadier, the son of my old +friend, the much respected pastor of Osse, for the loan of his charming +photographs. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +CHAP. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I <a href="#chap01">GÉRARDMER AND ITS ENVIRONS</a><br /> +II <a href="#chap02">THE CHARM OF ALSACE</a><br /> +III <a href="#chap03">IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY</a><br /> +IV <a href="#chap04">FROM BARR TO STRASBURG</a><br /> +V <a href="#chap05">THE "MARVELLOUS BOY" OF ALSACE</a><br /> +VI <a href="#chap06">QUISSAC AND SAUVE</a><br /> +VII <a href="#chap07">AN IMMORTALIZER</a><br /> +VIII <a href="#chap08">TOULOUSE</a><br /> +IX <a href="#chap09">MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE</a><br /> +X <a href="#chap10">MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST</a><br /> +XI <a href="#chap11">AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR</a><br /> +XII <a href="#chap12">PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY</a><br /> +XIII <a href="#chap13">GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER</a><br /> +XIV <a href="#chap14">LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +ST. ODILE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +PROVINS, THE CAPITOL +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +GÉRARDMER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A VOSGIAN SCENE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +THE PINNACLE OF ODILE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +ETTENHEIM +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +COLMAR +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +GUSTAVE DORÉ, INFANTINE SKETCH +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +GUSTAVE DORÉ, DO +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +OSSE +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +ORCUM +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +ARRAS, LA PETITE PLACE +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +I +</h3> + +<h3> +GÉRARDMER AND ENVIRONS +</h3> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW] +</p> + +<p> +The traveller bound to eastern France has a choice of many routes, none +perhaps offering more attractions than the great Strasburg line by way of +Meaux, Châlons-sur-Marne, Nancy, and Épinal. But the journey must be made +leisurely. The country between Paris and Meaux is deservedly dear to +French artists, and although Champagne is a flat region, beautiful only +by virtue of fertility and highly developed agriculture, it is rich in +old churches and fine architectural remains. By the Troyes-Belfort route, +Provins may be visited. This is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of +the mediaeval walled-in town in France. To my thinking, neither +Carcassonne, Semur nor Guérande surpass Hégésippe Moreau's little +birthplace in beauty and picturesqueness. The acropolis of Brie also +possesses a long and poetic history, being the seat of an art-loving +prince, and the haunt of troubadours. A word to the epicure as well as +the archaeologist. The bit of railway from Châlons-sur-Marne to Nancy +affords a series of gastronomic delectations. At Épernay travellers are +just allowed time to drink a glass of champagne at the buffet, half a +franc only being charged. At Bar-le-Duc little neatly-packed jars of the +raspberry jam for which the town is famous are brought to the doors of +the railway carriage. Further on at Commercy, you are enticed to regale +upon unrivalled cakes called "Madeleines de Commercy," and not a town, I +believe, of this favoured district is without its speciality in the shape +of delicate cates or drinks. +</p> + +<p> +Châlons-sur-Marne, moreover, possesses one of the very best hotels in +provincial France—the hotel with the queer name—another inducement for +us to idle on the way. The town itself is in no way remarkable, but it +abounds in magnificent old churches of various epochs—some falling into +decay, others restored, one and all deserving attention. St. Jean is +especially noteworthy, its beautiful interior showing much exquisite +tracery and almost a fanciful arrangement of transepts. It is very rich +in good modern glass. But the gem of gems is not to be found in Châlons +itself; more interesting and beautiful than its massive cathedral and +church of Notre Dame, than St. Jean even, is the exquisite church of +Notre Dame de l'Épine, situated in a poor hamlet a few miles beyond the +octroi gates. We have here, indeed, a veritable cathedral in a +wilderness, nothing to be imagined more graceful than the airy open +colonnades of its two spires, light as a handful of wheat ears loosely +bound together. The colour of the grey stone gives solemnity to the rest +of the exterior, which is massive and astonishingly rich in the grotesque +element. We carefully studied the gargoyles round the roof, and, in spite +of defacements, made out most of them—here a grinning demon with a +struggling human being in its clutch—there an odd beast, part human, +part pig, clothed in a kind of jacket, playing a harp—dozens of comic, +hideous, heterogeneous figures in various attitudes and travesties. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: Provins, The Capitol] +</p> + +<p> +Notre Dame de l'Épine—originally commemorative of a famous shrine—has +been restored, and purists in architecture will pass it by as an +achievement of Gothic art in the period of its decline, but it is +extremely beautiful nevertheless. On the way from Châlons-sur-Marne to +Nancy we catch glimpses of other noble churches that stand out from the +flat landscape as imposingly as Ely Cathedral. These are Notre Dame of +Vitry le François and St. Étienne of Toul, formerly a cathedral, both +places to be stopped at by leisurely tourists. +</p> + +<p> +The fair, the <i>triste</i> city of Nancy! There is an indescribable charm +in the sad yet stately capital of ancient Lorraine. No life in its +quiet streets, no movement in its handsome squares, nevertheless Nancy +is one of the wealthiest, most elegant cities in France! Hither +flocked rich Alsatian families after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, +and perhaps its proximity to the lost provinces in part accounts for the +subdued, dreamy aspect of the place as a whole. A strikingly beautiful +city it is, with its splendid monuments of the house of Lorraine, and +handsome modern streets bearing evidence of much prosperity in these +days. In half-an-hour you may get an unforgettable glimpse of the Place +Stanislas, with its bronze gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great +capital; of the beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine, on +horseback, under an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and +its airy colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte +de la Craffe, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. +</p> + +<p> +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly a day or two should be devoted to it, and here, as at +Châlons-sur-Marne, creature comforts are to be had in the hotels. In the +Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of Charles +le Téméraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of that +Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver plate, +and wore on the battlefield diamonds worth half a million. In a little +church outside the town, commemorative of this victory, are collected the +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine—the <i>chapelle ronde</i>, as the +splendid little mausoleum is designated—with its imposing monuments in +black marble, and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and +beautiful whole. Graceful and beautiful also are the monuments in the +church itself, and those of another church, Des Cordeliers, close to the +Ducal Palace. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS] +</p> + +<p> +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are to be fairly enchanted by the marble statues of the +four doctors of the church—St. Augustine, St. Grégoire, St. Léon, and +St. Jerome. These are the work of Nicolas Drouin, a native of Nancy, and +formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a whole +than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary observer. +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the fine, dignified figure of +St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. We would +fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain return to all +else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. From Nancy by way of +Épinal we may easily reach the heart of the Vosges. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: GÉRARDMER] +</p> + +<p> +How sweet and pastoral are these cool resting-places in the heart of the +Vosges! Gérardmer and many another as yet unfrequented by the tourist +world, and unsophisticated in spite of railways and bathing seasons. The +Vosges has long been a favourite playground of our French neighbours, +although ignored by the devotees of Cook and Gaze, and within late years, +not a rustic spot possessed of a mineral spring but has become +metamorphosed into a second Plombières. Gérardmer—"<i>Sans Gérardmer et +un peu Nancy, que serait la Lorraine?</i>" says the proverb—is resorted +to, however, rather for its rusticity and beauty than for any curative +properties of its sparkling waters. Also in some degree for the sake of +urban distraction. The French mind when bent on holiday-making is social +in the extreme, and the day spent amid the forest nooks and murmuring +streams of Gérardmer winds up with music and dancing. One of the chief +attractions of the big hotel in which we are so wholesomely housed is +evidently the enormous salon given up after dinner to the waltz, country +dance, and quadrille. Our hostess with much ease and tact looks in, +paying her respects, to one visitor after another, and all is enjoyment +and mirth till eleven o'clock, when the large family party, for so our +French fellowship may be called, breaks up. These socialities, giving as +they do the amiable aspect of French character, will not perhaps +constitute an extra charm of Gérardmer in the eyes of the more morose +English tourist. After many hours spent in the open air most of us prefer +the quiet of our own rooms. The country, too, is so fresh and delicious +that we want nothing in the shape of social distraction. Drawing-room +amenities seem a waste of time under such circumstances. Nevertheless the +glimpses of French life thus obtained are pleasant, and make us realize +the fact that we are off the beaten track, living among French folks, for +the time separated from insular ways and modes of thought. Our fellowship +is a very varied and animated one. We number among the guests a member of +the French ministry—a writer on the staff of Figaro—a grandson of one +of the most devoted and unfortunate generals of the first Napoleon, known +as "the bravest of the brave," with his elegant wife—the head of one of +the largest commercial houses in eastern France—deputies, diplomats, +artists, with many family parties belonging to the middle and upper ranks +of society, a very strong Alsatian element predominating. Needless to add +that people make themselves agreeable to each other without any +introduction. For the time being at least distinctions are set aside, and +fraternity is the order of the day. +</p> + +<p> +I do not aver that my country-people have never heard of Gérardmer, but +certainly those who stray hither are few and far between. Fortunately for +the lover of nature no English writer has as yet popularized the Vosges. +An Eden-like freshness pervades its valleys and forests, made ever +musical with cascades, a pastoral simplicity characterizes its +inhabitants. Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out +in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure! +</p> + +<p> +It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gérardmer and its +lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the +popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late +Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, +have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend +their holidays and their money on French soil. Thus enterprise has been +stimulated in various quarters, and we find really good accommodation in +out-of-the-way spots not mentioned in guide-books of a few years' date. +Gérardmer is now reached by rail in two hours from Épinal, on the great +Strasburg line, but those who prefer a drive across country may approach +it from Plombières, Remiremont, Colmar and Münster, and other attractive +routes. Once arrived at Gérardmer, the traveller will certainly not care +to hurry away. No site in the Vosges is better suited for excursionizing +in all directions, and the place itself is full of quiet charm. There is +wonderful sweetness and solace in these undulating hill-sides, clothed +with brightest green, their little tossing rivers and sunny glades all +framed by solemn hills—I should rather say mountains—pitchy black with +the solemn pine. You may search far and wide for a picture so engaging as +Gérardmer when the sun shines, its gold-green slopes sprinkled with white +châlets, its red-roofed village clustered about a rustic church tower, +and at its feet the loveliest little lake in the world, from which rise +gently the fir-clad heights. +</p> + +<p> +And no monotony! You climb the inviting hills and woods day by day, week +after week, ever to find fresh enchantment. Not a bend of road or winding +mountain-path but discloses a new scene—here a fairy glen, with graceful +birch or alder breaking the expanse of dimpled green; there a spinny of +larch or of Scotch fir cresting a verdant monticule; now we come upon a +little Arcadian home nestled on the hill-side, the spinning-wheel hushed +whilst the housewife turns her hay or cuts her patch of rye or wheat +growing just outside her door. Now we follow the musical little river +Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow +loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred +with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, +trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever +indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense +of coolness. Deep down, entombed amid smiling green hills and frowning +forest peaks, lies the pearl of Gérardmer, its sweet lake, a sheet of +turquoise in early morn, silvery bright when the noon-day sun flashes +upon it, and on grey, sunless days gloomy as Acheron itself. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: A VOSGIAN SCENE] +</p> + +<p> +Travellers stinted for time cannot properly enjoy the pastoral scenes, +not the least charm of which is the frank, pleasant character of the +people. Wherever we go we make friends and hear confidences. To these +peasant folks, who live so secluded from the outer world, the annual +influx of visitors from July to September is a positive boon, moral as +well as material. The women are especially confidential, inviting us into +their homely yet not poverty-stricken kitchens, keeping us as long as +they can whilst they chat about their own lives or ask us questions. The +beauty, politeness, and clear direct speech of the children, are +remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare. +As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed +by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not +infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people +gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being +suitable for tillage. +</p> + +<p> +Gérardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery +and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands, +whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use. +Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in +winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations +are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its +real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters. +</p> + +<p> +One chief feature in Gérardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings +bearing the inscription <i>"École Communale"</i> and how stringently the +new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from +the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under +the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of +the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad, +others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed. +</p> + +<p> +Our first week at Gérardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes +would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we +set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, +and the goal of every traveller in these regions. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER] +</p> + +<p> +There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gérardmer, a +little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude +and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours +only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gérardmer into a dreary place, +but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less +majestic and solemn. One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, +so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the +culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually +ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gérardmer, +till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the +Schlucht. For the first half-hour we skirt the alder-fringed banks of the +tossing, foaming little river Vologne, as it winds amid lawny spaces, on +either side the fir-clad ridges rising like ramparts. Here all is +gentleness and golden calm, but soon we quit this warm, sunny region, and +enter the dark forest road curling upwards to the airy pinnacle to which +we are bound. More than once we have to halt on our way. One must stop to +look at the cascade made by the Vologne, never surely fuller than now, +one of the prettiest cascades in the world, masses of snow-white foam +tumbling over a long, uneven stair of granite through the midst of a +fairy glen. The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we +continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, +and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving +forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and +Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest +environment. Deep down they lie, the two silvery sheets of water with +their verdant holms, making a little world of peace and beauty, a toy +dropped amid Titanic awfulness and splendour. The vantage ground is on +the edge of a dizzy precipice, but the picture thus sternly framed is too +exquisite to be easily abandoned. We gaze and gaze in spite of the vast +height from which we contemplate it; and when at last we tear ourselves +away from the engaging scene, we are in a region all ruggedness and +sublimity, on either side rocky scarps and gloomy forests, with reminders +by the wayside that we are approaching an Alpine flora. Nothing can be +wilder or more solitary than the scene. For the greater part, the forests +through which our road is cut are unfrequented, except by the wild boar, +deer, and wild cat, and in winter time the fine mountain roads are +rendered impenetrable by the accumulation of snow. +</p> + +<p> +This approach to the Col is by a tunnel cut in the granite, fit entrance +to one of the wildest regions in France. The road now makes a sudden bend +towards the châlet cresting the Col, and we are able in a moment to +realize its tremendous position. +</p> + +<p> +From our little châlet we look upon what seems no mere cleft in a +mountain chain, but in the vast globe itself. This huge hollow, brought +about by some strange geological perturbation, is the valley of Münster, +no longer a part of French territory, but of Prussian Elsass. The road we +have come by lies behind us, but another as formidable winds under the +upper mountain ridge towards Münster, whilst the pedestrian may follow a +tiny green footpath that will lead him thither, right through the heart +of the pass. Looking deep down we discern here and there scattered +châlets amid green spaces far away. These are the homesteads or +<i>chaumes</i> of the herdsmen, all smiling cheerfulness now, but +deserted in winter. Except for such little dwellings, barely +discernible, so distant are they, there is no break in the solitary +scene, no sign of life at all. +</p> + +<p> +The châlet is a fair hostelry for unfastidious travellers, its chief +drawback being the propensity of tourists to get up at three o'clock in +the morning in order to behold the sunrise from the Hoheneck. Good beds, +good food, and from the windows, one of the finest prospects in the +world, might well tempt many to linger here in spite of the disturbance +above mentioned. For the lover of flowers this halting-place would be +delightful. +</p> + +<p> +Next morning the day dawned fair, and by eight o'clock we set off with a +guide for the ascent of the Hoheneck, rather, I should say, for a long +ramble over gently undulating green and flowery ways. After climbing a +little beechwood, all was smoothness under our feet, and the long +<i>détour</i> we had to make in order to reach the summit was a series of +the gentlest ascents, a wandering over fair meadow-land several thousand +feet above the sea-level. Here we found the large yellow gentian, used in +the fabrication of absinthe, and the bright yellow arnica, whilst instead +of the snow-white flower of the Alpine anemone, the ground was now +silvery with its feathery seed; the dark purple pansy of the Vosges was +also rare. We were a month too late for the season of flowers, but the +foxglove and the bright pink Epilobium still bloomed in great luxuriance. +</p> + +<p> +It was a walk to remember. The air was brisk and genial, the blue sky +lightly flecked with clouds, the turf fragrant with wild thyme, and +before our eyes we had a panorama every moment gaining in extent and +grandeur. As yet indeed the scene, the features of which we tried to make +out, looked more like cloudland than solid reality. On clear days are +discerned here, far beyond the rounded summits of the Vosges chain, the +Rhine Valley, the Black Forest, the Jura range, and the snow-capped Alps. +To-day we saw grand masses of mountains piled one above the other, and +higher still a pageantry of azure and gold that seemed to belong to the +clouds. +</p> + +<p> +No morning could promise fairer, but hardly had we reached the goal of +our walk when from far below came an ominous sound of thunder, and we saw +heavy rain-clouds dropping upon the heights we had left behind. +</p> + +<p> +All hope of a fine prospect was now at an end, but instead we had a +compensating spectacle. For thick and fast the clouds came pouring into +one chasm after another, drifting in all directions, here a mere +transparent veil drawn across the violet hills, there a golden splendour +as of some smaller sun shining on a green little world. At one moment the +whole vast scene was blurred and blotted with chill winter mist; soon a +break was visible, and far away we gazed on a span of serene amethystine +sky, barred with lines of bright gold. Not one, but a dozen, horizons—a +dozen heavens—seemed there, whilst the thunder that reached us from +below seemed too remote to threaten. But at last the clouds gathered in +form and volume, hiding the little firmaments of violet and amber; the +bright blue sky, bending over the green oasis—all vanished as if by +magic. We could see no more, and nothing remained but to go back, and the +quicker the better. The storm, our guide said, was too far off to reach +us yet, and we might reach the châlet without being drenched to the skin, +as we fortunately did. No sooner, however, were we fairly under shelter +than the rain poured down in torrents and the thunder pealed overhead. In +no part of France are thunderstorms so frequent and so destructive as +here, nowhere is the climate less to be depended on. A big umbrella, +stout shoes, and a waterproof are as necessary in the Vosges as in our +own Lake district. +</p> + +<p> +We had, however, a fine afternoon for our drive back, a quick downhill +journey along the edge of a tremendous precipice, clothed with +beech-trees and brushwood. A most beautiful road it is, and the two +little lakes looked lovely in the sunshine, encircled by gold-green +swards and a delicate screen of alder branches. Through pastures white +with meadow-sweet the turbulent, crystal-clear little river Vologne +flowed merrily, making dozens of tiny cascades, turning a dozen +mill-wheels in its course. All the air was fragrant with newly-turned +hay, and never, we thought, had Gérardmer and its lake made a more +captivating picture. +</p> + +<p> +Excursions innumerable may be made from Gérardmer. We may drive across +country to Remiremont, to Plombières, to Wesserling, to Colmar, to St. +Dié, whilst these places in turn make very good centres for excursions. +On no account must a visit to La Bresse be omitted. This is one of the +most ancient towns in the Vosges. Like some of the villages in the Morvan +and in the department of La Nièvre, La Bresse remained till the +Revolution an independent commune, a republic in miniature. The heads of +families of both sexes took part in the election of magistrates, and from +this patriarchal legislation there was seldom any appeal to the higher +court—namely, that of Nancy. La Bresse is still a rich commune by +reason of its forests and industries. The sound of the mill-wheel and +hammer now disturbs these mountain solitudes, and although so isolated by +natural position, this little town is no longer cut off from cosmopolitan +influence. The little tavern is developing into a very fair inn. In the +summer tourists from all parts of France pass through it, in carriages, +on foot, occasionally on horseback. Most likely it now possesses a +railway station, a newspaper kiosk, and a big hotel, as at Gérardmer! +</p> + +<p> +As we drop down upon La Bresse after our climb of two hours and more, we +seem to be at the world's end. Our road has led us higher and higher by +dense forests and wild granite parapets, tasselled with fern and +foxglove, till we suddenly wheel round upon a little straggling town +marvellously placed. Deep down it lies, amid fairy-like greenery and +silvery streams, whilst high above tower the rugged forest peaks and +far-off blue mountains, in striking contrast. +</p> + +<p> +The sloping green banks, starred with the grass of Parnassus, and musical +with a dozen streams, the pastoral dwellings, each with its patch of +flower garden and croft; the glades, dells and natural terraces are all +sunny and gracious as can be; but round about and high above frown +inaccessible granite peaks, and pitchy-black forest summits, impenetrable +even at this time of the year. As we look down we see that roads have +been cut round the mountain sides, and that tiny homesteads are perched +wherever vantage ground is to be had, yet the impression is one of +isolation and wildness. The town lies in no narrow cleft, as is the case +with many little manufacturing towns in the Jura, but in a vast opening +and falling back of the meeting hills and mountain tops, so that it is +seen from far and wide, and long before it is approached. We had made the +first part of our journey at a snail's pace. No sooner were we on the +verge of the hills looking down upon La Bresse, than we set off at a +desperate rate, spinning breathlessly round one mountain spur after +another, till we were suddenly landed in the village street, dropped, as +it seemed, from a balloon. +</p> + +<p> +A curious feature to be noted in all the places I have mentioned is the +outer wooden casing of the houses. This is done as a protection against +the cold, the Vosges possessing, with the Auvergne and the Limousin, the +severest climate in France. La Bresse, like Gérardmer and other sweet +valleys of these regions, is disfigured by huge factories, yet none can +regret the fact, seeing what well-being these industries bring to the +people. Beggars are numerous, but we are told they are strangers, who +merely invade these regions during the tourist season. +</p> + +<p> +Remiremont, our next halting-place, may be reached by a pleasant carriage +drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with +half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the +beautiful valley of the Moselle—a prospect which is missed by road. +Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gérardmer, +but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The +engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets +are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with +encircling fir-woods. Like Gérardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont +lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and +wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round +about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting +prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the +street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower +gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and +cheerfulness. +</p> + +<p> +The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around +its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in +their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hôtel de Ville. These +high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle, +and more than one <i>chanoinesse</i>, when defied by feudal neighbours, +mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble +birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and +personal charm of Renan's <i>Abbesse de Jouarre</i>. +</p> + +<p> +There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid +the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time—a little +chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the +adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and +orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which +Remiremont is placed are some curious prehistoric stones. But more +inviting than the steep climb under a burning sun—for the weather has +changed on a sudden—is the drive to the Vallée d'Hérival, a drive so +cool, so soothing, so delicious, that we fancy we can never feel heated, +languid, or irritated any more. +</p> + +<p> +The isolated dwellings of the dalesfolk in the midst of tremendous +solitudes—little pastoral scenes such as Corot loved to paint—and +hemmed round by the sternest, most rugged nature, are one of the +characteristics of Vosges scenery. We also find beside tossing rivers and +glittering cascades a solitary linen factory or saw-mill, with the +modern-looking villa of the employer, and clustered round it the cottages +of the work-people. No sooner does the road curl again than we are once +more in a solitude as complete as if we were in some primeval forest of +the new world. We come suddenly upon the Vallée d'Hérival, but the deep +close gorge we gaze upon is only the beginning of the valley within +valley we have come to see. Our road makes a loop round the valley so +that we see it from two levels, and under two aspects. As we return, +winding upwards on higher ground, we get glimpses of sunny dimpled sward +through the dark stems of the majestic fir-trees towering over our head. +There is every gradation of form and colour in the picture, from the ripe +warm gold barring the branches of the firs, to the pale silveriness of +their upper foliage; from the gigantic trees rising from the gorge below, +each seeming to fill a chasm, to the airy, graceful birch, a mere toy +beside it. Rare butterflies abound, but we see few birds. +</p> + +<p> +The hardy pedestrian is an enviable person here, for although excellent +carriages are to be had, some of the most interesting excursions must be +made on foot. +</p> + +<p> +I do not suppose that matters are very greatly changed in hotels here +since my visit so many years ago. In certain respects travellers fare +well. They may feast like Lucullus on fresh trout and on the dainty +aniseed cakes which are a local speciality. But hygienic arrangements +were almost prehistoric, and although politeness itself, mine host and +hostess showed strange nonchalance towards their guests. Thus, when +ringing and ringing again for our tea and bread and butter between seven +and eight o'clock, the chamber—not maid, but man—informed us that +Madame had gone to mass, and everything was locked up till her return. +</p> + +<p> +Even the fastidious tourist, however, will hardly care to exchange his +somewhat rough and noisy quarters at Remiremont for the cosmopolitan +comforts of Plombières within such easy reach. It is a pretty drive of an +hour and a half to Plombières, and all is prettiness there—its little +park, its tiny lake, its toy town. +</p> + +<p> +It is surely one of the hottest places in the world, and like Spa, of +which it reminds me, must be one of the most wearisome. Just such a +promenade, with a sleepy band, just such a casino, just such a routine. +This favourite resort of the third Napoleon has of late years seen many +rivals springing up. Vittel, Bains, Bussang—all in the Vosges—yet it +continues to hold up its head. The site is really charming, but so close +is the valley in which the town lies, that it is a veritable hothouse, +and the reverse, we should think, of what an invalid wants. Plombières +has always had illustrious visitors—Montaigne, who upon several +occasions took the waters here—Maupertuis, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the +Empress Josephine, and a host of historic personages. But the emperor may +be called the creator of Plombières. The park, the fine road to +Remiremont, the handsome Bain Napoleon (now National), the church, all +these owe their existence to him, and during the imperial visits the +remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road +along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant +and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going +of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont +and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place, +making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere +throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit +more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on +the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of +Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of +that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too +vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of +the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been +enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side +of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of +circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain—French at +heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this +feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of +Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the +supporters of retaliation, such journals as <i>L'Alsacien-Lorrain</i>, +and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But +the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No +wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French +tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines, +they flock to Gérardmer and other family resorts. And if some +Frenchwoman—maybe, sober matron—dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and +dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is +too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each +other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of +patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief +charms. You must here live with French people, whether you will or no. +Insular reserve cannot resist the prevailing friendliness and +good-fellowship. How long such a state of things will exist, who can say? +Fortunately for the lover of nature, most of the places I have mentioned +are too unobtrusive ever to become popular. "Nothing to see here, and +nothing to do," would surely be the verdict of most globe-trotters even +on sweet Gérardmer itself! +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +II +</h3> + +<h3> +THE CHARM OF ALSACE +</h3> + +<p> +The notion of here reprinting my notes of Alsatian travel was suggested +by a recent French work—<i>À travers l'Alsace en flânant</i>, from the +pen of M. André Hallays. This delightful writer had already published +several volumes dealing with various French provinces, more especially +from an archaeological point of view. In his latest and not least +fascinating <i>flânerie</i> he gives the experiences of several holiday +tours in Germanized France. +</p> + +<p> +My own sojourns, made at intervals among French friends, <i>annexés</i> +both of Alsace and Lorraine, were chiefly undertaken in order to realize +the condition of the German Emperor's French subjects. But I naturally +visited many picturesque sites and historic monuments in both, the +forfeited territories being especially rich. Whilst volume after volume +of late years have appeared devoted to French travel, holiday tourists +innumerable jotting their brief experiences of well-known regions, +strangely enough no English writer has followed my own example. No work +has here appeared upon Alsace and Lorraine. On the other side of the +Channel a vast literature on the subject has sprung up. Novels, travels, +reminiscences, pamphlets on political and economic questions, one and all +breathing the same spirit, continue to appear in undiminished numbers. +</p> + +<p> +Ardent spirits still fan the flame of revolt. The burning thirst for +re-integration remains unquenched. Garbed in crape, the marble figure of +Strasburg still holds her place on the Place de la Concorde. The French +language, although rigidly prohibited throughout Germanized France, is +studied and upheld more sedulously than before Sedan. And after the lapse +of forty years a German minister lately averred that French Alsatians +were more French than ever. <i>Les Noëllets</i> of René Bazin, M. Maurice +Barrès' impassioned series, <i>Les Bastions de l'Est</i>, enjoy immense +popularity, and within the last few months have appeared two volumes +which fully confirm the views of their forerunners—M. Hallays' +impressions of many wayfarings and <i>Après quarante ans</i> by M. Jules +Claretie, the versatile, brilliant and much respected administrator-general +of the Comédie Française. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst in these days of peace and arbitration propaganda the crime of +enforced denationalization seems more heinous than ever, there appears +little likelihood of the country conquered by Louis XIV., and re-conquered +by German arms a century and a half later, again waving the Tricolour. +</p> + +<p> +Let us hope, however, that some <i>via media</i> may be found, and that +if not recovering its lost privilege, the passionately coveted French +name, as a federal state Alsace and Lorraine may become independent and +prosperous. +</p> + +<p> +For a comprehensive study of Alsace and its characteristics, alike +social, artistic and intellectual, readers must go to M. Hallays' volume. +In every development this writer shows that a special stamp may be found. +Neither Teutonic nor Gallic, art and handicrafts reveal indigenous +growth, and the same feature may be studied in town and village, in +palace, cathedral and cottage. +</p> + +<p> +We must remember that we are here dealing with a region of very ancient +civilization. Taste has been slowly developed, artistic culture is of no +mushroom growth. Alsace formed the highroad between Italy and Flanders. +In M. Hallays' words, already during the Renaissance, aesthetic Alsace +blended the lessons of north and south, her genius was a product of good +sense, experience and a feeling of proportion. And he points out how in +the eighteenth century French taste influenced Alsatian faïence, woven +stuffs, ironwork, sculpture, wood-carving and furniture, even peasant +interiors being thereby modified. "Alsace," he writes, "holds us +spell-bound by the originality of culture and temperament found among her +inhabitants. It has generally been taken for granted that native genius +is here a mere blend of French and German character, that Alsatian +sentiment appertains to the latter stock, intellectual development to the +former, that the inhabitants think in French and imagine in German. There +is a certain leaven of truth in these assumptions, but when we hold +continued intercourse with all classes, listen to their speech, +familiarize ourselves with their modes of life and mental outlook, we +arrive again and again at one conclusion: we say to ourselves, here is an +element which is neither Teutonic nor Gallic. I cannot undertake to +particularize, I only note in my pages those instances that occur by the +way. And the conviction that we are here penetrating a little world +hitherto unknown to us, such novelty being revealed in every stroll and +chat, lends extraordinary interest to our peregrination." +</p> + +<p> +It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us. +Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may +find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the +art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read +but weighty writer, Mme. de Staël, has truly averred that the most +beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing +no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic +regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with +indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until +the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire, +being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both +provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace, +Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and +militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was +ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and +passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution, +a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French +king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of +her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps +sore and will not be comforted. +</p> + +<p> +Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a +strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization +after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has +produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly +roll-call. +</p> + +<p> +The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young +soldier of Strasburg—not, however, Alsatian born—who, in April, 1792, +composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the +current of civilization. By an irony of destiny the Tricolour no longer +waves over the cradle of the Marseillaise! +</p> + +<p> +That witty writer, Edmond About, as well as the "Heavenly Twins" of +Alsatian fiction, was born in Lorraine, but all three so thoroughly +identified themselves with this province that they must be regarded as +her sons. Those travellers who, like myself, have visited Edmond About's +woodland retreat in Saverne can understand the bitterness with which he +penned his volume—<i>Alsace 1870-1</i>—and the concluding lines of the +preface— +</p> + +<p> +"If I have here uttered an untrue syllable, I give M. de Bismarck +permission to treat my modest dwelling as if it were a villa of Saint +Cloud." +</p> + +<p> +The literary brethren whose pictures of Alsatian peasant life, both in +war and peace, have become world-wide classics, suffered no less than +their brilliant contemporary, and their works written after annexation +breathe equal bitterness. The celebrated partnership which began in 1848 +and lasted for a quarter of a century, has been thus described by Edmond +About: "The two friends see each other very rarely, whether in Paris or +in the Vosges. When they do meet, they together elaborate the scheme of +a new work. Then Erckmann writes it. Chatrian corrects it—and sometimes +puts it in the fire!" One at least of their plays enjoys equal +popularity with the novel from which it is drawn. To have witnessed +<i>L'Ami Fritz</i> at Molière's house in the last decade of the nineteenth +century was an experience to remember. That consummate artist, Got, was +at his very best—if the superlative in such a case is applicable—as +the good old Rabbi. No less enchanting was Mlle. Reichenbach, the +<i>doyenne</i> of the Comédie Française, as Suzel. Of this charming artist +Sarcey wrote that, having attained her sixteenth year, there she made +the long-stop, never oldening with others. <i>L'Ami Fritz</i> is, in reality, +a German bucolic, the scene being laid in Bavaria. But it has long been +accepted as a classic, and on the stage it becomes thoroughly French. +This delightful story was written in 1864, that is to say, before any +war-cloud had arisen over the eastern frontier, and before the evocation +of a fiend as terrible, the anti-Jewish crusade culminating in the +Dreyfus crime. +</p> + +<p> +It is painful to reflect that whilst twenty years ago the engaging old +Jew of this piece was vociferously acclaimed on the first French stage, +the drama of a gifted Jewish writer has this year been banned in Paris! +</p> + +<p> +Edmond About and Erckmann and Chatrian belong to the same period as +another native, and more famous, genius, the precocious, superabundantly +endowed Gustave Doré. Of this "admirable Crichton" I give a sketch. +</p> + +<p> +For mere holiday-makers in search of exhilaration and beauty, Alsace +offers attractions innumerable, sites grandiose and idyllic, picturesque +ruins, superb forests, old churches of rare interest and many a splendid +historic pile. +</p> + +<p> +There are naturally drawbacks to intense lovers of France. Throughout M. +Hallays' volume he acknowledges the courtesy of German officials, a fact +to which I had borne testimony when first journalizing my own +experiences. Certain aspects of enforced Germanization can but afflict +all outsiders. There is firstly that obtrusive militarism from which we +cannot for a moment escape. Again, a no less false note strikes us in +matters aesthetic. Modern German taste in art, architecture and +decoration do not harmonize with the ancientness and historic severity of +Alsace. The restoration of Hohkönigsburg and the new quarters of +Strasburg are instances in point. All who visited the German art section +of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 will understand this dis-harmony. +</p> + +<p> +The reminiscences of my second and third journeys in Alsace and Lorraine +having already appeared in volume form, still in print (<i>East of +Paris</i>), are therefore omitted here. For the benefit of English +travellers in the annexed portion of the last-named province I cite a +passage from M. Maurice Barrès' beautiful story, <i>Colette Baudoche</i>. +His hero is German and his heroine French, a charming <i>Messine</i> or +native of Metz. In company of Colette's mother and a friend or two, the +<i>fiancés</i> take part in a little festival held at Gorze, a village +near the blood-stained fields of Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour— +</p> + +<p> +"At Gorze, church, lime-trees, dwellings and folks belong to the olden +time, that is to say, all are very French.... In crossing the square the +five holiday-makers halted before the Hôtel de Ville and read with +interest a commemorative inscription on the walls. A tablet records +English generosity in 1870, when, after the carnage and devastation of +successive battles, money, roots and seeds were distributed among the +peasants by a relief committee. The inspection over, the little party +gaily sat down to dinner in an inn close by, regaling themselves with +fried English potatoes, descendants of those sent across the Manche forty +years before." +</p> + +<p> +As I re-read this passage I think sadly how the tribute from such a pen +would have rejoiced the two moving spirits of that famous relief +committee—Sir John Robinson and Mr. Bullock Hall, both long since +passed, away. To the whilom editor of the <i>Daily News</i> both +initiative and realization were mainly owing, the latter being the +laborious and devoted agent of distribution. +</p> + +<p> +But an omission caused bitterness. Whilst Mr. Bullock Hall most +deservedly received the Red Ribbon, his leader was overlooked. The tens +of thousands of pounds collected by Sir John Robinson which may be said +to have kept alive starving people and vivified deserts, were gratefully +acknowledged by the French Government. By some unaccountable +misconception, the decoration here only gratified one good friend of +France. +</p> + +<p> +"I should much have liked the Legion of Honour," sighed the kindly old +editor to me, a year or two before he died. +</p> + +<p> +I add that my second sojourn in Alsace-Lorraine was made at Sir John's +suggestion, the series of papers dealing with Metz, Strasburg, and its +neighbourhood appearing from day to day in the <i>Daily News</i>. +</p> + +<p> +English tourists must step aside and read the tablet on the Hôtel de +Ville of Gorze, reminder, by the way, of the Entente Cordiale! +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +III +</h3> + +<h3> +IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY +</h3> + +<p> +The Vosges and Alsace-Lorraine must be taken together, as the tourist is +constantly compelled to zigzag across the new frontier. Many of the most +interesting points of departure for excursionizing in the Vosges lie in +Alsace-Lorraine, while few travellers who have got so far as Gérardmer +or St. Dié will not be tempted to continue their journey, at least as far +as the beautiful valleys of Munster and St. Marie-aux-Mines, both +peopled by French people under German domination. Arrived at either of +these places, the tourist will be at a loss which route to take of the +many open to him. On the one hand are the austere sites of the Vosges, +impenetrable forests darkening the rounded mountain tops, granite +precipices silvered with perpetual cascades, awful ravines hardly less +gloomy in the noonday sun than in wintry storms, and as a relief to these +sombre features, the sunniest little homesteads perched on airy terraces +of gold-green; crystal streams making vocal the flowery meadow and the +mossy dell, and lovely little lakes shut in by rounded hills, made double +in their mirror. In Alsace-Lorraine we find a wholly different landscape, +and are at once reminded that we are in one of the fairest and most +productive districts of Europe. All the vast Alsatian plain in September +is a-bloom with fruit garden and orchard, vineyard and cornfield, whilst +as a gracious framework, a romantic background to the picture, are the +vineclad heights crested with ruined castles and fortresses worthy to be +compared to Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein. We had made a leisurely +journey from Gérardmer to St. Dié, bishopric and <i>chef-lieu</i> of the +department of the Vosges, without feeling sure of our next move. +Fortunately a French acquaintance advised us to drive to +St. Marie-aux-Mines, one of the most wonderful little spots in these +regions, of which we had never before heard. A word or two, however, +concerning St. Dié itself, one of the most ancient monastic foundations +in France. The town is pleasant enough, and the big hotel not bad, as +French hotels go. But in the Vosges, the tourist gets somewhat spoiled +in the matter of hotels. Wherever we go our hosts are so much interested +in us, and make so much of us, that we feel aggrieved at sinking into +mere numbers three or four. Many of these little inns offer homely +accommodation, but the landlord and landlady themselves wait upon the +guests, unless, which often happens, the host is cook, no piece of +ill-fortune for the traveller! These good people have none of the false +shame often conspicuous among the same class in England. At Remiremont, +our hostess came bustling down at the last moment saying how she had +hurried to change her dress in order to bid us good-bye. Here the +son-in-law, a fine handsome fellow, was the cook, and when dinner was +served he used to emerge from his kitchen and chat with the guests or +play with his children in the cool evening hour. There is none of that +differentiation of labour witnessed in England, and on the whole the +stranger fares none the worse. With regard to French hotels generally +the absence of competition in large towns strikes an English mind. At +St. Dié, as in many other places, there was at the time of my visit but +one hotel, which had doubtless been handed down from generation to +generation, simply because no rival aroused a spirit of emulation. +</p> + +<p> +St. Dié has a pleasant environment in the valley of the Meurthe, and may +be made the centre of many excursions. Its picturesque old Romanesque +cathedral of red sandstone, about which are grouped noble elms, grows +upon the eye; more interesting and beautiful by far are the Gothic +cloisters leading from within to the smaller church adjoining. These +delicate arcades, in part restored, form a quadrangle. Greenery fills the +open space, and wild antirrhinum and harebell brighten the grey walls. +Springing from one side is an out-of-door pulpit carved in stone, a +striking and suggestive object in the midst of the quiet scene. We should +like to know what was preached from that stone pulpit, and what manner of +man was the preacher. The bright green space, the delicate arcades of +soft grey, the bits of foliage here and there, with the two silent +churches blocking in all, make up an impressive scene. +</p> + +<p> +We wanted the country, however, rather than the towns, so after a few +days at St. Dié, hired a carriage to take us to St. Marie-aux-Mines or +Markirch, on the German side of the frontier, and not accessible from +this side by rail. We enter Alsace, indeed, by a needle's eye, so narrow +the pass in which St. Marie lies. Here a word of warning to the tourist. +Be sure to examine your carriage and horses well before starting. We were +provided for our difficult drive with what Spenser calls "two unequal +beasts," namely, a trotting horse and a horse that could only canter, +with a very uncomfortable carriage, the turnout costing over a +pound—pretty well, that, for a three hours' drive. However, in spite of +discomfort, we would not have missed the journey on any account. The +site of this little cotton-spinning town is one of the most extraordinary +in the world. We first traverse a fruitful, well cultivated plain, +watered by the sluggish Meurthe, then begin to ascend a spur of the +western chain of the Vosges, formerly dividing the two French +departments of Vosges and Haut Rhin, now marking the boundaries of +France and German Elsass. Down below, amid the hanging orchards, +flower-gardens and hayfields, we were on French soil, but the flagstaff, +just discernible on yonder green pinnacles, marks the line of +demarcation between France and the conquered territory of the German +empire. For the matter of that, the Prussian helmet makes the fact +patent. As surely as we have set foot in the Reich, we see one of these +gleaming casques, so hateful still in French eyes. They seem to spring +from the ground like Jason's warriors from the dragon's teeth. This new +frontier divided in olden times the dominions of Alsace and Lorraine, +when it was the custom to say of many villages that the bread was +kneaded in one country and baked in the other. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing could be more lovely than the dim violet hills far away, and the +virginal freshness of the pastoral scenery around. But only a +stout-hearted pedestrian can properly enjoy this beautiful region. We +had followed the example of another party of tourists in front of us, +and accomplished a fair climb on foot, and when we had wound and wound +our way up the lofty green mountain to the flagstaff before mentioned, +we wanted to do the rest of our journey on foot also. But alike +compassion for the beasts and energy had gone far enough, we were only +too glad to reseat ourselves, and drive, or rather be whirled, down to +St. Marie-aux-Mines in the vehicle. Do what we would there was no +persuading our driver to slacken pace enough so as to admit of a full +enjoyment of the prospect that unfolded before us. +</p> + +<p> +The wonderful little town! Black pearl set in the richest casket! This +commonplace, flourishing centre of cotton spinning, woollen, and +cretonne manufacture, built in red brick, lies in the narrow, beautiful +valley of the Lièpvrette, as it is called from the babbling river of +that name. But there is really no valley at all. The congeries of +red-roofed houses, factory chimneys and church towers, Catholic and +Protestant, is hemmed round by a narrow gorge, wedged in between the +hills which are just parted so as to admit of such an intrusion, no +more. The green convolutions of the mountain sides are literally folded +round the town, a pile of green velvet spread fan-like in a draper's +window has not softer, neater folds! As we enter it from the St. Dié side +we find just room for a carriage to wind along the little river and the +narrow street. But at the other end the valley opens, and St. +Marie-aux-mines spreads itself out. Here are factories, handsome country +houses, and walks up-hill and down-hill in abundance. Just above the +town, over the widening gorge, is a deliciously cool pine-wood which +commands a vast prospect—the busy little town caught in the toils of +the green hills; the fertile valley of the Meurthe as we gaze in the +direction from which we have come; the no less fertile plains of +Lorraine before us; close under and around us, many a dell and woodland +covert with scattered homes of dalesfolk in sunny places and slanting +hills covered with pines. It is curious to reflect that St. +Marie-aux-Mines, mentioned as Markirch in ancient charts, did not become +entirely French till the eighteenth century. Originally the inhabitants +on the left bank of the Lièpvrette were subjects of the Dukes of +Lorraine, spoke French, and belonged to the Catholic persuasion, whilst +those dwelling on the right bank of the river, adhered to the seigneury +of Ribeaupaire, and formed a Protestant German-speaking community. +Alsace, as everybody knows, was annexed to France by right—rather +wrong—of conquest under Louis XIV., but it was not till a century later +that Lorraine became a part of French territory, and the fusion of +races, a task so slowly accomplished, has now to be undone, if, indeed, +such undoing is possible! +</p> + +<p> +The hotel here is a mere <i>auberge</i> adapted to the needs of the +<i>commis-voyageur</i>, but our host and hostess are charming. As is the +fashion in these parts, they serve their guests and take the greatest +possible interest in their movements and comfort. We would willingly have +spent some days at Marie-aux-Mines—no better headquarters for +excursionizing in these regions!—but too much remained for us to do and +to see in Alsace. We dared not loiter on the way. +</p> + +<p> +Everywhere we find plenty of French tourists, many of them doing their +holiday travel in the most economical fashion. We are in the habit of +regarding the French as a stay-at-home nation, and it is easy to see how +such a mistake arises. English people seldom travel in out-of-the-way +France, and our neighbours seldom travel elsewhere. Thus holiday-makers +of the two nations do not come in contact. Wherever we go we encounter +bands of pedestrians or family parties thoroughly enjoying themselves. +Nothing ruffles a French mind when bent on holiday-making. The good-nature, +<i>bonhomie</i>, and accommodating spirit displayed under trying +circumstances might be imitated by certain insular tourists with advantage. +</p> + +<p> +From St. Marie-aux-Mines we journeyed to Gustave Doré's favourite resort, +Barr, a close, unsavoury little town enough, but in the midst of +bewitching scenery. "An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour," sings +Spenser, and at Barr we get the sweet and the sour strangely mixed. The +narrow streets smell of tanneries and less wholesome nuisances, not a +breath of fresh pure air is to be had from one end of the town to the +other. But our pretty, gracious landlady, an Alsacienne, and her husband, +the master of the house and <i>chef de cuisine</i> as well, equally +handsome and courteous, took so much pains to make us comfortable that +we stayed on and on. Not a thousand bad smells could drive us away! Yet +there is accommodation for the traveller among the vineyards outside the +town, and also near the railway station, so Barr need not be avoided on +account of its unsavouriness. No sooner are you beyond the dingy streets +than all is beauty, pastoralness and romance. Every green peak is crested +with ruined keep or tower, at the foot of the meeting hills lie peaceful +little villages, each with its lofty church spire, whilst all the air is +fragrant with pine-woods and newly turned hay. +</p> + +<p> +These pine-woods and frowning ruins set like sentinels on every green +hill or rocky eminence, recall many of Doré's happiest efforts. "<i>Le +pauvre garçon</i>," our hostess said. "<i>Comme il était content chez +nous</i>!" I can fancy how Doré would enjoy the family life of our little +old-fashioned hotel, how he would play with the children, chat with +master and mistress, and make himself agreeable all round. One can also +fancy how animated conversation would become if it chanced to take a +patriotic turn. For people speak their thoughts in Alsace,—nowhere more +freely. In season and out of season, the same sentiment comes to the +surface. "<i>Nous sommes plus Français que les Français</i>." This is the +universal expression of feeling that greeted our ears throughout our +wanderings. Such, at least, was formerly the case. The men, women and +children, rich and poor, learned and simple, gave utterance to the same +expression of feeling. Barr is a town of between six and seven thousand +souls, about twenty of whom are Prussians. A pleasant position, truly, +for the twenty officials! And what we see at Barr is the case throughout +the newly acquired German dominion. Alike the highest as well as the +humblest functionary of the imperial government is completely shut off +from intercourse with his French neighbours. +</p> + +<p> +Barr lies near so much romantic scenery that the tourist in these parts +had better try the little hotel amid the mines. For, in spite of the +picturesque stork's nest close by, an excellent ordinary and the most +delightful host and hostess in the world, I cannot recommend a sojourn in +the heart of the town. The best plan of all were to halt here simply for +the sake of the excursion to St. Odile—St. Odile leads nowhither—then +hire a carriage, and make leisurely way across country by the Hohwald, +and the Champ de Feu to Rothau, Oberlin's country, thence to Strasburg. +In our own case, the fascinations of our hosts overcame our repugnance to +Barr itself, so we stayed on, every day making long drives into the +fresh, quiet, beautiful country. One of the sweet spots we discovered for +the benefit of any English folks who may chance to stray in that region +is the Hohwald, a <i>ville giatura</i> long in vogue with the inhabitants +of Strasburg and neighbouring towns, but not mentioned in any English +guide-book at the time of my visit. +</p> + +<p> +We are reminded all the way of Rhineland. The same terraced vineyards, +the same limestone crags, each with its feudal tower, the same fertility +and richness everywhere. Our road winds for miles amid avenues of +fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are +stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and +fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this +magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must +be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut +woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are +to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts. +I followed the <i>curé</i> and sacristan as they took a path that wound high +above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained +a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire, +and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine façade of the +castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with +massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the +neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with +greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are +indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird, +fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers +past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to +rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they +will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild +visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of +Doré's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood, +jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite +familiar to us in the pages of his <i>Dante</i> and <i>Don Quixote.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is +the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road +green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling +amid the alders, the noisy little river. +</p> + +<p> +The Hohwald is the creation of a woman; that is to say, the Hohwald of +holiday-makers, tourists and tired brain-workers. "Can you imagine," +wrote M. Edmond About, forty years ago, "an inn at the world's end that +cost a hundred thousand francs in the building? I assure you the owner +will soon have recouped her outlay. She had not a centime to begin with, +this courageous lady, left a widow without resources, and a son to bring +up. The happy thought occurred to her of a summer resort in the heart of +these glorious woods, within easy reach of Strasburg." There are gardens +and reception-rooms in common, and here as at Gérardmer croquet, music +and the dance offer an extra attraction. It must be admitted that these +big family hotels, in attractive country places with prices adapted to +all travellers, have many advantages over our own seaside lodgings. +People get much more for their money, better food, better accommodation, +with agreeable society into the bargain, and a relief from the harass of +housekeeping. The children, too, find companionship, to the great relief +of parents and nursemaids. +</p> + +<p> +The Hohwald proper is a tiny village numbering a few hundred souls, +situated in the midst of magnificent forests at the foot of the famous +Champ de Feu. This is a plateau on one of the loftiest summits of the +Vosges, and very curious from a geological point of view. To explore it +properly you must be a good pedestrian. Much, indeed, of the finest +scenery of these regions is beyond reach of travellers who cannot walk +five or six hours a day. +</p> + +<p> +Any one, however, may drive to St. Odile, and St. Odile is the great +excursion of Alsace. Who cares a straw for the saint and her story now? +But all tourists must be grateful to the Bishop of Strasburg, who keeps a +comfortable little inn at the top of the mountain, and, beyond the +prohibition of meat on fast-days, smoking, noise and levity of manner on +all days, makes you very comfortable for next to nothing. +</p> + +<p> +The fact is, this noble plateau, commanding as splendid a natural +panorama as any in Europe, at the time I write of the property of +Monseigneur of Strasburg, was once a famous shrine and a convent of +cloistered men and women vowed to sanctity and prayer. The convent was +closed at the time of the French Revolution, and the entire property, +convent, mountain and prospect, remained in the hands of private +possessors till 1853, when the prelate of that day repurchased the whole, +restored the conventual building, put in some lay brethren to cultivate +the soil, and some lay sisters, who wear the garb of nuns, but have taken +no vows upon them except of piety, to keep the little inn and make +tourists comfortable. No arrangement could be better, and I advise any +one in want of pure air, superb scenery, and complete quiet, to betake +himself to St. Odile. +</p> + +<p> +Here again I must intercalate. Since these lines were jotted down, many +changes, and apparently none for the better, have taken place here. +Intending tourists must take both M. Hallays' volume and Maurice Barrès' +<i>Au Service d'Allemagne</i> for recent accounts of this holiday resort. +The splendid natural features remain intact. +</p> + +<p> +The way from Barr lies through prosperous villages, enriched by +manufactories, yet abounding in pastoral graces. There are English-like +parks and fine châteaux of rich manufacturers; but contrasted with these +nothing like abject poverty. The houses of working-folk are clean, each +with its flower-garden, the children are neatly dressed, no squalor or +look of discontent to be seen anywhere. Every hamlet has its beautiful +spire, whilst the country is the fairest, richest conceivable; in the +woods is seen every variety of fir and pine, mingled with the lighter +foliage of chestnut and acacia, whilst every orchard has its walnut and +mulberry trees, not to speak of pear and plum. One of the chief +manufactures of these parts is that of paints and colours: there are also +ribbon and cotton factories. Rich as is the country naturally, its chief +wealth arises from these industries. In every village you hear the hum of +machinery. +</p> + +<p> +You may lessen the distance from Barr to St. Odile by one-half if you +make the journey on foot, winding upwards amid the vine-clad hills, at +every turn coming upon one of those grand old ruins, as plentiful here as +in Rhineland, and quite as romantic and beautiful. The drive is a slow +and toilsome ascent of three hours and a half. As soon as we quit the +villages and climb the mountain road cut amid the pines, we are in a +superb and solitary scene. No sound of millwheels or steam-hammers is +heard here, only the summer breeze stirring the lofty pine branches, the +hum of insects, and the trickling of mountain streams. The dark-leaved +henbane is in brilliant yellow flower, and the purple foxglove in +striking contrast; but the wealth of summer flowers is over. +</p> + +<p> +Who would choose to live on Ararat? Yet it is something to reach a +pinnacle from whence you may survey more than one kingdom. The prospect +from St. Odile is one to gaze on for a day, and to make us dizzy in +dreams ever after. From the umbrageous terrace in front of the +convent—cool and breezy on this, one of the hottest days of a hot +season—we see, as from a balloon, a wonderful bit of the world spread +out like a map at our feet. The vast plain of Alsace, the valley of the +Rhine, the Swiss mountains, the Black Forest, Bâle, and Strasburg—all +these we dominate from our airy pinnacle close, at it seems, under the +blue vault of heaven. But though they were there, we did not see them: +for the day, as so often happens on such occasions, was misty. We had +none the less a novel and wonderful prospect. As we sit on this cool +terrace, under the shady mulberry trees, and look far beyond the +richly-wooded mountain we have scaled on our way, we gradually make +out some details of the fast panorama, one feature after another +becoming visible as stars shining faintly in a misty heaven. Villages +and little towns past counting, each with its conspicuous spire, break +the monotony of the enormous plain. Here and there, miles away, a curl +of white vapour indicates the passage of some railway train, whilst in +this upper stillness sweet sounds of church bells reach us from +hamlets close underneath the convent. Nothing can be more solid, +fresher, or more brilliant than the rich beech- and pine-woods running +sheer from our airy eminence to the level world below, nothing more +visionary, slumberous, or dimmer than that wide expanse teeming, as we +know, with busy human life, yet flat and motionless as a picture. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration] +</p> + +<p> +On clear nights the electric lights of the railway station at Strasburg +are seen from this point; but far more attractive than the prospects from +St. Odile is its prehistoric wall. Before the wall, however, came the +dinner, which deserves mention. It was Friday, so in company of priests, +nuns, monks and divers pious pilgrims, with a sprinkling of fashionable +ladies from Strasburg, and tourists generally, we sat down to a very fair +<i>menu</i> for a fast-day, to wit: rice-soup, turnips and potatoes, +eggs, perch, macaroni-cheese, custard pudding, gruyère cheese, and fair +vin ordinaire. Two shillings was charged per head, and I must say people +got their money's worth, for appetites seem keen in these parts. The +mother-superior, a kindly old woman, evidently belonging to the working +class, bustled about and shook hands with each of her guests. After +dinner we were shown the bedrooms, which are very clean; for board and +lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger +of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical +hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that +all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing. +However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are +very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we +always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us +welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us +to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this +famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications +similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not +far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be +compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness. +</p> + +<p> +We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb +for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which +the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily +lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although +where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is +inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered +with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful +notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled +together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The +points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly +we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive +constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no +doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been +hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of +pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and +dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and +in many places mortised together. We find no trace of cement, a fact +disproving the hypothesis that the wall may have been of Roman origin. We +must doubtless go much farther back, and associate these primitive +builders with such relics of prehistoric times as the stones of Carnac +and Lokmariaker. And not to seek so wide for analogies, do we not see +here the handiwork of the same rude architects I have before alluded to +in my Vosges travels, who flung a stone bridge across the forest gorge +above Remiremont and raised in close proximity the stupendous monolith of +Kirlinkin? The prehistoric stone monuments scattered about these regions +are as yet new to the English archaeologist, and form one of the most +interesting features of Vosges and Alsatian travel. +</p> + +<p> +We may follow these lightly superimposed blocks of stone for miles, and +the <i>enceinte</i> has been traced round the entire plateau, which was +thus defended from enemies on all sides. As we continue our walk on the +inner side of the wall we get lovely views of the dim violet hills, the +vast golden plain, and, close underneath, luxuriant forests. Eagles are +flying hither and thither, and except for an occasional tourist or two, +the scene is perfectly solitary. An hour's walk brings us to the +Menelstein, a vast and lofty platform of stone, ascended by a stair, both +untouched by the hand of man. Never was a more formidable redoubt raised +by engineering skill. Nature here helped her primitive builders well. +From a terrace due to the natural formation of the rock, we obtain +another of those grand and varied panoramas so numerous in this part of +the world, but the beauty nearer at hand is more enticing. Nothing can +exceed the freshness and charm of our homeward walk. We are now no longer +following the wall, but free to enjoy the breezy, heather-scented +plateau, and the broken, romantic outline of St. Odile, the Wartburg of +Alsace, as the saint herself was its Holy Elizabeth, and with as romantic +a story for those with a taste for such legends. +</p> + +<p> +Here and there on the remoter wooded peaks are stately ruins of feudal +castles, whilst all the way our path lies amid bright foliage of young +forest trees, chestnut and oak, pine and acacia, and the ground is purple +with heather. Blocks of the conglomerate used in the construction of the +so-called Pagan Wall meet us at every turn, and as we gaze down the steep +sides of the promontory we can trace its massive outline. A scene not +soon to be forgotten! The still, solitary field of Carnac, with its +avenues of monoliths, is not more impressive than these Cyclopean walls, +thrown as a girdle round the green slopes of St. Odile. +</p> + +<p> +We would fain have stayed here some time, but much more still remained to +be seen and accomplished in Alsace. Rothau, the district known as the Ban +de la Roche, where Oberlin laboured for sixty years, Thann, Wesserling, +with a sojourn among French subjects of the German Empire at +Mulhouse—all these things had to be done, and the bright summer days +were drawing to an end. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +IV +</h3> + +<h3> +FROM BARR TO STRASBURG, MULHOUSE AND BELFORT +</h3> + +<p> +The opening sentences of this chapter, written many years ago, are no +longer applicable. Were I to revisit Alsace-Lorraine at the present time, +I should only hear French speech among intimate friends and in private, +so strictly of late years has the law of lèse-majesté been, and is still, +enforced. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing strikes the sojourner in Alsace-Lorraine more forcibly than the +outspokenness of its inhabitants regarding Prussian rule. Young and old, +rich and poor, wise and simple alike unburden themselves to their +chance-made English acquaintance with a candour that is at the same time +amusing and pathetic. For the most part no heed whatever is paid to +possible German listeners. At the ordinaries of country hotels, by the +shop door, in the railway carriage, Alsatians will pour out their +hearts, especially the women, who, as two pretty sisters assured us, are +not interfered with, be their conversation of the most treasonable kind. +We travelled with these two charming girls from Barr to Rothau, and they +corroborated what we had already heard at Barr and other places. The +Prussian inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine—for the most part Government +officials—are completely shut off from all social intercourse with the +French population, the latter, of course, still forming the vast +majority. Thus at Barr, a town consisting of over six thousand +inhabitants, only a score or two are Prussians, who are employed in the +railway and postal service, the police, the survey of forests, etc. The +position of these officials is far from agreeable, although, on the +other hand, there is compensation in the shape of higher pay, and much +more material comfort, even luxury, than are to be had in the +Fatherland. Alsace-Lorraine, especially by comparison with Prussia, may +be called a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey. The vine +ripens on these warm hill-sides and rocky terraces, the plain produces +abundant variety of fruit and vegetables, the streams abound with trout +and the forests with game. No wonder, therefore, that whilst thousands +of patriotic Alsatians have already quitted the country, thousands of +Prussians are ready to fill their places. But the Alsatian exodus is far +from finished. At first, as was only natural, the inhabitants could not +realize the annexation. They refused to believe that the Prussian +occupation was final, so, for the most part, stayed on, hoping against +hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born +since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or +French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in +their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and +renounce the cherished <i>patrie</i> and <i>tricolor</i> for ever. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of +things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the +poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade +it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army. +For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of +life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken +account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons +across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education. +The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another +grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore +under the necessity of providing private masters for their children, +unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue. +And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in +Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural +population speak a <i>patois</i> made up of bad German and equally bad +French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most +patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in +this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation +of races that has been going on for many generations. +</p> + +<p> +Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In +Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of +the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women +graceful and often exceedingly lovely, French piquancy and symmetrical +proportions combined with Teutonic fairness of complexion, blonde hair, +and blue eyes. +</p> + +<p> +I will now continue my journey from Barr to Strasburg by way of the Ban +de la Roche, Oberlin's country. A railway connects Barr with Rothau, a +very pleasant halting-place in the midst of sweet pastoral scenery. It is +another of those resorts in Alsace whither holiday folks flock from +Strasburg and other towns during the long vacation, in quest of health, +recreation and society. +</p> + +<p> +Rothau is a very prosperous little town, with large factories, handsome +châteaux of mill-owners, and trim little cottages, having flowers in all +the windows and a trellised vine in every garden. Pomegranates and +oleanders are in full bloom here and there, and the general aspect is +bright and cheerful. At Rothau are several <i>blanchisseries</i> or +laundries, on a large scale, employing many hands, besides dye-works and +saw-mills. Through the town runs the little river Bruche, and the whole +district, known as the Ban de la Roche, a hundred years ago one of the +dreariest regions in France, is now all smiling fertility. The principal +building is its handsome Protestant church—for here we are among +Protestants, although of a less zealous temper than their fore-fathers, +the fervid Anabaptists. I attended morning service, and although an +eloquent preacher from Paris officiated, the audience was small, and the +general impression that of coldness and want of animation. +</p> + +<p> +From the sweet, fragrant valley of Rothau a road winds amid green hills +and by the tumbling river to the little old-world village of Foudai, +where Oberlin lies buried. The tiny church and shady churchyard lie above +the village, and a more out-of-the-way spot than Foudai itself can hardly +be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to +pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly +called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the +plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of +the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty +years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that +of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among +his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in +order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of +his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German +narrative, <i>Des Goldmachers Dorf</i>. Nor does it require any lively +fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and +his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil +is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the +more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system +of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river +turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to +account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and +comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less +so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding +amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in +half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fête day. Young and old in +Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the +children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among +these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at +Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage +lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the +pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six +pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the +costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts +showed us many relics of Oberlin, the handsome cabinets and presses of +carved oak, in which were stored the family wardrobe and other +treasures, and in the study the table on which he habitually wrote. +This is a charming upper room with wide views over the green hills and +sunny, peaceful valley. +</p> + +<p> +We were offered hospitality for days, nay, weeks, if we chose to stay, +and even the use of Oberlin's study to sit and write in! A summer might +be pleasantly spent here, with quiet mornings in this cheerful chamber, +full of pious memories, and in the afternoon long rambles with the +children over the peaceful hills. From Foudai, too, you may climb the +wild rocky plateau known as the Champ de Feu—no spot in the Vosges chain +is more interesting from a geological point of view. +</p> + +<p> +After much pleasant talk we took leave of our kind hosts, not going away, +however, without visiting the church. A tablet with medallion portrait of +Oberlin bears the touching inscription that for fifty-nine years he was +"the father of this parish." Then we drove back as we had come, stopping +at Foudai to rest the horse and drink tea. We were served in a cool +little parlour opening on to a garden, and, so tempting looked the tiny +inn that we regretted we could not stay there a week. A pleasant pastoral +country rather than romantic or picturesque is the Ban de la Roche, but +close at hand is the lofty Donon, which may be climbed from Rothau or +Foudai, and there are many other excursions within reach. +</p> + +<p> +Here, for the present, the romance of Alsace travel ends, and all is +prose of a somewhat painful kind. The first object that attracted our +attention on reaching Strasburg was the new railway station, of which we +had already heard so much. This handsome structure, erected by the German +Government at an enormous cost, had only been recently opened, and so +great was the soreness of feeling excited by certain allegorical +bas-reliefs decorating the façade that for many days after the opening +of the station police-officers in plain clothes carefully watched the +crowd of spectators, carrying off the more seditious to prison. To say +the least of it, these mural decorations are not in the best of taste, +and at any rate it would have been better to have withheld them for a +time. The two small bas-reliefs in question bear respectively the +inscription, "<i>Im alten, und im neuen Reich</i>" ("In the old and new +Empire"), improved by a stander-by, to the great relish of others, thus, +"<i>Im alten, reich, im neuen, arm</i>" ("In the old, rich, in the new, +poor"). They give a somewhat ideal representation of the surrender of +Strasburg to the German Emperor. But the bombardment of their city, the +destruction of public monuments and the loss of life and property +thereby occasioned, were as yet fresh in the memories of the +inhabitants, and they needed no such reminder of the new state of +things. Their better feelings towards Germany had been bombarded out of +them, as an Alsacienne wittily observed to the Duchess of Baden after +the surrender. The duchess, daughter to the Emperor William, made the +round of the hospitals, and not a single Alsatian soldier but turned his +face to the wall, whereupon she expressed her astonishment at not +finding a better sentiment. Nor can the lover of art help drawing a +painful contrast between the Strasburg of the old and the new <i>régime</i>. +There was very little to see at Strasburg except the cathedral at this +time. The Library, with its 300,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts—the +priceless <i>Hortus Deliciarium</i> of the twelfth century, richly +illuminated and ornamented with miniatures invaluable to the student of +men and manners of the Middle Ages, the missal of Louis XII., bearing +his arms, the <i>Recueil de Prières</i> of the eighth century—all these had +been completely destroyed by the ruthless Prussian bombardment. The +Museum, rich in <i>chefs d'oeuvre</i> of the French school, both of sculpture +and painting, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, all shared the same fate, not to speak of buildings of lesser +importance, including four hundred private dwellings, and of the fifteen +hundred civilians, men, women and children, killed and wounded by the +shells. The fine church of St. Thomas suffered greatly. Nor was the +cathedral spared, and it would doubtless have perished altogether, too, +but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city. On my second visit +ten years later I found immense changes, new German architecture to be +seen everywhere. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Strasburg is said to contain a much larger German element than any other +city of Alsace-Lorraine, but the most casual observer soon finds out how +it stands with the bulk of the people. The first thing that attracted our +notice in a shop window was a coloured illustration representing the +funeral procession of Gambetta, as it wound slowly past the veiled statue +of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde. These displays of patriotic +feeling are forbidden, but they come to the fore all the same. Here, as +elsewhere, the clinging to the old country is pathetically—sometimes +comically—apparent. A rough peasant girl, employed as chambermaid in the +hotel at which we stayed, amused me not a little by her tirades against +the Prussians, spoken in a language that was neither German nor French, +but a mixture of both—the delectable tongue of Alsace! +</p> + +<p> +Strasburg is now a vast camp, with that perpetual noisy military parade +so wearisome in Berlin and other German cities, and, as I have said, +there was very little to see. It was a relief to get to Mulhouse, the +comparatively quiet and thoroughly French city of Mulhouse, in spite of +all attempts to make it German. But for the imperial eagle placed over +public offices and the sprinkling of Prussian helmets and Prussian +physiognomies, we could hardly suppose ourselves outside the French +border. The shops are French. French is the language of the better +classes, and French and Jews make up the bulk of the population. The Jews +from time immemorial have swarmed in Alsace, where, I am sorry to say, +they seemed to be little liked. +</p> + +<p> +This thoroughly French appearance of Mulhouse, to be accounted for, +moreover, by an intensely patriotic clinging to the mother country, +naturally occasions great vexation to the German authorities. It is, +perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that undignified provocations and +reprisals should be the consequence. Thus the law forbids the putting up +of French signboards or names over shop doors in any but the German +language. This is evaded by withholding all else except the surname of +the individual, which is of course the same in both languages. +</p> + +<p> +One instance more I give of the small annoyances to which the French +residents of Mulhouse are subject, a trifling one, yet sufficient to +irritate. Eight months after the annexation, orders were sent round to +the pastors and clergy generally to offer up prayers for the Emperor +William every Sunday. The order was obeyed, for refusal would have been +assuredly followed by dismissal, but the prayer is ungraciously +performed. The French pastors invoke the blessing of Heaven on +"<i>l'Empereur qui nous gouverne</i>". The pastors who perform the +service in German, pray not for "our Emperor," as is the apparently loyal +fashion in the Fatherland, but for "the Emperor." These things are +trifling grievances, but, on the other hand, the Prussians have theirs +also. Not even the officials of highest rank are received into any kind +of society whatever. Mulhouse possesses a charming zoological garden, +free to subscribers only, who have to be balloted for. Twenty years after +the annexation not a single Prussian has ever been able to obtain access +to this garden. +</p> + +<p> +Even the very poorest contrive to show their intense patriotism. It is +the rule of the German government to give twenty-five marks to any poor +woman giving birth to twins. The wife of a French workman during my +sojourn at Mulhouse had three sons at a birth, but though in very poor +circumstances, refused to claim the donation. "My sons shall never be +Prussian," she said, "and that gift would make them so." +</p> + +<p> +The real thorn in the flesh of the annexed Alsatians is, however, as I +have before pointed out, military service, and the enforced German +education. All who have read Alphonse Daudet's charming little story, +<i>La dernière leçon de Français</i>, will be able to realize the +painfulness of the truth, somewhat rudely brought home to French parents. +Their children must henceforth receive a German education, or none at +all, for this is what the law amounts to in the great majority of cases. +Rich people, of course, and those who are only well-to-do, can send their +sons to the Lycée, opened at Belfort since the annexation, but the rest +have to submit, or, by dint of great sacrifice, obtain private French +teaching. And, whilst even Alsatians are quite ready to render justice to +the forbearance and tact often shown by officials, an inquisitorial and +prying system is pursued, as vexatious to the patriotic as enforced +vaccination to the Peculiar People or school attendance to the poor. One +lady was visited at seven o'clock in the morning by the functionary +charged with the unpleasant mission of finding out where her boy was +educated. "Tell those who sent you," said the indignant mother, "that my +son shall never belong to you. We will give up our home, our prospects, +everything; but our children shall never be Prussians." True enough, the +family have since emigrated. No one who has not stayed in Alsace among +Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, +nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the +true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known +outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and +character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a +ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: ETTENHEIM] +</p> + +<p> +"Nous ne sommes pas heureux à Mulhouse" were almost the first words +addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean +Dollfus. +</p> + +<p> +And how could it be otherwise? M. Dollfus, as well as other +representatives of the French subjects of Prussia in the Reichstag, had +protested against the annexation of Alsace in vain. They pointed out the +heavy cost to the German empire of these provinces, in consequence of the +vast military force required to maintain them, the undying bitterness +aroused, the moral, intellectual, and material interests at stake. I use +the word intellectual advisedly, for, amongst other instances in point, I +was assured that the book trade in Mulhouse had greatly declined since +the annexation. The student class has diminished, many reading people +have gone, and those who remain feel too uncertain about the future to +accumulate libraries. Moreover, the ordeal that all have gone through has +depressed intellectual as well as social life. Mulhouse has been too much +saddened to recover herself as yet, although eminently a literary place, +and a sociable one in the old happy French days. The balls, soirées and +reunions, that formerly made Mulhouse one of the friendliest as well as +the busiest towns in the world, have almost ceased. People take their +pleasures very soberly. +</p> + +<p> +It is hardly possible to write of Mulhouse without consecrating a page +or two to M. Jean Dollfus, a name already familiar to some English +readers. The career of such a man forms part of contemporary history, +and for sixty years the great cotton-printer of Mulhouse, the +indefatigable philanthropist—the fellow-worker with Cobden, +Arles-Dufour, and others in the cause of Free Trade—and the ardent +patriot, had been before the world. +</p> + +<p> +The year before my visit was celebrated, with a splendour that would be +ridiculed in a novel, the diamond wedding of the head of the numerous +house of Dollfus, the silver and the golden having been already kept in +due form. +</p> + +<p> +Mulhouse might well be proud of such a fête, for it was unique, and the +first gala-day since the annexation. When M. Dollfus looked out of his +window in the morning, he found the familiar street transformed as if by +magic into a bright green avenue abundantly adorned with flowers. The +change had been effected in the night by means of young fir-trees +transplanted from the forest. The day was kept as a general holiday. +From an early hour the improvised avenue was thronged with visitors of +all ranks bearing cards, letters of congratulation or flowers. The great +Dollfus works were closed, and the five thousand workmen with their +wives, children and superannuated parents, were not only feasted but +enriched. After the banquet every man, woman and child received a present +in money, the oldest and those who had remained longest in the employ of +M. Dollfus being presented with forty francs. But the crowning sight of +the day was the board spread for the Dollfus family and the gathering of +the clan, as it may indeed be called. There was the head of the house, +firm as a rock still, in spite of his eighty-two years; beside him the +partner of sixty of those years, his devoted wife; next according to age, +their numerous sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; duly +following came the grandsons and grand-daughters, then the +great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and lastly, the babies of their +fifth generation, all accompanied by their nurses in the picturesque +costume of Alsace and Lorraine. This patriarchal assemblage numbered +between one and two hundred guests. On the table were represented, in the +artistic confectionery for which Mulhouse is famous, some of the leading +events of M. Dollfus's busy life. Here in sugar was a model of the +achievement which will ever do honour to the name of Jean Dollfus, +namely, the <i>cités ouvrières</i>, and what was no less a triumph of the +confectioner's skill, a group representing the romantic ride of M. and +Mme. Dollfus on camels towards the Algerian Sahara when visiting the +African colony some twenty years before. +</p> + +<p> +This patriarchal festival is said to have cost M. Dollfus half a million +of francs, a bagatelle in a career devoted to giving! The bare conception +of what this good man has bestowed takes one's breath away! Not that he +was alone; never was a city more prolific of generous men than Mulhouse, +but Jean Dollfus, <i>"Le Père Jean,"</i> as he is called, stood at the +head. He received with one hand to bestow with the other, and not only on +behalf of the national, intellectual and spiritual wants of his own +workmen and his own community—the Dollfus family are Protestant—but +indiscriminately benefiting Protestant, Catholic, Jew; founding schools, +hospitals, libraries, refuges, churches, for all. +</p> + +<p> +We see at a glance after what fashion the great manufacturers set to work +here to solve the problem before them. The life of ease and the life of +toil are seen side by side, and all the brighter influences of the one +brought to bear on the other. The tall factory chimneys are unsightly +here as elsewhere, and nothing can be uglier than the steam tramways, +noisily running through the streets. But close to the factories and +workshops are the cheerful villas and gardens of their owners, whilst +near at hand the workmen's dwellings offer an exterior equally +attractive. These <i>cités ouvrières</i> form indeed a suburb in +themselves, and a very pleasant suburb too. Many middle-class families in +England might be glad to own such a home, a semi-detached cottage or +villa standing in a pretty garden with flowers and trees and plots of +turf. Some of the cottages are models of trimness and taste, others of +course are less well kept, a few have a neglected appearance. The general +aspect, however, is one of thrift and prosperity, and it must be borne in +mind that each dwelling and plot of ground are the property of the owner, +gradually acquired by him out of his earnings, thanks to the initiative +of M. Dollfus and his fellow-workers. "It is by such means as these that +we have combated Socialism," said M. Dollfus to me; and the gradual +transformation of the workman into an owner of property, is but one of +the numerous efforts made at Mulhouse to lighten, in so far as is +practicable, the burden of toil. +</p> + +<p> +These pleasant avenues are very animated on Sundays, especially when a +universal christening of babies is going on. The workmen at Mulhouse are +paid once a fortnight, in some cases monthly, and it is usually after +pay-day that such celebrations occur. We saw one Sunday afternoon quite +a procession of carriages returning from the church to the <i>cité +ouvrière</i>, for upon these occasions nobody goes on foot. There were +certainly a dozen christening parties, all well dressed, and the babies +in the finest white muslin and embroidery. A very large proportion of the +artisans here are Catholics, and as one instance among others of the +liberality prevailing here, I mention that one of the latest donations of +M. Dollfus is the piece of ground, close to the <i>cité ouvrière</i>, on +which now stands the new, florid Catholic church. +</p> + +<p> +There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been +opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French +pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Köchlins, to their +native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French +as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among +the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of +De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71 +that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was +withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The +bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse. +</p> + +<p> +I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real +pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a +charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the +Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and +suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of +existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase +a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden +I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the +Black Forest. +</p> + +<p> +Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of +Notre Dame des Trois Épis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann, +with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and +the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of +the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account +be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully +is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave +and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later +period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty, +and no less so the façade and side porch, both very richly decorated. +One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a +place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance +and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish +community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve +their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: COLMAR] +</p> + +<p> +Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge +from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort—the +heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid +rock—the little Protestant town of Montbéliard, and Besançon. Belfort is +well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and +purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin +saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort" +comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly +industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many +communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country +between Montbéliard and Besançon, well worth seeing, if only from the +railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on +the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid +the <i>détour</i> by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages +many. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +V +</h3> + +<h3> +THE 'MARVELLOUS BOY' OF ALSACE +</h3> + +<p class="t3b"> +I +</p> + +<p> +It is especially at Strasburg that travellers are reminded of another +"marvellous boy," who, if he did not "perish in his pride," certainly +shortened his days by overreaching ambition and the brooding bitterness +waiting upon shattered hopes. +</p> + +<p> +Gustave Doré was born and reared under the shadow of Strasburg +Cathedral. The majestic spire, a world in itself, became indeed a world +to this imaginative prodigy. He may be said to have learned the minster +of minsters by heart, as before him Victor Hugo had familiarized himself +with Notre Dame. The unbreeched artist of four summers never tired of +scrutinizing the statues, monsters, gargoyles and other outer +ornamentations, while the story of the pious architect Erwin and of his +inspirer, Sabine, was equally dear. Never did genius more clearly +exhibit the influence of early environment. True child of Alsace, he +revelled in local folklore and legend. The eerie and the fantastic had +the same fascination for him as sacred story, and the lives of the +saints, gnomes, elves, werewolves and sorcerers bewitched no less than +martyrs, miracle-workers and angels. +</p> + +<p> +His play-hours would be spent within the precincts of the cathedral, +whilst the long winter evenings were beguiled with fairy-tales and +fables, his mother and nurse reading or reciting these, their little +listener being always busy with pen or pencil. Something much more than +mere precocity is shown in these almost infantine sketches. Exorbitant +fancy is here much less striking than sureness of touch, outlined +figures drawn between the age of five and ten displaying remarkable +precision and point, each line of the silhouette telling. At six he +celebrated his first school prize with an illustrated letter, two +portraits and a mannikin surmounting the text. +</p> + +<p> +[Footnote: See his life by Blanch Roosevelt, Sampson Low & Co. 1885; +also the French translation of the same, 1886.] +</p> + +<p> +His groups of peasants and portraits, made three or four years later, +possess almost a Rembrandt strength, unfortunately passion for the +grotesque and the fanciful often lending a touch of caricature. +Downright ugliness must have had an especial charm for the future +illustrator of the <i>Inferno</i>, his unconscious models sketched by the +way being uncomely as the immortal Pickwick and his fellows of Phiz. A +devotee of Gothic art, he reproduced the mediæval monstrosities adorning +cornice and pinnacle in human types. Equally devoted to nature out of +doors, the same taste predominated. What he loved and sought was ever +the savage, the legend-haunted, the ghoulish, seats and ambuscades of +kelpie, hobgoblin, brownie and their kind. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, ÆTAT EIGHT YEARS] +</p> + +<p> +From the nursery upwards, if the term can be applied to French children, +his life was a succession of artistic abnormalities and <i>tours de +force</i>. The bantling in petticoats who could astound his elders with +wonderfully accurate silhouettes, continued to surprise them in other +ways. His memory was no less amazing than his draughtsmanship. When +seven years of age, he was taken to the opera and witnessed <i>Robert le +Diable</i>. On returning home he accurately narrated every scene. +</p> + +<p> +At eight he broke his right arm, but became as if by magic ambidextrous, +whilst confined to bed, cheerily drawing all day long with the left +hand. At ten he witnessed a grand public ceremony. In 1840 Strasburg +celebrated the inauguration of a monument to Gutenberg, the festival +being one of extraordinary splendour. Fifteen cars represented the +industrial corporations of the city, each symbolically adorned, and in +each riding figures suitably travestied and occupied, men, women and +children wearing the costumes of the period represented. Among the +corporations figured the <i>Peintres-verriers</i>, or painters on stained +glass, their car proving especially attractive to one small looker-on. +</p> + +<p> +Intoxicated by the colour and movement of the fête, garlanded and +beflagged streets, the symbolic carriages, the bands, civic and +military, and the prevailing enthusiasm, the child determined to get up +an apotheosis of his own: in other words, to repeat the performance on a +smaller scale. Which he did. Cars, costumes, banners and decorations +were all designed by this imp of ten. With the approval of his +professors and the collaboration of his school-fellows, the Doré +procession, consisting of four highly decorated cars, drawn by boys, +defiled before the college authorities and made the round of the +cathedral, the youthful impresario at its head. The car of the painters +on glass was conspicuously elaborate, a star copied from a Cathedral +window showing the superscription, <i>G. Doré, fecit</i>. Small wonder is it +that the adoring mother of an equally adoring son should have believed +in him from the first, and seen in these beginnings the dawn of genius, +the advent, indeed, of a second Michael Angelo or Titian. +</p> + +<p> +The more practical father might chide such overreaching vaticinations, +might reiterate— +</p> + +<p> +"Do not fill the boy's head with nonsense." +</p> + +<p> +The answer would be— +</p> + +<p> +"I know it. Our son is a genius." +</p> + +<p> +And Doré <i>père</i> gave way, under circumstances curious enough. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +II +</p> + +<p> +In 1847 the family visited Paris, there to Gustave's delight spending +four months. Loitering one day in the neighbourhood of the Bourse, his +eye lighted upon comic papers with cuts published by MM. Auber and +Philipon. Their shop windows were full of caricatures, and after a long +and intent gaze the boy returned home, in two or three days presenting +himself before the proprietors with half-a-dozen drawings much in the +style of those witnessed. The benevolent but businesslike M. Philipon +examined the sketches attentively, put several questions to his young +visitor, and, finding that the step had been taken surreptitiously, +immediately sat down and wrote to M. and Mme. Doré. He urged them with +all the inducements he could command to allow their son the free choice +of a career, assuring them of his future. +</p> + +<p> +A few days later an agreement was signed by father and publisher to this +effect: During three years the latter was to receive upon certain terms +a weekly cartoon from the sixteen-year-old artist, who, on his side, +bound himself to offer no sketches elsewhere. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: This document was reproduced in <i>Le Figaro</i> of +December 4, 1848.] +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, Gustave would pursue his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne, +his patron promising to look after his health and well-being. The +arrangement answered, and in <i>Le Journal pour rire</i> the weekly +caricature signed by Doré soon noised his fame abroad. Ugly, even +hideous, as were many of these caricatures, they did double duty, paying +the lad's school expenses, and paving the way to better things. Of +caricature Doré soon tired, and after this early period never returned +to it. Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation +should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically +speaking, Doré passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the +word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This +undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon +found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. +Doré with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and +historic hôtel of the Rue St. Dominique. Here Doré lived for the rest of +his too short life. +</p> + +<p> +The house had belonged to the family of Saint Simon, that terrible +observer under whose gaze even Louis XIV. is said to have quailed. So +aver historians of the period. The associations of his home immediately +quickened Doré's inventive faculties. He at once set to work and +organized a brilliant set of <i>tableaux vivants</i>, illustrating scenes +from the immortal Mémoires. The undertaking proved a great social +success, and henceforth we hear of galas, soirées, theatricals and other +entertainments increasing in splendour with the young artist's +vogue—and means. +</p> + +<p> +The history of the next twenty years reads like a page from the <i>Arabian +Nights</i>. Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite +the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's +ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and +disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of +literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Doré reached the +first rank at twenty, his <i>Rabelais</i> setting the seal on his renown. So +immense was the success of this truly colossal undertaking and of its +successors, the <i>Don Quixote</i>, the <i>Contes de fées</i> of Perrault +and the rest, that he meditated nothing less than the illustration of +cosmopolitan <i>chefs 'd' oeuvre, en bloc</i>, a series which should include +every great imaginative work of the Western world! Thus in 1855 we find +him noting the following projects, to be carried out in ten years' +time:—illustrations of Æschylus, Lucan, Ovid, Shakespeare, Goethe +<i>(Faust)</i>, Lamartine <i>(Méditations)</i>, Racine, Corneille, Schiller, +Boccaccio, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives—these names among others. The +jottings in question were written for a friend who had undertaken to +write the artist's biography. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +The <i>Rabelais, Don Quixote, The Inferno</i>, and several more of these +sumptuous volumes were brought out in England. Forty years ago Doré's +bold and richly imaginative work was in great favour here; indeed, +throughout his life he was much more appreciated by ourselves than by +his countrymen. All the drawings were done straight upon wood. Lavish in +daily life, generous of the generous, Doré showed the same lavishness in +his procedure. Some curious particulars are given upon this head. +Fabulous sums were spent upon his blocks, even small ones costing as +much as four pounds apiece. He must always have the very best wood, no +matter the cost, and it was only the whitest, smoothest and glossiest +boxwood that satisfied him. Enormous sums were spent upon this material, +and to his honour be it recorded, that no matter the destination of a +block, the same cost, thought and minute manipulation were expended upon +a trifling commission as upon one involving thousands of pounds. The +penny paper was treated precisely the same as the volume to be brought +out at two guineas. In the zenith of his fame as an illustrator, at a +time when tip-top authors and editors were all clamouring for his +drawings, he did not despise humbler admirers and clients. His delight +in his work was only equalled by quite abnormal physical and mental +powers. Sleep, food, fresh air, everything was forgotten in the +engrossment of work. At this time he would often give himself three +hours of sleep only. +</p> + +<p> +Doré's ambition—rather, one of his ambitions—was to perfect wood +engraving as an art, hence his indifference to the cost of production. +Hence, doubtless, his persistence in drawing on wood without preliminary +sketch or copy. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps such obsession was natural. How could he foresee the variety of +new methods that were so soon to transform book illustration? Anyhow, +herein partly lies the explanation of the following notice in a +second-hand book catalogue, 1911— +</p> + +<p> +"No. 355. Gustave Doré: <i>Dante's Inferno</i>, with 76 full-page +illustrations by Doré. 4to, gilt top, binding soiled, but otherwise good +copy. <i>42s.</i> for <i>3s. 6d.</i> London, n.d." +</p> + +<p> +A leading London publisher consulted by me on the subject, writes +as follows— +</p> + +<p> +"Doré's works are no longer in vogue. One of the reasons lies in the +fact that his pictures were done by the old engraved process. He drew +them straight on wood, and there are, accordingly, no original drawings +to be reproduced by modern methods." +</p> + +<p> +The words "fatal facility" cannot be applied to so consummate a +draughtsman as the illustrator of Dante, Cervantes and Victor Hugo. But +Doré's almost superhuman memory was no less of a pitfall than manual +dexterity. The following story will partly explain his dislike of +facsimile and duplication. +</p> + +<p> +An intimate friend, named Bourdelin, relates how one day during the +siege of Paris, the pair found themselves by the Courbevoie bridge. One +side of this bridge was guarded by French gendarmes, the other by +German officers, Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, a dozen in all. For a +quarter of an hour the two Frenchmen lingered, Doré intently gazing on +the group opposite. On returning home some hours later he produced a +sketch-book and in Bourdelin's presence swiftly outlined the twelve +figures, exactly reproducing not only physiognomic divergences but +every detail of costume! Poor Doré! In those ardently patriotic days he +entirely relied upon victory and drew an anticipatory picture of France +triumphant, entitled, "Le Passage du Rhin." But the French never +crossed the Rhine, and the drawing was given to this friend with the +words: "My sketch has no longer any <i>raison d'être</i>. Keep it in memory +of our fallacious hopes." +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +III +</p> + +<p> +In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Doré decided to +leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded +genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that +could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. +</p> + +<p> +A reader of Ariosto, he had not taken to heart one of his most memorable +verses, those mellifluous lines in which the poet dwells upon the +laboriousness of intellectual achievement. Nor when illustrating the +<i>Arabian Nights</i> had the wonderful story of Hasan of El-Basrah +evidently brought home to him the same moral. +</p> + +<p> +Between a Doré and his object—so he deemed—existed neither "seven +valleys nor seven seas, nor seven mountains of vast magnitude." A Doré +needed no assistance of the flying Jinn and the wandering stars on his +way, no flying horse, "which when he went along flew, and when he flew +the dust overtook him not." +</p> + +<p> +Without the equipment of training, without recognition of such a +handicap, he entered upon his new career. +</p> + +<p> +In 1854 for the first time two pictures signed by Doré appeared on the +walls of the Salon. But the canvases passed unnoticed. The Parisians +would not take the would-be painter seriously, and the following year's +experience proved hardly less disheartening. Of four pictures sent in, +three were accepted, one of these being a historic subject, the other +two being landscapes. The first, "La Bataille de l'Alma," evoked +considerable criticism. The rural scenes were hung, as Edmond About +expressed it, so high as to need a telescope. +</p> + +<p> +Both About and Th. Gautier believed in their friend's newly-developed +talent, but art-critics and the public held aloof. No medal was decreed +by the jury, and, accustomed as he had been to triumph after triumph, +his fondest hopes for the second time deceived, Doré grew bitter and +acrimonious. That his failure had anything to do with the real question +at issue, namely, his genius as a historic painter, he would never for a +moment admit. Jealousy, cabals, prejudice only were accountable. +</p> + +<p> +The half dozen years following were divided between delightfully gay and +varied sociabilities, feverishly prolonged working hours and foreign +travel. The millions of francs earned by his illustrations gave him +everything he wanted but one, that one, in his eyes, worth all the rest. +</p> + +<p> +Travel, a splendid studio, largesses—he was generosity itself—all +these were within his reach. The craved-for renown remained ungraspable. +</p> + +<p> +Even visits to his favourite resort, Barr, brought disenchantment. He +found old acquaintances and the country folks generally wanting in +appreciation. With greater and lesser men, he subacidly said to himself +that a man was no prophet in his own country. +</p> + +<p> +Ten years after the fiasco of his first canvases in the Salon came an +invitation to England and the alluring project of a Doré gallery. The +Doré Bible and Tennyson, with other works, had paved the way for a right +royal reception. The streets of London, as he could well believe, were +paved with gold. But many were the <i>contra</i>. "I feel the presentiment," +he wrote to a friend, "that if I betake myself to England, I shall break +with my own country and lose prestige and influence in France. I cannot +exist without my friends, my habits and my <i>pot-au-feu</i>. Folks tell me +that England is a land of fogs, that the sun never shines there, that +the inhabitants are cold, and that I should most likely suffer from +sea-sickness in crossing the Manche. To sum up, England is a long way +off, and I have a great mind to give up the project." +</p> + +<p> +Friendly persuasion, self-interest, wounded self-love carried the day. +Reluctantly he decided upon the redoubtable sea-voyage. Whether he +suffered from sea-sickness or no we are not told. In any case the visit +was repeated, John Bull according the great Alsatian, as he was called, +what France had so persistently withheld. +</p> + +<p> +Doré was here accorded the first rank among historic painters. His +gallery in Bond Street became one of the London sights; in fashionable +society, if not in the close ring of the great Victorian artists, he +made a leading figure. Royalty patronized and welcomed him. The Queen +bought one of his pictures ("Le Psalterion," now at Windsor), and invited +him to Balmoral. The heir-apparent, the late King, admired his talent +and relished his society. By the clerical world he was especially +esteemed, being looked upon as a second Leonardo da Vinci. And, in fine, +Doré must be regarded as an anticipator of the Entente cordiale. +"Gustave Doré," his compatriots would say, "he is half an Englishman!" +Forty years ago our popular favourite might indeed have believed in the +fulfilment of his dream. The Thorwaldsen Gallery of Copenhagen had ever +dazzled his imagination. Bond Street was not Paris, certainly, but in +the greatest metropolis of the world his memory would be for ever +perpetuated. Turning to the dithyrambic utterances of the London Press +at the time we can hardly wonder at the hallucination. +</p> + +<p> +Here are one or two passages culled from leading dailies and weeklies— +</p> + +<p> +"In gravity and magnitude of purpose, no less than in the scope and +power of his imagination, he towers like a Colossus among his +contemporaries. Compared with such a work as 'Christ leaving the +Prætorium,' the pictures in Burlington House look like the production of +a race of dwarfs whose mental faculties are as diminutive as their +stature. And it is not alone the efforts of the English School of +Painting that appear puny in presence of so great and gigantic an +undertaking; the work of all the existing schools of Europe sinks into +equal insignificance, and we must go back to the Italian painters of the +sixteenth century to find a picture worthy of being classed with this +latest and most stupendous achievement of the great French master." +</p> + +<p> +Elsewhere we read— +</p> + +<p> +"The most marvellous picture of the present age is to be seen at 35, New +Bond Street. The subject is 'Christ leaving the Prætorium,' The painter +is the world-renowned Gustave Doré." +</p> + +<p> +A journal devoted to art-criticism wrote— +</p> + +<p> +"In 'The Christian Martyrs' we have a striking, thrilling and +ennobling picture." +</p> + +<p> +And so on, and so on. Yet at this time among "the dwarfs" of Burlington +House then exhibiting was Millais, and contemporaneously with Doré in +our midst, 1870-1, was Daubigny, whose tiniest canvases now fetch their +thousands! +</p> + +<p> +It was during Doré's apogee in England that a well-known French amateur, +also visiting our shores, was thus addressed by an English friend: "Come +with me to Bond Street, you will there see the work of your greatest +living painter." +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Our</i> greatest painter!" exclaimed the other. "You mean your own. Doré +is our first draughtsman of France, yes, but painter, never, neither the +greatest nor great; at least we were ignorant of the fact till informed +of it by yourself and your country-people." +</p> + +<p> +Doré knew well how matters stood, and bitterly resented the attitude of +his own nation. Accorded a princely welcome across the Manche, his work +worth its weight in gold on the other side of the Atlantic, in France he +was looked at askance, even as a painter ignored. He regarded himself as +shut out from his rightful heritage, and the victim, if not of a +conspiracy, of a cabal. His school playmates and close friends, Taine, +Edmond About and Th. Gautier, might be on his side; perhaps, with +reservations, Rossini and a few other eminent associates also. But the +prescient, unerring verdict of the collective "man in the street"— +</p> + +<p> +"The people's voice, the proof and echo of all human fame"— +</p> + +<p> +he missed; resentment preyed upon his spirits, undermined his vitality, +and doubtless had something to do with his premature breakdown. +</p> + +<p> +The Doré gallery indeed proved his Capua, the long-stop to his fame. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +IV +</p> + +<p> +As a personality the would-be Titian, Dürer, Thorwaldsen and Benvenuto +Cellini in one presents an engaging figure. His domestic life makes very +pleasant reading. We find no dark holes and corners in the career of one +who may be said to have remained a boy to the end, at fifty as at five +full of freak and initiative, clingingly attached to a devoted and +richly-endowed mother, and the ebullient spirit of a happy home. With +his rapidly increasing fortune, the historic house in the Rue Dominique +became an artistic, musical and dramatic centre. His fêtes were worthy +of a millionaire, and, alike in those private theatricals, <i>tableaux +vivants</i> or concerts, he ever took a leading part. An accomplished +violinist, Doré found in music a never-failing stimulant and +refreshment. Rossini was one of his circle, among others were the two +Gautiers, the two Dumas, Carolus Duran, Liszt, Gounod, Patti, Alboni and +Nilsson, Mme. Doré, still handsome and alert in her old age, proudly +doing the honours of what was now called the Hôtel Doré. By his literary +and artistic brethren the many-faceted genius and exhilarating host was +fully appreciated. Generosities he ever freely indulged in, the wealth +of such rapid attainment being dispensed with an ungrudgeful hand. To +works of charity the great illustrator gave largely, but we hear of no +untoward misreckonings, nor bills drawn upon time, health or talents. +With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh +commandment. +</p> + +<p> +Meantime, as the years wore on, again and again he bid desperately for +the suffrages withheld, his legitimately won renown held by him of small +account. To his American biographer he said, on showing her some of his +pictures: "I illustrate books in order to pay for my colours and +paint-brushes. I was born a painter." +</p> + +<p> +On the lady's companion, an American officer, naively asking if +certain canvases were designed for London or Paris, he answered with +bitter irony— +</p> + +<p> +"Paris, forsooth! I do not paint well enough for Paris." As he spoke his +face became clouded. The gay, jovial host of a few minutes before sighed +deeply, and during their visit could not shake off depression. +</p> + +<p> +Two crowning humiliations came before the one real sorrow of his life, +the loss of that gifted mother who was alike his boon companion, closest +confidante and enthusiastic Egeria. Perpetually seeking laurels in new +fields, in 1877 he made his <i>début</i> as a sculptor. The marble group, "La +Parque et l'Amour," signed G. Doré, won a <i>succès d'estime</i>, no more. +In the following year was opened the great international exhibition on the +Champ de Mars, Doré's enormous monumental vase being conspicuously +placed over one of the porticoes. This astounding achievement in bronze, +appropriately named the "Poème de la Vigne," created quite a sensation +at the time. Reproductions appeared in papers of all countries +containing a printing press or photographic machine. But for the +artist's name, doubtless his work would have attained the gold medal and +other honours. The Brobdingnagian vase, so wonderfully decorated with +flowers, animals and arabesques, was passed over by the jury. +</p> + +<p> +Equally mortifying was the fate of his marble group in the same year's +Salon. This subject, "La Gloire," had a place of honour in the sculpture +gallery and won universal suffrages. The critics echoed popular +approval. The jury remained passive. It was in the midst of these +unnecessarily crushing defeats—for why, indeed, should any mortal have +craved more than mortal success?—that Mme. Doré's forces gave way. From +that time till her death, which occurred two years later, her son's +place was by her side, floutings, projects, health and pleasure, +forgotten, his entire thoughts being given to the invalid. No more +beautiful picture of filial devotion could suggest itself to the painter +of domestic subjects than this, Doré with table and sketching materials +seated in his mother's sick-room, or at night ministering to her in +wakeful moments. At dawn he would snatch a few hours' sleep, but that +was all. No wonder that his own health should give way so soon after the +death-blow of her loss. +</p> + +<p> +"My friend," he wrote to an English boon companion, on March 16, 1881, +"she is no more. I am alone. You are a clergyman, I entreat you to pray +for the repose of her beloved soul and the preservation of my reason." +</p> + +<p> +A few days later he wrote to the same friend of his "frightful +solitude," adding his regret at not having anticipated such a blank and +made for himself a home—in other words, taken a wife. +</p> + +<p> +Some kind matchmaking friends set to work and found, so at least they +fancied, a bride exactly calculated to render him happy. +</p> + +<p> +But on January 23, 1883, Doré died, prematurely aged and broken +down by grief, corroding disappointment and quite frenzied overwork +and ambition. +</p> + +<p> +He never attained recognition as a historic painter among his +country-folks. One canvas, however, "Tobit and the Angel," is placed in +the Luxembourg, and his monument to Dumas ornaments the capital. His +renown as an illustrator remains high as ever in France. And one, that +one, the passionately desired prize of every Frenchman, became his: in +1861 he was decorated with the Red Ribbon. Six of Doré's great religious +subjects retain their place in the Bond Street Gallery, but for reasons +given above his wonderfully imaginative illustrations are here +forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +The superb edition of the <i>Enid</i> (Moxon, 1868), a folio bound in royal +purple and gold, and printed on paper thick as vellum, the volume +weighing four pounds, awakens melancholy reflections. What would have +been poor Doré's feelings had he lived to see such a guinea's worth, and +cheap at the price, gladly sold, rather got rid of, for three shillings! +</p> + +<p> +Doré's last work, the unconventional monument to the elder Dumas, was +left unfinished. +</p> + +<p> +Completed by another hand, the group now forms a conspicuous object in +the Avenue Villiers, Paris. +</p> + +<p> +The striking figure of the great quadroon, with his short crisped +locks, suggests a closer relationship to the race thus apostrophized by +Walt Whitman— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "You, dim descended, black, divine souled African...."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +He surmounts a lofty pedestal, on the base being seated a homely group, +three working folks, a mob-capped woman reading a Dumas novel to two +companions, evidently her father and husband, sons of the soil, drinking +in every word, their attitude of the most complete absorption. +Classicists and purists in art doubtless look askance at a work which +would certainly have enchanted the sovereign romancer. +</p> + +<p> +"Will folks read my stories when I am gone, doctor?" he asked as he lay +a-dying. The good physician easily reassured his patient. "When we have +patients awaiting some much-dreaded operation in hospital," he replied, +"we have only to give them one of your novels. Straightway they forget +everything else." And Dumas—"the great, the humane," as a charming poet +has called him—died happy. As well he might, in so far as his fame was +concerned. <i>La Tulipe Noire</i> would alone have assured his future. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +VI +</h3> + +<h3> +QUISSAC AND SAUVE +</h3> + +<p> +One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is +to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the +lodestar ahead. The way to almost any place of renown, natural, historic +or artistic, is sure to teem with as much interest as that to which we +are bound. So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is +French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every +town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we +set out. Thus it has ever been my rule to indulge in the most +preposterous peregrination, taking no account whatever of days, seasons +or possible cons, hearkening only to the pros, and never so much as +glancing at the calendar. Such protracted zigzaggeries have been made +easy to the "devious traveller" by one unusual advantage. Just as +pioneers in Australasia find Salvation Army shelters scattered +throughout remotest regions, so, fortunately, have I ever been able to +count upon "harbour and good company" during my thirty-five years of +French sojourn and travel. +</p> + +<p> +To reach a certain Pyrenean valley in which I was to spend a holiday +would only have meant a night's dash by express from Paris. Instead, I +followed the south-eastern route, halting at—Heaven knows how +many!—already familiar and delightful places between Paris and Dijon, +Dijon and Lyons, Lyons and Nîmes; from the latter city being bound for +almost as many more before reaching my destination. +</p> + +<p> +Quite naturally I would often find myself on the track of that "wise and +honest traveller," so John Morley calls Arthur Young. +</p> + +<p> +Half-way between Nîmes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at +which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a +disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." +</p> + +<p> +But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I +went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and +odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery— +</p> + +<p> +"Here I am!" +</p> + +<p> +As a rule I am entirely of Montaigne's opinion. "When I travel in +Sicily," said the philosopher of Gascony, "it is not to find Gascons." +Dearly as we love home and home-folk, the gist of travel lies in +oppositeness and surprises. We do not visit the uttermost ends of the +globe in search of next-door neighbours. That cordial "Here I am!" +however, had an unmistakable accent, just a delightful suspicion of +French. My host was a gallant naval officer long since retired from +service, with his English wife and two daughters, spending the long +vacation in his country home. +</p> + +<p> +High above the little village of Quissac rises the residence of +beneficent owners, master and mistress, alas! long since gone to their +rest. From its terrace the eye commands a vast and beautiful panorama, a +richly cultivated plain dotted with villages and framed by the blue +Cévennes. Tea served after English fashion and by a dear countrywoman, +everywhere <i>"le confortable Anglais"</i> admittedly unattainable by French +housewives, could not for a single moment make me forget that I was in +France. And when the dinner gong sounded came the final, the +unequivocal, proof of distance. +</p> + +<p> +Imagine dining out of doors and in evening dress at eight o'clock in the +last week of August! The table was set on the wide balcony of the upper +floor, high above lawn and bosquets, the most chilly person having here +nothing to fear. It is above all things the French climate that +transports us so far from home and makes us feel ourselves hundreds, +nay, thousands of miles away. +</p> + +<p> +I have elsewhere, perhaps ofttimes, dwelt on the luminosity of the +atmosphere in southern and south-western France. To-night not a breath +was stirring, the outer radiance was the radiance of stars only, yet so +limpid, so lustrous the air that cloudless moonlight could hardly have +made every object seem clearer, more distinct. The feeling inspired by +such conditions is that of enchantment. For the nonce we may yield to a +spell, fancy ourselves in Armida's enchanted garden or other "delightful +land of Faëry." +</p> + +<p> +Not for long, however! Pleasant practical matters soon recall us to the +life of every day. That laborious, out-of-door existence, which seems +sordid in superfine English eyes, but which is never without the gaiety +that enchanted Goldsmith and Sterne a hundred and fifty years ago. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst host and guest dined on the balcony, the farming folk and such of +the household as could be spared were enjoying a starlit supper +elsewhere. Later, my hostess took me downstairs and introduced her +English visitor to a merry but strictly decorous party having a special +bit of sward to themselves, bailiff, vintagers, stockmen, dairywoman, +washerwoman and odd hands making up a round dozen of men, women and +boys. All seemed quite at home, and chatted easily with their employer +and the visitor, by no means perturbed, rather pleased by the intrusion. +</p> + +<p> +And here I will mention one of those incidents that lead English +observers into so many misconceptions concerning French rural life. +Little things that seem sordid, even brutifying to insular eyes, really +arise from incompatible standards. +</p> + +<p> +The Frenchman's ideal of material comfort begins and ends with solvency, +the sense of absolute security from want in old age. Small comforts he +sets little store by; provided that he gets a good dinner, lesser +considerations go. I do not hesitate to say that the comforts enjoyed by +our own farm-servants half a century ago were far in excess of those +thought more than sufficient by French labourers and their employers. On +the following day my hosts took me round the farmery, fowl-run, +piggeries, neat-houses and stalls being inspected one by one. When we +came to the last named, I noticed at the door of the long building and +on a level with the feeding troughs for oxen, a bed-shaped wooden box +piled up with fresh clean straw. +</p> + +<p> +"That is where our stockman sleeps," explained the lady. +</p> + +<p> +Here, then, quite contentedly slept the herdsman of a large estate in +nineteenth-century France, whilst his English compeers two generations +before, and in much humbler employ, had their tidy bedroom and +comfortable bed under the farmer's roof. What would my own Suffolk +ploughmen have said to the notion of spending the night in an ox-stall? +But <i>autres pays, autres moeurs</i>. In Déroulède's fine little poem, "Bon +gîte", a famished, foot-sore soldier returning home is generously +entreated by a poor housewife. When she sets about preparing a bed for +him, he remonstrates— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Good dame, what means that new-made bed,<br /> + Those sheets so finely spun?<br /> + On heaped-up straw in cattle-shed,<br /> + I'd snore till rise of sun."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The compensations for apparent hardship in the case of French peasants +are many and great. In Henry James's great series of dissolving views +called <i>The American Scene</i>, he describes the heterogeneous masses as +having "a promoted look". The French proletariat have not a promoted +look, rather one of inherited, traditional stability and self-respect. +One and all, moreover, are promoting themselves, rising by a slow +evolutionary process from the condition of wage-earner to that of +metayer, tenant, lastly freeholder. +</p> + +<p> +Although the immediate environs of Quissac and Sauve are not remarkable, +magnificent prospects are obtained a little farther afield—our drives +and walks abounded in interest—and associations! Strange but true it is +that we can hardly halt anywhere in France without coming upon historic, +literary or artistic memorials. Every town and village is redolent of +tradition, hardly a spot but is glorified by genius! +</p> + +<p> +Thus, half-an-hour's drive from our village still stands the château +and birthplace of Florian, the Pollux of fabulists, La Fontaine being +the Castor, no other stars of similar magnitude shining in their +especial arc. +</p> + +<p> +Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born here in 1755, just sixty years +after the great fabulist's death. Nephew of a marquis, himself +nephew-in-law of Voltaire, endowed with native wit and gaiety, the young +man was a welcome guest at Fernay, and no wonder! His enchanting fables +did not see the light till after Voltaire's death, but we will hope that +some of them had delighted his host in recitation. Many of us who loved +French in early years have a warm corner in our hearts for "Numa +Pompilius", but Florian will live as the second fabulist of France, to +my own thinking twin of his forerunner. +</p> + +<p> +How full of wisdom, wit and sparkle are these apologues! Take, for +instance, the following, which to the best of my ability I have rendered +into our mother tongue— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + VANITY (LE PETIT CHIEN).<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + I<br /> + Once on a time and far away,<br /> + The elephant stood first in might,<br /> + He had by many a forest fray<br /> + At last usurped the lion's right.<br /> + On peace and reign unquestioned bent,<br /> + The ruler in his pride of place,<br /> + Forthwith to life-long banishment<br /> + Doomed members of the lion race.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + II<br /> + Dispirited, their best laid low,<br /> + The vanquished could but yield to fate,<br /> + And turn their backs upon the foe<br /> + In silence nursing grief and hate.<br /> + A poodle neatly cropped and clipped,<br /> + With tasselled tail made leonine,<br /> + On hearing of the stern rescript,<br /> + Straightway set up a piteous whine.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + III<br /> + "Alas!" he moaned. "Ah, woe is me!<br /> + Where, tyrant, shall I shelter find;<br /> + Advancing years what will they be,<br /> + My home and comforts left behind?"<br /> + A spaniel hastened at the cry,<br /> + "Come, mate, what's this to-do about?"<br /> + "Oh, oh," the other gulped reply,<br /> + "For exile we must all set out!"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + IV<br /> + "Must all?" "No, you are safe, good friend;<br /> + The cruel law smites us alone;<br /> + Here undisturbed your days may end,<br /> + The lions must perforce begone."<br /> + "The lions? Brother, pray with these,<br /> + What part or lot have such as you?"<br /> + "What part, forsooth? You love to tease;<br /> + You know I am a lion too."<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: The first translation appeared with others in <i>French Men, +Women and Books</i>, 1910. The second was lately issued in the +<i>Westminster Gazette</i>.] +</p> + +<p> +Here is another, a poem of essential worldly wisdom, to be bracketed +with Browning's equally oracular "The Statue and the Bust," fable and +poem forming a compendium. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + THE FLIGHTY PURPOSE<br /> + (LE PAYSAN AND LA RIVIERE).<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "I now intend to change my ways"—<br /> + Thus Juan said—"No more for me<br /> + A round on round of idle days<br /> + 'Mid soul-debasing company.<br /> + I've pleasure woo'd from year to year<br /> + As by a siren onward lured,<br /> + At last of roystering, once held dear,<br /> + I'm as a man of sickness cured."<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Unto the world I bid farewell,<br /> + My mind to retrospection give,<br /> + Remote as hermit in his cell,<br /> + For wisdom and wise friends I'll live."<br /> + "Is Thursday's worldling, Friday's sage?<br /> + Too good such news," I bantering spoke.<br /> + "How oft you've vowed to turn the page,<br /> + Each promise vanishing like smoke!"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "And when the start?" "Next week—not this."<br /> + "Ah, you but play with words again."<br /> + "Nay, do not doubt me; hard it is<br /> + To break at once a life-long chain."<br /> + Came we unto the riverside,<br /> + Where motionless a rustic sate,<br /> + His gaze fixed on the flowing tide.<br /> + "Ho, mate, why thus so still and squat?"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Good sirs, bound to yon town am I;<br /> + No bridge anear, I sit and sit<br /> + Until these waters have run dry,<br /> + So that afoot I get to it."<br /> + "A living parable behold,<br /> + My friend!" quoth I. "Upon the brim<br /> + You, too, will gaze until you're old,<br /> + But never boldly take a swim!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +As far as I know, no memorial has as yet been raised to the fabulist +either at Quissac or at Sauve, but as long as the French language lasts +successive generations will keep his memory green. Certain of his fables +every little scholar knows by heart. +</p> + +<p> +Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from +Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing +described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a +name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress. +</p> + +<p> +"From Ganges", wrote the great Suffolk farmer in July 1787, "to the +mountain of rough ground which I crossed" (in the direction of +Montdardier), "the ride has been the most interesting which I have +taken in France; the efforts of industry the most vigorous, the +animation the most lively. An activity has been here that has swept away +all difficulties before it and clothed the very rocks with verdure. It +would be a disgrace to common sense to ask the cause; the enjoyment of +property must have done it. <i>Give a man the sure possession of a bleak +rock, and he will turn it into a garden</i>." The italics are my own. When +will Arthur Young have his tablet in Westminster Abbey, I wonder? +</p> + +<p> +The department of the Gard offers an anomaly of the greatest historic +interest. Here and here only throughout the length and breadth of France +villages are found without a Catholic church, communities that have held +fast to Protestantism and the right of private judgment from generation +to generation during hundreds of years. Elsewhere, in the Côte d'Or, for +instance, as I have described in a former work, Protestantism was +completely stamped out by the Revocation, whole villages are now +ultramontane, having abjured, the alternatives placed before them being +confiscation of property, separation of children and parents, +banishment, prison and death. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: See <i>Friendly Faces</i>, chap. xvi.] +</p> + +<p> +The supremacy of the reformed faith may be gathered from the following +facts: A few years back, of the six deputies representing this +department five were Protestant and the sixth was a Jew. The <i>Conseil +Général</i> or provincial council numbered twenty-three Protestants as +against seventeen Catholics. The seven members of the Board of Hospitals +at Nîmes, three of the four inspectors of public health, nine of the +twelve head-mistresses of girls' schools, twenty-nine of forty rural +magistrates, were Protestants. +</p> + +<p> +My host belonged to the same faith, as indeed do most of his class and +the great captains of local industry. It is not as in Michelet's +fondly-loved St. Georges de Didonne, where only the lowly and the toiler +have kept the faith aflame. +</p> + +<p> +But whilst neighbours now live peacefully side by side, a gulf still +divides Catholic and Protestant. Although half a millennium has elapsed +since the greatest crime of modern history, the two bodies remain apart: +French <i>annexés</i> of Alsace-Lorraine and Germans are not more completely +divided. Mixed marriages are of rarest occurrence, intercourse limited +to the conventional and the obligatory. There are historic curses that +defy lustration. St. Bartholomew is one of these. I must now say +something about the country-folks. Calls upon our rustic neighbours, +long chats with affable housewives, and rounds of farmery, vineyard and +field attracted me more than the magnificent panoramas to be obtained +from Corconne and other villages within an easy drive. +</p> + +<p> +George Sand has ever been regarded as a poetizer of rural life, an +arch-idealist of her humbler country-folks. At Quissac I made more than +one acquaintance that might have stepped out of <i>La petite Fadette</i> or +<i>La mare au Diable</i>. +</p> + +<p> +One old woman might have been "la paisible amie," the tranquil friend, +to whom the novelist dedicated a novel. Neat, contented, active and +self-respecting, she enjoyed a life-interest in two acres and a cottage, +her live stock consisting of a goat, a pig and poultry, her invested +capital government stock representing a hundred pounds. Meagre as may +seem these resources, she was by no means to be pitied or inclined to +pity herself, earning a few francs here and there by charing, selling +her little crops, what eggs and chickens she could spare, above all +things being perfectly independent. +</p> + +<p> +A charming idyll the great Sand could have found here. The owner of a +thirty-acre farm had lately died, leaving it with all he possessed to +two adopted children, a young married couple who for years had acted +respectively as steward and housekeeper. We are bound to infer that on +the one hand there had been affection and gratitude, on the other the +same qualities with conscientiousness in business matters. The +foster-father was childless and a widower, but, among the humble as well +as the rich French, ambition of posthumous remembrance often actuates +impersonal bequests. This worthy Jacques Bonhomme might have made an +heir of his native village, leaving money for a new school-house or some +other public edifice. Very frequently towns and even villages become +legatees of the childless, and the worthy man would have been quite sure +of a statue, a memorial tablet, or at least of having his name added to +a street or square. +</p> + +<p> +Before taking leave of Quissac I must mention one curious fact. +</p> + +<p> +The Proteus of Odyssean story or the King's daughter and the Efreet in +the "Second Royal Mendicant's Adventure," could not more easily +transform themselves than the French peasant. Husbandman to-day, +mechanic on the morrow, at one season he plies the pruning-hook, at +another he turns the lathe. This adaptability of the French mind, +strange to say, is nowhere seen to greater advantage than in +out-of-the-way regions, just where are mental torpidity and unbendable +routine. Not one of Millet's blue-bloused countrymen but masters a dozen +handicrafts. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, whilst the heraldic insignia of Sauve should be a trident, those +of Quissac should be surmounted by an old shoe! In the former place the +forked branches of the <i>Celtis australis</i> or nettle tree, <i>Ulmaceæ</i>, +afford a most profitable occupation. From its tripartite boughs are made +yearly thousands upon thousands of the three-pronged forks used in +agriculture. The wood, whilst very durable, is yielding, and lends +itself to manipulation. +</p> + +<p> +In Florian's birthplace folks make a good living out of old boots and +shoes! Some native genius discovered that, however well worn footgear +may be, valuable bits of leather may remain in the sole. These fragments +are preserved, and from them boot heels are made; the <i>débris</i>, boots, +shoes and slippers, no matter the material, find their way to the soil +as manure. But this subject if pursued further would lead to a lane, +metaphorically speaking, without a turning, that is to say to a treatise +on French rural economy. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +VII +</h3> + +<h3> +AN IMMORTALIZER +</h3> + +<p> +In Renan's exquisitely phrased preface to his <i>Drames Philosophiques</i> +occurs the following sentence which I render into English <i>tant bien que +mal</i>: "Side by side are the history of fact and the history of the +ideal, the latter materially speaking of what has never taken place, but +which, in the ideal sense, has happened a thousand times." +</p> + +<p> +Who when visiting the beautiful little town of Saumur thinks of the +historic figures connected with its name? Even the grand personality of +Duplessis Morny sinks into insignificance by comparison with that of the +miser's daughter, the gentle, ill-starred Eugénie Grandet! And who when +Carcassonne first breaks upon his view thinks of aught but Nadaud's +immortal peasant and his plaint— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "I'm growing old, just three score year,<br /> + In wet and dry, in dust and mire,<br /> + I've sweated, never getting near<br /> + Fulfilment of my heart's desire.<br /> + Ah, well I see that bliss below<br /> + 'Tis Heaven's will to vouchsafe none,<br /> + Harvest and vintage come and go,<br /> + I've never got to Carcassonne!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +The tragi-comic poem of six eight-lined verses ending thus— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "So sighed a peasant of Limoux,<br /> + A worthy neighbour bent and worn.<br /> + 'Ho, friend,' quoth I, 'I'll go with you.<br /> + We'll sally forth to-morrow morn.'<br /> + And true enough away we hied,<br /> + But when our goal was almost won,<br /> + God rest his soul!—the good man died,<br /> + He never got to Carcassonne!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +No lover of France certainly should die without having seen Carcassonne, +foremost of what I will call the pictorial Quadrilateral, no formidable +array after the manner of their Austrian cognominal, but lovely, +dreamlike things. These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as +when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the +Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guérande, scene of +Balzac's <i>Béatrix</i>. To my thinking, and I have visited each, there is +little to choose between the first two, but exquisite as is the little +Briard acropolis, those imaginary "topless towers of Ilium" of Nadaud's +peasant bear the palm. That first view of Carcassonne as we approach it +in the railway of itself repays a long and tedious journey. A vision +rather than reality, structure of pearly clouds in mid-heaven, seems +that opaline pile lightly touched with gold. We expect it to evaporate +at evenfall! Vanish it does not, nor wholly bring disillusion, so fair +and harmonious are the vistas caught in one circuit of the citadel, mere +matter of twenty minutes. +</p> + +<p> +But the place by this time has become so familiar to travellers in +France and readers of French travel, that I will here confine myself to +its glorifier, author of a song that has toured the world. +</p> + +<p> +The first biography of the French Tom Moore, published last year, gives +no history of this much translated poem. Had, indeed, some worthy +vine-grower poured out such a plaint in the poet's ears? Very probably, +for one and all of Nadaud's rural poems breathe the very essence of the +fields, the inmost nature of the peasant, from first to last they reveal +Jacques Bonhomme to us, his conceptions of life, his mentality and +limitations. +</p> + +<p> +[Footnote: My own rendering of this piece and many other of Nadaud's +songs and ballads are given in <i>French Men, Women and Books</i>, 1910. +American translators have admirably translated <i>Carcassonne</i>.] +</p> + +<p> +Nadaud's career is uneventful, but from one point of view, far from +being noteless, he was pre-eminently the happy man. His biographer (A. +Varloy) tells us of a smooth, much relished, even an exuberant +existence. The son of an excellent bourgeois, whose ancestry, +nevertheless, like that of many another, could be traced for six hundred +years, his early surroundings were the least lyric imaginable. +</p> + +<p> +He was born at Roubaix, the flourishing seat of manufacture near Lille, +which, although a mere <i>chef-lieu du canton</i>, does more business with +the Bank of France than the big cities of Toulouse, Nîmes, Montpellier +and others thrice its size. Dress fabrics, cloths and exquisite napery +are the products of Roubaix and its suburb; vainly, however, does any +uncommercial traveller endeavour to see the weavers at work. Grimy walls +and crowded factory chimneys are relieved at Roubaix by gardens public +and private, and the town is endowed with museums, libraries, art and +technical schools. But Nadaud, like Cyrano de Bergerac, if asked what +gave him most delectation, would certainly have replied— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Lorsque j'ai fait un vers et que je l'aime,<br /> + Je me paye en me le chantant à moi-même."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Here is the boy's daily programme when a twelve-year-old student at the +Collège Rollin, Paris. The marvel is that the poetic instinct survived +such routine, marvellous also the fact that the dry-as-dust in authority +was a well-known translator of Walter Scott. If anything could have +conjured the Wizard of the North from his grave it was surely these +particulars written by Gustave Nadaud to his father on the 19th of +October, 1833— +</p> + +<p> +"Five-thirty, rise; five-forty-five, studies till seven-thirty; +breakfast and recreation from seven-thirty till eight; from eight till +ten, school; from ten to a quarter past, recreation; from a quarter past +ten till half past twelve, school; then dinner and recreation from one +till two. School from two till half past four; collation from half past +four till a quarter past five; school from a quarter past five till +eight. Supper and to bed." +</p> + +<p> +Poetry here was, however, a healthy plant, and in his school-days this +born song-writer would scribble verses on his copy-books and read Racine +for his own amusement. Turning his back upon the mill-wheels of his +native town and an assured future in a Parisian business house, like Gil +Bias's friend, <i>il s'est jeté dans le bel esprit</i>—in other words, he +betook himself to the career of a troubadour. Never, surely, did master +of song-craft write and sing so many ditties! +</p> + +<p> +Quitting school with a tip-top certificate both as to conduct and +application, Gustave Nadaud quickly won fame if not fortune. Hardly of +age, he wrote somewhat Bohemian effusions that at once made the round of +Parisian music-halls. +</p> + +<p> +The revolution, if it brought topsy-turvydom in politics, like its great +forerunner '89 brought the apogee of song. The popular young lyrist, +ballader and minstrel, for Nadaud accompanied himself on the piano, now +made a curious compact, agreeing to write songs for twenty years, a firm +named Heugel paying him six thousand francs yearly by way of +remuneration. +</p> + +<p> +Two hundred and forty pounds a year should seem enough for a young man, +a bachelor brought up in bourgeois simplicity. But the cost of living in +Paris was apparently as high sixty years ago as now. In 1856-7 he wrote +to a friend: "How upon such an income I contrived to live and frequent +Parisian salons without ever asking a farthing of any one, only those +who have been poor can tell." The salons spoken of were not only +aristocratic but Imperial, the late Princess Mathilde being an +enthusiastic hostess and patroness. Several operettas were composed by +Nadaud for her receptions and philanthropic entertainments. Here is a +sketch of the French Tom Moore in 1868 by a witty contributor of the +<i>Figaro</i>— +</p> + +<p> +"Nadaud then seated himself at the piano, and of the words he sang I +give you full measure, the impression produced by his performance I +cannot hope to convey. Quite indescribable was the concord of voice and +hands, on the music as on wings each syllable being lightly borne, yet +its meaning thereby intensified. In one's memory only can such delight +be revived and reproduced." +</p> + +<p> +With other poets, artists and musicians Nadaud cast vocation to the +winds in 1870-1, working in field and other hospitals. "I did my best to +act the part of a poor little sister of charity," he wrote to a friend. +His patriotic poem, "La grande blessée," was written during that +terrible apprenticeship. +</p> + +<p> +With Nadaud henceforward it was a case of roses, roses all the way. +Existence he had ever taken easily, warm friendships doing duty for a +domestic circle. And did he not write— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "I dreamed of an ideal love<br /> + And Benedick remain?"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +His songs proved a mine of wealth, and the sumptuously illustrated +edition got up by friends and admirers brought him 80,000 francs, with +which he purchased a villa, christened Carcassonne, at Nice, therein +spending sunny and sunny-tempered days and dispensing large-hearted +hospitality. To luckless brethren of the lyre he held out an ungrudgeful +hand, alas! meeting with scant return. The one bitterness of his life, +indeed, was due to ingratitude. Among his papers after death was found +the following note— +</p> + +<p> +"Throughout the last thirty years I have lent sums, large considering +my means, to friends, comrades and entire strangers. Never, never, +never has a single centime been repaid by a single one of these +borrowers. I now vow to myself, never under any circumstances whatever +to lend money again!" +</p> + +<p> +Poor song-writers, nevertheless, he posthumously befriended. By his will +with the bulk of his property was founded "La petite Caisse des +chansonniers," a benefit society for less happy Nadauds to come. By aid +of these funds, lyrists and ballad-writers unable to find publishers +would be held on their onward path. Full of honours, Nadaud died in +1893, monuments being erected to his memory, streets named after him, +and undiminished popularity keeping his name alive. +</p> + +<p> +And the honour denied to Béranger, to Victor Hugo, to Balzac, the +coveted sword and braided coat of the Forty were Nadaud's also. With the +witty Piron he could not ironically anticipate his own epitaph thus— +</p> + +<p> +"Here lies Nadaud who was nothing, not even an Academician!" +</p> + +<p> +Before taking leave of Carcassonne, poetic and picturesque, the most +inveterate anti-sightseer should peep into its museum. For this little +<i>chef-lieu</i> of the Aude, with a population under thirty thousand, +possesses what, indeed, hardly a French townling lacks, namely, a +picture-gallery. If not remarkable from an artistic point of view, the +collection serves to demonstrate the persistent, self-denying and +constant devotion to culture in France. Times may be peaceful or stormy, +seasons may prove disastrous, the withered, thin and blasted ears of +corn may devour the seven ears full and golden, the ship of State may be +caught in a tornado and lurch alarmingly—all the same "the man in the +street," "the rascal many," to quote Spenser, will have a museum in +which, with wife and hopefuls, to spend their Sunday afternoons. The +local museum is no less of a necessity to Jacques Bonhomme than his +daily <i>pot-au-feu</i>, that dish of soup which, according to Michelet, +engenders the national amiability. +</p> + +<p> +The splendid public library—the determinative is used in the sense of +comparison—numbers just upon a volume per head, and the art school, +school of music, and other institutions tell the same story. Culture +throughout the country seems indigenous, to spread of itself, and, above +all things, to reach all classes. Culture on French soil is gratuitous, +ever free as air! We must never overlook that primary fact. +</p> + +<p> +One or two more noticeable facts about Carcassonne. Here was born that +eccentric revolutionary and poetic genius, Fabre d'Eglantine, of whom I +have written elsewhere. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + [Footnote: See Literary Rambles in France, 1906]<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Yet another historic note. From St. Vincent's tower during the +Convention, 1792-5, were taken those measurements, the outcome of which +was the metric system. Two mathematicians, by name Delambre and Méchain, +were charged with the necessary calculations, the <i>mètre</i>, or a +ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles and the equator +(32,808 English feet), being made the unit of length. Uniformity of +weight followed, and became law in 1799. +</p> + +<p> +But to touch upon historic Carcassonne is to glance upon an almost +interminable perspective. The chronicle of this charming little city +on the bright blue Aude has been penned and re-penned in blood and +tears. In 1560 Carcassonne suffered a preliminary Saint Bartholomew, a +general massacre of Protestants announcing the evil days to follow; +days that after five hundred years have left their trace, moral as +well as material. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +VIII +</h3> + +<h3> +TOULOUSE +</h3> + +<p> +A zigzaggery, indeed, was this journey from Nîmes to my Pyrenean valley. +That metropolis of art and most heroic town, Montauban, I could not on +any account miss. Toulouse necessarily had to be taken on the way to +Ingres-ville, as I feel inclined to call the great painter's birthplace +and apotheosis. But why write of Toulouse? The magnificent city, its +public gardens, churches, superbly housed museums and art galleries, its +promenades, drives and panoramas are all particularized by Murray, +Joanne and Baedeker. Here, however, as elsewhere, are one or two +features which do not come within the province of a guide-book. +</p> + +<p> +The only city throughout France that welcomed the Inquisition was +among the first to open a <i>Lycée pour jeunes filles.</i> In accordance +with the acts of 1880-82 public day schools for girls were opened +throughout France; that of Toulouse being fairly representative, I +will describe my visit. +</p> + +<p> +The school was now closed for the long vacation, but a junior mistress +in temporary charge gave us friendliest welcome, and showed us over the +building and annexes. She evidently took immense and quite natural +pride in the little world within world of which she formed a part. Her +only regret was that we could not see the scholars at work. Here may be +noted the wide field thrown open to educated women by the above-named +acts, from under-mistresses to <i>Madame la directrice</i>, the position +being one of dignity and provision for life, pensions being the reward +of long service. +</p> + +<p> +The course of study is prepared by the rector of the Toulousain Academy, +and the rules of management by the municipal council, thus the programme +of instruction bears the signature of the former, whilst the prospectus, +dealing with fees, practical details, is signed by the mayor in the name +of the latter. +</p> + +<p> +We find a decree passed by the town council in 1887 to the effect that +in the case of two sisters a fourth of the sum-total of fees should be +remitted, of three, a half, of four, three-quarters, and of five, the +entire amount. Even the outfit of the boarders must be approved by the +same authority. A neat costume is obligatory, and the number and +material of undergarments is specified with the utmost minuteness. +Besides a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes, each student must +bring three pairs of boots, thirty pocket-handkerchiefs, a bonnet-box, +umbrella, parasol, and so forth. +</p> + +<p> +Such regulations may at first sight look trivial and unnecessary, but +there is much to be said on the other side. From the beginning of the +term to the end, the matron, whose province is quite apart from that of +the head-mistress, is never worried about the pupils' dress, no shoes in +need of repair, no garments to be mended, no letters to be written +begging Mme. A. to send her daughter a warm petticoat, Mme. B. to +forward a hair-brush, and so on. Again, the uniform obligatory on +boarders prevents those petty jealousies and rivalries provoked by fine +clothes in girls' schools. Alike the child of the millionaire and of the +small official wear the same simple dress. +</p> + +<p> +Children are admitted to the lower school between the ages of five and +twelve, the classes being in the hands of certificated mistresses. The +upper school, at which pupils are received from twelve years and +upwards, and are expected to remain five years, offers a complete course +of study, lady teachers being aided by professors of the Faculté des +Lettres and of the Lycée for youths. Students who have remained +throughout the entire period, and have satisfactorily passed final +examinations, receive a certificate entitling them to admission into the +great training college of Sèvres or to offer themselves as teachers in +schools and families. +</p> + +<p> +The curriculum is certainly modest compared with that obligatory on +candidates for London University, Girton College, or our senior local +examination; but it is an enormous improvement on the old conventual +system, and several points are worthy of imitation. Thus a girl quitting +the Lycée would have attained, first and foremost, a thorough knowledge +of her own language and its literature; she would also possess a fair +notion of French common law, of domestic economy, including needlework +of the more useful kind, the cutting out and making up of clothes, and +the like. Gymnastics are practised daily. In the matter of religion the +municipality of Toulouse shows absolute impartiality. No sectarian +teaching enters into the programme, but Catholics and Protestants and +Jews in residence can receive instruction from their respective +ministers. +</p> + +<p> +The Lycée competes formidably with the convents as regards fees. +Twenty-eight pounds yearly cover the expense of board, education, and +medical attendance at the upper school; twenty-four at the lower; day +boarders pay from twelve to fifteen pounds a year; books, the use of the +school omnibus, and laundress being extras. Three hundred scholars in +all attended during the scholastic year ending July 1891. +</p> + +<p> +Day-pupils not using the school omnibus must be accompanied to and from +the school, and here an interesting point is to be touched upon. In so +far as was practicable, the Lycée for girls has been modelled on the +plan of the time-honoured establishments for boys. As yet a uniform +curriculum to begin with was out of the question; the programme is +already too ambitious in the eyes of many, whilst ardent advocates of +the higher education of women in France regret that the vices as well as +the virtues of the existing system have been retained. Educationists and +advanced thinkers generally would fain see a less strait-laced routine, +a less stringent supervision, more freedom for play of character. The +Lycée student, boy or girl, youth or maiden, is as strictly guarded as a +criminal; not for a moment are these citizens of the future trusted to +themselves. +</p> + +<p> +In the vast dormitory of the high school here we see thirty neat +compartments with partitions between, containing bed and toilet +requisites, and at the extreme end of the room, commanding a view of +the rest, is the bed of the under-mistress in charge, <i>surveillante</i> as +she is called. Sleeping or waking, the students are watched. This +massing together of numbers and perpetual supervision no longer find +universal favour. +</p> + +<p> +But I am here writing of fifteen years ago. Doubtless were I to repeat +my visit I should find progressive changes too numerous for detail. +Happy little middle-class Parisians now run to and from their Lycées +unattended. Young ladies in society imitate their Anglo-Saxon sisters +and have shaken off that incubus, <i>la promeneuse</i> or walking chaperon. +</p> + +<p> +Works on social France, as is the case with almanacs, encyclopædias and +the rest, require yearly revision. Manners and customs change no less +quickly than headgear and skirts. +</p> + +<p> +Charles Lamb would have lived ecstatically at the Languedocian capital. +It is a metropolis of beggardom, a mendicant's Mecca, a citadel of Jules +Richepin's cherished <i>Gueux</i>. Here, indeed, Elia need not have lamented +over the decay of beggars, "the all sweeping besom of societarian +reformation—your only modern Alcides' club to rid time of its +abuses—is uplift with many-handed sway to extirpate the last fluttering +tatters of the bugbear <i>Mendicity</i>. Scrips, wallets, bags, staves, dogs +and crutches, the whole mendicant fraternity with all their baggage are +fast hasting out of the purlieus of this eleventh persecution." +</p> + +<p> +No, here is what the best beloved of English humorists calls "the oldest +and the honourablest form of pauperism," here his vision would have +feasted on "Rags, the Beggars' robes and graceful insignia of his +profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected +to show himself in public." "He is never out of fashion," adds Lamb, "or +limpeth outwardly behind it. He is not required to wear court mourning. +He weareth all colours, fearing none. His costume hath undergone less +change than the Quaker's. He is the only man in the universe who is not +obliged to study appearances." +</p> + +<p> +Here, too, would the unmatchable writer have gazed upon more than one +"grand fragment, as good as an Elgin marble." And alas! many deformities +more terrible still, and which, perhaps, would have damped even Lamb's +ardour. For in the Toulouse of 1894, as in the London of sixty years +before, its mendicants "were so many of its sights, its Lions." The city +literally swarmed with beggars. At every turn we came upon some living +torso, distorted limb and hideous sore. Begging seemed to be the +accepted livelihood of cripples, blind folk and the infirm. Let us hope +that by this time something better has been devised for them all. Was it +here that Richepin partly studied the mendicant fraternity, giving us in +poetry his astounding appreciation, psychological and linguistic? And +perhaps the bard of the beggars, like the English humorist, would wish +his <i>pauvres Gueux</i> to be left unmolested. +</p> + +<p> +The sights of Toulouse would occupy a conscientious traveller many days. +The least leisurely should find time to visit the tiny square called +<i>place du Salin</i>. Here took place the innumerable <i>autos-da-fé</i> of the +Toulousain Inquisition, and here, so late as 1618, the celebrated +physician and scientist Vanini was atrociously done to death by that +truly infernal tribunal, and for what? For simply differing from the +obscurantism of his age, and having opinions of his own. +</p> + +<p> +The atrocious sentence passed on Vanini was in part remitted, evidently +public opinion already making itself felt. His tongue was cut out, but +strangulation preceded the burning alive. Here one cannot help noting +the illogical, the puerile—if such words are applicable to devilish +wickedness—aspect of such Inquisitorial sentences. If these +hounders-down of common-sense and the reasoning faculty really believed, +as they affected to believe, that men who possessed and exercised both +qualities were thereby doomed to eternal torments, why set up the +horrible and costly paraphernalia of the Inquisition? After all, no +matter how ingeniously inventive might be their persecutors, they could +only be made to endure terminable and comparatively insignificant +torments, not a millionth millionth fraction of eternity! +</p> + +<p> +Refreshing it is to turn to the Toulouse of minstrelsy. The proud seat +of the troubadours, the Academy of the Gay Science and of the poetic +tourneys revived in our own day! Mistral's name has long been European, +and other English writers have charmingly described the <i>Feux Floraux</i> +of the olden time and the society of <i>Lou Felibrige</i> with its revival of +Provençal literature. But forty years ago, and twenty years before his +masterpiece had found a translator here, he was known and highly +esteemed by a great Englishman. +</p> + +<p> +In Mill's <i>Correspondence</i> (1910) we find a beautiful letter, and +written in fine stately French, from the philosopher to the poet, dated +Avignon, October 1869. +</p> + +<p> +Mill had sent Mistral the French translation of his essay, "The +Subjection of Women," and in answer to the other's thanks and flattering +assurance of his own conversion, he wrote: "Parmi toutes les adhésions +qui ont été données à la thèse de mon petit livre, je ne sais s'il y en +a aucune qui m'ont fait plus de plaisir que la vôtre." +</p> + +<p> +The letter as a whole is most interesting, and ends with a +characterization, a strikingly beautiful passage in the life and +teaching of Jesus Christ. Hard were it to match this appreciation among +orthodox writers. +</p> + +<p> +So transparent is the atmosphere here that the Pyrenees appear within an +hour's ride: they are in reality sixty miles off! Lovely are the clearly +outlined forms, flecked with light and shadow, the snowy patches being +perfectly distinct. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +IX +</h3> + +<h3> +MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE +</h3> + +<p> +An hour by rail from Toulouse lies the ancient city of Montauban, as far +as I know unnoticed by English tourists since Arthur Young's time. This +superbly placed <i>chef-lieu</i> of the Tarn and Garonne is alike an artistic +shrine and a palladium of religious liberty. Here was born that strongly +individualized and much contested genius, Dominique Ingres, and here +Protestantism withstood the League, De Luyne's besieging army and the +dragonnades of Louis XIV. +</p> + +<p> +The city of Ingres may be thought of by itself; there is plenty of food +for reflection here without recalling the prude whose virtue caused more +mischief than the vices of all the Montespans and Dubarrys put together. +Let us forget the Maintenon terror at Montauban, the breaking up of +families, the sending to the galleys of good men and women, the +torturings, the roastings alive, and turn to the delightful and soothing +souvenirs of genius! Every French town that has given birth to shining +talent is straightway turned into a Walhalla. This ancient town, so +strikingly placed, breathes of Ingres, attracts the traveller by the +magic of the painter's name, has become an art pilgrimage. The noble +monument erected by the townsfolk to their great citizen and the +picture-gallery he bequeathed his native city well repay a much longer +journey than that from Toulouse. We see here to what high levels public +spirit and local munificence can rise in France. We see also how close, +after all, are the ties that knit Frenchman and Frenchman, how the glory +of one is made the pride of all. The bronze statue of the painter, with +the vast and costly bas-relief imitating his "Apotheosis of Homer" in +the Louvre, stand in the public walk, the beauty of which aroused even +Arthur Young's enthusiasm. "The promenade," he wrote in June 1787, "is +finely situated. Built on the highest part of the rampart, and +commanding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richest in +Europe, which extends on one side to the sea and in front to the +Pyrenees, whose towering masses heaped one upon another in a stupendous +manner, and covered with snow, offer a variety of lights and shades from +indented forms and the immensity of their projections. This prospect, +which contains a semicircle of a hundred miles in diameter, has an +oceanic vastness in which the eye loses itself; an almost boundless +scene of cultivation; an animated but confused mass of infinitely varied +parts, melting gradually into the distant obscure, from which emerges +the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their silvered heads above +the clouds." +</p> + +<p> +The Ingres Museum contains, I should say, more works from the hand of a +single master than were ever before collected under the same roof. +Upwards of a thousand sketches, many of great power and beauty, are +here, besides several portraits and one masterpiece, the Christ in the +Temple, brilliant as a canvas of Holman Hunt, although the work of an +octogenarian. The painter's easel, palette, and brushes, his violin, the +golden laurel-wreath presented to him by his native town, and other +relics are reverently gazed at on Sundays by artisans, soldiers and +peasant-folk. The local museum in France is something more than a little +centre of culture, a place in which to breathe beauty and delight. It is +a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple +of fame. Therein the young are taught to revere excellence, and here the +ambitious are stimulated by worthy achievement. +</p> + +<p> +Ingres-ville recalls an existence stormy as the history of Montauban +itself. This stronghold of reform throughout her vicissitudes did not +show a bolder, more determined front to the foe than did her great +citizen his own enemies and detractors. Dominique Ingres and his +life-story favour those physicists who discern in native soil and +surroundings the formative influences of aptitudes and character. The +man and his birthplace matched each other. Indomitableness characterized +both, and to understand both we must know something of their respective +histories. To Montauban Henri Martin's great history does ample justice, +to her illustrious son contemporary writers have recently paid worthy +tributes. +</p> + +<p> +[Footnote: See <i>Les Grands Artistes—Ingres</i>, par J. Mommeja, +Paris, Laurens; <i>Le Roman d'amour de M. Ingres</i>, par H. Lapauze, Paris, +Lafitte, 1911.] +</p> + +<p> +"When a writer is praised above his merits in his own times," wrote +Savage Landor, "he is certain of being estimated below them in the +times succeeding." In the case of Ingres, opposition and contumely were +followed by perhaps excessive laudation whilst he lived, after his +death ensuing a long period of reaction. Time has now set the seal upon +his fame. The great Montalbanais has been finally received into the +national Walhalla. +</p> + +<p> +The father of the so-called French Raphaël, writes his biographer, was +not even a Giovanni Santi. Joseph Ingres, in the words of M. Momméja, +was <i>un petit ornemaniste</i>, a fabricator of knick-knacks, turning out +models in clay, busts in plaster, miniatures and other trifles for sale +at country fairs. Who can say, this humble craftsman may yet have had +much to do with his son's aspirations? +</p> + +<p> +An inferior artist can appraise his masters. From the humble artificer +and purveyor of bagatelles the youth not only imbibed a passion for +art and technical knowledge: he inherited the next best thing to a +calling, in other words, a love of music. From the palette throughout +his long life Ingres would turn with never-abated enthusiasm to his +adored violin. +</p> + +<p> +The learned monograph above-named gives a succinct and judicial account +of the painter's career. The second writer mentioned tells the story of +his inner life; one, indeed, of perpetual and universal interest. +</p> + +<p> +For to this sturdy young bourgeois early came a crisis. He found himself +suddenly at the parting of the ways, on the one hand beckoning +Conscience, on the other ambition in the flattering shape of Destiny. To +which voice would he hearken? Would love and plighted troth overrule +that insistent siren song, Vocation? Would he yield, as have done +thousands of well-intentioned men and women before him, to self-interest +and worldly wisdom? The problem to be solved by this brilliantly endowed +artist just twenty-six—how many a historic parallel does it recall! +What three words can convey so much pathos, heroism and generosity as +"il gran riffiuto?"—the great renunciation. Does the French language +contain a more touching record than that of the great Navarre's farewell +to his Huguenot brethren? What bitter tears shed Jeanne d'Albret's son +ere he could bring himself to sacrifice conscience on the altar of +expediency and a great career! +</p> + +<p> +At the age of twenty we find Dominique Ingres studying in Paris under +David, then in his apogee. +</p> + +<p> +The son of an obscure provincial, however promising, would hardly be +overwhelmed with hospitalities; all the more welcome came the +friendliness of an honourable magistrate and his wife, by name +Forestier. During five years the young man had lived on terms of +closest intimacy with these good folks, under his eyes growing up their +only daughter. +</p> + +<p> +Alas! poor Julie. Mighty, says Goethe, is the god of propinquity. On +Dominique's part attachment seems to have come insensibly, as a matter +of course and despite the precariousness of his position. M. Forestier +encouraged the young man's advances. To Julie love for the brilliant +winner of the Prix de Rome became an absorption, her very life. Not +particularly endowed by Nature—we have her portrait in M. Momméja's +volume—she described her own physiognomy as "not at all remarkable, but +expressive of candour and goodness of heart." For Julie, as we shall +see, turned her love-story into a little novel, only unearthed the other +day by M. Lapauze. +</p> + +<p> +The Prix de Rome meant, of course, a call to Rome, the worthy magistrate +exacting from his prospective son-in-law a promise that in twelve +months' time he would return. During that interval correspondence went +on apace not only between the affianced lovers, but between M. Forestier +and Ingres, the former taking affectionate and not uncritical interest +in the other's projects. For Ingres was before all things a projector, +anticipating by decades the achievements of his later years. The glow of +enthusiasm, the fever of creativeness were at its height. Italy +possessed Ingres' entire being when the crisis came. +</p> + +<p> +After delays, excuses, pleadings, Julie's father lost patience. He would +brook no further tergiversations. Ingres must choose between Italy and +Paris; in other words, so the artist interpreted it, between art and +marriage, a proud destiny or self-extinction. +</p> + +<p> +Never had a young artist more completely fallen under the spell of +Italy. The recall seemed a death-blow. "On my knees," he wrote to Julie, +whom he really loved, "I implore you not to ask this. It is impossible +for me to quit immediately a land so full of marvel." +</p> + +<p> +But the practical M. Forestier would not give way. Ingres' persistence +looked like folly, even madness in his eyes. The young man was with +difficulty living from hand to mouth, portraits and small orders barely +keeping the wolf from the door. The return home and marriage would +ensure his future materially and socially, and up to a certain point +render him independent of malevolent criticism. For already Ingres was +fiercely attacked by Parisian authorities on art: he had become +important enough to be a target. After cruellest heart-searching and +prolonged self-reproach, <i>il gran riffiuto</i> was made, youthful passion, +worldly advantages—and plighted faith—were cast to the winds. +Henceforth he would live for his palette only, defying poverty, +detraction and fiercely antagonistic opinion; if failing in allegiance +to others, at least remaining staunch to his first, best, highest self, +his genius. +</p> + +<p> +Julie, the third imperishable Julie of French romance, never married. +Let us hope that the writing of her artless little autobiography called +a novel brought consolation. Did she ever forgive the recalcitrant? Her +story, <i>Emma, ou la fiancée,</i> ends with the aphorism: "Without the +scrupulous fulfilment of the given word, there can be neither happiness +nor inner peace." +</p> + +<p> +Did that backsliding in early life disturb the great painter's stormy +but dazzling career? Who can say? We learn that Ingres was twice, and, +according to accredited reports, happily, married. His first wife, a +humbly-born maiden from his native province, died in 1849, leaving the +septuagenarian so desolate, helpless and stricken that kindly +interveners set to work and re-married him. The second Mme. Ingres, +although thirty years his junior, gave him, his biographer tells us, +"that domestic peace and happiness of which for a brief space he had +been deprived." Heaped with honours, named by Napoleon III. Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour, Senator, Member of the Institut, Ingres +died in 1869. Within a year of ninety, he was Dominique Ingres to the +last, undertaking new works with the enthusiasm and vitality of Titian. +A few days before his death he gave a musical party, favourite works of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven being performed by skilled amateurs. His +funeral was a veritable apotheosis, disciples, admirers and detractors +swelling the enormous cortège. +</p> + +<p> +Those who, like myself, have times without number contemplated the +master's <i>opus magnum</i> in the Louvre, and have studied his art as +represented in the provincial museums, will quit the Musée Ingres with +mixed feelings. It must occur to many that, perhaps, after all, <i>il gran +riffiuto</i> of opposite kind might have better served art and the artist's +fame. Had he returned to France—and to Julie—at the stipulated period, +the following eighteen years being spent not on Italian but on native +soil, how different the result! Then of his work he could have said, as +did Chantecler of his song— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Mon chant<br /> + Qui n'est pas de ces chants qu'on chante en cherchant<br /> + Mais qu'on reçoit du sol natal comme une sève."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Would not most of us willingly give Ingres' greatest classical and +historic canvases for one or two portraits, say that of Bertin, or, +better still, for a group like that of the Stamiti family? What a +portrait gallery he would have bequeathed, how would he have made the +men and women of his time live again before us! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: Both are reproduced, with many other works, in M. +Momméja's volume.] +</p> + +<p> +Ingres, the artist, ever felt sure of himself. Did the lover look back, +regretting the broken word, the wrong done to another? We do not know. +His life was throughout upright, austere, free from blot; born and bred +a Catholic, he had doubtless Huguenot blood in his veins, many of his +most striking characteristics pointed to this inference. +</p> + +<p> +A word more concerning Montauban itself. The stronghold of reform, that +defied all Richelieu's attempts to take it, is to this day essentially a +Protestant town. Half of its inhabitants have remained faithful to the +faith of their ancestors. Tourists will note the abundance of cypress +trees marking Huguenot graves, the capital of Tarn and Garonne is a +veritable Calvinistic <i>Campo Santo</i>. After the Revocation, many families +fled hence to England, their descendants to this day loving and +reverencing the country which gave them a home. +</p> + +<p> +Montauban, as we should expect, has raised a splendid monument to its +one great citizen. +</p> + +<p> +Since writing these lines, an Ingres exhibition has been opened in the +Georges Petit Gallery, Paris. Apropos of this event, the <i>Revue des Deux +Mondes</i> (May 15, 1911) contains a striking paper by the art-critic, M. +de Sizeraine. Some of the conclusions here arrived at are startling. +Certain authorities on art are said to regard the great Montalbanais as +a victim of daltonism—in other words, colour-blind! +</p> + +<p> +In company of the mere amateur, this authority turns with relief from +the master's historical and allegorical pieces to his wonderfully +speaking portraits. Here, he says, all is simple, nothing is +commonplace, nothing is unexpected, and yet nothing resembles what we +have seen elsewhere; we find no embellishment, no stultification. He +adds: "In art, as in literature, works which survive are perhaps those +in which the artist or writer has put the most of himself, not those in +which he has had most faith. The "Voeu de Louis XIII," the "Thétis" of +Ingres, we may compare to Voltaire's <i>Henriade</i> and to the +<i>Franciade</i> of Ronsard, all belong to the category of the +<i>opus magnum</i> that has failed, and of which its creator is proud." +With the following charming simile the essay closes— +</p> + +<p> +"Posterity is a great lady, she passes, reviews the <i>opus magnum, la +grande machine</i> disdainfully, satirically; all seems lost, the artist +condemned. But by chance she catches sight of a neglected picture turned +to the wall in a corner or passage, some happy inspiration that has cost +its author little pains, but in which he has not striven beyond his +powers, and in which he has put the best of himself. The <i>grande dame</i> +catches it up, holds it to the light. 'Ha! here is something pretty!' +she cries. And the artist's fame is assured." +</p> + +<p> +Has not Victor Hugo focused the same truth in a line— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Ici-bas, le joli c'est le nécessaire!"<br /> +</p> + +<p> +And our own Keats also— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "For 'tis the eternal law,<br /> + That first in beauty should be first in might."<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +X +</h3> + +<h3> +MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST +</h3> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p class="poem"> + Osse, la bien aimée<br /> + Toi, du vallon<br /> + Le choix, la fille aînée<br /> + Le vrai fleuron!<br /> + C'est sur toi qu'est fixée<br /> + Dans son amour,<br /> + La première pensée<br /> + Du roi du jour<br /> + Comme à sa fiancée<br /> + L'amant accourt.<br /> + Xavier Navarrot.<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Between Toulouse and Tarbes the scenery is quite unlike that of the +Gard and the Aude. Instead of the interminable vineyards round about +Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne, we gaze here upon a varied landscape. +Following the Garonne with the refrain of Nadaud's famous song in +our minds— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Si la Garonne avait voulu,"—<br /> +</p> + +<p> +we traverse a vast plain or low vale rich in many-coloured crops: +buckwheat, sweeps of creamy blossom, dark-green rye, bluish-green Indian +corn with silvery flower-head, and purple clover, and here and there a +patch of vine are mingled together before us; in the far distance the +Pyrenees, as yet mere purple clouds against the horizon. +</p> + +<p> +We soon note a peculiarity of this region—vines trained to trees, a +method in vogue a hundred years ago. "Here," wrote Arthur Young, when +riding from Toulouse to St. Martory on his way to Luchon, "for the first +time I see rows of maples with vines trained in festoons from tree to +tree"; and farther on he adds, "medlars, plums, cherries, maples in +every hedge with vines trained." The straggling vine-branches have a +curious effect, but the brightness of the leafage is pleasant to the +eye. No matter how it grows, to my thinking the vine is a lovely thing. +</p> + +<p> +The rich plain passed, we reach the slopes of the Pyrenees, their wooded +sides presenting a strange, even grotesque, appearance, owing to the +mathematical regularity with which the woods are cut, portions being +close shaven, others left intact in close juxtaposition, solid phalanxes +of trees and clearings at right angles. The fancy conjures up a +Brobdingnagian wheat-field partially cut in the green stage. Sad havoc +is thus made of once beautiful scenes, richly-wooded slopes having lost +half their foliage. +</p> + +<p> +A hundred years ago Lourdes was a mere mountain fortress, a State prison +to which unhappy persons were consigned by <i>lettres de cachet</i>. +Apologists of the Ancien Régime assert, in the first place, that these +Bastilles were comfortable, even luxurious retreats; in the second, that +<i>lettres de cachet</i> were useful and necessary; in the third, that +neither Bastilles nor <i>lettres de cachet</i> were resorted to on the eve +of the Revolution. Let us hear what Arthur Young has to say on the +subject. "I take the road to Lourdes," he writes in August 1787, "where +is a castle on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping State +prisoners, sent hither by <i>lettres de cachet</i>. Seven or eight are known +to be here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and many for +life—torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from the bosom of +domestic comfort, from wives, children, friends, and hurried, for crimes +unknown to themselves, most probably for virtues, to languish in this +detested abode, and die of despair. Oh liberty, liberty!" +</p> + +<p> +Great is the contrast between the lovely entourage of this notorious +place and the triviality and vulgar nature of its commerce. The one +long, winding street may be described as a vast bazaar, more suited to +Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims than to holders of railway tickets and +contemporaries of the Eiffel Tower. +</p> + +<p> +A brisk trade is done here, the place wearing the aspect of a huge fair. +Rosaries, crosses, votive tablets, ornamental cans for holding the +miraculous waters, drinking-cups, candles, photographs, images, medals +are sold by millions. The traffic in these wares goes on all day long, +the poorest "pilgrim" taking away souvenirs. +</p> + +<p> +The Lourdes of theology begins where the Lourdes of bartering ends. As +we quit the long street of bazaars and brand-new hotels, the first +glimpse gives us an insight into its life and meaning, makes us feel +that we ought to have been living two or three hundred years ago. We +glance back at the railway station, wondering whether a halt were wise, +whether indeed the gibbet, wheel, and stake were not really prepared for +heretics like ourselves! +</p> + +<p> +The votive church built on the outer side of the rock from which flows +the miraculous fountain is a basilica of sumptuous proportions, +representing an outlay of many millions of francs. Its portico, with +horse-shoe staircase in marble, spans the opening of the green hills, +behind which lie grotto and spring. We are reminded of the enormous +church now crowning the height of Montmartre at Paris; here, as there +and at Chartres, is a complete underground church of vast proportions. +The whole structure is very handsome, the grey and white building-stone +standing out against verdant hills and dark rocks. A beautifully +laid-out little garden with a statue of the miracle-working Virgin lies +between church and town. +</p> + +<p> +Looking from the lofty platform on the other side of the upper church, +we behold a strange scene. The space below is black with people, +hundreds and thousands of pilgrims, so called, priests and nuns being in +full force, one and all shouting and gesticulating with fierce zealotry, +a priest or two holding forth from a temporary pulpit. +</p> + +<p> +Between these closely-serried masses is a ghastly array. On litters, +stretchers, beds, chairs, lie the deformed, the sick, the moribund, +awaiting their turn to be sprinkled with the miraculous waters or +blessed by the bishop. These poor people, many of whom are in the last +stage of illness, have for bearers, volunteers; these are priests, young +gentlemen of good family, and others, who wear badges and leather +traces, by which they attach themselves to their burden. +</p> + +<p> +All day long masses are held inside the church and in the open air; at a +given signal the congregation stretching out their arms in the form of a +cross, prostrating themselves on the ground, kissing the dust. +</p> + +<p> +We must descend the broad flight of steps in order to obtain a good view +of the grotto, an oval opening in the rocks made to look like a +stalactite cave, with scores and hundreds of <i>ex-votos</i> in the shape +of crutches. Judging from this display, there should be no more lame folks +left in France. The Virgin of Lourdes must have healed them all. In a +niche of the grotto stands an image of the Virgin, and behind, +perpetually lighted with candles, an altar, at which mass is celebrated +several times daily. +</p> + +<p> +On one side, the rock has been pierced in several places, deliciously +pure, cool water issuing from the taps. Crowds are always collected +here, impatient to drink of the miraculous fountain, and to fill vessels +for use at home. We see tired, heated invalids, and apparently dying +persons, drinking cups of this ice-cold water; enough, one would think, +to kill them outright. Close by is a little shop full of trifles for +sale, but so thronged at all hours of the day that you cannot get +attended to; purchasers lay down their money, take up the object +desired, and walk away. Here may be bought a medal for two sous, or a +crucifix priced at several hundred francs. +</p> + +<p> +The praying, chanting, and prostrating are at their height when the +violet-robed figure of a bishop is caught sight of, tripping down a +side-path leading from the town. Blessing any who chance to meet him on +the way, chatting pleasantly with his companion, a portly gentleman +wearing the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour, the bishop hastens +towards the grotto, dons his sacerdotal robes of ivory-white and gold, +and celebrates mass. The ceremony over, there is a general stir. +Adjusting their harness, the bearers form a procession, the bishop +emerges from the grotto, and one by one the thirty and odd litters are +drawn before him to be sprinkled, blessed—and healed! alas, such, +doubtless, is the fond delusion of many. +</p> + +<p> +The sight of so many human wrecks, torsos and living skeletons all agog +for life, health, and restoration, is even less heart-breaking than that +of their companions. Here we see a mother bending with agonized looks +over some white-faced, wasted boy, whose days, even hours, are clearly +numbered; there a father of a wizen-faced, terribly deformed girl, a +mite to look at, but fast approaching womanhood, brought hither to be +put straight and beautiful. Next our eye lights on the emaciated form of +a young man evidently in the last stage of consumption, his own face +hopeful still, but what forlornness in that of the adoring sister by his +side! These are spectacles to make the least susceptible weep. Grotesque +is the sight of a priest who must be ninety at least; what further +miracle can he expect, having already lived the life of three +generations? +</p> + +<p> +The last litter drawn by, the enormous crowd breaks up; tall candles are +offered to those standing near, and a procession is formed, headed by +the bishop under his gold and white baldachin, a large number of priests +following behind, then several hundred men, women, and children, the +black and white robes of the priests and nuns being conspicuous. +Chanting as they go, outsiders falling on their knees at the approach of +the baldachin, the pilgrims now wind in solemn procession round the +statue in front of the church, and finally enter, when another religious +celebration takes place. Services are going on all day long and late +into the night. Hardly do these devotees give themselves time for meals, +which are a scramble at best, every hotel and boarding-house much +overcrowded. The <i>table d'hôte</i> dinner, or one or two dishes, are +hastily swallowed, and the praying, chanting, marching and prostrating +begin afresh. At eight o'clock from afar comes the sound of pilgrims' +voices as the procession winds towards the grotto. +</p> + +<p> +There is picturesqueness in these nocturnal celebrations, the tapers +twinkling against the dark heavens, the voices dying away in the +distance. Superstition has its season as well as sulphur-baths and +chalybeate springs. The railway station is a scene of indescribable +confusion; enormous contingents come for a few hours only, the numbered +trains that brought them are drawn up outside the main lines awaiting +their departure. Here we are hustled by a motley throng; fashionable +ladies bedizened with rosaries, badges, and medallions; elegant young +gentlemen, the <i>jeunesse dorée</i> of a vanished <i>régime</i>, proudly +wearing the pilgrim's badge, all travelling third-class and in humble +company for their soul's good; peasant women from Brittany in charming +costumes; a very, very few blue blouses of elderly civilians'; enormous +numbers wearing religious garb. +</p> + +<p> +It seems a pity that a bargain could not be struck by France and +Germany, the Emperor William receiving Lourdes in exchange for Metz or +Strasburg! Lourdes must represent a princely revenue, far in excess, I +should say, of any profit the Prussian Government will ever make out of +the annexed provinces; and as nobody lives there, and visitors only +remain a day or two, it would not matter to the most patriotic French +pilgrim going to whom the place belonged. +</p> + +<p> +The tourist brings evil as well as good in his track, and the tax upon +glorious scenery here is not the globe-trotter but the mendicant. +Gavarnie is, without doubt, as grandiose a scene as Western Europe can +show. In certain elements of grandeur none other can compete with it. +But until a balloon service is organized between Luz and the famous +Cirque it is impossible to make the journey with an unruffled temper. +The traveller's way is beset by juvenile vagrants, bare-faced and +importunate as Neapolitans or Arabs. Lovers of aerial navigation have +otherwise not much left to wish for. Nothing can be more like a ride in +cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to +Gavarnie. The splendid rock-hewn road is just broad enough to admit of +two carriages abreast. On one side are lofty, shelving rocks, on the +other a stone coping two feet high, nothing else to separate us from the +awful abyss below, a ravine deep as the measure of St. Paul's Cathedral +from base to apex of golden cross. We hear the thunder of the river as +it dashes below by mountains two-thirds the height of Mont Blanc, their +dark, almost perpendicular sides wreathed with cloud, on their summits +gleaming never-melted snow, here and there the sombre parapets streaked +with silvery cascades. At intervals the Titanic scene is relieved by +glimpses of pastoral grace and loveliness, and such relief is necessary +even to those who can gaze without giddiness on such awfulness. Between +gorge and gorge lie level spaces, amid dazzlingly-green meadows the +river flows calm and crystal clear, the form and hue of every pebble +distinct as the pieces of a mosaic. Looking upwards we see hanging +gardens and what may be called farmlets, tiny homesteads with minute +patches of wheat, Indian corn, and clover on an incline so steep as to +look vertical. Most beautiful and refreshing to the eye are the little +hayfields sloping from the river, the freshly-mown hay in cocks or being +turned, the shorn pasture around bright as emerald. Harvest during the +year 1891 was late, and in the first week of September corn was still +standing; nowhere, surely, corn so amber-tinted, so golden, nowhere, +surely, ripened so near the clouds. In the tiny chalets perched on the +mountain ridges, folks literally dwell in cloudland, and enjoy a kind of +supernal existence, having for near neighbours the eagles in their +eyries and the fleet-footed chamois or izard. +</p> + +<p> +These vast panoramas—towering rocks of manifold shape, Alp rising above +Alp snow-capped or green-tinted, terrace upon terrace of fields and +homesteads—show every variety of savage grandeur and soft beauty till +we gradually reach the threshold of Gavarnie. This is aptly called +"chaos" which we might fancifully suppose the leavings, "the fragments +that were left," of the semicircular wall now visible, thrown up by +transhuman builders, insurmountable barrier between heaven and earth. No +sooner does the awful amphitheatre break upon the view, than we discern +the white line of the principal fall, a slender silvery column reaching, +so it seems, from star-land and moon-land to earth; river of some upper +world that has overleaped the boundaries of our own. No words can convey +the remotest idea of such a scene. +</p> + +<p> +We may say with regard to scenery what Lessing says of pictures, we only +see in both what we bring with us to the view. More disconcerting than +the importunities of beggars and donkey-drivers are the supercilious +remarks of tourists. To most, of course, the whole thing is "a sad +disappointment." Everything must necessarily be a disappointment to some +beholders; and with critics of a certain order, the mere fact of not +being pleased implies superiority. The hour's walk from the village to +the Cirque is an event also in the life of the flower-lover. We have +hardly eyes for Gavarnie, so completely is our gaze fascinated by the +large luminous gold and silver stars gleaming conspicuously from the +brilliant turf. These are the glorious flower-heads of the white and +yellow Pyrenean thistle that open in sunshine as do sea-anemones, +sending out lovely fringes, sunrays and moonbeams not more strikingly +contrasted. As we rush hither and thither to gather them—if we +can—their roots are veritable tentaculae, other lovely flowers are to +be had in plenty, the beautiful deep-blue Pyrenean gentian, monk's-hood +in rich purple blossom, rose-coloured antirrhinum, an exquisite little +yellow sedum, with rare ferns. On one side, a narrow bridle-path winds +round the mountain towards Spain; on the other, cottage-farms dot the +green slopes; between both, parting the valley, flows the Gave, here a +quietly meandering streamlet, whilst before us rises Gavarnie; a scene +to which one poet only—perhaps the only one capable of grappling with +such a subject—has done justice— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Cirque, hippodrome,<br /> + Stage whereon Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, London, Rome,<br /> + With their myriads could find place, whereon Paris at ease<br /> + Might float, as at sundown a swarm of bees,<br /> + Gavarnie, dream, miracle!"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + [Footnote: "Un cirque, un hippodrome,<br /> + Un théâtre où Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, Londres, Rome,<br /> + Avec leurs millions d'hommes pourraient s'asseoir.<br /> + Ou Paris flotterait comme un essaim du soir.<br /> + Gavarnie!—un miracle! un rêve!"—Victor Hugo, "Dieu."]<br /> +</p> + +<p> +How to give some faint conception of the indescribable? Perhaps the +great French poet has best succeeded in a single line— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "L'impossible est ici debout."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +We feel, indeed, that we are here brought face to face with the +impossible. +</p> + +<p> +Let the reader then conjure up a solid mass of rock threefold the +circumference of St. Paul's Cathedral; let him imagine the façade of +this natural masonry of itself exceeding the compass of our great +Protestant minster; then in imagination let him lift his eyes from stage +to stage, platform to platform, the lower nearly three times the height +of St. Paul's from base to apex of golden cross, the higher that of four +such altitudes; their gloomy parapets streaked with glistening white +lines, one a vast column of water, although their shelving sides show +patches of never-melted snows; around, framing in the stupendous scene, +mountain peaks, each unlike its majestic brother, each in height +reaching to the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Such is Gavarnie. +</p> + +<p> +My next halting-place was a remote Pyrenean village admirably adapted +for the study of rural life. Within a few hours' journey of the Spanish +frontier, Osse lies in the beautiful valley of Aspe, and is reached by +way of Pau and Oloron. At the latter town the railway ends, and we have +to drive sixteen miles across country, a delightful expedition in +favourable weather. The twin towns, old and new Oloron, present the +contrast so often seen throughout France, picturesque, imposing +antiquity beside utilitarian ugliness and uniformity. The open suburban +spaces present the appearance of an enormous drying-ground, in which are +hung the blankets of the entire department. Blankets, woollen girdles or +sashes, men's bonnets are manufactured here. "Pipers, blue bonnets, and +oatmeal," wrote an English traveller a hundred years ago, "are found in +Catalonia, Auvergne, and Suabia as well as in Lochaber." We are now in +the ancient kingdom of Beam, with a portion of Navarre added to the +French crown by Henry IV, and, two hundred years later, named the +department of the Basses Pyrenées. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: OSSE] +</p> + +<p> +Every turn of the road reveals new features as we journey towards Osse, +having always in view the little Gave d'Aspe, after the manner of +Pyrenean rivers, making cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools on its way. +Most beautiful are these mountain streams, their waters of pure, deep +green, their surface broken by coruscations of dazzlingly white foam and +spray, their murmur ever in our ears. When far away we hardly miss the +grand contours of the Pyrenees more than the music of their rushing +waters. No tourists meet us here, yet whither shall we go for scenes +sublimer or more engaging? On either side of the broadening velvety +green valley, with its tumbling stream, rises a rampart of stately +peaks, each unlike its neighbour, each having a graciousness and +grandeur of its own. Here and there amid these vast solitudes is seen a +white glittering thread breaking the dark masses of shelving rock, +mountain torrent falling into the river from a height of several hundred +feet. Few and far between are the herdsmen's châlets and scattered +cornfields and meadows, and we have the excellent carriage road to +ourselves. Yet two or three villages of considerable size are passed on +the way; of one, an inland spa much frequented by the peasants, I shall +make mention presently. +</p> + +<p> +For three hours we have wound slowly upward, and, as our destination is +approached, the valley opens wide, showing white-walled, grey-roofed +hamlets and small towns all singularly alike. The mountains soon close +round abruptly on all sides, making us feel as if we had reached the +world's end. On the other side of those snow-capped peaks, here so +majestically massed before our gaze, lies Spain. We are in a part of +France thoroughly French, yet within a few hours of a country strikingly +contrasted with it; manners, customs, modes of thought, institutions +radically different. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER] +</p> + +<p> +The remoteness and isolation of Osse explain the existence of a little +Protestant community in these mountain fastnesses. For centuries the +Reformed faith has been upheld here. Not, however, unmolested. A tablet +in the neat little church tells how the original place of Protestant +worship was pulled down by order of the king in 1685, and only +reconstructed towards the close of the following century. Without +church, without pastor, forbidden to assemble, obliged to bury their +dead in field or garden, these dales-folk and mountaineers yet clung +tenaciously to their religion. One compromise, and one only, they made. +Peasant property has existed in the Pyrenees from time immemorial, and +in order to legitimize their children and enjoy the privilege of +bequeathing property, the Protestants of the Vallée d'Aspe were married +according to the rites of the Romish Church. In our own days, here as +elsewhere throughout France, the religious tenets handed down from +father to son are adhered to without wavering, and at the same time +without apparent enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants live amicably +side by side; but intermarriages are rare, and conversions from Rome to +rationalism infrequent. The Sunday services of the little Protestant +church are often attended by Catholics. Strangers passing through Osse, +market-folk, peasants and others, never fail to inspect it curiously. +The Protestant pastor is looked up to with respect and affection alike +by Catholic and Protestant neighbours. The rival churches neither lose +nor gain adherents to any extent. This fact is curious, especially in a +spot where Protestantism is seen at its best. It shows the extreme +conservatism and stability of the French character, often set down as +revolutionary and fickle. In England folks often and avowedly change +their religion several times during their lives. Is not the solemn +reception into Rome of instructed men and women among ourselves a matter +of every day? In France it is otherwise, and when a change is made we +shall generally find that the step is no retrograde one. +</p> + +<p> +If the social aspect is encouraging at Osse, the same may be said of +peasant property. Even a Zola must admit some good in a community +unstained by crime during a period of twenty years, and bound by ties of +brotherhood which render want impossible. A beautiful spirit of +humanity, a delicacy rare among the most polished societies, +characterize these frugal sons and daughters of the soil. Nor is +consideration for others confined to fellow-beings only. The animal is +treated as the friend, not the slave of man. "We have no need of the Loi +Grammont here," said a resident to me; and personal observation +confirmed the statement. +</p> + +<p> +As sordidness carried to the pitch of brutality is often imputed to the +French peasant, let me relate an incident that occurred hereabouts, not +long before my visit. The land is minutely divided, many possessing a +cottage and field only. One of these very small owners was suddenly +ruined by the falling of a rock, his cottage, cow and pig being +destroyed. Without saying a word, his neighbours, like himself in very +humble circumstances, made up a purse of five hundred francs, a large +sum with such donors, and, too delicate-minded to offer the gift +themselves, deputed an outsider to do it anonymously. Another instance +in point came to my knowledge. This was of a young woman servant, who, +during the illness of her employer, refused to accept wages. "You shall +pay me some other time," said the girl to her mistress; "I am sure you +can ill afford to give me the money now." +</p> + +<p> +Peasant property and rural life generally here presented to me some +wholly new features; one of these is the almost entire +self-sufficingness of very small holdings, their owners neither buying +nor selling, making their little crops and stock almost completely supply +their needs. Thus on a field or two, enough flax is grown with which to +spin linen for home use, enough wheat and Indian corn for the year's +bread-making, maize being mixed with wheaten flour; again, pigs and +poultry are reared for domestic consumption—expenditure being reduced +to the minimum. Coffee is a luxury seldom indulged in, a few drink +home-grown wine, but all are large milk-drinkers. The poorest is a good +customer of the dairy farmer. +</p> + +<p> +I was at first greatly puzzled by the information of a neighbour that he +kept cows for the purpose of selling milk. Osse being sixteen miles from +a railway station, possessing neither semi-detached villas, hotels, +boarding-houses, convents, barracks, nor schools, and a population of +from three to four hundred only, most of these small farmers—who were +his patrons? +</p> + +<p> +I afterwards learned that the "ha'porth of milk," which means much more +in all senses than with us, takes the place of tea, coffee, beer, to say +nothing of more pernicious drinks, with the majority. New milk from the +cow costs about a penny a quart, and perhaps if we could obtain a +similar commodity at the same price in England, even gin might be +supplanted. Eggs and butter are also very cheap; but as the peasants +rear poultry exclusively for their own use, it is by no means easy at +Osse to procure a chicken. A little, a very little money goes to the +shoemaker and general dealer, and fuel has to be bought; this item is +inconsiderable, the peasants being allowed to cart wood from the +communal forests for the sum of five or six francs yearly. The village +is chiefly made up of farmhouses; on the mountain-sides and in the +valley are the châlets and shepherds' huts, abandoned in winter. The +homesteads are massed round the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, +most having a narrow strip of garden and balcony carried along the upper +storey, which does duty as a drying-ground. +</p> + +<p> +One of these secluded hamlets, with its slated roofs, white walls, and +brown shutters, closely resembles another; but Osse stands alone in +possessing a Protestant church and community. +</p> + +<p> +Although the little centre of a purely agricultural region, we find +here one of those small, specific industries, as characteristic of +French districts as soil and produce. Folks being great water-drinkers, +they will have their drinking-water in a state of perfection. Some +native genius long ago invented a vessel which answers the requirement +of the most fastidious. This is a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, +bound with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being kept +exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels remains cool throughout the +hottest hours of the hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly +durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds of years. The +turning and encasing of yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars is a +flourishing manufacture at Osse. +</p> + +<p> +Here may be seen and studied peasant property in many stages. I would +again remark that any comparison between the condition of the English +agricultural labourer and the French peasant proprietor is irrelevant +and inconclusive. In the cottage of a small owner at Osse, for +instance, we may discover features to shock us, often a total absence +of the neatness and veneer of the Sussex ploughman's home. Our disgust +is trifling compared with that of the humblest, most hard-working +owner of the soil, when he learns under what conditions lives his +English compeer. To till another's ground for ten or eleven shillings +a week, inhabit a house from which at a week's notice that other can +eject him, possess neither home, field nor garden, and have no kind of +provision against old age, such a state of things appears to our +artless listener wholly inconceivable, incommensurate with modern +civilization and bare justice. +</p> + +<p> +As an instance of the futility of comparisons, I will mention one +experience. I was returning home late one afternoon when a +poorly-dressed, sunburnt woman overtook me. She bore on her head a +basket of bracken, and her appearance was such that in any other country +I should have expected a demand for alms. Greeting me, however, +cheerfully and politely, she at once entered into conversation. She had +seen me at church on Sunday, and went on to speak of the pastor, with +what esteem both Catholics and Protestants regarded him, then of the +people, their mode of life and condition generally. +</p> + +<p> +"No," she said, in answer to my inquiry, "there is no real want here, +and no vagrancy. Everybody has his bit of land, or can find work. I come +from our vineyard on the hillside yonder, and am now returning home to +supper in the village—our farmhouse is there". She was a widow, she +added, and with her son did the work of their little farm, the +daughter-in-law minding the house and baby. They reared horses for sale, +possessed a couple of cows, besides pigs and poultry. +</p> + +<p> +The good manners, intelligence, urbanity, and quiet contentment of this +good woman were very striking. She had beautiful white teeth, and was +not prematurely aged, only very sun-burnt and shabby, her black stuff +dress blue with age and mended in many places, her partially bare feet +thrust in sabots. The women here wear toeless or footless stockings, the +upper part of the foot being bare. I presume this is an economy, as +wooden shoes wear out stockings. We chatted of England, of +Protestantism, and many topics before bidding each other good-night. +There was no constraint on her part, and no familiarity. She talked +fluently and naturally, just as one first-class lady traveller might do +to a fellow-passenger. Yet, if not here in contact with the zero of +peasant property, we are considering its most modest phase. +</p> + +<p> +A step higher and we found an instance of the levelling process +characteristic of every stage of French society, yet hardly to be looked +for in a remote Pyrenean village. In one of our afternoon rambles we +overtook a farmeress, and accepted an invitation to accompany her home. +She tripped cheerfully beside us; although a Catholic, on friendliest +terms with her Protestant neighbours. Her thin white feet in toeless +stockings and sabots, well-worn woollen petticoat, black stuff jacket, +headgear of an old black silk handkerchief, would have suggested +anything but the truth to the uninitiated. Here also the unwary stranger +might have fumbled for a spare coin. She had a kindly, intelligent face, +and spoke volubly in patois, having very little command of French. It +was, indeed, necessary for me to converse by the medium of an +interpreter. On approaching the village we were overtaken by a slight, +handsome youth conducting a muck-wagon. This was her younger son, and +his easy, well-bred greeting, and correct French, prepared me for the +piece of intelligence to follow. The wearer of peasant's garb, carting +manure, had passed his examination of Bachelor of Arts and Science, had, +in fact, received the education of a gentleman. In his case, the +patrimony being small, a professional career meant an uphill fight, but +doubtless, with many another, he would attain his end. +</p> + +<p> +The farmhouse was large, and, as is unusual here, apart from stables and +cow-shed, the kitchen and outhouse being on the ground floor, the young +men's bedrooms above. Our hostess slept in a large, curtained +four-poster, occupying a corner of the kitchen. A handsome wardrobe of +solid oak stood in a conspicuous place, but held only a portion of the +family linen. These humble housewives count their sheets by the dozen of +dozens, and linen is still spun at home, although not on the scale of +former days. The better-off purchase strong, unbleached goods of local +manufacture. Here and there I saw old women plying spindle and distaff, +but the spinning-wheel no longer hums in every cottage doorway. +</p> + +<p> +Meantime our hospitable entertainer—it is ever the women who wait on +their guests—brought out home-grown wine, somewhat sour to the +unaccustomed palate, and, as a corrective, home-made brandy, which, with +sugar, formed an agreeable liqueur, walnuts—everything, indeed, that +she had. We were also invited to taste the bread made of wheaten and +maize flour mixed, a heavy, clammy compound answering Mrs. Squeers's +requirement of "filling for the price." It is said to be very wholesome +and nutritious. +</p> + +<p> +The kitchen floor, as usual, had an unsecured look, but was clean swept, +and on shelves stood rows of earthen and copper cooking-vessels and the +yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars before mentioned. The façade of the +house, with its shutters and balcony, was cheerful enough, but just +opposite the front door lay a large heap of farmhouse manure awaiting +transfer to the pastures. A little, a very little, is needed to make +these premises healthful and comfortable. The removal of the +manure-heap, stables, and cow-shed; a neat garden plot, a flowering +creeper on the wall, and the aspect would be in accordance with the +material condition of the owner. +</p> + +<p> +The property shared by this widow and her two sons consisted of between +five and six acres, made up of arable land and meadow. They kept four +cows, four mares for purposes of horse-breeding, and a little poultry. +Milch cows here are occasionally used on the farm, an anomaly among a +population extremely gentle to animals. +</p> + +<p> +My next visits were paid on a Sunday afternoon, when everybody is at +home to friends and neighbours. Protestant initiative in the matter of +the seventh day test has been uniformly followed, alike man and beast +enjoy complete repose. As there are no cabarets and no trippers to +disturb the public peace, the tranquillity is unbroken. +</p> + +<p> +Our first call was upon an elder of the Protestant Church, and one of +the wealthier peasants of the community. The farmhouse was on the usual +Pyrenean plan, stables and neat-houses occupying the ground floor, an +outer wooden staircase leading to kitchen, parlour, and bedrooms; on the +other side a balcony overlooking a narrow strip of garden. +</p> + +<p> +Our host, dressed in black cloth trousers, black alpaca blouse, and +spotless, faultlessly-ironed linen, received us with great cordiality +and the ease of a well-bred man. His mother lived with him, a charming +old lady, like himself peasant-born, but having excellent manners. She +wore the traditional black hood of aged and widowed Huguenot women, and +her daughter-in-law and little granddaughter, neat stuff gowns and +coloured cashmere kerchiefs tied under the chin. +</p> + +<p> +We were first ushered into the vast kitchen or "living room," as it +would be called in some parts of England, to-day with every other part +of the house in apple-pie order. Large oak presses, rows of earthen and +copper cooking-vessels, an enormous flour-bin, with plain deal table and +chairs, made up the furniture, from one part of the ceiling hanging +large quantities of ears of Indian corn to dry. Here bread is baked once +a week, and all the cooking and meals take place. +</p> + +<p> +Leading out of the kitchen was the salon or drawing-room, the first I +had ever seen in a peasant farmer's house. A handsome tapestry +table-cover, chimney ornaments, mirror, sofa, armchairs, rugs, betokened +not only solid means but taste. We were next shown the grandmother's +bedchamber, which was handsomely furnished with every modern +requirement, white toilet-covers and bed-quilt, window-curtains, rug, +wash-stand; any lady unsatisfied here would be hard indeed to please. +The room of master and mistress was on the same plan, only much larger, +and one most-unlooked-for item caught my eye. This was a towel-horse +(perhaps the comfortably-appointed parsonage had set the fashion?), a +luxury never seen in France except in brand-new hotels. As a rule the +towel is hung in a cupboard. We were then shown several other bedrooms, +all equally suggestive of comfort and good taste; yet the owner was a +peasant, prided himself on being so, and had no intention of bringing up +his children to any other condition. His farm consisted of a few +hectares only, but was very productive. We saw his cows, of which he is +very fond, the gentle creatures making signs of joy at their master's +approach. Four or five cows, as many horses for breeding purposes, a few +sheep, pigs, and poultry made up his stock. All that I saw of this +family gave me a very high notion of intelligence, morality, thrift and +benevolence. +</p> + +<p> +Very feelingly all spoke of their animals and of the duty of human +beings towards the animal world generally. It was the first time I had +heard such a tone taken by French peasants, but I was here, be it +remembered, among Protestants. The horrible excuse made in Italy and +Brittany for cruelty to beasts, "Ce ne sont pas des chrétiens," finds no +acceptance among these mountaineers. +</p> + +<p> +Our second visit brought us into contact with the bourgeois element. The +farmhouse, of much better appearance than the rest, also stood in the +village. The holding was about the size of that just described. The +young mistress was dressed in conventional style, had passed an +examination at a girls' Lycée, entitling her to the <i>brevet supérieur</i> +or higher certificate, her husband wore the dress of a country +gentleman, and we were ushered into a drawing-room furnished with piano, +pictures, a Japanese cabinet, carpets, and curtains. +</p> + +<p> +The bedrooms might have been fitted up by an upholsterer of Tottenham +Court Road. It must be borne in mind that I am not describing the +wealthy farmers of the Seine and Marne or La Venidée. +</p> + +<p> +The fact that these young people let a part of their large, +well-furnished house need not surprise us. There is no poverty here, but +no riches. I do not suppose that any one of the small landowners to whom +I was introduced could retire to-morrow and live on his savings. I dare +aver that one and all are in receipt of a small income from invested +capital, and have a provision against sickness and old age. +</p> + +<p> +The master of the house showed me his stock, five or six handsome cows +of cross breed, in value from £10 to £16, the latter the maximum price +here. We next saw several beautiful mares and young colts, and four +horned sheep. Sheepkeeping and farming are seldom carried on together, +and this young farmer was striking out a new path for himself. He told +me that he intended to rear and fatten sheep, also to use artificial +manure. Up to the present time, guanos and phosphates are all but +unknown in these regions, only farmhouse dung is used, cows being partly +kept for that purpose. Although the land is very productive, my +informant assured me that much remained to be done by departure from +routine and the adoption of advanced methods. The cross-breeding of +stock was another subject he had taken up. Such initiators are needed in +districts remote from agricultural schools, model farms, and State-paid +chairs of agriculture. +</p> + +<p> +Each of the four instances just given differed from the other. The first +showed us peasant property in its simplest development, a little family +contentedly living on their bit of land, making its produce suffice for +daily needs, independent of marts and markets as the members of a +primitive community. +</p> + +<p> +The second stage showed us a wholly dissimilar condition, yet not +without its ideal side. We were brought face to face with that +transitional phase of society and pacific revolution, of happiest augury +for the future. From the peasant ranks are now recruited contingents +that will make civil wars impossible, men who carry into politics +learning and the arts, those solid qualities that have made rural France +the admiration of the world, and more than once saved her Republic. +</p> + +<p> +The first instance exemplified the intense conservatism of the French +peasant. Liberal in politics, enlightened in religion, open to the +reception of new ideas, here was nevertheless a man absolutely satisfied +with social conditions as they affected himself and his children, +utterly devoid of envy or worldly ambition. To reap the benefits of his +toil, deserve the esteem of his neighbours, bequeath his little estate, +improved and enriched, to his heirs, surely this was no contemptible +ideal either. +</p> + +<p> +The last case differed from the other three. We were now reminded of the +English tenant, or even gentleman-farmer—with a difference. Alike master +and mistress had received a good education and seen something of the +world; they could enjoy music and books. But in spite of her <i>brevet +supérieur</i>, the wife attended to her dairy; and although the husband +was a gentleman in manners and appearance, he looked after the stock. +They lived, too, on friendliest terms with their less-instructed and +homelier neighbours, the black alpaca blouse and coloured kerchief, +doing duty for bonnet, being conspicuous at their Sunday receptions. Not +even a Zola can charge French village-life with the snobbishness so +conspicuous in England. It will be amply shown from the foregoing +examples that peasant property is no fixed condition to be arbitrarily +dealt with after the manner of certain economists. On the contrary, it +is many-phased; the fullest and widest development of modern France is +indeed modern France itself. The peasant owner of the soil has attained +the highest position in his own country. No other class can boast of +such social, moral and material ascendency. He is the acknowledged +arbitrator of the fortunes of France. +</p> + +<p> +I will now cite two facts illustrating the bright side of peasant +property in its humblest phase, where we have been told to expect +sordidness, even brutality. The land hereabouts, as I have before +stated, is excessively divided, the holdings being from two and a half +acres in extent and upwards. It often happens that the younger children +of these small owners give up their share of the little family estate +without claiming a centime of compensation, and seek their fortunes in +the towns. They betake themselves to handicrafts and trade, in their +turn purchasing land with the savings from daily wages. +</p> + +<p> +Again, it is supposed that the life of the peasant owner is one of +uniform, unbroken drudgery, his daily existence hardly more elevated +than that of the ox harnessed to his plough. Who ever heard of an +English labourer taking a fourteen days' rest at the seaside? When did a +rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton? They order these +things better in France. +</p> + +<p> +Between Osse and Oloron stands Escot, long famous for its warm springs. +The principal patrons of this modest watering-place are the peasants. It +is their Carlsbad, their Homburg, many taking a season as regularly as +the late King Edward. The thing is done with thoroughness, but at a +minimum of cost. They pay half a franc daily for a room, and another +half-franc for the waters, cooking their meals in the general kitchen of +the establishment. Where the French peasant believes, his faith is +phenomenal. Some of these valetudinarians drink as many as forty-six +glasses of mineral water a day! What must be their capacities in robust +health? The bourgeois or civilian element is not absent. Hither from Pau +and Oloron come clerks and small functionaries with their families. +Newspapers are read and discussed in company. We may be sure that the +rustic spa is a little centre of sociability and enlightenment. +</p> + +<p> +Let me now say something about the crops of this sweet Pyrenean +valley. The chief of these are corn, maize, rye, potatoes, and clover; +the soil being too dry and poor for turnips and beetroot. Flax is +grown in small quantities, and here and there we seen vines, but the +wine is thin and sour. +</p> + +<p> +From time immemorial, artificial irrigation has been carried on in the +Vallée d'Aspe, and most beautiful is the appearance of the brilliantly +green pastures, intersected by miniature canals in every direction; the +sweet pastoral landscape framed by mountain peaks of loveliest colour +and majestic shape. These well-watered grasslands produce two or even +three crops a year; the second, or <i>regain</i> as it is called, was being +got in early in September, and harvest having taken place early, clover +was already springing up on the cleared cornfields. Everywhere men and +women were afield making hay or scattering manure on the meadows, the +latter sometimes being done with the hands. +</p> + +<p> +All these small farmers keep donkeys and mules, and on market-days the +roads are alive with cavalcades; the men wearing gay waist-sashes, flat +cloth caps, or berets, the women coloured kerchiefs. The type is +uniform—medium stature, spareness, dark eyes and hair, and olive +complexion predominating. Within the last thirty years the general +health and physique have immensely improved, owing to better food and +wholesomer dwellings. Goître and other maladies arising from +insufficient diet have disappeared. Epidemics, I was assured, seldom +work havoc in this valley; and though much remains to be done in the way +of drainage and sanitation, the villages have a clean, cheerful look. +</p> + +<p> +The last ailment that would occur to us proves most fatal to those +hardy country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as +the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality +arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend +oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was +tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. +Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises +from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks +above tempts us to linger abroad. +</p> + +<p> +The scenery is grandiose and most beautiful. Above the white-walled, +grey-roofed villages and townlings scattered about the open, rise +sharp-pointed green hills or monticules, one gently overtopping the +other; surmounting these, lofty barren peaks, recalling the volcanic +chains of Auvergne, the highest snow-capped point twice the altitude of +the Puy de Dôme, two-thirds that of Mont Blanc. +</p> + +<p> +Whichever way we go we find delightful scenery. Hidden behind the folded +hills, approached by lovely little glades and winding bridle-path, +tosses and foams the Gave d'Aspe, its banks thickly set with willow and +salicornia, its solitary coves inviting the bather. The witchery of +these mountain streams grows upon us in the Pyrenees. We hunger for the +music of their cascades when far away. The sun-lit, snow-lit peaks, +towering into the brilliant blue heavens, are not deserted as they +appear. Shepherd farmers throughout the summer dwell in huts here, and +welcome visitors with great affability. +</p> + +<p> +Let me narrate a fact interesting alike to the naturalist and +meteorologist. On the 7th September, 1891, the heat on one of these +summits, nine thousand feet above the sea-level, was so intense that a +little flock of sheep were seen literally hugging the snow, laying their +faces against the cool masses, huddled about them, as shivering mortals +round a fire in winter. And, a little way off, the eye-witnesses of this +strange scene gathered deep blue irises in full bloom. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[Illustration: ORCUM] +</p> + +<p> +On the lower slopes the farmers leave their horses to graze, giving them +a look from time to time. One beautiful young horse lost its life just +before my arrival, unwarily approaching a precipitous incline. As a rule +accidents are very rare. +</p> + +<p> +The izard or Pyrenean chamois, although hunted as game, is not yet a +survival here, nor the eagle and bear, the latter only making its +appearance in winter-time. +</p> + +<p> +Tent-life in these mountain-sides is quite safe and practicable. Who can +say? A generation hence and these magnificent Alps may be tunnelled by +railways, crowned by monster hotels, peopled from July to October with +tourists in search of disappointments. +</p> + +<p> +At present the Vallée d'Aspe is the peacefullest in the world. Alike on +week-days and Sundays the current of life flows smoothly. Every morning +from the open windows of the parsonage may be heard the sweet, simple +hymns of the Lutheran Church, master and mistress, servants and +children, uniting in daily thanksgiving and prayer. +</p> + +<p> +And a wholesome corrective is the Sunday service after the sights +of Lourdes. +</p> + +<p> +The little congregation was striking. Within the altar railings stood +two <i>anciens</i>, or elders, of the church, middle-aged men, tall, +stalwart, the one fair as a Saxon, the other dark as a Spaniard. Both +wore the dress of the well-to-do peasant, short black alpaca blouses, +black cloth trousers, and spotless collars and cuffs, and both worthily +represented those indomitable ancestors who neither wavered nor lost +heart under direst persecution. +</p> + +<p> +By the time the pastor ascended the reading-desk, the cheerful, +well-kept little church was full, the men in black blouses, the women +wearing neat stuff or print gowns, with silk handkerchiefs tied under +the chin, widows and the aged, the sombre black-hooded garment, +enveloping head and figure, of Huguenot matrons of old—supposed to have +suggested the conventual garb. +</p> + +<p> +Among the rest were two or three Catholics, peasants of the +neighbourhood, come to look on and listen. The simple, intelligible +service, the quiet fervour of the assembly, might well impress a +sceptical beholder. Even more impressive is the inscription over the +door. A tablet records how the first Protestant church was pulled down +by order of the king after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +rebuilt on the declaration of religious liberty by the National +Assembly. Gazing on that inscription and the little crowd of +worshippers, a sentence of Tacitus came into my mind. Recording how not +only the biographers of good men were banished or put to death, but +their works publicly burnt by order of Domitian, the historian, whose +sentences are volumes condensed, adds: "They fancied, forsooth"—he is +speaking of the tyrant and his satellites—"that all records of these +actions being destroyed, mankind could never approve of them." An +illusion shared by enemies of intellectual liberty, from the Caesars to +their latest imitator, unhappily not wholly dispelled in our own day. +</p> + +<p> +Whether the homeward journey is made through the Landes by way of +Bayonne and Bordeaux, or through the Eastern Pyrenees by way of +Perpignan, we are brought face to face with scenes of strangest +transformation. In the former region the agency has been artificial, the +shifting sands being fixed and solidified by plantations on a gigantic +scale, and large tracts rendered fertile by artificial irrigation; in +the latter, Nature has prepared the field, the more laborious portion of +the husbandman's task is already done. +</p> + +<p> +"The districts of sand, as white as snow and so loose as to blow," seen +by Arthur Young towards the close of the last century, can hardly be +said to exist in our own day. Even within twenty-five years the changes +are so great as to render entire regions hardly recognizable. The +stilts, or <i>chanques</i>, of which our word "shanks" is supposed to be the +origin, become rarer and rarer. The creation of forests and sinking of +wells, drainage, artificial manures and canals are rapidly fertilizing a +once arid region; with the aspect of the country a proportionate change +taking place in the material condition of the people. +</p> + +<p> +No less startling is the transformation of lagoon into salt marsh, and +marsh into cultivable soil, witnessed between the Spanish frontier, +Perpignan and Nîmes. +</p> + +<p> +Quitting Cerbère, the little town at which travellers from Barcelona +re-enter French territory, we follow the coast, traversing a region long +lost to fame and the world, but boasting of a brilliant history before +the real history of France began. +</p> + +<p> +We are here in presence of geological changes affected neither by shock +nor convulsion, nor yet by infinitesimally slow degrees. A few +centuries have sufficed to alter the entire contour of the coast and +reverse the once brilliant destinies of maritime cities. With the +recorded experience of mediaeval writers at hand, we can localize +lagoons and inland seas where to-day we find belts of luxuriant +cultivation. In a lifetime falling short of the Psalmist's threescore +years and ten observations may be made that necessitate the +reconstruction of local maps. +</p> + +<p> +The charming little watering-place of Banyulssur-Mer, reached soon after +passing the Spanish frontier, is the only place on this coast, except +Cette, without a history. The town is built in the form of an +amphitheatre, its lovely little bay surrounded by rich southern +vegetation. The oleanders and magnolias in full bloom, gardens and +vineyards, are no less strikingly contrasted with the barrenness and +monotony that follows, than Banyuls itself, spick and span, brand-new, +with the buried cities scattered on the way, ancient as Tyre and Sidon, +and once as flourishing. There is much sadness yet poetic charm in the +landscape sweeps of silvery-green olive or bluish salicornia against a +pale-blue sky, dull-brown fishing villages bordering sleepy lagoons, +stretches of white sand, with here and there a glimpse of the purple, +rock-hemmed sea. Little of life animates this coast, in many spots the +custom-house officer and a fisherman or two being the sole inhabitants, +their nearest neighbours removed from them by many miles. Only the +flamingo, the heron, and the sea-gull people these solitudes, within the +last few years broken by the whistle of the locomotive. We are following +the direct line of railway between Barcelona and Paris. +</p> + +<p> +The first of the buried cities is the musically-named Elne, anciently +Illiberis, now a poor little town of the department of the Eastern +Pyrenees, hardly, indeed, more than a village, but boasting a wondrous +pedigree. We see dull-brown walls, ilex groves, and above low-lying +walls the gleaming sea. This apparently deserted place occupies the site +of city upon city. Seaport, metropolis, emporium had here reached their +meridian of splendour before the Greek and the Roman set foot in Gaul. +Already in Pliny's time the glories of the Elne had become tradition. We +must go farther back than Phoenician civilization for the beginnings of +this town, halting-place of Hannibal and his army on their march towards +Rome. The great Constantine endeavoured to resuscitate the fallen city, +and for a brief space Elne became populous and animated. With other once +flourishing seaports it has been gradually isolated from the sea, and +the same process is still going on. +</p> + +<p> +Just beyond Perpignan a lofty tower, rising amid vineyards and pastures, +marks the site of Ruscino, another ancient city and former seaport. The +Tour de Roussillon is all that now remains of a place once important +enough to give its name to a province. Le Roussillon, from which was +formed the department of the Pyrénées Orientales, became French by the +treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Here also the great Carthaginian halted, +and here, we learn, he met with a friendly reception. +</p> + +<p> +Monotonous as are these wide horizons and vast stretches of marsh and +lagoon, they appeal to the lover of solitude and of the more pensive +aspects of nature. The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of +glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, +too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills. Not cities only seem +interred here: the railway hurries us through a world in which all is +hushed and inanimate, as if, indeed, mankind no less than good fortune +had deserted it. The prevailing uniformity is broken by the +picturesquely placed little town of Salses and the white cliffs of +Leucate. Strabo and Pomponius Mela describe minutely the floating +islands or masses of marine plants moving freely on the lake of Salses. +Here, as elsewhere, the coastline is undergoing slow but steady +modification, yet we are in presence of phenomena that engaged the +attention of writers two thousand years ago. +</p> + +<p> +From this point till we approach Cette the region defies definition. It +is impossible to determine nicely where the land ends and the sea +begins. The railway follows a succession of inland salt lakes and +lagoons, with isolated fishermen's cabins, reminding us of +lake-dwellings. In some places the hut is approached by a narrow strip +of solid ground, on either side surrounded by water, just admitting the +passage of a single pedestrian. The scene is unspeakably desolate. Only +sea-birds keep the fisher-folk company; only the railway recalls the +busy world far away. +</p> + +<p> +Of magnificent aspect is Narbonne, the Celtic Venice, as it rises above +the level landscape. The great seaport described by Greek historians six +centuries before our own era, the splendid capital of Narbonese Gaul, +rival of the Roman Nîmes and of the Greek Arles, is now as dull a +provincial town as any throughout France. Invasions, sieges, plagues, +incendiaries, most of all religious persecutions, ruined the mediæval +Narbonne. The Jewish element prevailed in its most prosperous phase, and +M. Renan in his history of Averroës shows how much of this prosperity +and intellectual pre-eminence was due to the Jews. The cruel edicts of +Philip Augustus against the race proved no less disastrous here than the +expulsion of Huguenots elsewhere later. The decadence of Narbonne as a +port is due to natural causes. Formerly surrounded by lagoons affording +free communication with the sea, the Languedocian Venice has gradually +lost her advantageous position. The transitional stage induced such +unhealthy climatic conditions that at one period there seemed a +likelihood of the city being abandoned altogether. In proportion as the +marsh solidified the general health improved. Day by day the slow but +sure process continues, and when the remaining salt lakes shall have +become dry land, this region, now barren and desolate, will blossom like +the rose. The hygienic and atmospheric effects of the <i>Eucalyptus +globulus</i> in Algeria are hardly more striking than the amelioration +wrought here in a natural way. The Algerian traveller of twenty-five +years ago now finds noble forests of blue gum tree, where, on his first +visit, his heart was wrung by the spectacle of a fever-stricken +population. On the coast of Languedoc the change has been slower. It has +taken not only a generation but a century to transform pestilential +tracts into zones of healthfulness and fertility. +</p> + +<p> +An interesting fact, illustrating the effect of physical agencies upon +human affairs, must be here mentioned. Till within the last few years +this town counted a considerable Protestant community. The ravages of +the phylloxera in the neighbouring vineyards caused a wholesale exodus +of vine-growers belonging to the Reformed Church, and in 1886 the number +had dwindled to such an extent that the services of a pastor were no +longer required. The minister in charge was transferred elsewhere. +</p> + +<p> +The dull little town of Agde is another ancient site. Its name is alike +a poem and a history. The secure harbourage afforded by this sheltered +bay won for the place the name of Good Fortune, [Greek: agathae tuchae], +whence Agathe, Agde. A Greek settlement, its fine old church was in part +constructed of the materials of a temple to Diana of Ephesus. Agde +possesses interest of another kind. It is built of lava, the solitary +peak rising behind it, called Le Pic de St. Loup, being the southern +extremity of that chain of extinct volcanoes beginning with Mont Mezenc +in the Cantal. A pathetic souvenir is attached to this lonely crater. At +a time when geological ardour was rare, a Bishop of Agde, St. Simon by +name, devoted years of patient investigation to the volcanic rocks in +his diocese. The result of his studies were recorded in letters to a +learned friend, but the Revolution stopped the poor bishop's +discoveries. He perished by the guillotine during the Terror. The +celebrated founder of socialism in France was his nephew. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +XI +</h3> + +<h3> +AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR +</h3> + +<p> +The friendly visit of a few Russian naval officers lately put the +country into as great a commotion as a hostile invasion. I started +southward from Lyons on the 12th October, 1893, amid scenes of wholly +indescribable confusion; railway stations a mere compact phalanx of +excited tourists bound for Toulon, with no immediate prospect of getting +an inch farther, railway officials at their wits' end, carriage after +carriage hooked on to the already enormously long train, and yet crowds +upon crowds left behind. Every train was, of course, late; and on the +heels of each followed supplementary ones, all packed to their utmost +capacity. As we steamed into the different stations "Vive la Russie!" +greeted our ears. The air seemed filled with the sound; never surely was +such a delirium witnessed in France since the fever heat of 1789! +</p> + +<p> +At Valence, Montélimar, Avignon, Arles, the same tumult reigned; but +before reaching the second place, the regulation number of carriages, +twenty-five, had been exceeded, and as hardly one per cent of the +travellers alighted, we could only pass by the disconcerted multitudes +awaiting places. And a mixed company was ours—the fashionable world, +select and otherwise, the demi-monde in silks and in tatters, +musicians, travelling companies of actors and showmen, decorated +functionaries, children, poodles, all bound for the Russian fleet! +</p> + +<p> +At Marseilles, a bitter disappointment awaited some, I fear, many. No +sooner were we fairly within the brilliantly-lighted, crowded station, +and before the train had come to a standstill, than a stentorian voice +was heard from one end of the platform to the other, crying— +</p> + +<p> +"LOOK TO YOUR PURSES!" +</p> + +<p> +And as the gorged carriages slowly discharged their burden, the stream +of passengers wending towards the door marked "Way out," a yet louder +and more awe-inspiring voice came from above, the official being perched +high as an orator in the pulpit, repeating the same words— +</p> + +<p> +"ATTENTION À VOTRE PORTE-MONNAIE!" +</p> + +<p> +The dismay of the thwarted pickpockets may be better imagined than +described. Many, doubtless, had come from great distances, confident of +a golden harvest. Let us hope that the authorities of Toulon were +equally on the alert. Marseilles no more resembles Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, than those cities resemble each other. Less elegant than Lyons, +less majestic than Bordeaux, gayer by far than Nantes, the capital of +Southern France has a stamp of its own. Today, as three thousand years +ago, Marseilles may be called the threshold of the East. In these hot, +bustling, noisy streets, Paris is quiet by comparison; London a Trappist +monastery! Orientals, or what our French neighbours call exotics, are so +common that no one looks at them. Japanese and Chinese, Hindus, +Tonquinois, Annamites, Moors, Arabs, all are here, and in native dress; +and writing letters in the salon of your hotel, your <i>vis-à-vis</i> at the +<i>table d'hôte</i>, your fellow sightseers, east and west, to-day as of old, +here come into friendly contact; and side by side with the East is the +glowing life of the South. We seem no longer in France, but in a great +cosmopolitan mart that belongs to the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +The Marseillais, nevertheless, are French; and Marseilles, to their +thinking, is the veritable metropolis. "If Paris had but her +Cannebière," they say, "she would be a little Marseilles!" +</p> + +<p> +Superbly situated, magnificently endowed as to climate, the <i>chef-lieu</i> +of the Bouches du Rhône must be called a slatternly beauty; whilst +embellishing herself, putting on her jewels and splendid attire, she +has forgotten to wash her face and trim her hair! Not in Horatian +phrase, dainty in her neatness, Marseilles does herself injustice. Lyons +is clean swept, spick and span as a toy town; Bordeaux is coquettish as +her charming Bordelaise; Nantes, certainly, is not particularly careful +of appearances. But Marseilles is dirty, unswept, littered from end to +end; you might suppose that every householder had just moved, leaving +their odds and ends in the streets, if, indeed, these beautifully-shaded +walks can be so called. The city in its development has laid out alleys +and boulevards instead of merely making ways, with the result that in +spite of brilliant sky and burning sun, coolness and shadow are ever to +be had. The Cannebière, with its blue sky, glowing foliage and gay, +nonchalant, heterogeneous crowds, reminds me of the Rambla of Barcelona. +Indeed, the two cities have many points of resemblance. Marseilles is +greatly changed from the Marseilles I visited twenty-five years ago, to +say nothing of Arthur Young's description of 1789. The only advantage +with which he accredited the city was that of possessing newspapers. Its +port, he wrote, was a horsepond compared to that of Bordeaux; the number +of country houses dotting the hills disappointingly small. At the +present time, suburban Marseilles, like suburban London, encroaches +year by year upon the country; another generation, and the sea-coast +from Toulon to the Italian frontier will show one unbroken line of +country houses. Of this no one can doubt who sees what is going on in +the way of building. +</p> + +<p> +But it is not only by beautiful villas and gardens that the city has +embellished itself. What with the lavishness of the municipality, public +companies, and the orthodox, noble public buildings, docks, warehouses, +schools, churches, gardens, promenades, have rendered Marseilles the +most sumptuous French capital after Paris. Neither Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, can compare with it for sumptuosity. In the Palais de +Longchamps, the splendour of municipal decoration reaches its acme; the +horsepond Arthur Young sneered at now affords accommodation of 340 +acres, with warehouses, said to be the finest in the world; last, but +not least, comes the enormous Byzantine Cathedral not yet finished, +built at the cost of a quarter of a million sterling. Other new churches +and public buildings without number have sprung up of late years, the +crowning glory of Marseilles being its Palais de Longchamps. +</p> + +<p> +This magnificent group of buildings may be called a much enlarged and +much more grandiose Trocadéro. Worthily do these colossal Tritons and +sea-horses commemorate the great achievement of modern Marseilles; +namely, the conveying of a river to its very doors. Hither, over a +distance of fifty-four miles, are brought the abundant waters of the +Durance; as we stand near, their cascades falling with the thunder of +our own Lodore. But having got the river and given the citizens more +than enough water with which to turn their mills, supply their domestic +wants, fertilize suburban fields and gardens, the Town Council seem +satisfied. The streets are certainly, one and all, watered with rushing +streams, greatly to the public health and comfort. A complete system of +drainage is needed to render the work complete. When we learn that even +Nice is not yet drained from end to end, we need not be astonished at +tardy progress elsewhere. Sanitation is ever the last thing thought of +by French authorities. Late in the afternoon we saw two or three men +slowly sweeping one street. No regular cleaning seems to take place. Get +well out of the city, by the sea-shore, or into the Prado—an avenue of +splendid villas—and all is swept and garnished. The central +thoroughfares, so glowing with life and colour, and so animated by day +and night, are malodorous, littered, dirty. It is a delightful drive by +the sea, over against the Château d'If, forts frowning above the rock, +the deep blue waves, yellowish-brown shore, and green foliage, all in +striking contrast. +</p> + +<p> +We with difficulty realize that Marseilles is not the second city in +France. The reason is obvious. Lyons lies less compactly together, its +thickly-peopled Guillotière seems a town apart; the population of Lyons, +moreover, is a sedentary one, whilst the Marseillais, being seafarers, +are perpetually abroad. The character, too, is quite different, less +expansive, less excitable, less emotional in the great silk-weaving +capital, here gay, noisy, nonchalant. Nobody seems to find the cares of +the day a burden, all to have some of the sunshine of the place in their +composition. "Mon bon," a Marsellais calls his neighbour; there is no +stillness anywhere. Everybody is "Mon bon" to everybody. +</p> + +<p> +The out-of-door, rollicking, careless life, more especially strikes a +northerner. We seem here as remote from ordinary surroundings as if +suddenly transported to Benares. The commercial prosperity of the first +French sea-port is attested by its lavish public works, and number of +country houses, a disappointing handful in Arthur Young's time. Hardly a +householder, however modest his means, who does not possess a cottage or +châlet; the richer having palatial villas and gardens. Nothing can +convey a greater notion of ease and wealth than the prospect of suburban +Marseilles, its green hills, rising above the sea, thickly dotted with +summer houses in every part. +</p> + +<p> +All who wish to realize the advance of French cities since 1870-71 +should visit Marseilles. Only those who knew it long ago can measure the +change, and greater changes still are necessary ere its sanitary +conditions match climate and situation. +</p> + +<p> +From Marseilles to Nice, from the land of the olive to that of the palm, +is a long and wearisome journey. That tyrannical monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée Railway Company, gives only slow trains, except +to travellers provided with through tickets; and these so inconveniently +arranged, that travellers unprovided with refreshments, have no +opportunity of procuring any on the way. Whenever we travel by railway +in France we are reminded of the crying need for competition. The +all-omnipotent P.-L.-M. does as it pleases, and it is quite useless for +travellers to complain. Every inch of the way points to the future of +the Riviera—a future not far off. A few years hence and the sea-coast +from Marseilles to Mentone will be one unbroken line of hotels and +villas. The process is proceeding at a rapid rate. When Arthur Young +made this journey a century ago, he described the country around Toulon +thus: "Nine-tenths are waste mountain, and a wretched country of pines, +box, and miserable aromatics." At the present time, the brilliant red +soil, emerald crops, and gold and purple leafage of stripped vine, make +up a picture of wondrous fertility. At every point we see vineyards of +recent creation; whilst not an inch of soil between the olive trees is +wasted. On the 28th of October the landscape was bright with autumn +crops, some to be <i>répiqué</i>, or planted out according to the Chinese +system before mentioned. +</p> + +<p> +The first thing that strikes the stranger at Nice is its Italian +population. These black-eyed, dark-complexioned, raven-haired, +easy-going folks form as distinct a type as the fresh-complexioned, +blue-eyed Alsatian. That the Niçois are French at heart is self-evident, +and no wonder, when we compare their present condition with that of the +past. We see no beggars or ragged, wretched-looking people. If the +municipal authorities have set themselves the task of putting down +mendicity, they have succeeded. French enterprise, French capital is +enriching the population from one end of the Alpes Maritimes to the +other. At the present time there must be tens of thousands of workmen +employed in the building of hotels and villas between Marseilles and +Ventimille. That the Riviera will finally be overbuilt no one can +doubt; much of the original beauty of the country is already destroyed +by this piling up of bricks and mortar, more beauty is doomed. But +meantime work is brisk, wages are high, and the Post Office savings bank +and private banks tell their own tale. +</p> + +<p> +Of course the valetudinarians contribute to the general prosperity, a +prosperity which it is difficult for residents in an English +watering-place to realize. Thus I take up a Hastings newspaper to find a +long list of lodging-house keepers summoned for non-payment of taxes. +Arrived at Nice, a laundress employed by my hostess immediately came to +see if I had any clothes for her. On bringing back the linen she +deposited it in my room, saying I could pay her when fetching the next +bundle. I let her go, but called her back, thinking that perhaps the +poor woman had earned nothing for months and was in distress. My hostess +afterwards informed me with a smile that this good woman had £2,500 in +the bank. I could multiply instances in point. +</p> + +<p> +If the condition of the working classes has immensely improved, the cost +of living has not stood still. A householder informed me that prices of +provisions, servants' wages, house rent and other items of domestic +economy have tripled within the last twenty years. There is every +prospect that this increase will continue. Last winter hotels and +boarding-houses at Nice were all full; fast as new ones are built, they +fill to overflowing. And, of course, the majority of visitors are rich. +No others should come; they are not wanted. +</p> + +<p> +In studying the rural population we must bear in mind one fact—namely, +the line of demarcation separating the well-to-do peasants of the plain +from the poor and frugal mountaineer. Follow the mule track from Mentone +to Castillon, and we find a condition of things for squalor and poverty +unmatched throughout France. Visit an olive-grower in the valley of the +Var, and we are once more amid normal conditions of peasant property. My +first visit was to the land of Goshen. +</p> + +<p> +Provided with a letter of introduction to a farmer, I set off for the +village of St. Martin du Var, a village of five hundred and odd souls, +only within the last year or two accessible by railway. The new line, +which was to have connected Nice with Digne and Cap, had been stopped +short half-way, the enterprising little company who projected it being +thereby brought to the verge of ruin. This fiasco, due, I am told, to +the jealous interference of the P.-L.-M., is a great misfortune to +travellers, the line partially opened up leading through a most wildly +picturesque and lovely region, and being also of great commercial and +strategic importance. But that terrible monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, will tolerate no rivals. Folks bound from Gap +to Nice must still make the long round by way of Marseilles in order +to please the Company; merchandise—and, in case of a war with Italy, +which may Heaven avert!—soldiers and ammunition must do the same. +</p> + +<p> +The pretty new "Gare du Sud" invites patronage, and three services are +performed daily. On this little line exists no third class. I imagine, +then, that either the very poor are too poor to take train at all, or +that there are none unable to pay second-class fare. In company of +priests, peasants, and soldiers, I took a second-class place, the guard +joining us and comfortably reading a newspaper as soon as we were +fairly off. +</p> + +<p> +It is a superb little journey to St. Martin du Var. The line may be +described as a succession of tunnels, our way lying between lofty +limestone cliffs and the Var, at the present time almost dry. As we +slowly advance, the valley widens, and on either side are broad belts +of verdure and fertility; fields, orchards, gardens, olive trees +feathering the lower slopes, here and there, little villages perched +high above the valley. One charming feature of the landscape is the +aspen; so silvery were its upper leaves in the sun that at first I +took them for snow-white blossoms. These verdant stretches on either +side of the river were formerly mere waste, redeemed and rendered +cultivable by means of dykes. +</p> + +<p> +My destination is reached in an hour, a charmingly placed village amid +beautiful mountain scenery, over against it towering the hamlet of La +Roquette, apparently inaccessible as cloudland. Here a tributary +stream joins the Var, the long winding valley, surrounded by lofty +crags and olive-clad slopes, affording a delightful and most +exhilarating prospect. The weather on this 20th of October was that of +a perfect day in July. +</p> + +<p> +St. Martin du Var has its Mairie, handsome communal schools, and large +public walks or recreation ground, a parallelogram planted with trees. +The place has a neglected, Italian aspect; at the same time an aspect of +ease and contentment. The black-eyed, olive-complexioned, +Italian-looking children are uniformly well dressed, with good shoes and +stockings. French children, even of the poorest class, are always +decently shod. +</p> + +<p> +I found my host at dinner with his wife, little daughter, and +sister-in-law. The first impression of an uninitiated traveller would be +of poverty. The large bare kitchen was unswept and untidy; the family +dishes—soup, vegetables, olives, good white bread, wine—were placed on +the table without cloth or table-cover. As will be seen, these +hard-working, frugal people were rich; in England they would have +servants to wait upon them, fine furniture, and wear fashionable +clothes. My letter of introduction slowly read and digested, the head of +the family placed himself at my disposal. We set off on a round of +inspection, the burning mid-day sun here tempered by a delicious breeze. +</p> + +<p> +We first visited the olive-presses and corn-mill—this farmer was +village miller as well as olive grower—all worked by water-power and +erected by himself at a heavy outlay. Formerly these presses and mills +were worked by horses and mules after the manner of old-fashioned +threshing-machines, but in Provence as in Brittany, progress is now the +order of the day. +</p> + +<p> +In order to supply these mills, a little canal was dug at my host's own +expense, and made to communicate with the waters of the Var; thus a good +supply is always at hand. +</p> + +<p> +The enormous olive-presses and vats are now being got in for the first +or October harvest. This is the harvest of windfalls or fallen fruit, +green or black as the case may be, and used for making an inferior kind +of oil. The second harvest or gathering of the olives remaining on the +trees takes place in April. Linen is spread below, and the berries +gently shaken off. I may add that the periods of olive harvests vary in +different regions, often being earlier or later. An olive tree produces +on an average a net return of twelve francs, the best returns being +alternate or biennial; the roots are manured from time to time, +otherwise the culture is inexpensive. The trees are of great age and, +indeed, are seldom known to die. The "immortal olive" is, indeed, no +fiction. In this especial district no olive trees have, within living +memory, been killed by frost, as was the case in Spain some years ago. +Nevertheless, the peaks around St. Martin du Var are tipped with snow in +winter. The olive harvests and necessary preparations require a large +number of hands, the wages of men averaging three francs, of women, the +half. Thus at the time I write of, day labourers in remote regions of +Provence receive just upon fourteen shillings and sixpence per week; +whereas I read in the English papers that Essex farmers are reducing the +pittance of twelve and even ten shillings per week for able-bodied men. +</p> + +<p> +Ten days later, my cicerone said that the first harvest would be in +active progress, and he most cordially invited me to revisit him for +the purpose of looking on. From the lees of the crushed berries a +third and much inferior oil is made and used in the manufacture of +soap, just as what is called <i>piquette</i> or sour wine is made in +Brittany from the lees of crushed grapes. I was assured by this farmer +that the impurity of olive oil we so often complain of in England, +arises from adulteration at the hands of retailers. Table oil as it +issues from the presses of the grower is absolutely pure; merchants add +inferior qualities or poppy oil, described by me in an earlier page, +and which my present host looked upon with supreme contempt. The olive, +with the vine and tobacco, attains the maximum of agricultural profits. +This farmer alone sells oil to the annual value of several thousand +pounds, and to the smaller owner also it is the principal source of +income. Peasant owners or tenants of an acre or two grow a little corn +as well, this chiefly for their own use. +</p> + +<p> +The interior of the corn-mill presented an amusing scene. Two or three +peasants were squabbling with my host's subordinate over their sacks of +flour; one might have supposed from the commotion going on and the +general air of vindictive remonstrance that we were suddenly transported +to a seigneurial mill. A few conciliatory words from the master put all +straight, and soon after we saw the good folks, one of them an old +woman, trotting off on donkeys with their sack of corn slung before +them. I need hardly say that the talk of these country-people among +themselves is always in patois, not a word of which is intelligible to +the uninitiated. +</p> + +<p> +Just above the mills are groves of magnificent old olive trees, and +alongside the little railway were bright strips of lucerne and pasture, +folks here and there getting in their tiny crops of hay. +</p> + +<p> +The iron road is not yet regarded as an unmixed good. My host told me +that local carters and carriers had been obliged in consequence to sell +their horses and carts and betake themselves to day labour. Such +drawbacks are, of course, inevitable, but the ulterior advantage +effected by the railway is unquestionable. I should say that nowhere are +life and property safer than in these mountain-hemmed valleys. The +landlady of the little hotel at St. Martin du Var assured me that she +always left her front door open all night. Nothing had ever happened to +alarm her but the invasion of three English ladies at midnight, one of +these of gigantic stature and armed with a huge stick. The trio were +making a pedestrian journey across country, apparently taking this +security for granted. Neither brigands nor burglars could have given +the poor woman a greater fright than the untimely appearance of my +countrywomen. +</p> + +<p> +It was now too hot to visit the open tracts of pasture and cultivation +alongside the Var. The farmer's wife proposed a shady walk to a +neighbouring farm instead, our errand being to procure milk for my five +o'clock tea. Without hat or umbrella, my companion set off, chatting as +we went. She explained to me that on Sundays she wore bonnet and mantle +after the fashion of a <i>bourgeoise</i>; in other words, she dressed like a +lady, but that neither in summer nor winter at any other time did she +cover her head. She was a pleasant-mannered, intelligent, affable woman, +almost toothless, as are so many well-to-do middle-aged folks in France. +Dentists must fare badly throughout the country. No one ever seems to +have a guinea to spend upon false teeth. +</p> + +<p> +We were soon out of the village, and passing the pretty garden of the +Gendarmerie, reached a scene of unimaginable, unforgettable beauty. +Never shall I forget the splendour of the olive trees set around a +wide, brilliantly green meadow; near the farmhouse groves of +pomegranate, orange and lemon with ripening fruit; beside these, medlar +and hawthorn trees (<i>cratoegus azarolus</i>), the golden leafage and +coral-red fruit of the latter having a striking effect; beyond, silvery +peaks, and, above all, a heaven of warm, yet not too dazzling blue. At +the farther end of the meadow, in which a solitary cow grazed at will, +a labourer was preparing a ribbon-like strip of land for corn, beside +him, pretending to work too, his little son of five years. My hostess +held up her jug and stated her errand, proposing that the cow should be +milked a trifle earlier in order to suit my convenience. The man +good-naturedly replied that, as far as the matter concerned himself, he +was agreeable enough, but that the cow was not so easily to be put out +of her way. She was milked regularly as clockwork at a quarter to five, +the clock had only just struck four; he might leave his work and take +her home, but not a drop of milk would she give before the proper time! +Leaving our jug, we roamed about this little paradise, unwilling to +quit a scene of unblemished beauty. A more bewitching spot I do not +recall; and it seemed entirely shut off from the world, on all sides, +unbroken quiet, nothing to mar the exquisiteness of emerald turf, +glossy foliage of orange and lemon trees, silvery olive in striking +contrast, and above, a cloudless sky. In the heart of a primeval forest +we could not feel more alone. +</p> + +<p> +The thought occurred to me how perfect were such a holiday resort could +a clean little lodging be found near! With some attention to +cleanliness and sanitation, the little hotel at St. Martin du Var might +satisfy the unfastidious. I am bound to admit that in French phrase it +leaves much to desire. +</p> + +<p> +My host gave me a good deal of interesting information about the place +and the people. Excellent communal schools with lay teachers of both +sexes have been opened under French régime; and the village of five +hundred and odd souls has, of course, its Mairie, Hôtel de Ville, and +Gendarmerie, governing itself after the manner of French villages. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst the ladies of the house chatted with me they knitted away at +socks and stockings, in coarse, bright-coloured wool. Such articles are +never bought, the home-made substitute being much more economical in the +end. As an instance of the solid comfort of these apparently frugal +folks, let me mention their homespun linen sheets. My hostess showed me +some coarse bed-linen lately woven for her in the village. Calico +sheets, she said, were much cheaper, but she preferred this durable +home-spun even at three times the price. An old woman in the village +still plied the loom, working up neighbours' materials at three francs a +day. The flax has to be purchased also, so that the homespun sheet is a +luxury; "and at the same time," the housewife added, "a work of +charity. This poor old woman lives by her loom. It is a satisfaction to +help her to a mouthful of bread." +</p> + +<p> +The moon had risen when I took leave, hostess, little daughter, and +sister all accompanying me to the station, reiterating their wish to see +me again. Nothing, indeed, would have been pleasanter than to idle away +weeks amid this adorable scenery and these charming people. But life is +short and France is immense. The genially uttered <i>au revoir</i> becomes +too often a mere figure of speech. +</p> + +<p> +I add, by the way, that the little daughter, now trotting daily to the +village school, is sure to have a handsome dowry by and by. Four +thousand pounds is no unusual portion of a rich peasant's daughter in +these regions. As an old resident at Nice informed me, "The peasants are +richer than the <i>bourgeoisie</i>"—as they deserve to be, seeing their +self-denial and thrift. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +XII +</h3> + +<h3> +PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY +</h3> + +<p> +Pessicarz is a hamlet not mentioned in either French or English +guide-books; yet the drive thither is far more beautiful than the +regulation excursions given in tourists' itineraries. The road winds in +corkscrew fashion above the exquisite bay and city, gleaming as if built +of marble, amid scenes of unbroken solitude. Between groves of veteran +olives and rocks rising higher and higher, we climb for an hour and a +half, then leaving behind us the wide panorama of Nice, Cimiez, the sea, +and villa-dotted hills, take a winding inland road, as beautiful as can +be imagined. Here, nestled amid chestnut woods, lay the little farm I +had come to see, consisting of three hectares let at a rent of five +hundred francs (between seven and eight acres, rented at twenty pounds a +year), the products being shared between owner and tenant. This modified +system of <i>métayage</i> or half profits is common here, and certainly +affords a stepping-stone to better things. By dint of uncompromising +economy, the metayer may ultimately become a small owner. The farmhouse +was substantially built and occupied by both landlord and tenant, the +latter with his family living on the ground floor. This arrangement +probably answers two purposes, economy is effected, and fraud prevented +on the part of the metayer. Pigs and poultry are noisy animals, and if a +dishonest tenant wanted to smuggle any of these away by night, they +would certainly betray him. The housewife, in the absence of her +husband, received me very kindly. I was of course introduced by a +neighbour, who explained my errand, and she at once offered to show me +round. She was a sturdy, good-natured-looking woman, very well-dressed +and speaking French fairly. The first thing she did was to show me her +poultry, of which she was evidently very proud. This she accomplished by +calling out in a loud voice, "Poules, poules, poules" ("chickens, +chickens, chickens"), as if addressing children, whereupon they came +fluttering out of the chestnut woods, fifty or more, some of fine breed. +These fowls are kept for laying, and not for market, the eggs being sent +daily into Nice. She then asked me indoors, the large kitchen being on +one side of the door, the outhouses on the other. Beyond the kitchen was +a large bedroom, her children, she explained, sleeping upstairs. Both +rooms were smoke-dried to the colour of mahogany, unswept and very +untidy, but the good woman seemed quite sensible of these disadvantages +and apologized on account of narrow space. A large supply of clothes +hung upon pegs in the bed-chamber, and it possessed also a very handsome +old upright clock. The kitchen, besides stores of cooking utensils, had +a stand for best china, and on the walls were numerous unframed +pictures. I mention these trifling details to show that even among the +poorer peasant farmers something is found for ornament; they do not live +as Zola would have us believe, for sordid gains alone. +</p> + +<p> +We next visited the pigs, of which she possessed about a dozen in three +separate styes. These are fed only upon grain and the kitchen wash +supplied from hotels; but she assured me that the disgusting story I +had heard at Nice was true. There are certain pork-rearing +establishments in the department at which carrion is purchased and +boiled down for fattening pigs. My hostess seemed quite alive to the +unwholesomeness of such a practice, and we had a long talk about pigs, +of which I happen to know something; that they are dirt-loving animals +is quite a mistake; none more thoroughly enjoy a good litter of clean +straw. I was glad to find this good woman entirely of the same opinion. +She informed me with evident satisfaction that fresh straw was always +thrown down on one side of the piggery at night, and that the animals +always selected it for repose. +</p> + +<p> +The first lot were commodiously housed, but I reasoned with her with +regard to the other two, the pig-styes being mere caverns without light +or air, and the poor creatures grunting piteously to be let out. She +told me that they were always let out at sundown, and heard what I had +to say about pigs requiring air, let us hope to some purpose. Certainly, +departmental professors have an uphill task before them in +out-of-the-way regions. These poor people are said to be extremely +frugal as a rule, but too apt to squander their years' savings at a +paternal fête, wedding or any other festivity. Generations must elapse +ere they are raised to the level of the typical French peasant. On the +score of health they may compare favourably with any race. A fruit and +vegetable diet seems sufficient in this climate. Besides her poultry and +pigs my farmeress had not much to show me; but a plot of flowers for +market, a little corn, and a few olive trees added grist to the mill. On +the whole, want of comfort, cleanliness, and order apart, I should say +that even such a condition contrasts favourably with that of an English +agricultural labourer. Without doubt, were we to inquire closely into +matters, we should discover a sum of money invested or laid by for +future purchases utterly beyond the reach of a Suffolk ploughman. +</p> + +<p> +Just below the little farm I visited a philanthropic experiment +interesting to English visitors. This was an agricultural orphanage +founded by an Englishman two years before, seventeen waifs and strays +having been handed over to him by the Municipal Council of Nice. The +education of the poor little lads is examined once a year by a school +inspector, in other respects the protégés are left to their new patron. +Here they are taught household and farm work, fruit and flower culture, +the business of the dairy, carpentering, and other trades; being +afterwards placed out. I question whether an English Board of Guardians +would so readily hand over seventeen workhouse lads to a foreigner, but +it is to be hoped that the Niçois authorities will have no reason to +regret their confidence. The boys do no work on Sundays, and once a year +have a ten days' tramp in the country; the buildings are spacious and +airy, but I was sorry to see a plank-bed used as a punishment. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, I should say that the system pursued savours too much of the +military. Here, be it remembered, no juvenile criminals are under +restraint, only foundlings guilty of burdening society. Whether this +school exists still I know not. +</p> + +<p> +Very different was the impression produced by the State Horticultural +College recently opened at Antibes. +</p> + +<p> +Around the lovely little bay the country still remains pastoral and +unspoiled; a mile or two from the railway station and we are in the +midst of rural scenes, tiny farms border the road, patches of corn, +clover, vineyard, and flower-garden—flowers form the chief harvest of +these sea-board peasants—orange, lemon and olive groves with here and +there a group of palms, beyond these the violet hills and dazzling blue +sea, such is the scenery, and could a decent little lodging be found in +its midst, the holiday resort were perfect. +</p> + +<p> +One drawback to existence is the treatment of animals. As I drove +towards the college a countryman passed with a cart and pair of horses, +the hindmost had two raw places on his haunches as large as a penny +piece. I hope and believe that in England such an offender would have +got seven days' imprisonment. The Italians, as we all know, have no +feeling for animals, and the race here is semi-Italian—wholly so, if we +may judge by physiognomy and complexion. +</p> + +<p> +Until the foundation of the Horticultural College here, the only one in +existence on French soil was that of Versailles. Whilst farm-schools +have been opened in various parts of the country, and special branches +have their separate institutions, the teaching of horticulture remained +somewhat in abeyance. Forestry is studied at Nancy, husbandry in general +at Rennes, Grignan, and Amiens, the culture of the vine at Montpellier, +drainage and irrigation at Quimperlé, all these great schools being made +accessible to poorer students by means of scholarships. +</p> + +<p> +In no other region of France could a Horticultural College be so +appropriately placed as in the department of the Alpes Maritimes. It is +not only one vast flower-garden, but at the same time a vast +conservatory, the choice flowers exported for princely tables in winter +being all reared under glass. How necessary, then, that every detail of +this delightful and elaborate culture should be taught the people, whose +mainstay it is, a large proportion being as entirely dependent upon +flowers as the honey bee! Here, and in the neighbourhood of Nice, they +are cultivated for market and exportation, not for perfume distilleries +as at Grasse. +</p> + +<p> +The State School of Antibes was created by the Minister of Agriculture +in 1891, and is so unlike anything of the kind in England that a brief +description will be welcome. The first point to be noted is its +essentially democratic spirit. When did a farm-labourer's son among +ourselves learn any more of agriculture than his father or +fellow-workmen could teach him? At Antibes, as in the numerous +farm-schools (fermes-écoles) now established throughout France, the +pupils are chiefly recruited from the peasant class. +</p> + +<p> +How, will it be asked, can a small tenant farmer or owner of three or +four acres afford to lose his son's earnings as soon as he quits school, +much less to pay even a small sum for his education? The difficulty is +met thus: in the first place, the yearly sum for board, lodging and +teaching is reduced to the minimum, viz. five hundred francs a year; in +the second, large numbers of scholarships are open to pupils who have +successfully passed the examination of primary schools, and whose +parents can prove their inability to pay the fees. No matter how poor he +may be, the French peasant takes a long look ahead. He makes up his mind +to forfeit his son's help or earnings for a year or two in view of the +ulterior advantage. A youth having studied at Antibes, would come out +with instruction worth much more than the temporary loss of time and +money. That parents do reason in this way is self-evident. On the +occasion of my visit, of the twenty-seven students by far the larger +proportion were exhibitioners, sons of small owners or tenants. Lads are +admitted from fourteen years and upwards, and must produce the +certificate of primary studies, answering to that of our Sixth Standard, +or pass an entrance examination. The school is under State supervision, +the teaching staff consisting of certificated professors. The discipline +is of the simplest, yet, I was assured, quite efficacious. If a lad, +free scholar or otherwise, misbehaves himself, he is called before the +director and warned that a second reprimand only will be given, the +necessity of a third entailing expulsion. No more rational treatment +could be devised. +</p> + +<p> +Besides practical teaching in the fields and gardens, consisting as yet +of only twenty-five hectares, or nearly sixty acres, a somewhat +bewildering course of study is given. The list of subjects begins well. +First, a lad is here taught his duties as the head of a family, a +citizen, and a man of business. Then come geography, history, +arithmetic, book-keeping, trigonometry, linear drawing, mechanics, +chemistry, physics, natural history, botany, geology, <i>agrologie</i>, or +the study of soils, irrigation, political economy. Whilst farming +generally is taught, the speciality of the school is fruit and flower +culture. A beautiful avenue of palm and orange trees leads from the +road to the block of buildings, the director's house standing just +outside. I was fortunate in finding this gentleman at home, and he +welcomed me with the courtesy, I may say cordiality, I have ever +received from professors of agriculture and practical farmers in France. +</p> + +<p> +We immediately set out for our survey, my companion informing me, to my +surprise, that the gardens I now gazed on so admiringly formed a mere +wilderness a few years ago, that is to say, until their purchase by the +State. The palm and orange trees had been brought hither and +transplanted, everything else had sprung up on the roughly-cleared +ground. Palm trees are reared on the school lands for exportation to +Holland, there, of course, to be kept under glass; ere long the +exportation of palms and orange trees will doubtless become as +considerable as that of hothouse flowers. +</p> + +<p> +I was shown magnificent palms fifteen years old, and nurseries of tiny +trees, at this stage of their existence unlovely as birch brooms. +Hitherto, majestic although its appearance, the palm of the Riviera has +not produced dates. The director is devoting much time to this subject, +and hopes ere long to gather his crop. +</p> + +<p> +As we passed between the orange trees, here and there the deep green +glossy fruit turning to gold, I heard the same report as at Pessicarz. +At neither place can the lads resist helping themselves to the unripe +oranges. Sour apples and green oranges seem quite irresistible to +hobbledehoys. The trees were laden with fruit, and, unless blown off by +a storm, the crop would be heavy. An orange tree on an average produces +to the value of two hundred francs. +</p> + +<p> +I was next taken to the newly-created vineyards, some consisting of +French grafts on American stock, others American plants; but vines are +capricious, and one vineyard looked sickly enough, although free from +parasites. The climate did not suit it, that was all. +</p> + +<p> +But by far the most important and interesting crops here are the +hothouse flowers. I fancy few English folks think of glass-houses in +connection with the Riviera. Yet the chief business of horticulturists +during a large portion of the year is in the conservatory. Brilliant as +is the winter sun, the nights are cold and the fall of temperature +after sundown extremely rapid. Only the hardier flowers, therefore, +remain out of doors. +</p> + +<p> +I was now shown the glass-houses being made ready for the winter. All +the choice flowers, roses, carnations and others, sent to Paris, London, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, are grown under glass. Roses thus cultivated +will bring four francs per dozen to the grower; I was even told of +choicest kinds sold from the conservatories at a franc each. It may +easily be conceived how profitable is this commerce, destined without +doubt to become more so as the culture of flowers improves. New +varieties are ever in demand for royal or millionaires' tables, bridal +bouquets, funeral wreaths. I was told the discoverer or creator of a +blue carnation would make his fortune. I confess this commercial aspect +of flowers takes something from their poetry. Give me a cottager's plot +of sweet-williams and columbine instead of the floral paragon evolved +for the gratification of the curious! As we strolled about we came upon +groups of students at work. All politely raised their hats when we +passed, and by their look and manner might have been taken for young +gentlemen. +</p> + +<p> +A great future doubtless awaits this delightfully placed Horticultural +School. Whilst the object primarily aimed at by the State is the +education of native gardeners and floriculturists, other results may be +confidently expected. No rule keeps out foreigners, and just as our +Indian candidates for the Forestry service prepare themselves at Nancy, +so intending fruit-growers in Tasmania will in time betake themselves to +Antibes. A colonial, as well as an international element is pretty sure +to be added. French subjects beyond seas will certainly avail themselves +of privileges not to be had at home, carrying away with them knowledge +of the greatest service in tropical France. Horticulture as a science +must gain greatly by such a centre, new methods being tried, improved +systems put into practice. In any case, the department may fairly be +congratulated on its recent acquisition, one, alas, we have to set +against very serious drawbacks! In these intensely hot and glaring days +of mid-October, the only way of enjoying life is to betake oneself to a +sailing-boat. Few English folks realize the torture of mosquito-invaded +nights on the Riviera. As to mosquito curtains, they afford a remedy +ofttimes worse than the disease, keeping out what little air is to be +had and admitting, here and there, one mosquito of slenderer bulk and +more indomitable temper than the rest. After two or three utterly +sleepless nights the most enthusiastic traveller will sigh for grey +English skies, pattering drops and undisturbed sleep. At sea, you may +escape both blinding glare and mosquito bites. A boat is also the only +means of realizing the beauty of the coast. Most beautiful is the +roundabout sail from Cannes to the Île St. Marguerite: I say roundabout, +because, if the wind is adverse, the boatmen have to make a circuit, +going out of their course to the length of four or five miles. Every +tourist knows the story of the Iron Mask; few are perhaps aware that in +the horrible prison in which Louis XIV kept him for seventeen years, +Protestants were also incarcerated, their only crime being that they +would not perjure themselves, in other words, feign certain beliefs to +please the tyrant. +</p> + +<p> +At the present time the cells adjoining the historic dungeon of the +Masque de Fer are more cheerfully occupied. Soldiers are placed there +for slight breaches of discipline, their confinement varying from twelve +hours to a few days. We heard two or three occupants gaily whiling away +the time by singing patriotic songs, under the circumstances the best +thing they could do. Lovely indeed was the twenty minutes' sail back to +Cannes, the sea, deep indigo, the sky, intensest blue, white villas +dotting the green hills, far away the violet mountains. When we betake +ourselves to the railway or carriage road, we must make one comparison +very unfavourable to English landscape. Here building stone, as bricks +and mortar with us, is daily and hourly invading pastoral scenes, but +the hideous advertizing board is absent in France. We do not come upon +monster advertisements of antibilious pills, hair dye, or soap amid +olive groves and vineyards. Let us hope that the vulgarization +permitted among ourselves will not be imitated by our neighbours. +</p> + +<p> +In 1789 Arthur Young described the stretch of country between Fréjus +and Cannes as a desert, "not one mile in twenty cultivated." Will +Europe and America, with the entire civilized world, furnish +valetudinarians in sufficient numbers to fill the hotels, villas, and +boarding houses now rising at every stage of the same way? The matter +seems problematic, yet last winter accommodation at Nice barely +sufficed for the influx of visitors. +</p> + +<p> +Nice is the most beautiful city in France, I am tempted to say the most +beautiful city I ever beheld. It is the last in which I should choose to +live or even winter. +</p> + +<p> +Site, sumptuosity, climate, vegetation here attain their acme; so far, +indeed, Nice may be pronounced flawless. During a certain portion of the +year, existence, considered from the physical and material point of +view, were surely here perfect. When we come to the social and moral +aspect of the most popular health resort in Europe, a very different +conclusion is forced upon us. +</p> + +<p> +Blest in itself, Nice is cursed in its surroundings. So near is that +plague spot of Europe, Monte Carlo, that it may almost be regarded as a +suburb. For a few pence, in half-an-hour, you may transport yourself +from a veritable earthly Paradise to what can only be described as a +gilded Inferno. Unfortunately evil is more contagious than good. Certain +medical authorities aver that the atmosphere of Mentone used to be +impregnated with microbes of phthisis; the germs of moral disease +infecting the immediate neighbourhood of Nice are far more appalling. +Nor are symptoms wanting of the spread of that moral disease. The +municipal council of this beautiful city, like Esau, had just sold their +birthright for a mess of pottage. They had conceded the right of +gambling to the Casino, the proprietors purchasing the right by certain +outlays in the way of improvements, a new public garden, and so on. As +yet roulette and rouge-et-noir are not permitted at Nice, the gambling +at present carried on being apparently harmless. It is in reality even +more insidious, being a stepping-stone to vice, a gradual initiation +into desperate play. Just as addiction to absinthe is imbibed by potions +quite innocuous in the beginning, so the new Casino at Nice schools the +gamester from the outset, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees preparing +him for ruin, dishonour and suicide. +</p> + +<p> +The game played is called <i>Petits Chevaux</i>, and somewhat resembles our +nursery game of steeplechase. The stakes are only two francs, but as +there are eight to each horse, and you may take as many as you please, +it is quite easy to lose several hundred francs in one evening—or, for +the matter of that, one afternoon. Here, as at Monte Carlo, the gambling +rooms remain open from noon till midnight. The buildings are on an +imposing scale: reading rooms, a winter garden, concerts, entertainments +of various kinds blinding the uninitiated to the real attraction of the +place, namely, the miniature horses spinning around the tables. +Already—I write of October—eager crowds stood around, and we heard +the incessant chink of falling coin. This modified form of gambling is +especially dangerous to the young. Parents, who on no account would let +their children toss a five-franc piece on to the tables of Monte Carlo, +see no harm in watching them play at <i>petits chevaux</i>. They should, +first of all, make a certain ghastly pilgrimage I will now relate. +</p> + +<p> +Monaco does not as yet, politically speaking, form a part of French +territory; from a geographical point of view we are obliged so to regard +it. Thus French geographers and writers of handbooks include the tiny +principality, which for the good of humanity, let us hope, may ere long +be swallowed up by an earthquake—or moralized! The traveller then is +advised to take train to Monaco, and, arrived at the little station, +whisper his errand in the cab-driver's ear, "To the suicides' cemetery." +</p> + +<p> +For the matter of that, it is an easy walk enough for all who can stand +the burning sun and glare of white walls and buildings. Very lovely, +too, is the scene as we slowly wind upwards, the road bordered with +aloes and cypresses; above, handsome villas standing amid orange groves +and flowers; below, the sparkling sea. +</p> + +<p> +A French cemetery, with its wreaths of beadwork and artificial violets, +has ever a most depressing appearance. That of Monaco is like any other, +we find the usual magnificence, and usual tinsel. Many beautiful trees, +shrubs, and flowers, however, relieve the gloom, and every inch is +exquisitely kept. +</p> + +<p> +Quite apart from this vast burial-ground, on the other side of the main +entrance, is a small enclosure, walled in and having a gate of open +ironwork always locked. Here, in close proximity to heaps of garden +rubbish, broken bottles and other refuse, rest the suicides of Monte +Carlo, buried by the parish gravedigger, without funeral and without any +kind of religious ceremony. Each grave is marked by an upright bit of +wood, somewhat larger than that by which gardeners mark their seeds, and +on which is painted a number, nothing more. Apart from these, are +stakes driven into the ground which mark as yet unappropriated spots. +The indescribable dreariness of the scene is heightened by two +monumental stones garlanded with wreaths and surrounded by flowers. The +first records the memory of a young artisan, and was raised by his +fellow-workmen; the second commemorates brotherly and sisterly +affection. Both suicides were driven to self-murder by play. The +remainder are mere numbers. There are poor gamesters as well as rich, +and it is only or chiefly these who are put into the ground here. The +bodies of rich folks' relatives, if identified, are immediately removed, +and, by means of family influence, interred with religious rites. Many +suicides are buried at Nice and Mentone, but the larger proportion, +farther off still. Not to descant further on this grim topic, let me now +say something about Monte Carlo itself. +</p> + +<p> +Never anywhere was snare more plainly set in the sight of any bird. +There is little in the way of amusement that you do not get for nothing +here, a beautiful pleasure-ground, reading-rooms as luxurious and +well-supplied as those of a West End club, one of the best orchestras in +Europe, and all without cost of a farthing. +</p> + +<p> +The very lavishness arouses suspicion in the minds of the wary. Why +should we be supplied, not only with every English newspaper we ever +heard of, but with <i>Punch</i>, <i>Truth</i>, and similar publications to boot? Why +should Germans, Russians, Dutch, every other European nation, receive +treatment equally generous? Again, to be able to sit down at elegant +writing-tables and use up a quire of fine notepaper and a packet of +envelopes to match, if we chose, how is all this managed? The concerts +awaken a feeling of even intenser bewilderment. Not so much as a penny +are we allowed to pay for a programme, to say nothing of the trained +musicians. Where is the compensation of such liberality? +</p> + +<p> +The gambling tables, crowded even at three o'clock on an October +afternoon, answer our question. The season begins later, but gamblers +cannot wait. "Faites le jeu, messieurs; messieurs, faites le jeu," is +already heard from noon to midnight, and the faster people ruin +themselves and send a pistol shot through their heads, the faster others +take their place. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how many once +respectable lives, heads of families, even wives and mothers, are being +gradually lured on to bankruptcy and suicide. +</p> + +<p> +In cruellest contrast to the moral degradation fostered below, is the +enormous cathedral, at the time of my visit in course of erection +directly above the gambling rooms. The millions of francs expended on +this sumptuous basilica were supplied by the proprietors of the Casino +and the Prince of Monaco. Nothing can strike the stranger with a +stronger sense of incongruity—a church rising from the very heart of a +Pandemonium! +</p> + +<p> +Monaco is a pretty, toy-like, Lilliputian kingdom compared with which +the smallest German principality of former days was enormous. Curiously +enough, whilst Monte Carlo is peopled with gamesters, the only tenants +of Monaco seem to be priests, nuns and their pupils. The miniature +capital, state and kingdom in one, consists chiefly of convents and +seminaries, and wherever you go you come upon these Jesuit fathers with +their carefully-guarded troops of lads in uniform. A survey of the +entire principality of Monaco, Monte Carlo included, requires about a +quarter of an hour. Nowhere, surely, on the face of the civilized globe +is so much mischief contained in so small a space. Fortunately, the +poisonous atmosphere of the Casino does not seem to affect the native +poor. Everywhere we are struck by the thrifty, sober, hard-working +population; beggars or ragged, wretched-looking creatures are very rare. +If the authorities of the Alpes Maritimes have set themselves to put +down vagrancy, they have certainly succeeded. +</p> + +<p> +Nice is a home for the millionaire and the working man. The intermediate +class is not wanted. Visitors are expected to have money, are welcomed +on that account, and if they have to look to pounds, shillings, and +pence, had much better remain at home. +</p> + +<p> +Woe betide the needy invalid sent thither in search of sunshine! +Sunshine is indeed a far more expensive luxury on the Riviera than we +imagine, seeing that only rooms with a north aspect are cheap, and a +sunless room is much more comfortless and unwholesome than a well-warmed +one, no matter its aspect, in England. The only cheap commodity, one +unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet. In October, that is +to say, before the arrival of winter visitors, flowers are to be had for +the asking; on the market-place an enormous bouquet of tuberoses, +violets, carnations, myrtle, priced at two or three francs, the price in +Paris being twenty. Fruit also I found cheap, figs fourpence a dozen, +and other kinds in proportion. This market is the great sight of Nice, +and seen on a cloudless day—indeed it would be difficult to see it on +any other—is a glory of colour of which it is impossible to give the +remotest notion. I was somewhat taken aback to find Sunday less +observed here as a day of rest than in any other French town I know, and +not many French towns are unknown to me. The flower and fruit markets +were crowded, drapers', grocers', booksellers' shops open all day long, +traffic unbroken as usual. I should have imagined that a city, for +generations taken possession of by English visitors, would by this time +have fallen into our habit of respecting Sunday alike in the interests +of man and beast. Of churches, both English and American, there is no +lack. Let us hope that the Protestant clergy will turn their attention +to this subject. Let us hope also that the entire English-speaking +community will second their efforts in this direction. Further, I will +put in a good word for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals founded at Nice some years since, and sadly in need of funds. +The Society is backed up by the Government in accordance with the +admirable Loi Grammont, but, as is the case with local societies in +England, requires extraneous help. Surely rich English valetudinarians +will not let this humane work stand still, seeing, as they must do +daily, the urgent necessity of such interference! From the windows of a +beautiful villa on the road to Villefranche, I saw baskets of chickens +brought in from Italy, the half of which were dead or dying from +suffocation. As the owner of the villa said, "Not even self-interest +teaches this Italian humanity." By packing his fowls so as to afford +them breathing space, he would double his gains. The habit of cruelty is +too inveterate. My host assured me that large numbers of poultry sent +across the frontier are suffocated on the way. +</p> + +<p> +Horrible also is the pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo. Hundreds of these +wretched birds are killed for sport every day during the winter. The +wounded or escaped fly back after a while to be shot at next day. +</p> + +<p> +The word "villa" calls for comment. Such a designation is appropriate +here. The palatial villas of Nice, standing amid orangeries and palm +groves, are worthy of their Roman forerunners. For the future I shall +resent the term as applied in England to eight-roomed, semi-detached +constructions, poorly built, and with a square yard of flower-bed in +front. Many of the Niçois villas are veritable palaces, and what adds to +their sumptuousness is the indoor greenery, dwarf palms, india-rubber +trees, and other handsome evergreens decorating corridor and +landing-places. The English misnomer has, nevertheless, compensations in +snug little kitchen and decent servant's bedroom. I looked over a +handsome villa here, type, I imagine, of the rest. The servants' +bedrooms were mere closets with openings on to a dark corridor, no +windows, fireplace, cupboard, or any convenience. The kitchen was a +long, narrow room, after the manner of French kitchens, with space by +the window for two or three chairs. I ventured to ask the mistress of +the house where the servants sat when work was done. Her answer was +suggestive— +</p> + +<p> +"They have no time to sit anywhere." +</p> + +<p> +It will be seen that our grey skies and mean-looking dwellings have +compensations. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +XIII +</h3> + +<h3> +GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER +</h3> + +<p> +"Nine hours' rolling at anchor" was Arthur Young's experience of a +Channel passage in 1787, and on the return journey he was compelled to +wait three days for a wind. Two years later, what is in our own time a +delightful little pleasure cruise of one hour and a quarter, the journey +from Dover to Calais occupied fourteen hours. +</p> + +<p> +We might suppose from the hundreds of thousands of English travellers +who yearly cross the Manche, that Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders +would overflow with them, that we should hear English speech wherever we +go, and find ourselves amid more distinctly English surroundings than +even in Switzerland or Norway; but no such thing. From the moment I +quitted Boulogne to that of my departure from Calais, having made the +round by way of Hesdin, Arras, Vitry-en-Artois, Douai, Lille, St. Omer, +I no more encountered an English tourist than on the Causses of the +Lozère a few years before. Many years later, on going over much of the +same ground, with a halt at Étaples and Le Touquet, it was much the +same. Yet such a tour, costing so little as regards money, time and +fatigue, teems with interest of very varied and unlooked-for kind. +</p> + +<p> +Every inch of ground is historic to begin with, and has contributed its +page to Anglo-French annals or English romance. We may take the little +railway from Hesdin to Abbeville, traversing the forest of Crécy, and +drive across the cornfields to Agincourt. We may stop at Montreuil, +which now looks well, not only "on the map," but from the railway +carriage, reviving our recollections of Tristram Shandy. At Douai we +find eighty English boys playing cricket and football under the eye of +English Benedictine monks—their college being a survival of the +persecutions of Good Queen Bess. +</p> + +<p> +And to come down from history and romance to astounding prose, we find, +a few years ago, Roubaix, a town of 114,000 souls, that is to say, a +fourth of the population of Lyons—a town whose financial transactions +with the Bank of France exceed those of Rheims, Nîmes, Toulouse, or +Montpellier, represented by a man of the people, the important functions +of mayor being filled by the proprietor of a humble <i>estaminet</i> and +vendor of newspapers, character and convictions only having raised the +Socialist leader to such a post! +</p> + +<p> +In rural districts there is also much to learn. Peasant property exists +more or less in every part of France, but we are here more especially in +presence of agriculture on a large scale. In the Pas-de-Calais and the +Nord we find high farming in right good earnest, holdings of from ten to +fifteen hundred acres conducted on the footing of large industrial +concerns, capital, science and enterprise being alike brought to bear +upon the cultivation of the soil and by private individuals. +</p> + +<p> +I travelled from Boulogne to Hesdin, in time for the first beautiful +effect of spring-tide flower and foliage. The blackthorn and pear trees +were already in full blossom, and the elm, poplar and chestnut just +bursting into leaf. Everything was very advanced, and around the +one-storeyed, white-washed cottages the lilacs showed masses of bloom, +field and garden being a month ahead of less favoured years. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> + * * * * *<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Near Étaples the wide estuary of the Canche showed clear, lake-like +sheets of water amid the brilliant greenery; later are passed sandy +downs with few trees or breaks in the landscape. This part of France +should be seen during the budding season; of itself unpicturesque, it is +yet beautified by the early foliage. Hesdin is an ancient, quiet little +town on the Canche, with tanneries making pictures—and smells—by the +river, unpaved streets, and a very curious bit of civic architecture, +the triple-storeyed portico of the Hôtel de Ville. Its 7000 and odd +souls were soon to have their museum, the nucleus being a splendid set +of tapestries representing the battle of Agincourt, in loveliest shades +of subdued blue and grey. The little inn is very clean and comfortable; +for five francs a day you obtain the services of the master, who is +cook; the mistress, who is chambermaid; and the daughters of the house, +who wait at table. Such, at least, was my experience. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> + * * * * *<br /> +</p> + +<p> +My errand was to the neighbouring village of Hauteville-Caumont, whither +I drove one afternoon. Quitting the town in a north-easterly direction, +we enter one of those long, straight French roads that really seem as if +they would never come to an end. The solitude of the scene around is +astonishing to English eyes. For miles we only meet two road-menders and +an itinerant glazier. On either side, far as the glance could reach, +stretches the chessboard landscape—an expanse oceanic in its vastness +of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land +prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this +plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness +of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays +of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level +uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips +here and there, showing tiny combes and bits of refreshing wood. The +houses, whether of large landowner, functionary or peasant, are +invariably one-storeyed, the white walls, brown tiles, or thatched roof +having an old-fashioned, rustic effect. One might suppose earthquakes +were common from this habit of living on the ground floor. The dryness +of the climate doubtless obviates risk of damp. Much more graceful are +the little orchards of these homesteads than the mathematically planted +cider apples seen here in all stages of growth. Even the blossoms of +such trees later on cannot compare with the glory of an orchard, in the +old acceptance of the word, having reached maturity in the natural way. +Certain portions of rural France are too geometrical. That I must admit. +</p> + +<p> +Exquisitely clean, to use a farmer's expression, are these sweeps of +corn and ploughed land, belonging to different owners, yet apparently +without division. Only boundary stones at intervals mark the limits. +Here we find no infinitesimal subdivision and no multiplicity of crops. +Wheat, clover, oats form the triennial course, other crops being rye, +potatoes, Swede turnips, sainfoin and the <i>oeillette</i> or oil poppy. The +cider apple is also an important product. +</p> + +<p> +I found my friend's friend at home, and after a chat with madame and her +daughter, we set out for our round of inspection. This gentleman farmed +his own land, a beautifully cultivated estate of several hundred acres; +here and there a neighbour's field dovetailed into his own, but for the +greater part lying compactly together. The first object that attracted +my notice was a weather-beaten old windmill—sole survivor of myriads +formerly studding the country. This antiquated structure might have been +the identical one slashed at by Don Quixote. Iron grey, dilapidated, +solitary, it rose between green fields and blue sky, like a lighthouse +in mid-ocean. These mills are still used for crushing rye, the mash +being mixed with roots for cattle, and the straw used here, as +elsewhere, for <i>liage</i> or tying up wheatsheaves. The tenacity of this +straw makes it very valuable for such purposes. +</p> + +<p> +Corn, rye and sainfoin were already very advanced, all here testifying +to highly scientific farming; and elsewhere roots were being sown. The +soil is prepared by a process called <i>marnage</i>, <i>i.e</i>. dug up to the +extent of three feet, the <i>marne</i> or clayey soil being brought to the +surface. A very valuable manure is that of the scoria or residue of +dephosphated steel, formerly thrown away as worthless, but now largely +imported from Hungary for agricultural purposes. Nitrate is also largely +used to enrich the soil. Sixty years ago the Pas-de-Calais possessed +large forests. Here at Caumont vast tracts have been cleared and brought +under culture since that time. These denuded plateaux, at a considerable +elevation above the sea-level, are naturally very dry and very cold in +winter, the climate being gradually modified by the almost total absence +of trees. Wisely has the present Government interdicted further +destruction; forests are now created instead, and we find private +individuals planting instead of hacking down. Lucerne is not much +cultivated, and my host told me an interesting fact concerning it; in +order to grow lucerne, farmers must procure seeds of local growers. +Seeds from the south of France do not produce robust plants. +</p> + +<p> +The purple-flowered poppy, cultivated for the production of oil, must +form a charming crop in summer, and is a most important product. I was +assured that oil procured from crushed seeds is the only kind absolutely +free from flavour, and as such superior even to that of olives. Of equal +importance is the cider apple. +</p> + +<p> +The economic results of war are curiously exemplified here. During the +war of 1871 German troops were stationed in the neighbouring department +of the Somme, and there acquired the habit of drinking cider. So +agreeable was found this drink that cider apples are now largely +exported to Germany, and just as a Frenchman now demands his Bock at a +café, so in his Biergarten the German calls for cider. +</p> + +<p> +My host informed me that all his own apples, grown for commerce, went +over the northern frontier. Cider is said to render the imbiber +gout-proof and rheumatism-proof, but requires a long apprenticeship to +render it palatable. The profits of an apple orchard are threefold. +There is the crop gathered in October, which will produce in fair +seasons 150 francs per hectare, and the two grass crops, apple trees not +hurting the pasture. +</p> + +<p> +The labourer's harvest here are his potato-fed pigs. In our walks we +came upon men and women sowing potatoes on their bit of hired land; for +the most part their bit of land is tilled on Sundays, a neighbour's +horse being hired or borrowed for the purpose. Thus neither man nor +beast rest on the seventh day, and as a natural consequence church-going +gradually falls into abeyance. My host deplored this habit of turning +Sunday into a veritable <i>corvée</i> for both human beings and cattle, but +said that change of system must be very slow. +</p> + +<p> +On the whole, the condition of the agricultural labourer here contrasts +very unfavourably with that of the peasant owner described elsewhere. +</p> + +<p> +The same drawbacks exist as in England. Land for the most part being +held by large owners, accommodation for poorer neighbours is +insufficient. Many able-bodied workmen migrate to the towns, simply +because they cannot get houses to live in; such one-storeyed dwellings +as exist have an uncared-for look, neither are the village folks so well +dressed as in regions of peasant property. In fact, I should say, after +a very wide experience, that peasant property invariably uplifts and +non-propertied labour drags down. This seems to me a conclusion +mathematically demonstrable. +</p> + +<p> +Mayor of his commune, my host was a man of progress and philanthropy in +the widest sense of the word. He had lately brought about the opening of +an infant school here, and dwelt on the beneficial results; children not +being admitted to the communal schools under the age of seven, were +otherwise thrown on the streets all day. Infant schools are generally +found in the larger communes. Intersecting my host's vast stretches of +field and ploughed land lay the old strategic road from Rouen to St. +Omer, a broad band of dazzling white thrown across the tremendous +panorama. An immense plain is spread before us as a map, now crudely +brilliant in hue, two months later to show blending gold and purple. +Vast, too, the views obtained on the homeward drive. Over against Hesdin +rises its forest—holiday ground of rich and poor, as yet undiscovered +by the tourist. From this friendly little town a charming woodland +journey may be made by the railway now leading through the forest of +Crécy to Abbeville. +</p> + +<p> +Between Hesdin and Arras the geometrically planted cider apple trees and +poplars growing in parallel lines are without beauty, but by the railway +are bits of waste ground covered with cowslip, wind flowers, +cuckoo-pint, and dandelion. On the top of lofty elms here and there are +dark masses; these are the nests of the magpie, and apparently quite +safe from molestation. +</p> + +<p> +By the wayside we see evidences of peasant ownership on the most modest +scale, women cutting their tiny patch of rye, as green food for cattle, +sowing their potato field, or keeping a few sheep. Everywhere lilacs +are in full bloom, and the pear and cherry trees burdened with blossom +as snow. Everything is a month ahead of ordinary years. I write of +April 1893. +</p> + +<p> +The Hôtel St. Pol at Arras looks, I should say, precisely as it did in +Robespierre's time. The furniture certainly belongs to that epoch, +sanitary arrangements have made little advance, and the bare staircases +and floors do not appear as if they had been well swept, much less +scoured, since the fall of the Bastille. It is a rambling, I should say +rat-haunted, old place, but fairly quiet and comfortable, with civil +men-servants and no kind of pretence. +</p> + +<p> +Arras itself, that is to say its Petite Place, is a specimen of +Renaissance architecture hardly to be matched even in France. The +Flemish gables and Spanish arcades, not a vestige of modernization +marring the effect, make a unique picture. Above all rises the first of +those noble belfry towers met by the traveller on this round, souvenirs +of civic rights hardly won and stoutly maintained. The first object +looked for will be Robespierre's birthplace, an eminently respectable +middle-class abode, now occupied by a personage almost as generally +distasteful as that of the Conventionnel himself, namely, a +process-server or bailiff. A bright little lad whom I interrogated on +the way testified the liveliest interest in my quest, and would not lose +sight of me till I had discovered the right house. It is a +yellow-walled, yellow-shuttered, symbolically atrabilious-looking place, +with twenty-three front windows. Robespierre's parents must have been in +decent circumstances when their son Maximilian was born, and perhaps the +reverses of early life had no small share in determining his after +career. Left an orphan in early life, he owed his education and start in +life to charity. The fastidious, poetic, austere country lawyer, unlike +his fellow-conventionnels, was no born orator. Thoughts that breathe and +words that burn did not drop from his lips as from Danton's. His +carefully prepared speeches, even in the apogee of his popularity, were +often interrupted by the cry "Cut it short" or "Keep to the point." The +exponent of Rousseau was ofttimes "long preaching," like St. Paul. +</p> + +<p> +But there are early utterances of Robespierre's that constitute in +themselves a revolution, when, for instance, in 1789 he pleaded for the +admission of Jews, non-Catholics, and actors to political rights. "The +Jews," he protested, "have been maligned in history. Their reputed vices +arise from the ignominy into which they have been plunged." And although +his later discourses breathe a spirit of frenzied vindictiveness, +certain passages recall that "humane and spiritual element" commented +upon by Charles Nodier. This is especially noticeable in what is called +his <i>discours-testament</i>, the speech delivered on the eve of Thermidor. +At one moment, with positive ferocity, he lashes the memory of former +friends and colleagues sent by himself to the guillotine; at another he +dilates upon the virtue of magnanimity in lofty, Platonic strains. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +[ILLUSTRATION: ARRAS, LA PETITE PALACE] +</p> + +<p> +With Danton's implacable foe it was indeed a case of "Roses, roses, all +the way. Thus I enter, and thus I go." Twenty-four hours after that +peroration he awaited his doom, an object of ruthless execration. And +visitors are still occasionally shown in the Hôtel des Archives the +table on which was endured his short but terrible retribution. +</p> + +<p> +A public day school for girls exists at Arras, but the higher education +of women—we must never lose sight of the fact—is sternly denounced by +Catholic authorities. Lay schools and lay teachers for girls are not +only unfashionable, they are immoral in the eyes of the orthodox. +</p> + +<p> +The museum and public library, 40,000 and odd volumes, of this town +of 26,000 souls are both magnificent and magnificently housed in the +ancient Abbaye de St. Vaast, adjoining cathedral, bishopric and +public garden. +</p> + +<p> +Besides pictures, statuary, natural history and archaeological +collections, occupying three storeys, is a room devoted exclusively to +local talent and souvenirs. Among the numerous bequests of generous +citizens is a collection of <i>faïence</i> lately left by a tradeswoman, +whose portrait commemorates the deed. Some fine specimens of ancient +tapestry of Arras, hence the name arras, chiefly in shades of grey and +blue, and also specimens of the delicate hand-made Arras lace, are here. +There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used +in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles. +</p> + +<p> +Quite a third of the visitors thronging these sumptuous rooms were young +recruits. A modern picture of Eustache St. Pierre and his companions, at +the feet of Edward III and his kneeling Queen, evoked much admiration. I +heard one young soldier explaining the subject to a little group. There +were also many family parties, and some blue blouses. How delightful +such a place of resort-not so much in July weather, on this 9th of April +one might fancy it harvest time!—but on bleak, rainy, uninviting days! +One of the officials advised me to visit the recently erected Ecole des +Beaux Arts at the other end of the town, which I did. I would here note +the pride taken in their public collections by all concerned. This +elderly man, most likely an old soldier, seemed as proud of the museum +as if it were his own especial property. +</p> + +<p> +I was at once shown over the spacious, airy, well-kept building—school +of art and conservatorium of music in one, both built, set on foot, and +maintained by the municipality. Here youths and girls of all ranks can +obtain a thorough artistic and musical training without a fraction of +cost. The classes are held in separate rooms, and boys in addition learn +modelling and mechanical drawing. +</p> + +<p> +The school was opened four years ago, and already numbers eighty +students of both sexes, girls meeting two afternoons a week, boys every +evening. Arras also possesses an École Normale or large training school +for female teachers. +</p> + +<p> +On this brilliant Sunday afternoon, although many small shops were open, +I noted the cessation of street traffic. Every one seemed abroad, and +business at a standstill. All the newspaper kiosks were closed. +</p> + +<p> +Next morning soon after eight o'clock I was off to Vitry-en-Artois for +a day's farming. At the little station I was met by a friend's +friend—a typical young Frenchman, gaiety itself, amiable, easy, all +his faculties alert—and driven by him in a little English dogcart to +the neighbouring village. Twenty-five minutes brought us to our +destination—house and model farm of a neighbour, upwards of twelve +hundred acres, all cultivated on the most approved methods. Our host +now took my young friend's reins, he seating himself behind, and we +drove slowly over a large portion of the estate, taking a zigzag course +across the fields. There are here three kinds of soil—dry, chalky and +unproductive, rich loam, and light intermediate. In spite of the +drought of the last few weeks, the crops are very luxuriant, and quite +a month ahead of former seasons. +</p> + +<p> +This estate of six hundred and odd hectares is a specimen of high +farming on a large scale, such as I had never before witnessed in +France. I do not exaggerate when I say that from end to end could not +be discerned a single weed. Of course, the expense of cultivation on +such a scale is very great, and hardly remunerative at the present +price of wheat. +</p> + +<p> +Sixty hectares, <i>i.e.</i> nearly 150 acres, are planted with wheat, and +two-thirds of that superficies with beetroot. The young corn was as +advanced as in June with us, some kinds of richer growth than others, +and showing different shades of green, each tract absolutely weedless, +and giving evidence of highest cultivation. Fourteen hectolitres per +hectare of corn is the average, forty the maximum. Besides beetroot for +sugar, clover and sainfoin are grown, little or no barley, and neither +turnips nor mangel-wurzel. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: Hectolitre = 2 bushels 3 pecks.] +</p> + +<p> +The land is just now prepared for planting beetroot, by far the most +important crop here, and on which I shall have much to say. Henceforth, +indeed, the farming I describe may be called industrial, purely +agricultural products being secondary. +</p> + +<p> +On the importance of beetroot sugar it is hardly necessary to dwell at +length. A few preliminary facts, however, may be acceptable. Up till the +year 1812, cane sugar only was known in France; the discovery of +beetroot sugar dates from the Continental blockade of that period. In +1885 the amount of raw sugar produced from beetroot throughout France +was 90 millions of kilos. In 1873 the sum-total had reached 400 +millions. The consumption of sugar per head here is nevertheless +one-third less than among ourselves. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: Kilogramme = 2 lb. 3 oz.] +</p> + +<p> +We come now to see the results of fiscal regulation upon agriculture. +Formerly duty was paid not upon the root itself but its product. This is +now changed, and, the beetroot being taxed, the grower strives after +that kind producing the largest percentage of saccharine matter. Hardly +less important is the residue. The pulp of the crushed beetroot in +these regions forms the staple food of cows, pigs and sheep. Mixed with +chopped straw, it is stored for winter use in mounds by small +cultivators, in enormous cellars constructed on purpose by large owners. +Horses refuse to eat this mixture, which has a peculiar odour, scenting +farm premises from end to end. The chief manure used is that produced on +the farm and nitrates. On this especial estate dried fish from Sweden +had been tried, and, as on the farm before mentioned, chalky land is dug +to the depth of three feet, the better soil being put on the top. This +is the process called <i>marnage</i>. We now drove for miles right across the +wide stretches of young wheat and land prepared for beetroot. The wheels +of our light cart, the host said, would do good rather than harm. Horse +beans, planted a few weeks before, were well up; colza also was pretty +forward. Pastures there were none. Although the cornfields were as clean +as royal gardens we came upon parties of women, girls and boys hoeing +here and there. The rows of young wheat showed as much uniformity as a +newly-planted vineyard. +</p> + +<p> +Ploughing and harrowing were being done chiefly by horses, only a few +oxen being used. My host told me that his animals were never worked on +Sundays. On week-days they remain longer afield than with us, but a +halt of an hour or two is made for food and rest at mid-day. Another +crop to be mentioned is what is called <i>hivernage</i> or winter fodder, +<i>i.e.</i> lentils planted between rows of rye, the latter being grown +merely to protect the other. On my query as to the school attendance of +boys and girls employed in agriculture, my host said that authorities +are by no means rigid; at certain seasons of the year, indeed, they are +not expected to attend. Among some large landowners we find tolerably +conservative notions even in France. Over-education, they say, is +unfitting the people for manual labour, putting them out of their place, +and so forth. +</p> + +<p> +Moles are not exterminated. "They do more good than harm," said my host, +"and I like them." I had heard the same thing at Caumont, where were +many mole-hills. Here and there, dove-tailed into these enormous fields, +were small patches farmed by the peasants, rarely their own property. +Their condition was described as neither that of prosperity nor want. +"They get along." That was the verdict. +</p> + +<p> +In our long drive across weedless corn and clover fields we came upon a +small wood, a recent plantation of our host. Even this bit of greenery +made a pleasant break in the uniform landscape. We then drove home, and +inspected the premises on foot. Everything was on a colossal scale, +and trim as a Dutch interior. The vast collection of machinery included +the latest French, English, Belgian and American inventions. Steam +engines are fixtures, the consumption of coal being 160 tons yearly per +300 hectares. +</p> + +<p> +We are thus brought face to face with the agriculture of the future, +ancient methods and appliances being supplanted one by one, manual +labour reduced to the minimum, the cultivation of the soil become purely +mechanical. The idyllic element vanishes from rural life and all savours +of Chicago! Stables and neat-houses were the perfection of cleanliness +and airiness. Here for the first time I saw sheep stabled like cows and +horses. Their quarters were very clean, and littered with fresh straw. +They go afield for a portion of the day, but, as I have before +mentioned, pastures are few and far between. +</p> + +<p> +The enormous underground store-houses for beetroot, pulp and chopped +straw were now almost empty. At midday, the oxen were led home and fell +to their strange food with appetite, its moistness being undoubtedly an +advantage in dry weather. The cart horses were being fed with boiled +barley, and looked in first-rate condition. Indeed, all the animals +seemed as happy and well-cared for as my host's scores upon scores of +pet birds. Birds, however, are capricious, and nothing would induce a +beautiful green parrot to cry, "Vive la France" in my presence. After an +animated breakfast—thoroughly French breakfast, the best of everything +cooked and served in the best possible manner—we took leave, and my +young friend drove me back to Vitry to call upon his own family. +</p> + +<p> +M.D., senior, is a miller, and the family dwelling, which adjoins his +huge water-mill, is very prettily situated on the Scarpe. We entered +by a little wooden bridge running outside, a conservatory filled with +exotics and ferns lending the place a fairy look. I never saw anything +in rural France that more fascinated me than this water-mill with its +crystal clear waters and surrounding foliage. M.D. with his three sons +quitted their occupation as we drove up. Madame and her young daughter +joined us in the cool salon, and we chatted pleasantly for a quarter +of an hour. +</p> + +<p> +I was much struck with the head of the family, an elderly man with blue +eyes, fine features, and a thoughtful expression. He spoke sadly of the +effect of American competition, and admitted that protection could offer +but a mere palliative. Hitherto I had found a keenly protectionist bias +among French agriculturists. Of England and the English he spoke with +much sympathy, although at this time we were as yet far from the Entente +Cordiale. "C'est le plus grand peuple au monde" ("It is the greatest +nation in the world"), he said. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing could equal the ease and cordiality with which this charming +family received me. The miller with his three elder sons had come +straight from the mill. Well-educated gentlemen are not ashamed of +manual labour in France. How I wished I could have spent days, nay +weeks, in the neighbourhood of the water-mill! +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +XIV +</h3> + +<h3> +LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS +</h3> + +<p> +Only three museums in France date prior to the Revolution, those of +Rheims, founded in 1748, and of Dijon and Nancy, founded in 1787. The +opening in Paris of the Muséum Français in 1792, consisting of the royal +collections and art treasures of suppressed convents, was the beginning +of a great movement in this direction. At Lille the municipal +authorities first got together a few pictures in the convent of the +Récollets, and Watteau the painter was deputed to draw up a catalogue. +On the 12th May, 1795, the collection consisted of 583 pictures and 58 +engravings. On the 1st September, 1801, the consuls decreed the +formation of departmental museums and distribution of public art +treasures. It was not, however, till 1848 that the municipal council of +Lille set to work in earnest upon the enrichment of the museum, now one +of the finest in provincial cities. The present superb building was +erected entirely at the expense of the municipality, and was only opened +two years ago. It has recently been enriched by art treasures worth a +million of francs, the gift of a rich citizen and his wife, tapestries, +<i>faïence</i>, furniture, enamels, ivories, illuminated MSS., rare bindings, +engraved gems. Before that time the unrivalled collection of drawings by +old masters had lent the Lille museum a value especially its own. +</p> + +<p> +The collections are open every day, Sundays included. Being entirely +built of stone, there is little risk of fire. Thieves are guarded +against by two caretakers inside the building at night and two patrols +outside. It is an enormous structure, and arranged with much taste. +</p> + +<p> +The old wall still encircles the inner town, and very pretty is the +contrast of grey stone and fresh spring foliage; lilacs in full bloom, +also the almond, cherry, pear tree, and many others. +</p> + +<p> +Lille nowadays recalls quite other thoughts than those suggested by +Tristram Shandy. It may be described as a town within towns, the +manufacturing centres around having gradually developed into large rival +municipalities. Among these are Tourcoing, Croix, and Roubaix, now more +than half as large as Lille itself. I stayed a week at Lille, and had I +remained there a year, in one respect should have come away no whit the +wiser. The manufactories, one and all, are inaccessible as the interior +of a Carmelite convent. Queen Victoria could get inside the monastery of +the Grande Chartreuse, but I question whether Her Majesty would have +been permitted to see over a manufactory of thread gloves at Lille! +</p> + +<p> +Such jealousy has doubtless its reason. Most likely trade secrets have +been filched by foreign rivals under the guise of the ordinary tourist. +Be this as it may, the confection of a tablecloth or piece of beige is +kept as profoundly secret as that of the famous pepper tarts of Prince +Bedreddin or the life-sustaining cordial of celebrated fasters. +</p> + +<p> +In the hope of winning over a feminine mind, I drove with a friend to +one of the largest factories at Croix, the property of a lady. +</p> + +<p> +Here, as at Mulhouse, mill-owners live in the midst of their works. They +do not leave business cares behind them, after English fashion, dwelling +as far away as possible from factory chimneys. The premises of Mme. C. +are on a magnificent scale; all in red brick, fresh as if erected +yesterday, the mistress's house—a vast mansion—being a little removed +from these and surrounded by elegantly-arranged grounds. A good deal of +bowing and scraping had to be got through before we were even admitted +to the portress's lodge, as much more ceremonial before the portress +could be induced to convey our errand to one of the numerous clerks in a +counting-house close by. At length, and after many dubious shakes of the +head and murmurs of surprise at our audacity, the card was transmitted +to the mansion. +</p> + +<p> +A polite summons to the great lady's presence raised our hopes. There +seemed at least some faint hope of success. Traversing the gravelled +path, as we did so catching sight of madame's coach-house and half-dozen +carriages, landau, brougham, brake, and how many more! we reached the +front door. Here the clerk left us, and a footman in livery, with no +little ceremony, ushered us into the first of a suite of reception +rooms, all fitted up in the modern style, and having abundance of ferns +and exotics. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the last salon a fashionably dressed lady, typically +French in feature, manners and deportment, sat talking to two gentlemen. +She very graciously advanced to meet us, held out a small white hand +covered with rings, and with the sweetest smile heard my modestly +reiterated request to be allowed a glimpse of the factory. Would that I +could convey the gesture, expression of face and tone of voice with +which she replied, in the fewest possible words! +</p> + +<p> +After that inimitable, unforgettable "Jamais, jamais, jamais!" there was +nothing to do but make our bow and retire, discomfiture being amply +atoned by the little scene just described. +</p> + +<p> +We next drove straight through Lille to the vast park or Bois, as it is +called, not many years since acquired by the town as a pleasure-ground. +Very wisely, the pretty, irregular stretch of glade, dell and wood has +been left as it was, only a few paths, seats and plantations being +added. No manufacturing town in France is better off in this respect. +Wide, handsome boulevards lead to the Bois and pretty botanical garden, +many private mansions having beautiful grounds, but walled in completely +as those of cloistered convents. The fresh spring greenery and multitude +of flowering trees and shrubs make suburban Lille look its best; outside +the town every cottage has a bit of ground and a tree or two. +</p> + +<p> +During this second week of April the weather suddenly changed. Rain +fell, and a keen east wind rendered fires and winter garments once +more indispensable. On one of these cold, windy days I went with +Lille friends to Roubaix, as cold and windy a town, I should say, as +any in France. +</p> + +<p> +A preliminary word or two must be said about Roubaix, the city of +strikes, pre-eminently the Socialist city. +</p> + +<p> +City we may indeed call it, and it is one of rapidly increasing +dimensions. In the beginning of the century Roubaix numbered 8000 souls +only. Its population is now 114,000. Since 1862 the number of its +machines has quintupled. Every week 600 tons of wool are brought to the +mills. As I have before mentioned, more business is transacted with the +Bank of France by this <i>cheflieu</i> of a canton than by Toulouse, Rheims, +Nîmes, or Montpellier. The speciality of Roubaix is its dress stuffs and +woollen materials, large quantities of which are exported to America. To +see these soft, delicate fabrics we must visit Regent Street and other +fashionable quarters, not an inch is to be caught sight of here. +</p> + +<p> +Roubaix is a handsome town, with every possible softening down of grimy +factory walls and tall chimneys. A broad, well-built street leads to the +Hôtel de Ville; another equally wide street, with mansions of wealthy +mill-owners and adjacent factories, leads to the new Boulevard de Paris +and pretty public park, where a band plays on Sunday afternoons. +</p> + +<p> +But my first object was to obtain an interview with the Socialist mayor, +a man of whom I had heard much. A friend residing at Lille kindly paved +the way by sending his own card with mine, the messenger bringing back a +courteous reply. Unfortunately, the Conseil-Général then sitting at +Lille curtailed the time at the mayor's disposal, but before one o'clock +he would be pleased to receive me, he sent word. Accordingly, conducted +by my friend's clerk, I set out for the Town Hall. +</p> + +<p> +We waited some little time in the vestibule, the chief magistrate of +Roubaix being very busy. Deputy-mayors, adjoints, were coming and going, +and liveried officials bustled about, glancing at me from time to time, +but without any impertinent curiosity. Impertinent curiosity, by the +way, we rarely meet with in France. People seem of opinion that +everybody must be the best judge of his or her own business. I was +finally ushered into the council chamber, where the mayor and three +deputy-mayors sat at a long table covered with green baize, transacting +business. He very courteously bade me take a seat beside him, and we at +once entered into conversation. The working man's representative of what +was then the city <i>par excellence</i> of strikes and socialism is a +remarkable-looking man in middle life. Tall, angular, beardless, with +the head of a leader, he would be noticed anywhere. There was a look of +indomitable conviction in his face, and a quiet dignity from which +neither his shabby clothes nor his humble calling detract. Can any +indeed well be humbler? The first magistrate of a city of a hundred and +fourteen thousand souls, a large percentage of whom are educated, +wealthy men of the world, keeps, as I have said, a small <i>estaminet</i> or +café in which smoking is permitted, and sells newspapers, himself early +in the morning making up and delivering his bundles to the various +retailers. Here, indeed, we have the principles of the Republic—Liberty, +Equality, Fraternity—carried out to their logical conclusion. +Without money, without social position, this man owes his present +dignity to sheer force of character and conviction. We chatted of +socialism and the phases of it more immediately connected with Roubaix, +on which latter subject I ventured to beg a little information. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: I give Littré's meaning of <i>estaminet</i>.] +</p> + +<p> +"We must go to the fountain-head," he replied very affably. "I regret +that time does not permit me to enter into particulars now; but leave me +your English address. The information required shall be forwarded." +</p> + +<p> +We then talked of socialism in England, of his English friends, and he +was much interested to learn that I had once seen the great Marx and +heard him speak at a meeting of the International in Holborn twenty-five +years before. +</p> + +<p> +Then I told him, what perhaps he knew, of the liberty accorded by our +Government to hold meetings in Trafalgar Square, and we spoke of +Gladstone. "A good democrat, but born too early for socialism—the +future of the world. One cannot take to socialism at eighty-three years +of age," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"No, that is somewhat late in the day," was the smiling reply. +</p> + +<p> +I took leave, much pleased with my reception. From a certain point of +view, the socialist mayor of Roubaix was one of the most interesting +personalities I had met in France. +</p> + +<p> +Roubaix has been endowed by the State with a handsome museum, +library, technical and art school, the latter for young men only. +These may belong to any nationality, and obtain their professional or +artistic training free of charge. The exhibition of students' work +sufficiently proclaims the excellence of the teaching. Here we saw +very clever studies from the living model, a variety of designs, and, +most interesting of all, fabrics prepared, dyed and woven entirely by +the students. +</p> + +<p> +The admirably arranged library is open to all, and we were courteously +shown some of its choicest treasures. These are not bibliographical +curiosities, but albums containing specimens of Lyons silk, a marvellous +display of taste and skill. Gems, butterflies' wings, feathers of +tropical birds are not more brilliant than these hues, while each design +is thoroughly artistic, and in its way an achievement. +</p> + +<p> +The picture gallery contains a good portrait of the veteran song-writer +Nadaud, author of the immortal "Carcassonne." Many Germans and Belgians, +engaged in commerce, spend years here, going away when their fortunes +are made. More advantageous to the place are those capitalists who take +root, identifying themselves with local interests. Such is the case with +a large English firm at Croix, who have founded a Protestant church and +schools for their workpeople. +</p> + +<p> +Let me record the spectacle presented by the museum on Sunday afternoon +during the brilliant weather of April 1893. What most struck me was the +presence of poorly-dressed boys; they evidently belonged to the least +prosperous working class, and came in by twos and threes. Nothing could +equal the good behaviour of these lads, or their interest in everything. +Many young shop-women were also there, and, as usual, a large contingent +of soldiers and recruits. +</p> + +<p> +Few shops remained open after mid-day, except one or two very large +groceries, at which fresh vegetables were sold. It is pleasant to note a +gradual diminution of Sunday labour throughout France. +</p> + +<p> +The celebration of May-Day, which date occurred soon after my visit, was +not calculated either to alarm the Republic or the world in general. It +was a monster manifestation in favour of the Three Eights, and I think +few of us, were we suddenly transformed into Roubaix machinists, would +not speedily become Three Eighters as well. +</p> + +<p> +At five o'clock in the morning the firing of cannon announced the annual +"Fête du Travail," or workmen's holiday, not accorded by Act of +Parliament, but claimed by the people as a legitimate privilege. +</p> + +<p> +Unwonted calm prevailed in certain quarters. Instead of men, women, boys +and girls pouring by tens of thousands into the factories, the streets +leading to them were empty. In one or two cases, where machinery had +been set in motion and doors opened, public opinion immediately effected +a stoppage of work. Instead, therefore, of being imprisoned from +half-past five in the morning till seven or eight at night, the entire +Roubaisien population had freed itself to enjoy "a sunshine holiday." +Such a day cannot be too long, and at a quarter past seven vast crowds +had collected before the Hôtel de Ville. +</p> + +<p> +Here a surprise was in store for the boldest Three Eighter going. The +tricolour had been hoisted down, and replaced, not by a red flag, but by +a large transparency, showing the following device in red letters upon +a white ground:— +</p> + +<p class="t3"> + FÊTE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL,<br /> + 1er Mai 1893.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> + Huit Heures du Travail,<br /> + Huit Heures du Loisir,<br /> + Huit Heures du Repos.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote: Translation-International festival of labour; eight hours' +work, eight hours' leisure, eight hours' repose.] +</p> + +<p> +The mayor, in undress, that is to say in garments of every day, having +surveyed these preparations, returned to his <i>estaminet</i>, the Plat d'Or, +and there folded his newspapers as usual for the day's distribution. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime the finishing touch was put to other decorations, +consisting of flags, devices and red drapery, everywhere the Three +Eights being conspicuous. +</p> + +<p> +A monster procession was then formed, headed by the Town Council and a +vast number of bands. There was the music of the Fire Brigade, the +socialist brass band, the children's choir, the Choral Society of +Roubaix, the Franco-Belgian Choral Society, and many others. Twenty +thousand persons took part in this procession, the men wearing red +neckties and a red flower in their button-holes, the forty-seven groups +of the workmen's federation bearing banners, all singing, bands +playing, drums beating, cannons firing as they went. +</p> + +<p> +At mid-day the defile was made before the Hôtel de Ville, and delegates +of the different socialist groups were formally received by the mayor +and deputy-mayors, wearing their tricolour scarves of office. +</p> + +<p> +I must say the mayor's speech was a model of conciseness, good sense +and, it must be added, courtesy; addressing himself first to his +fellow-townswomen, then to his fellow-townsmen, he thanked the labour +party for the grandiose celebration of the day, dwelt on the +determination of the municipal council to watch over the workmen's +interests, then begged all to enjoy themselves thoroughly, taking care +to maintain the public peace. +</p> + +<p> +Toasts were drunk, the mayor's health with especial enthusiasm, but when +at the stroke of noon he waved the tricolour and an enormous number of +pigeons were let loose, not to be fired at but admired as they flew away +in all directions, their tricolour ribbons fluttering, the general +delight knew no bounds. "Long live our mayor," resounded from every +mouth, "Vive le citoyen Carrette!" +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the day was devoted to harmless, out-of-door amusements: a +balloon ascent, on the car being conspicuous in red, "Les trois huits," +concerts, gymnastic contests, finally dancing and illuminations. +</p> + +<p> +Thus ended the first of May, 1893, in Lille. +</p> + +<p class="t3"> + * * * * *<br /> +</p> + +<p> +St. Omer is a clean, well-built and sleepy little town, with some fine +old churches. The mellow tone of the street architecture, especially +under a burning blue sky, is very soothing; all the houses have a +yellowish or pinkish hue. +</p> + +<p> +The town abounds in convents and seminaries, and the chief business of +well-to-do ladies seems that of going to church. In the cathedral are +many votive tablets to "Our Lady of Miracles"—one of the numerous +miracle-working Virgins in France. Here we read the thanksgiving of a +young man miraculously preserved throughout his four years' military +service; there, one records how, after praying fervently for a certain +boon, after many years the Virgin had granted his prayer. Parents +commemorate miraculous favours bestowed on their children, and so on. +</p> + +<p> +The ancient ramparts at this time were in course of demolition, and the +belt of boulevards which are to replace them will be a great +improvement. The town is protected by newly-constructed works. Needless +to say, it possesses a public library, on the usual principle—one +citizen one book,—a museum, and small picture gallery. The population +is 21,000. +</p> + +<p> +I was cordially received by a friend's friend, foremost resident in the +place, and owner of a large distillery. As usual, the private dwelling, +with coach-house, stables and garden adjoined the business premises. The +<i>genièvre</i> or gin, so called from the juniper used in flavouring it, +here manufactured, is a choice liqueur, not the cheap intoxicant of our +own public-houses. Liqueurs are always placed with coffee on French +breakfast-tables. Every one takes a teaspoonful as a help to digestion. +</p> + +<p> +French people are greatly astonished at the absence of liqueurs in +England. The excellence of French digestions generally would not seem to +discredit the habit. In the fabrication of gin here only the corn of rye +is used, and in small quantities, the juniper berry; it is ready for +drinking in six months, although improved by keeping. I saw also curaçoa +in its various stages. The orange peel used in the manufacture of this +liqueur is soaked in alcohol for four months. +</p> + +<p> +My object, however, was to see the high farming on an extensive scale +for which this region is famous. Accordingly my host, accompanied by his +amiable wife, placed themselves, their carriage, and time at my +disposal, and we set out for a long round. +</p> + +<p> +In harvest time the aspect of the country must be one of extreme +richness. The enormous sweeps of corn, clover, and beetroot have no +division from each other or the road; no hedges are to be seen, and not +a tree in the middle of the crops, few trees, indeed, anywhere. +Everywhere, on this 17th of April, the corn was a month ahead of former +seasons, and, in spite of the long drought, very flourishing. +</p> + +<p> +The first farm visited consists of 360 hectares (just upon 900 acres), +all in the highest cultivation, and conducted strictly on the footing of +a large industrial concern, with offices, counting-house, carpenters', +saddlers' and wheelwrights' shops, smithies, mills and machinery, every +agricultural process down to grinding the corn being performed on the +premises, and by workmen in the employ of the owner. +</p> + +<p> +As we enter these vast premises, and hear the buzz of machinery, we feel +the complete prosaicization of rustic life. The farmhouse scenes of my +own childhood in Suffolk, the idyllic descriptions of George Eliot, no +more resemble actualities than the poetic spinning-wheel of olden times +the loom of latest invention. Utility is the object aimed at, +incontestably with great results, but in effect unromantic as Chicago. +It is high farming made to pay. All was bustle and activity as we made +the round of the premises, beginning with the vast machinery and +workshops. These walled-in buildings, divided into two portions, each +covering three-quarters of an acre, reminded me of nothing so much as of +the caravanserais of Algerian travel twenty-five years ago. Once the +doors are bolted none can enter, yet to render security doubly sure dogs +are chained up in every corner—we will hope, let loose at night. +</p> + +<p> +I will not here go into agricultural details, only adding a few +particulars. +</p> + +<p> +The splendid wheat, clover, bean and rye crops attested the +excellence of the farming. Dovetailing into these enormous fields +were small patches of peasant owners or tenants, all without division +or apparent boundary. +</p> + +<p> +In the villages I was struck by the tidy appearance of the children +coming out of school. The usual verdict on peasant proprietors +hereabouts was that they do not accumulate, neither are they in want. +Very little, if any, beggary meets the eye, either in town or country. +We then drove to the château, with its English grounds, of the Vicomte +de——, friend of my host, and an ardent admirer of England and English +ways. This gentleman looked, indeed, like an English squire, and spoke +our tongue. He had visited King Edward, then Prince of Wales, at +Sandringham. As an illustration of his lavish method of doing things, I +mention a quantity of building stone lately ordered from Valenciennes. +This stone, for the purpose of building offices, had cost £800. In this +part of France clerks and counting-houses seem an indispensable feature +of farm premises. An enormous bell for summoning work-people to work or +meals is always conspicuous. The whole thing has a commercial aspect. +</p> + +<p> +Here we saw some magnificent animals, among these a prize bull of +Flemish breed. It was said to be very fierce, and on this account had a +ring in its nose. This cruel custom is now, I believe, prohibited here +by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On the other +hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in +Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card +of membership over offenders <i>in terrorem</i>. +</p> + +<p> +We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in +his agricultural pursuits. High farming was nevertheless here the order +of the day. +</p> + +<p> +We next drove to Clairmarais, a village some miles off in quite another +direction, coming in sight of magnificent forests. Our errand was to +the ancient Cistercian abbey, now the property of a capitalist, and +turned into the business premises of his large farm. Of the original +monastery, founded in 1140, hardly a trace remains. Abutting on the +outer wall is the chapel, and before it a small enclosed flower-garden +full of wallflowers and flowering shrubs, a bit of prettiness welcome to +the eye. Just beyond, too, was an old-fashioned, irregularly planted +orchard, with young cattle grazing under the bloom-laden trees, the turf +dazzlingly bright, but less so than the young corn and rye, now ready +for first harvesting. +</p> + +<p> +The vaulted kitchens with vast fireplaces are relics of the ancient +abbey, and even now form most picturesque interiors. At a long wooden +table in one sat a blue-bloused group drinking cider out of huge yellow +mugs—scene for a painter. Another, fitted up as a dairy, was hardly +less of a picture. On shelves in the dark, antiquated chamber lay large, +red-earthen pans full of cream for cheese-making. The brown-robed figure +of a lay brother would have seemed appropriate in either place. +</p> + +<p> +Outside these all was modernization and hard prose. We saw the shepherd +returning with his sheep from the herbage, the young lambs bleating +pitifully in an inner shed. It is the custom here to send the sheep +afield during the day, the lambs meantime being fed on hay. Here again, +I should say, is a commercial mistake. The lamb of pasture-fed animals +must be incontestably superior. Humanity here seems on the side of +utilitarianism. Who can say? Perhaps the inferiority of French meat in +certain regions arises from this habit of stabling cattle and sheep. The +drive from Clairmarais to St. Omer took us through a quite different and +much more attractive country. We were now in the marais, an amphibious +stretch of country, cut up into gardens and only accessible by tiny +canals. It is a small Holland. This vast stretch of market garden, +intersected by waterways just admitting the passage of a boat, is very +productive. Three pounds per hectare is often paid in rent. The early +vegetables, conveyed by boat to St. Omer, are largely exported to +England. Every inch of ground is turned to account, the turf-bordered, +canal-bound gardens making a pretty scene, above the green levels +intersected by gleaming water the fine towers of St. Omer clearly +outlined against the brilliant sky. +</p> + +<p> +The English colony of former days vanished on the outbreak of the last +war, not to return. A few young English Catholics still prepare for the +priesthood here, and eighty more were at this time pursuing their +studies at Douai, under the charge of English Benedictines. "Why," +impatiently asked Arthur Young in 1788, "are Catholics to emigrate in +order to be ill-educated abroad, instead of being allowed institutions +that would educate them well at home?" +</p> + +<p> +The disabilities he reprobates have long since been removed, but +English-speaking seminarists still flock to Douai. +</p> + +<p> +Here I close this agricultural and industrial round in Picardy and +French Flanders, regions so near home, yet so unfamiliar to most of us! +And here I close what, in many respects, may be called another round in +unfrequented France. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="finis"> +THE END +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Heart of Vosges, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + +***** This file should be named 9480-h.htm or 9480-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/8/9480/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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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: In the Heart of Vosges + And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Posting Date: March 30, 2014 [EBook #9480] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 4, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES + +[Illustration] + +AND OTHER SKETCHES BY A "DEVIOUS TRAVELLER" + +BY + +MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS + +OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION_ + +1911 + + + +"I travel not to look for Gascons in Sicily. I have left them at +home."--Montaigne. + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +Some of these sketches now appear for the first time, others have been +published serially, whilst certain portions, curtailed or enlarged +respectively, are reprinted from a former work long since out of print. +Yet again I might entitle this volume, "Scenes from Unfrequented France," +many spots being here described by an English traveller for the first +time. + +My warmest thanks are due to M. Maurice Barres for permission to +reproduce two illustrations by M. Georges Conrad from his famous romance, +_Au Service de l'Allemagne_; also to M. Andre Hallays for the use of +two views from his _A Travers l'Alsace_; and to the publishers of +both authors, MM. Fayard and Perrin, for their serviceableness in the +matter. + +Nor must I omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Sampson Low & +Co., to whom I owe the reproduction of Gustave Dore's infantine _tours +de force_; and to Messrs. Rivington, who have allowed large reprints +from the work published by them over twenty years ago. + +And last but not least, I thank the Rev. Albert Cadier, the son of my old +friend, the much respected pastor of Osse, for the loan of his charming +photographs. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + +I GERARDMER AND ITS ENVIRONS + +II THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +III IN GUSTAVE DORE'S COUNTRY + +IV FROM BARR TO STRASBURG + +V THE "MARVELLOUS BOY" OF ALSACE + +VI QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +VII AN IMMORTALIZER + +VIII TOULOUSE + +IX MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +X MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + +XI AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +XII PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +XIII GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +XIV LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +ST. ODILE + +PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW + +PROVINS, THE CAPITOL + +PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS + +GERARDMER + +A VOSGIAN SCENE + +CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER + +THE PINNACLE OF ODILE + +ETTENHEIM + +COLMAR + +GUSTAVE DORE, INFANTINE SKETCH + +GUSTAVE DORE, DO + +OSSE + +NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER + +ORCUM + +ARRAS, LA PETITE PLACE + + + +I + +GERARDMER AND ENVIRONS + +[Illustration: PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW] + +The traveller bound to eastern France has a choice of many routes, none +perhaps offering more attractions than the great Strasburg line by way of +Meaux, Chalons-sur-Marne, Nancy, and Epinal. But the journey must be made +leisurely. The country between Paris and Meaux is deservedly dear to +French artists, and although Champagne is a flat region, beautiful only +by virtue of fertility and highly developed agriculture, it is rich in +old churches and fine architectural remains. By the Troyes-Belfort route, +Provins may be visited. This is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of +the mediaeval walled-in town in France. To my thinking, neither +Carcassonne, Semur nor Guerande surpass Hegesippe Moreau's little +birthplace in beauty and picturesqueness. The acropolis of Brie also +possesses a long and poetic history, being the seat of an art-loving +prince, and the haunt of troubadours. A word to the epicure as well as +the archaeologist. The bit of railway from Chalons-sur-Marne to Nancy +affords a series of gastronomic delectations. At Epernay travellers are +just allowed time to drink a glass of champagne at the buffet, half a +franc only being charged. At Bar-le-Duc little neatly-packed jars of the +raspberry jam for which the town is famous are brought to the doors of +the railway carriage. Further on at Commercy, you are enticed to regale +upon unrivalled cakes called "Madeleines de Commercy," and not a town, I +believe, of this favoured district is without its speciality in the shape +of delicate cates or drinks. + +Chalons-sur-Marne, moreover, possesses one of the very best hotels in +provincial France--the hotel with the queer name--another inducement for +us to idle on the way. The town itself is in no way remarkable, but it +abounds in magnificent old churches of various epochs--some falling into +decay, others restored, one and all deserving attention. St. Jean is +especially noteworthy, its beautiful interior showing much exquisite +tracery and almost a fanciful arrangement of transepts. It is very rich +in good modern glass. But the gem of gems is not to be found in Chalons +itself; more interesting and beautiful than its massive cathedral and +church of Notre Dame, than St. Jean even, is the exquisite church of +Notre Dame de l'Epine, situated in a poor hamlet a few miles beyond the +octroi gates. We have here, indeed, a veritable cathedral in a +wilderness, nothing to be imagined more graceful than the airy open +colonnades of its two spires, light as a handful of wheat ears loosely +bound together. The colour of the grey stone gives solemnity to the rest +of the exterior, which is massive and astonishingly rich in the grotesque +element. We carefully studied the gargoyles round the roof, and, in spite +of defacements, made out most of them--here a grinning demon with a +struggling human being in its clutch--there an odd beast, part human, +part pig, clothed in a kind of jacket, playing a harp--dozens of comic, +hideous, heterogeneous figures in various attitudes and travesties. + +[Illustration: Provins, The Capitol] + +Notre Dame de l'Epine--originally commemorative of a famous shrine--has +been restored, and purists in architecture will pass it by as an +achievement of Gothic art in the period of its decline, but it is +extremely beautiful nevertheless. On the way from Chalons-sur-Marne to +Nancy we catch glimpses of other noble churches that stand out from the +flat landscape as imposingly as Ely Cathedral. These are Notre Dame of +Vitry le Francois and St. Etienne of Toul, formerly a cathedral, both +places to be stopped at by leisurely tourists. + +The fair, the _triste_ city of Nancy! There is an indescribable charm +in the sad yet stately capital of ancient Lorraine. No life in its +quiet streets, no movement in its handsome squares, nevertheless Nancy +is one of the wealthiest, most elegant cities in France! Hither +flocked rich Alsatian families after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, +and perhaps its proximity to the lost provinces in part accounts for the +subdued, dreamy aspect of the place as a whole. A strikingly beautiful +city it is, with its splendid monuments of the house of Lorraine, and +handsome modern streets bearing evidence of much prosperity in these +days. In half-an-hour you may get an unforgettable glimpse of the Place +Stanislas, with its bronze gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great +capital; of the beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine, on +horseback, under an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and +its airy colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte +de la Craffe, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. + +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly a day or two should be devoted to it, and here, as at +Chalons-sur-Marne, creature comforts are to be had in the hotels. In the +Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of Charles +le Temeraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of that +Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver plate, +and wore on the battlefield diamonds worth half a million. In a little +church outside the town, commemorative of this victory, are collected the +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine--the _chapelle ronde_, as the +splendid little mausoleum is designated--with its imposing monuments in +black marble, and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and +beautiful whole. Graceful and beautiful also are the monuments in the +church itself, and those of another church, Des Cordeliers, close to the +Ducal Palace. + +[Illustration: PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS] + +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are to be fairly enchanted by the marble statues of the +four doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Gregoire, St. Leon, and +St. Jerome. These are the work of Nicolas Drouin, a native of Nancy, and +formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a whole +than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary observer. +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the fine, dignified figure of +St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. We would +fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain return to all +else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. From Nancy by way of +Epinal we may easily reach the heart of the Vosges. + +[Illustration: GERARDMER] + +How sweet and pastoral are these cool resting-places in the heart of the +Vosges! Gerardmer and many another as yet unfrequented by the tourist +world, and unsophisticated in spite of railways and bathing seasons. The +Vosges has long been a favourite playground of our French neighbours, +although ignored by the devotees of Cook and Gaze, and within late years, +not a rustic spot possessed of a mineral spring but has become +metamorphosed into a second Plombieres. Gerardmer--"_Sans Gerardmer et +un peu Nancy, que serait la Lorraine?_" says the proverb--is resorted +to, however, rather for its rusticity and beauty than for any curative +properties of its sparkling waters. Also in some degree for the sake of +urban distraction. The French mind when bent on holiday-making is social +in the extreme, and the day spent amid the forest nooks and murmuring +streams of Gerardmer winds up with music and dancing. One of the chief +attractions of the big hotel in which we are so wholesomely housed is +evidently the enormous salon given up after dinner to the waltz, country +dance, and quadrille. Our hostess with much ease and tact looks in, +paying her respects, to one visitor after another, and all is enjoyment +and mirth till eleven o'clock, when the large family party, for so our +French fellowship may be called, breaks up. These socialities, giving as +they do the amiable aspect of French character, will not perhaps +constitute an extra charm of Gerardmer in the eyes of the more morose +English tourist. After many hours spent in the open air most of us prefer +the quiet of our own rooms. The country, too, is so fresh and delicious +that we want nothing in the shape of social distraction. Drawing-room +amenities seem a waste of time under such circumstances. Nevertheless the +glimpses of French life thus obtained are pleasant, and make us realize +the fact that we are off the beaten track, living among French folks, for +the time separated from insular ways and modes of thought. Our fellowship +is a very varied and animated one. We number among the guests a member of +the French ministry--a writer on the staff of Figaro--a grandson of one +of the most devoted and unfortunate generals of the first Napoleon, known +as "the bravest of the brave," with his elegant wife--the head of one of +the largest commercial houses in eastern France--deputies, diplomats, +artists, with many family parties belonging to the middle and upper ranks +of society, a very strong Alsatian element predominating. Needless to add +that people make themselves agreeable to each other without any +introduction. For the time being at least distinctions are set aside, and +fraternity is the order of the day. + +I do not aver that my country-people have never heard of Gerardmer, but +certainly those who stray hither are few and far between. Fortunately for +the lover of nature no English writer has as yet popularized the Vosges. +An Eden-like freshness pervades its valleys and forests, made ever +musical with cascades, a pastoral simplicity characterizes its +inhabitants. Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out +in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure! + +It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gerardmer and its +lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the +popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late +Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, +have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend +their holidays and their money on French soil. Thus enterprise has been +stimulated in various quarters, and we find really good accommodation in +out-of-the-way spots not mentioned in guide-books of a few years' date. +Gerardmer is now reached by rail in two hours from Epinal, on the great +Strasburg line, but those who prefer a drive across country may approach +it from Plombieres, Remiremont, Colmar and Muenster, and other attractive +routes. Once arrived at Gerardmer, the traveller will certainly not care +to hurry away. No site in the Vosges is better suited for excursionizing +in all directions, and the place itself is full of quiet charm. There is +wonderful sweetness and solace in these undulating hill-sides, clothed +with brightest green, their little tossing rivers and sunny glades all +framed by solemn hills--I should rather say mountains--pitchy black with +the solemn pine. You may search far and wide for a picture so engaging as +Gerardmer when the sun shines, its gold-green slopes sprinkled with white +chalets, its red-roofed village clustered about a rustic church tower, +and at its feet the loveliest little lake in the world, from which rise +gently the fir-clad heights. + +And no monotony! You climb the inviting hills and woods day by day, week +after week, ever to find fresh enchantment. Not a bend of road or winding +mountain-path but discloses a new scene--here a fairy glen, with graceful +birch or alder breaking the expanse of dimpled green; there a spinny of +larch or of Scotch fir cresting a verdant monticule; now we come upon a +little Arcadian home nestled on the hill-side, the spinning-wheel hushed +whilst the housewife turns her hay or cuts her patch of rye or wheat +growing just outside her door. Now we follow the musical little river +Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow +loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred +with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, +trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever +indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense +of coolness. Deep down, entombed amid smiling green hills and frowning +forest peaks, lies the pearl of Gerardmer, its sweet lake, a sheet of +turquoise in early morn, silvery bright when the noon-day sun flashes +upon it, and on grey, sunless days gloomy as Acheron itself. + +[Illustration: A VOSGIAN SCENE] + +Travellers stinted for time cannot properly enjoy the pastoral scenes, +not the least charm of which is the frank, pleasant character of the +people. Wherever we go we make friends and hear confidences. To these +peasant folks, who live so secluded from the outer world, the annual +influx of visitors from July to September is a positive boon, moral as +well as material. The women are especially confidential, inviting us into +their homely yet not poverty-stricken kitchens, keeping us as long as +they can whilst they chat about their own lives or ask us questions. The +beauty, politeness, and clear direct speech of the children, are +remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare. +As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed +by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not +infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people +gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being +suitable for tillage. + +Gerardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery +and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands, +whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use. +Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in +winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations +are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its +real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters. + +One chief feature in Gerardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings +bearing the inscription _"Ecole Communale"_ and how stringently the +new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from +the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under +the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of +the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad, +others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed. + +Our first week at Gerardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes +would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we +set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, +and the goal of every traveller in these regions. + +[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER] + +There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gerardmer, a +little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude +and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours +only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gerardmer into a dreary place, +but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less +majestic and solemn. One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, +so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the +culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually +ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gerardmer, +till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the +Schlucht. For the first half-hour we skirt the alder-fringed banks of the +tossing, foaming little river Vologne, as it winds amid lawny spaces, on +either side the fir-clad ridges rising like ramparts. Here all is +gentleness and golden calm, but soon we quit this warm, sunny region, and +enter the dark forest road curling upwards to the airy pinnacle to which +we are bound. More than once we have to halt on our way. One must stop to +look at the cascade made by the Vologne, never surely fuller than now, +one of the prettiest cascades in the world, masses of snow-white foam +tumbling over a long, uneven stair of granite through the midst of a +fairy glen. The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we +continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, +and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving +forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and +Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest +environment. Deep down they lie, the two silvery sheets of water with +their verdant holms, making a little world of peace and beauty, a toy +dropped amid Titanic awfulness and splendour. The vantage ground is on +the edge of a dizzy precipice, but the picture thus sternly framed is too +exquisite to be easily abandoned. We gaze and gaze in spite of the vast +height from which we contemplate it; and when at last we tear ourselves +away from the engaging scene, we are in a region all ruggedness and +sublimity, on either side rocky scarps and gloomy forests, with reminders +by the wayside that we are approaching an Alpine flora. Nothing can be +wilder or more solitary than the scene. For the greater part, the forests +through which our road is cut are unfrequented, except by the wild boar, +deer, and wild cat, and in winter time the fine mountain roads are +rendered impenetrable by the accumulation of snow. + +This approach to the Col is by a tunnel cut in the granite, fit entrance +to one of the wildest regions in France. The road now makes a sudden bend +towards the chalet cresting the Col, and we are able in a moment to +realize its tremendous position. + +From our little chalet we look upon what seems no mere cleft in a +mountain chain, but in the vast globe itself. This huge hollow, brought +about by some strange geological perturbation, is the valley of Muenster, +no longer a part of French territory, but of Prussian Elsass. The road we +have come by lies behind us, but another as formidable winds under the +upper mountain ridge towards Muenster, whilst the pedestrian may follow a +tiny green footpath that will lead him thither, right through the heart +of the pass. Looking deep down we discern here and there scattered +chalets amid green spaces far away. These are the homesteads or +_chaumes_ of the herdsmen, all smiling cheerfulness now, but +deserted in winter. Except for such little dwellings, barely +discernible, so distant are they, there is no break in the solitary +scene, no sign of life at all. + +The chalet is a fair hostelry for unfastidious travellers, its chief +drawback being the propensity of tourists to get up at three o'clock in +the morning in order to behold the sunrise from the Hoheneck. Good beds, +good food, and from the windows, one of the finest prospects in the +world, might well tempt many to linger here in spite of the disturbance +above mentioned. For the lover of flowers this halting-place would be +delightful. + +Next morning the day dawned fair, and by eight o'clock we set off with a +guide for the ascent of the Hoheneck, rather, I should say, for a long +ramble over gently undulating green and flowery ways. After climbing a +little beechwood, all was smoothness under our feet, and the long +_detour_ we had to make in order to reach the summit was a series of +the gentlest ascents, a wandering over fair meadow-land several thousand +feet above the sea-level. Here we found the large yellow gentian, used in +the fabrication of absinthe, and the bright yellow arnica, whilst instead +of the snow-white flower of the Alpine anemone, the ground was now +silvery with its feathery seed; the dark purple pansy of the Vosges was +also rare. We were a month too late for the season of flowers, but the +foxglove and the bright pink Epilobium still bloomed in great luxuriance. + +It was a walk to remember. The air was brisk and genial, the blue sky +lightly flecked with clouds, the turf fragrant with wild thyme, and +before our eyes we had a panorama every moment gaining in extent and +grandeur. As yet indeed the scene, the features of which we tried to make +out, looked more like cloudland than solid reality. On clear days are +discerned here, far beyond the rounded summits of the Vosges chain, the +Rhine Valley, the Black Forest, the Jura range, and the snow-capped Alps. +To-day we saw grand masses of mountains piled one above the other, and +higher still a pageantry of azure and gold that seemed to belong to the +clouds. + +No morning could promise fairer, but hardly had we reached the goal of +our walk when from far below came an ominous sound of thunder, and we saw +heavy rain-clouds dropping upon the heights we had left behind. + +All hope of a fine prospect was now at an end, but instead we had a +compensating spectacle. For thick and fast the clouds came pouring into +one chasm after another, drifting in all directions, here a mere +transparent veil drawn across the violet hills, there a golden splendour +as of some smaller sun shining on a green little world. At one moment the +whole vast scene was blurred and blotted with chill winter mist; soon a +break was visible, and far away we gazed on a span of serene amethystine +sky, barred with lines of bright gold. Not one, but a dozen, horizons--a +dozen heavens--seemed there, whilst the thunder that reached us from +below seemed too remote to threaten. But at last the clouds gathered in +form and volume, hiding the little firmaments of violet and amber; the +bright blue sky, bending over the green oasis--all vanished as if by +magic. We could see no more, and nothing remained but to go back, and the +quicker the better. The storm, our guide said, was too far off to reach +us yet, and we might reach the chalet without being drenched to the skin, +as we fortunately did. No sooner, however, were we fairly under shelter +than the rain poured down in torrents and the thunder pealed overhead. In +no part of France are thunderstorms so frequent and so destructive as +here, nowhere is the climate less to be depended on. A big umbrella, +stout shoes, and a waterproof are as necessary in the Vosges as in our +own Lake district. + +We had, however, a fine afternoon for our drive back, a quick downhill +journey along the edge of a tremendous precipice, clothed with +beech-trees and brushwood. A most beautiful road it is, and the two +little lakes looked lovely in the sunshine, encircled by gold-green +swards and a delicate screen of alder branches. Through pastures white +with meadow-sweet the turbulent, crystal-clear little river Vologne +flowed merrily, making dozens of tiny cascades, turning a dozen +mill-wheels in its course. All the air was fragrant with newly-turned +hay, and never, we thought, had Gerardmer and its lake made a more +captivating picture. + +Excursions innumerable may be made from Gerardmer. We may drive across +country to Remiremont, to Plombieres, to Wesserling, to Colmar, to St. +Die, whilst these places in turn make very good centres for excursions. +On no account must a visit to La Bresse be omitted. This is one of the +most ancient towns in the Vosges. Like some of the villages in the Morvan +and in the department of La Nievre, La Bresse remained till the +Revolution an independent commune, a republic in miniature. The heads of +families of both sexes took part in the election of magistrates, and from +this patriarchal legislation there was seldom any appeal to the higher +court--namely, that of Nancy. La Bresse is still a rich commune by +reason of its forests and industries. The sound of the mill-wheel and +hammer now disturbs these mountain solitudes, and although so isolated by +natural position, this little town is no longer cut off from cosmopolitan +influence. The little tavern is developing into a very fair inn. In the +summer tourists from all parts of France pass through it, in carriages, +on foot, occasionally on horseback. Most likely it now possesses a +railway station, a newspaper kiosk, and a big hotel, as at Gerardmer! + +As we drop down upon La Bresse after our climb of two hours and more, we +seem to be at the world's end. Our road has led us higher and higher by +dense forests and wild granite parapets, tasselled with fern and +foxglove, till we suddenly wheel round upon a little straggling town +marvellously placed. Deep down it lies, amid fairy-like greenery and +silvery streams, whilst high above tower the rugged forest peaks and +far-off blue mountains, in striking contrast. + +The sloping green banks, starred with the grass of Parnassus, and musical +with a dozen streams, the pastoral dwellings, each with its patch of +flower garden and croft; the glades, dells and natural terraces are all +sunny and gracious as can be; but round about and high above frown +inaccessible granite peaks, and pitchy-black forest summits, impenetrable +even at this time of the year. As we look down we see that roads have +been cut round the mountain sides, and that tiny homesteads are perched +wherever vantage ground is to be had, yet the impression is one of +isolation and wildness. The town lies in no narrow cleft, as is the case +with many little manufacturing towns in the Jura, but in a vast opening +and falling back of the meeting hills and mountain tops, so that it is +seen from far and wide, and long before it is approached. We had made the +first part of our journey at a snail's pace. No sooner were we on the +verge of the hills looking down upon La Bresse, than we set off at a +desperate rate, spinning breathlessly round one mountain spur after +another, till we were suddenly landed in the village street, dropped, as +it seemed, from a balloon. + +A curious feature to be noted in all the places I have mentioned is the +outer wooden casing of the houses. This is done as a protection against +the cold, the Vosges possessing, with the Auvergne and the Limousin, the +severest climate in France. La Bresse, like Gerardmer and other sweet +valleys of these regions, is disfigured by huge factories, yet none can +regret the fact, seeing what well-being these industries bring to the +people. Beggars are numerous, but we are told they are strangers, who +merely invade these regions during the tourist season. + +Remiremont, our next halting-place, may be reached by a pleasant carriage +drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with +half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the +beautiful valley of the Moselle--a prospect which is missed by road. +Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gerardmer, +but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The +engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets +are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with +encircling fir-woods. Like Gerardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont +lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and +wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round +about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting +prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the +street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower +gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and +cheerfulness. + +The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around +its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in +their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hotel de Ville. These +high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle, +and more than one _chanoinesse_, when defied by feudal neighbours, +mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble +birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and +personal charm of Renan's _Abbesse de Jouarre_. + +There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid +the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time--a little +chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the +adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and +orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which +Remiremont is placed are some curious prehistoric stones. But more +inviting than the steep climb under a burning sun--for the weather has +changed on a sudden--is the drive to the Vallee d'Herival, a drive so +cool, so soothing, so delicious, that we fancy we can never feel heated, +languid, or irritated any more. + +The isolated dwellings of the dalesfolk in the midst of tremendous +solitudes--little pastoral scenes such as Corot loved to paint--and +hemmed round by the sternest, most rugged nature, are one of the +characteristics of Vosges scenery. We also find beside tossing rivers and +glittering cascades a solitary linen factory or saw-mill, with the +modern-looking villa of the employer, and clustered round it the cottages +of the work-people. No sooner does the road curl again than we are once +more in a solitude as complete as if we were in some primeval forest of +the new world. We come suddenly upon the Vallee d'Herival, but the deep +close gorge we gaze upon is only the beginning of the valley within +valley we have come to see. Our road makes a loop round the valley so +that we see it from two levels, and under two aspects. As we return, +winding upwards on higher ground, we get glimpses of sunny dimpled sward +through the dark stems of the majestic fir-trees towering over our head. +There is every gradation of form and colour in the picture, from the ripe +warm gold barring the branches of the firs, to the pale silveriness of +their upper foliage; from the gigantic trees rising from the gorge below, +each seeming to fill a chasm, to the airy, graceful birch, a mere toy +beside it. Rare butterflies abound, but we see few birds. + +The hardy pedestrian is an enviable person here, for although excellent +carriages are to be had, some of the most interesting excursions must be +made on foot. + +I do not suppose that matters are very greatly changed in hotels here +since my visit so many years ago. In certain respects travellers fare +well. They may feast like Lucullus on fresh trout and on the dainty +aniseed cakes which are a local speciality. But hygienic arrangements +were almost prehistoric, and although politeness itself, mine host and +hostess showed strange nonchalance towards their guests. Thus, when +ringing and ringing again for our tea and bread and butter between seven +and eight o'clock, the chamber--not maid, but man--informed us that +Madame had gone to mass, and everything was locked up till her return. + +Even the fastidious tourist, however, will hardly care to exchange his +somewhat rough and noisy quarters at Remiremont for the cosmopolitan +comforts of Plombieres within such easy reach. It is a pretty drive of an +hour and a half to Plombieres, and all is prettiness there--its little +park, its tiny lake, its toy town. + +It is surely one of the hottest places in the world, and like Spa, of +which it reminds me, must be one of the most wearisome. Just such a +promenade, with a sleepy band, just such a casino, just such a routine. +This favourite resort of the third Napoleon has of late years seen many +rivals springing up. Vittel, Bains, Bussang--all in the Vosges--yet it +continues to hold up its head. The site is really charming, but so close +is the valley in which the town lies, that it is a veritable hothouse, +and the reverse, we should think, of what an invalid wants. Plombieres +has always had illustrious visitors--Montaigne, who upon several +occasions took the waters here--Maupertuis, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the +Empress Josephine, and a host of historic personages. But the emperor may +be called the creator of Plombieres. The park, the fine road to +Remiremont, the handsome Bain Napoleon (now National), the church, all +these owe their existence to him, and during the imperial visits the +remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road +along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant +and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going +of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont +and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place, +making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere +throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit +more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on +the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of +Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of +that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too +vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of +the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been +enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side +of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of +circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain--French at +heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this +feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of +Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the +supporters of retaliation, such journals as _L'Alsacien-Lorrain_, +and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But +the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No +wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French +tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines, +they flock to Gerardmer and other family resorts. And if some +Frenchwoman--maybe, sober matron--dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and +dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is +too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each +other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of +patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief +charms. You must here live with French people, whether you will or no. +Insular reserve cannot resist the prevailing friendliness and +good-fellowship. How long such a state of things will exist, who can say? +Fortunately for the lover of nature, most of the places I have mentioned +are too unobtrusive ever to become popular. "Nothing to see here, and +nothing to do," would surely be the verdict of most globe-trotters even +on sweet Gerardmer itself! + + + +II + +THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +The notion of here reprinting my notes of Alsatian travel was suggested +by a recent French work--_A travers l'Alsace en flanant_, from the +pen of M. Andre Hallays. This delightful writer had already published +several volumes dealing with various French provinces, more especially +from an archaeological point of view. In his latest and not least +fascinating _flanerie_ he gives the experiences of several holiday +tours in Germanized France. + +My own sojourns, made at intervals among French friends, _annexes_ +both of Alsace and Lorraine, were chiefly undertaken in order to realize +the condition of the German Emperor's French subjects. But I naturally +visited many picturesque sites and historic monuments in both, the +forfeited territories being especially rich. Whilst volume after volume +of late years have appeared devoted to French travel, holiday tourists +innumerable jotting their brief experiences of well-known regions, +strangely enough no English writer has followed my own example. No work +has here appeared upon Alsace and Lorraine. On the other side of the +Channel a vast literature on the subject has sprung up. Novels, travels, +reminiscences, pamphlets on political and economic questions, one and all +breathing the same spirit, continue to appear in undiminished numbers. + +Ardent spirits still fan the flame of revolt. The burning thirst for +re-integration remains unquenched. Garbed in crape, the marble figure of +Strasburg still holds her place on the Place de la Concorde. The French +language, although rigidly prohibited throughout Germanized France, is +studied and upheld more sedulously than before Sedan. And after the lapse +of forty years a German minister lately averred that French Alsatians +were more French than ever. _Les Noellets_ of Rene Bazin, M. Maurice +Barres' impassioned series, _Les Bastions de l'Est_, enjoy immense +popularity, and within the last few months have appeared two volumes +which fully confirm the views of their forerunners--M. Hallays' +impressions of many wayfarings and _Apres quarante ans_ by M. Jules +Claretie, the versatile, brilliant and much respected administrator-general +of the Comedie Francaise. + +Whilst in these days of peace and arbitration propaganda the crime of +enforced denationalization seems more heinous than ever, there appears +little likelihood of the country conquered by Louis XIV., and re-conquered +by German arms a century and a half later, again waving the Tricolour. + +Let us hope, however, that some _via media_ may be found, and that +if not recovering its lost privilege, the passionately coveted French +name, as a federal state Alsace and Lorraine may become independent and +prosperous. + +For a comprehensive study of Alsace and its characteristics, alike +social, artistic and intellectual, readers must go to M. Hallays' volume. +In every development this writer shows that a special stamp may be found. +Neither Teutonic nor Gallic, art and handicrafts reveal indigenous +growth, and the same feature may be studied in town and village, in +palace, cathedral and cottage. + +We must remember that we are here dealing with a region of very ancient +civilization. Taste has been slowly developed, artistic culture is of no +mushroom growth. Alsace formed the highroad between Italy and Flanders. +In M. Hallays' words, already during the Renaissance, aesthetic Alsace +blended the lessons of north and south, her genius was a product of good +sense, experience and a feeling of proportion. And he points out how in +the eighteenth century French taste influenced Alsatian faience, woven +stuffs, ironwork, sculpture, wood-carving and furniture, even peasant +interiors being thereby modified. "Alsace," he writes, "holds us +spell-bound by the originality of culture and temperament found among her +inhabitants. It has generally been taken for granted that native genius +is here a mere blend of French and German character, that Alsatian +sentiment appertains to the latter stock, intellectual development to the +former, that the inhabitants think in French and imagine in German. There +is a certain leaven of truth in these assumptions, but when we hold +continued intercourse with all classes, listen to their speech, +familiarize ourselves with their modes of life and mental outlook, we +arrive again and again at one conclusion: we say to ourselves, here is an +element which is neither Teutonic nor Gallic. I cannot undertake to +particularize, I only note in my pages those instances that occur by the +way. And the conviction that we are here penetrating a little world +hitherto unknown to us, such novelty being revealed in every stroll and +chat, lends extraordinary interest to our peregrination." + +It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us. +Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may +find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the +art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read +but weighty writer, Mme. de Stael, has truly averred that the most +beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing +no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic +regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with +indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until +the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire, +being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both +provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace, +Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and +militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was +ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and +passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution, +a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French +king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of +her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps +sore and will not be comforted. + +Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a +strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization +after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has +produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly +roll-call. + +The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young +soldier of Strasburg--not, however, Alsatian born--who, in April, 1792, +composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the +current of civilization. By an irony of destiny the Tricolour no longer +waves over the cradle of the Marseillaise! + +That witty writer, Edmond About, as well as the "Heavenly Twins" of +Alsatian fiction, was born in Lorraine, but all three so thoroughly +identified themselves with this province that they must be regarded as +her sons. Those travellers who, like myself, have visited Edmond About's +woodland retreat in Saverne can understand the bitterness with which he +penned his volume--_Alsace 1870-1_--and the concluding lines of the +preface-- + +"If I have here uttered an untrue syllable, I give M. de Bismarck +permission to treat my modest dwelling as if it were a villa of Saint +Cloud." + +The literary brethren whose pictures of Alsatian peasant life, both in +war and peace, have become world-wide classics, suffered no less than +their brilliant contemporary, and their works written after annexation +breathe equal bitterness. The celebrated partnership which began in 1848 +and lasted for a quarter of a century, has been thus described by Edmond +About: "The two friends see each other very rarely, whether in Paris or +in the Vosges. When they do meet, they together elaborate the scheme of +a new work. Then Erckmann writes it. Chatrian corrects it--and sometimes +puts it in the fire!" One at least of their plays enjoys equal +popularity with the novel from which it is drawn. To have witnessed +_L'Ami Fritz_ at Moliere's house in the last decade of the nineteenth +century was an experience to remember. That consummate artist, Got, was +at his very best--if the superlative in such a case is applicable--as +the good old Rabbi. No less enchanting was Mlle. Reichenbach, the +_doyenne_ of the Comedie Francaise, as Suzel. Of this charming artist +Sarcey wrote that, having attained her sixteenth year, there she made +the long-stop, never oldening with others. _L'Ami Fritz_ is, in reality, +a German bucolic, the scene being laid in Bavaria. But it has long been +accepted as a classic, and on the stage it becomes thoroughly French. +This delightful story was written in 1864, that is to say, before any +war-cloud had arisen over the eastern frontier, and before the evocation +of a fiend as terrible, the anti-Jewish crusade culminating in the +Dreyfus crime. + +It is painful to reflect that whilst twenty years ago the engaging old +Jew of this piece was vociferously acclaimed on the first French stage, +the drama of a gifted Jewish writer has this year been banned in Paris! + +Edmond About and Erckmann and Chatrian belong to the same period as +another native, and more famous, genius, the precocious, superabundantly +endowed Gustave Dore. Of this "admirable Crichton" I give a sketch. + +For mere holiday-makers in search of exhilaration and beauty, Alsace +offers attractions innumerable, sites grandiose and idyllic, picturesque +ruins, superb forests, old churches of rare interest and many a splendid +historic pile. + +There are naturally drawbacks to intense lovers of France. Throughout M. +Hallays' volume he acknowledges the courtesy of German officials, a fact +to which I had borne testimony when first journalizing my own +experiences. Certain aspects of enforced Germanization can but afflict +all outsiders. There is firstly that obtrusive militarism from which we +cannot for a moment escape. Again, a no less false note strikes us in +matters aesthetic. Modern German taste in art, architecture and +decoration do not harmonize with the ancientness and historic severity of +Alsace. The restoration of Hohkoenigsburg and the new quarters of +Strasburg are instances in point. All who visited the German art section +of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 will understand this dis-harmony. + +The reminiscences of my second and third journeys in Alsace and Lorraine +having already appeared in volume form, still in print (_East of +Paris_), are therefore omitted here. For the benefit of English +travellers in the annexed portion of the last-named province I cite a +passage from M. Maurice Barres' beautiful story, _Colette Baudoche_. +His hero is German and his heroine French, a charming _Messine_ or +native of Metz. In company of Colette's mother and a friend or two, the +_fiances_ take part in a little festival held at Gorze, a village +near the blood-stained fields of Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour-- + +"At Gorze, church, lime-trees, dwellings and folks belong to the olden +time, that is to say, all are very French.... In crossing the square the +five holiday-makers halted before the Hotel de Ville and read with +interest a commemorative inscription on the walls. A tablet records +English generosity in 1870, when, after the carnage and devastation of +successive battles, money, roots and seeds were distributed among the +peasants by a relief committee. The inspection over, the little party +gaily sat down to dinner in an inn close by, regaling themselves with +fried English potatoes, descendants of those sent across the Manche forty +years before." + +As I re-read this passage I think sadly how the tribute from such a pen +would have rejoiced the two moving spirits of that famous relief +committee--Sir John Robinson and Mr. Bullock Hall, both long since +passed, away. To the whilom editor of the _Daily News_ both +initiative and realization were mainly owing, the latter being the +laborious and devoted agent of distribution. + +But an omission caused bitterness. Whilst Mr. Bullock Hall most +deservedly received the Red Ribbon, his leader was overlooked. The tens +of thousands of pounds collected by Sir John Robinson which may be said +to have kept alive starving people and vivified deserts, were gratefully +acknowledged by the French Government. By some unaccountable +misconception, the decoration here only gratified one good friend of +France. + +"I should much have liked the Legion of Honour," sighed the kindly old +editor to me, a year or two before he died. + +I add that my second sojourn in Alsace-Lorraine was made at Sir John's +suggestion, the series of papers dealing with Metz, Strasburg, and its +neighbourhood appearing from day to day in the _Daily News_. + +English tourists must step aside and read the tablet on the Hotel de +Ville of Gorze, reminder, by the way, of the Entente Cordiale! + + + +III + +IN GUSTAVE DORE'S COUNTRY + +The Vosges and Alsace-Lorraine must be taken together, as the tourist is +constantly compelled to zigzag across the new frontier. Many of the most +interesting points of departure for excursionizing in the Vosges lie in +Alsace-Lorraine, while few travellers who have got so far as Gerardmer +or St. Die will not be tempted to continue their journey, at least as far +as the beautiful valleys of Munster and St. Marie-aux-Mines, both +peopled by French people under German domination. Arrived at either of +these places, the tourist will be at a loss which route to take of the +many open to him. On the one hand are the austere sites of the Vosges, +impenetrable forests darkening the rounded mountain tops, granite +precipices silvered with perpetual cascades, awful ravines hardly less +gloomy in the noonday sun than in wintry storms, and as a relief to these +sombre features, the sunniest little homesteads perched on airy terraces +of gold-green; crystal streams making vocal the flowery meadow and the +mossy dell, and lovely little lakes shut in by rounded hills, made double +in their mirror. In Alsace-Lorraine we find a wholly different landscape, +and are at once reminded that we are in one of the fairest and most +productive districts of Europe. All the vast Alsatian plain in September +is a-bloom with fruit garden and orchard, vineyard and cornfield, whilst +as a gracious framework, a romantic background to the picture, are the +vineclad heights crested with ruined castles and fortresses worthy to be +compared to Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein. We had made a leisurely +journey from Gerardmer to St. Die, bishopric and _chef-lieu_ of the +department of the Vosges, without feeling sure of our next move. +Fortunately a French acquaintance advised us to drive to +St. Marie-aux-Mines, one of the most wonderful little spots in these +regions, of which we had never before heard. A word or two, however, +concerning St. Die itself, one of the most ancient monastic foundations +in France. The town is pleasant enough, and the big hotel not bad, as +French hotels go. But in the Vosges, the tourist gets somewhat spoiled +in the matter of hotels. Wherever we go our hosts are so much interested +in us, and make so much of us, that we feel aggrieved at sinking into +mere numbers three or four. Many of these little inns offer homely +accommodation, but the landlord and landlady themselves wait upon the +guests, unless, which often happens, the host is cook, no piece of +ill-fortune for the traveller! These good people have none of the false +shame often conspicuous among the same class in England. At Remiremont, +our hostess came bustling down at the last moment saying how she had +hurried to change her dress in order to bid us good-bye. Here the +son-in-law, a fine handsome fellow, was the cook, and when dinner was +served he used to emerge from his kitchen and chat with the guests or +play with his children in the cool evening hour. There is none of that +differentiation of labour witnessed in England, and on the whole the +stranger fares none the worse. With regard to French hotels generally +the absence of competition in large towns strikes an English mind. At +St. Die, as in many other places, there was at the time of my visit but +one hotel, which had doubtless been handed down from generation to +generation, simply because no rival aroused a spirit of emulation. + +St. Die has a pleasant environment in the valley of the Meurthe, and may +be made the centre of many excursions. Its picturesque old Romanesque +cathedral of red sandstone, about which are grouped noble elms, grows +upon the eye; more interesting and beautiful by far are the Gothic +cloisters leading from within to the smaller church adjoining. These +delicate arcades, in part restored, form a quadrangle. Greenery fills the +open space, and wild antirrhinum and harebell brighten the grey walls. +Springing from one side is an out-of-door pulpit carved in stone, a +striking and suggestive object in the midst of the quiet scene. We should +like to know what was preached from that stone pulpit, and what manner of +man was the preacher. The bright green space, the delicate arcades of +soft grey, the bits of foliage here and there, with the two silent +churches blocking in all, make up an impressive scene. + +We wanted the country, however, rather than the towns, so after a few +days at St. Die, hired a carriage to take us to St. Marie-aux-Mines or +Markirch, on the German side of the frontier, and not accessible from +this side by rail. We enter Alsace, indeed, by a needle's eye, so narrow +the pass in which St. Marie lies. Here a word of warning to the tourist. +Be sure to examine your carriage and horses well before starting. We were +provided for our difficult drive with what Spenser calls "two unequal +beasts," namely, a trotting horse and a horse that could only canter, +with a very uncomfortable carriage, the turnout costing over a +pound--pretty well, that, for a three hours' drive. However, in spite of +discomfort, we would not have missed the journey on any account. The +site of this little cotton-spinning town is one of the most extraordinary +in the world. We first traverse a fruitful, well cultivated plain, +watered by the sluggish Meurthe, then begin to ascend a spur of the +western chain of the Vosges, formerly dividing the two French +departments of Vosges and Haut Rhin, now marking the boundaries of +France and German Elsass. Down below, amid the hanging orchards, +flower-gardens and hayfields, we were on French soil, but the flagstaff, +just discernible on yonder green pinnacles, marks the line of +demarcation between France and the conquered territory of the German +empire. For the matter of that, the Prussian helmet makes the fact +patent. As surely as we have set foot in the Reich, we see one of these +gleaming casques, so hateful still in French eyes. They seem to spring +from the ground like Jason's warriors from the dragon's teeth. This new +frontier divided in olden times the dominions of Alsace and Lorraine, +when it was the custom to say of many villages that the bread was +kneaded in one country and baked in the other. + +Nothing could be more lovely than the dim violet hills far away, and the +virginal freshness of the pastoral scenery around. But only a +stout-hearted pedestrian can properly enjoy this beautiful region. We +had followed the example of another party of tourists in front of us, +and accomplished a fair climb on foot, and when we had wound and wound +our way up the lofty green mountain to the flagstaff before mentioned, +we wanted to do the rest of our journey on foot also. But alike +compassion for the beasts and energy had gone far enough, we were only +too glad to reseat ourselves, and drive, or rather be whirled, down to +St. Marie-aux-Mines in the vehicle. Do what we would there was no +persuading our driver to slacken pace enough so as to admit of a full +enjoyment of the prospect that unfolded before us. + +The wonderful little town! Black pearl set in the richest casket! This +commonplace, flourishing centre of cotton spinning, woollen, and +cretonne manufacture, built in red brick, lies in the narrow, beautiful +valley of the Liepvrette, as it is called from the babbling river of +that name. But there is really no valley at all. The congeries of +red-roofed houses, factory chimneys and church towers, Catholic and +Protestant, is hemmed round by a narrow gorge, wedged in between the +hills which are just parted so as to admit of such an intrusion, no +more. The green convolutions of the mountain sides are literally folded +round the town, a pile of green velvet spread fan-like in a draper's +window has not softer, neater folds! As we enter it from the St. Die side +we find just room for a carriage to wind along the little river and the +narrow street. But at the other end the valley opens, and St. +Marie-aux-mines spreads itself out. Here are factories, handsome country +houses, and walks up-hill and down-hill in abundance. Just above the +town, over the widening gorge, is a deliciously cool pine-wood which +commands a vast prospect--the busy little town caught in the toils of +the green hills; the fertile valley of the Meurthe as we gaze in the +direction from which we have come; the no less fertile plains of +Lorraine before us; close under and around us, many a dell and woodland +covert with scattered homes of dalesfolk in sunny places and slanting +hills covered with pines. It is curious to reflect that St. +Marie-aux-Mines, mentioned as Markirch in ancient charts, did not become +entirely French till the eighteenth century. Originally the inhabitants +on the left bank of the Liepvrette were subjects of the Dukes of +Lorraine, spoke French, and belonged to the Catholic persuasion, whilst +those dwelling on the right bank of the river, adhered to the seigneury +of Ribeaupaire, and formed a Protestant German-speaking community. +Alsace, as everybody knows, was annexed to France by right--rather +wrong--of conquest under Louis XIV., but it was not till a century later +that Lorraine became a part of French territory, and the fusion of +races, a task so slowly accomplished, has now to be undone, if, indeed, +such undoing is possible! + +The hotel here is a mere _auberge_ adapted to the needs of the +_commis-voyageur_, but our host and hostess are charming. As is the +fashion in these parts, they serve their guests and take the greatest +possible interest in their movements and comfort. We would willingly have +spent some days at Marie-aux-Mines--no better headquarters for +excursionizing in these regions!--but too much remained for us to do and +to see in Alsace. We dared not loiter on the way. + +Everywhere we find plenty of French tourists, many of them doing their +holiday travel in the most economical fashion. We are in the habit of +regarding the French as a stay-at-home nation, and it is easy to see how +such a mistake arises. English people seldom travel in out-of-the-way +France, and our neighbours seldom travel elsewhere. Thus holiday-makers +of the two nations do not come in contact. Wherever we go we encounter +bands of pedestrians or family parties thoroughly enjoying themselves. +Nothing ruffles a French mind when bent on holiday-making. The good-nature, +_bonhomie_, and accommodating spirit displayed under trying +circumstances might be imitated by certain insular tourists with advantage. + +From St. Marie-aux-Mines we journeyed to Gustave Dore's favourite resort, +Barr, a close, unsavoury little town enough, but in the midst of +bewitching scenery. "An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour," sings +Spenser, and at Barr we get the sweet and the sour strangely mixed. The +narrow streets smell of tanneries and less wholesome nuisances, not a +breath of fresh pure air is to be had from one end of the town to the +other. But our pretty, gracious landlady, an Alsacienne, and her husband, +the master of the house and _chef de cuisine_ as well, equally +handsome and courteous, took so much pains to make us comfortable that +we stayed on and on. Not a thousand bad smells could drive us away! Yet +there is accommodation for the traveller among the vineyards outside the +town, and also near the railway station, so Barr need not be avoided on +account of its unsavouriness. No sooner are you beyond the dingy streets +than all is beauty, pastoralness and romance. Every green peak is crested +with ruined keep or tower, at the foot of the meeting hills lie peaceful +little villages, each with its lofty church spire, whilst all the air is +fragrant with pine-woods and newly turned hay. + +These pine-woods and frowning ruins set like sentinels on every green +hill or rocky eminence, recall many of Dore's happiest efforts. "_Le +pauvre garcon_," our hostess said. "_Comme il etait content chez +nous_!" I can fancy how Dore would enjoy the family life of our little +old-fashioned hotel, how he would play with the children, chat with +master and mistress, and make himself agreeable all round. One can also +fancy how animated conversation would become if it chanced to take a +patriotic turn. For people speak their thoughts in Alsace,--nowhere more +freely. In season and out of season, the same sentiment comes to the +surface. "_Nous sommes plus Francais que les Francais_." This is the +universal expression of feeling that greeted our ears throughout our +wanderings. Such, at least, was formerly the case. The men, women and +children, rich and poor, learned and simple, gave utterance to the same +expression of feeling. Barr is a town of between six and seven thousand +souls, about twenty of whom are Prussians. A pleasant position, truly, +for the twenty officials! And what we see at Barr is the case throughout +the newly acquired German dominion. Alike the highest as well as the +humblest functionary of the imperial government is completely shut off +from intercourse with his French neighbours. + +Barr lies near so much romantic scenery that the tourist in these parts +had better try the little hotel amid the mines. For, in spite of the +picturesque stork's nest close by, an excellent ordinary and the most +delightful host and hostess in the world, I cannot recommend a sojourn in +the heart of the town. The best plan of all were to halt here simply for +the sake of the excursion to St. Odile--St. Odile leads nowhither--then +hire a carriage, and make leisurely way across country by the Hohwald, +and the Champ de Feu to Rothau, Oberlin's country, thence to Strasburg. +In our own case, the fascinations of our hosts overcame our repugnance to +Barr itself, so we stayed on, every day making long drives into the +fresh, quiet, beautiful country. One of the sweet spots we discovered for +the benefit of any English folks who may chance to stray in that region +is the Hohwald, a _ville giatura_ long in vogue with the inhabitants +of Strasburg and neighbouring towns, but not mentioned in any English +guide-book at the time of my visit. + +We are reminded all the way of Rhineland. The same terraced vineyards, +the same limestone crags, each with its feudal tower, the same fertility +and richness everywhere. Our road winds for miles amid avenues of +fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are +stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and +fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this +magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must +be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut +woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are +to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts. +I followed the _cure_ and sacristan as they took a path that wound high +above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained +a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire, +and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine facade of the +castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with +massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the +neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with +greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are +indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird, +fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers +past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to +rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they +will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild +visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of +Dore's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood, +jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite +familiar to us in the pages of his _Dante_ and _Don Quixote._ + +The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is +the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road +green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling +amid the alders, the noisy little river. + +The Hohwald is the creation of a woman; that is to say, the Hohwald of +holiday-makers, tourists and tired brain-workers. "Can you imagine," +wrote M. Edmond About, forty years ago, "an inn at the world's end that +cost a hundred thousand francs in the building? I assure you the owner +will soon have recouped her outlay. She had not a centime to begin with, +this courageous lady, left a widow without resources, and a son to bring +up. The happy thought occurred to her of a summer resort in the heart of +these glorious woods, within easy reach of Strasburg." There are gardens +and reception-rooms in common, and here as at Gerardmer croquet, music +and the dance offer an extra attraction. It must be admitted that these +big family hotels, in attractive country places with prices adapted to +all travellers, have many advantages over our own seaside lodgings. +People get much more for their money, better food, better accommodation, +with agreeable society into the bargain, and a relief from the harass of +housekeeping. The children, too, find companionship, to the great relief +of parents and nursemaids. + +The Hohwald proper is a tiny village numbering a few hundred souls, +situated in the midst of magnificent forests at the foot of the famous +Champ de Feu. This is a plateau on one of the loftiest summits of the +Vosges, and very curious from a geological point of view. To explore it +properly you must be a good pedestrian. Much, indeed, of the finest +scenery of these regions is beyond reach of travellers who cannot walk +five or six hours a day. + +Any one, however, may drive to St. Odile, and St. Odile is the great +excursion of Alsace. Who cares a straw for the saint and her story now? +But all tourists must be grateful to the Bishop of Strasburg, who keeps a +comfortable little inn at the top of the mountain, and, beyond the +prohibition of meat on fast-days, smoking, noise and levity of manner on +all days, makes you very comfortable for next to nothing. + +The fact is, this noble plateau, commanding as splendid a natural +panorama as any in Europe, at the time I write of the property of +Monseigneur of Strasburg, was once a famous shrine and a convent of +cloistered men and women vowed to sanctity and prayer. The convent was +closed at the time of the French Revolution, and the entire property, +convent, mountain and prospect, remained in the hands of private +possessors till 1853, when the prelate of that day repurchased the whole, +restored the conventual building, put in some lay brethren to cultivate +the soil, and some lay sisters, who wear the garb of nuns, but have taken +no vows upon them except of piety, to keep the little inn and make +tourists comfortable. No arrangement could be better, and I advise any +one in want of pure air, superb scenery, and complete quiet, to betake +himself to St. Odile. + +Here again I must intercalate. Since these lines were jotted down, many +changes, and apparently none for the better, have taken place here. +Intending tourists must take both M. Hallays' volume and Maurice Barres' +_Au Service d'Allemagne_ for recent accounts of this holiday resort. +The splendid natural features remain intact. + +The way from Barr lies through prosperous villages, enriched by +manufactories, yet abounding in pastoral graces. There are English-like +parks and fine chateaux of rich manufacturers; but contrasted with these +nothing like abject poverty. The houses of working-folk are clean, each +with its flower-garden, the children are neatly dressed, no squalor or +look of discontent to be seen anywhere. Every hamlet has its beautiful +spire, whilst the country is the fairest, richest conceivable; in the +woods is seen every variety of fir and pine, mingled with the lighter +foliage of chestnut and acacia, whilst every orchard has its walnut and +mulberry trees, not to speak of pear and plum. One of the chief +manufactures of these parts is that of paints and colours: there are also +ribbon and cotton factories. Rich as is the country naturally, its chief +wealth arises from these industries. In every village you hear the hum of +machinery. + +You may lessen the distance from Barr to St. Odile by one-half if you +make the journey on foot, winding upwards amid the vine-clad hills, at +every turn coming upon one of those grand old ruins, as plentiful here as +in Rhineland, and quite as romantic and beautiful. The drive is a slow +and toilsome ascent of three hours and a half. As soon as we quit the +villages and climb the mountain road cut amid the pines, we are in a +superb and solitary scene. No sound of millwheels or steam-hammers is +heard here, only the summer breeze stirring the lofty pine branches, the +hum of insects, and the trickling of mountain streams. The dark-leaved +henbane is in brilliant yellow flower, and the purple foxglove in +striking contrast; but the wealth of summer flowers is over. + +Who would choose to live on Ararat? Yet it is something to reach a +pinnacle from whence you may survey more than one kingdom. The prospect +from St. Odile is one to gaze on for a day, and to make us dizzy in +dreams ever after. From the umbrageous terrace in front of the +convent--cool and breezy on this, one of the hottest days of a hot +season--we see, as from a balloon, a wonderful bit of the world spread +out like a map at our feet. The vast plain of Alsace, the valley of the +Rhine, the Swiss mountains, the Black Forest, Bale, and Strasburg--all +these we dominate from our airy pinnacle close, at it seems, under the +blue vault of heaven. But though they were there, we did not see them: +for the day, as so often happens on such occasions, was misty. We had +none the less a novel and wonderful prospect. As we sit on this cool +terrace, under the shady mulberry trees, and look far beyond the +richly-wooded mountain we have scaled on our way, we gradually make +out some details of the fast panorama, one feature after another +becoming visible as stars shining faintly in a misty heaven. Villages +and little towns past counting, each with its conspicuous spire, break +the monotony of the enormous plain. Here and there, miles away, a curl +of white vapour indicates the passage of some railway train, whilst in +this upper stillness sweet sounds of church bells reach us from +hamlets close underneath the convent. Nothing can be more solid, +fresher, or more brilliant than the rich beech- and pine-woods running +sheer from our airy eminence to the level world below, nothing more +visionary, slumberous, or dimmer than that wide expanse teeming, as we +know, with busy human life, yet flat and motionless as a picture. + +[Illustration] + +On clear nights the electric lights of the railway station at Strasburg +are seen from this point; but far more attractive than the prospects from +St. Odile is its prehistoric wall. Before the wall, however, came the +dinner, which deserves mention. It was Friday, so in company of priests, +nuns, monks and divers pious pilgrims, with a sprinkling of fashionable +ladies from Strasburg, and tourists generally, we sat down to a very fair +_menu_ for a fast-day, to wit: rice-soup, turnips and potatoes, +eggs, perch, macaroni-cheese, custard pudding, gruyere cheese, and fair +vin ordinaire. Two shillings was charged per head, and I must say people +got their money's worth, for appetites seem keen in these parts. The +mother-superior, a kindly old woman, evidently belonging to the working +class, bustled about and shook hands with each of her guests. After +dinner we were shown the bedrooms, which are very clean; for board and +lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger +of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical +hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that +all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing. +However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are +very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we +always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us +welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us +to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this +famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications +similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not +far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be +compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness. + +We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb +for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which +the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily +lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although +where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is +inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered +with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful +notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled +together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The +points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly +we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive +constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no +doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been +hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of +pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and +dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and +in many places mortised together. We find no trace of cement, a fact +disproving the hypothesis that the wall may have been of Roman origin. We +must doubtless go much farther back, and associate these primitive +builders with such relics of prehistoric times as the stones of Carnac +and Lokmariaker. And not to seek so wide for analogies, do we not see +here the handiwork of the same rude architects I have before alluded to +in my Vosges travels, who flung a stone bridge across the forest gorge +above Remiremont and raised in close proximity the stupendous monolith of +Kirlinkin? The prehistoric stone monuments scattered about these regions +are as yet new to the English archaeologist, and form one of the most +interesting features of Vosges and Alsatian travel. + +We may follow these lightly superimposed blocks of stone for miles, and +the _enceinte_ has been traced round the entire plateau, which was +thus defended from enemies on all sides. As we continue our walk on the +inner side of the wall we get lovely views of the dim violet hills, the +vast golden plain, and, close underneath, luxuriant forests. Eagles are +flying hither and thither, and except for an occasional tourist or two, +the scene is perfectly solitary. An hour's walk brings us to the +Menelstein, a vast and lofty platform of stone, ascended by a stair, both +untouched by the hand of man. Never was a more formidable redoubt raised +by engineering skill. Nature here helped her primitive builders well. +From a terrace due to the natural formation of the rock, we obtain +another of those grand and varied panoramas so numerous in this part of +the world, but the beauty nearer at hand is more enticing. Nothing can +exceed the freshness and charm of our homeward walk. We are now no longer +following the wall, but free to enjoy the breezy, heather-scented +plateau, and the broken, romantic outline of St. Odile, the Wartburg of +Alsace, as the saint herself was its Holy Elizabeth, and with as romantic +a story for those with a taste for such legends. + +Here and there on the remoter wooded peaks are stately ruins of feudal +castles, whilst all the way our path lies amid bright foliage of young +forest trees, chestnut and oak, pine and acacia, and the ground is purple +with heather. Blocks of the conglomerate used in the construction of the +so-called Pagan Wall meet us at every turn, and as we gaze down the steep +sides of the promontory we can trace its massive outline. A scene not +soon to be forgotten! The still, solitary field of Carnac, with its +avenues of monoliths, is not more impressive than these Cyclopean walls, +thrown as a girdle round the green slopes of St. Odile. + +We would fain have stayed here some time, but much more still remained to +be seen and accomplished in Alsace. Rothau, the district known as the Ban +de la Roche, where Oberlin laboured for sixty years, Thann, Wesserling, +with a sojourn among French subjects of the German Empire at +Mulhouse--all these things had to be done, and the bright summer days +were drawing to an end. + + + +IV + +FROM BARR TO STRASBURG, MULHOUSE AND BELFORT + +The opening sentences of this chapter, written many years ago, are no +longer applicable. Were I to revisit Alsace-Lorraine at the present time, +I should only hear French speech among intimate friends and in private, +so strictly of late years has the law of lese-majeste been, and is still, +enforced. + +Nothing strikes the sojourner in Alsace-Lorraine more forcibly than the +outspokenness of its inhabitants regarding Prussian rule. Young and old, +rich and poor, wise and simple alike unburden themselves to their +chance-made English acquaintance with a candour that is at the same time +amusing and pathetic. For the most part no heed whatever is paid to +possible German listeners. At the ordinaries of country hotels, by the +shop door, in the railway carriage, Alsatians will pour out their +hearts, especially the women, who, as two pretty sisters assured us, are +not interfered with, be their conversation of the most treasonable kind. +We travelled with these two charming girls from Barr to Rothau, and they +corroborated what we had already heard at Barr and other places. The +Prussian inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine--for the most part Government +officials--are completely shut off from all social intercourse with the +French population, the latter, of course, still forming the vast +majority. Thus at Barr, a town consisting of over six thousand +inhabitants, only a score or two are Prussians, who are employed in the +railway and postal service, the police, the survey of forests, etc. The +position of these officials is far from agreeable, although, on the +other hand, there is compensation in the shape of higher pay, and much +more material comfort, even luxury, than are to be had in the +Fatherland. Alsace-Lorraine, especially by comparison with Prussia, may +be called a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey. The vine +ripens on these warm hill-sides and rocky terraces, the plain produces +abundant variety of fruit and vegetables, the streams abound with trout +and the forests with game. No wonder, therefore, that whilst thousands +of patriotic Alsatians have already quitted the country, thousands of +Prussians are ready to fill their places. But the Alsatian exodus is far +from finished. At first, as was only natural, the inhabitants could not +realize the annexation. They refused to believe that the Prussian +occupation was final, so, for the most part, stayed on, hoping against +hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born +since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or +French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in +their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and +renounce the cherished _patrie_ and _tricolor_ for ever. + + +The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of +things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the +poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade +it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army. +For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of +life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken +account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons +across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education. +The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another +grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore +under the necessity of providing private masters for their children, +unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue. +And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in +Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural +population speak a _patois_ made up of bad German and equally bad +French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most +patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in +this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation +of races that has been going on for many generations. + +Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In +Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of +the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women +graceful and often exceedingly lovely, French piquancy and symmetrical +proportions combined with Teutonic fairness of complexion, blonde hair, +and blue eyes. + +I will now continue my journey from Barr to Strasburg by way of the Ban +de la Roche, Oberlin's country. A railway connects Barr with Rothau, a +very pleasant halting-place in the midst of sweet pastoral scenery. It is +another of those resorts in Alsace whither holiday folks flock from +Strasburg and other towns during the long vacation, in quest of health, +recreation and society. + +Rothau is a very prosperous little town, with large factories, handsome +chateaux of mill-owners, and trim little cottages, having flowers in all +the windows and a trellised vine in every garden. Pomegranates and +oleanders are in full bloom here and there, and the general aspect is +bright and cheerful. At Rothau are several _blanchisseries_ or +laundries, on a large scale, employing many hands, besides dye-works and +saw-mills. Through the town runs the little river Bruche, and the whole +district, known as the Ban de la Roche, a hundred years ago one of the +dreariest regions in France, is now all smiling fertility. The principal +building is its handsome Protestant church--for here we are among +Protestants, although of a less zealous temper than their fore-fathers, +the fervid Anabaptists. I attended morning service, and although an +eloquent preacher from Paris officiated, the audience was small, and the +general impression that of coldness and want of animation. + +From the sweet, fragrant valley of Rothau a road winds amid green hills +and by the tumbling river to the little old-world village of Foudai, +where Oberlin lies buried. The tiny church and shady churchyard lie above +the village, and a more out-of-the-way spot than Foudai itself can hardly +be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to +pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly +called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the +plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of +the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty +years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that +of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among +his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in +order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of +his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German +narrative, _Des Goldmachers Dorf_. Nor does it require any lively +fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and +his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil +is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the +more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system +of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river +turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to +account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and +comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less +so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding +amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in +half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fete day. Young and old in +Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the +children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among +these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at +Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage +lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the +pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six +pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the +costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts +showed us many relics of Oberlin, the handsome cabinets and presses of +carved oak, in which were stored the family wardrobe and other +treasures, and in the study the table on which he habitually wrote. +This is a charming upper room with wide views over the green hills and +sunny, peaceful valley. + +We were offered hospitality for days, nay, weeks, if we chose to stay, +and even the use of Oberlin's study to sit and write in! A summer might +be pleasantly spent here, with quiet mornings in this cheerful chamber, +full of pious memories, and in the afternoon long rambles with the +children over the peaceful hills. From Foudai, too, you may climb the +wild rocky plateau known as the Champ de Feu--no spot in the Vosges chain +is more interesting from a geological point of view. + +After much pleasant talk we took leave of our kind hosts, not going away, +however, without visiting the church. A tablet with medallion portrait of +Oberlin bears the touching inscription that for fifty-nine years he was +"the father of this parish." Then we drove back as we had come, stopping +at Foudai to rest the horse and drink tea. We were served in a cool +little parlour opening on to a garden, and, so tempting looked the tiny +inn that we regretted we could not stay there a week. A pleasant pastoral +country rather than romantic or picturesque is the Ban de la Roche, but +close at hand is the lofty Donon, which may be climbed from Rothau or +Foudai, and there are many other excursions within reach. + +Here, for the present, the romance of Alsace travel ends, and all is +prose of a somewhat painful kind. The first object that attracted our +attention on reaching Strasburg was the new railway station, of which we +had already heard so much. This handsome structure, erected by the German +Government at an enormous cost, had only been recently opened, and so +great was the soreness of feeling excited by certain allegorical +bas-reliefs decorating the facade that for many days after the opening +of the station police-officers in plain clothes carefully watched the +crowd of spectators, carrying off the more seditious to prison. To say +the least of it, these mural decorations are not in the best of taste, +and at any rate it would have been better to have withheld them for a +time. The two small bas-reliefs in question bear respectively the +inscription, "_Im alten, und im neuen Reich_" ("In the old and new +Empire"), improved by a stander-by, to the great relish of others, thus, +"_Im alten, reich, im neuen, arm_" ("In the old, rich, in the new, +poor"). They give a somewhat ideal representation of the surrender of +Strasburg to the German Emperor. But the bombardment of their city, the +destruction of public monuments and the loss of life and property +thereby occasioned, were as yet fresh in the memories of the +inhabitants, and they needed no such reminder of the new state of +things. Their better feelings towards Germany had been bombarded out of +them, as an Alsacienne wittily observed to the Duchess of Baden after +the surrender. The duchess, daughter to the Emperor William, made the +round of the hospitals, and not a single Alsatian soldier but turned his +face to the wall, whereupon she expressed her astonishment at not +finding a better sentiment. Nor can the lover of art help drawing a +painful contrast between the Strasburg of the old and the new _regime_. +There was very little to see at Strasburg except the cathedral at this +time. The Library, with its 300,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts--the +priceless _Hortus Deliciarium_ of the twelfth century, richly +illuminated and ornamented with miniatures invaluable to the student of +men and manners of the Middle Ages, the missal of Louis XII., bearing +his arms, the _Recueil de Prieres_ of the eighth century--all these had +been completely destroyed by the ruthless Prussian bombardment. The +Museum, rich in _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the French school, both of sculpture +and painting, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, all shared the same fate, not to speak of buildings of lesser +importance, including four hundred private dwellings, and of the fifteen +hundred civilians, men, women and children, killed and wounded by the +shells. The fine church of St. Thomas suffered greatly. Nor was the +cathedral spared, and it would doubtless have perished altogether, too, +but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city. On my second visit +ten years later I found immense changes, new German architecture to be +seen everywhere. + + +Strasburg is said to contain a much larger German element than any other +city of Alsace-Lorraine, but the most casual observer soon finds out how +it stands with the bulk of the people. The first thing that attracted our +notice in a shop window was a coloured illustration representing the +funeral procession of Gambetta, as it wound slowly past the veiled statue +of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde. These displays of patriotic +feeling are forbidden, but they come to the fore all the same. Here, as +elsewhere, the clinging to the old country is pathetically--sometimes +comically--apparent. A rough peasant girl, employed as chambermaid in the +hotel at which we stayed, amused me not a little by her tirades against +the Prussians, spoken in a language that was neither German nor French, +but a mixture of both--the delectable tongue of Alsace! + +Strasburg is now a vast camp, with that perpetual noisy military parade +so wearisome in Berlin and other German cities, and, as I have said, +there was very little to see. It was a relief to get to Mulhouse, the +comparatively quiet and thoroughly French city of Mulhouse, in spite of +all attempts to make it German. But for the imperial eagle placed over +public offices and the sprinkling of Prussian helmets and Prussian +physiognomies, we could hardly suppose ourselves outside the French +border. The shops are French. French is the language of the better +classes, and French and Jews make up the bulk of the population. The Jews +from time immemorial have swarmed in Alsace, where, I am sorry to say, +they seemed to be little liked. + +This thoroughly French appearance of Mulhouse, to be accounted for, +moreover, by an intensely patriotic clinging to the mother country, +naturally occasions great vexation to the German authorities. It is, +perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that undignified provocations and +reprisals should be the consequence. Thus the law forbids the putting up +of French signboards or names over shop doors in any but the German +language. This is evaded by withholding all else except the surname of +the individual, which is of course the same in both languages. + +One instance more I give of the small annoyances to which the French +residents of Mulhouse are subject, a trifling one, yet sufficient to +irritate. Eight months after the annexation, orders were sent round to +the pastors and clergy generally to offer up prayers for the Emperor +William every Sunday. The order was obeyed, for refusal would have been +assuredly followed by dismissal, but the prayer is ungraciously +performed. The French pastors invoke the blessing of Heaven on +"_l'Empereur qui nous gouverne_". The pastors who perform the +service in German, pray not for "our Emperor," as is the apparently loyal +fashion in the Fatherland, but for "the Emperor." These things are +trifling grievances, but, on the other hand, the Prussians have theirs +also. Not even the officials of highest rank are received into any kind +of society whatever. Mulhouse possesses a charming zoological garden, +free to subscribers only, who have to be balloted for. Twenty years after +the annexation not a single Prussian has ever been able to obtain access +to this garden. + +Even the very poorest contrive to show their intense patriotism. It is +the rule of the German government to give twenty-five marks to any poor +woman giving birth to twins. The wife of a French workman during my +sojourn at Mulhouse had three sons at a birth, but though in very poor +circumstances, refused to claim the donation. "My sons shall never be +Prussian," she said, "and that gift would make them so." + +The real thorn in the flesh of the annexed Alsatians is, however, as I +have before pointed out, military service, and the enforced German +education. All who have read Alphonse Daudet's charming little story, +_La derniere lecon de Francais_, will be able to realize the +painfulness of the truth, somewhat rudely brought home to French parents. +Their children must henceforth receive a German education, or none at +all, for this is what the law amounts to in the great majority of cases. +Rich people, of course, and those who are only well-to-do, can send their +sons to the Lycee, opened at Belfort since the annexation, but the rest +have to submit, or, by dint of great sacrifice, obtain private French +teaching. And, whilst even Alsatians are quite ready to render justice to +the forbearance and tact often shown by officials, an inquisitorial and +prying system is pursued, as vexatious to the patriotic as enforced +vaccination to the Peculiar People or school attendance to the poor. One +lady was visited at seven o'clock in the morning by the functionary +charged with the unpleasant mission of finding out where her boy was +educated. "Tell those who sent you," said the indignant mother, "that my +son shall never belong to you. We will give up our home, our prospects, +everything; but our children shall never be Prussians." True enough, the +family have since emigrated. No one who has not stayed in Alsace among +Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, +nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the +true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known +outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and +character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a +ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. + +[Illustration: ETTENHEIM] + +"Nous ne sommes pas heureux a Mulhouse" were almost the first words +addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean +Dollfus. + +And how could it be otherwise? M. Dollfus, as well as other +representatives of the French subjects of Prussia in the Reichstag, had +protested against the annexation of Alsace in vain. They pointed out the +heavy cost to the German empire of these provinces, in consequence of the +vast military force required to maintain them, the undying bitterness +aroused, the moral, intellectual, and material interests at stake. I use +the word intellectual advisedly, for, amongst other instances in point, I +was assured that the book trade in Mulhouse had greatly declined since +the annexation. The student class has diminished, many reading people +have gone, and those who remain feel too uncertain about the future to +accumulate libraries. Moreover, the ordeal that all have gone through has +depressed intellectual as well as social life. Mulhouse has been too much +saddened to recover herself as yet, although eminently a literary place, +and a sociable one in the old happy French days. The balls, soirees and +reunions, that formerly made Mulhouse one of the friendliest as well as +the busiest towns in the world, have almost ceased. People take their +pleasures very soberly. + +It is hardly possible to write of Mulhouse without consecrating a page +or two to M. Jean Dollfus, a name already familiar to some English +readers. The career of such a man forms part of contemporary history, +and for sixty years the great cotton-printer of Mulhouse, the +indefatigable philanthropist--the fellow-worker with Cobden, +Arles-Dufour, and others in the cause of Free Trade--and the ardent +patriot, had been before the world. + +The year before my visit was celebrated, with a splendour that would be +ridiculed in a novel, the diamond wedding of the head of the numerous +house of Dollfus, the silver and the golden having been already kept in +due form. + +Mulhouse might well be proud of such a fete, for it was unique, and the +first gala-day since the annexation. When M. Dollfus looked out of his +window in the morning, he found the familiar street transformed as if by +magic into a bright green avenue abundantly adorned with flowers. The +change had been effected in the night by means of young fir-trees +transplanted from the forest. The day was kept as a general holiday. +From an early hour the improvised avenue was thronged with visitors of +all ranks bearing cards, letters of congratulation or flowers. The great +Dollfus works were closed, and the five thousand workmen with their +wives, children and superannuated parents, were not only feasted but +enriched. After the banquet every man, woman and child received a present +in money, the oldest and those who had remained longest in the employ of +M. Dollfus being presented with forty francs. But the crowning sight of +the day was the board spread for the Dollfus family and the gathering of +the clan, as it may indeed be called. There was the head of the house, +firm as a rock still, in spite of his eighty-two years; beside him the +partner of sixty of those years, his devoted wife; next according to age, +their numerous sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; duly +following came the grandsons and grand-daughters, then the +great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and lastly, the babies of their +fifth generation, all accompanied by their nurses in the picturesque +costume of Alsace and Lorraine. This patriarchal assemblage numbered +between one and two hundred guests. On the table were represented, in the +artistic confectionery for which Mulhouse is famous, some of the leading +events of M. Dollfus's busy life. Here in sugar was a model of the +achievement which will ever do honour to the name of Jean Dollfus, +namely, the _cites ouvrieres_, and what was no less a triumph of the +confectioner's skill, a group representing the romantic ride of M. and +Mme. Dollfus on camels towards the Algerian Sahara when visiting the +African colony some twenty years before. + +This patriarchal festival is said to have cost M. Dollfus half a million +of francs, a bagatelle in a career devoted to giving! The bare conception +of what this good man has bestowed takes one's breath away! Not that he +was alone; never was a city more prolific of generous men than Mulhouse, +but Jean Dollfus, _"Le Pere Jean,"_ as he is called, stood at the +head. He received with one hand to bestow with the other, and not only on +behalf of the national, intellectual and spiritual wants of his own +workmen and his own community--the Dollfus family are Protestant--but +indiscriminately benefiting Protestant, Catholic, Jew; founding schools, +hospitals, libraries, refuges, churches, for all. + +We see at a glance after what fashion the great manufacturers set to work +here to solve the problem before them. The life of ease and the life of +toil are seen side by side, and all the brighter influences of the one +brought to bear on the other. The tall factory chimneys are unsightly +here as elsewhere, and nothing can be uglier than the steam tramways, +noisily running through the streets. But close to the factories and +workshops are the cheerful villas and gardens of their owners, whilst +near at hand the workmen's dwellings offer an exterior equally +attractive. These _cites ouvrieres_ form indeed a suburb in +themselves, and a very pleasant suburb too. Many middle-class families in +England might be glad to own such a home, a semi-detached cottage or +villa standing in a pretty garden with flowers and trees and plots of +turf. Some of the cottages are models of trimness and taste, others of +course are less well kept, a few have a neglected appearance. The general +aspect, however, is one of thrift and prosperity, and it must be borne in +mind that each dwelling and plot of ground are the property of the owner, +gradually acquired by him out of his earnings, thanks to the initiative +of M. Dollfus and his fellow-workers. "It is by such means as these that +we have combated Socialism," said M. Dollfus to me; and the gradual +transformation of the workman into an owner of property, is but one of +the numerous efforts made at Mulhouse to lighten, in so far as is +practicable, the burden of toil. + +These pleasant avenues are very animated on Sundays, especially when a +universal christening of babies is going on. The workmen at Mulhouse are +paid once a fortnight, in some cases monthly, and it is usually after +pay-day that such celebrations occur. We saw one Sunday afternoon quite +a procession of carriages returning from the church to the _cite +ouvriere_, for upon these occasions nobody goes on foot. There were +certainly a dozen christening parties, all well dressed, and the babies +in the finest white muslin and embroidery. A very large proportion of the +artisans here are Catholics, and as one instance among others of the +liberality prevailing here, I mention that one of the latest donations of +M. Dollfus is the piece of ground, close to the _cite ouvriere_, on +which now stands the new, florid Catholic church. + +There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been +opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French +pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Koechlins, to their +native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French +as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among +the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of +De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71 +that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was +withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The +bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse. + +I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real +pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a +charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the +Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and +suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of +existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase +a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden +I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the +Black Forest. + +Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of +Notre Dame des Trois Epis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann, +with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and +the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of +the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account +be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully +is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave +and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later +period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty, +and no less so the facade and side porch, both very richly decorated. +One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a +place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance +and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish +community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve +their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up. + +[Illustration: COLMAR] + +Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge +from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort--the +heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid +rock--the little Protestant town of Montbeliard, and Besancon. Belfort is +well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and +purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin +saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort" +comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly +industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many +communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country +between Montbeliard and Besancon, well worth seeing, if only from the +railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on +the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid +the _detour_ by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages +many. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORE, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + + + +V + +THE 'MARVELLOUS BOY' OF ALSACE + +I + +It is especially at Strasburg that travellers are reminded of another +"marvellous boy," who, if he did not "perish in his pride," certainly +shortened his days by overreaching ambition and the brooding bitterness +waiting upon shattered hopes. + +Gustave Dore was born and reared under the shadow of Strasburg +Cathedral. The majestic spire, a world in itself, became indeed a world +to this imaginative prodigy. He may be said to have learned the minster +of minsters by heart, as before him Victor Hugo had familiarized himself +with Notre Dame. The unbreeched artist of four summers never tired of +scrutinizing the statues, monsters, gargoyles and other outer +ornamentations, while the story of the pious architect Erwin and of his +inspirer, Sabine, was equally dear. Never did genius more clearly +exhibit the influence of early environment. True child of Alsace, he +revelled in local folklore and legend. The eerie and the fantastic had +the same fascination for him as sacred story, and the lives of the +saints, gnomes, elves, werewolves and sorcerers bewitched no less than +martyrs, miracle-workers and angels. + +His play-hours would be spent within the precincts of the cathedral, +whilst the long winter evenings were beguiled with fairy-tales and +fables, his mother and nurse reading or reciting these, their little +listener being always busy with pen or pencil. Something much more than +mere precocity is shown in these almost infantine sketches. Exorbitant +fancy is here much less striking than sureness of touch, outlined +figures drawn between the age of five and ten displaying remarkable +precision and point, each line of the silhouette telling. At six he +celebrated his first school prize with an illustrated letter, two +portraits and a mannikin surmounting the text. + +[Footnote: See his life by Blanch Roosevelt, Sampson Low & Co. 1885; +also the French translation of the same, 1886.] + +His groups of peasants and portraits, made three or four years later, +possess almost a Rembrandt strength, unfortunately passion for the +grotesque and the fanciful often lending a touch of caricature. +Downright ugliness must have had an especial charm for the future +illustrator of the _Inferno_, his unconscious models sketched by the +way being uncomely as the immortal Pickwick and his fellows of Phiz. A +devotee of Gothic art, he reproduced the mediaeval monstrosities adorning +cornice and pinnacle in human types. Equally devoted to nature out of +doors, the same taste predominated. What he loved and sought was ever +the savage, the legend-haunted, the ghoulish, seats and ambuscades of +kelpie, hobgoblin, brownie and their kind. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORE, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + +From the nursery upwards, if the term can be applied to French children, +his life was a succession of artistic abnormalities and _tours de +force_. The bantling in petticoats who could astound his elders with +wonderfully accurate silhouettes, continued to surprise them in other +ways. His memory was no less amazing than his draughtsmanship. When +seven years of age, he was taken to the opera and witnessed _Robert le +Diable_. On returning home he accurately narrated every scene. + +At eight he broke his right arm, but became as if by magic ambidextrous, +whilst confined to bed, cheerily drawing all day long with the left +hand. At ten he witnessed a grand public ceremony. In 1840 Strasburg +celebrated the inauguration of a monument to Gutenberg, the festival +being one of extraordinary splendour. Fifteen cars represented the +industrial corporations of the city, each symbolically adorned, and in +each riding figures suitably travestied and occupied, men, women and +children wearing the costumes of the period represented. Among the +corporations figured the _Peintres-verriers_, or painters on stained +glass, their car proving especially attractive to one small looker-on. + +Intoxicated by the colour and movement of the fete, garlanded and +beflagged streets, the symbolic carriages, the bands, civic and +military, and the prevailing enthusiasm, the child determined to get up +an apotheosis of his own: in other words, to repeat the performance on a +smaller scale. Which he did. Cars, costumes, banners and decorations +were all designed by this imp of ten. With the approval of his +professors and the collaboration of his school-fellows, the Dore +procession, consisting of four highly decorated cars, drawn by boys, +defiled before the college authorities and made the round of the +cathedral, the youthful impresario at its head. The car of the painters +on glass was conspicuously elaborate, a star copied from a Cathedral +window showing the superscription, _G. Dore, fecit_. Small wonder is it +that the adoring mother of an equally adoring son should have believed +in him from the first, and seen in these beginnings the dawn of genius, +the advent, indeed, of a second Michael Angelo or Titian. + +The more practical father might chide such overreaching vaticinations, +might reiterate-- + +"Do not fill the boy's head with nonsense." + +The answer would be-- + +"I know it. Our son is a genius." + +And Dore _pere_ gave way, under circumstances curious enough. + + +II + + +In 1847 the family visited Paris, there to Gustave's delight spending +four months. Loitering one day in the neighbourhood of the Bourse, his +eye lighted upon comic papers with cuts published by MM. Auber and +Philipon. Their shop windows were full of caricatures, and after a long +and intent gaze the boy returned home, in two or three days presenting +himself before the proprietors with half-a-dozen drawings much in the +style of those witnessed. The benevolent but businesslike M. Philipon +examined the sketches attentively, put several questions to his young +visitor, and, finding that the step had been taken surreptitiously, +immediately sat down and wrote to M. and Mme. Dore. He urged them with +all the inducements he could command to allow their son the free choice +of a career, assuring them of his future. + +A few days later an agreement was signed by father and publisher to this +effect: During three years the latter was to receive upon certain terms +a weekly cartoon from the sixteen-year-old artist, who, on his side, +bound himself to offer no sketches elsewhere. + +[Footnote: This document was reproduced in _Le Figaro_ of +December 4, 1848.] + +Meanwhile, Gustave would pursue his studies at the Lycee Charlemagne, +his patron promising to look after his health and well-being. The +arrangement answered, and in _Le Journal pour rire_ the weekly +caricature signed by Dore soon noised his fame abroad. Ugly, even +hideous, as were many of these caricatures, they did double duty, paying +the lad's school expenses, and paving the way to better things. Of +caricature Dore soon tired, and after this early period never returned +to it. Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation +should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically +speaking, Dore passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the +word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This +undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon +found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune. + +Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. +Dore with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and +historic hotel of the Rue St. Dominique. Here Dore lived for the rest of +his too short life. + +The house had belonged to the family of Saint Simon, that terrible +observer under whose gaze even Louis XIV. is said to have quailed. So +aver historians of the period. The associations of his home immediately +quickened Dore's inventive faculties. He at once set to work and +organized a brilliant set of _tableaux vivants_, illustrating scenes +from the immortal Memoires. The undertaking proved a great social +success, and henceforth we hear of galas, soirees, theatricals and other +entertainments increasing in splendour with the young artist's +vogue--and means. + +The history of the next twenty years reads like a page from the _Arabian +Nights_. Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite +the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's +ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and +disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of +literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Dore reached the +first rank at twenty, his _Rabelais_ setting the seal on his renown. So +immense was the success of this truly colossal undertaking and of its +successors, the _Don Quixote_, the _Contes de fees_ of Perrault +and the rest, that he meditated nothing less than the illustration of +cosmopolitan _chefs 'd' oeuvre, en bloc_, a series which should include +every great imaginative work of the Western world! Thus in 1855 we find +him noting the following projects, to be carried out in ten years' +time:--illustrations of AEschylus, Lucan, Ovid, Shakespeare, Goethe +_(Faust)_, Lamartine _(Meditations)_, Racine, Corneille, Schiller, +Boccaccio, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives--these names among others. The +jottings in question were written for a friend who had undertaken to +write the artist's biography. + + +The _Rabelais, Don Quixote, The Inferno_, and several more of these +sumptuous volumes were brought out in England. Forty years ago Dore's +bold and richly imaginative work was in great favour here; indeed, +throughout his life he was much more appreciated by ourselves than by +his countrymen. All the drawings were done straight upon wood. Lavish in +daily life, generous of the generous, Dore showed the same lavishness in +his procedure. Some curious particulars are given upon this head. +Fabulous sums were spent upon his blocks, even small ones costing as +much as four pounds apiece. He must always have the very best wood, no +matter the cost, and it was only the whitest, smoothest and glossiest +boxwood that satisfied him. Enormous sums were spent upon this material, +and to his honour be it recorded, that no matter the destination of a +block, the same cost, thought and minute manipulation were expended upon +a trifling commission as upon one involving thousands of pounds. The +penny paper was treated precisely the same as the volume to be brought +out at two guineas. In the zenith of his fame as an illustrator, at a +time when tip-top authors and editors were all clamouring for his +drawings, he did not despise humbler admirers and clients. His delight +in his work was only equalled by quite abnormal physical and mental +powers. Sleep, food, fresh air, everything was forgotten in the +engrossment of work. At this time he would often give himself three +hours of sleep only. + +Dore's ambition--rather, one of his ambitions--was to perfect wood +engraving as an art, hence his indifference to the cost of production. +Hence, doubtless, his persistence in drawing on wood without preliminary +sketch or copy. + +Perhaps such obsession was natural. How could he foresee the variety of +new methods that were so soon to transform book illustration? Anyhow, +herein partly lies the explanation of the following notice in a +second-hand book catalogue, 1911-- + +"No. 355. Gustave Dore: _Dante's Inferno_, with 76 full-page +illustrations by Dore. 4to, gilt top, binding soiled, but otherwise good +copy. _42s._ for _3s. 6d._ London, n.d." + +A leading London publisher consulted by me on the subject, writes +as follows-- + +"Dore's works are no longer in vogue. One of the reasons lies in the +fact that his pictures were done by the old engraved process. He drew +them straight on wood, and there are, accordingly, no original drawings +to be reproduced by modern methods." + +The words "fatal facility" cannot be applied to so consummate a +draughtsman as the illustrator of Dante, Cervantes and Victor Hugo. But +Dore's almost superhuman memory was no less of a pitfall than manual +dexterity. The following story will partly explain his dislike of +facsimile and duplication. + +An intimate friend, named Bourdelin, relates how one day during the +siege of Paris, the pair found themselves by the Courbevoie bridge. One +side of this bridge was guarded by French gendarmes, the other by +German officers, Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, a dozen in all. For a +quarter of an hour the two Frenchmen lingered, Dore intently gazing on +the group opposite. On returning home some hours later he produced a +sketch-book and in Bourdelin's presence swiftly outlined the twelve +figures, exactly reproducing not only physiognomic divergences but +every detail of costume! Poor Dore! In those ardently patriotic days he +entirely relied upon victory and drew an anticipatory picture of France +triumphant, entitled, "Le Passage du Rhin." But the French never +crossed the Rhine, and the drawing was given to this friend with the +words: "My sketch has no longer any _raison d'etre_. Keep it in memory +of our fallacious hopes." + + +III + + +In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Dore decided to +leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded +genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that +could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. + +A reader of Ariosto, he had not taken to heart one of his most memorable +verses, those mellifluous lines in which the poet dwells upon the +laboriousness of intellectual achievement. Nor when illustrating the +_Arabian Nights_ had the wonderful story of Hasan of El-Basrah +evidently brought home to him the same moral. + +Between a Dore and his object--so he deemed--existed neither "seven +valleys nor seven seas, nor seven mountains of vast magnitude." A Dore +needed no assistance of the flying Jinn and the wandering stars on his +way, no flying horse, "which when he went along flew, and when he flew +the dust overtook him not." + +Without the equipment of training, without recognition of such a +handicap, he entered upon his new career. + +In 1854 for the first time two pictures signed by Dore appeared on the +walls of the Salon. But the canvases passed unnoticed. The Parisians +would not take the would-be painter seriously, and the following year's +experience proved hardly less disheartening. Of four pictures sent in, +three were accepted, one of these being a historic subject, the other +two being landscapes. The first, "La Bataille de l'Alma," evoked +considerable criticism. The rural scenes were hung, as Edmond About +expressed it, so high as to need a telescope. + +Both About and Th. Gautier believed in their friend's newly-developed +talent, but art-critics and the public held aloof. No medal was decreed +by the jury, and, accustomed as he had been to triumph after triumph, +his fondest hopes for the second time deceived, Dore grew bitter and +acrimonious. That his failure had anything to do with the real question +at issue, namely, his genius as a historic painter, he would never for a +moment admit. Jealousy, cabals, prejudice only were accountable. + +The half dozen years following were divided between delightfully gay and +varied sociabilities, feverishly prolonged working hours and foreign +travel. The millions of francs earned by his illustrations gave him +everything he wanted but one, that one, in his eyes, worth all the rest. + +Travel, a splendid studio, largesses--he was generosity itself--all +these were within his reach. The craved-for renown remained ungraspable. + +Even visits to his favourite resort, Barr, brought disenchantment. He +found old acquaintances and the country folks generally wanting in +appreciation. With greater and lesser men, he subacidly said to himself +that a man was no prophet in his own country. + +Ten years after the fiasco of his first canvases in the Salon came an +invitation to England and the alluring project of a Dore gallery. The +Dore Bible and Tennyson, with other works, had paved the way for a right +royal reception. The streets of London, as he could well believe, were +paved with gold. But many were the _contra_. "I feel the presentiment," +he wrote to a friend, "that if I betake myself to England, I shall break +with my own country and lose prestige and influence in France. I cannot +exist without my friends, my habits and my _pot-au-feu_. Folks tell me +that England is a land of fogs, that the sun never shines there, that +the inhabitants are cold, and that I should most likely suffer from +sea-sickness in crossing the Manche. To sum up, England is a long way +off, and I have a great mind to give up the project." + +Friendly persuasion, self-interest, wounded self-love carried the day. +Reluctantly he decided upon the redoubtable sea-voyage. Whether he +suffered from sea-sickness or no we are not told. In any case the visit +was repeated, John Bull according the great Alsatian, as he was called, +what France had so persistently withheld. + +Dore was here accorded the first rank among historic painters. His +gallery in Bond Street became one of the London sights; in fashionable +society, if not in the close ring of the great Victorian artists, he +made a leading figure. Royalty patronized and welcomed him. The Queen +bought one of his pictures ("Le Psalterion," now at Windsor), and invited +him to Balmoral. The heir-apparent, the late King, admired his talent +and relished his society. By the clerical world he was especially +esteemed, being looked upon as a second Leonardo da Vinci. And, in fine, +Dore must be regarded as an anticipator of the Entente cordiale. +"Gustave Dore," his compatriots would say, "he is half an Englishman!" +Forty years ago our popular favourite might indeed have believed in the +fulfilment of his dream. The Thorwaldsen Gallery of Copenhagen had ever +dazzled his imagination. Bond Street was not Paris, certainly, but in +the greatest metropolis of the world his memory would be for ever +perpetuated. Turning to the dithyrambic utterances of the London Press +at the time we can hardly wonder at the hallucination. + +Here are one or two passages culled from leading dailies and weeklies-- + +"In gravity and magnitude of purpose, no less than in the scope and +power of his imagination, he towers like a Colossus among his +contemporaries. Compared with such a work as 'Christ leaving the +Praetorium,' the pictures in Burlington House look like the production of +a race of dwarfs whose mental faculties are as diminutive as their +stature. And it is not alone the efforts of the English School of +Painting that appear puny in presence of so great and gigantic an +undertaking; the work of all the existing schools of Europe sinks into +equal insignificance, and we must go back to the Italian painters of the +sixteenth century to find a picture worthy of being classed with this +latest and most stupendous achievement of the great French master." + +Elsewhere we read-- + +"The most marvellous picture of the present age is to be seen at 35, New +Bond Street. The subject is 'Christ leaving the Praetorium,' The painter +is the world-renowned Gustave Dore." + +A journal devoted to art-criticism wrote-- + +"In 'The Christian Martyrs' we have a striking, thrilling and +ennobling picture." + +And so on, and so on. Yet at this time among "the dwarfs" of Burlington +House then exhibiting was Millais, and contemporaneously with Dore in +our midst, 1870-1, was Daubigny, whose tiniest canvases now fetch their +thousands! + +It was during Dore's apogee in England that a well-known French amateur, +also visiting our shores, was thus addressed by an English friend: "Come +with me to Bond Street, you will there see the work of your greatest +living painter." + +"_Our_ greatest painter!" exclaimed the other. "You mean your own. Dore +is our first draughtsman of France, yes, but painter, never, neither the +greatest nor great; at least we were ignorant of the fact till informed +of it by yourself and your country-people." + +Dore knew well how matters stood, and bitterly resented the attitude of +his own nation. Accorded a princely welcome across the Manche, his work +worth its weight in gold on the other side of the Atlantic, in France he +was looked at askance, even as a painter ignored. He regarded himself as +shut out from his rightful heritage, and the victim, if not of a +conspiracy, of a cabal. His school playmates and close friends, Taine, +Edmond About and Th. Gautier, might be on his side; perhaps, with +reservations, Rossini and a few other eminent associates also. But the +prescient, unerring verdict of the collective "man in the street"-- + +"The people's voice, the proof and echo of all human fame"-- + +he missed; resentment preyed upon his spirits, undermined his vitality, +and doubtless had something to do with his premature breakdown. + +The Dore gallery indeed proved his Capua, the long-stop to his fame. + + +IV + + +As a personality the would-be Titian, Duerer, Thorwaldsen and Benvenuto +Cellini in one presents an engaging figure. His domestic life makes very +pleasant reading. We find no dark holes and corners in the career of one +who may be said to have remained a boy to the end, at fifty as at five +full of freak and initiative, clingingly attached to a devoted and +richly-endowed mother, and the ebullient spirit of a happy home. With +his rapidly increasing fortune, the historic house in the Rue Dominique +became an artistic, musical and dramatic centre. His fetes were worthy +of a millionaire, and, alike in those private theatricals, _tableaux +vivants_ or concerts, he ever took a leading part. An accomplished +violinist, Dore found in music a never-failing stimulant and +refreshment. Rossini was one of his circle, among others were the two +Gautiers, the two Dumas, Carolus Duran, Liszt, Gounod, Patti, Alboni and +Nilsson, Mme. Dore, still handsome and alert in her old age, proudly +doing the honours of what was now called the Hotel Dore. By his literary +and artistic brethren the many-faceted genius and exhilarating host was +fully appreciated. Generosities he ever freely indulged in, the wealth +of such rapid attainment being dispensed with an ungrudgeful hand. To +works of charity the great illustrator gave largely, but we hear of no +untoward misreckonings, nor bills drawn upon time, health or talents. +With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh +commandment. + +Meantime, as the years wore on, again and again he bid desperately for +the suffrages withheld, his legitimately won renown held by him of small +account. To his American biographer he said, on showing her some of his +pictures: "I illustrate books in order to pay for my colours and +paint-brushes. I was born a painter." + +On the lady's companion, an American officer, naively asking if +certain canvases were designed for London or Paris, he answered with +bitter irony-- + +"Paris, forsooth! I do not paint well enough for Paris." As he spoke his +face became clouded. The gay, jovial host of a few minutes before sighed +deeply, and during their visit could not shake off depression. + +Two crowning humiliations came before the one real sorrow of his life, +the loss of that gifted mother who was alike his boon companion, closest +confidante and enthusiastic Egeria. Perpetually seeking laurels in new +fields, in 1877 he made his _debut_ as a sculptor. The marble group, "La +Parque et l'Amour," signed G. Dore, won a _succes d'estime_, no more. +In the following year was opened the great international exhibition on the +Champ de Mars, Dore's enormous monumental vase being conspicuously +placed over one of the porticoes. This astounding achievement in bronze, +appropriately named the "Poeme de la Vigne," created quite a sensation +at the time. Reproductions appeared in papers of all countries +containing a printing press or photographic machine. But for the +artist's name, doubtless his work would have attained the gold medal and +other honours. The Brobdingnagian vase, so wonderfully decorated with +flowers, animals and arabesques, was passed over by the jury. + +Equally mortifying was the fate of his marble group in the same year's +Salon. This subject, "La Gloire," had a place of honour in the sculpture +gallery and won universal suffrages. The critics echoed popular +approval. The jury remained passive. It was in the midst of these +unnecessarily crushing defeats--for why, indeed, should any mortal have +craved more than mortal success?--that Mme. Dore's forces gave way. From +that time till her death, which occurred two years later, her son's +place was by her side, floutings, projects, health and pleasure, +forgotten, his entire thoughts being given to the invalid. No more +beautiful picture of filial devotion could suggest itself to the painter +of domestic subjects than this, Dore with table and sketching materials +seated in his mother's sick-room, or at night ministering to her in +wakeful moments. At dawn he would snatch a few hours' sleep, but that +was all. No wonder that his own health should give way so soon after the +death-blow of her loss. + +"My friend," he wrote to an English boon companion, on March 16, 1881, +"she is no more. I am alone. You are a clergyman, I entreat you to pray +for the repose of her beloved soul and the preservation of my reason." + +A few days later he wrote to the same friend of his "frightful +solitude," adding his regret at not having anticipated such a blank and +made for himself a home--in other words, taken a wife. + +Some kind matchmaking friends set to work and found, so at least they +fancied, a bride exactly calculated to render him happy. + +But on January 23, 1883, Dore died, prematurely aged and broken +down by grief, corroding disappointment and quite frenzied overwork +and ambition. + +He never attained recognition as a historic painter among his +country-folks. One canvas, however, "Tobit and the Angel," is placed in +the Luxembourg, and his monument to Dumas ornaments the capital. His +renown as an illustrator remains high as ever in France. And one, that +one, the passionately desired prize of every Frenchman, became his: in +1861 he was decorated with the Red Ribbon. Six of Dore's great religious +subjects retain their place in the Bond Street Gallery, but for reasons +given above his wonderfully imaginative illustrations are here +forgotten. + +The superb edition of the _Enid_ (Moxon, 1868), a folio bound in royal +purple and gold, and printed on paper thick as vellum, the volume +weighing four pounds, awakens melancholy reflections. What would have +been poor Dore's feelings had he lived to see such a guinea's worth, and +cheap at the price, gladly sold, rather got rid of, for three shillings! + +Dore's last work, the unconventional monument to the elder Dumas, was +left unfinished. + +Completed by another hand, the group now forms a conspicuous object in +the Avenue Villiers, Paris. + +The striking figure of the great quadroon, with his short crisped +locks, suggests a closer relationship to the race thus apostrophized by +Walt Whitman-- + + "You, dim descended, black, divine souled African...." + +He surmounts a lofty pedestal, on the base being seated a homely group, +three working folks, a mob-capped woman reading a Dumas novel to two +companions, evidently her father and husband, sons of the soil, drinking +in every word, their attitude of the most complete absorption. +Classicists and purists in art doubtless look askance at a work which +would certainly have enchanted the sovereign romancer. + +"Will folks read my stories when I am gone, doctor?" he asked as he lay +a-dying. The good physician easily reassured his patient. "When we have +patients awaiting some much-dreaded operation in hospital," he replied, +"we have only to give them one of your novels. Straightway they forget +everything else." And Dumas--"the great, the humane," as a charming poet +has called him--died happy. As well he might, in so far as his fame was +concerned. _La Tulipe Noire_ would alone have assured his future. + + + +VI + +QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is +to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the +lodestar ahead. The way to almost any place of renown, natural, historic +or artistic, is sure to teem with as much interest as that to which we +are bound. So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is +French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every +town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we +set out. Thus it has ever been my rule to indulge in the most +preposterous peregrination, taking no account whatever of days, seasons +or possible cons, hearkening only to the pros, and never so much as +glancing at the calendar. Such protracted zigzaggeries have been made +easy to the "devious traveller" by one unusual advantage. Just as +pioneers in Australasia find Salvation Army shelters scattered +throughout remotest regions, so, fortunately, have I ever been able to +count upon "harbour and good company" during my thirty-five years of +French sojourn and travel. + +To reach a certain Pyrenean valley in which I was to spend a holiday +would only have meant a night's dash by express from Paris. Instead, I +followed the south-eastern route, halting at--Heaven knows how +many!--already familiar and delightful places between Paris and Dijon, +Dijon and Lyons, Lyons and Nimes; from the latter city being bound for +almost as many more before reaching my destination. + +Quite naturally I would often find myself on the track of that "wise and +honest traveller," so John Morley calls Arthur Young. + +Half-way between Nimes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at +which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a +disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." + +But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I +went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and +odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery-- + +"Here I am!" + +As a rule I am entirely of Montaigne's opinion. "When I travel in +Sicily," said the philosopher of Gascony, "it is not to find Gascons." +Dearly as we love home and home-folk, the gist of travel lies in +oppositeness and surprises. We do not visit the uttermost ends of the +globe in search of next-door neighbours. That cordial "Here I am!" +however, had an unmistakable accent, just a delightful suspicion of +French. My host was a gallant naval officer long since retired from +service, with his English wife and two daughters, spending the long +vacation in his country home. + +High above the little village of Quissac rises the residence of +beneficent owners, master and mistress, alas! long since gone to their +rest. From its terrace the eye commands a vast and beautiful panorama, a +richly cultivated plain dotted with villages and framed by the blue +Cevennes. Tea served after English fashion and by a dear countrywoman, +everywhere _"le confortable Anglais"_ admittedly unattainable by French +housewives, could not for a single moment make me forget that I was in +France. And when the dinner gong sounded came the final, the +unequivocal, proof of distance. + +Imagine dining out of doors and in evening dress at eight o'clock in the +last week of August! The table was set on the wide balcony of the upper +floor, high above lawn and bosquets, the most chilly person having here +nothing to fear. It is above all things the French climate that +transports us so far from home and makes us feel ourselves hundreds, +nay, thousands of miles away. + +I have elsewhere, perhaps ofttimes, dwelt on the luminosity of the +atmosphere in southern and south-western France. To-night not a breath +was stirring, the outer radiance was the radiance of stars only, yet so +limpid, so lustrous the air that cloudless moonlight could hardly have +made every object seem clearer, more distinct. The feeling inspired by +such conditions is that of enchantment. For the nonce we may yield to a +spell, fancy ourselves in Armida's enchanted garden or other "delightful +land of Faery." + +Not for long, however! Pleasant practical matters soon recall us to the +life of every day. That laborious, out-of-door existence, which seems +sordid in superfine English eyes, but which is never without the gaiety +that enchanted Goldsmith and Sterne a hundred and fifty years ago. + +Whilst host and guest dined on the balcony, the farming folk and such of +the household as could be spared were enjoying a starlit supper +elsewhere. Later, my hostess took me downstairs and introduced her +English visitor to a merry but strictly decorous party having a special +bit of sward to themselves, bailiff, vintagers, stockmen, dairywoman, +washerwoman and odd hands making up a round dozen of men, women and +boys. All seemed quite at home, and chatted easily with their employer +and the visitor, by no means perturbed, rather pleased by the intrusion. + +And here I will mention one of those incidents that lead English +observers into so many misconceptions concerning French rural life. +Little things that seem sordid, even brutifying to insular eyes, really +arise from incompatible standards. + +The Frenchman's ideal of material comfort begins and ends with solvency, +the sense of absolute security from want in old age. Small comforts he +sets little store by; provided that he gets a good dinner, lesser +considerations go. I do not hesitate to say that the comforts enjoyed by +our own farm-servants half a century ago were far in excess of those +thought more than sufficient by French labourers and their employers. On +the following day my hosts took me round the farmery, fowl-run, +piggeries, neat-houses and stalls being inspected one by one. When we +came to the last named, I noticed at the door of the long building and +on a level with the feeding troughs for oxen, a bed-shaped wooden box +piled up with fresh clean straw. + +"That is where our stockman sleeps," explained the lady. + +Here, then, quite contentedly slept the herdsman of a large estate in +nineteenth-century France, whilst his English compeers two generations +before, and in much humbler employ, had their tidy bedroom and +comfortable bed under the farmer's roof. What would my own Suffolk +ploughmen have said to the notion of spending the night in an ox-stall? +But _autres pays, autres moeurs_. In Deroulede's fine little poem, "Bon +gite", a famished, foot-sore soldier returning home is generously +entreated by a poor housewife. When she sets about preparing a bed for +him, he remonstrates-- + + "Good dame, what means that new-made bed, + Those sheets so finely spun? + On heaped-up straw in cattle-shed, + I'd snore till rise of sun." + +The compensations for apparent hardship in the case of French peasants +are many and great. In Henry James's great series of dissolving views +called _The American Scene_, he describes the heterogeneous masses as +having "a promoted look". The French proletariat have not a promoted +look, rather one of inherited, traditional stability and self-respect. +One and all, moreover, are promoting themselves, rising by a slow +evolutionary process from the condition of wage-earner to that of +metayer, tenant, lastly freeholder. + +Although the immediate environs of Quissac and Sauve are not remarkable, +magnificent prospects are obtained a little farther afield--our drives +and walks abounded in interest--and associations! Strange but true it is +that we can hardly halt anywhere in France without coming upon historic, +literary or artistic memorials. Every town and village is redolent of +tradition, hardly a spot but is glorified by genius! + +Thus, half-an-hour's drive from our village still stands the chateau +and birthplace of Florian, the Pollux of fabulists, La Fontaine being +the Castor, no other stars of similar magnitude shining in their +especial arc. + +Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born here in 1755, just sixty years +after the great fabulist's death. Nephew of a marquis, himself +nephew-in-law of Voltaire, endowed with native wit and gaiety, the young +man was a welcome guest at Fernay, and no wonder! His enchanting fables +did not see the light till after Voltaire's death, but we will hope that +some of them had delighted his host in recitation. Many of us who loved +French in early years have a warm corner in our hearts for "Numa +Pompilius", but Florian will live as the second fabulist of France, to +my own thinking twin of his forerunner. + +How full of wisdom, wit and sparkle are these apologues! Take, for +instance, the following, which to the best of my ability I have rendered +into our mother tongue-- + + VANITY (LE PETIT CHIEN). + + I + Once on a time and far away, + The elephant stood first in might, + He had by many a forest fray + At last usurped the lion's right. + On peace and reign unquestioned bent, + The ruler in his pride of place, + Forthwith to life-long banishment + Doomed members of the lion race. + + II + Dispirited, their best laid low, + The vanquished could but yield to fate, + And turn their backs upon the foe + In silence nursing grief and hate. + A poodle neatly cropped and clipped, + With tasselled tail made leonine, + On hearing of the stern rescript, + Straightway set up a piteous whine. + + III + "Alas!" he moaned. "Ah, woe is me! + Where, tyrant, shall I shelter find; + Advancing years what will they be, + My home and comforts left behind?" + A spaniel hastened at the cry, + "Come, mate, what's this to-do about?" + "Oh, oh," the other gulped reply, + "For exile we must all set out!" + + IV + "Must all?" "No, you are safe, good friend; + The cruel law smites us alone; + Here undisturbed your days may end, + The lions must perforce begone." + "The lions? Brother, pray with these, + What part or lot have such as you?" + "What part, forsooth? You love to tease; + You know I am a lion too." + +[Footnote: The first translation appeared with others in _French Men, +Women and Books_, 1910. The second was lately issued in the +_Westminster Gazette_.] + +Here is another, a poem of essential worldly wisdom, to be bracketed +with Browning's equally oracular "The Statue and the Bust," fable and +poem forming a compendium. + + THE FLIGHTY PURPOSE + (LE PAYSAN AND LA RIVIERE). + + "I now intend to change my ways"-- + Thus Juan said--"No more for me + A round on round of idle days + 'Mid soul-debasing company. + I've pleasure woo'd from year to year + As by a siren onward lured, + At last of roystering, once held dear, + I'm as a man of sickness cured." + + "Unto the world I bid farewell, + My mind to retrospection give, + Remote as hermit in his cell, + For wisdom and wise friends I'll live." + "Is Thursday's worldling, Friday's sage? + Too good such news," I bantering spoke. + "How oft you've vowed to turn the page, + Each promise vanishing like smoke!" + + "And when the start?" "Next week--not this." + "Ah, you but play with words again." + "Nay, do not doubt me; hard it is + To break at once a life-long chain." + Came we unto the riverside, + Where motionless a rustic sate, + His gaze fixed on the flowing tide. + "Ho, mate, why thus so still and squat?" + + "Good sirs, bound to yon town am I; + No bridge anear, I sit and sit + Until these waters have run dry, + So that afoot I get to it." + "A living parable behold, + My friend!" quoth I. "Upon the brim + You, too, will gaze until you're old, + But never boldly take a swim!" + +As far as I know, no memorial has as yet been raised to the fabulist +either at Quissac or at Sauve, but as long as the French language lasts +successive generations will keep his memory green. Certain of his fables +every little scholar knows by heart. + +Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from +Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing +described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a +name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress. + +"From Ganges", wrote the great Suffolk farmer in July 1787, "to the +mountain of rough ground which I crossed" (in the direction of +Montdardier), "the ride has been the most interesting which I have +taken in France; the efforts of industry the most vigorous, the +animation the most lively. An activity has been here that has swept away +all difficulties before it and clothed the very rocks with verdure. It +would be a disgrace to common sense to ask the cause; the enjoyment of +property must have done it. _Give a man the sure possession of a bleak +rock, and he will turn it into a garden_." The italics are my own. When +will Arthur Young have his tablet in Westminster Abbey, I wonder? + +The department of the Gard offers an anomaly of the greatest historic +interest. Here and here only throughout the length and breadth of France +villages are found without a Catholic church, communities that have held +fast to Protestantism and the right of private judgment from generation +to generation during hundreds of years. Elsewhere, in the Cote d'Or, for +instance, as I have described in a former work, Protestantism was +completely stamped out by the Revocation, whole villages are now +ultramontane, having abjured, the alternatives placed before them being +confiscation of property, separation of children and parents, +banishment, prison and death. + +[Footnote: See _Friendly Faces_, chap. xvi.] + +The supremacy of the reformed faith may be gathered from the following +facts: A few years back, of the six deputies representing this +department five were Protestant and the sixth was a Jew. The _Conseil +General_ or provincial council numbered twenty-three Protestants as +against seventeen Catholics. The seven members of the Board of Hospitals +at Nimes, three of the four inspectors of public health, nine of the +twelve head-mistresses of girls' schools, twenty-nine of forty rural +magistrates, were Protestants. + +My host belonged to the same faith, as indeed do most of his class and +the great captains of local industry. It is not as in Michelet's +fondly-loved St. Georges de Didonne, where only the lowly and the toiler +have kept the faith aflame. + +But whilst neighbours now live peacefully side by side, a gulf still +divides Catholic and Protestant. Although half a millennium has elapsed +since the greatest crime of modern history, the two bodies remain apart: +French _annexes_ of Alsace-Lorraine and Germans are not more completely +divided. Mixed marriages are of rarest occurrence, intercourse limited +to the conventional and the obligatory. There are historic curses that +defy lustration. St. Bartholomew is one of these. I must now say +something about the country-folks. Calls upon our rustic neighbours, +long chats with affable housewives, and rounds of farmery, vineyard and +field attracted me more than the magnificent panoramas to be obtained +from Corconne and other villages within an easy drive. + +George Sand has ever been regarded as a poetizer of rural life, an +arch-idealist of her humbler country-folks. At Quissac I made more than +one acquaintance that might have stepped out of _La petite Fadette_ or +_La mare au Diable_. + +One old woman might have been "la paisible amie," the tranquil friend, +to whom the novelist dedicated a novel. Neat, contented, active and +self-respecting, she enjoyed a life-interest in two acres and a cottage, +her live stock consisting of a goat, a pig and poultry, her invested +capital government stock representing a hundred pounds. Meagre as may +seem these resources, she was by no means to be pitied or inclined to +pity herself, earning a few francs here and there by charing, selling +her little crops, what eggs and chickens she could spare, above all +things being perfectly independent. + +A charming idyll the great Sand could have found here. The owner of a +thirty-acre farm had lately died, leaving it with all he possessed to +two adopted children, a young married couple who for years had acted +respectively as steward and housekeeper. We are bound to infer that on +the one hand there had been affection and gratitude, on the other the +same qualities with conscientiousness in business matters. The +foster-father was childless and a widower, but, among the humble as well +as the rich French, ambition of posthumous remembrance often actuates +impersonal bequests. This worthy Jacques Bonhomme might have made an +heir of his native village, leaving money for a new school-house or some +other public edifice. Very frequently towns and even villages become +legatees of the childless, and the worthy man would have been quite sure +of a statue, a memorial tablet, or at least of having his name added to +a street or square. + +Before taking leave of Quissac I must mention one curious fact. + +The Proteus of Odyssean story or the King's daughter and the Efreet in +the "Second Royal Mendicant's Adventure," could not more easily +transform themselves than the French peasant. Husbandman to-day, +mechanic on the morrow, at one season he plies the pruning-hook, at +another he turns the lathe. This adaptability of the French mind, +strange to say, is nowhere seen to greater advantage than in +out-of-the-way regions, just where are mental torpidity and unbendable +routine. Not one of Millet's blue-bloused countrymen but masters a dozen +handicrafts. + +Thus, whilst the heraldic insignia of Sauve should be a trident, those +of Quissac should be surmounted by an old shoe! In the former place the +forked branches of the _Celtis australis_ or nettle tree, _Ulmaceae_, +afford a most profitable occupation. From its tripartite boughs are made +yearly thousands upon thousands of the three-pronged forks used in +agriculture. The wood, whilst very durable, is yielding, and lends +itself to manipulation. + +In Florian's birthplace folks make a good living out of old boots and +shoes! Some native genius discovered that, however well worn footgear +may be, valuable bits of leather may remain in the sole. These fragments +are preserved, and from them boot heels are made; the _debris_, boots, +shoes and slippers, no matter the material, find their way to the soil +as manure. But this subject if pursued further would lead to a lane, +metaphorically speaking, without a turning, that is to say to a treatise +on French rural economy. + + + +VII + +AN IMMORTALIZER + +In Renan's exquisitely phrased preface to his _Drames Philosophiques_ +occurs the following sentence which I render into English _tant bien que +mal_: "Side by side are the history of fact and the history of the +ideal, the latter materially speaking of what has never taken place, but +which, in the ideal sense, has happened a thousand times." + +Who when visiting the beautiful little town of Saumur thinks of the +historic figures connected with its name? Even the grand personality of +Duplessis Morny sinks into insignificance by comparison with that of the +miser's daughter, the gentle, ill-starred Eugenie Grandet! And who when +Carcassonne first breaks upon his view thinks of aught but Nadaud's +immortal peasant and his plaint-- + + "I'm growing old, just three score year, + In wet and dry, in dust and mire, + I've sweated, never getting near + Fulfilment of my heart's desire. + Ah, well I see that bliss below + 'Tis Heaven's will to vouchsafe none, + Harvest and vintage come and go, + I've never got to Carcassonne!" + +The tragi-comic poem of six eight-lined verses ending thus-- + + "So sighed a peasant of Limoux, + A worthy neighbour bent and worn. + 'Ho, friend,' quoth I, 'I'll go with you. + We'll sally forth to-morrow morn.' + And true enough away we hied, + But when our goal was almost won, + God rest his soul!--the good man died, + He never got to Carcassonne!" + +No lover of France certainly should die without having seen Carcassonne, +foremost of what I will call the pictorial Quadrilateral, no formidable +array after the manner of their Austrian cognominal, but lovely, +dreamlike things. These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as +when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the +Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guerande, scene of +Balzac's _Beatrix_. To my thinking, and I have visited each, there is +little to choose between the first two, but exquisite as is the little +Briard acropolis, those imaginary "topless towers of Ilium" of Nadaud's +peasant bear the palm. That first view of Carcassonne as we approach it +in the railway of itself repays a long and tedious journey. A vision +rather than reality, structure of pearly clouds in mid-heaven, seems +that opaline pile lightly touched with gold. We expect it to evaporate +at evenfall! Vanish it does not, nor wholly bring disillusion, so fair +and harmonious are the vistas caught in one circuit of the citadel, mere +matter of twenty minutes. + +But the place by this time has become so familiar to travellers in +France and readers of French travel, that I will here confine myself to +its glorifier, author of a song that has toured the world. + +The first biography of the French Tom Moore, published last year, gives +no history of this much translated poem. Had, indeed, some worthy +vine-grower poured out such a plaint in the poet's ears? Very probably, +for one and all of Nadaud's rural poems breathe the very essence of the +fields, the inmost nature of the peasant, from first to last they reveal +Jacques Bonhomme to us, his conceptions of life, his mentality and +limitations. + +[Footnote: My own rendering of this piece and many other of Nadaud's +songs and ballads are given in _French Men, Women and Books_, 1910. +American translators have admirably translated _Carcassonne_.] + +Nadaud's career is uneventful, but from one point of view, far from +being noteless, he was pre-eminently the happy man. His biographer (A. +Varloy) tells us of a smooth, much relished, even an exuberant +existence. The son of an excellent bourgeois, whose ancestry, +nevertheless, like that of many another, could be traced for six hundred +years, his early surroundings were the least lyric imaginable. + +He was born at Roubaix, the flourishing seat of manufacture near Lille, +which, although a mere _chef-lieu du canton_, does more business with +the Bank of France than the big cities of Toulouse, Nimes, Montpellier +and others thrice its size. Dress fabrics, cloths and exquisite napery +are the products of Roubaix and its suburb; vainly, however, does any +uncommercial traveller endeavour to see the weavers at work. Grimy walls +and crowded factory chimneys are relieved at Roubaix by gardens public +and private, and the town is endowed with museums, libraries, art and +technical schools. But Nadaud, like Cyrano de Bergerac, if asked what +gave him most delectation, would certainly have replied-- + + "Lorsque j'ai fait un vers et que je l'aime, + Je me paye en me le chantant a moi-meme." + +Here is the boy's daily programme when a twelve-year-old student at the +College Rollin, Paris. The marvel is that the poetic instinct survived +such routine, marvellous also the fact that the dry-as-dust in authority +was a well-known translator of Walter Scott. If anything could have +conjured the Wizard of the North from his grave it was surely these +particulars written by Gustave Nadaud to his father on the 19th of +October, 1833-- + +"Five-thirty, rise; five-forty-five, studies till seven-thirty; +breakfast and recreation from seven-thirty till eight; from eight till +ten, school; from ten to a quarter past, recreation; from a quarter past +ten till half past twelve, school; then dinner and recreation from one +till two. School from two till half past four; collation from half past +four till a quarter past five; school from a quarter past five till +eight. Supper and to bed." + +Poetry here was, however, a healthy plant, and in his school-days this +born song-writer would scribble verses on his copy-books and read Racine +for his own amusement. Turning his back upon the mill-wheels of his +native town and an assured future in a Parisian business house, like Gil +Bias's friend, _il s'est jete dans le bel esprit_--in other words, he +betook himself to the career of a troubadour. Never, surely, did master +of song-craft write and sing so many ditties! + +Quitting school with a tip-top certificate both as to conduct and +application, Gustave Nadaud quickly won fame if not fortune. Hardly of +age, he wrote somewhat Bohemian effusions that at once made the round of +Parisian music-halls. + +The revolution, if it brought topsy-turvydom in politics, like its great +forerunner '89 brought the apogee of song. The popular young lyrist, +ballader and minstrel, for Nadaud accompanied himself on the piano, now +made a curious compact, agreeing to write songs for twenty years, a firm +named Heugel paying him six thousand francs yearly by way of +remuneration. + +Two hundred and forty pounds a year should seem enough for a young man, +a bachelor brought up in bourgeois simplicity. But the cost of living in +Paris was apparently as high sixty years ago as now. In 1856-7 he wrote +to a friend: "How upon such an income I contrived to live and frequent +Parisian salons without ever asking a farthing of any one, only those +who have been poor can tell." The salons spoken of were not only +aristocratic but Imperial, the late Princess Mathilde being an +enthusiastic hostess and patroness. Several operettas were composed by +Nadaud for her receptions and philanthropic entertainments. Here is a +sketch of the French Tom Moore in 1868 by a witty contributor of the +_Figaro_-- + +"Nadaud then seated himself at the piano, and of the words he sang I +give you full measure, the impression produced by his performance I +cannot hope to convey. Quite indescribable was the concord of voice and +hands, on the music as on wings each syllable being lightly borne, yet +its meaning thereby intensified. In one's memory only can such delight +be revived and reproduced." + +With other poets, artists and musicians Nadaud cast vocation to the +winds in 1870-1, working in field and other hospitals. "I did my best to +act the part of a poor little sister of charity," he wrote to a friend. +His patriotic poem, "La grande blessee," was written during that +terrible apprenticeship. + +With Nadaud henceforward it was a case of roses, roses all the way. +Existence he had ever taken easily, warm friendships doing duty for a +domestic circle. And did he not write-- + + "I dreamed of an ideal love + And Benedick remain?" + +His songs proved a mine of wealth, and the sumptuously illustrated +edition got up by friends and admirers brought him 80,000 francs, with +which he purchased a villa, christened Carcassonne, at Nice, therein +spending sunny and sunny-tempered days and dispensing large-hearted +hospitality. To luckless brethren of the lyre he held out an ungrudgeful +hand, alas! meeting with scant return. The one bitterness of his life, +indeed, was due to ingratitude. Among his papers after death was found +the following note-- + +"Throughout the last thirty years I have lent sums, large considering +my means, to friends, comrades and entire strangers. Never, never, +never has a single centime been repaid by a single one of these +borrowers. I now vow to myself, never under any circumstances whatever +to lend money again!" + +Poor song-writers, nevertheless, he posthumously befriended. By his will +with the bulk of his property was founded "La petite Caisse des +chansonniers," a benefit society for less happy Nadauds to come. By aid +of these funds, lyrists and ballad-writers unable to find publishers +would be held on their onward path. Full of honours, Nadaud died in +1893, monuments being erected to his memory, streets named after him, +and undiminished popularity keeping his name alive. + +And the honour denied to Beranger, to Victor Hugo, to Balzac, the +coveted sword and braided coat of the Forty were Nadaud's also. With the +witty Piron he could not ironically anticipate his own epitaph thus-- + +"Here lies Nadaud who was nothing, not even an Academician!" + +Before taking leave of Carcassonne, poetic and picturesque, the most +inveterate anti-sightseer should peep into its museum. For this little +_chef-lieu_ of the Aude, with a population under thirty thousand, +possesses what, indeed, hardly a French townling lacks, namely, a +picture-gallery. If not remarkable from an artistic point of view, the +collection serves to demonstrate the persistent, self-denying and +constant devotion to culture in France. Times may be peaceful or stormy, +seasons may prove disastrous, the withered, thin and blasted ears of +corn may devour the seven ears full and golden, the ship of State may be +caught in a tornado and lurch alarmingly--all the same "the man in the +street," "the rascal many," to quote Spenser, will have a museum in +which, with wife and hopefuls, to spend their Sunday afternoons. The +local museum is no less of a necessity to Jacques Bonhomme than his +daily _pot-au-feu_, that dish of soup which, according to Michelet, +engenders the national amiability. + +The splendid public library--the determinative is used in the sense of +comparison--numbers just upon a volume per head, and the art school, +school of music, and other institutions tell the same story. Culture +throughout the country seems indigenous, to spread of itself, and, above +all things, to reach all classes. Culture on French soil is gratuitous, +ever free as air! We must never overlook that primary fact. + +One or two more noticeable facts about Carcassonne. Here was born that +eccentric revolutionary and poetic genius, Fabre d'Eglantine, of whom I +have written elsewhere. + + [Footnote: See Literary Rambles in France, 1906] + +Yet another historic note. From St. Vincent's tower during the +Convention, 1792-5, were taken those measurements, the outcome of which +was the metric system. Two mathematicians, by name Delambre and Mechain, +were charged with the necessary calculations, the _metre_, or a +ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles and the equator +(32,808 English feet), being made the unit of length. Uniformity of +weight followed, and became law in 1799. + +But to touch upon historic Carcassonne is to glance upon an almost +interminable perspective. The chronicle of this charming little city +on the bright blue Aude has been penned and re-penned in blood and +tears. In 1560 Carcassonne suffered a preliminary Saint Bartholomew, a +general massacre of Protestants announcing the evil days to follow; +days that after five hundred years have left their trace, moral as +well as material. + + + +VIII + +TOULOUSE + +A zigzaggery, indeed, was this journey from Nimes to my Pyrenean valley. +That metropolis of art and most heroic town, Montauban, I could not on +any account miss. Toulouse necessarily had to be taken on the way to +Ingres-ville, as I feel inclined to call the great painter's birthplace +and apotheosis. But why write of Toulouse? The magnificent city, its +public gardens, churches, superbly housed museums and art galleries, its +promenades, drives and panoramas are all particularized by Murray, +Joanne and Baedeker. Here, however, as elsewhere, are one or two +features which do not come within the province of a guide-book. + +The only city throughout France that welcomed the Inquisition was +among the first to open a _Lycee pour jeunes filles._ In accordance +with the acts of 1880-82 public day schools for girls were opened +throughout France; that of Toulouse being fairly representative, I +will describe my visit. + +The school was now closed for the long vacation, but a junior mistress +in temporary charge gave us friendliest welcome, and showed us over the +building and annexes. She evidently took immense and quite natural +pride in the little world within world of which she formed a part. Her +only regret was that we could not see the scholars at work. Here may be +noted the wide field thrown open to educated women by the above-named +acts, from under-mistresses to _Madame la directrice_, the position +being one of dignity and provision for life, pensions being the reward +of long service. + +The course of study is prepared by the rector of the Toulousain Academy, +and the rules of management by the municipal council, thus the programme +of instruction bears the signature of the former, whilst the prospectus, +dealing with fees, practical details, is signed by the mayor in the name +of the latter. + +We find a decree passed by the town council in 1887 to the effect that +in the case of two sisters a fourth of the sum-total of fees should be +remitted, of three, a half, of four, three-quarters, and of five, the +entire amount. Even the outfit of the boarders must be approved by the +same authority. A neat costume is obligatory, and the number and +material of undergarments is specified with the utmost minuteness. +Besides a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes, each student must +bring three pairs of boots, thirty pocket-handkerchiefs, a bonnet-box, +umbrella, parasol, and so forth. + +Such regulations may at first sight look trivial and unnecessary, but +there is much to be said on the other side. From the beginning of the +term to the end, the matron, whose province is quite apart from that of +the head-mistress, is never worried about the pupils' dress, no shoes in +need of repair, no garments to be mended, no letters to be written +begging Mme. A. to send her daughter a warm petticoat, Mme. B. to +forward a hair-brush, and so on. Again, the uniform obligatory on +boarders prevents those petty jealousies and rivalries provoked by fine +clothes in girls' schools. Alike the child of the millionaire and of the +small official wear the same simple dress. + +Children are admitted to the lower school between the ages of five and +twelve, the classes being in the hands of certificated mistresses. The +upper school, at which pupils are received from twelve years and +upwards, and are expected to remain five years, offers a complete course +of study, lady teachers being aided by professors of the Faculte des +Lettres and of the Lycee for youths. Students who have remained +throughout the entire period, and have satisfactorily passed final +examinations, receive a certificate entitling them to admission into the +great training college of Sevres or to offer themselves as teachers in +schools and families. + +The curriculum is certainly modest compared with that obligatory on +candidates for London University, Girton College, or our senior local +examination; but it is an enormous improvement on the old conventual +system, and several points are worthy of imitation. Thus a girl quitting +the Lycee would have attained, first and foremost, a thorough knowledge +of her own language and its literature; she would also possess a fair +notion of French common law, of domestic economy, including needlework +of the more useful kind, the cutting out and making up of clothes, and +the like. Gymnastics are practised daily. In the matter of religion the +municipality of Toulouse shows absolute impartiality. No sectarian +teaching enters into the programme, but Catholics and Protestants and +Jews in residence can receive instruction from their respective +ministers. + +The Lycee competes formidably with the convents as regards fees. +Twenty-eight pounds yearly cover the expense of board, education, and +medical attendance at the upper school; twenty-four at the lower; day +boarders pay from twelve to fifteen pounds a year; books, the use of the +school omnibus, and laundress being extras. Three hundred scholars in +all attended during the scholastic year ending July 1891. + +Day-pupils not using the school omnibus must be accompanied to and from +the school, and here an interesting point is to be touched upon. In so +far as was practicable, the Lycee for girls has been modelled on the +plan of the time-honoured establishments for boys. As yet a uniform +curriculum to begin with was out of the question; the programme is +already too ambitious in the eyes of many, whilst ardent advocates of +the higher education of women in France regret that the vices as well as +the virtues of the existing system have been retained. Educationists and +advanced thinkers generally would fain see a less strait-laced routine, +a less stringent supervision, more freedom for play of character. The +Lycee student, boy or girl, youth or maiden, is as strictly guarded as a +criminal; not for a moment are these citizens of the future trusted to +themselves. + +In the vast dormitory of the high school here we see thirty neat +compartments with partitions between, containing bed and toilet +requisites, and at the extreme end of the room, commanding a view of +the rest, is the bed of the under-mistress in charge, _surveillante_ as +she is called. Sleeping or waking, the students are watched. This +massing together of numbers and perpetual supervision no longer find +universal favour. + +But I am here writing of fifteen years ago. Doubtless were I to repeat +my visit I should find progressive changes too numerous for detail. +Happy little middle-class Parisians now run to and from their Lycees +unattended. Young ladies in society imitate their Anglo-Saxon sisters +and have shaken off that incubus, _la promeneuse_ or walking chaperon. + +Works on social France, as is the case with almanacs, encyclopaedias and +the rest, require yearly revision. Manners and customs change no less +quickly than headgear and skirts. + +Charles Lamb would have lived ecstatically at the Languedocian capital. +It is a metropolis of beggardom, a mendicant's Mecca, a citadel of Jules +Richepin's cherished _Gueux_. Here, indeed, Elia need not have lamented +over the decay of beggars, "the all sweeping besom of societarian +reformation--your only modern Alcides' club to rid time of its +abuses--is uplift with many-handed sway to extirpate the last fluttering +tatters of the bugbear _Mendicity_. Scrips, wallets, bags, staves, dogs +and crutches, the whole mendicant fraternity with all their baggage are +fast hasting out of the purlieus of this eleventh persecution." + +No, here is what the best beloved of English humorists calls "the oldest +and the honourablest form of pauperism," here his vision would have +feasted on "Rags, the Beggars' robes and graceful insignia of his +profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected +to show himself in public." "He is never out of fashion," adds Lamb, "or +limpeth outwardly behind it. He is not required to wear court mourning. +He weareth all colours, fearing none. His costume hath undergone less +change than the Quaker's. He is the only man in the universe who is not +obliged to study appearances." + +Here, too, would the unmatchable writer have gazed upon more than one +"grand fragment, as good as an Elgin marble." And alas! many deformities +more terrible still, and which, perhaps, would have damped even Lamb's +ardour. For in the Toulouse of 1894, as in the London of sixty years +before, its mendicants "were so many of its sights, its Lions." The city +literally swarmed with beggars. At every turn we came upon some living +torso, distorted limb and hideous sore. Begging seemed to be the +accepted livelihood of cripples, blind folk and the infirm. Let us hope +that by this time something better has been devised for them all. Was it +here that Richepin partly studied the mendicant fraternity, giving us in +poetry his astounding appreciation, psychological and linguistic? And +perhaps the bard of the beggars, like the English humorist, would wish +his _pauvres Gueux_ to be left unmolested. + +The sights of Toulouse would occupy a conscientious traveller many days. +The least leisurely should find time to visit the tiny square called +_place du Salin_. Here took place the innumerable _autos-da-fe_ of the +Toulousain Inquisition, and here, so late as 1618, the celebrated +physician and scientist Vanini was atrociously done to death by that +truly infernal tribunal, and for what? For simply differing from the +obscurantism of his age, and having opinions of his own. + +The atrocious sentence passed on Vanini was in part remitted, evidently +public opinion already making itself felt. His tongue was cut out, but +strangulation preceded the burning alive. Here one cannot help noting +the illogical, the puerile--if such words are applicable to devilish +wickedness--aspect of such Inquisitorial sentences. If these +hounders-down of common-sense and the reasoning faculty really believed, +as they affected to believe, that men who possessed and exercised both +qualities were thereby doomed to eternal torments, why set up the +horrible and costly paraphernalia of the Inquisition? After all, no +matter how ingeniously inventive might be their persecutors, they could +only be made to endure terminable and comparatively insignificant +torments, not a millionth millionth fraction of eternity! + +Refreshing it is to turn to the Toulouse of minstrelsy. The proud seat +of the troubadours, the Academy of the Gay Science and of the poetic +tourneys revived in our own day! Mistral's name has long been European, +and other English writers have charmingly described the _Feux Floraux_ +of the olden time and the society of _Lou Felibrige_ with its revival of +Provencal literature. But forty years ago, and twenty years before his +masterpiece had found a translator here, he was known and highly +esteemed by a great Englishman. + +In Mill's _Correspondence_ (1910) we find a beautiful letter, and +written in fine stately French, from the philosopher to the poet, dated +Avignon, October 1869. + +Mill had sent Mistral the French translation of his essay, "The +Subjection of Women," and in answer to the other's thanks and flattering +assurance of his own conversion, he wrote: "Parmi toutes les adhesions +qui ont ete donnees a la these de mon petit livre, je ne sais s'il y en +a aucune qui m'ont fait plus de plaisir que la votre." + +The letter as a whole is most interesting, and ends with a +characterization, a strikingly beautiful passage in the life and +teaching of Jesus Christ. Hard were it to match this appreciation among +orthodox writers. + +So transparent is the atmosphere here that the Pyrenees appear within an +hour's ride: they are in reality sixty miles off! Lovely are the clearly +outlined forms, flecked with light and shadow, the snowy patches being +perfectly distinct. + + + +IX + +MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +An hour by rail from Toulouse lies the ancient city of Montauban, as far +as I know unnoticed by English tourists since Arthur Young's time. This +superbly placed _chef-lieu_ of the Tarn and Garonne is alike an artistic +shrine and a palladium of religious liberty. Here was born that strongly +individualized and much contested genius, Dominique Ingres, and here +Protestantism withstood the League, De Luyne's besieging army and the +dragonnades of Louis XIV. + +The city of Ingres may be thought of by itself; there is plenty of food +for reflection here without recalling the prude whose virtue caused more +mischief than the vices of all the Montespans and Dubarrys put together. +Let us forget the Maintenon terror at Montauban, the breaking up of +families, the sending to the galleys of good men and women, the +torturings, the roastings alive, and turn to the delightful and soothing +souvenirs of genius! Every French town that has given birth to shining +talent is straightway turned into a Walhalla. This ancient town, so +strikingly placed, breathes of Ingres, attracts the traveller by the +magic of the painter's name, has become an art pilgrimage. The noble +monument erected by the townsfolk to their great citizen and the +picture-gallery he bequeathed his native city well repay a much longer +journey than that from Toulouse. We see here to what high levels public +spirit and local munificence can rise in France. We see also how close, +after all, are the ties that knit Frenchman and Frenchman, how the glory +of one is made the pride of all. The bronze statue of the painter, with +the vast and costly bas-relief imitating his "Apotheosis of Homer" in +the Louvre, stand in the public walk, the beauty of which aroused even +Arthur Young's enthusiasm. "The promenade," he wrote in June 1787, "is +finely situated. Built on the highest part of the rampart, and +commanding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richest in +Europe, which extends on one side to the sea and in front to the +Pyrenees, whose towering masses heaped one upon another in a stupendous +manner, and covered with snow, offer a variety of lights and shades from +indented forms and the immensity of their projections. This prospect, +which contains a semicircle of a hundred miles in diameter, has an +oceanic vastness in which the eye loses itself; an almost boundless +scene of cultivation; an animated but confused mass of infinitely varied +parts, melting gradually into the distant obscure, from which emerges +the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their silvered heads above +the clouds." + +The Ingres Museum contains, I should say, more works from the hand of a +single master than were ever before collected under the same roof. +Upwards of a thousand sketches, many of great power and beauty, are +here, besides several portraits and one masterpiece, the Christ in the +Temple, brilliant as a canvas of Holman Hunt, although the work of an +octogenarian. The painter's easel, palette, and brushes, his violin, the +golden laurel-wreath presented to him by his native town, and other +relics are reverently gazed at on Sundays by artisans, soldiers and +peasant-folk. The local museum in France is something more than a little +centre of culture, a place in which to breathe beauty and delight. It is +a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple +of fame. Therein the young are taught to revere excellence, and here the +ambitious are stimulated by worthy achievement. + +Ingres-ville recalls an existence stormy as the history of Montauban +itself. This stronghold of reform throughout her vicissitudes did not +show a bolder, more determined front to the foe than did her great +citizen his own enemies and detractors. Dominique Ingres and his +life-story favour those physicists who discern in native soil and +surroundings the formative influences of aptitudes and character. The +man and his birthplace matched each other. Indomitableness characterized +both, and to understand both we must know something of their respective +histories. To Montauban Henri Martin's great history does ample justice, +to her illustrious son contemporary writers have recently paid worthy +tributes. + +[Footnote: See _Les Grands Artistes--Ingres_, par J. Mommeja, +Paris, Laurens; _Le Roman d'amour de M. Ingres_, par H. Lapauze, Paris, +Lafitte, 1911.] + +"When a writer is praised above his merits in his own times," wrote +Savage Landor, "he is certain of being estimated below them in the +times succeeding." In the case of Ingres, opposition and contumely were +followed by perhaps excessive laudation whilst he lived, after his +death ensuing a long period of reaction. Time has now set the seal upon +his fame. The great Montalbanais has been finally received into the +national Walhalla. + +The father of the so-called French Raphael, writes his biographer, was +not even a Giovanni Santi. Joseph Ingres, in the words of M. Mommeja, +was _un petit ornemaniste_, a fabricator of knick-knacks, turning out +models in clay, busts in plaster, miniatures and other trifles for sale +at country fairs. Who can say, this humble craftsman may yet have had +much to do with his son's aspirations? + +An inferior artist can appraise his masters. From the humble artificer +and purveyor of bagatelles the youth not only imbibed a passion for +art and technical knowledge: he inherited the next best thing to a +calling, in other words, a love of music. From the palette throughout +his long life Ingres would turn with never-abated enthusiasm to his +adored violin. + +The learned monograph above-named gives a succinct and judicial account +of the painter's career. The second writer mentioned tells the story of +his inner life; one, indeed, of perpetual and universal interest. + +For to this sturdy young bourgeois early came a crisis. He found himself +suddenly at the parting of the ways, on the one hand beckoning +Conscience, on the other ambition in the flattering shape of Destiny. To +which voice would he hearken? Would love and plighted troth overrule +that insistent siren song, Vocation? Would he yield, as have done +thousands of well-intentioned men and women before him, to self-interest +and worldly wisdom? The problem to be solved by this brilliantly endowed +artist just twenty-six--how many a historic parallel does it recall! +What three words can convey so much pathos, heroism and generosity as +"il gran riffiuto?"--the great renunciation. Does the French language +contain a more touching record than that of the great Navarre's farewell +to his Huguenot brethren? What bitter tears shed Jeanne d'Albret's son +ere he could bring himself to sacrifice conscience on the altar of +expediency and a great career! + +At the age of twenty we find Dominique Ingres studying in Paris under +David, then in his apogee. + +The son of an obscure provincial, however promising, would hardly be +overwhelmed with hospitalities; all the more welcome came the +friendliness of an honourable magistrate and his wife, by name +Forestier. During five years the young man had lived on terms of +closest intimacy with these good folks, under his eyes growing up their +only daughter. + +Alas! poor Julie. Mighty, says Goethe, is the god of propinquity. On +Dominique's part attachment seems to have come insensibly, as a matter +of course and despite the precariousness of his position. M. Forestier +encouraged the young man's advances. To Julie love for the brilliant +winner of the Prix de Rome became an absorption, her very life. Not +particularly endowed by Nature--we have her portrait in M. Mommeja's +volume--she described her own physiognomy as "not at all remarkable, but +expressive of candour and goodness of heart." For Julie, as we shall +see, turned her love-story into a little novel, only unearthed the other +day by M. Lapauze. + +The Prix de Rome meant, of course, a call to Rome, the worthy magistrate +exacting from his prospective son-in-law a promise that in twelve +months' time he would return. During that interval correspondence went +on apace not only between the affianced lovers, but between M. Forestier +and Ingres, the former taking affectionate and not uncritical interest +in the other's projects. For Ingres was before all things a projector, +anticipating by decades the achievements of his later years. The glow of +enthusiasm, the fever of creativeness were at its height. Italy +possessed Ingres' entire being when the crisis came. + +After delays, excuses, pleadings, Julie's father lost patience. He would +brook no further tergiversations. Ingres must choose between Italy and +Paris; in other words, so the artist interpreted it, between art and +marriage, a proud destiny or self-extinction. + +Never had a young artist more completely fallen under the spell of +Italy. The recall seemed a death-blow. "On my knees," he wrote to Julie, +whom he really loved, "I implore you not to ask this. It is impossible +for me to quit immediately a land so full of marvel." + +But the practical M. Forestier would not give way. Ingres' persistence +looked like folly, even madness in his eyes. The young man was with +difficulty living from hand to mouth, portraits and small orders barely +keeping the wolf from the door. The return home and marriage would +ensure his future materially and socially, and up to a certain point +render him independent of malevolent criticism. For already Ingres was +fiercely attacked by Parisian authorities on art: he had become +important enough to be a target. After cruellest heart-searching and +prolonged self-reproach, _il gran riffiuto_ was made, youthful passion, +worldly advantages--and plighted faith--were cast to the winds. +Henceforth he would live for his palette only, defying poverty, +detraction and fiercely antagonistic opinion; if failing in allegiance +to others, at least remaining staunch to his first, best, highest self, +his genius. + +Julie, the third imperishable Julie of French romance, never married. +Let us hope that the writing of her artless little autobiography called +a novel brought consolation. Did she ever forgive the recalcitrant? Her +story, _Emma, ou la fiancee,_ ends with the aphorism: "Without the +scrupulous fulfilment of the given word, there can be neither happiness +nor inner peace." + +Did that backsliding in early life disturb the great painter's stormy +but dazzling career? Who can say? We learn that Ingres was twice, and, +according to accredited reports, happily, married. His first wife, a +humbly-born maiden from his native province, died in 1849, leaving the +septuagenarian so desolate, helpless and stricken that kindly +interveners set to work and re-married him. The second Mme. Ingres, +although thirty years his junior, gave him, his biographer tells us, +"that domestic peace and happiness of which for a brief space he had +been deprived." Heaped with honours, named by Napoleon III. Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour, Senator, Member of the Institut, Ingres +died in 1869. Within a year of ninety, he was Dominique Ingres to the +last, undertaking new works with the enthusiasm and vitality of Titian. +A few days before his death he gave a musical party, favourite works of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven being performed by skilled amateurs. His +funeral was a veritable apotheosis, disciples, admirers and detractors +swelling the enormous cortege. + +Those who, like myself, have times without number contemplated the +master's _opus magnum_ in the Louvre, and have studied his art as +represented in the provincial museums, will quit the Musee Ingres with +mixed feelings. It must occur to many that, perhaps, after all, _il gran +riffiuto_ of opposite kind might have better served art and the artist's +fame. Had he returned to France--and to Julie--at the stipulated period, +the following eighteen years being spent not on Italian but on native +soil, how different the result! Then of his work he could have said, as +did Chantecler of his song-- + + "Mon chant + Qui n'est pas de ces chants qu'on chante en cherchant + Mais qu'on recoit du sol natal comme une seve." + +Would not most of us willingly give Ingres' greatest classical and +historic canvases for one or two portraits, say that of Bertin, or, +better still, for a group like that of the Stamiti family? What a +portrait gallery he would have bequeathed, how would he have made the +men and women of his time live again before us! + +[Footnote: Both are reproduced, with many other works, in M. +Mommeja's volume.] + +Ingres, the artist, ever felt sure of himself. Did the lover look back, +regretting the broken word, the wrong done to another? We do not know. +His life was throughout upright, austere, free from blot; born and bred +a Catholic, he had doubtless Huguenot blood in his veins, many of his +most striking characteristics pointed to this inference. + +A word more concerning Montauban itself. The stronghold of reform, that +defied all Richelieu's attempts to take it, is to this day essentially a +Protestant town. Half of its inhabitants have remained faithful to the +faith of their ancestors. Tourists will note the abundance of cypress +trees marking Huguenot graves, the capital of Tarn and Garonne is a +veritable Calvinistic _Campo Santo_. After the Revocation, many families +fled hence to England, their descendants to this day loving and +reverencing the country which gave them a home. + +Montauban, as we should expect, has raised a splendid monument to its +one great citizen. + +Since writing these lines, an Ingres exhibition has been opened in the +Georges Petit Gallery, Paris. Apropos of this event, the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_ (May 15, 1911) contains a striking paper by the art-critic, M. +de Sizeraine. Some of the conclusions here arrived at are startling. +Certain authorities on art are said to regard the great Montalbanais as +a victim of daltonism--in other words, colour-blind! + +In company of the mere amateur, this authority turns with relief from +the master's historical and allegorical pieces to his wonderfully +speaking portraits. Here, he says, all is simple, nothing is +commonplace, nothing is unexpected, and yet nothing resembles what we +have seen elsewhere; we find no embellishment, no stultification. He +adds: "In art, as in literature, works which survive are perhaps those +in which the artist or writer has put the most of himself, not those in +which he has had most faith. The "Voeu de Louis XIII," the "Thetis" of +Ingres, we may compare to Voltaire's _Henriade_ and to the +_Franciade_ of Ronsard, all belong to the category of the +_opus magnum_ that has failed, and of which its creator is proud." +With the following charming simile the essay closes-- + +"Posterity is a great lady, she passes, reviews the _opus magnum, la +grande machine_ disdainfully, satirically; all seems lost, the artist +condemned. But by chance she catches sight of a neglected picture turned +to the wall in a corner or passage, some happy inspiration that has cost +its author little pains, but in which he has not striven beyond his +powers, and in which he has put the best of himself. The _grande dame_ +catches it up, holds it to the light. 'Ha! here is something pretty!' +she cries. And the artist's fame is assured." + +Has not Victor Hugo focused the same truth in a line-- + + "Ici-bas, le joli c'est le necessaire!" + +And our own Keats also-- + + "For 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty should be first in might." + + + +X + +MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + + + + Osse, la bien aimee + Toi, du vallon + Le choix, la fille ainee + Le vrai fleuron! + C'est sur toi qu'est fixee + Dans son amour, + La premiere pensee + Du roi du jour + Comme a sa fiancee + L'amant accourt. + Xavier Navarrot. + + +Between Toulouse and Tarbes the scenery is quite unlike that of the +Gard and the Aude. Instead of the interminable vineyards round about +Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne, we gaze here upon a varied landscape. +Following the Garonne with the refrain of Nadaud's famous song in +our minds-- + + "Si la Garonne avait voulu,"-- + +we traverse a vast plain or low vale rich in many-coloured crops: +buckwheat, sweeps of creamy blossom, dark-green rye, bluish-green Indian +corn with silvery flower-head, and purple clover, and here and there a +patch of vine are mingled together before us; in the far distance the +Pyrenees, as yet mere purple clouds against the horizon. + +We soon note a peculiarity of this region--vines trained to trees, a +method in vogue a hundred years ago. "Here," wrote Arthur Young, when +riding from Toulouse to St. Martory on his way to Luchon, "for the first +time I see rows of maples with vines trained in festoons from tree to +tree"; and farther on he adds, "medlars, plums, cherries, maples in +every hedge with vines trained." The straggling vine-branches have a +curious effect, but the brightness of the leafage is pleasant to the +eye. No matter how it grows, to my thinking the vine is a lovely thing. + +The rich plain passed, we reach the slopes of the Pyrenees, their wooded +sides presenting a strange, even grotesque, appearance, owing to the +mathematical regularity with which the woods are cut, portions being +close shaven, others left intact in close juxtaposition, solid phalanxes +of trees and clearings at right angles. The fancy conjures up a +Brobdingnagian wheat-field partially cut in the green stage. Sad havoc +is thus made of once beautiful scenes, richly-wooded slopes having lost +half their foliage. + +A hundred years ago Lourdes was a mere mountain fortress, a State prison +to which unhappy persons were consigned by _lettres de cachet_. +Apologists of the Ancien Regime assert, in the first place, that these +Bastilles were comfortable, even luxurious retreats; in the second, that +_lettres de cachet_ were useful and necessary; in the third, that +neither Bastilles nor _lettres de cachet_ were resorted to on the eve +of the Revolution. Let us hear what Arthur Young has to say on the +subject. "I take the road to Lourdes," he writes in August 1787, "where +is a castle on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping State +prisoners, sent hither by _lettres de cachet_. Seven or eight are known +to be here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and many for +life--torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from the bosom of +domestic comfort, from wives, children, friends, and hurried, for crimes +unknown to themselves, most probably for virtues, to languish in this +detested abode, and die of despair. Oh liberty, liberty!" + +Great is the contrast between the lovely entourage of this notorious +place and the triviality and vulgar nature of its commerce. The one +long, winding street may be described as a vast bazaar, more suited to +Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims than to holders of railway tickets and +contemporaries of the Eiffel Tower. + +A brisk trade is done here, the place wearing the aspect of a huge fair. +Rosaries, crosses, votive tablets, ornamental cans for holding the +miraculous waters, drinking-cups, candles, photographs, images, medals +are sold by millions. The traffic in these wares goes on all day long, +the poorest "pilgrim" taking away souvenirs. + +The Lourdes of theology begins where the Lourdes of bartering ends. As +we quit the long street of bazaars and brand-new hotels, the first +glimpse gives us an insight into its life and meaning, makes us feel +that we ought to have been living two or three hundred years ago. We +glance back at the railway station, wondering whether a halt were wise, +whether indeed the gibbet, wheel, and stake were not really prepared for +heretics like ourselves! + +The votive church built on the outer side of the rock from which flows +the miraculous fountain is a basilica of sumptuous proportions, +representing an outlay of many millions of francs. Its portico, with +horse-shoe staircase in marble, spans the opening of the green hills, +behind which lie grotto and spring. We are reminded of the enormous +church now crowning the height of Montmartre at Paris; here, as there +and at Chartres, is a complete underground church of vast proportions. +The whole structure is very handsome, the grey and white building-stone +standing out against verdant hills and dark rocks. A beautifully +laid-out little garden with a statue of the miracle-working Virgin lies +between church and town. + +Looking from the lofty platform on the other side of the upper church, +we behold a strange scene. The space below is black with people, +hundreds and thousands of pilgrims, so called, priests and nuns being in +full force, one and all shouting and gesticulating with fierce zealotry, +a priest or two holding forth from a temporary pulpit. + +Between these closely-serried masses is a ghastly array. On litters, +stretchers, beds, chairs, lie the deformed, the sick, the moribund, +awaiting their turn to be sprinkled with the miraculous waters or +blessed by the bishop. These poor people, many of whom are in the last +stage of illness, have for bearers, volunteers; these are priests, young +gentlemen of good family, and others, who wear badges and leather +traces, by which they attach themselves to their burden. + +All day long masses are held inside the church and in the open air; at a +given signal the congregation stretching out their arms in the form of a +cross, prostrating themselves on the ground, kissing the dust. + +We must descend the broad flight of steps in order to obtain a good view +of the grotto, an oval opening in the rocks made to look like a +stalactite cave, with scores and hundreds of _ex-votos_ in the shape +of crutches. Judging from this display, there should be no more lame folks +left in France. The Virgin of Lourdes must have healed them all. In a +niche of the grotto stands an image of the Virgin, and behind, +perpetually lighted with candles, an altar, at which mass is celebrated +several times daily. + +On one side, the rock has been pierced in several places, deliciously +pure, cool water issuing from the taps. Crowds are always collected +here, impatient to drink of the miraculous fountain, and to fill vessels +for use at home. We see tired, heated invalids, and apparently dying +persons, drinking cups of this ice-cold water; enough, one would think, +to kill them outright. Close by is a little shop full of trifles for +sale, but so thronged at all hours of the day that you cannot get +attended to; purchasers lay down their money, take up the object +desired, and walk away. Here may be bought a medal for two sous, or a +crucifix priced at several hundred francs. + +The praying, chanting, and prostrating are at their height when the +violet-robed figure of a bishop is caught sight of, tripping down a +side-path leading from the town. Blessing any who chance to meet him on +the way, chatting pleasantly with his companion, a portly gentleman +wearing the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour, the bishop hastens +towards the grotto, dons his sacerdotal robes of ivory-white and gold, +and celebrates mass. The ceremony over, there is a general stir. +Adjusting their harness, the bearers form a procession, the bishop +emerges from the grotto, and one by one the thirty and odd litters are +drawn before him to be sprinkled, blessed--and healed! alas, such, +doubtless, is the fond delusion of many. + +The sight of so many human wrecks, torsos and living skeletons all agog +for life, health, and restoration, is even less heart-breaking than that +of their companions. Here we see a mother bending with agonized looks +over some white-faced, wasted boy, whose days, even hours, are clearly +numbered; there a father of a wizen-faced, terribly deformed girl, a +mite to look at, but fast approaching womanhood, brought hither to be +put straight and beautiful. Next our eye lights on the emaciated form of +a young man evidently in the last stage of consumption, his own face +hopeful still, but what forlornness in that of the adoring sister by his +side! These are spectacles to make the least susceptible weep. Grotesque +is the sight of a priest who must be ninety at least; what further +miracle can he expect, having already lived the life of three +generations? + +The last litter drawn by, the enormous crowd breaks up; tall candles are +offered to those standing near, and a procession is formed, headed by +the bishop under his gold and white baldachin, a large number of priests +following behind, then several hundred men, women, and children, the +black and white robes of the priests and nuns being conspicuous. +Chanting as they go, outsiders falling on their knees at the approach of +the baldachin, the pilgrims now wind in solemn procession round the +statue in front of the church, and finally enter, when another religious +celebration takes place. Services are going on all day long and late +into the night. Hardly do these devotees give themselves time for meals, +which are a scramble at best, every hotel and boarding-house much +overcrowded. The _table d'hote_ dinner, or one or two dishes, are +hastily swallowed, and the praying, chanting, marching and prostrating +begin afresh. At eight o'clock from afar comes the sound of pilgrims' +voices as the procession winds towards the grotto. + +There is picturesqueness in these nocturnal celebrations, the tapers +twinkling against the dark heavens, the voices dying away in the +distance. Superstition has its season as well as sulphur-baths and +chalybeate springs. The railway station is a scene of indescribable +confusion; enormous contingents come for a few hours only, the numbered +trains that brought them are drawn up outside the main lines awaiting +their departure. Here we are hustled by a motley throng; fashionable +ladies bedizened with rosaries, badges, and medallions; elegant young +gentlemen, the _jeunesse doree_ of a vanished _regime_, proudly +wearing the pilgrim's badge, all travelling third-class and in humble +company for their soul's good; peasant women from Brittany in charming +costumes; a very, very few blue blouses of elderly civilians'; enormous +numbers wearing religious garb. + +It seems a pity that a bargain could not be struck by France and +Germany, the Emperor William receiving Lourdes in exchange for Metz or +Strasburg! Lourdes must represent a princely revenue, far in excess, I +should say, of any profit the Prussian Government will ever make out of +the annexed provinces; and as nobody lives there, and visitors only +remain a day or two, it would not matter to the most patriotic French +pilgrim going to whom the place belonged. + +The tourist brings evil as well as good in his track, and the tax upon +glorious scenery here is not the globe-trotter but the mendicant. +Gavarnie is, without doubt, as grandiose a scene as Western Europe can +show. In certain elements of grandeur none other can compete with it. +But until a balloon service is organized between Luz and the famous +Cirque it is impossible to make the journey with an unruffled temper. +The traveller's way is beset by juvenile vagrants, bare-faced and +importunate as Neapolitans or Arabs. Lovers of aerial navigation have +otherwise not much left to wish for. Nothing can be more like a ride in +cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to +Gavarnie. The splendid rock-hewn road is just broad enough to admit of +two carriages abreast. On one side are lofty, shelving rocks, on the +other a stone coping two feet high, nothing else to separate us from the +awful abyss below, a ravine deep as the measure of St. Paul's Cathedral +from base to apex of golden cross. We hear the thunder of the river as +it dashes below by mountains two-thirds the height of Mont Blanc, their +dark, almost perpendicular sides wreathed with cloud, on their summits +gleaming never-melted snow, here and there the sombre parapets streaked +with silvery cascades. At intervals the Titanic scene is relieved by +glimpses of pastoral grace and loveliness, and such relief is necessary +even to those who can gaze without giddiness on such awfulness. Between +gorge and gorge lie level spaces, amid dazzlingly-green meadows the +river flows calm and crystal clear, the form and hue of every pebble +distinct as the pieces of a mosaic. Looking upwards we see hanging +gardens and what may be called farmlets, tiny homesteads with minute +patches of wheat, Indian corn, and clover on an incline so steep as to +look vertical. Most beautiful and refreshing to the eye are the little +hayfields sloping from the river, the freshly-mown hay in cocks or being +turned, the shorn pasture around bright as emerald. Harvest during the +year 1891 was late, and in the first week of September corn was still +standing; nowhere, surely, corn so amber-tinted, so golden, nowhere, +surely, ripened so near the clouds. In the tiny chalets perched on the +mountain ridges, folks literally dwell in cloudland, and enjoy a kind of +supernal existence, having for near neighbours the eagles in their +eyries and the fleet-footed chamois or izard. + +These vast panoramas--towering rocks of manifold shape, Alp rising above +Alp snow-capped or green-tinted, terrace upon terrace of fields and +homesteads--show every variety of savage grandeur and soft beauty till +we gradually reach the threshold of Gavarnie. This is aptly called +"chaos" which we might fancifully suppose the leavings, "the fragments +that were left," of the semicircular wall now visible, thrown up by +transhuman builders, insurmountable barrier between heaven and earth. No +sooner does the awful amphitheatre break upon the view, than we discern +the white line of the principal fall, a slender silvery column reaching, +so it seems, from star-land and moon-land to earth; river of some upper +world that has overleaped the boundaries of our own. No words can convey +the remotest idea of such a scene. + +We may say with regard to scenery what Lessing says of pictures, we only +see in both what we bring with us to the view. More disconcerting than +the importunities of beggars and donkey-drivers are the supercilious +remarks of tourists. To most, of course, the whole thing is "a sad +disappointment." Everything must necessarily be a disappointment to some +beholders; and with critics of a certain order, the mere fact of not +being pleased implies superiority. The hour's walk from the village to +the Cirque is an event also in the life of the flower-lover. We have +hardly eyes for Gavarnie, so completely is our gaze fascinated by the +large luminous gold and silver stars gleaming conspicuously from the +brilliant turf. These are the glorious flower-heads of the white and +yellow Pyrenean thistle that open in sunshine as do sea-anemones, +sending out lovely fringes, sunrays and moonbeams not more strikingly +contrasted. As we rush hither and thither to gather them--if we +can--their roots are veritable tentaculae, other lovely flowers are to +be had in plenty, the beautiful deep-blue Pyrenean gentian, monk's-hood +in rich purple blossom, rose-coloured antirrhinum, an exquisite little +yellow sedum, with rare ferns. On one side, a narrow bridle-path winds +round the mountain towards Spain; on the other, cottage-farms dot the +green slopes; between both, parting the valley, flows the Gave, here a +quietly meandering streamlet, whilst before us rises Gavarnie; a scene +to which one poet only--perhaps the only one capable of grappling with +such a subject--has done justice-- + + "Cirque, hippodrome, + Stage whereon Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, London, Rome, + With their myriads could find place, whereon Paris at ease + Might float, as at sundown a swarm of bees, + Gavarnie, dream, miracle!" + + [Footnote: "Un cirque, un hippodrome, + Un theatre ou Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, Londres, Rome, + Avec leurs millions d'hommes pourraient s'asseoir. + Ou Paris flotterait comme un essaim du soir. + Gavarnie!--un miracle! un reve!"--Victor Hugo, "Dieu."] + +How to give some faint conception of the indescribable? Perhaps the +great French poet has best succeeded in a single line-- + + "L'impossible est ici debout." + +We feel, indeed, that we are here brought face to face with the +impossible. + +Let the reader then conjure up a solid mass of rock threefold the +circumference of St. Paul's Cathedral; let him imagine the facade of +this natural masonry of itself exceeding the compass of our great +Protestant minster; then in imagination let him lift his eyes from stage +to stage, platform to platform, the lower nearly three times the height +of St. Paul's from base to apex of golden cross, the higher that of four +such altitudes; their gloomy parapets streaked with glistening white +lines, one a vast column of water, although their shelving sides show +patches of never-melted snows; around, framing in the stupendous scene, +mountain peaks, each unlike its majestic brother, each in height +reaching to the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Such is Gavarnie. + +My next halting-place was a remote Pyrenean village admirably adapted +for the study of rural life. Within a few hours' journey of the Spanish +frontier, Osse lies in the beautiful valley of Aspe, and is reached by +way of Pau and Oloron. At the latter town the railway ends, and we have +to drive sixteen miles across country, a delightful expedition in +favourable weather. The twin towns, old and new Oloron, present the +contrast so often seen throughout France, picturesque, imposing +antiquity beside utilitarian ugliness and uniformity. The open suburban +spaces present the appearance of an enormous drying-ground, in which are +hung the blankets of the entire department. Blankets, woollen girdles or +sashes, men's bonnets are manufactured here. "Pipers, blue bonnets, and +oatmeal," wrote an English traveller a hundred years ago, "are found in +Catalonia, Auvergne, and Suabia as well as in Lochaber." We are now in +the ancient kingdom of Beam, with a portion of Navarre added to the +French crown by Henry IV, and, two hundred years later, named the +department of the Basses Pyrenees. + +[Illustration: OSSE] + +Every turn of the road reveals new features as we journey towards Osse, +having always in view the little Gave d'Aspe, after the manner of +Pyrenean rivers, making cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools on its way. +Most beautiful are these mountain streams, their waters of pure, deep +green, their surface broken by coruscations of dazzlingly white foam and +spray, their murmur ever in our ears. When far away we hardly miss the +grand contours of the Pyrenees more than the music of their rushing +waters. No tourists meet us here, yet whither shall we go for scenes +sublimer or more engaging? On either side of the broadening velvety +green valley, with its tumbling stream, rises a rampart of stately +peaks, each unlike its neighbour, each having a graciousness and +grandeur of its own. Here and there amid these vast solitudes is seen a +white glittering thread breaking the dark masses of shelving rock, +mountain torrent falling into the river from a height of several hundred +feet. Few and far between are the herdsmen's chalets and scattered +cornfields and meadows, and we have the excellent carriage road to +ourselves. Yet two or three villages of considerable size are passed on +the way; of one, an inland spa much frequented by the peasants, I shall +make mention presently. + +For three hours we have wound slowly upward, and, as our destination is +approached, the valley opens wide, showing white-walled, grey-roofed +hamlets and small towns all singularly alike. The mountains soon close +round abruptly on all sides, making us feel as if we had reached the +world's end. On the other side of those snow-capped peaks, here so +majestically massed before our gaze, lies Spain. We are in a part of +France thoroughly French, yet within a few hours of a country strikingly +contrasted with it; manners, customs, modes of thought, institutions +radically different. + +[Illustration: NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER] + +The remoteness and isolation of Osse explain the existence of a little +Protestant community in these mountain fastnesses. For centuries the +Reformed faith has been upheld here. Not, however, unmolested. A tablet +in the neat little church tells how the original place of Protestant +worship was pulled down by order of the king in 1685, and only +reconstructed towards the close of the following century. Without +church, without pastor, forbidden to assemble, obliged to bury their +dead in field or garden, these dales-folk and mountaineers yet clung +tenaciously to their religion. One compromise, and one only, they made. +Peasant property has existed in the Pyrenees from time immemorial, and +in order to legitimize their children and enjoy the privilege of +bequeathing property, the Protestants of the Vallee d'Aspe were married +according to the rites of the Romish Church. In our own days, here as +elsewhere throughout France, the religious tenets handed down from +father to son are adhered to without wavering, and at the same time +without apparent enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants live amicably +side by side; but intermarriages are rare, and conversions from Rome to +rationalism infrequent. The Sunday services of the little Protestant +church are often attended by Catholics. Strangers passing through Osse, +market-folk, peasants and others, never fail to inspect it curiously. +The Protestant pastor is looked up to with respect and affection alike +by Catholic and Protestant neighbours. The rival churches neither lose +nor gain adherents to any extent. This fact is curious, especially in a +spot where Protestantism is seen at its best. It shows the extreme +conservatism and stability of the French character, often set down as +revolutionary and fickle. In England folks often and avowedly change +their religion several times during their lives. Is not the solemn +reception into Rome of instructed men and women among ourselves a matter +of every day? In France it is otherwise, and when a change is made we +shall generally find that the step is no retrograde one. + +If the social aspect is encouraging at Osse, the same may be said of +peasant property. Even a Zola must admit some good in a community +unstained by crime during a period of twenty years, and bound by ties of +brotherhood which render want impossible. A beautiful spirit of +humanity, a delicacy rare among the most polished societies, +characterize these frugal sons and daughters of the soil. Nor is +consideration for others confined to fellow-beings only. The animal is +treated as the friend, not the slave of man. "We have no need of the Loi +Grammont here," said a resident to me; and personal observation +confirmed the statement. + +As sordidness carried to the pitch of brutality is often imputed to the +French peasant, let me relate an incident that occurred hereabouts, not +long before my visit. The land is minutely divided, many possessing a +cottage and field only. One of these very small owners was suddenly +ruined by the falling of a rock, his cottage, cow and pig being +destroyed. Without saying a word, his neighbours, like himself in very +humble circumstances, made up a purse of five hundred francs, a large +sum with such donors, and, too delicate-minded to offer the gift +themselves, deputed an outsider to do it anonymously. Another instance +in point came to my knowledge. This was of a young woman servant, who, +during the illness of her employer, refused to accept wages. "You shall +pay me some other time," said the girl to her mistress; "I am sure you +can ill afford to give me the money now." + +Peasant property and rural life generally here presented to me some +wholly new features; one of these is the almost entire +self-sufficingness of very small holdings, their owners neither buying +nor selling, making their little crops and stock almost completely supply +their needs. Thus on a field or two, enough flax is grown with which to +spin linen for home use, enough wheat and Indian corn for the year's +bread-making, maize being mixed with wheaten flour; again, pigs and +poultry are reared for domestic consumption--expenditure being reduced +to the minimum. Coffee is a luxury seldom indulged in, a few drink +home-grown wine, but all are large milk-drinkers. The poorest is a good +customer of the dairy farmer. + +I was at first greatly puzzled by the information of a neighbour that he +kept cows for the purpose of selling milk. Osse being sixteen miles from +a railway station, possessing neither semi-detached villas, hotels, +boarding-houses, convents, barracks, nor schools, and a population of +from three to four hundred only, most of these small farmers--who were +his patrons? + +I afterwards learned that the "ha'porth of milk," which means much more +in all senses than with us, takes the place of tea, coffee, beer, to say +nothing of more pernicious drinks, with the majority. New milk from the +cow costs about a penny a quart, and perhaps if we could obtain a +similar commodity at the same price in England, even gin might be +supplanted. Eggs and butter are also very cheap; but as the peasants +rear poultry exclusively for their own use, it is by no means easy at +Osse to procure a chicken. A little, a very little money goes to the +shoemaker and general dealer, and fuel has to be bought; this item is +inconsiderable, the peasants being allowed to cart wood from the +communal forests for the sum of five or six francs yearly. The village +is chiefly made up of farmhouses; on the mountain-sides and in the +valley are the chalets and shepherds' huts, abandoned in winter. The +homesteads are massed round the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, +most having a narrow strip of garden and balcony carried along the upper +storey, which does duty as a drying-ground. + +One of these secluded hamlets, with its slated roofs, white walls, and +brown shutters, closely resembles another; but Osse stands alone in +possessing a Protestant church and community. + +Although the little centre of a purely agricultural region, we find +here one of those small, specific industries, as characteristic of +French districts as soil and produce. Folks being great water-drinkers, +they will have their drinking-water in a state of perfection. Some +native genius long ago invented a vessel which answers the requirement +of the most fastidious. This is a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, +bound with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being kept +exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels remains cool throughout the +hottest hours of the hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly +durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds of years. The +turning and encasing of yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars is a +flourishing manufacture at Osse. + +Here may be seen and studied peasant property in many stages. I would +again remark that any comparison between the condition of the English +agricultural labourer and the French peasant proprietor is irrelevant +and inconclusive. In the cottage of a small owner at Osse, for +instance, we may discover features to shock us, often a total absence +of the neatness and veneer of the Sussex ploughman's home. Our disgust +is trifling compared with that of the humblest, most hard-working +owner of the soil, when he learns under what conditions lives his +English compeer. To till another's ground for ten or eleven shillings +a week, inhabit a house from which at a week's notice that other can +eject him, possess neither home, field nor garden, and have no kind of +provision against old age, such a state of things appears to our +artless listener wholly inconceivable, incommensurate with modern +civilization and bare justice. + +As an instance of the futility of comparisons, I will mention one +experience. I was returning home late one afternoon when a +poorly-dressed, sunburnt woman overtook me. She bore on her head a +basket of bracken, and her appearance was such that in any other country +I should have expected a demand for alms. Greeting me, however, +cheerfully and politely, she at once entered into conversation. She had +seen me at church on Sunday, and went on to speak of the pastor, with +what esteem both Catholics and Protestants regarded him, then of the +people, their mode of life and condition generally. + +"No," she said, in answer to my inquiry, "there is no real want here, +and no vagrancy. Everybody has his bit of land, or can find work. I come +from our vineyard on the hillside yonder, and am now returning home to +supper in the village--our farmhouse is there". She was a widow, she +added, and with her son did the work of their little farm, the +daughter-in-law minding the house and baby. They reared horses for sale, +possessed a couple of cows, besides pigs and poultry. + +The good manners, intelligence, urbanity, and quiet contentment of this +good woman were very striking. She had beautiful white teeth, and was +not prematurely aged, only very sun-burnt and shabby, her black stuff +dress blue with age and mended in many places, her partially bare feet +thrust in sabots. The women here wear toeless or footless stockings, the +upper part of the foot being bare. I presume this is an economy, as +wooden shoes wear out stockings. We chatted of England, of +Protestantism, and many topics before bidding each other good-night. +There was no constraint on her part, and no familiarity. She talked +fluently and naturally, just as one first-class lady traveller might do +to a fellow-passenger. Yet, if not here in contact with the zero of +peasant property, we are considering its most modest phase. + +A step higher and we found an instance of the levelling process +characteristic of every stage of French society, yet hardly to be looked +for in a remote Pyrenean village. In one of our afternoon rambles we +overtook a farmeress, and accepted an invitation to accompany her home. +She tripped cheerfully beside us; although a Catholic, on friendliest +terms with her Protestant neighbours. Her thin white feet in toeless +stockings and sabots, well-worn woollen petticoat, black stuff jacket, +headgear of an old black silk handkerchief, would have suggested +anything but the truth to the uninitiated. Here also the unwary stranger +might have fumbled for a spare coin. She had a kindly, intelligent face, +and spoke volubly in patois, having very little command of French. It +was, indeed, necessary for me to converse by the medium of an +interpreter. On approaching the village we were overtaken by a slight, +handsome youth conducting a muck-wagon. This was her younger son, and +his easy, well-bred greeting, and correct French, prepared me for the +piece of intelligence to follow. The wearer of peasant's garb, carting +manure, had passed his examination of Bachelor of Arts and Science, had, +in fact, received the education of a gentleman. In his case, the +patrimony being small, a professional career meant an uphill fight, but +doubtless, with many another, he would attain his end. + +The farmhouse was large, and, as is unusual here, apart from stables and +cow-shed, the kitchen and outhouse being on the ground floor, the young +men's bedrooms above. Our hostess slept in a large, curtained +four-poster, occupying a corner of the kitchen. A handsome wardrobe of +solid oak stood in a conspicuous place, but held only a portion of the +family linen. These humble housewives count their sheets by the dozen of +dozens, and linen is still spun at home, although not on the scale of +former days. The better-off purchase strong, unbleached goods of local +manufacture. Here and there I saw old women plying spindle and distaff, +but the spinning-wheel no longer hums in every cottage doorway. + +Meantime our hospitable entertainer--it is ever the women who wait on +their guests--brought out home-grown wine, somewhat sour to the +unaccustomed palate, and, as a corrective, home-made brandy, which, with +sugar, formed an agreeable liqueur, walnuts--everything, indeed, that +she had. We were also invited to taste the bread made of wheaten and +maize flour mixed, a heavy, clammy compound answering Mrs. Squeers's +requirement of "filling for the price." It is said to be very wholesome +and nutritious. + +The kitchen floor, as usual, had an unsecured look, but was clean swept, +and on shelves stood rows of earthen and copper cooking-vessels and the +yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars before mentioned. The facade of the +house, with its shutters and balcony, was cheerful enough, but just +opposite the front door lay a large heap of farmhouse manure awaiting +transfer to the pastures. A little, a very little, is needed to make +these premises healthful and comfortable. The removal of the +manure-heap, stables, and cow-shed; a neat garden plot, a flowering +creeper on the wall, and the aspect would be in accordance with the +material condition of the owner. + +The property shared by this widow and her two sons consisted of between +five and six acres, made up of arable land and meadow. They kept four +cows, four mares for purposes of horse-breeding, and a little poultry. +Milch cows here are occasionally used on the farm, an anomaly among a +population extremely gentle to animals. + +My next visits were paid on a Sunday afternoon, when everybody is at +home to friends and neighbours. Protestant initiative in the matter of +the seventh day test has been uniformly followed, alike man and beast +enjoy complete repose. As there are no cabarets and no trippers to +disturb the public peace, the tranquillity is unbroken. + +Our first call was upon an elder of the Protestant Church, and one of +the wealthier peasants of the community. The farmhouse was on the usual +Pyrenean plan, stables and neat-houses occupying the ground floor, an +outer wooden staircase leading to kitchen, parlour, and bedrooms; on the +other side a balcony overlooking a narrow strip of garden. + +Our host, dressed in black cloth trousers, black alpaca blouse, and +spotless, faultlessly-ironed linen, received us with great cordiality +and the ease of a well-bred man. His mother lived with him, a charming +old lady, like himself peasant-born, but having excellent manners. She +wore the traditional black hood of aged and widowed Huguenot women, and +her daughter-in-law and little granddaughter, neat stuff gowns and +coloured cashmere kerchiefs tied under the chin. + +We were first ushered into the vast kitchen or "living room," as it +would be called in some parts of England, to-day with every other part +of the house in apple-pie order. Large oak presses, rows of earthen and +copper cooking-vessels, an enormous flour-bin, with plain deal table and +chairs, made up the furniture, from one part of the ceiling hanging +large quantities of ears of Indian corn to dry. Here bread is baked once +a week, and all the cooking and meals take place. + +Leading out of the kitchen was the salon or drawing-room, the first I +had ever seen in a peasant farmer's house. A handsome tapestry +table-cover, chimney ornaments, mirror, sofa, armchairs, rugs, betokened +not only solid means but taste. We were next shown the grandmother's +bedchamber, which was handsomely furnished with every modern +requirement, white toilet-covers and bed-quilt, window-curtains, rug, +wash-stand; any lady unsatisfied here would be hard indeed to please. +The room of master and mistress was on the same plan, only much larger, +and one most-unlooked-for item caught my eye. This was a towel-horse +(perhaps the comfortably-appointed parsonage had set the fashion?), a +luxury never seen in France except in brand-new hotels. As a rule the +towel is hung in a cupboard. We were then shown several other bedrooms, +all equally suggestive of comfort and good taste; yet the owner was a +peasant, prided himself on being so, and had no intention of bringing up +his children to any other condition. His farm consisted of a few +hectares only, but was very productive. We saw his cows, of which he is +very fond, the gentle creatures making signs of joy at their master's +approach. Four or five cows, as many horses for breeding purposes, a few +sheep, pigs, and poultry made up his stock. All that I saw of this +family gave me a very high notion of intelligence, morality, thrift and +benevolence. + +Very feelingly all spoke of their animals and of the duty of human +beings towards the animal world generally. It was the first time I had +heard such a tone taken by French peasants, but I was here, be it +remembered, among Protestants. The horrible excuse made in Italy and +Brittany for cruelty to beasts, "Ce ne sont pas des chretiens," finds no +acceptance among these mountaineers. + +Our second visit brought us into contact with the bourgeois element. The +farmhouse, of much better appearance than the rest, also stood in the +village. The holding was about the size of that just described. The +young mistress was dressed in conventional style, had passed an +examination at a girls' Lycee, entitling her to the _brevet superieur_ +or higher certificate, her husband wore the dress of a country +gentleman, and we were ushered into a drawing-room furnished with piano, +pictures, a Japanese cabinet, carpets, and curtains. + +The bedrooms might have been fitted up by an upholsterer of Tottenham +Court Road. It must be borne in mind that I am not describing the +wealthy farmers of the Seine and Marne or La Venidee. + +The fact that these young people let a part of their large, +well-furnished house need not surprise us. There is no poverty here, but +no riches. I do not suppose that any one of the small landowners to whom +I was introduced could retire to-morrow and live on his savings. I dare +aver that one and all are in receipt of a small income from invested +capital, and have a provision against sickness and old age. + +The master of the house showed me his stock, five or six handsome cows +of cross breed, in value from L10 to L16, the latter the maximum price +here. We next saw several beautiful mares and young colts, and four +horned sheep. Sheepkeeping and farming are seldom carried on together, +and this young farmer was striking out a new path for himself. He told +me that he intended to rear and fatten sheep, also to use artificial +manure. Up to the present time, guanos and phosphates are all but +unknown in these regions, only farmhouse dung is used, cows being partly +kept for that purpose. Although the land is very productive, my +informant assured me that much remained to be done by departure from +routine and the adoption of advanced methods. The cross-breeding of +stock was another subject he had taken up. Such initiators are needed in +districts remote from agricultural schools, model farms, and State-paid +chairs of agriculture. + +Each of the four instances just given differed from the other. The first +showed us peasant property in its simplest development, a little family +contentedly living on their bit of land, making its produce suffice for +daily needs, independent of marts and markets as the members of a +primitive community. + +The second stage showed us a wholly dissimilar condition, yet not +without its ideal side. We were brought face to face with that +transitional phase of society and pacific revolution, of happiest augury +for the future. From the peasant ranks are now recruited contingents +that will make civil wars impossible, men who carry into politics +learning and the arts, those solid qualities that have made rural France +the admiration of the world, and more than once saved her Republic. + +The first instance exemplified the intense conservatism of the French +peasant. Liberal in politics, enlightened in religion, open to the +reception of new ideas, here was nevertheless a man absolutely satisfied +with social conditions as they affected himself and his children, +utterly devoid of envy or worldly ambition. To reap the benefits of his +toil, deserve the esteem of his neighbours, bequeath his little estate, +improved and enriched, to his heirs, surely this was no contemptible +ideal either. + +The last case differed from the other three. We were now reminded of the +English tenant, or even gentleman-farmer--with a difference. Alike master +and mistress had received a good education and seen something of the +world; they could enjoy music and books. But in spite of her _brevet +superieur_, the wife attended to her dairy; and although the husband +was a gentleman in manners and appearance, he looked after the stock. +They lived, too, on friendliest terms with their less-instructed and +homelier neighbours, the black alpaca blouse and coloured kerchief, +doing duty for bonnet, being conspicuous at their Sunday receptions. Not +even a Zola can charge French village-life with the snobbishness so +conspicuous in England. It will be amply shown from the foregoing +examples that peasant property is no fixed condition to be arbitrarily +dealt with after the manner of certain economists. On the contrary, it +is many-phased; the fullest and widest development of modern France is +indeed modern France itself. The peasant owner of the soil has attained +the highest position in his own country. No other class can boast of +such social, moral and material ascendency. He is the acknowledged +arbitrator of the fortunes of France. + +I will now cite two facts illustrating the bright side of peasant +property in its humblest phase, where we have been told to expect +sordidness, even brutality. The land hereabouts, as I have before +stated, is excessively divided, the holdings being from two and a half +acres in extent and upwards. It often happens that the younger children +of these small owners give up their share of the little family estate +without claiming a centime of compensation, and seek their fortunes in +the towns. They betake themselves to handicrafts and trade, in their +turn purchasing land with the savings from daily wages. + +Again, it is supposed that the life of the peasant owner is one of +uniform, unbroken drudgery, his daily existence hardly more elevated +than that of the ox harnessed to his plough. Who ever heard of an +English labourer taking a fourteen days' rest at the seaside? When did a +rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton? They order these +things better in France. + +Between Osse and Oloron stands Escot, long famous for its warm springs. +The principal patrons of this modest watering-place are the peasants. It +is their Carlsbad, their Homburg, many taking a season as regularly as +the late King Edward. The thing is done with thoroughness, but at a +minimum of cost. They pay half a franc daily for a room, and another +half-franc for the waters, cooking their meals in the general kitchen of +the establishment. Where the French peasant believes, his faith is +phenomenal. Some of these valetudinarians drink as many as forty-six +glasses of mineral water a day! What must be their capacities in robust +health? The bourgeois or civilian element is not absent. Hither from Pau +and Oloron come clerks and small functionaries with their families. +Newspapers are read and discussed in company. We may be sure that the +rustic spa is a little centre of sociability and enlightenment. + +Let me now say something about the crops of this sweet Pyrenean +valley. The chief of these are corn, maize, rye, potatoes, and clover; +the soil being too dry and poor for turnips and beetroot. Flax is +grown in small quantities, and here and there we seen vines, but the +wine is thin and sour. + +From time immemorial, artificial irrigation has been carried on in the +Vallee d'Aspe, and most beautiful is the appearance of the brilliantly +green pastures, intersected by miniature canals in every direction; the +sweet pastoral landscape framed by mountain peaks of loveliest colour +and majestic shape. These well-watered grasslands produce two or even +three crops a year; the second, or _regain_ as it is called, was being +got in early in September, and harvest having taken place early, clover +was already springing up on the cleared cornfields. Everywhere men and +women were afield making hay or scattering manure on the meadows, the +latter sometimes being done with the hands. + +All these small farmers keep donkeys and mules, and on market-days the +roads are alive with cavalcades; the men wearing gay waist-sashes, flat +cloth caps, or berets, the women coloured kerchiefs. The type is +uniform--medium stature, spareness, dark eyes and hair, and olive +complexion predominating. Within the last thirty years the general +health and physique have immensely improved, owing to better food and +wholesomer dwellings. Goitre and other maladies arising from +insufficient diet have disappeared. Epidemics, I was assured, seldom +work havoc in this valley; and though much remains to be done in the way +of drainage and sanitation, the villages have a clean, cheerful look. + +The last ailment that would occur to us proves most fatal to those +hardy country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as +the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality +arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend +oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was +tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. +Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises +from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks +above tempts us to linger abroad. + +The scenery is grandiose and most beautiful. Above the white-walled, +grey-roofed villages and townlings scattered about the open, rise +sharp-pointed green hills or monticules, one gently overtopping the +other; surmounting these, lofty barren peaks, recalling the volcanic +chains of Auvergne, the highest snow-capped point twice the altitude of +the Puy de Dome, two-thirds that of Mont Blanc. + +Whichever way we go we find delightful scenery. Hidden behind the folded +hills, approached by lovely little glades and winding bridle-path, +tosses and foams the Gave d'Aspe, its banks thickly set with willow and +salicornia, its solitary coves inviting the bather. The witchery of +these mountain streams grows upon us in the Pyrenees. We hunger for the +music of their cascades when far away. The sun-lit, snow-lit peaks, +towering into the brilliant blue heavens, are not deserted as they +appear. Shepherd farmers throughout the summer dwell in huts here, and +welcome visitors with great affability. + +Let me narrate a fact interesting alike to the naturalist and +meteorologist. On the 7th September, 1891, the heat on one of these +summits, nine thousand feet above the sea-level, was so intense that a +little flock of sheep were seen literally hugging the snow, laying their +faces against the cool masses, huddled about them, as shivering mortals +round a fire in winter. And, a little way off, the eye-witnesses of this +strange scene gathered deep blue irises in full bloom. + +[Illustration: ORCUM] + +On the lower slopes the farmers leave their horses to graze, giving them +a look from time to time. One beautiful young horse lost its life just +before my arrival, unwarily approaching a precipitous incline. As a rule +accidents are very rare. + +The izard or Pyrenean chamois, although hunted as game, is not yet a +survival here, nor the eagle and bear, the latter only making its +appearance in winter-time. + +Tent-life in these mountain-sides is quite safe and practicable. Who can +say? A generation hence and these magnificent Alps may be tunnelled by +railways, crowned by monster hotels, peopled from July to October with +tourists in search of disappointments. + +At present the Vallee d'Aspe is the peacefullest in the world. Alike on +week-days and Sundays the current of life flows smoothly. Every morning +from the open windows of the parsonage may be heard the sweet, simple +hymns of the Lutheran Church, master and mistress, servants and +children, uniting in daily thanksgiving and prayer. + +And a wholesome corrective is the Sunday service after the sights +of Lourdes. + +The little congregation was striking. Within the altar railings stood +two _anciens_, or elders, of the church, middle-aged men, tall, +stalwart, the one fair as a Saxon, the other dark as a Spaniard. Both +wore the dress of the well-to-do peasant, short black alpaca blouses, +black cloth trousers, and spotless collars and cuffs, and both worthily +represented those indomitable ancestors who neither wavered nor lost +heart under direst persecution. + +By the time the pastor ascended the reading-desk, the cheerful, +well-kept little church was full, the men in black blouses, the women +wearing neat stuff or print gowns, with silk handkerchiefs tied under +the chin, widows and the aged, the sombre black-hooded garment, +enveloping head and figure, of Huguenot matrons of old--supposed to have +suggested the conventual garb. + +Among the rest were two or three Catholics, peasants of the +neighbourhood, come to look on and listen. The simple, intelligible +service, the quiet fervour of the assembly, might well impress a +sceptical beholder. Even more impressive is the inscription over the +door. A tablet records how the first Protestant church was pulled down +by order of the king after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +rebuilt on the declaration of religious liberty by the National +Assembly. Gazing on that inscription and the little crowd of +worshippers, a sentence of Tacitus came into my mind. Recording how not +only the biographers of good men were banished or put to death, but +their works publicly burnt by order of Domitian, the historian, whose +sentences are volumes condensed, adds: "They fancied, forsooth"--he is +speaking of the tyrant and his satellites--"that all records of these +actions being destroyed, mankind could never approve of them." An +illusion shared by enemies of intellectual liberty, from the Caesars to +their latest imitator, unhappily not wholly dispelled in our own day. + +Whether the homeward journey is made through the Landes by way of +Bayonne and Bordeaux, or through the Eastern Pyrenees by way of +Perpignan, we are brought face to face with scenes of strangest +transformation. In the former region the agency has been artificial, the +shifting sands being fixed and solidified by plantations on a gigantic +scale, and large tracts rendered fertile by artificial irrigation; in +the latter, Nature has prepared the field, the more laborious portion of +the husbandman's task is already done. + +"The districts of sand, as white as snow and so loose as to blow," seen +by Arthur Young towards the close of the last century, can hardly be +said to exist in our own day. Even within twenty-five years the changes +are so great as to render entire regions hardly recognizable. The +stilts, or _chanques_, of which our word "shanks" is supposed to be the +origin, become rarer and rarer. The creation of forests and sinking of +wells, drainage, artificial manures and canals are rapidly fertilizing a +once arid region; with the aspect of the country a proportionate change +taking place in the material condition of the people. + +No less startling is the transformation of lagoon into salt marsh, and +marsh into cultivable soil, witnessed between the Spanish frontier, +Perpignan and Nimes. + +Quitting Cerbere, the little town at which travellers from Barcelona +re-enter French territory, we follow the coast, traversing a region long +lost to fame and the world, but boasting of a brilliant history before +the real history of France began. + +We are here in presence of geological changes affected neither by shock +nor convulsion, nor yet by infinitesimally slow degrees. A few +centuries have sufficed to alter the entire contour of the coast and +reverse the once brilliant destinies of maritime cities. With the +recorded experience of mediaeval writers at hand, we can localize +lagoons and inland seas where to-day we find belts of luxuriant +cultivation. In a lifetime falling short of the Psalmist's threescore +years and ten observations may be made that necessitate the +reconstruction of local maps. + +The charming little watering-place of Banyulssur-Mer, reached soon after +passing the Spanish frontier, is the only place on this coast, except +Cette, without a history. The town is built in the form of an +amphitheatre, its lovely little bay surrounded by rich southern +vegetation. The oleanders and magnolias in full bloom, gardens and +vineyards, are no less strikingly contrasted with the barrenness and +monotony that follows, than Banyuls itself, spick and span, brand-new, +with the buried cities scattered on the way, ancient as Tyre and Sidon, +and once as flourishing. There is much sadness yet poetic charm in the +landscape sweeps of silvery-green olive or bluish salicornia against a +pale-blue sky, dull-brown fishing villages bordering sleepy lagoons, +stretches of white sand, with here and there a glimpse of the purple, +rock-hemmed sea. Little of life animates this coast, in many spots the +custom-house officer and a fisherman or two being the sole inhabitants, +their nearest neighbours removed from them by many miles. Only the +flamingo, the heron, and the sea-gull people these solitudes, within the +last few years broken by the whistle of the locomotive. We are following +the direct line of railway between Barcelona and Paris. + +The first of the buried cities is the musically-named Elne, anciently +Illiberis, now a poor little town of the department of the Eastern +Pyrenees, hardly, indeed, more than a village, but boasting a wondrous +pedigree. We see dull-brown walls, ilex groves, and above low-lying +walls the gleaming sea. This apparently deserted place occupies the site +of city upon city. Seaport, metropolis, emporium had here reached their +meridian of splendour before the Greek and the Roman set foot in Gaul. +Already in Pliny's time the glories of the Elne had become tradition. We +must go farther back than Phoenician civilization for the beginnings of +this town, halting-place of Hannibal and his army on their march towards +Rome. The great Constantine endeavoured to resuscitate the fallen city, +and for a brief space Elne became populous and animated. With other once +flourishing seaports it has been gradually isolated from the sea, and +the same process is still going on. + +Just beyond Perpignan a lofty tower, rising amid vineyards and pastures, +marks the site of Ruscino, another ancient city and former seaport. The +Tour de Roussillon is all that now remains of a place once important +enough to give its name to a province. Le Roussillon, from which was +formed the department of the Pyrenees Orientales, became French by the +treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Here also the great Carthaginian halted, +and here, we learn, he met with a friendly reception. + +Monotonous as are these wide horizons and vast stretches of marsh and +lagoon, they appeal to the lover of solitude and of the more pensive +aspects of nature. The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of +glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, +too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills. Not cities only seem +interred here: the railway hurries us through a world in which all is +hushed and inanimate, as if, indeed, mankind no less than good fortune +had deserted it. The prevailing uniformity is broken by the +picturesquely placed little town of Salses and the white cliffs of +Leucate. Strabo and Pomponius Mela describe minutely the floating +islands or masses of marine plants moving freely on the lake of Salses. +Here, as elsewhere, the coastline is undergoing slow but steady +modification, yet we are in presence of phenomena that engaged the +attention of writers two thousand years ago. + +From this point till we approach Cette the region defies definition. It +is impossible to determine nicely where the land ends and the sea +begins. The railway follows a succession of inland salt lakes and +lagoons, with isolated fishermen's cabins, reminding us of +lake-dwellings. In some places the hut is approached by a narrow strip +of solid ground, on either side surrounded by water, just admitting the +passage of a single pedestrian. The scene is unspeakably desolate. Only +sea-birds keep the fisher-folk company; only the railway recalls the +busy world far away. + +Of magnificent aspect is Narbonne, the Celtic Venice, as it rises above +the level landscape. The great seaport described by Greek historians six +centuries before our own era, the splendid capital of Narbonese Gaul, +rival of the Roman Nimes and of the Greek Arles, is now as dull a +provincial town as any throughout France. Invasions, sieges, plagues, +incendiaries, most of all religious persecutions, ruined the mediaeval +Narbonne. The Jewish element prevailed in its most prosperous phase, and +M. Renan in his history of Averroes shows how much of this prosperity +and intellectual pre-eminence was due to the Jews. The cruel edicts of +Philip Augustus against the race proved no less disastrous here than the +expulsion of Huguenots elsewhere later. The decadence of Narbonne as a +port is due to natural causes. Formerly surrounded by lagoons affording +free communication with the sea, the Languedocian Venice has gradually +lost her advantageous position. The transitional stage induced such +unhealthy climatic conditions that at one period there seemed a +likelihood of the city being abandoned altogether. In proportion as the +marsh solidified the general health improved. Day by day the slow but +sure process continues, and when the remaining salt lakes shall have +become dry land, this region, now barren and desolate, will blossom like +the rose. The hygienic and atmospheric effects of the _Eucalyptus +globulus_ in Algeria are hardly more striking than the amelioration +wrought here in a natural way. The Algerian traveller of twenty-five +years ago now finds noble forests of blue gum tree, where, on his first +visit, his heart was wrung by the spectacle of a fever-stricken +population. On the coast of Languedoc the change has been slower. It has +taken not only a generation but a century to transform pestilential +tracts into zones of healthfulness and fertility. + +An interesting fact, illustrating the effect of physical agencies upon +human affairs, must be here mentioned. Till within the last few years +this town counted a considerable Protestant community. The ravages of +the phylloxera in the neighbouring vineyards caused a wholesale exodus +of vine-growers belonging to the Reformed Church, and in 1886 the number +had dwindled to such an extent that the services of a pastor were no +longer required. The minister in charge was transferred elsewhere. + +The dull little town of Agde is another ancient site. Its name is alike +a poem and a history. The secure harbourage afforded by this sheltered +bay won for the place the name of Good Fortune, [Greek: agathae tuchae], +whence Agathe, Agde. A Greek settlement, its fine old church was in part +constructed of the materials of a temple to Diana of Ephesus. Agde +possesses interest of another kind. It is built of lava, the solitary +peak rising behind it, called Le Pic de St. Loup, being the southern +extremity of that chain of extinct volcanoes beginning with Mont Mezenc +in the Cantal. A pathetic souvenir is attached to this lonely crater. At +a time when geological ardour was rare, a Bishop of Agde, St. Simon by +name, devoted years of patient investigation to the volcanic rocks in +his diocese. The result of his studies were recorded in letters to a +learned friend, but the Revolution stopped the poor bishop's +discoveries. He perished by the guillotine during the Terror. The +celebrated founder of socialism in France was his nephew. + + + +XI + +AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +The friendly visit of a few Russian naval officers lately put the +country into as great a commotion as a hostile invasion. I started +southward from Lyons on the 12th October, 1893, amid scenes of wholly +indescribable confusion; railway stations a mere compact phalanx of +excited tourists bound for Toulon, with no immediate prospect of getting +an inch farther, railway officials at their wits' end, carriage after +carriage hooked on to the already enormously long train, and yet crowds +upon crowds left behind. Every train was, of course, late; and on the +heels of each followed supplementary ones, all packed to their utmost +capacity. As we steamed into the different stations "Vive la Russie!" +greeted our ears. The air seemed filled with the sound; never surely was +such a delirium witnessed in France since the fever heat of 1789! + +At Valence, Montelimar, Avignon, Arles, the same tumult reigned; but +before reaching the second place, the regulation number of carriages, +twenty-five, had been exceeded, and as hardly one per cent of the +travellers alighted, we could only pass by the disconcerted multitudes +awaiting places. And a mixed company was ours--the fashionable world, +select and otherwise, the demi-monde in silks and in tatters, +musicians, travelling companies of actors and showmen, decorated +functionaries, children, poodles, all bound for the Russian fleet! + +At Marseilles, a bitter disappointment awaited some, I fear, many. No +sooner were we fairly within the brilliantly-lighted, crowded station, +and before the train had come to a standstill, than a stentorian voice +was heard from one end of the platform to the other, crying-- + +"LOOK TO YOUR PURSES!" + +And as the gorged carriages slowly discharged their burden, the stream +of passengers wending towards the door marked "Way out," a yet louder +and more awe-inspiring voice came from above, the official being perched +high as an orator in the pulpit, repeating the same words-- + +"ATTENTION A VOTRE PORTE-MONNAIE!" + +The dismay of the thwarted pickpockets may be better imagined than +described. Many, doubtless, had come from great distances, confident of +a golden harvest. Let us hope that the authorities of Toulon were +equally on the alert. Marseilles no more resembles Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, than those cities resemble each other. Less elegant than Lyons, +less majestic than Bordeaux, gayer by far than Nantes, the capital of +Southern France has a stamp of its own. Today, as three thousand years +ago, Marseilles may be called the threshold of the East. In these hot, +bustling, noisy streets, Paris is quiet by comparison; London a Trappist +monastery! Orientals, or what our French neighbours call exotics, are so +common that no one looks at them. Japanese and Chinese, Hindus, +Tonquinois, Annamites, Moors, Arabs, all are here, and in native dress; +and writing letters in the salon of your hotel, your _vis-a-vis_ at the +_table d'hote_, your fellow sightseers, east and west, to-day as of old, +here come into friendly contact; and side by side with the East is the +glowing life of the South. We seem no longer in France, but in a great +cosmopolitan mart that belongs to the whole world. + +The Marseillais, nevertheless, are French; and Marseilles, to their +thinking, is the veritable metropolis. "If Paris had but her +Cannebiere," they say, "she would be a little Marseilles!" + +Superbly situated, magnificently endowed as to climate, the _chef-lieu_ +of the Bouches du Rhone must be called a slatternly beauty; whilst +embellishing herself, putting on her jewels and splendid attire, she +has forgotten to wash her face and trim her hair! Not in Horatian +phrase, dainty in her neatness, Marseilles does herself injustice. Lyons +is clean swept, spick and span as a toy town; Bordeaux is coquettish as +her charming Bordelaise; Nantes, certainly, is not particularly careful +of appearances. But Marseilles is dirty, unswept, littered from end to +end; you might suppose that every householder had just moved, leaving +their odds and ends in the streets, if, indeed, these beautifully-shaded +walks can be so called. The city in its development has laid out alleys +and boulevards instead of merely making ways, with the result that in +spite of brilliant sky and burning sun, coolness and shadow are ever to +be had. The Cannebiere, with its blue sky, glowing foliage and gay, +nonchalant, heterogeneous crowds, reminds me of the Rambla of Barcelona. +Indeed, the two cities have many points of resemblance. Marseilles is +greatly changed from the Marseilles I visited twenty-five years ago, to +say nothing of Arthur Young's description of 1789. The only advantage +with which he accredited the city was that of possessing newspapers. Its +port, he wrote, was a horsepond compared to that of Bordeaux; the number +of country houses dotting the hills disappointingly small. At the +present time, suburban Marseilles, like suburban London, encroaches +year by year upon the country; another generation, and the sea-coast +from Toulon to the Italian frontier will show one unbroken line of +country houses. Of this no one can doubt who sees what is going on in +the way of building. + +But it is not only by beautiful villas and gardens that the city has +embellished itself. What with the lavishness of the municipality, public +companies, and the orthodox, noble public buildings, docks, warehouses, +schools, churches, gardens, promenades, have rendered Marseilles the +most sumptuous French capital after Paris. Neither Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, can compare with it for sumptuosity. In the Palais de +Longchamps, the splendour of municipal decoration reaches its acme; the +horsepond Arthur Young sneered at now affords accommodation of 340 +acres, with warehouses, said to be the finest in the world; last, but +not least, comes the enormous Byzantine Cathedral not yet finished, +built at the cost of a quarter of a million sterling. Other new churches +and public buildings without number have sprung up of late years, the +crowning glory of Marseilles being its Palais de Longchamps. + +This magnificent group of buildings may be called a much enlarged and +much more grandiose Trocadero. Worthily do these colossal Tritons and +sea-horses commemorate the great achievement of modern Marseilles; +namely, the conveying of a river to its very doors. Hither, over a +distance of fifty-four miles, are brought the abundant waters of the +Durance; as we stand near, their cascades falling with the thunder of +our own Lodore. But having got the river and given the citizens more +than enough water with which to turn their mills, supply their domestic +wants, fertilize suburban fields and gardens, the Town Council seem +satisfied. The streets are certainly, one and all, watered with rushing +streams, greatly to the public health and comfort. A complete system of +drainage is needed to render the work complete. When we learn that even +Nice is not yet drained from end to end, we need not be astonished at +tardy progress elsewhere. Sanitation is ever the last thing thought of +by French authorities. Late in the afternoon we saw two or three men +slowly sweeping one street. No regular cleaning seems to take place. Get +well out of the city, by the sea-shore, or into the Prado--an avenue of +splendid villas--and all is swept and garnished. The central +thoroughfares, so glowing with life and colour, and so animated by day +and night, are malodorous, littered, dirty. It is a delightful drive by +the sea, over against the Chateau d'If, forts frowning above the rock, +the deep blue waves, yellowish-brown shore, and green foliage, all in +striking contrast. + +We with difficulty realize that Marseilles is not the second city in +France. The reason is obvious. Lyons lies less compactly together, its +thickly-peopled Guillotiere seems a town apart; the population of Lyons, +moreover, is a sedentary one, whilst the Marseillais, being seafarers, +are perpetually abroad. The character, too, is quite different, less +expansive, less excitable, less emotional in the great silk-weaving +capital, here gay, noisy, nonchalant. Nobody seems to find the cares of +the day a burden, all to have some of the sunshine of the place in their +composition. "Mon bon," a Marsellais calls his neighbour; there is no +stillness anywhere. Everybody is "Mon bon" to everybody. + +The out-of-door, rollicking, careless life, more especially strikes a +northerner. We seem here as remote from ordinary surroundings as if +suddenly transported to Benares. The commercial prosperity of the first +French sea-port is attested by its lavish public works, and number of +country houses, a disappointing handful in Arthur Young's time. Hardly a +householder, however modest his means, who does not possess a cottage or +chalet; the richer having palatial villas and gardens. Nothing can +convey a greater notion of ease and wealth than the prospect of suburban +Marseilles, its green hills, rising above the sea, thickly dotted with +summer houses in every part. + +All who wish to realize the advance of French cities since 1870-71 +should visit Marseilles. Only those who knew it long ago can measure the +change, and greater changes still are necessary ere its sanitary +conditions match climate and situation. + +From Marseilles to Nice, from the land of the olive to that of the palm, +is a long and wearisome journey. That tyrannical monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee Railway Company, gives only slow trains, except +to travellers provided with through tickets; and these so inconveniently +arranged, that travellers unprovided with refreshments, have no +opportunity of procuring any on the way. Whenever we travel by railway +in France we are reminded of the crying need for competition. The +all-omnipotent P.-L.-M. does as it pleases, and it is quite useless for +travellers to complain. Every inch of the way points to the future of +the Riviera--a future not far off. A few years hence and the sea-coast +from Marseilles to Mentone will be one unbroken line of hotels and +villas. The process is proceeding at a rapid rate. When Arthur Young +made this journey a century ago, he described the country around Toulon +thus: "Nine-tenths are waste mountain, and a wretched country of pines, +box, and miserable aromatics." At the present time, the brilliant red +soil, emerald crops, and gold and purple leafage of stripped vine, make +up a picture of wondrous fertility. At every point we see vineyards of +recent creation; whilst not an inch of soil between the olive trees is +wasted. On the 28th of October the landscape was bright with autumn +crops, some to be _repique_, or planted out according to the Chinese +system before mentioned. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger at Nice is its Italian +population. These black-eyed, dark-complexioned, raven-haired, +easy-going folks form as distinct a type as the fresh-complexioned, +blue-eyed Alsatian. That the Nicois are French at heart is self-evident, +and no wonder, when we compare their present condition with that of the +past. We see no beggars or ragged, wretched-looking people. If the +municipal authorities have set themselves the task of putting down +mendicity, they have succeeded. French enterprise, French capital is +enriching the population from one end of the Alpes Maritimes to the +other. At the present time there must be tens of thousands of workmen +employed in the building of hotels and villas between Marseilles and +Ventimille. That the Riviera will finally be overbuilt no one can +doubt; much of the original beauty of the country is already destroyed +by this piling up of bricks and mortar, more beauty is doomed. But +meantime work is brisk, wages are high, and the Post Office savings bank +and private banks tell their own tale. + +Of course the valetudinarians contribute to the general prosperity, a +prosperity which it is difficult for residents in an English +watering-place to realize. Thus I take up a Hastings newspaper to find a +long list of lodging-house keepers summoned for non-payment of taxes. +Arrived at Nice, a laundress employed by my hostess immediately came to +see if I had any clothes for her. On bringing back the linen she +deposited it in my room, saying I could pay her when fetching the next +bundle. I let her go, but called her back, thinking that perhaps the +poor woman had earned nothing for months and was in distress. My hostess +afterwards informed me with a smile that this good woman had L2,500 in +the bank. I could multiply instances in point. + +If the condition of the working classes has immensely improved, the cost +of living has not stood still. A householder informed me that prices of +provisions, servants' wages, house rent and other items of domestic +economy have tripled within the last twenty years. There is every +prospect that this increase will continue. Last winter hotels and +boarding-houses at Nice were all full; fast as new ones are built, they +fill to overflowing. And, of course, the majority of visitors are rich. +No others should come; they are not wanted. + +In studying the rural population we must bear in mind one fact--namely, +the line of demarcation separating the well-to-do peasants of the plain +from the poor and frugal mountaineer. Follow the mule track from Mentone +to Castillon, and we find a condition of things for squalor and poverty +unmatched throughout France. Visit an olive-grower in the valley of the +Var, and we are once more amid normal conditions of peasant property. My +first visit was to the land of Goshen. + +Provided with a letter of introduction to a farmer, I set off for the +village of St. Martin du Var, a village of five hundred and odd souls, +only within the last year or two accessible by railway. The new line, +which was to have connected Nice with Digne and Cap, had been stopped +short half-way, the enterprising little company who projected it being +thereby brought to the verge of ruin. This fiasco, due, I am told, to +the jealous interference of the P.-L.-M., is a great misfortune to +travellers, the line partially opened up leading through a most wildly +picturesque and lovely region, and being also of great commercial and +strategic importance. But that terrible monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee, will tolerate no rivals. Folks bound from Gap +to Nice must still make the long round by way of Marseilles in order +to please the Company; merchandise--and, in case of a war with Italy, +which may Heaven avert!--soldiers and ammunition must do the same. + +The pretty new "Gare du Sud" invites patronage, and three services are +performed daily. On this little line exists no third class. I imagine, +then, that either the very poor are too poor to take train at all, or +that there are none unable to pay second-class fare. In company of +priests, peasants, and soldiers, I took a second-class place, the guard +joining us and comfortably reading a newspaper as soon as we were +fairly off. + +It is a superb little journey to St. Martin du Var. The line may be +described as a succession of tunnels, our way lying between lofty +limestone cliffs and the Var, at the present time almost dry. As we +slowly advance, the valley widens, and on either side are broad belts +of verdure and fertility; fields, orchards, gardens, olive trees +feathering the lower slopes, here and there, little villages perched +high above the valley. One charming feature of the landscape is the +aspen; so silvery were its upper leaves in the sun that at first I +took them for snow-white blossoms. These verdant stretches on either +side of the river were formerly mere waste, redeemed and rendered +cultivable by means of dykes. + +My destination is reached in an hour, a charmingly placed village amid +beautiful mountain scenery, over against it towering the hamlet of La +Roquette, apparently inaccessible as cloudland. Here a tributary +stream joins the Var, the long winding valley, surrounded by lofty +crags and olive-clad slopes, affording a delightful and most +exhilarating prospect. The weather on this 20th of October was that of +a perfect day in July. + +St. Martin du Var has its Mairie, handsome communal schools, and large +public walks or recreation ground, a parallelogram planted with trees. +The place has a neglected, Italian aspect; at the same time an aspect of +ease and contentment. The black-eyed, olive-complexioned, +Italian-looking children are uniformly well dressed, with good shoes and +stockings. French children, even of the poorest class, are always +decently shod. + +I found my host at dinner with his wife, little daughter, and +sister-in-law. The first impression of an uninitiated traveller would be +of poverty. The large bare kitchen was unswept and untidy; the family +dishes--soup, vegetables, olives, good white bread, wine--were placed on +the table without cloth or table-cover. As will be seen, these +hard-working, frugal people were rich; in England they would have +servants to wait upon them, fine furniture, and wear fashionable +clothes. My letter of introduction slowly read and digested, the head of +the family placed himself at my disposal. We set off on a round of +inspection, the burning mid-day sun here tempered by a delicious breeze. + +We first visited the olive-presses and corn-mill--this farmer was +village miller as well as olive grower--all worked by water-power and +erected by himself at a heavy outlay. Formerly these presses and mills +were worked by horses and mules after the manner of old-fashioned +threshing-machines, but in Provence as in Brittany, progress is now the +order of the day. + +In order to supply these mills, a little canal was dug at my host's own +expense, and made to communicate with the waters of the Var; thus a good +supply is always at hand. + +The enormous olive-presses and vats are now being got in for the first +or October harvest. This is the harvest of windfalls or fallen fruit, +green or black as the case may be, and used for making an inferior kind +of oil. The second harvest or gathering of the olives remaining on the +trees takes place in April. Linen is spread below, and the berries +gently shaken off. I may add that the periods of olive harvests vary in +different regions, often being earlier or later. An olive tree produces +on an average a net return of twelve francs, the best returns being +alternate or biennial; the roots are manured from time to time, +otherwise the culture is inexpensive. The trees are of great age and, +indeed, are seldom known to die. The "immortal olive" is, indeed, no +fiction. In this especial district no olive trees have, within living +memory, been killed by frost, as was the case in Spain some years ago. +Nevertheless, the peaks around St. Martin du Var are tipped with snow in +winter. The olive harvests and necessary preparations require a large +number of hands, the wages of men averaging three francs, of women, the +half. Thus at the time I write of, day labourers in remote regions of +Provence receive just upon fourteen shillings and sixpence per week; +whereas I read in the English papers that Essex farmers are reducing the +pittance of twelve and even ten shillings per week for able-bodied men. + +Ten days later, my cicerone said that the first harvest would be in +active progress, and he most cordially invited me to revisit him for +the purpose of looking on. From the lees of the crushed berries a +third and much inferior oil is made and used in the manufacture of +soap, just as what is called _piquette_ or sour wine is made in +Brittany from the lees of crushed grapes. I was assured by this farmer +that the impurity of olive oil we so often complain of in England, +arises from adulteration at the hands of retailers. Table oil as it +issues from the presses of the grower is absolutely pure; merchants add +inferior qualities or poppy oil, described by me in an earlier page, +and which my present host looked upon with supreme contempt. The olive, +with the vine and tobacco, attains the maximum of agricultural profits. +This farmer alone sells oil to the annual value of several thousand +pounds, and to the smaller owner also it is the principal source of +income. Peasant owners or tenants of an acre or two grow a little corn +as well, this chiefly for their own use. + +The interior of the corn-mill presented an amusing scene. Two or three +peasants were squabbling with my host's subordinate over their sacks of +flour; one might have supposed from the commotion going on and the +general air of vindictive remonstrance that we were suddenly transported +to a seigneurial mill. A few conciliatory words from the master put all +straight, and soon after we saw the good folks, one of them an old +woman, trotting off on donkeys with their sack of corn slung before +them. I need hardly say that the talk of these country-people among +themselves is always in patois, not a word of which is intelligible to +the uninitiated. + +Just above the mills are groves of magnificent old olive trees, and +alongside the little railway were bright strips of lucerne and pasture, +folks here and there getting in their tiny crops of hay. + +The iron road is not yet regarded as an unmixed good. My host told me +that local carters and carriers had been obliged in consequence to sell +their horses and carts and betake themselves to day labour. Such +drawbacks are, of course, inevitable, but the ulterior advantage +effected by the railway is unquestionable. I should say that nowhere are +life and property safer than in these mountain-hemmed valleys. The +landlady of the little hotel at St. Martin du Var assured me that she +always left her front door open all night. Nothing had ever happened to +alarm her but the invasion of three English ladies at midnight, one of +these of gigantic stature and armed with a huge stick. The trio were +making a pedestrian journey across country, apparently taking this +security for granted. Neither brigands nor burglars could have given +the poor woman a greater fright than the untimely appearance of my +countrywomen. + +It was now too hot to visit the open tracts of pasture and cultivation +alongside the Var. The farmer's wife proposed a shady walk to a +neighbouring farm instead, our errand being to procure milk for my five +o'clock tea. Without hat or umbrella, my companion set off, chatting as +we went. She explained to me that on Sundays she wore bonnet and mantle +after the fashion of a _bourgeoise_; in other words, she dressed like a +lady, but that neither in summer nor winter at any other time did she +cover her head. She was a pleasant-mannered, intelligent, affable woman, +almost toothless, as are so many well-to-do middle-aged folks in France. +Dentists must fare badly throughout the country. No one ever seems to +have a guinea to spend upon false teeth. + +We were soon out of the village, and passing the pretty garden of the +Gendarmerie, reached a scene of unimaginable, unforgettable beauty. +Never shall I forget the splendour of the olive trees set around a +wide, brilliantly green meadow; near the farmhouse groves of +pomegranate, orange and lemon with ripening fruit; beside these, medlar +and hawthorn trees (_cratoegus azarolus_), the golden leafage and +coral-red fruit of the latter having a striking effect; beyond, silvery +peaks, and, above all, a heaven of warm, yet not too dazzling blue. At +the farther end of the meadow, in which a solitary cow grazed at will, +a labourer was preparing a ribbon-like strip of land for corn, beside +him, pretending to work too, his little son of five years. My hostess +held up her jug and stated her errand, proposing that the cow should be +milked a trifle earlier in order to suit my convenience. The man +good-naturedly replied that, as far as the matter concerned himself, he +was agreeable enough, but that the cow was not so easily to be put out +of her way. She was milked regularly as clockwork at a quarter to five, +the clock had only just struck four; he might leave his work and take +her home, but not a drop of milk would she give before the proper time! +Leaving our jug, we roamed about this little paradise, unwilling to +quit a scene of unblemished beauty. A more bewitching spot I do not +recall; and it seemed entirely shut off from the world, on all sides, +unbroken quiet, nothing to mar the exquisiteness of emerald turf, +glossy foliage of orange and lemon trees, silvery olive in striking +contrast, and above, a cloudless sky. In the heart of a primeval forest +we could not feel more alone. + +The thought occurred to me how perfect were such a holiday resort could +a clean little lodging be found near! With some attention to +cleanliness and sanitation, the little hotel at St. Martin du Var might +satisfy the unfastidious. I am bound to admit that in French phrase it +leaves much to desire. + +My host gave me a good deal of interesting information about the place +and the people. Excellent communal schools with lay teachers of both +sexes have been opened under French regime; and the village of five +hundred and odd souls has, of course, its Mairie, Hotel de Ville, and +Gendarmerie, governing itself after the manner of French villages. + +Whilst the ladies of the house chatted with me they knitted away at +socks and stockings, in coarse, bright-coloured wool. Such articles are +never bought, the home-made substitute being much more economical in the +end. As an instance of the solid comfort of these apparently frugal +folks, let me mention their homespun linen sheets. My hostess showed me +some coarse bed-linen lately woven for her in the village. Calico +sheets, she said, were much cheaper, but she preferred this durable +home-spun even at three times the price. An old woman in the village +still plied the loom, working up neighbours' materials at three francs a +day. The flax has to be purchased also, so that the homespun sheet is a +luxury; "and at the same time," the housewife added, "a work of +charity. This poor old woman lives by her loom. It is a satisfaction to +help her to a mouthful of bread." + +The moon had risen when I took leave, hostess, little daughter, and +sister all accompanying me to the station, reiterating their wish to see +me again. Nothing, indeed, would have been pleasanter than to idle away +weeks amid this adorable scenery and these charming people. But life is +short and France is immense. The genially uttered _au revoir_ becomes +too often a mere figure of speech. + +I add, by the way, that the little daughter, now trotting daily to the +village school, is sure to have a handsome dowry by and by. Four +thousand pounds is no unusual portion of a rich peasant's daughter in +these regions. As an old resident at Nice informed me, "The peasants are +richer than the _bourgeoisie_"--as they deserve to be, seeing their +self-denial and thrift. + + + +XII + +PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +Pessicarz is a hamlet not mentioned in either French or English +guide-books; yet the drive thither is far more beautiful than the +regulation excursions given in tourists' itineraries. The road winds in +corkscrew fashion above the exquisite bay and city, gleaming as if built +of marble, amid scenes of unbroken solitude. Between groves of veteran +olives and rocks rising higher and higher, we climb for an hour and a +half, then leaving behind us the wide panorama of Nice, Cimiez, the sea, +and villa-dotted hills, take a winding inland road, as beautiful as can +be imagined. Here, nestled amid chestnut woods, lay the little farm I +had come to see, consisting of three hectares let at a rent of five +hundred francs (between seven and eight acres, rented at twenty pounds a +year), the products being shared between owner and tenant. This modified +system of _metayage_ or half profits is common here, and certainly +affords a stepping-stone to better things. By dint of uncompromising +economy, the metayer may ultimately become a small owner. The farmhouse +was substantially built and occupied by both landlord and tenant, the +latter with his family living on the ground floor. This arrangement +probably answers two purposes, economy is effected, and fraud prevented +on the part of the metayer. Pigs and poultry are noisy animals, and if a +dishonest tenant wanted to smuggle any of these away by night, they +would certainly betray him. The housewife, in the absence of her +husband, received me very kindly. I was of course introduced by a +neighbour, who explained my errand, and she at once offered to show me +round. She was a sturdy, good-natured-looking woman, very well-dressed +and speaking French fairly. The first thing she did was to show me her +poultry, of which she was evidently very proud. This she accomplished by +calling out in a loud voice, "Poules, poules, poules" ("chickens, +chickens, chickens"), as if addressing children, whereupon they came +fluttering out of the chestnut woods, fifty or more, some of fine breed. +These fowls are kept for laying, and not for market, the eggs being sent +daily into Nice. She then asked me indoors, the large kitchen being on +one side of the door, the outhouses on the other. Beyond the kitchen was +a large bedroom, her children, she explained, sleeping upstairs. Both +rooms were smoke-dried to the colour of mahogany, unswept and very +untidy, but the good woman seemed quite sensible of these disadvantages +and apologized on account of narrow space. A large supply of clothes +hung upon pegs in the bed-chamber, and it possessed also a very handsome +old upright clock. The kitchen, besides stores of cooking utensils, had +a stand for best china, and on the walls were numerous unframed +pictures. I mention these trifling details to show that even among the +poorer peasant farmers something is found for ornament; they do not live +as Zola would have us believe, for sordid gains alone. + +We next visited the pigs, of which she possessed about a dozen in three +separate styes. These are fed only upon grain and the kitchen wash +supplied from hotels; but she assured me that the disgusting story I +had heard at Nice was true. There are certain pork-rearing +establishments in the department at which carrion is purchased and +boiled down for fattening pigs. My hostess seemed quite alive to the +unwholesomeness of such a practice, and we had a long talk about pigs, +of which I happen to know something; that they are dirt-loving animals +is quite a mistake; none more thoroughly enjoy a good litter of clean +straw. I was glad to find this good woman entirely of the same opinion. +She informed me with evident satisfaction that fresh straw was always +thrown down on one side of the piggery at night, and that the animals +always selected it for repose. + +The first lot were commodiously housed, but I reasoned with her with +regard to the other two, the pig-styes being mere caverns without light +or air, and the poor creatures grunting piteously to be let out. She +told me that they were always let out at sundown, and heard what I had +to say about pigs requiring air, let us hope to some purpose. Certainly, +departmental professors have an uphill task before them in +out-of-the-way regions. These poor people are said to be extremely +frugal as a rule, but too apt to squander their years' savings at a +paternal fete, wedding or any other festivity. Generations must elapse +ere they are raised to the level of the typical French peasant. On the +score of health they may compare favourably with any race. A fruit and +vegetable diet seems sufficient in this climate. Besides her poultry and +pigs my farmeress had not much to show me; but a plot of flowers for +market, a little corn, and a few olive trees added grist to the mill. On +the whole, want of comfort, cleanliness, and order apart, I should say +that even such a condition contrasts favourably with that of an English +agricultural labourer. Without doubt, were we to inquire closely into +matters, we should discover a sum of money invested or laid by for +future purchases utterly beyond the reach of a Suffolk ploughman. + +Just below the little farm I visited a philanthropic experiment +interesting to English visitors. This was an agricultural orphanage +founded by an Englishman two years before, seventeen waifs and strays +having been handed over to him by the Municipal Council of Nice. The +education of the poor little lads is examined once a year by a school +inspector, in other respects the proteges are left to their new patron. +Here they are taught household and farm work, fruit and flower culture, +the business of the dairy, carpentering, and other trades; being +afterwards placed out. I question whether an English Board of Guardians +would so readily hand over seventeen workhouse lads to a foreigner, but +it is to be hoped that the Nicois authorities will have no reason to +regret their confidence. The boys do no work on Sundays, and once a year +have a ten days' tramp in the country; the buildings are spacious and +airy, but I was sorry to see a plank-bed used as a punishment. + +Indeed, I should say that the system pursued savours too much of the +military. Here, be it remembered, no juvenile criminals are under +restraint, only foundlings guilty of burdening society. Whether this +school exists still I know not. + +Very different was the impression produced by the State Horticultural +College recently opened at Antibes. + +Around the lovely little bay the country still remains pastoral and +unspoiled; a mile or two from the railway station and we are in the +midst of rural scenes, tiny farms border the road, patches of corn, +clover, vineyard, and flower-garden--flowers form the chief harvest of +these sea-board peasants--orange, lemon and olive groves with here and +there a group of palms, beyond these the violet hills and dazzling blue +sea, such is the scenery, and could a decent little lodging be found in +its midst, the holiday resort were perfect. + +One drawback to existence is the treatment of animals. As I drove +towards the college a countryman passed with a cart and pair of horses, +the hindmost had two raw places on his haunches as large as a penny +piece. I hope and believe that in England such an offender would have +got seven days' imprisonment. The Italians, as we all know, have no +feeling for animals, and the race here is semi-Italian--wholly so, if we +may judge by physiognomy and complexion. + +Until the foundation of the Horticultural College here, the only one in +existence on French soil was that of Versailles. Whilst farm-schools +have been opened in various parts of the country, and special branches +have their separate institutions, the teaching of horticulture remained +somewhat in abeyance. Forestry is studied at Nancy, husbandry in general +at Rennes, Grignan, and Amiens, the culture of the vine at Montpellier, +drainage and irrigation at Quimperle, all these great schools being made +accessible to poorer students by means of scholarships. + +In no other region of France could a Horticultural College be so +appropriately placed as in the department of the Alpes Maritimes. It is +not only one vast flower-garden, but at the same time a vast +conservatory, the choice flowers exported for princely tables in winter +being all reared under glass. How necessary, then, that every detail of +this delightful and elaborate culture should be taught the people, whose +mainstay it is, a large proportion being as entirely dependent upon +flowers as the honey bee! Here, and in the neighbourhood of Nice, they +are cultivated for market and exportation, not for perfume distilleries +as at Grasse. + +The State School of Antibes was created by the Minister of Agriculture +in 1891, and is so unlike anything of the kind in England that a brief +description will be welcome. The first point to be noted is its +essentially democratic spirit. When did a farm-labourer's son among +ourselves learn any more of agriculture than his father or +fellow-workmen could teach him? At Antibes, as in the numerous +farm-schools (fermes-ecoles) now established throughout France, the +pupils are chiefly recruited from the peasant class. + +How, will it be asked, can a small tenant farmer or owner of three or +four acres afford to lose his son's earnings as soon as he quits school, +much less to pay even a small sum for his education? The difficulty is +met thus: in the first place, the yearly sum for board, lodging and +teaching is reduced to the minimum, viz. five hundred francs a year; in +the second, large numbers of scholarships are open to pupils who have +successfully passed the examination of primary schools, and whose +parents can prove their inability to pay the fees. No matter how poor he +may be, the French peasant takes a long look ahead. He makes up his mind +to forfeit his son's help or earnings for a year or two in view of the +ulterior advantage. A youth having studied at Antibes, would come out +with instruction worth much more than the temporary loss of time and +money. That parents do reason in this way is self-evident. On the +occasion of my visit, of the twenty-seven students by far the larger +proportion were exhibitioners, sons of small owners or tenants. Lads are +admitted from fourteen years and upwards, and must produce the +certificate of primary studies, answering to that of our Sixth Standard, +or pass an entrance examination. The school is under State supervision, +the teaching staff consisting of certificated professors. The discipline +is of the simplest, yet, I was assured, quite efficacious. If a lad, +free scholar or otherwise, misbehaves himself, he is called before the +director and warned that a second reprimand only will be given, the +necessity of a third entailing expulsion. No more rational treatment +could be devised. + +Besides practical teaching in the fields and gardens, consisting as yet +of only twenty-five hectares, or nearly sixty acres, a somewhat +bewildering course of study is given. The list of subjects begins well. +First, a lad is here taught his duties as the head of a family, a +citizen, and a man of business. Then come geography, history, +arithmetic, book-keeping, trigonometry, linear drawing, mechanics, +chemistry, physics, natural history, botany, geology, _agrologie_, or +the study of soils, irrigation, political economy. Whilst farming +generally is taught, the speciality of the school is fruit and flower +culture. A beautiful avenue of palm and orange trees leads from the +road to the block of buildings, the director's house standing just +outside. I was fortunate in finding this gentleman at home, and he +welcomed me with the courtesy, I may say cordiality, I have ever +received from professors of agriculture and practical farmers in France. + +We immediately set out for our survey, my companion informing me, to my +surprise, that the gardens I now gazed on so admiringly formed a mere +wilderness a few years ago, that is to say, until their purchase by the +State. The palm and orange trees had been brought hither and +transplanted, everything else had sprung up on the roughly-cleared +ground. Palm trees are reared on the school lands for exportation to +Holland, there, of course, to be kept under glass; ere long the +exportation of palms and orange trees will doubtless become as +considerable as that of hothouse flowers. + +I was shown magnificent palms fifteen years old, and nurseries of tiny +trees, at this stage of their existence unlovely as birch brooms. +Hitherto, majestic although its appearance, the palm of the Riviera has +not produced dates. The director is devoting much time to this subject, +and hopes ere long to gather his crop. + +As we passed between the orange trees, here and there the deep green +glossy fruit turning to gold, I heard the same report as at Pessicarz. +At neither place can the lads resist helping themselves to the unripe +oranges. Sour apples and green oranges seem quite irresistible to +hobbledehoys. The trees were laden with fruit, and, unless blown off by +a storm, the crop would be heavy. An orange tree on an average produces +to the value of two hundred francs. + +I was next taken to the newly-created vineyards, some consisting of +French grafts on American stock, others American plants; but vines are +capricious, and one vineyard looked sickly enough, although free from +parasites. The climate did not suit it, that was all. + +But by far the most important and interesting crops here are the +hothouse flowers. I fancy few English folks think of glass-houses in +connection with the Riviera. Yet the chief business of horticulturists +during a large portion of the year is in the conservatory. Brilliant as +is the winter sun, the nights are cold and the fall of temperature +after sundown extremely rapid. Only the hardier flowers, therefore, +remain out of doors. + +I was now shown the glass-houses being made ready for the winter. All +the choice flowers, roses, carnations and others, sent to Paris, London, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, are grown under glass. Roses thus cultivated +will bring four francs per dozen to the grower; I was even told of +choicest kinds sold from the conservatories at a franc each. It may +easily be conceived how profitable is this commerce, destined without +doubt to become more so as the culture of flowers improves. New +varieties are ever in demand for royal or millionaires' tables, bridal +bouquets, funeral wreaths. I was told the discoverer or creator of a +blue carnation would make his fortune. I confess this commercial aspect +of flowers takes something from their poetry. Give me a cottager's plot +of sweet-williams and columbine instead of the floral paragon evolved +for the gratification of the curious! As we strolled about we came upon +groups of students at work. All politely raised their hats when we +passed, and by their look and manner might have been taken for young +gentlemen. + +A great future doubtless awaits this delightfully placed Horticultural +School. Whilst the object primarily aimed at by the State is the +education of native gardeners and floriculturists, other results may be +confidently expected. No rule keeps out foreigners, and just as our +Indian candidates for the Forestry service prepare themselves at Nancy, +so intending fruit-growers in Tasmania will in time betake themselves to +Antibes. A colonial, as well as an international element is pretty sure +to be added. French subjects beyond seas will certainly avail themselves +of privileges not to be had at home, carrying away with them knowledge +of the greatest service in tropical France. Horticulture as a science +must gain greatly by such a centre, new methods being tried, improved +systems put into practice. In any case, the department may fairly be +congratulated on its recent acquisition, one, alas, we have to set +against very serious drawbacks! In these intensely hot and glaring days +of mid-October, the only way of enjoying life is to betake oneself to a +sailing-boat. Few English folks realize the torture of mosquito-invaded +nights on the Riviera. As to mosquito curtains, they afford a remedy +ofttimes worse than the disease, keeping out what little air is to be +had and admitting, here and there, one mosquito of slenderer bulk and +more indomitable temper than the rest. After two or three utterly +sleepless nights the most enthusiastic traveller will sigh for grey +English skies, pattering drops and undisturbed sleep. At sea, you may +escape both blinding glare and mosquito bites. A boat is also the only +means of realizing the beauty of the coast. Most beautiful is the +roundabout sail from Cannes to the Ile St. Marguerite: I say roundabout, +because, if the wind is adverse, the boatmen have to make a circuit, +going out of their course to the length of four or five miles. Every +tourist knows the story of the Iron Mask; few are perhaps aware that in +the horrible prison in which Louis XIV kept him for seventeen years, +Protestants were also incarcerated, their only crime being that they +would not perjure themselves, in other words, feign certain beliefs to +please the tyrant. + +At the present time the cells adjoining the historic dungeon of the +Masque de Fer are more cheerfully occupied. Soldiers are placed there +for slight breaches of discipline, their confinement varying from twelve +hours to a few days. We heard two or three occupants gaily whiling away +the time by singing patriotic songs, under the circumstances the best +thing they could do. Lovely indeed was the twenty minutes' sail back to +Cannes, the sea, deep indigo, the sky, intensest blue, white villas +dotting the green hills, far away the violet mountains. When we betake +ourselves to the railway or carriage road, we must make one comparison +very unfavourable to English landscape. Here building stone, as bricks +and mortar with us, is daily and hourly invading pastoral scenes, but +the hideous advertizing board is absent in France. We do not come upon +monster advertisements of antibilious pills, hair dye, or soap amid +olive groves and vineyards. Let us hope that the vulgarization +permitted among ourselves will not be imitated by our neighbours. + +In 1789 Arthur Young described the stretch of country between Frejus +and Cannes as a desert, "not one mile in twenty cultivated." Will +Europe and America, with the entire civilized world, furnish +valetudinarians in sufficient numbers to fill the hotels, villas, and +boarding houses now rising at every stage of the same way? The matter +seems problematic, yet last winter accommodation at Nice barely +sufficed for the influx of visitors. + +Nice is the most beautiful city in France, I am tempted to say the most +beautiful city I ever beheld. It is the last in which I should choose to +live or even winter. + +Site, sumptuosity, climate, vegetation here attain their acme; so far, +indeed, Nice may be pronounced flawless. During a certain portion of the +year, existence, considered from the physical and material point of +view, were surely here perfect. When we come to the social and moral +aspect of the most popular health resort in Europe, a very different +conclusion is forced upon us. + +Blest in itself, Nice is cursed in its surroundings. So near is that +plague spot of Europe, Monte Carlo, that it may almost be regarded as a +suburb. For a few pence, in half-an-hour, you may transport yourself +from a veritable earthly Paradise to what can only be described as a +gilded Inferno. Unfortunately evil is more contagious than good. Certain +medical authorities aver that the atmosphere of Mentone used to be +impregnated with microbes of phthisis; the germs of moral disease +infecting the immediate neighbourhood of Nice are far more appalling. +Nor are symptoms wanting of the spread of that moral disease. The +municipal council of this beautiful city, like Esau, had just sold their +birthright for a mess of pottage. They had conceded the right of +gambling to the Casino, the proprietors purchasing the right by certain +outlays in the way of improvements, a new public garden, and so on. As +yet roulette and rouge-et-noir are not permitted at Nice, the gambling +at present carried on being apparently harmless. It is in reality even +more insidious, being a stepping-stone to vice, a gradual initiation +into desperate play. Just as addiction to absinthe is imbibed by potions +quite innocuous in the beginning, so the new Casino at Nice schools the +gamester from the outset, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees preparing +him for ruin, dishonour and suicide. + +The game played is called _Petits Chevaux_, and somewhat resembles our +nursery game of steeplechase. The stakes are only two francs, but as +there are eight to each horse, and you may take as many as you please, +it is quite easy to lose several hundred francs in one evening--or, for +the matter of that, one afternoon. Here, as at Monte Carlo, the gambling +rooms remain open from noon till midnight. The buildings are on an +imposing scale: reading rooms, a winter garden, concerts, entertainments +of various kinds blinding the uninitiated to the real attraction of the +place, namely, the miniature horses spinning around the tables. +Already--I write of October--eager crowds stood around, and we heard +the incessant chink of falling coin. This modified form of gambling is +especially dangerous to the young. Parents, who on no account would let +their children toss a five-franc piece on to the tables of Monte Carlo, +see no harm in watching them play at _petits chevaux_. They should, +first of all, make a certain ghastly pilgrimage I will now relate. + +Monaco does not as yet, politically speaking, form a part of French +territory; from a geographical point of view we are obliged so to regard +it. Thus French geographers and writers of handbooks include the tiny +principality, which for the good of humanity, let us hope, may ere long +be swallowed up by an earthquake--or moralized! The traveller then is +advised to take train to Monaco, and, arrived at the little station, +whisper his errand in the cab-driver's ear, "To the suicides' cemetery." + +For the matter of that, it is an easy walk enough for all who can stand +the burning sun and glare of white walls and buildings. Very lovely, +too, is the scene as we slowly wind upwards, the road bordered with +aloes and cypresses; above, handsome villas standing amid orange groves +and flowers; below, the sparkling sea. + +A French cemetery, with its wreaths of beadwork and artificial violets, +has ever a most depressing appearance. That of Monaco is like any other, +we find the usual magnificence, and usual tinsel. Many beautiful trees, +shrubs, and flowers, however, relieve the gloom, and every inch is +exquisitely kept. + +Quite apart from this vast burial-ground, on the other side of the main +entrance, is a small enclosure, walled in and having a gate of open +ironwork always locked. Here, in close proximity to heaps of garden +rubbish, broken bottles and other refuse, rest the suicides of Monte +Carlo, buried by the parish gravedigger, without funeral and without any +kind of religious ceremony. Each grave is marked by an upright bit of +wood, somewhat larger than that by which gardeners mark their seeds, and +on which is painted a number, nothing more. Apart from these, are +stakes driven into the ground which mark as yet unappropriated spots. +The indescribable dreariness of the scene is heightened by two +monumental stones garlanded with wreaths and surrounded by flowers. The +first records the memory of a young artisan, and was raised by his +fellow-workmen; the second commemorates brotherly and sisterly +affection. Both suicides were driven to self-murder by play. The +remainder are mere numbers. There are poor gamesters as well as rich, +and it is only or chiefly these who are put into the ground here. The +bodies of rich folks' relatives, if identified, are immediately removed, +and, by means of family influence, interred with religious rites. Many +suicides are buried at Nice and Mentone, but the larger proportion, +farther off still. Not to descant further on this grim topic, let me now +say something about Monte Carlo itself. + +Never anywhere was snare more plainly set in the sight of any bird. +There is little in the way of amusement that you do not get for nothing +here, a beautiful pleasure-ground, reading-rooms as luxurious and +well-supplied as those of a West End club, one of the best orchestras in +Europe, and all without cost of a farthing. + +The very lavishness arouses suspicion in the minds of the wary. Why +should we be supplied, not only with every English newspaper we ever +heard of, but with _Punch_, _Truth_, and similar publications to boot? Why +should Germans, Russians, Dutch, every other European nation, receive +treatment equally generous? Again, to be able to sit down at elegant +writing-tables and use up a quire of fine notepaper and a packet of +envelopes to match, if we chose, how is all this managed? The concerts +awaken a feeling of even intenser bewilderment. Not so much as a penny +are we allowed to pay for a programme, to say nothing of the trained +musicians. Where is the compensation of such liberality? + +The gambling tables, crowded even at three o'clock on an October +afternoon, answer our question. The season begins later, but gamblers +cannot wait. "Faites le jeu, messieurs; messieurs, faites le jeu," is +already heard from noon to midnight, and the faster people ruin +themselves and send a pistol shot through their heads, the faster others +take their place. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how many once +respectable lives, heads of families, even wives and mothers, are being +gradually lured on to bankruptcy and suicide. + +In cruellest contrast to the moral degradation fostered below, is the +enormous cathedral, at the time of my visit in course of erection +directly above the gambling rooms. The millions of francs expended on +this sumptuous basilica were supplied by the proprietors of the Casino +and the Prince of Monaco. Nothing can strike the stranger with a +stronger sense of incongruity--a church rising from the very heart of a +Pandemonium! + +Monaco is a pretty, toy-like, Lilliputian kingdom compared with which +the smallest German principality of former days was enormous. Curiously +enough, whilst Monte Carlo is peopled with gamesters, the only tenants +of Monaco seem to be priests, nuns and their pupils. The miniature +capital, state and kingdom in one, consists chiefly of convents and +seminaries, and wherever you go you come upon these Jesuit fathers with +their carefully-guarded troops of lads in uniform. A survey of the +entire principality of Monaco, Monte Carlo included, requires about a +quarter of an hour. Nowhere, surely, on the face of the civilized globe +is so much mischief contained in so small a space. Fortunately, the +poisonous atmosphere of the Casino does not seem to affect the native +poor. Everywhere we are struck by the thrifty, sober, hard-working +population; beggars or ragged, wretched-looking creatures are very rare. +If the authorities of the Alpes Maritimes have set themselves to put +down vagrancy, they have certainly succeeded. + +Nice is a home for the millionaire and the working man. The intermediate +class is not wanted. Visitors are expected to have money, are welcomed +on that account, and if they have to look to pounds, shillings, and +pence, had much better remain at home. + +Woe betide the needy invalid sent thither in search of sunshine! +Sunshine is indeed a far more expensive luxury on the Riviera than we +imagine, seeing that only rooms with a north aspect are cheap, and a +sunless room is much more comfortless and unwholesome than a well-warmed +one, no matter its aspect, in England. The only cheap commodity, one +unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet. In October, that is +to say, before the arrival of winter visitors, flowers are to be had for +the asking; on the market-place an enormous bouquet of tuberoses, +violets, carnations, myrtle, priced at two or three francs, the price in +Paris being twenty. Fruit also I found cheap, figs fourpence a dozen, +and other kinds in proportion. This market is the great sight of Nice, +and seen on a cloudless day--indeed it would be difficult to see it on +any other--is a glory of colour of which it is impossible to give the +remotest notion. I was somewhat taken aback to find Sunday less +observed here as a day of rest than in any other French town I know, and +not many French towns are unknown to me. The flower and fruit markets +were crowded, drapers', grocers', booksellers' shops open all day long, +traffic unbroken as usual. I should have imagined that a city, for +generations taken possession of by English visitors, would by this time +have fallen into our habit of respecting Sunday alike in the interests +of man and beast. Of churches, both English and American, there is no +lack. Let us hope that the Protestant clergy will turn their attention +to this subject. Let us hope also that the entire English-speaking +community will second their efforts in this direction. Further, I will +put in a good word for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals founded at Nice some years since, and sadly in need of funds. +The Society is backed up by the Government in accordance with the +admirable Loi Grammont, but, as is the case with local societies in +England, requires extraneous help. Surely rich English valetudinarians +will not let this humane work stand still, seeing, as they must do +daily, the urgent necessity of such interference! From the windows of a +beautiful villa on the road to Villefranche, I saw baskets of chickens +brought in from Italy, the half of which were dead or dying from +suffocation. As the owner of the villa said, "Not even self-interest +teaches this Italian humanity." By packing his fowls so as to afford +them breathing space, he would double his gains. The habit of cruelty is +too inveterate. My host assured me that large numbers of poultry sent +across the frontier are suffocated on the way. + +Horrible also is the pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo. Hundreds of these +wretched birds are killed for sport every day during the winter. The +wounded or escaped fly back after a while to be shot at next day. + +The word "villa" calls for comment. Such a designation is appropriate +here. The palatial villas of Nice, standing amid orangeries and palm +groves, are worthy of their Roman forerunners. For the future I shall +resent the term as applied in England to eight-roomed, semi-detached +constructions, poorly built, and with a square yard of flower-bed in +front. Many of the Nicois villas are veritable palaces, and what adds to +their sumptuousness is the indoor greenery, dwarf palms, india-rubber +trees, and other handsome evergreens decorating corridor and +landing-places. The English misnomer has, nevertheless, compensations in +snug little kitchen and decent servant's bedroom. I looked over a +handsome villa here, type, I imagine, of the rest. The servants' +bedrooms were mere closets with openings on to a dark corridor, no +windows, fireplace, cupboard, or any convenience. The kitchen was a +long, narrow room, after the manner of French kitchens, with space by +the window for two or three chairs. I ventured to ask the mistress of +the house where the servants sat when work was done. Her answer was +suggestive-- + +"They have no time to sit anywhere." + +It will be seen that our grey skies and mean-looking dwellings have +compensations. + + + +XIII + +GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +"Nine hours' rolling at anchor" was Arthur Young's experience of a +Channel passage in 1787, and on the return journey he was compelled to +wait three days for a wind. Two years later, what is in our own time a +delightful little pleasure cruise of one hour and a quarter, the journey +from Dover to Calais occupied fourteen hours. + +We might suppose from the hundreds of thousands of English travellers +who yearly cross the Manche, that Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders +would overflow with them, that we should hear English speech wherever we +go, and find ourselves amid more distinctly English surroundings than +even in Switzerland or Norway; but no such thing. From the moment I +quitted Boulogne to that of my departure from Calais, having made the +round by way of Hesdin, Arras, Vitry-en-Artois, Douai, Lille, St. Omer, +I no more encountered an English tourist than on the Causses of the +Lozere a few years before. Many years later, on going over much of the +same ground, with a halt at Etaples and Le Touquet, it was much the +same. Yet such a tour, costing so little as regards money, time and +fatigue, teems with interest of very varied and unlooked-for kind. + +Every inch of ground is historic to begin with, and has contributed its +page to Anglo-French annals or English romance. We may take the little +railway from Hesdin to Abbeville, traversing the forest of Crecy, and +drive across the cornfields to Agincourt. We may stop at Montreuil, +which now looks well, not only "on the map," but from the railway +carriage, reviving our recollections of Tristram Shandy. At Douai we +find eighty English boys playing cricket and football under the eye of +English Benedictine monks--their college being a survival of the +persecutions of Good Queen Bess. + +And to come down from history and romance to astounding prose, we find, +a few years ago, Roubaix, a town of 114,000 souls, that is to say, a +fourth of the population of Lyons--a town whose financial transactions +with the Bank of France exceed those of Rheims, Nimes, Toulouse, or +Montpellier, represented by a man of the people, the important functions +of mayor being filled by the proprietor of a humble _estaminet_ and +vendor of newspapers, character and convictions only having raised the +Socialist leader to such a post! + +In rural districts there is also much to learn. Peasant property exists +more or less in every part of France, but we are here more especially in +presence of agriculture on a large scale. In the Pas-de-Calais and the +Nord we find high farming in right good earnest, holdings of from ten to +fifteen hundred acres conducted on the footing of large industrial +concerns, capital, science and enterprise being alike brought to bear +upon the cultivation of the soil and by private individuals. + +I travelled from Boulogne to Hesdin, in time for the first beautiful +effect of spring-tide flower and foliage. The blackthorn and pear trees +were already in full blossom, and the elm, poplar and chestnut just +bursting into leaf. Everything was very advanced, and around the +one-storeyed, white-washed cottages the lilacs showed masses of bloom, +field and garden being a month ahead of less favoured years. + + * * * * * + +Near Etaples the wide estuary of the Canche showed clear, lake-like +sheets of water amid the brilliant greenery; later are passed sandy +downs with few trees or breaks in the landscape. This part of France +should be seen during the budding season; of itself unpicturesque, it is +yet beautified by the early foliage. Hesdin is an ancient, quiet little +town on the Canche, with tanneries making pictures--and smells--by the +river, unpaved streets, and a very curious bit of civic architecture, +the triple-storeyed portico of the Hotel de Ville. Its 7000 and odd +souls were soon to have their museum, the nucleus being a splendid set +of tapestries representing the battle of Agincourt, in loveliest shades +of subdued blue and grey. The little inn is very clean and comfortable; +for five francs a day you obtain the services of the master, who is +cook; the mistress, who is chambermaid; and the daughters of the house, +who wait at table. Such, at least, was my experience. + + * * * * * + +My errand was to the neighbouring village of Hauteville-Caumont, whither +I drove one afternoon. Quitting the town in a north-easterly direction, +we enter one of those long, straight French roads that really seem as if +they would never come to an end. The solitude of the scene around is +astonishing to English eyes. For miles we only meet two road-menders and +an itinerant glazier. On either side, far as the glance could reach, +stretches the chessboard landscape--an expanse oceanic in its vastness +of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land +prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this +plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness +of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays +of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level +uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips +here and there, showing tiny combes and bits of refreshing wood. The +houses, whether of large landowner, functionary or peasant, are +invariably one-storeyed, the white walls, brown tiles, or thatched roof +having an old-fashioned, rustic effect. One might suppose earthquakes +were common from this habit of living on the ground floor. The dryness +of the climate doubtless obviates risk of damp. Much more graceful are +the little orchards of these homesteads than the mathematically planted +cider apples seen here in all stages of growth. Even the blossoms of +such trees later on cannot compare with the glory of an orchard, in the +old acceptance of the word, having reached maturity in the natural way. +Certain portions of rural France are too geometrical. That I must admit. + +Exquisitely clean, to use a farmer's expression, are these sweeps of +corn and ploughed land, belonging to different owners, yet apparently +without division. Only boundary stones at intervals mark the limits. +Here we find no infinitesimal subdivision and no multiplicity of crops. +Wheat, clover, oats form the triennial course, other crops being rye, +potatoes, Swede turnips, sainfoin and the _oeillette_ or oil poppy. The +cider apple is also an important product. + +I found my friend's friend at home, and after a chat with madame and her +daughter, we set out for our round of inspection. This gentleman farmed +his own land, a beautifully cultivated estate of several hundred acres; +here and there a neighbour's field dovetailed into his own, but for the +greater part lying compactly together. The first object that attracted +my notice was a weather-beaten old windmill--sole survivor of myriads +formerly studding the country. This antiquated structure might have been +the identical one slashed at by Don Quixote. Iron grey, dilapidated, +solitary, it rose between green fields and blue sky, like a lighthouse +in mid-ocean. These mills are still used for crushing rye, the mash +being mixed with roots for cattle, and the straw used here, as +elsewhere, for _liage_ or tying up wheatsheaves. The tenacity of this +straw makes it very valuable for such purposes. + +Corn, rye and sainfoin were already very advanced, all here testifying +to highly scientific farming; and elsewhere roots were being sown. The +soil is prepared by a process called _marnage_, _i.e_. dug up to the +extent of three feet, the _marne_ or clayey soil being brought to the +surface. A very valuable manure is that of the scoria or residue of +dephosphated steel, formerly thrown away as worthless, but now largely +imported from Hungary for agricultural purposes. Nitrate is also largely +used to enrich the soil. Sixty years ago the Pas-de-Calais possessed +large forests. Here at Caumont vast tracts have been cleared and brought +under culture since that time. These denuded plateaux, at a considerable +elevation above the sea-level, are naturally very dry and very cold in +winter, the climate being gradually modified by the almost total absence +of trees. Wisely has the present Government interdicted further +destruction; forests are now created instead, and we find private +individuals planting instead of hacking down. Lucerne is not much +cultivated, and my host told me an interesting fact concerning it; in +order to grow lucerne, farmers must procure seeds of local growers. +Seeds from the south of France do not produce robust plants. + +The purple-flowered poppy, cultivated for the production of oil, must +form a charming crop in summer, and is a most important product. I was +assured that oil procured from crushed seeds is the only kind absolutely +free from flavour, and as such superior even to that of olives. Of equal +importance is the cider apple. + +The economic results of war are curiously exemplified here. During the +war of 1871 German troops were stationed in the neighbouring department +of the Somme, and there acquired the habit of drinking cider. So +agreeable was found this drink that cider apples are now largely +exported to Germany, and just as a Frenchman now demands his Bock at a +cafe, so in his Biergarten the German calls for cider. + +My host informed me that all his own apples, grown for commerce, went +over the northern frontier. Cider is said to render the imbiber +gout-proof and rheumatism-proof, but requires a long apprenticeship to +render it palatable. The profits of an apple orchard are threefold. +There is the crop gathered in October, which will produce in fair +seasons 150 francs per hectare, and the two grass crops, apple trees not +hurting the pasture. + +The labourer's harvest here are his potato-fed pigs. In our walks we +came upon men and women sowing potatoes on their bit of hired land; for +the most part their bit of land is tilled on Sundays, a neighbour's +horse being hired or borrowed for the purpose. Thus neither man nor +beast rest on the seventh day, and as a natural consequence church-going +gradually falls into abeyance. My host deplored this habit of turning +Sunday into a veritable _corvee_ for both human beings and cattle, but +said that change of system must be very slow. + +On the whole, the condition of the agricultural labourer here contrasts +very unfavourably with that of the peasant owner described elsewhere. + +The same drawbacks exist as in England. Land for the most part being +held by large owners, accommodation for poorer neighbours is +insufficient. Many able-bodied workmen migrate to the towns, simply +because they cannot get houses to live in; such one-storeyed dwellings +as exist have an uncared-for look, neither are the village folks so well +dressed as in regions of peasant property. In fact, I should say, after +a very wide experience, that peasant property invariably uplifts and +non-propertied labour drags down. This seems to me a conclusion +mathematically demonstrable. + +Mayor of his commune, my host was a man of progress and philanthropy in +the widest sense of the word. He had lately brought about the opening of +an infant school here, and dwelt on the beneficial results; children not +being admitted to the communal schools under the age of seven, were +otherwise thrown on the streets all day. Infant schools are generally +found in the larger communes. Intersecting my host's vast stretches of +field and ploughed land lay the old strategic road from Rouen to St. +Omer, a broad band of dazzling white thrown across the tremendous +panorama. An immense plain is spread before us as a map, now crudely +brilliant in hue, two months later to show blending gold and purple. +Vast, too, the views obtained on the homeward drive. Over against Hesdin +rises its forest--holiday ground of rich and poor, as yet undiscovered +by the tourist. From this friendly little town a charming woodland +journey may be made by the railway now leading through the forest of +Crecy to Abbeville. + +Between Hesdin and Arras the geometrically planted cider apple trees and +poplars growing in parallel lines are without beauty, but by the railway +are bits of waste ground covered with cowslip, wind flowers, +cuckoo-pint, and dandelion. On the top of lofty elms here and there are +dark masses; these are the nests of the magpie, and apparently quite +safe from molestation. + +By the wayside we see evidences of peasant ownership on the most modest +scale, women cutting their tiny patch of rye, as green food for cattle, +sowing their potato field, or keeping a few sheep. Everywhere lilacs +are in full bloom, and the pear and cherry trees burdened with blossom +as snow. Everything is a month ahead of ordinary years. I write of +April 1893. + +The Hotel St. Pol at Arras looks, I should say, precisely as it did in +Robespierre's time. The furniture certainly belongs to that epoch, +sanitary arrangements have made little advance, and the bare staircases +and floors do not appear as if they had been well swept, much less +scoured, since the fall of the Bastille. It is a rambling, I should say +rat-haunted, old place, but fairly quiet and comfortable, with civil +men-servants and no kind of pretence. + +Arras itself, that is to say its Petite Place, is a specimen of +Renaissance architecture hardly to be matched even in France. The +Flemish gables and Spanish arcades, not a vestige of modernization +marring the effect, make a unique picture. Above all rises the first of +those noble belfry towers met by the traveller on this round, souvenirs +of civic rights hardly won and stoutly maintained. The first object +looked for will be Robespierre's birthplace, an eminently respectable +middle-class abode, now occupied by a personage almost as generally +distasteful as that of the Conventionnel himself, namely, a +process-server or bailiff. A bright little lad whom I interrogated on +the way testified the liveliest interest in my quest, and would not lose +sight of me till I had discovered the right house. It is a +yellow-walled, yellow-shuttered, symbolically atrabilious-looking place, +with twenty-three front windows. Robespierre's parents must have been in +decent circumstances when their son Maximilian was born, and perhaps the +reverses of early life had no small share in determining his after +career. Left an orphan in early life, he owed his education and start in +life to charity. The fastidious, poetic, austere country lawyer, unlike +his fellow-conventionnels, was no born orator. Thoughts that breathe and +words that burn did not drop from his lips as from Danton's. His +carefully prepared speeches, even in the apogee of his popularity, were +often interrupted by the cry "Cut it short" or "Keep to the point." The +exponent of Rousseau was ofttimes "long preaching," like St. Paul. + +But there are early utterances of Robespierre's that constitute in +themselves a revolution, when, for instance, in 1789 he pleaded for the +admission of Jews, non-Catholics, and actors to political rights. "The +Jews," he protested, "have been maligned in history. Their reputed vices +arise from the ignominy into which they have been plunged." And although +his later discourses breathe a spirit of frenzied vindictiveness, +certain passages recall that "humane and spiritual element" commented +upon by Charles Nodier. This is especially noticeable in what is called +his _discours-testament_, the speech delivered on the eve of Thermidor. +At one moment, with positive ferocity, he lashes the memory of former +friends and colleagues sent by himself to the guillotine; at another he +dilates upon the virtue of magnanimity in lofty, Platonic strains. + +[ILLUSTRATION: ARRAS, LA PETITE PALACE] + +With Danton's implacable foe it was indeed a case of "Roses, roses, all +the way. Thus I enter, and thus I go." Twenty-four hours after that +peroration he awaited his doom, an object of ruthless execration. And +visitors are still occasionally shown in the Hotel des Archives the +table on which was endured his short but terrible retribution. + +A public day school for girls exists at Arras, but the higher education +of women--we must never lose sight of the fact--is sternly denounced by +Catholic authorities. Lay schools and lay teachers for girls are not +only unfashionable, they are immoral in the eyes of the orthodox. + +The museum and public library, 40,000 and odd volumes, of this town +of 26,000 souls are both magnificent and magnificently housed in the +ancient Abbaye de St. Vaast, adjoining cathedral, bishopric and +public garden. + +Besides pictures, statuary, natural history and archaeological +collections, occupying three storeys, is a room devoted exclusively to +local talent and souvenirs. Among the numerous bequests of generous +citizens is a collection of _faience_ lately left by a tradeswoman, +whose portrait commemorates the deed. Some fine specimens of ancient +tapestry of Arras, hence the name arras, chiefly in shades of grey and +blue, and also specimens of the delicate hand-made Arras lace, are here. +There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used +in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles. + +Quite a third of the visitors thronging these sumptuous rooms were young +recruits. A modern picture of Eustache St. Pierre and his companions, at +the feet of Edward III and his kneeling Queen, evoked much admiration. I +heard one young soldier explaining the subject to a little group. There +were also many family parties, and some blue blouses. How delightful +such a place of resort-not so much in July weather, on this 9th of April +one might fancy it harvest time!--but on bleak, rainy, uninviting days! +One of the officials advised me to visit the recently erected Ecole des +Beaux Arts at the other end of the town, which I did. I would here note +the pride taken in their public collections by all concerned. This +elderly man, most likely an old soldier, seemed as proud of the museum +as if it were his own especial property. + +I was at once shown over the spacious, airy, well-kept building--school +of art and conservatorium of music in one, both built, set on foot, and +maintained by the municipality. Here youths and girls of all ranks can +obtain a thorough artistic and musical training without a fraction of +cost. The classes are held in separate rooms, and boys in addition learn +modelling and mechanical drawing. + +The school was opened four years ago, and already numbers eighty +students of both sexes, girls meeting two afternoons a week, boys every +evening. Arras also possesses an Ecole Normale or large training school +for female teachers. + +On this brilliant Sunday afternoon, although many small shops were open, +I noted the cessation of street traffic. Every one seemed abroad, and +business at a standstill. All the newspaper kiosks were closed. + +Next morning soon after eight o'clock I was off to Vitry-en-Artois for +a day's farming. At the little station I was met by a friend's +friend--a typical young Frenchman, gaiety itself, amiable, easy, all +his faculties alert--and driven by him in a little English dogcart to +the neighbouring village. Twenty-five minutes brought us to our +destination--house and model farm of a neighbour, upwards of twelve +hundred acres, all cultivated on the most approved methods. Our host +now took my young friend's reins, he seating himself behind, and we +drove slowly over a large portion of the estate, taking a zigzag course +across the fields. There are here three kinds of soil--dry, chalky and +unproductive, rich loam, and light intermediate. In spite of the +drought of the last few weeks, the crops are very luxuriant, and quite +a month ahead of former seasons. + +This estate of six hundred and odd hectares is a specimen of high +farming on a large scale, such as I had never before witnessed in +France. I do not exaggerate when I say that from end to end could not +be discerned a single weed. Of course, the expense of cultivation on +such a scale is very great, and hardly remunerative at the present +price of wheat. + +Sixty hectares, _i.e._ nearly 150 acres, are planted with wheat, and +two-thirds of that superficies with beetroot. The young corn was as +advanced as in June with us, some kinds of richer growth than others, +and showing different shades of green, each tract absolutely weedless, +and giving evidence of highest cultivation. Fourteen hectolitres per +hectare of corn is the average, forty the maximum. Besides beetroot for +sugar, clover and sainfoin are grown, little or no barley, and neither +turnips nor mangel-wurzel. + +[Footnote: Hectolitre = 2 bushels 3 pecks.] + +The land is just now prepared for planting beetroot, by far the most +important crop here, and on which I shall have much to say. Henceforth, +indeed, the farming I describe may be called industrial, purely +agricultural products being secondary. + +On the importance of beetroot sugar it is hardly necessary to dwell at +length. A few preliminary facts, however, may be acceptable. Up till the +year 1812, cane sugar only was known in France; the discovery of +beetroot sugar dates from the Continental blockade of that period. In +1885 the amount of raw sugar produced from beetroot throughout France +was 90 millions of kilos. In 1873 the sum-total had reached 400 +millions. The consumption of sugar per head here is nevertheless +one-third less than among ourselves. + +[Footnote: Kilogramme = 2 lb. 3 oz.] + +We come now to see the results of fiscal regulation upon agriculture. +Formerly duty was paid not upon the root itself but its product. This is +now changed, and, the beetroot being taxed, the grower strives after +that kind producing the largest percentage of saccharine matter. Hardly +less important is the residue. The pulp of the crushed beetroot in +these regions forms the staple food of cows, pigs and sheep. Mixed with +chopped straw, it is stored for winter use in mounds by small +cultivators, in enormous cellars constructed on purpose by large owners. +Horses refuse to eat this mixture, which has a peculiar odour, scenting +farm premises from end to end. The chief manure used is that produced on +the farm and nitrates. On this especial estate dried fish from Sweden +had been tried, and, as on the farm before mentioned, chalky land is dug +to the depth of three feet, the better soil being put on the top. This +is the process called _marnage_. We now drove for miles right across the +wide stretches of young wheat and land prepared for beetroot. The wheels +of our light cart, the host said, would do good rather than harm. Horse +beans, planted a few weeks before, were well up; colza also was pretty +forward. Pastures there were none. Although the cornfields were as clean +as royal gardens we came upon parties of women, girls and boys hoeing +here and there. The rows of young wheat showed as much uniformity as a +newly-planted vineyard. + +Ploughing and harrowing were being done chiefly by horses, only a few +oxen being used. My host told me that his animals were never worked on +Sundays. On week-days they remain longer afield than with us, but a +halt of an hour or two is made for food and rest at mid-day. Another +crop to be mentioned is what is called _hivernage_ or winter fodder, +_i.e._ lentils planted between rows of rye, the latter being grown +merely to protect the other. On my query as to the school attendance of +boys and girls employed in agriculture, my host said that authorities +are by no means rigid; at certain seasons of the year, indeed, they are +not expected to attend. Among some large landowners we find tolerably +conservative notions even in France. Over-education, they say, is +unfitting the people for manual labour, putting them out of their place, +and so forth. + +Moles are not exterminated. "They do more good than harm," said my host, +"and I like them." I had heard the same thing at Caumont, where were +many mole-hills. Here and there, dove-tailed into these enormous fields, +were small patches farmed by the peasants, rarely their own property. +Their condition was described as neither that of prosperity nor want. +"They get along." That was the verdict. + +In our long drive across weedless corn and clover fields we came upon a +small wood, a recent plantation of our host. Even this bit of greenery +made a pleasant break in the uniform landscape. We then drove home, and +inspected the premises on foot. Everything was on a colossal scale, +and trim as a Dutch interior. The vast collection of machinery included +the latest French, English, Belgian and American inventions. Steam +engines are fixtures, the consumption of coal being 160 tons yearly per +300 hectares. + +We are thus brought face to face with the agriculture of the future, +ancient methods and appliances being supplanted one by one, manual +labour reduced to the minimum, the cultivation of the soil become purely +mechanical. The idyllic element vanishes from rural life and all savours +of Chicago! Stables and neat-houses were the perfection of cleanliness +and airiness. Here for the first time I saw sheep stabled like cows and +horses. Their quarters were very clean, and littered with fresh straw. +They go afield for a portion of the day, but, as I have before +mentioned, pastures are few and far between. + +The enormous underground store-houses for beetroot, pulp and chopped +straw were now almost empty. At midday, the oxen were led home and fell +to their strange food with appetite, its moistness being undoubtedly an +advantage in dry weather. The cart horses were being fed with boiled +barley, and looked in first-rate condition. Indeed, all the animals +seemed as happy and well-cared for as my host's scores upon scores of +pet birds. Birds, however, are capricious, and nothing would induce a +beautiful green parrot to cry, "Vive la France" in my presence. After an +animated breakfast--thoroughly French breakfast, the best of everything +cooked and served in the best possible manner--we took leave, and my +young friend drove me back to Vitry to call upon his own family. + +M.D., senior, is a miller, and the family dwelling, which adjoins his +huge water-mill, is very prettily situated on the Scarpe. We entered +by a little wooden bridge running outside, a conservatory filled with +exotics and ferns lending the place a fairy look. I never saw anything +in rural France that more fascinated me than this water-mill with its +crystal clear waters and surrounding foliage. M.D. with his three sons +quitted their occupation as we drove up. Madame and her young daughter +joined us in the cool salon, and we chatted pleasantly for a quarter +of an hour. + +I was much struck with the head of the family, an elderly man with blue +eyes, fine features, and a thoughtful expression. He spoke sadly of the +effect of American competition, and admitted that protection could offer +but a mere palliative. Hitherto I had found a keenly protectionist bias +among French agriculturists. Of England and the English he spoke with +much sympathy, although at this time we were as yet far from the Entente +Cordiale. "C'est le plus grand peuple au monde" ("It is the greatest +nation in the world"), he said. + +Nothing could equal the ease and cordiality with which this charming +family received me. The miller with his three elder sons had come +straight from the mill. Well-educated gentlemen are not ashamed of +manual labour in France. How I wished I could have spent days, nay +weeks, in the neighbourhood of the water-mill! + + + +XIV + +LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + +Only three museums in France date prior to the Revolution, those of +Rheims, founded in 1748, and of Dijon and Nancy, founded in 1787. The +opening in Paris of the Museum Francais in 1792, consisting of the royal +collections and art treasures of suppressed convents, was the beginning +of a great movement in this direction. At Lille the municipal +authorities first got together a few pictures in the convent of the +Recollets, and Watteau the painter was deputed to draw up a catalogue. +On the 12th May, 1795, the collection consisted of 583 pictures and 58 +engravings. On the 1st September, 1801, the consuls decreed the +formation of departmental museums and distribution of public art +treasures. It was not, however, till 1848 that the municipal council of +Lille set to work in earnest upon the enrichment of the museum, now one +of the finest in provincial cities. The present superb building was +erected entirely at the expense of the municipality, and was only opened +two years ago. It has recently been enriched by art treasures worth a +million of francs, the gift of a rich citizen and his wife, tapestries, +_faience_, furniture, enamels, ivories, illuminated MSS., rare bindings, +engraved gems. Before that time the unrivalled collection of drawings by +old masters had lent the Lille museum a value especially its own. + +The collections are open every day, Sundays included. Being entirely +built of stone, there is little risk of fire. Thieves are guarded +against by two caretakers inside the building at night and two patrols +outside. It is an enormous structure, and arranged with much taste. + +The old wall still encircles the inner town, and very pretty is the +contrast of grey stone and fresh spring foliage; lilacs in full bloom, +also the almond, cherry, pear tree, and many others. + +Lille nowadays recalls quite other thoughts than those suggested by +Tristram Shandy. It may be described as a town within towns, the +manufacturing centres around having gradually developed into large rival +municipalities. Among these are Tourcoing, Croix, and Roubaix, now more +than half as large as Lille itself. I stayed a week at Lille, and had I +remained there a year, in one respect should have come away no whit the +wiser. The manufactories, one and all, are inaccessible as the interior +of a Carmelite convent. Queen Victoria could get inside the monastery of +the Grande Chartreuse, but I question whether Her Majesty would have +been permitted to see over a manufactory of thread gloves at Lille! + +Such jealousy has doubtless its reason. Most likely trade secrets have +been filched by foreign rivals under the guise of the ordinary tourist. +Be this as it may, the confection of a tablecloth or piece of beige is +kept as profoundly secret as that of the famous pepper tarts of Prince +Bedreddin or the life-sustaining cordial of celebrated fasters. + +In the hope of winning over a feminine mind, I drove with a friend to +one of the largest factories at Croix, the property of a lady. + +Here, as at Mulhouse, mill-owners live in the midst of their works. They +do not leave business cares behind them, after English fashion, dwelling +as far away as possible from factory chimneys. The premises of Mme. C. +are on a magnificent scale; all in red brick, fresh as if erected +yesterday, the mistress's house--a vast mansion--being a little removed +from these and surrounded by elegantly-arranged grounds. A good deal of +bowing and scraping had to be got through before we were even admitted +to the portress's lodge, as much more ceremonial before the portress +could be induced to convey our errand to one of the numerous clerks in a +counting-house close by. At length, and after many dubious shakes of the +head and murmurs of surprise at our audacity, the card was transmitted +to the mansion. + +A polite summons to the great lady's presence raised our hopes. There +seemed at least some faint hope of success. Traversing the gravelled +path, as we did so catching sight of madame's coach-house and half-dozen +carriages, landau, brougham, brake, and how many more! we reached the +front door. Here the clerk left us, and a footman in livery, with no +little ceremony, ushered us into the first of a suite of reception +rooms, all fitted up in the modern style, and having abundance of ferns +and exotics. + +At the end of the last salon a fashionably dressed lady, typically +French in feature, manners and deportment, sat talking to two gentlemen. +She very graciously advanced to meet us, held out a small white hand +covered with rings, and with the sweetest smile heard my modestly +reiterated request to be allowed a glimpse of the factory. Would that I +could convey the gesture, expression of face and tone of voice with +which she replied, in the fewest possible words! + +After that inimitable, unforgettable "Jamais, jamais, jamais!" there was +nothing to do but make our bow and retire, discomfiture being amply +atoned by the little scene just described. + +We next drove straight through Lille to the vast park or Bois, as it is +called, not many years since acquired by the town as a pleasure-ground. +Very wisely, the pretty, irregular stretch of glade, dell and wood has +been left as it was, only a few paths, seats and plantations being +added. No manufacturing town in France is better off in this respect. +Wide, handsome boulevards lead to the Bois and pretty botanical garden, +many private mansions having beautiful grounds, but walled in completely +as those of cloistered convents. The fresh spring greenery and multitude +of flowering trees and shrubs make suburban Lille look its best; outside +the town every cottage has a bit of ground and a tree or two. + +During this second week of April the weather suddenly changed. Rain +fell, and a keen east wind rendered fires and winter garments once +more indispensable. On one of these cold, windy days I went with +Lille friends to Roubaix, as cold and windy a town, I should say, as +any in France. + +A preliminary word or two must be said about Roubaix, the city of +strikes, pre-eminently the Socialist city. + +City we may indeed call it, and it is one of rapidly increasing +dimensions. In the beginning of the century Roubaix numbered 8000 souls +only. Its population is now 114,000. Since 1862 the number of its +machines has quintupled. Every week 600 tons of wool are brought to the +mills. As I have before mentioned, more business is transacted with the +Bank of France by this _cheflieu_ of a canton than by Toulouse, Rheims, +Nimes, or Montpellier. The speciality of Roubaix is its dress stuffs and +woollen materials, large quantities of which are exported to America. To +see these soft, delicate fabrics we must visit Regent Street and other +fashionable quarters, not an inch is to be caught sight of here. + +Roubaix is a handsome town, with every possible softening down of grimy +factory walls and tall chimneys. A broad, well-built street leads to the +Hotel de Ville; another equally wide street, with mansions of wealthy +mill-owners and adjacent factories, leads to the new Boulevard de Paris +and pretty public park, where a band plays on Sunday afternoons. + +But my first object was to obtain an interview with the Socialist mayor, +a man of whom I had heard much. A friend residing at Lille kindly paved +the way by sending his own card with mine, the messenger bringing back a +courteous reply. Unfortunately, the Conseil-General then sitting at +Lille curtailed the time at the mayor's disposal, but before one o'clock +he would be pleased to receive me, he sent word. Accordingly, conducted +by my friend's clerk, I set out for the Town Hall. + +We waited some little time in the vestibule, the chief magistrate of +Roubaix being very busy. Deputy-mayors, adjoints, were coming and going, +and liveried officials bustled about, glancing at me from time to time, +but without any impertinent curiosity. Impertinent curiosity, by the +way, we rarely meet with in France. People seem of opinion that +everybody must be the best judge of his or her own business. I was +finally ushered into the council chamber, where the mayor and three +deputy-mayors sat at a long table covered with green baize, transacting +business. He very courteously bade me take a seat beside him, and we at +once entered into conversation. The working man's representative of what +was then the city _par excellence_ of strikes and socialism is a +remarkable-looking man in middle life. Tall, angular, beardless, with +the head of a leader, he would be noticed anywhere. There was a look of +indomitable conviction in his face, and a quiet dignity from which +neither his shabby clothes nor his humble calling detract. Can any +indeed well be humbler? The first magistrate of a city of a hundred and +fourteen thousand souls, a large percentage of whom are educated, +wealthy men of the world, keeps, as I have said, a small _estaminet_ or +cafe in which smoking is permitted, and sells newspapers, himself early +in the morning making up and delivering his bundles to the various +retailers. Here, indeed, we have the principles of the Republic--Liberty, +Equality, Fraternity--carried out to their logical conclusion. +Without money, without social position, this man owes his present +dignity to sheer force of character and conviction. We chatted of +socialism and the phases of it more immediately connected with Roubaix, +on which latter subject I ventured to beg a little information. + +[Footnote: I give Littre's meaning of _estaminet_.] + +"We must go to the fountain-head," he replied very affably. "I regret +that time does not permit me to enter into particulars now; but leave me +your English address. The information required shall be forwarded." + +We then talked of socialism in England, of his English friends, and he +was much interested to learn that I had once seen the great Marx and +heard him speak at a meeting of the International in Holborn twenty-five +years before. + +Then I told him, what perhaps he knew, of the liberty accorded by our +Government to hold meetings in Trafalgar Square, and we spoke of +Gladstone. "A good democrat, but born too early for socialism--the +future of the world. One cannot take to socialism at eighty-three years +of age," I said. + +"No, that is somewhat late in the day," was the smiling reply. + +I took leave, much pleased with my reception. From a certain point of +view, the socialist mayor of Roubaix was one of the most interesting +personalities I had met in France. + +Roubaix has been endowed by the State with a handsome museum, +library, technical and art school, the latter for young men only. +These may belong to any nationality, and obtain their professional or +artistic training free of charge. The exhibition of students' work +sufficiently proclaims the excellence of the teaching. Here we saw +very clever studies from the living model, a variety of designs, and, +most interesting of all, fabrics prepared, dyed and woven entirely by +the students. + +The admirably arranged library is open to all, and we were courteously +shown some of its choicest treasures. These are not bibliographical +curiosities, but albums containing specimens of Lyons silk, a marvellous +display of taste and skill. Gems, butterflies' wings, feathers of +tropical birds are not more brilliant than these hues, while each design +is thoroughly artistic, and in its way an achievement. + +The picture gallery contains a good portrait of the veteran song-writer +Nadaud, author of the immortal "Carcassonne." Many Germans and Belgians, +engaged in commerce, spend years here, going away when their fortunes +are made. More advantageous to the place are those capitalists who take +root, identifying themselves with local interests. Such is the case with +a large English firm at Croix, who have founded a Protestant church and +schools for their workpeople. + +Let me record the spectacle presented by the museum on Sunday afternoon +during the brilliant weather of April 1893. What most struck me was the +presence of poorly-dressed boys; they evidently belonged to the least +prosperous working class, and came in by twos and threes. Nothing could +equal the good behaviour of these lads, or their interest in everything. +Many young shop-women were also there, and, as usual, a large contingent +of soldiers and recruits. + +Few shops remained open after mid-day, except one or two very large +groceries, at which fresh vegetables were sold. It is pleasant to note a +gradual diminution of Sunday labour throughout France. + +The celebration of May-Day, which date occurred soon after my visit, was +not calculated either to alarm the Republic or the world in general. It +was a monster manifestation in favour of the Three Eights, and I think +few of us, were we suddenly transformed into Roubaix machinists, would +not speedily become Three Eighters as well. + +At five o'clock in the morning the firing of cannon announced the annual +"Fete du Travail," or workmen's holiday, not accorded by Act of +Parliament, but claimed by the people as a legitimate privilege. + +Unwonted calm prevailed in certain quarters. Instead of men, women, boys +and girls pouring by tens of thousands into the factories, the streets +leading to them were empty. In one or two cases, where machinery had +been set in motion and doors opened, public opinion immediately effected +a stoppage of work. Instead, therefore, of being imprisoned from +half-past five in the morning till seven or eight at night, the entire +Roubaisien population had freed itself to enjoy "a sunshine holiday." +Such a day cannot be too long, and at a quarter past seven vast crowds +had collected before the Hotel de Ville. + +Here a surprise was in store for the boldest Three Eighter going. The +tricolour had been hoisted down, and replaced, not by a red flag, but by +a large transparency, showing the following device in red letters upon +a white ground:-- + + FETE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL, + 1er Mai 1893. + + Huit Heures du Travail, + Huit Heures du Loisir, + Huit Heures du Repos. + +[Footnote: Translation-International festival of labour; eight hours' +work, eight hours' leisure, eight hours' repose.] + +The mayor, in undress, that is to say in garments of every day, having +surveyed these preparations, returned to his _estaminet_, the Plat d'Or, +and there folded his newspapers as usual for the day's distribution. + +In the meantime the finishing touch was put to other decorations, +consisting of flags, devices and red drapery, everywhere the Three +Eights being conspicuous. + +A monster procession was then formed, headed by the Town Council and a +vast number of bands. There was the music of the Fire Brigade, the +socialist brass band, the children's choir, the Choral Society of +Roubaix, the Franco-Belgian Choral Society, and many others. Twenty +thousand persons took part in this procession, the men wearing red +neckties and a red flower in their button-holes, the forty-seven groups +of the workmen's federation bearing banners, all singing, bands +playing, drums beating, cannons firing as they went. + +At mid-day the defile was made before the Hotel de Ville, and delegates +of the different socialist groups were formally received by the mayor +and deputy-mayors, wearing their tricolour scarves of office. + +I must say the mayor's speech was a model of conciseness, good sense +and, it must be added, courtesy; addressing himself first to his +fellow-townswomen, then to his fellow-townsmen, he thanked the labour +party for the grandiose celebration of the day, dwelt on the +determination of the municipal council to watch over the workmen's +interests, then begged all to enjoy themselves thoroughly, taking care +to maintain the public peace. + +Toasts were drunk, the mayor's health with especial enthusiasm, but when +at the stroke of noon he waved the tricolour and an enormous number of +pigeons were let loose, not to be fired at but admired as they flew away +in all directions, their tricolour ribbons fluttering, the general +delight knew no bounds. "Long live our mayor," resounded from every +mouth, "Vive le citoyen Carrette!" + +The rest of the day was devoted to harmless, out-of-door amusements: a +balloon ascent, on the car being conspicuous in red, "Les trois huits," +concerts, gymnastic contests, finally dancing and illuminations. + +Thus ended the first of May, 1893, in Lille. + + * * * * * + +St. Omer is a clean, well-built and sleepy little town, with some fine +old churches. The mellow tone of the street architecture, especially +under a burning blue sky, is very soothing; all the houses have a +yellowish or pinkish hue. + +The town abounds in convents and seminaries, and the chief business of +well-to-do ladies seems that of going to church. In the cathedral are +many votive tablets to "Our Lady of Miracles"--one of the numerous +miracle-working Virgins in France. Here we read the thanksgiving of a +young man miraculously preserved throughout his four years' military +service; there, one records how, after praying fervently for a certain +boon, after many years the Virgin had granted his prayer. Parents +commemorate miraculous favours bestowed on their children, and so on. + +The ancient ramparts at this time were in course of demolition, and the +belt of boulevards which are to replace them will be a great +improvement. The town is protected by newly-constructed works. Needless +to say, it possesses a public library, on the usual principle--one +citizen one book,--a museum, and small picture gallery. The population +is 21,000. + +I was cordially received by a friend's friend, foremost resident in the +place, and owner of a large distillery. As usual, the private dwelling, +with coach-house, stables and garden adjoined the business premises. The +_genievre_ or gin, so called from the juniper used in flavouring it, +here manufactured, is a choice liqueur, not the cheap intoxicant of our +own public-houses. Liqueurs are always placed with coffee on French +breakfast-tables. Every one takes a teaspoonful as a help to digestion. + +French people are greatly astonished at the absence of liqueurs in +England. The excellence of French digestions generally would not seem to +discredit the habit. In the fabrication of gin here only the corn of rye +is used, and in small quantities, the juniper berry; it is ready for +drinking in six months, although improved by keeping. I saw also curacoa +in its various stages. The orange peel used in the manufacture of this +liqueur is soaked in alcohol for four months. + +My object, however, was to see the high farming on an extensive scale +for which this region is famous. Accordingly my host, accompanied by his +amiable wife, placed themselves, their carriage, and time at my +disposal, and we set out for a long round. + +In harvest time the aspect of the country must be one of extreme +richness. The enormous sweeps of corn, clover, and beetroot have no +division from each other or the road; no hedges are to be seen, and not +a tree in the middle of the crops, few trees, indeed, anywhere. +Everywhere, on this 17th of April, the corn was a month ahead of former +seasons, and, in spite of the long drought, very flourishing. + +The first farm visited consists of 360 hectares (just upon 900 acres), +all in the highest cultivation, and conducted strictly on the footing of +a large industrial concern, with offices, counting-house, carpenters', +saddlers' and wheelwrights' shops, smithies, mills and machinery, every +agricultural process down to grinding the corn being performed on the +premises, and by workmen in the employ of the owner. + +As we enter these vast premises, and hear the buzz of machinery, we feel +the complete prosaicization of rustic life. The farmhouse scenes of my +own childhood in Suffolk, the idyllic descriptions of George Eliot, no +more resemble actualities than the poetic spinning-wheel of olden times +the loom of latest invention. Utility is the object aimed at, +incontestably with great results, but in effect unromantic as Chicago. +It is high farming made to pay. All was bustle and activity as we made +the round of the premises, beginning with the vast machinery and +workshops. These walled-in buildings, divided into two portions, each +covering three-quarters of an acre, reminded me of nothing so much as of +the caravanserais of Algerian travel twenty-five years ago. Once the +doors are bolted none can enter, yet to render security doubly sure dogs +are chained up in every corner--we will hope, let loose at night. + +I will not here go into agricultural details, only adding a few +particulars. + +The splendid wheat, clover, bean and rye crops attested the +excellence of the farming. Dovetailing into these enormous fields +were small patches of peasant owners or tenants, all without division +or apparent boundary. + +In the villages I was struck by the tidy appearance of the children +coming out of school. The usual verdict on peasant proprietors +hereabouts was that they do not accumulate, neither are they in want. +Very little, if any, beggary meets the eye, either in town or country. +We then drove to the chateau, with its English grounds, of the Vicomte +de----, friend of my host, and an ardent admirer of England and English +ways. This gentleman looked, indeed, like an English squire, and spoke +our tongue. He had visited King Edward, then Prince of Wales, at +Sandringham. As an illustration of his lavish method of doing things, I +mention a quantity of building stone lately ordered from Valenciennes. +This stone, for the purpose of building offices, had cost L800. In this +part of France clerks and counting-houses seem an indispensable feature +of farm premises. An enormous bell for summoning work-people to work or +meals is always conspicuous. The whole thing has a commercial aspect. + +Here we saw some magnificent animals, among these a prize bull of +Flemish breed. It was said to be very fierce, and on this account had a +ring in its nose. This cruel custom is now, I believe, prohibited here +by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On the other +hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in +Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card +of membership over offenders _in terrorem_. + +We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in +his agricultural pursuits. High farming was nevertheless here the order +of the day. + +We next drove to Clairmarais, a village some miles off in quite another +direction, coming in sight of magnificent forests. Our errand was to +the ancient Cistercian abbey, now the property of a capitalist, and +turned into the business premises of his large farm. Of the original +monastery, founded in 1140, hardly a trace remains. Abutting on the +outer wall is the chapel, and before it a small enclosed flower-garden +full of wallflowers and flowering shrubs, a bit of prettiness welcome to +the eye. Just beyond, too, was an old-fashioned, irregularly planted +orchard, with young cattle grazing under the bloom-laden trees, the turf +dazzlingly bright, but less so than the young corn and rye, now ready +for first harvesting. + +The vaulted kitchens with vast fireplaces are relics of the ancient +abbey, and even now form most picturesque interiors. At a long wooden +table in one sat a blue-bloused group drinking cider out of huge yellow +mugs--scene for a painter. Another, fitted up as a dairy, was hardly +less of a picture. On shelves in the dark, antiquated chamber lay large, +red-earthen pans full of cream for cheese-making. The brown-robed figure +of a lay brother would have seemed appropriate in either place. + +Outside these all was modernization and hard prose. We saw the shepherd +returning with his sheep from the herbage, the young lambs bleating +pitifully in an inner shed. It is the custom here to send the sheep +afield during the day, the lambs meantime being fed on hay. Here again, +I should say, is a commercial mistake. The lamb of pasture-fed animals +must be incontestably superior. Humanity here seems on the side of +utilitarianism. Who can say? Perhaps the inferiority of French meat in +certain regions arises from this habit of stabling cattle and sheep. The +drive from Clairmarais to St. Omer took us through a quite different and +much more attractive country. We were now in the marais, an amphibious +stretch of country, cut up into gardens and only accessible by tiny +canals. It is a small Holland. This vast stretch of market garden, +intersected by waterways just admitting the passage of a boat, is very +productive. Three pounds per hectare is often paid in rent. The early +vegetables, conveyed by boat to St. Omer, are largely exported to +England. Every inch of ground is turned to account, the turf-bordered, +canal-bound gardens making a pretty scene, above the green levels +intersected by gleaming water the fine towers of St. Omer clearly +outlined against the brilliant sky. + +The English colony of former days vanished on the outbreak of the last +war, not to return. A few young English Catholics still prepare for the +priesthood here, and eighty more were at this time pursuing their +studies at Douai, under the charge of English Benedictines. "Why," +impatiently asked Arthur Young in 1788, "are Catholics to emigrate in +order to be ill-educated abroad, instead of being allowed institutions +that would educate them well at home?" + +The disabilities he reprobates have long since been removed, but +English-speaking seminarists still flock to Douai. + +Here I close this agricultural and industrial round in Picardy and +French Flanders, regions so near home, yet so unfamiliar to most of us! +And here I close what, in many respects, may be called another round in +unfrequented France. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Heart of Vosges, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF VOSGES *** + +***** This file should be named 9480.txt or 9480.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/8/9480/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: In the Heart of the Vosges + And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9480] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES + +[Illustration] + +AND OTHER SKETCHES BY A "DEVIOUS TRAVELLER" + +BY + +MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS + +OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION_ + +1911 + + + +"I travel not to look for Gascons in Sicily. I have left them at home." +--Montaigne. + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +Some of these sketches now appear for the first time, others have been +published serially, whilst certain portions, curtailed or enlarged +respectively, are reprinted from a former work long since out of print. +Yet again I might entitle this volume, "Scenes from Unfrequented France," +many spots being here described by an English traveller for the first +time. + +My warmest thanks are due to M. Maurice Barres for permission to +reproduce two illustrations by M. Georges Conrad from his famous romance, +_Au Service de l'Allemagne_; also to M. Andre Hallays for the use of +two views from his _A Travers l'Alsace_; and to the publishers of +both authors, MM. Fayard and Perrin, for their serviceableness in the +matter. + +Nor must I omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Sampson Low & +Co., to whom I owe the reproduction of Gustave Dore's infantine _tours +de force_; and to Messrs. Rivington, who have allowed large reprints +from the work published by them over twenty years ago. + +And last but not least, I thank the Rev. Albert Cadier, the son of my old +friend, the much respected pastor of Osse, for the loan of his charming +photographs. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + +I GERARDMER AND ITS ENVIRONS + +II THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +III IN GUSTAVE DORE'S COUNTRY + +IV FROM BARR TO STRASBURG + +V THE "MARVELLOUS BOY" OF ALSACE + +VI QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +VII AN IMMORTALIZER + +VIII TOULOUSE + +IX MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +X MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + +XI AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +XII PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +XIII GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +XIV LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +ST. ODILE + +PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW + +PROVINS, THE CAPITOL + +PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS + +GERARDMER + +A VOSGIAN SCENE + +CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER + +THE PINNACLE OF ODILE + +ETTENHEIM + +COLMAR + +GUSTAVE DORE, INFANTINE SKETCH + +GUSTAVE DORE, DO + +OSSE + +NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER + +ORCUM + +ARRAS, LA PETITE PLACE + + + +I + +GERARDMER AND ENVIRONS + +[Illustration: PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW] + +The traveller bound to eastern France has a choice of many routes, none +perhaps offering more attractions than the great Strasburg line by way of +Meaux, Chalons-sur-Marne, Nancy, and Epinal. But the journey must be made +leisurely. The country between Paris and Meaux is deservedly dear to +French artists, and although Champagne is a flat region, beautiful only +by virtue of fertility and highly developed agriculture, it is rich in +old churches and fine architectural remains. By the Troyes-Belfort route, +Provins may be visited. This is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of +the mediaeval walled-in town in France. To my thinking, neither +Carcassonne, Semur nor Guerande surpass Hegesippe Moreau's little +birthplace in beauty and picturesqueness. The acropolis of Brie also +possesses a long and poetic history, being the seat of an art-loving +prince, and the haunt of troubadours. A word to the epicure as well as +the archaeologist. The bit of railway from Chalons-sur-Marne to Nancy +affords a series of gastronomic delectations. At Epernay travellers are +just allowed time to drink a glass of champagne at the buffet, half a +franc only being charged. At Bar-le-Duc little neatly-packed jars of the +raspberry jam for which the town is famous are brought to the doors of +the railway carriage. Further on at Commercy, you are enticed to regale +upon unrivalled cakes called "Madeleines de Commercy," and not a town, I +believe, of this favoured district is without its speciality in the shape +of delicate cates or drinks. + +Chalons-sur-Marne, moreover, possesses one of the very best hotels in +provincial France--the hotel with the queer name--another inducement for +us to idle on the way. The town itself is in no way remarkable, but it +abounds in magnificent old churches of various epochs--some falling into +decay, others restored, one and all deserving attention. St. Jean is +especially noteworthy, its beautiful interior showing much exquisite +tracery and almost a fanciful arrangement of transepts. It is very rich +in good modern glass. But the gem of gems is not to be found in Chalons +itself; more interesting and beautiful than its massive cathedral and +church of Notre Dame, than St. Jean even, is the exquisite church of +Notre Dame de l'Epine, situated in a poor hamlet a few miles beyond the +octroi gates. We have here, indeed, a veritable cathedral in a +wilderness, nothing to be imagined more graceful than the airy open +colonnades of its two spires, light as a handful of wheat ears loosely +bound together. The colour of the grey stone gives solemnity to the rest +of the exterior, which is massive and astonishingly rich in the grotesque +element. We carefully studied the gargoyles round the roof, and, in spite +of defacements, made out most of them--here a grinning demon with a +struggling human being in its clutch--there an odd beast, part human, +part pig, clothed in a kind of jacket, playing a harp--dozens of comic, +hideous, heterogeneous figures in various attitudes and travesties. + +[Illustration: Provins, The Capitol] + +Notre Dame de l'Epine--originally commemorative of a famous shrine--has +been restored, and purists in architecture will pass it by as an +achievement of Gothic art in the period of its decline, but it is +extremely beautiful nevertheless. On the way from Chalons-sur-Marne to +Nancy we catch glimpses of other noble churches that stand out from the +flat landscape as imposingly as Ely Cathedral. These are Notre Dame of +Vitry le Francois and St. Etienne of Toul, formerly a cathedral, both +places to be stopped at by leisurely tourists. + +The fair, the _triste_ city of Nancy! There is an indescribable charm +in the sad yet stately capital of ancient Lorraine. No life in its +quiet streets, no movement in its handsome squares, nevertheless Nancy +is one of the wealthiest, most elegant cities in France! Hither +flocked rich Alsatian families after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, +and perhaps its proximity to the lost provinces in part accounts for the +subdued, dreamy aspect of the place as a whole. A strikingly beautiful +city it is, with its splendid monuments of the house of Lorraine, and +handsome modern streets bearing evidence of much prosperity in these +days. In half-an-hour you may get an unforgettable glimpse of the Place +Stanislas, with its bronze gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great +capital; of the beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine, on +horseback, under an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and +its airy colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte +de la Craffe, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. + +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly a day or two should be devoted to it, and here, as at +Chalons-sur-Marne, creature comforts are to be had in the hotels. In the +Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of Charles +le Temeraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of that +Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver plate, +and wore on the battlefield diamonds worth half a million. In a little +church outside the town, commemorative of this victory, are collected the +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine--the _chapelle ronde_, as the +splendid little mausoleum is designated--with its imposing monuments in +black marble, and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and +beautiful whole. Graceful and beautiful also are the monuments in the +church itself, and those of another church, Des Cordeliers, close to the +Ducal Palace. + +[Illustration: PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS] + +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are to be fairly enchanted by the marble statues of the +four doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Gregoire, St. Leon, and +St. Jerome. These are the work of Nicolas Drouin, a native of Nancy, and +formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a whole +than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary observer. +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the fine, dignified figure of +St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. We would +fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain return to all +else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. From Nancy by way of +Epinal we may easily reach the heart of the Vosges. + +[Illustration: GERARDMER] + +How sweet and pastoral are these cool resting-places in the heart of the +Vosges! Gerardmer and many another as yet unfrequented by the tourist +world, and unsophisticated in spite of railways and bathing seasons. The +Vosges has long been a favourite playground of our French neighbours, +although ignored by the devotees of Cook and Gaze, and within late years, +not a rustic spot possessed of a mineral spring but has become +metamorphosed into a second Plombieres. Gerardmer--"_Sans Gerardmer et +un peu Nancy, que serait la Lorraine?_" says the proverb--is resorted +to, however, rather for its rusticity and beauty than for any curative +properties of its sparkling waters. Also in some degree for the sake of +urban distraction. The French mind when bent on holiday-making is social +in the extreme, and the day spent amid the forest nooks and murmuring +streams of Gerardmer winds up with music and dancing. One of the chief +attractions of the big hotel in which we are so wholesomely housed is +evidently the enormous salon given up after dinner to the waltz, country +dance, and quadrille. Our hostess with much ease and tact looks in, +paying her respects, to one visitor after another, and all is enjoyment +and mirth till eleven o'clock, when the large family party, for so our +French fellowship may be called, breaks up. These socialities, giving as +they do the amiable aspect of French character, will not perhaps +constitute an extra charm of Gerardmer in the eyes of the more morose +English tourist. After many hours spent in the open air most of us prefer +the quiet of our own rooms. The country, too, is so fresh and delicious +that we want nothing in the shape of social distraction. Drawing-room +amenities seem a waste of time under such circumstances. Nevertheless the +glimpses of French life thus obtained are pleasant, and make us realize +the fact that we are off the beaten track, living among French folks, for +the time separated from insular ways and modes of thought. Our fellowship +is a very varied and animated one. We number among the guests a member of +the French ministry--a writer on the staff of Figaro--a grandson of one +of the most devoted and unfortunate generals of the first Napoleon, known +as "the bravest of the brave," with his elegant wife--the head of one of +the largest commercial houses in eastern France--deputies, diplomats, +artists, with many family parties belonging to the middle and upper ranks +of society, a very strong Alsatian element predominating. Needless to add +that people make themselves agreeable to each other without any +introduction. For the time being at least distinctions are set aside, and +fraternity is the order of the day. + +I do not aver that my country-people have never heard of Gerardmer, but +certainly those who stray hither are few and far between. Fortunately for +the lover of nature no English writer has as yet popularized the Vosges. +An Eden-like freshness pervades its valleys and forests, made ever +musical with cascades, a pastoral simplicity characterizes its +inhabitants. Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out +in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure! + +It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gerardmer and its +lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the +popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late +Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, +have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend +their holidays and their money on French soil. Thus enterprise has been +stimulated in various quarters, and we find really good accommodation in +out-of-the-way spots not mentioned in guide-books of a few years' date. +Gerardmer is now reached by rail in two hours from Epinal, on the great +Strasburg line, but those who prefer a drive across country may approach +it from Plombieres, Remiremont, Colmar and Muenster, and other attractive +routes. Once arrived at Gerardmer, the traveller will certainly not care +to hurry away. No site in the Vosges is better suited for excursionizing +in all directions, and the place itself is full of quiet charm. There is +wonderful sweetness and solace in these undulating hill-sides, clothed +with brightest green, their little tossing rivers and sunny glades all +framed by solemn hills--I should rather say mountains--pitchy black with +the solemn pine. You may search far and wide for a picture so engaging as +Gerardmer when the sun shines, its gold-green slopes sprinkled with white +chalets, its red-roofed village clustered about a rustic church tower, +and at its feet the loveliest little lake in the world, from which rise +gently the fir-clad heights. + +And no monotony! You climb the inviting hills and woods day by day, week +after week, ever to find fresh enchantment. Not a bend of road or winding +mountain-path but discloses a new scene--here a fairy glen, with graceful +birch or alder breaking the expanse of dimpled green; there a spinny of +larch or of Scotch fir cresting a verdant monticule; now we come upon a +little Arcadian home nestled on the hill-side, the spinning-wheel hushed +whilst the housewife turns her hay or cuts her patch of rye or wheat +growing just outside her door. Now we follow the musical little river +Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow +loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred +with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, +trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever +indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense +of coolness. Deep down, entombed amid smiling green hills and frowning +forest peaks, lies the pearl of Gerardmer, its sweet lake, a sheet of +turquoise in early morn, silvery bright when the noon-day sun flashes +upon it, and on grey, sunless days gloomy as Acheron itself. + +[Illustration: A VOSGIAN SCENE] + +Travellers stinted for time cannot properly enjoy the pastoral scenes, +not the least charm of which is the frank, pleasant character of the +people. Wherever we go we make friends and hear confidences. To these +peasant folks, who live so secluded from the outer world, the annual +influx of visitors from July to September is a positive boon, moral as +well as material. The women are especially confidential, inviting us into +their homely yet not poverty-stricken kitchens, keeping us as long as +they can whilst they chat about their own lives or ask us questions. The +beauty, politeness, and clear direct speech of the children, are +remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare. +As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed +by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not +infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people +gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being +suitable for tillage. + +Gerardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery +and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands, +whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use. +Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in +winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations +are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its +real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters. + +One chief feature in Gerardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings +bearing the inscription _"Ecole Communale"_ and how stringently the +new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from +the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under +the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of +the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad, +others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed. + +Our first week at Gerardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes +would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we +set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, +and the goal of every traveller in these regions. + +[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER] + +There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gerardmer, a +little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude +and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours +only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gerardmer into a dreary place, +but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less +majestic and solemn. One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, +so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the +culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually +ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gerardmer, +till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the +Schlucht. For the first half-hour we skirt the alder-fringed banks of the +tossing, foaming little river Vologne, as it winds amid lawny spaces, on +either side the fir-clad ridges rising like ramparts. Here all is +gentleness and golden calm, but soon we quit this warm, sunny region, and +enter the dark forest road curling upwards to the airy pinnacle to which +we are bound. More than once we have to halt on our way. One must stop to +look at the cascade made by the Vologne, never surely fuller than now, +one of the prettiest cascades in the world, masses of snow-white foam +tumbling over a long, uneven stair of granite through the midst of a +fairy glen. The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we +continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, +and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving +forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and +Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest +environment. Deep down they lie, the two silvery sheets of water with +their verdant holms, making a little world of peace and beauty, a toy +dropped amid Titanic awfulness and splendour. The vantage ground is on +the edge of a dizzy precipice, but the picture thus sternly framed is too +exquisite to be easily abandoned. We gaze and gaze in spite of the vast +height from which we contemplate it; and when at last we tear ourselves +away from the engaging scene, we are in a region all ruggedness and +sublimity, on either side rocky scarps and gloomy forests, with reminders +by the wayside that we are approaching an Alpine flora. Nothing can be +wilder or more solitary than the scene. For the greater part, the forests +through which our road is cut are unfrequented, except by the wild boar, +deer, and wild cat, and in winter time the fine mountain roads are +rendered impenetrable by the accumulation of snow. + +This approach to the Col is by a tunnel cut in the granite, fit entrance +to one of the wildest regions in France. The road now makes a sudden bend +towards the chalet cresting the Col, and we are able in a moment to +realize its tremendous position. + +From our little chalet we look upon what seems no mere cleft in a +mountain chain, but in the vast globe itself. This huge hollow, brought +about by some strange geological perturbation, is the valley of Muenster, +no longer a part of French territory, but of Prussian Elsass. The road we +have come by lies behind us, but another as formidable winds under the +upper mountain ridge towards Muenster, whilst the pedestrian may follow a +tiny green footpath that will lead him thither, right through the heart +of the pass. Looking deep down we discern here and there scattered +chalets amid green spaces far away. These are the homesteads or +_chaumes_ of the herdsmen, all smiling cheerfulness now, but +deserted in winter. Except for such little dwellings, barely +discernible, so distant are they, there is no break in the solitary +scene, no sign of life at all. + +The chalet is a fair hostelry for unfastidious travellers, its chief +drawback being the propensity of tourists to get up at three o'clock in +the morning in order to behold the sunrise from the Hoheneck. Good beds, +good food, and from the windows, one of the finest prospects in the +world, might well tempt many to linger here in spite of the disturbance +above mentioned. For the lover of flowers this halting-place would be +delightful. + +Next morning the day dawned fair, and by eight o'clock we set off with a +guide for the ascent of the Hoheneck, rather, I should say, for a long +ramble over gently undulating green and flowery ways. After climbing a +little beechwood, all was smoothness under our feet, and the long +_detour_ we had to make in order to reach the summit was a series of +the gentlest ascents, a wandering over fair meadow-land several thousand +feet above the sea-level. Here we found the large yellow gentian, used in +the fabrication of absinthe, and the bright yellow arnica, whilst instead +of the snow-white flower of the Alpine anemone, the ground was now +silvery with its feathery seed; the dark purple pansy of the Vosges was +also rare. We were a month too late for the season of flowers, but the +foxglove and the bright pink Epilobium still bloomed in great luxuriance. + +It was a walk to remember. The air was brisk and genial, the blue sky +lightly flecked with clouds, the turf fragrant with wild thyme, and +before our eyes we had a panorama every moment gaining in extent and +grandeur. As yet indeed the scene, the features of which we tried to make +out, looked more like cloudland than solid reality. On clear days are +discerned here, far beyond the rounded summits of the Vosges chain, the +Rhine Valley, the Black Forest, the Jura range, and the snow-capped Alps. +To-day we saw grand masses of mountains piled one above the other, and +higher still a pageantry of azure and gold that seemed to belong to the +clouds. + +No morning could promise fairer, but hardly had we reached the goal of +our walk when from far below came an ominous sound of thunder, and we saw +heavy rain-clouds dropping upon the heights we had left behind. + +All hope of a fine prospect was now at an end, but instead we had a +compensating spectacle. For thick and fast the clouds came pouring into +one chasm after another, drifting in all directions, here a mere +transparent veil drawn across the violet hills, there a golden splendour +as of some smaller sun shining on a green little world. At one moment the +whole vast scene was blurred and blotted with chill winter mist; soon a +break was visible, and far away we gazed on a span of serene amethystine +sky, barred with lines of bright gold. Not one, but a dozen, horizons--a +dozen heavens--seemed there, whilst the thunder that reached us from +below seemed too remote to threaten. But at last the clouds gathered in +form and volume, hiding the little firmaments of violet and amber; the +bright blue sky, bending over the green oasis--all vanished as if by +magic. We could see no more, and nothing remained but to go back, and the +quicker the better. The storm, our guide said, was too far off to reach +us yet, and we might reach the chalet without being drenched to the skin, +as we fortunately did. No sooner, however, were we fairly under shelter +than the rain poured down in torrents and the thunder pealed overhead. In +no part of France are thunderstorms so frequent and so destructive as +here, nowhere is the climate less to be depended on. A big umbrella, +stout shoes, and a waterproof are as necessary in the Vosges as in our +own Lake district. + +We had, however, a fine afternoon for our drive back, a quick downhill +journey along the edge of a tremendous precipice, clothed with +beech-trees and brushwood. A most beautiful road it is, and the two +little lakes looked lovely in the sunshine, encircled by gold-green +swards and a delicate screen of alder branches. Through pastures white +with meadow-sweet the turbulent, crystal-clear little river Vologne +flowed merrily, making dozens of tiny cascades, turning a dozen +mill-wheels in its course. All the air was fragrant with newly-turned +hay, and never, we thought, had Gerardmer and its lake made a more +captivating picture. + +Excursions innumerable may be made from Gerardmer. We may drive across +country to Remiremont, to Plombieres, to Wesserling, to Colmar, to St. +Die, whilst these places in turn make very good centres for excursions. +On no account must a visit to La Bresse be omitted. This is one of the +most ancient towns in the Vosges. Like some of the villages in the Morvan +and in the department of La Nievre, La Bresse remained till the +Revolution an independent commune, a republic in miniature. The heads of +families of both sexes took part in the election of magistrates, and from +this patriarchal legislation there was seldom any appeal to the higher +court--namely, that of Nancy. La Bresse is still a rich commune by +reason of its forests and industries. The sound of the mill-wheel and +hammer now disturbs these mountain solitudes, and although so isolated by +natural position, this little town is no longer cut off from cosmopolitan +influence. The little tavern is developing into a very fair inn. In the +summer tourists from all parts of France pass through it, in carriages, +on foot, occasionally on horseback. Most likely it now possesses a +railway station, a newspaper kiosk, and a big hotel, as at Gerardmer! + +As we drop down upon La Bresse after our climb of two hours and more, we +seem to be at the world's end. Our road has led us higher and higher by +dense forests and wild granite parapets, tasselled with fern and +foxglove, till we suddenly wheel round upon a little straggling town +marvellously placed. Deep down it lies, amid fairy-like greenery and +silvery streams, whilst high above tower the rugged forest peaks and +far-off blue mountains, in striking contrast. + +The sloping green banks, starred with the grass of Parnassus, and musical +with a dozen streams, the pastoral dwellings, each with its patch of +flower garden and croft; the glades, dells and natural terraces are all +sunny and gracious as can be; but round about and high above frown +inaccessible granite peaks, and pitchy-black forest summits, impenetrable +even at this time of the year. As we look down we see that roads have +been cut round the mountain sides, and that tiny homesteads are perched +wherever vantage ground is to be had, yet the impression is one of +isolation and wildness. The town lies in no narrow cleft, as is the case +with many little manufacturing towns in the Jura, but in a vast opening +and falling back of the meeting hills and mountain tops, so that it is +seen from far and wide, and long before it is approached. We had made the +first part of our journey at a snail's pace. No sooner were we on the +verge of the hills looking down upon La Bresse, than we set off at a +desperate rate, spinning breathlessly round one mountain spur after +another, till we were suddenly landed in the village street, dropped, as +it seemed, from a balloon. + +A curious feature to be noted in all the places I have mentioned is the +outer wooden casing of the houses. This is done as a protection against +the cold, the Vosges possessing, with the Auvergne and the Limousin, the +severest climate in France. La Bresse, like Gerardmer and other sweet +valleys of these regions, is disfigured by huge factories, yet none can +regret the fact, seeing what well-being these industries bring to the +people. Beggars are numerous, but we are told they are strangers, who +merely invade these regions during the tourist season. + +Remiremont, our next halting-place, may be reached by a pleasant carriage +drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with +half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the +beautiful valley of the Moselle--a prospect which is missed by road. +Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gerardmer, +but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The +engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets +are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with +encircling fir-woods. Like Gerardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont +lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and +wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round +about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting +prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the +street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower +gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and +cheerfulness. + +The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around +its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in +their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hotel de Ville. These +high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle, +and more than one _chanoinesse_, when defied by feudal neighbours, +mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble +birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and +personal charm of Renan's _Abbesse de Jouarre_. + +There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid +the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time--a little +chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the +adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and +orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which +Remiremont is placed are some curious prehistoric stones. But more +inviting than the steep climb under a burning sun--for the weather has +changed on a sudden--is the drive to the Vallee d'Herival, a drive so +cool, so soothing, so delicious, that we fancy we can never feel heated, +languid, or irritated any more. + +The isolated dwellings of the dalesfolk in the midst of tremendous +solitudes--little pastoral scenes such as Corot loved to paint--and +hemmed round by the sternest, most rugged nature, are one of the +characteristics of Vosges scenery. We also find beside tossing rivers and +glittering cascades a solitary linen factory or saw-mill, with the +modern-looking villa of the employer, and clustered round it the cottages +of the work-people. No sooner does the road curl again than we are once +more in a solitude as complete as if we were in some primeval forest of +the new world. We come suddenly upon the Vallee d'Herival, but the deep +close gorge we gaze upon is only the beginning of the valley within +valley we have come to see. Our road makes a loop round the valley so +that we see it from two levels, and under two aspects. As we return, +winding upwards on higher ground, we get glimpses of sunny dimpled sward +through the dark stems of the majestic fir-trees towering over our head. +There is every gradation of form and colour in the picture, from the ripe +warm gold barring the branches of the firs, to the pale silveriness of +their upper foliage; from the gigantic trees rising from the gorge below, +each seeming to fill a chasm, to the airy, graceful birch, a mere toy +beside it. Rare butterflies abound, but we see few birds. + +The hardy pedestrian is an enviable person here, for although excellent +carriages are to be had, some of the most interesting excursions must be +made on foot. + +I do not suppose that matters are very greatly changed in hotels here +since my visit so many years ago. In certain respects travellers fare +well. They may feast like Lucullus on fresh trout and on the dainty +aniseed cakes which are a local speciality. But hygienic arrangements +were almost prehistoric, and although politeness itself, mine host and +hostess showed strange nonchalance towards their guests. Thus, when +ringing and ringing again for our tea and bread and butter between seven +and eight o'clock, the chamber--not maid, but man--informed us that +Madame had gone to mass, and everything was locked up till her return. + +Even the fastidious tourist, however, will hardly care to exchange his +somewhat rough and noisy quarters at Remiremont for the cosmopolitan +comforts of Plombieres within such easy reach. It is a pretty drive of an +hour and a half to Plombieres, and all is prettiness there--its little +park, its tiny lake, its toy town. + +It is surely one of the hottest places in the world, and like Spa, of +which it reminds me, must be one of the most wearisome. Just such a +promenade, with a sleepy band, just such a casino, just such a routine. +This favourite resort of the third Napoleon has of late years seen many +rivals springing up. Vittel, Bains, Bussang--all in the Vosges--yet it +continues to hold up its head. The site is really charming, but so close +is the valley in which the town lies, that it is a veritable hothouse, +and the reverse, we should think, of what an invalid wants. Plombieres +has always had illustrious visitors--Montaigne, who upon several +occasions took the waters here--Maupertuis, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the +Empress Josephine, and a host of historic personages. But the emperor may +be called the creator of Plombieres. The park, the fine road to +Remiremont, the handsome Bain Napoleon (now National), the church, all +these owe their existence to him, and during the imperial visits the +remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road +along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant +and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going +of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont +and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place, +making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere +throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit +more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on +the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of +Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of +that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too +vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of +the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been +enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side +of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of +circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain--French at +heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this +feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of +Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the +supporters of retaliation, such journals as _L'Alsacien-Lorrain_, +and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But +the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No +wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French +tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines, +they flock to Gerardmer and other family resorts. And if some +Frenchwoman--maybe, sober matron--dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and +dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is +too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each +other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of +patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief +charms. You must here live with French people, whether you will or no. +Insular reserve cannot resist the prevailing friendliness and +good-fellowship. How long such a state of things will exist, who can say? +Fortunately for the lover of nature, most of the places I have mentioned +are too unobtrusive ever to become popular. "Nothing to see here, and +nothing to do," would surely be the verdict of most globe-trotters even +on sweet Gerardmer itself! + + + +II + +THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +The notion of here reprinting my notes of Alsatian travel was suggested +by a recent French work--_A travers l'Alsace en flanant_, from the +pen of M. Andre Hallays. This delightful writer had already published +several volumes dealing with various French provinces, more especially +from an archaeological point of view. In his latest and not least +fascinating _flanerie_ he gives the experiences of several holiday +tours in Germanized France. + +My own sojourns, made at intervals among French friends, _annexes_ +both of Alsace and Lorraine, were chiefly undertaken in order to realize +the condition of the German Emperor's French subjects. But I naturally +visited many picturesque sites and historic monuments in both, the +forfeited territories being especially rich. Whilst volume after volume +of late years have appeared devoted to French travel, holiday tourists +innumerable jotting their brief experiences of well-known regions, +strangely enough no English writer has followed my own example. No work +has here appeared upon Alsace and Lorraine. On the other side of the +Channel a vast literature on the subject has sprung up. Novels, travels, +reminiscences, pamphlets on political and economic questions, one and all +breathing the same spirit, continue to appear in undiminished numbers. + +Ardent spirits still fan the flame of revolt. The burning thirst for +re-integration remains unquenched. Garbed in crape, the marble figure of +Strasburg still holds her place on the Place de la Concorde. The French +language, although rigidly prohibited throughout Germanized France, is +studied and upheld more sedulously than before Sedan. And after the lapse +of forty years a German minister lately averred that French Alsatians +were more French than ever. _Les Noellets_ of Rene Bazin, M. Maurice +Barres' impassioned series, _Les Bastions de l'Est_, enjoy immense +popularity, and within the last few months have appeared two volumes +which fully confirm the views of their forerunners--M. Hallays' +impressions of many wayfarings and _Apres quarante ans_ by M. Jules +Claretie, the versatile, brilliant and much respected administrator-general +of the Comedie Francaise. + +Whilst in these days of peace and arbitration propaganda the crime of +enforced denationalization seems more heinous than ever, there appears +little likelihood of the country conquered by Louis XIV., and re-conquered +by German arms a century and a half later, again waving the Tricolour. + +Let us hope, however, that some _via media_ may be found, and that +if not recovering its lost privilege, the passionately coveted French +name, as a federal state Alsace and Lorraine may become independent and +prosperous. + +For a comprehensive study of Alsace and its characteristics, alike +social, artistic and intellectual, readers must go to M. Hallays' volume. +In every development this writer shows that a special stamp may be found. +Neither Teutonic nor Gallic, art and handicrafts reveal indigenous +growth, and the same feature may be studied in town and village, in +palace, cathedral and cottage. + +We must remember that we are here dealing with a region of very ancient +civilization. Taste has been slowly developed, artistic culture is of no +mushroom growth. Alsace formed the highroad between Italy and Flanders. +In M. Hallays' words, already during the Renaissance, aesthetic Alsace +blended the lessons of north and south, her genius was a product of good +sense, experience and a feeling of proportion. And he points out how in +the eighteenth century French taste influenced Alsatian faience, woven +stuffs, ironwork, sculpture, wood-carving and furniture, even peasant +interiors being thereby modified. "Alsace," he writes, "holds us +spell-bound by the originality of culture and temperament found among her +inhabitants. It has generally been taken for granted that native genius +is here a mere blend of French and German character, that Alsatian +sentiment appertains to the latter stock, intellectual development to the +former, that the inhabitants think in French and imagine in German. There +is a certain leaven of truth in these assumptions, but when we hold +continued intercourse with all classes, listen to their speech, +familiarize ourselves with their modes of life and mental outlook, we +arrive again and again at one conclusion: we say to ourselves, here is an +element which is neither Teutonic nor Gallic. I cannot undertake to +particularize, I only note in my pages those instances that occur by the +way. And the conviction that we are here penetrating a little world +hitherto unknown to us, such novelty being revealed in every stroll and +chat, lends extraordinary interest to our peregrination." + +It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us. +Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may +find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the +art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read +but weighty writer, Mme. de Stael, has truly averred that the most +beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing +no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic +regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with +indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until +the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire, +being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both +provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace, +Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and +militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was +ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and +passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution, +a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French +king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of +her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps +sore and will not be comforted. + +Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a +strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization +after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has +produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly +roll-call. + +The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young +soldier of Strasburg--not, however, Alsatian born--who, in April, 1792, +composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the +current of civilization. By an irony of destiny the Tricolour no longer +waves over the cradle of the Marseillaise! + +That witty writer, Edmond About, as well as the "Heavenly Twins" of +Alsatian fiction, was born in Lorraine, but all three so thoroughly +identified themselves with this province that they must be regarded as +her sons. Those travellers who, like myself, have visited Edmond About's +woodland retreat in Saverne can understand the bitterness with which he +penned his volume--_Alsace 1870-1_--and the concluding lines of the +preface-- + +"If I have here uttered an untrue syllable, I give M. de Bismarck +permission to treat my modest dwelling as if it were a villa of Saint +Cloud." + +The literary brethren whose pictures of Alsatian peasant life, both in +war and peace, have become world-wide classics, suffered no less than +their brilliant contemporary, and their works written after annexation +breathe equal bitterness. The celebrated partnership which began in 1848 +and lasted for a quarter of a century, has been thus described by Edmond +About: "The two friends see each other very rarely, whether in Paris or +in the Vosges. When they do meet, they together elaborate the scheme of +a new work. Then Erckmann writes it. Chatrian corrects it--and sometimes +puts it in the fire!" One at least of their plays enjoys equal +popularity with the novel from which it is drawn. To have witnessed +_L'Ami Fritz_ at Moliere's house in the last decade of the nineteenth +century was an experience to remember. That consummate artist, Got, was +at his very best--if the superlative in such a case is applicable--as +the good old Rabbi. No less enchanting was Mlle. Reichenbach, the +_doyenne_ of the Comedie Francaise, as Suzel. Of this charming artist +Sarcey wrote that, having attained her sixteenth year, there she made +the long-stop, never oldening with others. _L'Ami Fritz_ is, in reality, +a German bucolic, the scene being laid in Bavaria. But it has long been +accepted as a classic, and on the stage it becomes thoroughly French. +This delightful story was written in 1864, that is to say, before any +war-cloud had arisen over the eastern frontier, and before the evocation +of a fiend as terrible, the anti-Jewish crusade culminating in the +Dreyfus crime. + +It is painful to reflect that whilst twenty years ago the engaging old +Jew of this piece was vociferously acclaimed on the first French stage, +the drama of a gifted Jewish writer has this year been banned in Paris! + +Edmond About and Erckmann and Chatrian belong to the same period as +another native, and more famous, genius, the precocious, superabundantly +endowed Gustave Dore. Of this "admirable Crichton" I give a sketch. + +For mere holiday-makers in search of exhilaration and beauty, Alsace +offers attractions innumerable, sites grandiose and idyllic, picturesque +ruins, superb forests, old churches of rare interest and many a splendid +historic pile. + +There are naturally drawbacks to intense lovers of France. Throughout M. +Hallays' volume he acknowledges the courtesy of German officials, a fact +to which I had borne testimony when first journalizing my own +experiences. Certain aspects of enforced Germanization can but afflict +all outsiders. There is firstly that obtrusive militarism from which we +cannot for a moment escape. Again, a no less false note strikes us in +matters aesthetic. Modern German taste in art, architecture and +decoration do not harmonize with the ancientness and historic severity of +Alsace. The restoration of Hohkoenigsburg and the new quarters of +Strasburg are instances in point. All who visited the German art section +of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 will understand this dis-harmony. + +The reminiscences of my second and third journeys in Alsace and Lorraine +having already appeared in volume form, still in print (_East of +Paris_), are therefore omitted here. For the benefit of English +travellers in the annexed portion of the last-named province I cite a +passage from M. Maurice Barres' beautiful story, _Colette Baudoche_. +His hero is German and his heroine French, a charming _Messine_ or +native of Metz. In company of Colette's mother and a friend or two, the +_fiances_ take part in a little festival held at Gorze, a village +near the blood-stained fields of Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour-- + +"At Gorze, church, lime-trees, dwellings and folks belong to the olden +time, that is to say, all are very French.... In crossing the square the +five holiday-makers halted before the Hotel de Ville and read with +interest a commemorative inscription on the walls. A tablet records +English generosity in 1870, when, after the carnage and devastation of +successive battles, money, roots and seeds were distributed among the +peasants by a relief committee. The inspection over, the little party +gaily sat down to dinner in an inn close by, regaling themselves with +fried English potatoes, descendants of those sent across the Manche forty +years before." + +As I re-read this passage I think sadly how the tribute from such a pen +would have rejoiced the two moving spirits of that famous relief +committee--Sir John Robinson and Mr. Bullock Hall, both long since +passed, away. To the whilom editor of the _Daily News_ both +initiative and realization were mainly owing, the latter being the +laborious and devoted agent of distribution. + +But an omission caused bitterness. Whilst Mr. Bullock Hall most +deservedly received the Red Ribbon, his leader was overlooked. The tens +of thousands of pounds collected by Sir John Robinson which may be said +to have kept alive starving people and vivified deserts, were gratefully +acknowledged by the French Government. By some unaccountable +misconception, the decoration here only gratified one good friend of +France. + +"I should much have liked the Legion of Honour," sighed the kindly old +editor to me, a year or two before he died. + +I add that my second sojourn in Alsace-Lorraine was made at Sir John's +suggestion, the series of papers dealing with Metz, Strasburg, and its +neighbourhood appearing from day to day in the _Daily News_. + +English tourists must step aside and read the tablet on the Hotel de +Ville of Gorze, reminder, by the way, of the Entente Cordiale! + + + +III + +IN GUSTAVE DORE'S COUNTRY + +The Vosges and Alsace-Lorraine must be taken together, as the tourist is +constantly compelled to zigzag across the new frontier. Many of the most +interesting points of departure for excursionizing in the Vosges lie in +Alsace-Lorraine, while few travellers who have got so far as Gerardmer +or St. Die will not be tempted to continue their journey, at least as far +as the beautiful valleys of Munster and St. Marie-aux-Mines, both +peopled by French people under German domination. Arrived at either of +these places, the tourist will be at a loss which route to take of the +many open to him. On the one hand are the austere sites of the Vosges, +impenetrable forests darkening the rounded mountain tops, granite +precipices silvered with perpetual cascades, awful ravines hardly less +gloomy in the noonday sun than in wintry storms, and as a relief to these +sombre features, the sunniest little homesteads perched on airy terraces +of gold-green; crystal streams making vocal the flowery meadow and the +mossy dell, and lovely little lakes shut in by rounded hills, made double +in their mirror. In Alsace-Lorraine we find a wholly different landscape, +and are at once reminded that we are in one of the fairest and most +productive districts of Europe. All the vast Alsatian plain in September +is a-bloom with fruit garden and orchard, vineyard and cornfield, whilst +as a gracious framework, a romantic background to the picture, are the +vineclad heights crested with ruined castles and fortresses worthy to be +compared to Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein. We had made a leisurely +journey from Gerardmer to St. Die, bishopric and _chef-lieu_ of the +department of the Vosges, without feeling sure of our next move. +Fortunately a French acquaintance advised us to drive to +St. Marie-aux-Mines, one of the most wonderful little spots in these +regions, of which we had never before heard. A word or two, however, +concerning St. Die itself, one of the most ancient monastic foundations +in France. The town is pleasant enough, and the big hotel not bad, as +French hotels go. But in the Vosges, the tourist gets somewhat spoiled +in the matter of hotels. Wherever we go our hosts are so much interested +in us, and make so much of us, that we feel aggrieved at sinking into +mere numbers three or four. Many of these little inns offer homely +accommodation, but the landlord and landlady themselves wait upon the +guests, unless, which often happens, the host is cook, no piece of +ill-fortune for the traveller! These good people have none of the false +shame often conspicuous among the same class in England. At Remiremont, +our hostess came bustling down at the last moment saying how she had +hurried to change her dress in order to bid us good-bye. Here the +son-in-law, a fine handsome fellow, was the cook, and when dinner was +served he used to emerge from his kitchen and chat with the guests or +play with his children in the cool evening hour. There is none of that +differentiation of labour witnessed in England, and on the whole the +stranger fares none the worse. With regard to French hotels generally +the absence of competition in large towns strikes an English mind. At +St. Die, as in many other places, there was at the time of my visit but +one hotel, which had doubtless been handed down from generation to +generation, simply because no rival aroused a spirit of emulation. + +St. Die has a pleasant environment in the valley of the Meurthe, and may +be made the centre of many excursions. Its picturesque old Romanesque +cathedral of red sandstone, about which are grouped noble elms, grows +upon the eye; more interesting and beautiful by far are the Gothic +cloisters leading from within to the smaller church adjoining. These +delicate arcades, in part restored, form a quadrangle. Greenery fills the +open space, and wild antirrhinum and harebell brighten the grey walls. +Springing from one side is an out-of-door pulpit carved in stone, a +striking and suggestive object in the midst of the quiet scene. We should +like to know what was preached from that stone pulpit, and what manner of +man was the preacher. The bright green space, the delicate arcades of +soft grey, the bits of foliage here and there, with the two silent +churches blocking in all, make up an impressive scene. + +We wanted the country, however, rather than the towns, so after a few +days at St. Die, hired a carriage to take us to St. Marie-aux-Mines or +Markirch, on the German side of the frontier, and not accessible from +this side by rail. We enter Alsace, indeed, by a needle's eye, so narrow +the pass in which St. Marie lies. Here a word of warning to the tourist. +Be sure to examine your carriage and horses well before starting. We were +provided for our difficult drive with what Spenser calls "two unequal +beasts," namely, a trotting horse and a horse that could only canter, +with a very uncomfortable carriage, the turnout costing over a +pound--pretty well, that, for a three hours' drive. However, in spite of +discomfort, we would not have missed the journey on any account. The +site of this little cotton-spinning town is one of the most extraordinary +in the world. We first traverse a fruitful, well cultivated plain, +watered by the sluggish Meurthe, then begin to ascend a spur of the +western chain of the Vosges, formerly dividing the two French +departments of Vosges and Haut Rhin, now marking the boundaries of +France and German Elsass. Down below, amid the hanging orchards, +flower-gardens and hayfields, we were on French soil, but the flagstaff, +just discernible on yonder green pinnacles, marks the line of +demarcation between France and the conquered territory of the German +empire. For the matter of that, the Prussian helmet makes the fact +patent. As surely as we have set foot in the Reich, we see one of these +gleaming casques, so hateful still in French eyes. They seem to spring +from the ground like Jason's warriors from the dragon's teeth. This new +frontier divided in olden times the dominions of Alsace and Lorraine, +when it was the custom to say of many villages that the bread was +kneaded in one country and baked in the other. + +Nothing could be more lovely than the dim violet hills far away, and the +virginal freshness of the pastoral scenery around. But only a +stout-hearted pedestrian can properly enjoy this beautiful region. We +had followed the example of another party of tourists in front of us, +and accomplished a fair climb on foot, and when we had wound and wound +our way up the lofty green mountain to the flagstaff before mentioned, +we wanted to do the rest of our journey on foot also. But alike +compassion for the beasts and energy had gone far enough, we were only +too glad to reseat ourselves, and drive, or rather be whirled, down to +St. Marie-aux-Mines in the vehicle. Do what we would there was no +persuading our driver to slacken pace enough so as to admit of a full +enjoyment of the prospect that unfolded before us. + +The wonderful little town! Black pearl set in the richest casket! This +commonplace, flourishing centre of cotton spinning, woollen, and +cretonne manufacture, built in red brick, lies in the narrow, beautiful +valley of the Liepvrette, as it is called from the babbling river of +that name. But there is really no valley at all. The congeries of +red-roofed houses, factory chimneys and church towers, Catholic and +Protestant, is hemmed round by a narrow gorge, wedged in between the +hills which are just parted so as to admit of such an intrusion, no +more. The green convolutions of the mountain sides are literally folded +round the town, a pile of green velvet spread fan-like in a draper's +window has not softer, neater folds! As we enter it from the St. Die side +we find just room for a carriage to wind along the little river and the +narrow street. But at the other end the valley opens, and St. +Marie-aux-mines spreads itself out. Here are factories, handsome country +houses, and walks up-hill and down-hill in abundance. Just above the +town, over the widening gorge, is a deliciously cool pine-wood which +commands a vast prospect--the busy little town caught in the toils of +the green hills; the fertile valley of the Meurthe as we gaze in the +direction from which we have come; the no less fertile plains of +Lorraine before us; close under and around us, many a dell and woodland +covert with scattered homes of dalesfolk in sunny places and slanting +hills covered with pines. It is curious to reflect that St. +Marie-aux-Mines, mentioned as Markirch in ancient charts, did not become +entirely French till the eighteenth century. Originally the inhabitants +on the left bank of the Liepvrette were subjects of the Dukes of +Lorraine, spoke French, and belonged to the Catholic persuasion, whilst +those dwelling on the right bank of the river, adhered to the seigneury +of Ribeaupaire, and formed a Protestant German-speaking community. +Alsace, as everybody knows, was annexed to France by right--rather +wrong--of conquest under Louis XIV., but it was not till a century later +that Lorraine became a part of French territory, and the fusion of +races, a task so slowly accomplished, has now to be undone, if, indeed, +such undoing is possible! + +The hotel here is a mere _auberge_ adapted to the needs of the +_commis-voyageur_, but our host and hostess are charming. As is the +fashion in these parts, they serve their guests and take the greatest +possible interest in their movements and comfort. We would willingly have +spent some days at Marie-aux-Mines--no better headquarters for +excursionizing in these regions!--but too much remained for us to do and +to see in Alsace. We dared not loiter on the way. + +Everywhere we find plenty of French tourists, many of them doing their +holiday travel in the most economical fashion. We are in the habit of +regarding the French as a stay-at-home nation, and it is easy to see how +such a mistake arises. English people seldom travel in out-of-the-way +France, and our neighbours seldom travel elsewhere. Thus holiday-makers +of the two nations do not come in contact. Wherever we go we encounter +bands of pedestrians or family parties thoroughly enjoying themselves. +Nothing ruffles a French mind when bent on holiday-making. The good-nature, +_bonhomie_, and accommodating spirit displayed under trying +circumstances might be imitated by certain insular tourists with advantage. + +From St. Marie-aux-Mines we journeyed to Gustave Dore's favourite resort, +Barr, a close, unsavoury little town enough, but in the midst of +bewitching scenery. "An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour," sings +Spenser, and at Barr we get the sweet and the sour strangely mixed. The +narrow streets smell of tanneries and less wholesome nuisances, not a +breath of fresh pure air is to be had from one end of the town to the +other. But our pretty, gracious landlady, an Alsacienne, and her husband, +the master of the house and _chef de cuisine_ as well, equally +handsome and courteous, took so much pains to make us comfortable that +we stayed on and on. Not a thousand bad smells could drive us away! Yet +there is accommodation for the traveller among the vineyards outside the +town, and also near the railway station, so Barr need not be avoided on +account of its unsavouriness. No sooner are you beyond the dingy streets +than all is beauty, pastoralness and romance. Every green peak is crested +with ruined keep or tower, at the foot of the meeting hills lie peaceful +little villages, each with its lofty church spire, whilst all the air is +fragrant with pine-woods and newly turned hay. + +These pine-woods and frowning ruins set like sentinels on every green +hill or rocky eminence, recall many of Dore's happiest efforts. "_Le +pauvre garcon_," our hostess said. "_Comme il etait content chez +nous_!" I can fancy how Dore would enjoy the family life of our little +old-fashioned hotel, how he would play with the children, chat with +master and mistress, and make himself agreeable all round. One can also +fancy how animated conversation would become if it chanced to take a +patriotic turn. For people speak their thoughts in Alsace,--nowhere more +freely. In season and out of season, the same sentiment comes to the +surface. "_Nous sommes plus Francais que les Francais_." This is the +universal expression of feeling that greeted our ears throughout our +wanderings. Such, at least, was formerly the case. The men, women and +children, rich and poor, learned and simple, gave utterance to the same +expression of feeling. Barr is a town of between six and seven thousand +souls, about twenty of whom are Prussians. A pleasant position, truly, +for the twenty officials! And what we see at Barr is the case throughout +the newly acquired German dominion. Alike the highest as well as the +humblest functionary of the imperial government is completely shut off +from intercourse with his French neighbours. + +Barr lies near so much romantic scenery that the tourist in these parts +had better try the little hotel amid the mines. For, in spite of the +picturesque stork's nest close by, an excellent ordinary and the most +delightful host and hostess in the world, I cannot recommend a sojourn in +the heart of the town. The best plan of all were to halt here simply for +the sake of the excursion to St. Odile--St. Odile leads nowhither--then +hire a carriage, and make leisurely way across country by the Hohwald, +and the Champ de Feu to Rothau, Oberlin's country, thence to Strasburg. +In our own case, the fascinations of our hosts overcame our repugnance to +Barr itself, so we stayed on, every day making long drives into the +fresh, quiet, beautiful country. One of the sweet spots we discovered for +the benefit of any English folks who may chance to stray in that region +is the Hohwald, a _ville giatura_ long in vogue with the inhabitants +of Strasburg and neighbouring towns, but not mentioned in any English +guide-book at the time of my visit. + +We are reminded all the way of Rhineland. The same terraced vineyards, +the same limestone crags, each with its feudal tower, the same fertility +and richness everywhere. Our road winds for miles amid avenues of +fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are +stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and +fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this +magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must +be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut +woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are +to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts. +I followed the _cure_ and sacristan as they took a path that wound high +above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained +a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire, +and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine facade of the +castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with +massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the +neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with +greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are +indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird, +fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers +past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to +rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they +will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild +visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of +Dore's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood, +jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite +familiar to us in the pages of his _Dante_ and _Don Quixote._ + +The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is +the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road +green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling +amid the alders, the noisy little river. + +The Hohwald is the creation of a woman; that is to say, the Hohwald of +holiday-makers, tourists and tired brain-workers. "Can you imagine," +wrote M. Edmond About, forty years ago, "an inn at the world's end that +cost a hundred thousand francs in the building? I assure you the owner +will soon have recouped her outlay. She had not a centime to begin with, +this courageous lady, left a widow without resources, and a son to bring +up. The happy thought occurred to her of a summer resort in the heart of +these glorious woods, within easy reach of Strasburg." There are gardens +and reception-rooms in common, and here as at Gerardmer croquet, music +and the dance offer an extra attraction. It must be admitted that these +big family hotels, in attractive country places with prices adapted to +all travellers, have many advantages over our own seaside lodgings. +People get much more for their money, better food, better accommodation, +with agreeable society into the bargain, and a relief from the harass of +housekeeping. The children, too, find companionship, to the great relief +of parents and nursemaids. + +The Hohwald proper is a tiny village numbering a few hundred souls, +situated in the midst of magnificent forests at the foot of the famous +Champ de Feu. This is a plateau on one of the loftiest summits of the +Vosges, and very curious from a geological point of view. To explore it +properly you must be a good pedestrian. Much, indeed, of the finest +scenery of these regions is beyond reach of travellers who cannot walk +five or six hours a day. + +Any one, however, may drive to St. Odile, and St. Odile is the great +excursion of Alsace. Who cares a straw for the saint and her story now? +But all tourists must be grateful to the Bishop of Strasburg, who keeps a +comfortable little inn at the top of the mountain, and, beyond the +prohibition of meat on fast-days, smoking, noise and levity of manner on +all days, makes you very comfortable for next to nothing. + +The fact is, this noble plateau, commanding as splendid a natural +panorama as any in Europe, at the time I write of the property of +Monseigneur of Strasburg, was once a famous shrine and a convent of +cloistered men and women vowed to sanctity and prayer. The convent was +closed at the time of the French Revolution, and the entire property, +convent, mountain and prospect, remained in the hands of private +possessors till 1853, when the prelate of that day repurchased the whole, +restored the conventual building, put in some lay brethren to cultivate +the soil, and some lay sisters, who wear the garb of nuns, but have taken +no vows upon them except of piety, to keep the little inn and make +tourists comfortable. No arrangement could be better, and I advise any +one in want of pure air, superb scenery, and complete quiet, to betake +himself to St. Odile. + +Here again I must intercalate. Since these lines were jotted down, many +changes, and apparently none for the better, have taken place here. +Intending tourists must take both M. Hallays' volume and Maurice Barres' +_Au Service d'Allemagne_ for recent accounts of this holiday resort. +The splendid natural features remain intact. + +The way from Barr lies through prosperous villages, enriched by +manufactories, yet abounding in pastoral graces. There are English-like +parks and fine chateaux of rich manufacturers; but contrasted with these +nothing like abject poverty. The houses of working-folk are clean, each +with its flower-garden, the children are neatly dressed, no squalor or +look of discontent to be seen anywhere. Every hamlet has its beautiful +spire, whilst the country is the fairest, richest conceivable; in the +woods is seen every variety of fir and pine, mingled with the lighter +foliage of chestnut and acacia, whilst every orchard has its walnut and +mulberry trees, not to speak of pear and plum. One of the chief +manufactures of these parts is that of paints and colours: there are also +ribbon and cotton factories. Rich as is the country naturally, its chief +wealth arises from these industries. In every village you hear the hum of +machinery. + +You may lessen the distance from Barr to St. Odile by one-half if you +make the journey on foot, winding upwards amid the vine-clad hills, at +every turn coming upon one of those grand old ruins, as plentiful here as +in Rhineland, and quite as romantic and beautiful. The drive is a slow +and toilsome ascent of three hours and a half. As soon as we quit the +villages and climb the mountain road cut amid the pines, we are in a +superb and solitary scene. No sound of millwheels or steam-hammers is +heard here, only the summer breeze stirring the lofty pine branches, the +hum of insects, and the trickling of mountain streams. The dark-leaved +henbane is in brilliant yellow flower, and the purple foxglove in +striking contrast; but the wealth of summer flowers is over. + +Who would choose to live on Ararat? Yet it is something to reach a +pinnacle from whence you may survey more than one kingdom. The prospect +from St. Odile is one to gaze on for a day, and to make us dizzy in +dreams ever after. From the umbrageous terrace in front of the convent-- +cool and breezy on this, one of the hottest days of a hot season--we see, +as from a balloon, a wonderful bit of the world spread out like a map at +our feet. The vast plain of Alsace, the valley of the Rhine, the Swiss +mountains, the Black Forest, Bale, and Strasburg--all these we dominate +from our airy pinnacle close, at it seems, under the blue vault of +heaven. But though they were there, we did not see them: for the day, as +so often happens on such occasions, was misty. We had none the less a +novel and wonderful prospect. As we sit on this cool terrace, under the +shady mulberry trees, and look far beyond the richly-wooded mountain we +have scaled on our way, we gradually make out some details of the fast +panorama, one feature after another becoming visible as stars shining +faintly in a misty heaven. Villages and little towns past counting, each +with its conspicuous spire, break the monotony of the enormous plain. +Here and there, miles away, a curl of white vapour indicates the passage +of some railway train, whilst in this upper stillness sweet sounds of +church bells reach us from hamlets close underneath the convent. Nothing +can be more solid, fresher, or more brilliant than the rich beech- and +pine-woods running sheer from our airy eminence to the level world below, +nothing more visionary, slumberous, or dimmer than that wide expanse +teeming, as we know, with busy human life, yet flat and motionless as a +picture. + +[Illustration] + +On clear nights the electric lights of the railway station at Strasburg +are seen from this point; but far more attractive than the prospects from +St. Odile is its prehistoric wall. Before the wall, however, came the +dinner, which deserves mention. It was Friday, so in company of priests, +nuns, monks and divers pious pilgrims, with a sprinkling of fashionable +ladies from Strasburg, and tourists generally, we sat down to a very fair +_menu_ for a fast-day, to wit: rice-soup, turnips and potatoes, +eggs, perch, macaroni-cheese, custard pudding, gruyere cheese, and fair +vin ordinaire. Two shillings was charged per head, and I must say people +got their money's worth, for appetites seem keen in these parts. The +mother-superior, a kindly old woman, evidently belonging to the working +class, bustled about and shook hands with each of her guests. After +dinner we were shown the bedrooms, which are very clean; for board and +lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger +of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical +hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that +all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing. +However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are +very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we +always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us +welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us +to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this +famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications +similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not +far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be +compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness. + +We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb +for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which +the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily +lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although +where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is +inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered +with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful +notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled +together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The +points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly +we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive +constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no +doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been +hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of +pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and +dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and +in many places mortised together. We find no trace of cement, a fact +disproving the hypothesis that the wall may have been of Roman origin. We +must doubtless go much farther back, and associate these primitive +builders with such relics of prehistoric times as the stones of Carnac +and Lokmariaker. And not to seek so wide for analogies, do we not see +here the handiwork of the same rude architects I have before alluded to +in my Vosges travels, who flung a stone bridge across the forest gorge +above Remiremont and raised in close proximity the stupendous monolith of +Kirlinkin? The prehistoric stone monuments scattered about these regions +are as yet new to the English archaeologist, and form one of the most +interesting features of Vosges and Alsatian travel. + +We may follow these lightly superimposed blocks of stone for miles, and +the _enceinte_ has been traced round the entire plateau, which was +thus defended from enemies on all sides. As we continue our walk on the +inner side of the wall we get lovely views of the dim violet hills, the +vast golden plain, and, close underneath, luxuriant forests. Eagles are +flying hither and thither, and except for an occasional tourist or two, +the scene is perfectly solitary. An hour's walk brings us to the +Menelstein, a vast and lofty platform of stone, ascended by a stair, both +untouched by the hand of man. Never was a more formidable redoubt raised +by engineering skill. Nature here helped her primitive builders well. +From a terrace due to the natural formation of the rock, we obtain +another of those grand and varied panoramas so numerous in this part of +the world, but the beauty nearer at hand is more enticing. Nothing can +exceed the freshness and charm of our homeward walk. We are now no longer +following the wall, but free to enjoy the breezy, heather-scented +plateau, and the broken, romantic outline of St. Odile, the Wartburg of +Alsace, as the saint herself was its Holy Elizabeth, and with as romantic +a story for those with a taste for such legends. + +Here and there on the remoter wooded peaks are stately ruins of feudal +castles, whilst all the way our path lies amid bright foliage of young +forest trees, chestnut and oak, pine and acacia, and the ground is purple +with heather. Blocks of the conglomerate used in the construction of the +so-called Pagan Wall meet us at every turn, and as we gaze down the steep +sides of the promontory we can trace its massive outline. A scene not +soon to be forgotten! The still, solitary field of Carnac, with its +avenues of monoliths, is not more impressive than these Cyclopean walls, +thrown as a girdle round the green slopes of St. Odile. + +We would fain have stayed here some time, but much more still remained to +be seen and accomplished in Alsace. Rothau, the district known as the Ban +de la Roche, where Oberlin laboured for sixty years, Thann, Wesserling, +with a sojourn among French subjects of the German Empire at Mulhouse-- +all these things had to be done, and the bright summer days were drawing +to an end. + + + +IV + +FROM BARR TO STRASBURG, MULHOUSE AND BELFORT + +The opening sentences of this chapter, written many years ago, are no +longer applicable. Were I to revisit Alsace-Lorraine at the present time, +I should only hear French speech among intimate friends and in private, +so strictly of late years has the law of lese-majeste been, and is still, +enforced. + +Nothing strikes the sojourner in Alsace-Lorraine more forcibly than the +outspokenness of its inhabitants regarding Prussian rule. Young and old, +rich and poor, wise and simple alike unburden themselves to their +chance-made English acquaintance with a candour that is at the same time +amusing and pathetic. For the most part no heed whatever is paid to +possible German listeners. At the ordinaries of country hotels, by the +shop door, in the railway carriage, Alsatians will pour out their +hearts, especially the women, who, as two pretty sisters assured us, are +not interfered with, be their conversation of the most treasonable kind. +We travelled with these two charming girls from Barr to Rothau, and they +corroborated what we had already heard at Barr and other places. The +Prussian inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine--for the most part Government +officials--are completely shut off from all social intercourse with the +French population, the latter, of course, still forming the vast +majority. Thus at Barr, a town consisting of over six thousand +inhabitants, only a score or two are Prussians, who are employed in the +railway and postal service, the police, the survey of forests, etc. The +position of these officials is far from agreeable, although, on the +other hand, there is compensation in the shape of higher pay, and much +more material comfort, even luxury, than are to be had in the +Fatherland. Alsace-Lorraine, especially by comparison with Prussia, may +be called a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey. The vine +ripens on these warm hill-sides and rocky terraces, the plain produces +abundant variety of fruit and vegetables, the streams abound with trout +and the forests with game. No wonder, therefore, that whilst thousands +of patriotic Alsatians have already quitted the country, thousands of +Prussians are ready to fill their places. But the Alsatian exodus is far +from finished. At first, as was only natural, the inhabitants could not +realize the annexation. They refused to believe that the Prussian +occupation was final, so, for the most part, stayed on, hoping against +hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born +since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or +French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in +their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and +renounce the cherished _patrie_ and _tricolor_ for ever. + + +The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of +things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the +poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade +it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army. +For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of +life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken +account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons +across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education. +The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another +grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore +under the necessity of providing private masters for their children, +unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue. +And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in +Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural +population speak a _patois_ made up of bad German and equally bad +French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most +patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in +this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation +of races that has been going on for many generations. + +Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In +Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of +the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women +graceful and often exceedingly lovely, French piquancy and symmetrical +proportions combined with Teutonic fairness of complexion, blonde hair, +and blue eyes. + +I will now continue my journey from Barr to Strasburg by way of the Ban +de la Roche, Oberlin's country. A railway connects Barr with Rothau, a +very pleasant halting-place in the midst of sweet pastoral scenery. It is +another of those resorts in Alsace whither holiday folks flock from +Strasburg and other towns during the long vacation, in quest of health, +recreation and society. + +Rothau is a very prosperous little town, with large factories, handsome +chateaux of mill-owners, and trim little cottages, having flowers in all +the windows and a trellised vine in every garden. Pomegranates and +oleanders are in full bloom here and there, and the general aspect is +bright and cheerful. At Rothau are several _blanchisseries_ or +laundries, on a large scale, employing many hands, besides dye-works and +saw-mills. Through the town runs the little river Bruche, and the whole +district, known as the Ban de la Roche, a hundred years ago one of the +dreariest regions in France, is now all smiling fertility. The principal +building is its handsome Protestant church--for here we are among +Protestants, although of a less zealous temper than their fore-fathers, +the fervid Anabaptists. I attended morning service, and although an +eloquent preacher from Paris officiated, the audience was small, and the +general impression that of coldness and want of animation. + +From the sweet, fragrant valley of Rothau a road winds amid green hills +and by the tumbling river to the little old-world village of Foudai, +where Oberlin lies buried. The tiny church and shady churchyard lie above +the village, and a more out-of-the-way spot than Foudai itself can hardly +be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to +pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly +called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the +plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of +the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty +years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that +of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among +his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in +order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of +his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German +narrative, _Des Goldmachers Dorf_. Nor does it require any lively +fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and +his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil +is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the +more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system +of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river +turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to +account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and +comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less +so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding +amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in +half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fete day. Young and old in +Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the +children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among +these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at +Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage +lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the +pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six +pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the +costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts +showed us many relics of Oberlin, the handsome cabinets and presses of +carved oak, in which were stored the family wardrobe and other +treasures, and in the study the table on which he habitually wrote. +This is a charming upper room with wide views over the green hills and +sunny, peaceful valley. + +We were offered hospitality for days, nay, weeks, if we chose to stay, +and even the use of Oberlin's study to sit and write in! A summer might +be pleasantly spent here, with quiet mornings in this cheerful chamber, +full of pious memories, and in the afternoon long rambles with the +children over the peaceful hills. From Foudai, too, you may climb the +wild rocky plateau known as the Champ de Feu--no spot in the Vosges chain +is more interesting from a geological point of view. + +After much pleasant talk we took leave of our kind hosts, not going away, +however, without visiting the church. A tablet with medallion portrait of +Oberlin bears the touching inscription that for fifty-nine years he was +"the father of this parish." Then we drove back as we had come, stopping +at Foudai to rest the horse and drink tea. We were served in a cool +little parlour opening on to a garden, and, so tempting looked the tiny +inn that we regretted we could not stay there a week. A pleasant pastoral +country rather than romantic or picturesque is the Ban de la Roche, but +close at hand is the lofty Donon, which may be climbed from Rothau or +Foudai, and there are many other excursions within reach. + +Here, for the present, the romance of Alsace travel ends, and all is +prose of a somewhat painful kind. The first object that attracted our +attention on reaching Strasburg was the new railway station, of which we +had already heard so much. This handsome structure, erected by the German +Government at an enormous cost, had only been recently opened, and so +great was the soreness of feeling excited by certain allegorical +bas-reliefs decorating the facade that for many days after the opening +of the station police-officers in plain clothes carefully watched the +crowd of spectators, carrying off the more seditious to prison. To say +the least of it, these mural decorations are not in the best of taste, +and at any rate it would have been better to have withheld them for a +time. The two small bas-reliefs in question bear respectively the +inscription, "_Im alten, und im neuen Reich_" ("In the old and new +Empire"), improved by a stander-by, to the great relish of others, thus, +"_Im alten, reich, im neuen, arm_" ("In the old, rich, in the new, +poor"). They give a somewhat ideal representation of the surrender of +Strasburg to the German Emperor. But the bombardment of their city, the +destruction of public monuments and the loss of life and property +thereby occasioned, were as yet fresh in the memories of the +inhabitants, and they needed no such reminder of the new state of +things. Their better feelings towards Germany had been bombarded out of +them, as an Alsacienne wittily observed to the Duchess of Baden after +the surrender. The duchess, daughter to the Emperor William, made the +round of the hospitals, and not a single Alsatian soldier but turned his +face to the wall, whereupon she expressed her astonishment at not +finding a better sentiment. Nor can the lover of art help drawing a +painful contrast between the Strasburg of the old and the new _regime_. +There was very little to see at Strasburg except the cathedral at this +time. The Library, with its 300,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts--the +priceless _Hortus Deliciarium_ of the twelfth century, richly +illuminated and ornamented with miniatures invaluable to the student of +men and manners of the Middle Ages, the missal of Louis XII., bearing +his arms, the _Recueil de Prieres_ of the eighth century--all these had +been completely destroyed by the ruthless Prussian bombardment. The +Museum, rich in _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the French school, both of sculpture +and painting, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, all shared the same fate, not to speak of buildings of lesser +importance, including four hundred private dwellings, and of the fifteen +hundred civilians, men, women and children, killed and wounded by the +shells. The fine church of St. Thomas suffered greatly. Nor was the +cathedral spared, and it would doubtless have perished altogether, too, +but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city. On my second visit +ten years later I found immense changes, new German architecture to be +seen everywhere. + + +Strasburg is said to contain a much larger German element than any other +city of Alsace-Lorraine, but the most casual observer soon finds out how +it stands with the bulk of the people. The first thing that attracted our +notice in a shop window was a coloured illustration representing the +funeral procession of Gambetta, as it wound slowly past the veiled statue +of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde. These displays of patriotic +feeling are forbidden, but they come to the fore all the same. Here, as +elsewhere, the clinging to the old country is pathetically--sometimes +comically--apparent. A rough peasant girl, employed as chambermaid in the +hotel at which we stayed, amused me not a little by her tirades against +the Prussians, spoken in a language that was neither German nor French, +but a mixture of both--the delectable tongue of Alsace! + +Strasburg is now a vast camp, with that perpetual noisy military parade +so wearisome in Berlin and other German cities, and, as I have said, +there was very little to see. It was a relief to get to Mulhouse, the +comparatively quiet and thoroughly French city of Mulhouse, in spite of +all attempts to make it German. But for the imperial eagle placed over +public offices and the sprinkling of Prussian helmets and Prussian +physiognomies, we could hardly suppose ourselves outside the French +border. The shops are French. French is the language of the better +classes, and French and Jews make up the bulk of the population. The Jews +from time immemorial have swarmed in Alsace, where, I am sorry to say, +they seemed to be little liked. + +This thoroughly French appearance of Mulhouse, to be accounted for, +moreover, by an intensely patriotic clinging to the mother country, +naturally occasions great vexation to the German authorities. It is, +perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that undignified provocations and +reprisals should be the consequence. Thus the law forbids the putting up +of French signboards or names over shop doors in any but the German +language. This is evaded by withholding all else except the surname of +the individual, which is of course the same in both languages. + +One instance more I give of the small annoyances to which the French +residents of Mulhouse are subject, a trifling one, yet sufficient to +irritate. Eight months after the annexation, orders were sent round to +the pastors and clergy generally to offer up prayers for the Emperor +William every Sunday. The order was obeyed, for refusal would have been +assuredly followed by dismissal, but the prayer is ungraciously +performed. The French pastors invoke the blessing of Heaven on +"_l'Empereur qui nous gouverne_". The pastors who perform the +service in German, pray not for "our Emperor," as is the apparently loyal +fashion in the Fatherland, but for "the Emperor." These things are +trifling grievances, but, on the other hand, the Prussians have theirs +also. Not even the officials of highest rank are received into any kind +of society whatever. Mulhouse possesses a charming zoological garden, +free to subscribers only, who have to be balloted for. Twenty years after +the annexation not a single Prussian has ever been able to obtain access +to this garden. + +Even the very poorest contrive to show their intense patriotism. It is +the rule of the German government to give twenty-five marks to any poor +woman giving birth to twins. The wife of a French workman during my +sojourn at Mulhouse had three sons at a birth, but though in very poor +circumstances, refused to claim the donation. "My sons shall never be +Prussian," she said, "and that gift would make them so." + +The real thorn in the flesh of the annexed Alsatians is, however, as I +have before pointed out, military service, and the enforced German +education. All who have read Alphonse Daudet's charming little story, +_La derniere lecon de Francais_, will be able to realize the +painfulness of the truth, somewhat rudely brought home to French parents. +Their children must henceforth receive a German education, or none at +all, for this is what the law amounts to in the great majority of cases. +Rich people, of course, and those who are only well-to-do, can send their +sons to the Lycee, opened at Belfort since the annexation, but the rest +have to submit, or, by dint of great sacrifice, obtain private French +teaching. And, whilst even Alsatians are quite ready to render justice to +the forbearance and tact often shown by officials, an inquisitorial and +prying system is pursued, as vexatious to the patriotic as enforced +vaccination to the Peculiar People or school attendance to the poor. One +lady was visited at seven o'clock in the morning by the functionary +charged with the unpleasant mission of finding out where her boy was +educated. "Tell those who sent you," said the indignant mother, "that my +son shall never belong to you. We will give up our home, our prospects, +everything; but our children shall never be Prussians." True enough, the +family have since emigrated. No one who has not stayed in Alsace among +Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, +nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the +true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known +outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and +character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a +ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. + +[Illustration: ETTENHEIM] + +"Nous ne sommes pas heureux a Mulhouse" were almost the first words +addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean +Dollfus. + +And how could it be otherwise? M. Dollfus, as well as other +representatives of the French subjects of Prussia in the Reichstag, had +protested against the annexation of Alsace in vain. They pointed out the +heavy cost to the German empire of these provinces, in consequence of the +vast military force required to maintain them, the undying bitterness +aroused, the moral, intellectual, and material interests at stake. I use +the word intellectual advisedly, for, amongst other instances in point, I +was assured that the book trade in Mulhouse had greatly declined since +the annexation. The student class has diminished, many reading people +have gone, and those who remain feel too uncertain about the future to +accumulate libraries. Moreover, the ordeal that all have gone through has +depressed intellectual as well as social life. Mulhouse has been too much +saddened to recover herself as yet, although eminently a literary place, +and a sociable one in the old happy French days. The balls, soirees and +reunions, that formerly made Mulhouse one of the friendliest as well as +the busiest towns in the world, have almost ceased. People take their +pleasures very soberly. + +It is hardly possible to write of Mulhouse without consecrating a page +or two to M. Jean Dollfus, a name already familiar to some English +readers. The career of such a man forms part of contemporary history, +and for sixty years the great cotton-printer of Mulhouse, the +indefatigable philanthropist--the fellow-worker with Cobden, +Arles-Dufour, and others in the cause of Free Trade--and the ardent +patriot, had been before the world. + +The year before my visit was celebrated, with a splendour that would be +ridiculed in a novel, the diamond wedding of the head of the numerous +house of Dollfus, the silver and the golden having been already kept in +due form. + +Mulhouse might well be proud of such a fete, for it was unique, and the +first gala-day since the annexation. When M. Dollfus looked out of his +window in the morning, he found the familiar street transformed as if by +magic into a bright green avenue abundantly adorned with flowers. The +change had been effected in the night by means of young fir-trees +transplanted from the forest. The day was kept as a general holiday. +From an early hour the improvised avenue was thronged with visitors of +all ranks bearing cards, letters of congratulation or flowers. The great +Dollfus works were closed, and the five thousand workmen with their +wives, children and superannuated parents, were not only feasted but +enriched. After the banquet every man, woman and child received a present +in money, the oldest and those who had remained longest in the employ of +M. Dollfus being presented with forty francs. But the crowning sight of +the day was the board spread for the Dollfus family and the gathering of +the clan, as it may indeed be called. There was the head of the house, +firm as a rock still, in spite of his eighty-two years; beside him the +partner of sixty of those years, his devoted wife; next according to age, +their numerous sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; duly +following came the grandsons and grand-daughters, then the +great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and lastly, the babies of their +fifth generation, all accompanied by their nurses in the picturesque +costume of Alsace and Lorraine. This patriarchal assemblage numbered +between one and two hundred guests. On the table were represented, in the +artistic confectionery for which Mulhouse is famous, some of the leading +events of M. Dollfus's busy life. Here in sugar was a model of the +achievement which will ever do honour to the name of Jean Dollfus, +namely, the _cites ouvrieres_, and what was no less a triumph of the +confectioner's skill, a group representing the romantic ride of M. and +Mme. Dollfus on camels towards the Algerian Sahara when visiting the +African colony some twenty years before. + +This patriarchal festival is said to have cost M. Dollfus half a million +of francs, a bagatelle in a career devoted to giving! The bare conception +of what this good man has bestowed takes one's breath away! Not that he +was alone; never was a city more prolific of generous men than Mulhouse, +but Jean Dollfus, _"Le Pere Jean,"_ as he is called, stood at the +head. He received with one hand to bestow with the other, and not only on +behalf of the national, intellectual and spiritual wants of his own +workmen and his own community--the Dollfus family are Protestant--but +indiscriminately benefiting Protestant, Catholic, Jew; founding schools, +hospitals, libraries, refuges, churches, for all. + +We see at a glance after what fashion the great manufacturers set to work +here to solve the problem before them. The life of ease and the life of +toil are seen side by side, and all the brighter influences of the one +brought to bear on the other. The tall factory chimneys are unsightly +here as elsewhere, and nothing can be uglier than the steam tramways, +noisily running through the streets. But close to the factories and +workshops are the cheerful villas and gardens of their owners, whilst +near at hand the workmen's dwellings offer an exterior equally +attractive. These _cites ouvrieres_ form indeed a suburb in +themselves, and a very pleasant suburb too. Many middle-class families in +England might be glad to own such a home, a semi-detached cottage or +villa standing in a pretty garden with flowers and trees and plots of +turf. Some of the cottages are models of trimness and taste, others of +course are less well kept, a few have a neglected appearance. The general +aspect, however, is one of thrift and prosperity, and it must be borne in +mind that each dwelling and plot of ground are the property of the owner, +gradually acquired by him out of his earnings, thanks to the initiative +of M. Dollfus and his fellow-workers. "It is by such means as these that +we have combated Socialism," said M. Dollfus to me; and the gradual +transformation of the workman into an owner of property, is but one of +the numerous efforts made at Mulhouse to lighten, in so far as is +practicable, the burden of toil. + +These pleasant avenues are very animated on Sundays, especially when a +universal christening of babies is going on. The workmen at Mulhouse are +paid once a fortnight, in some cases monthly, and it is usually after +pay-day that such celebrations occur. We saw one Sunday afternoon quite +a procession of carriages returning from the church to the _cite +ouvriere_, for upon these occasions nobody goes on foot. There were +certainly a dozen christening parties, all well dressed, and the babies +in the finest white muslin and embroidery. A very large proportion of the +artisans here are Catholics, and as one instance among others of the +liberality prevailing here, I mention that one of the latest donations of +M. Dollfus is the piece of ground, close to the _cite ouvriere_, on +which now stands the new, florid Catholic church. + +There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been +opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French +pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Koechlins, to their +native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French +as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among +the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of +De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71 +that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was +withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The +bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse. + +I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real +pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a +charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the +Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and +suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of +existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase +a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden +I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the +Black Forest. + +Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of +Notre Dame des Trois Epis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann, +with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and +the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of +the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account +be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully +is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave +and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later +period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty, +and no less so the facade and side porch, both very richly decorated. +One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a +place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance +and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish +community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve +their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up. + +[Illustration: COLMAR] + +Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge +from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort--the +heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid +rock--the little Protestant town of Montbeliard, and Besancon. Belfort is +well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and +purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin +saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort" +comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly +industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many +communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country +between Montbeliard and Besancon, well worth seeing, if only from the +railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on +the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid +the _detour_ by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages +many. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORE, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + + + +V + +THE 'MARVELLOUS BOY' OF ALSACE + +I + +It is especially at Strasburg that travellers are reminded of another +"marvellous boy," who, if he did not "perish in his pride," certainly +shortened his days by overreaching ambition and the brooding bitterness +waiting upon shattered hopes. + +Gustave Dore was born and reared under the shadow of Strasburg +Cathedral. The majestic spire, a world in itself, became indeed a world +to this imaginative prodigy. He may be said to have learned the minster +of minsters by heart, as before him Victor Hugo had familiarized himself +with Notre Dame. The unbreeched artist of four summers never tired of +scrutinizing the statues, monsters, gargoyles and other outer +ornamentations, while the story of the pious architect Erwin and of his +inspirer, Sabine, was equally dear. Never did genius more clearly +exhibit the influence of early environment. True child of Alsace, he +revelled in local folklore and legend. The eerie and the fantastic had +the same fascination for him as sacred story, and the lives of the +saints, gnomes, elves, werewolves and sorcerers bewitched no less than +martyrs, miracle-workers and angels. + +His play-hours would be spent within the precincts of the cathedral, +whilst the long winter evenings were beguiled with fairy-tales and +fables, his mother and nurse reading or reciting these, their little +listener being always busy with pen or pencil. Something much more than +mere precocity is shown in these almost infantine sketches. Exorbitant +fancy is here much less striking than sureness of touch, outlined +figures drawn between the age of five and ten displaying remarkable +precision and point, each line of the silhouette telling. At six he +celebrated his first school prize with an illustrated letter, two +portraits and a mannikin surmounting the text. + +[Footnote: See his life by Blanch Roosevelt, Sampson Low & Co. 1885; +also the French translation of the same, 1886.] + +His groups of peasants and portraits, made three or four years later, +possess almost a Rembrandt strength, unfortunately passion for the +grotesque and the fanciful often lending a touch of caricature. +Downright ugliness must have had an especial charm for the future +illustrator of the _Inferno_, his unconscious models sketched by the +way being uncomely as the immortal Pickwick and his fellows of Phiz. A +devotee of Gothic art, he reproduced the mediaeval monstrosities adorning +cornice and pinnacle in human types. Equally devoted to nature out of +doors, the same taste predominated. What he loved and sought was ever +the savage, the legend-haunted, the ghoulish, seats and ambuscades of +kelpie, hobgoblin, brownie and their kind. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORE, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + +From the nursery upwards, if the term can be applied to French children, +his life was a succession of artistic abnormalities and _tours de +force_. The bantling in petticoats who could astound his elders with +wonderfully accurate silhouettes, continued to surprise them in other +ways. His memory was no less amazing than his draughtsmanship. When +seven years of age, he was taken to the opera and witnessed _Robert le +Diable_. On returning home he accurately narrated every scene. + +At eight he broke his right arm, but became as if by magic ambidextrous, +whilst confined to bed, cheerily drawing all day long with the left +hand. At ten he witnessed a grand public ceremony. In 1840 Strasburg +celebrated the inauguration of a monument to Gutenberg, the festival +being one of extraordinary splendour. Fifteen cars represented the +industrial corporations of the city, each symbolically adorned, and in +each riding figures suitably travestied and occupied, men, women and +children wearing the costumes of the period represented. Among the +corporations figured the _Peintres-verriers_, or painters on stained +glass, their car proving especially attractive to one small looker-on. + +Intoxicated by the colour and movement of the fete, garlanded and +beflagged streets, the symbolic carriages, the bands, civic and +military, and the prevailing enthusiasm, the child determined to get up +an apotheosis of his own: in other words, to repeat the performance on a +smaller scale. Which he did. Cars, costumes, banners and decorations +were all designed by this imp of ten. With the approval of his +professors and the collaboration of his school-fellows, the Dore +procession, consisting of four highly decorated cars, drawn by boys, +defiled before the college authorities and made the round of the +cathedral, the youthful impresario at its head. The car of the painters +on glass was conspicuously elaborate, a star copied from a Cathedral +window showing the superscription, _G. Dore, fecit_. Small wonder is it +that the adoring mother of an equally adoring son should have believed +in him from the first, and seen in these beginnings the dawn of genius, +the advent, indeed, of a second Michael Angelo or Titian. + +The more practical father might chide such overreaching vaticinations, +might reiterate-- + +"Do not fill the boy's head with nonsense." + +The answer would be-- + +"I know it. Our son is a genius." + +And Dore _pere_ gave way, under circumstances curious enough. + + +II + + +In 1847 the family visited Paris, there to Gustave's delight spending +four months. Loitering one day in the neighbourhood of the Bourse, his +eye lighted upon comic papers with cuts published by MM. Auber and +Philipon. Their shop windows were full of caricatures, and after a long +and intent gaze the boy returned home, in two or three days presenting +himself before the proprietors with half-a-dozen drawings much in the +style of those witnessed. The benevolent but businesslike M. Philipon +examined the sketches attentively, put several questions to his young +visitor, and, finding that the step had been taken surreptitiously, +immediately sat down and wrote to M. and Mme. Dore. He urged them with +all the inducements he could command to allow their son the free choice +of a career, assuring them of his future. + +A few days later an agreement was signed by father and publisher to this +effect: During three years the latter was to receive upon certain terms +a weekly cartoon from the sixteen-year-old artist, who, on his side, +bound himself to offer no sketches elsewhere. + +[Footnote: This document was reproduced in _Le Figaro_ of +December 4, 1848.] + +Meanwhile, Gustave would pursue his studies at the Lycee Charlemagne, +his patron promising to look after his health and well-being. The +arrangement answered, and in _Le Journal pour rire_ the weekly +caricature signed by Dore soon noised his fame abroad. Ugly, even +hideous, as were many of these caricatures, they did double duty, paying +the lad's school expenses, and paving the way to better things. Of +caricature Dore soon tired, and after this early period never returned +to it. Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation +should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically +speaking, Dore passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the +word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This +undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon +found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune. + +Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. +Dore with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and +historic hotel of the Rue St. Dominique. Here Dore lived for the rest of +his too short life. + +The house had belonged to the family of Saint Simon, that terrible +observer under whose gaze even Louis XIV. is said to have quailed. So +aver historians of the period. The associations of his home immediately +quickened Dore's inventive faculties. He at once set to work and +organized a brilliant set of _tableaux vivants_, illustrating scenes +from the immortal Memoires. The undertaking proved a great social +success, and henceforth we hear of galas, soirees, theatricals and other +entertainments increasing in splendour with the young artist's +vogue--and means. + +The history of the next twenty years reads like a page from the _Arabian +Nights_. Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite +the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's +ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and +disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of +literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Dore reached the +first rank at twenty, his _Rabelais_ setting the seal on his renown. So +immense was the success of this truly colossal undertaking and of its +successors, the _Don Quixote_, the _Contes de fees_ of Perrault +and the rest, that he meditated nothing less than the illustration of +cosmopolitan _chefs 'd' oeuvre, en bloc_, a series which should include +every great imaginative work of the Western world! Thus in 1855 we find +him noting the following projects, to be carried out in ten years' +time:--illustrations of AEschylus, Lucan, Ovid, Shakespeare, Goethe +_(Faust)_, Lamartine _(Meditations)_, Racine, Corneille, Schiller, +Boccaccio, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives--these names among others. The +jottings in question were written for a friend who had undertaken to +write the artist's biography. + + +The _Rabelais, Don Quixote, The Inferno_, and several more of these +sumptuous volumes were brought out in England. Forty years ago Dore's +bold and richly imaginative work was in great favour here; indeed, +throughout his life he was much more appreciated by ourselves than by +his countrymen. All the drawings were done straight upon wood. Lavish in +daily life, generous of the generous, Dore showed the same lavishness in +his procedure. Some curious particulars are given upon this head. +Fabulous sums were spent upon his blocks, even small ones costing as +much as four pounds apiece. He must always have the very best wood, no +matter the cost, and it was only the whitest, smoothest and glossiest +boxwood that satisfied him. Enormous sums were spent upon this material, +and to his honour be it recorded, that no matter the destination of a +block, the same cost, thought and minute manipulation were expended upon +a trifling commission as upon one involving thousands of pounds. The +penny paper was treated precisely the same as the volume to be brought +out at two guineas. In the zenith of his fame as an illustrator, at a +time when tip-top authors and editors were all clamouring for his +drawings, he did not despise humbler admirers and clients. His delight +in his work was only equalled by quite abnormal physical and mental +powers. Sleep, food, fresh air, everything was forgotten in the +engrossment of work. At this time he would often give himself three +hours of sleep only. + +Dore's ambition--rather, one of his ambitions--was to perfect wood +engraving as an art, hence his indifference to the cost of production. +Hence, doubtless, his persistence in drawing on wood without preliminary +sketch or copy. + +Perhaps such obsession was natural. How could he foresee the variety of +new methods that were so soon to transform book illustration? Anyhow, +herein partly lies the explanation of the following notice in a +second-hand book catalogue, 1911-- + +"No. 355. Gustave Dore: _Dante's Inferno_, with 76 full-page +illustrations by Dore. 4to, gilt top, binding soiled, but otherwise good +copy. _42s._ for _3s. 6d._ London, n.d." + +A leading London publisher consulted by me on the subject, writes +as follows-- + +"Dore's works are no longer in vogue. One of the reasons lies in the +fact that his pictures were done by the old engraved process. He drew +them straight on wood, and there are, accordingly, no original drawings +to be reproduced by modern methods." + +The words "fatal facility" cannot be applied to so consummate a +draughtsman as the illustrator of Dante, Cervantes and Victor Hugo. But +Dore's almost superhuman memory was no less of a pitfall than manual +dexterity. The following story will partly explain his dislike of +facsimile and duplication. + +An intimate friend, named Bourdelin, relates how one day during the +siege of Paris, the pair found themselves by the Courbevoie bridge. One +side of this bridge was guarded by French gendarmes, the other by +German officers, Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, a dozen in all. For a +quarter of an hour the two Frenchmen lingered, Dore intently gazing on +the group opposite. On returning home some hours later he produced a +sketch-book and in Bourdelin's presence swiftly outlined the twelve +figures, exactly reproducing not only physiognomic divergences but +every detail of costume! Poor Dore! In those ardently patriotic days he +entirely relied upon victory and drew an anticipatory picture of France +triumphant, entitled, "Le Passage du Rhin." But the French never +crossed the Rhine, and the drawing was given to this friend with the +words: "My sketch has no longer any _raison d'etre_. Keep it in memory +of our fallacious hopes." + + +III + + +In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Dore decided to +leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded +genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that +could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. + +A reader of Ariosto, he had not taken to heart one of his most memorable +verses, those mellifluous lines in which the poet dwells upon the +laboriousness of intellectual achievement. Nor when illustrating the +_Arabian Nights_ had the wonderful story of Hasan of El-Basrah +evidently brought home to him the same moral. + +Between a Dore and his object--so he deemed--existed neither "seven +valleys nor seven seas, nor seven mountains of vast magnitude." A Dore +needed no assistance of the flying Jinn and the wandering stars on his +way, no flying horse, "which when he went along flew, and when he flew +the dust overtook him not." + +Without the equipment of training, without recognition of such a +handicap, he entered upon his new career. + +In 1854 for the first time two pictures signed by Dore appeared on the +walls of the Salon. But the canvases passed unnoticed. The Parisians +would not take the would-be painter seriously, and the following year's +experience proved hardly less disheartening. Of four pictures sent in, +three were accepted, one of these being a historic subject, the other +two being landscapes. The first, "La Bataille de l'Alma," evoked +considerable criticism. The rural scenes were hung, as Edmond About +expressed it, so high as to need a telescope. + +Both About and Th. Gautier believed in their friend's newly-developed +talent, but art-critics and the public held aloof. No medal was decreed +by the jury, and, accustomed as he had been to triumph after triumph, +his fondest hopes for the second time deceived, Dore grew bitter and +acrimonious. That his failure had anything to do with the real question +at issue, namely, his genius as a historic painter, he would never for a +moment admit. Jealousy, cabals, prejudice only were accountable. + +The half dozen years following were divided between delightfully gay and +varied sociabilities, feverishly prolonged working hours and foreign +travel. The millions of francs earned by his illustrations gave him +everything he wanted but one, that one, in his eyes, worth all the rest. + +Travel, a splendid studio, largesses--he was generosity itself--all +these were within his reach. The craved-for renown remained ungraspable. + +Even visits to his favourite resort, Barr, brought disenchantment. He +found old acquaintances and the country folks generally wanting in +appreciation. With greater and lesser men, he subacidly said to himself +that a man was no prophet in his own country. + +Ten years after the fiasco of his first canvases in the Salon came an +invitation to England and the alluring project of a Dore gallery. The +Dore Bible and Tennyson, with other works, had paved the way for a right +royal reception. The streets of London, as he could well believe, were +paved with gold. But many were the _contra_. "I feel the presentiment," +he wrote to a friend, "that if I betake myself to England, I shall break +with my own country and lose prestige and influence in France. I cannot +exist without my friends, my habits and my _pot-au-feu_. Folks tell me +that England is a land of fogs, that the sun never shines there, that +the inhabitants are cold, and that I should most likely suffer from +sea-sickness in crossing the Manche. To sum up, England is a long way +off, and I have a great mind to give up the project." + +Friendly persuasion, self-interest, wounded self-love carried the day. +Reluctantly he decided upon the redoubtable sea-voyage. Whether he +suffered from sea-sickness or no we are not told. In any case the visit +was repeated, John Bull according the great Alsatian, as he was called, +what France had so persistently withheld. + +Dore was here accorded the first rank among historic painters. His +gallery in Bond Street became one of the London sights; in fashionable +society, if not in the close ring of the great Victorian artists, he +made a leading figure. Royalty patronized and welcomed him. The Queen +bought one of his pictures ("Le Psalterion," now at Windsor), and invited +him to Balmoral. The heir-apparent, the late King, admired his talent +and relished his society. By the clerical world he was especially +esteemed, being looked upon as a second Leonardo da Vinci. And, in fine, +Dore must be regarded as an anticipator of the Entente cordiale. +"Gustave Dore," his compatriots would say, "he is half an Englishman!" +Forty years ago our popular favourite might indeed have believed in the +fulfilment of his dream. The Thorwaldsen Gallery of Copenhagen had ever +dazzled his imagination. Bond Street was not Paris, certainly, but in +the greatest metropolis of the world his memory would be for ever +perpetuated. Turning to the dithyrambic utterances of the London Press +at the time we can hardly wonder at the hallucination. + +Here are one or two passages culled from leading dailies and weeklies-- + +"In gravity and magnitude of purpose, no less than in the scope and +power of his imagination, he towers like a Colossus among his +contemporaries. Compared with such a work as 'Christ leaving the +Praetorium,' the pictures in Burlington House look like the production of +a race of dwarfs whose mental faculties are as diminutive as their +stature. And it is not alone the efforts of the English School of +Painting that appear puny in presence of so great and gigantic an +undertaking; the work of all the existing schools of Europe sinks into +equal insignificance, and we must go back to the Italian painters of the +sixteenth century to find a picture worthy of being classed with this +latest and most stupendous achievement of the great French master." + +Elsewhere we read-- + +"The most marvellous picture of the present age is to be seen at 35, New +Bond Street. The subject is 'Christ leaving the Praetorium,' The painter +is the world-renowned Gustave Dore." + +A journal devoted to art-criticism wrote-- + +"In 'The Christian Martyrs' we have a striking, thrilling and +ennobling picture." + +And so on, and so on. Yet at this time among "the dwarfs" of Burlington +House then exhibiting was Millais, and contemporaneously with Dore in +our midst, 1870-1, was Daubigny, whose tiniest canvases now fetch their +thousands! + +It was during Dore's apogee in England that a well-known French amateur, +also visiting our shores, was thus addressed by an English friend: "Come +with me to Bond Street, you will there see the work of your greatest +living painter." + +"_Our_ greatest painter!" exclaimed the other. "You mean your own. Dore +is our first draughtsman of France, yes, but painter, never, neither the +greatest nor great; at least we were ignorant of the fact till informed +of it by yourself and your country-people." + +Dore knew well how matters stood, and bitterly resented the attitude of +his own nation. Accorded a princely welcome across the Manche, his work +worth its weight in gold on the other side of the Atlantic, in France he +was looked at askance, even as a painter ignored. He regarded himself as +shut out from his rightful heritage, and the victim, if not of a +conspiracy, of a cabal. His school playmates and close friends, Taine, +Edmond About and Th. Gautier, might be on his side; perhaps, with +reservations, Rossini and a few other eminent associates also. But the +prescient, unerring verdict of the collective "man in the street"-- + +"The people's voice, the proof and echo of all human fame"-- + +he missed; resentment preyed upon his spirits, undermined his vitality, +and doubtless had something to do with his premature breakdown. + +The Dore gallery indeed proved his Capua, the long-stop to his fame. + + +IV + + +As a personality the would-be Titian, Duerer, Thorwaldsen and Benvenuto +Cellini in one presents an engaging figure. His domestic life makes very +pleasant reading. We find no dark holes and corners in the career of one +who may be said to have remained a boy to the end, at fifty as at five +full of freak and initiative, clingingly attached to a devoted and +richly-endowed mother, and the ebullient spirit of a happy home. With +his rapidly increasing fortune, the historic house in the Rue Dominique +became an artistic, musical and dramatic centre. His fetes were worthy +of a millionaire, and, alike in those private theatricals, _tableaux +vivants_ or concerts, he ever took a leading part. An accomplished +violinist, Dore found in music a never-failing stimulant and +refreshment. Rossini was one of his circle, among others were the two +Gautiers, the two Dumas, Carolus Duran, Liszt, Gounod, Patti, Alboni and +Nilsson, Mme. Dore, still handsome and alert in her old age, proudly +doing the honours of what was now called the Hotel Dore. By his literary +and artistic brethren the many-faceted genius and exhilarating host was +fully appreciated. Generosities he ever freely indulged in, the wealth +of such rapid attainment being dispensed with an ungrudgeful hand. To +works of charity the great illustrator gave largely, but we hear of no +untoward misreckonings, nor bills drawn upon time, health or talents. +With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh +commandment. + +Meantime, as the years wore on, again and again he bid desperately for +the suffrages withheld, his legitimately won renown held by him of small +account. To his American biographer he said, on showing her some of his +pictures: "I illustrate books in order to pay for my colours and +paint-brushes. I was born a painter." + +On the lady's companion, an American officer, naively asking if +certain canvases were designed for London or Paris, he answered with +bitter irony-- + +"Paris, forsooth! I do not paint well enough for Paris." As he spoke his +face became clouded. The gay, jovial host of a few minutes before sighed +deeply, and during their visit could not shake off depression. + +Two crowning humiliations came before the one real sorrow of his life, +the loss of that gifted mother who was alike his boon companion, closest +confidante and enthusiastic Egeria. Perpetually seeking laurels in new +fields, in 1877 he made his _debut_ as a sculptor. The marble group, "La +Parque et l'Amour," signed G. Dore, won a _succes d'estime_, no more. +In the following year was opened the great international exhibition on the +Champ de Mars, Dore's enormous monumental vase being conspicuously +placed over one of the porticoes. This astounding achievement in bronze, +appropriately named the "Poeme de la Vigne," created quite a sensation +at the time. Reproductions appeared in papers of all countries +containing a printing press or photographic machine. But for the +artist's name, doubtless his work would have attained the gold medal and +other honours. The Brobdingnagian vase, so wonderfully decorated with +flowers, animals and arabesques, was passed over by the jury. + +Equally mortifying was the fate of his marble group in the same year's +Salon. This subject, "La Gloire," had a place of honour in the sculpture +gallery and won universal suffrages. The critics echoed popular +approval. The jury remained passive. It was in the midst of these +unnecessarily crushing defeats--for why, indeed, should any mortal have +craved more than mortal success?--that Mme. Dore's forces gave way. From +that time till her death, which occurred two years later, her son's +place was by her side, floutings, projects, health and pleasure, +forgotten, his entire thoughts being given to the invalid. No more +beautiful picture of filial devotion could suggest itself to the painter +of domestic subjects than this, Dore with table and sketching materials +seated in his mother's sick-room, or at night ministering to her in +wakeful moments. At dawn he would snatch a few hours' sleep, but that +was all. No wonder that his own health should give way so soon after the +death-blow of her loss. + +"My friend," he wrote to an English boon companion, on March 16, 1881, +"she is no more. I am alone. You are a clergyman, I entreat you to pray +for the repose of her beloved soul and the preservation of my reason." + +A few days later he wrote to the same friend of his "frightful +solitude," adding his regret at not having anticipated such a blank and +made for himself a home--in other words, taken a wife. + +Some kind matchmaking friends set to work and found, so at least they +fancied, a bride exactly calculated to render him happy. + +But on January 23, 1883, Dore died, prematurely aged and broken +down by grief, corroding disappointment and quite frenzied overwork +and ambition. + +He never attained recognition as a historic painter among his +country-folks. One canvas, however, "Tobit and the Angel," is placed in +the Luxembourg, and his monument to Dumas ornaments the capital. His +renown as an illustrator remains high as ever in France. And one, that +one, the passionately desired prize of every Frenchman, became his: in +1861 he was decorated with the Red Ribbon. Six of Dore's great religious +subjects retain their place in the Bond Street Gallery, but for reasons +given above his wonderfully imaginative illustrations are here +forgotten. + +The superb edition of the _Enid_ (Moxon, 1868), a folio bound in royal +purple and gold, and printed on paper thick as vellum, the volume +weighing four pounds, awakens melancholy reflections. What would have +been poor Dore's feelings had he lived to see such a guinea's worth, and +cheap at the price, gladly sold, rather got rid of, for three shillings! + +Dore's last work, the unconventional monument to the elder Dumas, was +left unfinished. + +Completed by another hand, the group now forms a conspicuous object in +the Avenue Villiers, Paris. + +The striking figure of the great quadroon, with his short crisped +locks, suggests a closer relationship to the race thus apostrophized by +Walt Whitman-- + + "You, dim descended, black, divine souled African...." + +He surmounts a lofty pedestal, on the base being seated a homely group, +three working folks, a mob-capped woman reading a Dumas novel to two +companions, evidently her father and husband, sons of the soil, drinking +in every word, their attitude of the most complete absorption. +Classicists and purists in art doubtless look askance at a work which +would certainly have enchanted the sovereign romancer. + +"Will folks read my stories when I am gone, doctor?" he asked as he lay +a-dying. The good physician easily reassured his patient. "When we have +patients awaiting some much-dreaded operation in hospital," he replied, +"we have only to give them one of your novels. Straightway they forget +everything else." And Dumas--"the great, the humane," as a charming poet +has called him--died happy. As well he might, in so far as his fame was +concerned. _La Tulipe Noire_ would alone have assured his future. + + + +VI + +QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is +to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the +lodestar ahead. The way to almost any place of renown, natural, historic +or artistic, is sure to teem with as much interest as that to which we +are bound. So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is +French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every +town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we +set out. Thus it has ever been my rule to indulge in the most +preposterous peregrination, taking no account whatever of days, seasons +or possible cons, hearkening only to the pros, and never so much as +glancing at the calendar. Such protracted zigzaggeries have been made +easy to the "devious traveller" by one unusual advantage. Just as +pioneers in Australasia find Salvation Army shelters scattered +throughout remotest regions, so, fortunately, have I ever been able to +count upon "harbour and good company" during my thirty-five years of +French sojourn and travel. + +To reach a certain Pyrenean valley in which I was to spend a holiday +would only have meant a night's dash by express from Paris. Instead, I +followed the south-eastern route, halting at--Heaven knows how +many!--already familiar and delightful places between Paris and Dijon, +Dijon and Lyons, Lyons and Nimes; from the latter city being bound for +almost as many more before reaching my destination. + +Quite naturally I would often find myself on the track of that "wise and +honest traveller," so John Morley calls Arthur Young. + +Half-way between Nimes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at +which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a +disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." + +But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I +went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and +odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery-- + +"Here I am!" + +As a rule I am entirely of Montaigne's opinion. "When I travel in +Sicily," said the philosopher of Gascony, "it is not to find Gascons." +Dearly as we love home and home-folk, the gist of travel lies in +oppositeness and surprises. We do not visit the uttermost ends of the +globe in search of next-door neighbours. That cordial "Here I am!" +however, had an unmistakable accent, just a delightful suspicion of +French. My host was a gallant naval officer long since retired from +service, with his English wife and two daughters, spending the long +vacation in his country home. + +High above the little village of Quissac rises the residence of +beneficent owners, master and mistress, alas! long since gone to their +rest. From its terrace the eye commands a vast and beautiful panorama, a +richly cultivated plain dotted with villages and framed by the blue +Cevennes. Tea served after English fashion and by a dear countrywoman, +everywhere _"le confortable Anglais"_ admittedly unattainable by French +housewives, could not for a single moment make me forget that I was in +France. And when the dinner gong sounded came the final, the +unequivocal, proof of distance. + +Imagine dining out of doors and in evening dress at eight o'clock in the +last week of August! The table was set on the wide balcony of the upper +floor, high above lawn and bosquets, the most chilly person having here +nothing to fear. It is above all things the French climate that +transports us so far from home and makes us feel ourselves hundreds, +nay, thousands of miles away. + +I have elsewhere, perhaps ofttimes, dwelt on the luminosity of the +atmosphere in southern and south-western France. To-night not a breath +was stirring, the outer radiance was the radiance of stars only, yet so +limpid, so lustrous the air that cloudless moonlight could hardly have +made every object seem clearer, more distinct. The feeling inspired by +such conditions is that of enchantment. For the nonce we may yield to a +spell, fancy ourselves in Armida's enchanted garden or other "delightful +land of Faery." + +Not for long, however! Pleasant practical matters soon recall us to the +life of every day. That laborious, out-of-door existence, which seems +sordid in superfine English eyes, but which is never without the gaiety +that enchanted Goldsmith and Sterne a hundred and fifty years ago. + +Whilst host and guest dined on the balcony, the farming folk and such of +the household as could be spared were enjoying a starlit supper +elsewhere. Later, my hostess took me downstairs and introduced her +English visitor to a merry but strictly decorous party having a special +bit of sward to themselves, bailiff, vintagers, stockmen, dairywoman, +washerwoman and odd hands making up a round dozen of men, women and +boys. All seemed quite at home, and chatted easily with their employer +and the visitor, by no means perturbed, rather pleased by the intrusion. + +And here I will mention one of those incidents that lead English +observers into so many misconceptions concerning French rural life. +Little things that seem sordid, even brutifying to insular eyes, really +arise from incompatible standards. + +The Frenchman's ideal of material comfort begins and ends with solvency, +the sense of absolute security from want in old age. Small comforts he +sets little store by; provided that he gets a good dinner, lesser +considerations go. I do not hesitate to say that the comforts enjoyed by +our own farm-servants half a century ago were far in excess of those +thought more than sufficient by French labourers and their employers. On +the following day my hosts took me round the farmery, fowl-run, +piggeries, neat-houses and stalls being inspected one by one. When we +came to the last named, I noticed at the door of the long building and +on a level with the feeding troughs for oxen, a bed-shaped wooden box +piled up with fresh clean straw. + +"That is where our stockman sleeps," explained the lady. + +Here, then, quite contentedly slept the herdsman of a large estate in +nineteenth-century France, whilst his English compeers two generations +before, and in much humbler employ, had their tidy bedroom and +comfortable bed under the farmer's roof. What would my own Suffolk +ploughmen have said to the notion of spending the night in an ox-stall? +But _autres pays, autres moeurs_. In Deroulede's fine little poem, "Bon +gite", a famished, foot-sore soldier returning home is generously +entreated by a poor housewife. When she sets about preparing a bed for +him, he remonstrates-- + + "Good dame, what means that new-made bed, + Those sheets so finely spun? + On heaped-up straw in cattle-shed, + I'd snore till rise of sun." + +The compensations for apparent hardship in the case of French peasants +are many and great. In Henry James's great series of dissolving views +called _The American Scene_, he describes the heterogeneous masses as +having "a promoted look". The French proletariat have not a promoted +look, rather one of inherited, traditional stability and self-respect. +One and all, moreover, are promoting themselves, rising by a slow +evolutionary process from the condition of wage-earner to that of +metayer, tenant, lastly freeholder. + +Although the immediate environs of Quissac and Sauve are not remarkable, +magnificent prospects are obtained a little farther afield--our drives +and walks abounded in interest--and associations! Strange but true it is +that we can hardly halt anywhere in France without coming upon historic, +literary or artistic memorials. Every town and village is redolent of +tradition, hardly a spot but is glorified by genius! + +Thus, half-an-hour's drive from our village still stands the chateau +and birthplace of Florian, the Pollux of fabulists, La Fontaine being +the Castor, no other stars of similar magnitude shining in their +especial arc. + +Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born here in 1755, just sixty years +after the great fabulist's death. Nephew of a marquis, himself +nephew-in-law of Voltaire, endowed with native wit and gaiety, the young +man was a welcome guest at Fernay, and no wonder! His enchanting fables +did not see the light till after Voltaire's death, but we will hope that +some of them had delighted his host in recitation. Many of us who loved +French in early years have a warm corner in our hearts for "Numa +Pompilius", but Florian will live as the second fabulist of France, to +my own thinking twin of his forerunner. + +How full of wisdom, wit and sparkle are these apologues! Take, for +instance, the following, which to the best of my ability I have rendered +into our mother tongue-- + + VANITY (LE PETIT CHIEN). + + I + Once on a time and far away, + The elephant stood first in might, + He had by many a forest fray + At last usurped the lion's right. + On peace and reign unquestioned bent, + The ruler in his pride of place, + Forthwith to life-long banishment + Doomed members of the lion race. + + II + Dispirited, their best laid low, + The vanquished could but yield to fate, + And turn their backs upon the foe + In silence nursing grief and hate. + A poodle neatly cropped and clipped, + With tasselled tail made leonine, + On hearing of the stern rescript, + Straightway set up a piteous whine. + + III + "Alas!" he moaned. "Ah, woe is me! + Where, tyrant, shall I shelter find; + Advancing years what will they be, + My home and comforts left behind?" + A spaniel hastened at the cry, + "Come, mate, what's this to-do about?" + "Oh, oh," the other gulped reply, + "For exile we must all set out!" + + IV + "Must all?" "No, you are safe, good friend; + The cruel law smites us alone; + Here undisturbed your days may end, + The lions must perforce begone." + "The lions? Brother, pray with these, + What part or lot have such as you?" + "What part, forsooth? You love to tease; + You know I am a lion too." + +[Footnote: The first translation appeared with others in _French Men, +Women and Books_, 1910. The second was lately issued in the +_Westminster Gazette_.] + +Here is another, a poem of essential worldly wisdom, to be bracketed +with Browning's equally oracular "The Statue and the Bust," fable and +poem forming a compendium. + + THE FLIGHTY PURPOSE + (LE PAYSAN AND LA RIVIERE). + + "I now intend to change my ways"-- + Thus Juan said--"No more for me + A round on round of idle days + 'Mid soul-debasing company. + I've pleasure woo'd from year to year + As by a siren onward lured, + At last of roystering, once held dear, + I'm as a man of sickness cured." + + "Unto the world I bid farewell, + My mind to retrospection give, + Remote as hermit in his cell, + For wisdom and wise friends I'll live." + "Is Thursday's worldling, Friday's sage? + Too good such news," I bantering spoke. + "How oft you've vowed to turn the page, + Each promise vanishing like smoke!" + + "And when the start?" "Next week--not this." + "Ah, you but play with words again." + "Nay, do not doubt me; hard it is + To break at once a life-long chain." + Came we unto the riverside, + Where motionless a rustic sate, + His gaze fixed on the flowing tide. + "Ho, mate, why thus so still and squat?" + + "Good sirs, bound to yon town am I; + No bridge anear, I sit and sit + Until these waters have run dry, + So that afoot I get to it." + "A living parable behold, + My friend!" quoth I. "Upon the brim + You, too, will gaze until you're old, + But never boldly take a swim!" + +As far as I know, no memorial has as yet been raised to the fabulist +either at Quissac or at Sauve, but as long as the French language lasts +successive generations will keep his memory green. Certain of his fables +every little scholar knows by heart. + +Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from +Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing +described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a +name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress. + +"From Ganges", wrote the great Suffolk farmer in July 1787, "to the +mountain of rough ground which I crossed" (in the direction of +Montdardier), "the ride has been the most interesting which I have +taken in France; the efforts of industry the most vigorous, the +animation the most lively. An activity has been here that has swept away +all difficulties before it and clothed the very rocks with verdure. It +would be a disgrace to common sense to ask the cause; the enjoyment of +property must have done it. _Give a man the sure possession of a bleak +rock, and he will turn it into a garden_." The italics are my own. When +will Arthur Young have his tablet in Westminster Abbey, I wonder? + +The department of the Gard offers an anomaly of the greatest historic +interest. Here and here only throughout the length and breadth of France +villages are found without a Catholic church, communities that have held +fast to Protestantism and the right of private judgment from generation +to generation during hundreds of years. Elsewhere, in the Cote d'Or, for +instance, as I have described in a former work, Protestantism was +completely stamped out by the Revocation, whole villages are now +ultramontane, having abjured, the alternatives placed before them being +confiscation of property, separation of children and parents, +banishment, prison and death. + +[Footnote: See _Friendly Faces_, chap. xvi.] + +The supremacy of the reformed faith may be gathered from the following +facts: A few years back, of the six deputies representing this +department five were Protestant and the sixth was a Jew. The _Conseil +General_ or provincial council numbered twenty-three Protestants as +against seventeen Catholics. The seven members of the Board of Hospitals +at Nimes, three of the four inspectors of public health, nine of the +twelve head-mistresses of girls' schools, twenty-nine of forty rural +magistrates, were Protestants. + +My host belonged to the same faith, as indeed do most of his class and +the great captains of local industry. It is not as in Michelet's +fondly-loved St. Georges de Didonne, where only the lowly and the toiler +have kept the faith aflame. + +But whilst neighbours now live peacefully side by side, a gulf still +divides Catholic and Protestant. Although half a millennium has elapsed +since the greatest crime of modern history, the two bodies remain apart: +French _annexes_ of Alsace-Lorraine and Germans are not more completely +divided. Mixed marriages are of rarest occurrence, intercourse limited +to the conventional and the obligatory. There are historic curses that +defy lustration. St. Bartholomew is one of these. I must now say +something about the country-folks. Calls upon our rustic neighbours, +long chats with affable housewives, and rounds of farmery, vineyard and +field attracted me more than the magnificent panoramas to be obtained +from Corconne and other villages within an easy drive. + +George Sand has ever been regarded as a poetizer of rural life, an +arch-idealist of her humbler country-folks. At Quissac I made more than +one acquaintance that might have stepped out of _La petite Fadette_ or +_La mare au Diable_. + +One old woman might have been "la paisible amie," the tranquil friend, +to whom the novelist dedicated a novel. Neat, contented, active and +self-respecting, she enjoyed a life-interest in two acres and a cottage, +her live stock consisting of a goat, a pig and poultry, her invested +capital government stock representing a hundred pounds. Meagre as may +seem these resources, she was by no means to be pitied or inclined to +pity herself, earning a few francs here and there by charing, selling +her little crops, what eggs and chickens she could spare, above all +things being perfectly independent. + +A charming idyll the great Sand could have found here. The owner of a +thirty-acre farm had lately died, leaving it with all he possessed to +two adopted children, a young married couple who for years had acted +respectively as steward and housekeeper. We are bound to infer that on +the one hand there had been affection and gratitude, on the other the +same qualities with conscientiousness in business matters. The +foster-father was childless and a widower, but, among the humble as well +as the rich French, ambition of posthumous remembrance often actuates +impersonal bequests. This worthy Jacques Bonhomme might have made an +heir of his native village, leaving money for a new school-house or some +other public edifice. Very frequently towns and even villages become +legatees of the childless, and the worthy man would have been quite sure +of a statue, a memorial tablet, or at least of having his name added to +a street or square. + +Before taking leave of Quissac I must mention one curious fact. + +The Proteus of Odyssean story or the King's daughter and the Efreet in +the "Second Royal Mendicant's Adventure," could not more easily +transform themselves than the French peasant. Husbandman to-day, +mechanic on the morrow, at one season he plies the pruning-hook, at +another he turns the lathe. This adaptability of the French mind, +strange to say, is nowhere seen to greater advantage than in +out-of-the-way regions, just where are mental torpidity and unbendable +routine. Not one of Millet's blue-bloused countrymen but masters a dozen +handicrafts. + +Thus, whilst the heraldic insignia of Sauve should be a trident, those +of Quissac should be surmounted by an old shoe! In the former place the +forked branches of the _Celtis australis_ or nettle tree, _Ulmaceae_, +afford a most profitable occupation. From its tripartite boughs are made +yearly thousands upon thousands of the three-pronged forks used in +agriculture. The wood, whilst very durable, is yielding, and lends +itself to manipulation. + +In Florian's birthplace folks make a good living out of old boots and +shoes! Some native genius discovered that, however well worn footgear +may be, valuable bits of leather may remain in the sole. These fragments +are preserved, and from them boot heels are made; the _debris_, boots, +shoes and slippers, no matter the material, find their way to the soil +as manure. But this subject if pursued further would lead to a lane, +metaphorically speaking, without a turning, that is to say to a treatise +on French rural economy. + + + +VII + +AN IMMORTALIZER + +In Renan's exquisitely phrased preface to his _Drames Philosophiques_ +occurs the following sentence which I render into English _tant bien que +mal_: "Side by side are the history of fact and the history of the +ideal, the latter materially speaking of what has never taken place, but +which, in the ideal sense, has happened a thousand times." + +Who when visiting the beautiful little town of Saumur thinks of the +historic figures connected with its name? Even the grand personality of +Duplessis Morny sinks into insignificance by comparison with that of the +miser's daughter, the gentle, ill-starred Eugenie Grandet! And who when +Carcassonne first breaks upon his view thinks of aught but Nadaud's +immortal peasant and his plaint-- + + "I'm growing old, just three score year, + In wet and dry, in dust and mire, + I've sweated, never getting near + Fulfilment of my heart's desire. + Ah, well I see that bliss below + 'Tis Heaven's will to vouchsafe none, + Harvest and vintage come and go, + I've never got to Carcassonne!" + +The tragi-comic poem of six eight-lined verses ending thus-- + + "So sighed a peasant of Limoux, + A worthy neighbour bent and worn. + 'Ho, friend,' quoth I, 'I'll go with you. + We'll sally forth to-morrow morn.' + And true enough away we hied, + But when our goal was almost won, + God rest his soul!--the good man died, + He never got to Carcassonne!" + +No lover of France certainly should die without having seen Carcassonne, +foremost of what I will call the pictorial Quadrilateral, no formidable +array after the manner of their Austrian cognominal, but lovely, +dreamlike things. These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as +when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the +Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guerande, scene of +Balzac's _Beatrix_. To my thinking, and I have visited each, there is +little to choose between the first two, but exquisite as is the little +Briard acropolis, those imaginary "topless towers of Ilium" of Nadaud's +peasant bear the palm. That first view of Carcassonne as we approach it +in the railway of itself repays a long and tedious journey. A vision +rather than reality, structure of pearly clouds in mid-heaven, seems +that opaline pile lightly touched with gold. We expect it to evaporate +at evenfall! Vanish it does not, nor wholly bring disillusion, so fair +and harmonious are the vistas caught in one circuit of the citadel, mere +matter of twenty minutes. + +But the place by this time has become so familiar to travellers in +France and readers of French travel, that I will here confine myself to +its glorifier, author of a song that has toured the world. + +The first biography of the French Tom Moore, published last year, gives +no history of this much translated poem. Had, indeed, some worthy +vine-grower poured out such a plaint in the poet's ears? Very probably, +for one and all of Nadaud's rural poems breathe the very essence of the +fields, the inmost nature of the peasant, from first to last they reveal +Jacques Bonhomme to us, his conceptions of life, his mentality and +limitations. + +[Footnote: My own rendering of this piece and many other of Nadaud's +songs and ballads are given in _French Men, Women and Books_, 1910. +American translators have admirably translated _Carcassonne_.] + +Nadaud's career is uneventful, but from one point of view, far from +being noteless, he was pre-eminently the happy man. His biographer (A. +Varloy) tells us of a smooth, much relished, even an exuberant +existence. The son of an excellent bourgeois, whose ancestry, +nevertheless, like that of many another, could be traced for six hundred +years, his early surroundings were the least lyric imaginable. + +He was born at Roubaix, the flourishing seat of manufacture near Lille, +which, although a mere _chef-lieu du canton_, does more business with +the Bank of France than the big cities of Toulouse, Nimes, Montpellier +and others thrice its size. Dress fabrics, cloths and exquisite napery +are the products of Roubaix and its suburb; vainly, however, does any +uncommercial traveller endeavour to see the weavers at work. Grimy walls +and crowded factory chimneys are relieved at Roubaix by gardens public +and private, and the town is endowed with museums, libraries, art and +technical schools. But Nadaud, like Cyrano de Bergerac, if asked what +gave him most delectation, would certainly have replied-- + + "Lorsque j'ai fait un vers et que je l'aime, + Je me paye en me le chantant a moi-meme." + +Here is the boy's daily programme when a twelve-year-old student at the +College Rollin, Paris. The marvel is that the poetic instinct survived +such routine, marvellous also the fact that the dry-as-dust in authority +was a well-known translator of Walter Scott. If anything could have +conjured the Wizard of the North from his grave it was surely these +particulars written by Gustave Nadaud to his father on the 19th of +October, 1833-- + +"Five-thirty, rise; five-forty-five, studies till seven-thirty; +breakfast and recreation from seven-thirty till eight; from eight till +ten, school; from ten to a quarter past, recreation; from a quarter past +ten till half past twelve, school; then dinner and recreation from one +till two. School from two till half past four; collation from half past +four till a quarter past five; school from a quarter past five till +eight. Supper and to bed." + +Poetry here was, however, a healthy plant, and in his school-days this +born song-writer would scribble verses on his copy-books and read Racine +for his own amusement. Turning his back upon the mill-wheels of his +native town and an assured future in a Parisian business house, like Gil +Bias's friend, _il s'est jete dans le bel esprit_--in other words, he +betook himself to the career of a troubadour. Never, surely, did master +of song-craft write and sing so many ditties! + +Quitting school with a tip-top certificate both as to conduct and +application, Gustave Nadaud quickly won fame if not fortune. Hardly of +age, he wrote somewhat Bohemian effusions that at once made the round of +Parisian music-halls. + +The revolution, if it brought topsy-turvydom in politics, like its great +forerunner '89 brought the apogee of song. The popular young lyrist, +ballader and minstrel, for Nadaud accompanied himself on the piano, now +made a curious compact, agreeing to write songs for twenty years, a firm +named Heugel paying him six thousand francs yearly by way of +remuneration. + +Two hundred and forty pounds a year should seem enough for a young man, +a bachelor brought up in bourgeois simplicity. But the cost of living in +Paris was apparently as high sixty years ago as now. In 1856-7 he wrote +to a friend: "How upon such an income I contrived to live and frequent +Parisian salons without ever asking a farthing of any one, only those +who have been poor can tell." The salons spoken of were not only +aristocratic but Imperial, the late Princess Mathilde being an +enthusiastic hostess and patroness. Several operettas were composed by +Nadaud for her receptions and philanthropic entertainments. Here is a +sketch of the French Tom Moore in 1868 by a witty contributor of the +_Figaro_-- + +"Nadaud then seated himself at the piano, and of the words he sang I +give you full measure, the impression produced by his performance I +cannot hope to convey. Quite indescribable was the concord of voice and +hands, on the music as on wings each syllable being lightly borne, yet +its meaning thereby intensified. In one's memory only can such delight +be revived and reproduced." + +With other poets, artists and musicians Nadaud cast vocation to the +winds in 1870-1, working in field and other hospitals. "I did my best to +act the part of a poor little sister of charity," he wrote to a friend. +His patriotic poem, "La grande blessee," was written during that +terrible apprenticeship. + +With Nadaud henceforward it was a case of roses, roses all the way. +Existence he had ever taken easily, warm friendships doing duty for a +domestic circle. And did he not write-- + + "I dreamed of an ideal love + And Benedick remain?" + +His songs proved a mine of wealth, and the sumptuously illustrated +edition got up by friends and admirers brought him 80,000 francs, with +which he purchased a villa, christened Carcassonne, at Nice, therein +spending sunny and sunny-tempered days and dispensing large-hearted +hospitality. To luckless brethren of the lyre he held out an ungrudgeful +hand, alas! meeting with scant return. The one bitterness of his life, +indeed, was due to ingratitude. Among his papers after death was found +the following note-- + +"Throughout the last thirty years I have lent sums, large considering +my means, to friends, comrades and entire strangers. Never, never, +never has a single centime been repaid by a single one of these +borrowers. I now vow to myself, never under any circumstances whatever +to lend money again!" + +Poor song-writers, nevertheless, he posthumously befriended. By his will +with the bulk of his property was founded "La petite Caisse des +chansonniers," a benefit society for less happy Nadauds to come. By aid +of these funds, lyrists and ballad-writers unable to find publishers +would be held on their onward path. Full of honours, Nadaud died in +1893, monuments being erected to his memory, streets named after him, +and undiminished popularity keeping his name alive. + +And the honour denied to Beranger, to Victor Hugo, to Balzac, the +coveted sword and braided coat of the Forty were Nadaud's also. With the +witty Piron he could not ironically anticipate his own epitaph thus-- + +"Here lies Nadaud who was nothing, not even an Academician!" + +Before taking leave of Carcassonne, poetic and picturesque, the most +inveterate anti-sightseer should peep into its museum. For this little +_chef-lieu_ of the Aude, with a population under thirty thousand, +possesses what, indeed, hardly a French townling lacks, namely, a +picture-gallery. If not remarkable from an artistic point of view, the +collection serves to demonstrate the persistent, self-denying and +constant devotion to culture in France. Times may be peaceful or stormy, +seasons may prove disastrous, the withered, thin and blasted ears of +corn may devour the seven ears full and golden, the ship of State may be +caught in a tornado and lurch alarmingly--all the same "the man in the +street," "the rascal many," to quote Spenser, will have a museum in +which, with wife and hopefuls, to spend their Sunday afternoons. The +local museum is no less of a necessity to Jacques Bonhomme than his +daily _pot-au-feu_, that dish of soup which, according to Michelet, +engenders the national amiability. + +The splendid public library--the determinative is used in the sense of +comparison--numbers just upon a volume per head, and the art school, +school of music, and other institutions tell the same story. Culture +throughout the country seems indigenous, to spread of itself, and, above +all things, to reach all classes. Culture on French soil is gratuitous, +ever free as air! We must never overlook that primary fact. + +One or two more noticeable facts about Carcassonne. Here was born that +eccentric revolutionary and poetic genius, Fabre d'Eglantine, of whom I +have written elsewhere. + + [Footnote: See Literary Rambles in France, 1906] + +Yet another historic note. From St. Vincent's tower during the +Convention, 1792-5, were taken those measurements, the outcome of which +was the metric system. Two mathematicians, by name Delambre and Mechain, +were charged with the necessary calculations, the _metre_, or a +ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles and the equator +(32,808 English feet), being made the unit of length. Uniformity of +weight followed, and became law in 1799. + +But to touch upon historic Carcassonne is to glance upon an almost +interminable perspective. The chronicle of this charming little city +on the bright blue Aude has been penned and re-penned in blood and +tears. In 1560 Carcassonne suffered a preliminary Saint Bartholomew, a +general massacre of Protestants announcing the evil days to follow; +days that after five hundred years have left their trace, moral as +well as material. + + + +VIII + +TOULOUSE + +A zigzaggery, indeed, was this journey from Nimes to my Pyrenean valley. +That metropolis of art and most heroic town, Montauban, I could not on +any account miss. Toulouse necessarily had to be taken on the way to +Ingres-ville, as I feel inclined to call the great painter's birthplace +and apotheosis. But why write of Toulouse? The magnificent city, its +public gardens, churches, superbly housed museums and art galleries, its +promenades, drives and panoramas are all particularized by Murray, +Joanne and Baedeker. Here, however, as elsewhere, are one or two +features which do not come within the province of a guide-book. + +The only city throughout France that welcomed the Inquisition was +among the first to open a _Lycee pour jeunes filles._ In accordance +with the acts of 1880-82 public day schools for girls were opened +throughout France; that of Toulouse being fairly representative, I +will describe my visit. + +The school was now closed for the long vacation, but a junior mistress +in temporary charge gave us friendliest welcome, and showed us over the +building and annexes. She evidently took immense and quite natural +pride in the little world within world of which she formed a part. Her +only regret was that we could not see the scholars at work. Here may be +noted the wide field thrown open to educated women by the above-named +acts, from under-mistresses to _Madame la directrice_, the position +being one of dignity and provision for life, pensions being the reward +of long service. + +The course of study is prepared by the rector of the Toulousain Academy, +and the rules of management by the municipal council, thus the programme +of instruction bears the signature of the former, whilst the prospectus, +dealing with fees, practical details, is signed by the mayor in the name +of the latter. + +We find a decree passed by the town council in 1887 to the effect that +in the case of two sisters a fourth of the sum-total of fees should be +remitted, of three, a half, of four, three-quarters, and of five, the +entire amount. Even the outfit of the boarders must be approved by the +same authority. A neat costume is obligatory, and the number and +material of undergarments is specified with the utmost minuteness. +Besides a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes, each student must +bring three pairs of boots, thirty pocket-handkerchiefs, a bonnet-box, +umbrella, parasol, and so forth. + +Such regulations may at first sight look trivial and unnecessary, but +there is much to be said on the other side. From the beginning of the +term to the end, the matron, whose province is quite apart from that of +the head-mistress, is never worried about the pupils' dress, no shoes in +need of repair, no garments to be mended, no letters to be written +begging Mme. A. to send her daughter a warm petticoat, Mme. B. to +forward a hair-brush, and so on. Again, the uniform obligatory on +boarders prevents those petty jealousies and rivalries provoked by fine +clothes in girls' schools. Alike the child of the millionaire and of the +small official wear the same simple dress. + +Children are admitted to the lower school between the ages of five and +twelve, the classes being in the hands of certificated mistresses. The +upper school, at which pupils are received from twelve years and +upwards, and are expected to remain five years, offers a complete course +of study, lady teachers being aided by professors of the Faculte des +Lettres and of the Lycee for youths. Students who have remained +throughout the entire period, and have satisfactorily passed final +examinations, receive a certificate entitling them to admission into the +great training college of Sevres or to offer themselves as teachers in +schools and families. + +The curriculum is certainly modest compared with that obligatory on +candidates for London University, Girton College, or our senior local +examination; but it is an enormous improvement on the old conventual +system, and several points are worthy of imitation. Thus a girl quitting +the Lycee would have attained, first and foremost, a thorough knowledge +of her own language and its literature; she would also possess a fair +notion of French common law, of domestic economy, including needlework +of the more useful kind, the cutting out and making up of clothes, and +the like. Gymnastics are practised daily. In the matter of religion the +municipality of Toulouse shows absolute impartiality. No sectarian +teaching enters into the programme, but Catholics and Protestants and +Jews in residence can receive instruction from their respective +ministers. + +The Lycee competes formidably with the convents as regards fees. +Twenty-eight pounds yearly cover the expense of board, education, and +medical attendance at the upper school; twenty-four at the lower; day +boarders pay from twelve to fifteen pounds a year; books, the use of the +school omnibus, and laundress being extras. Three hundred scholars in +all attended during the scholastic year ending July 1891. + +Day-pupils not using the school omnibus must be accompanied to and from +the school, and here an interesting point is to be touched upon. In so +far as was practicable, the Lycee for girls has been modelled on the +plan of the time-honoured establishments for boys. As yet a uniform +curriculum to begin with was out of the question; the programme is +already too ambitious in the eyes of many, whilst ardent advocates of +the higher education of women in France regret that the vices as well as +the virtues of the existing system have been retained. Educationists and +advanced thinkers generally would fain see a less strait-laced routine, +a less stringent supervision, more freedom for play of character. The +Lycee student, boy or girl, youth or maiden, is as strictly guarded as a +criminal; not for a moment are these citizens of the future trusted to +themselves. + +In the vast dormitory of the high school here we see thirty neat +compartments with partitions between, containing bed and toilet +requisites, and at the extreme end of the room, commanding a view of +the rest, is the bed of the under-mistress in charge, _surveillante_ as +she is called. Sleeping or waking, the students are watched. This +massing together of numbers and perpetual supervision no longer find +universal favour. + +But I am here writing of fifteen years ago. Doubtless were I to repeat +my visit I should find progressive changes too numerous for detail. +Happy little middle-class Parisians now run to and from their Lycees +unattended. Young ladies in society imitate their Anglo-Saxon sisters +and have shaken off that incubus, _la promeneuse_ or walking chaperon. + +Works on social France, as is the case with almanacs, encyclopaedias and +the rest, require yearly revision. Manners and customs change no less +quickly than headgear and skirts. + +Charles Lamb would have lived ecstatically at the Languedocian capital. +It is a metropolis of beggardom, a mendicant's Mecca, a citadel of Jules +Richepin's cherished _Gueux_. Here, indeed, Elia need not have lamented +over the decay of beggars, "the all sweeping besom of societarian +reformation--your only modern Alcides' club to rid time of its +abuses--is uplift with many-handed sway to extirpate the last fluttering +tatters of the bugbear _Mendicity_. Scrips, wallets, bags, staves, dogs +and crutches, the whole mendicant fraternity with all their baggage are +fast hasting out of the purlieus of this eleventh persecution." + +No, here is what the best beloved of English humorists calls "the oldest +and the honourablest form of pauperism," here his vision would have +feasted on "Rags, the Beggars' robes and graceful insignia of his +profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected +to show himself in public." "He is never out of fashion," adds Lamb, "or +limpeth outwardly behind it. He is not required to wear court mourning. +He weareth all colours, fearing none. His costume hath undergone less +change than the Quaker's. He is the only man in the universe who is not +obliged to study appearances." + +Here, too, would the unmatchable writer have gazed upon more than one +"grand fragment, as good as an Elgin marble." And alas! many deformities +more terrible still, and which, perhaps, would have damped even Lamb's +ardour. For in the Toulouse of 1894, as in the London of sixty years +before, its mendicants "were so many of its sights, its Lions." The city +literally swarmed with beggars. At every turn we came upon some living +torso, distorted limb and hideous sore. Begging seemed to be the +accepted livelihood of cripples, blind folk and the infirm. Let us hope +that by this time something better has been devised for them all. Was it +here that Richepin partly studied the mendicant fraternity, giving us in +poetry his astounding appreciation, psychological and linguistic? And +perhaps the bard of the beggars, like the English humorist, would wish +his _pauvres Gueux_ to be left unmolested. + +The sights of Toulouse would occupy a conscientious traveller many days. +The least leisurely should find time to visit the tiny square called +_place du Salin_. Here took place the innumerable _autos-da-fe_ of the +Toulousain Inquisition, and here, so late as 1618, the celebrated +physician and scientist Vanini was atrociously done to death by that +truly infernal tribunal, and for what? For simply differing from the +obscurantism of his age, and having opinions of his own. + +The atrocious sentence passed on Vanini was in part remitted, evidently +public opinion already making itself felt. His tongue was cut out, but +strangulation preceded the burning alive. Here one cannot help noting +the illogical, the puerile--if such words are applicable to devilish +wickedness--aspect of such Inquisitorial sentences. If these +hounders-down of common-sense and the reasoning faculty really believed, +as they affected to believe, that men who possessed and exercised both +qualities were thereby doomed to eternal torments, why set up the +horrible and costly paraphernalia of the Inquisition? After all, no +matter how ingeniously inventive might be their persecutors, they could +only be made to endure terminable and comparatively insignificant +torments, not a millionth millionth fraction of eternity! + +Refreshing it is to turn to the Toulouse of minstrelsy. The proud seat +of the troubadours, the Academy of the Gay Science and of the poetic +tourneys revived in our own day! Mistral's name has long been European, +and other English writers have charmingly described the _Feux Floraux_ +of the olden time and the society of _Lou Felibrige_ with its revival of +Provencal literature. But forty years ago, and twenty years before his +masterpiece had found a translator here, he was known and highly +esteemed by a great Englishman. + +In Mill's _Correspondence_ (1910) we find a beautiful letter, and +written in fine stately French, from the philosopher to the poet, dated +Avignon, October 1869. + +Mill had sent Mistral the French translation of his essay, "The +Subjection of Women," and in answer to the other's thanks and flattering +assurance of his own conversion, he wrote: "Parmi toutes les adhesions +qui ont ete donnees a la these de mon petit livre, je ne sais s'il y en +a aucune qui m'ont fait plus de plaisir que la votre." + +The letter as a whole is most interesting, and ends with a +characterization, a strikingly beautiful passage in the life and +teaching of Jesus Christ. Hard were it to match this appreciation among +orthodox writers. + +So transparent is the atmosphere here that the Pyrenees appear within an +hour's ride: they are in reality sixty miles off! Lovely are the clearly +outlined forms, flecked with light and shadow, the snowy patches being +perfectly distinct. + + + +IX + +MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +An hour by rail from Toulouse lies the ancient city of Montauban, as far +as I know unnoticed by English tourists since Arthur Young's time. This +superbly placed _chef-lieu_ of the Tarn and Garonne is alike an artistic +shrine and a palladium of religious liberty. Here was born that strongly +individualized and much contested genius, Dominique Ingres, and here +Protestantism withstood the League, De Luyne's besieging army and the +dragonnades of Louis XIV. + +The city of Ingres may be thought of by itself; there is plenty of food +for reflection here without recalling the prude whose virtue caused more +mischief than the vices of all the Montespans and Dubarrys put together. +Let us forget the Maintenon terror at Montauban, the breaking up of +families, the sending to the galleys of good men and women, the +torturings, the roastings alive, and turn to the delightful and soothing +souvenirs of genius! Every French town that has given birth to shining +talent is straightway turned into a Walhalla. This ancient town, so +strikingly placed, breathes of Ingres, attracts the traveller by the +magic of the painter's name, has become an art pilgrimage. The noble +monument erected by the townsfolk to their great citizen and the +picture-gallery he bequeathed his native city well repay a much longer +journey than that from Toulouse. We see here to what high levels public +spirit and local munificence can rise in France. We see also how close, +after all, are the ties that knit Frenchman and Frenchman, how the glory +of one is made the pride of all. The bronze statue of the painter, with +the vast and costly bas-relief imitating his "Apotheosis of Homer" in +the Louvre, stand in the public walk, the beauty of which aroused even +Arthur Young's enthusiasm. "The promenade," he wrote in June 1787, "is +finely situated. Built on the highest part of the rampart, and +commanding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richest in +Europe, which extends on one side to the sea and in front to the +Pyrenees, whose towering masses heaped one upon another in a stupendous +manner, and covered with snow, offer a variety of lights and shades from +indented forms and the immensity of their projections. This prospect, +which contains a semicircle of a hundred miles in diameter, has an +oceanic vastness in which the eye loses itself; an almost boundless +scene of cultivation; an animated but confused mass of infinitely varied +parts, melting gradually into the distant obscure, from which emerges +the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their silvered heads above +the clouds." + +The Ingres Museum contains, I should say, more works from the hand of a +single master than were ever before collected under the same roof. +Upwards of a thousand sketches, many of great power and beauty, are +here, besides several portraits and one masterpiece, the Christ in the +Temple, brilliant as a canvas of Holman Hunt, although the work of an +octogenarian. The painter's easel, palette, and brushes, his violin, the +golden laurel-wreath presented to him by his native town, and other +relics are reverently gazed at on Sundays by artisans, soldiers and +peasant-folk. The local museum in France is something more than a little +centre of culture, a place in which to breathe beauty and delight. It is +a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple +of fame. Therein the young are taught to revere excellence, and here the +ambitious are stimulated by worthy achievement. + +Ingres-ville recalls an existence stormy as the history of Montauban +itself. This stronghold of reform throughout her vicissitudes did not +show a bolder, more determined front to the foe than did her great +citizen his own enemies and detractors. Dominique Ingres and his +life-story favour those physicists who discern in native soil and +surroundings the formative influences of aptitudes and character. The +man and his birthplace matched each other. Indomitableness characterized +both, and to understand both we must know something of their respective +histories. To Montauban Henri Martin's great history does ample justice, +to her illustrious son contemporary writers have recently paid worthy +tributes. + +[Footnote: See _Les Grands Artistes--Ingres_, par J. Mommeja, +Paris, Laurens; _Le Roman d'amour de M. Ingres_, par H. Lapauze, Paris, +Lafitte, 1911.] + +"When a writer is praised above his merits in his own times," wrote +Savage Landor, "he is certain of being estimated below them in the +times succeeding." In the case of Ingres, opposition and contumely were +followed by perhaps excessive laudation whilst he lived, after his +death ensuing a long period of reaction. Time has now set the seal upon +his fame. The great Montalbanais has been finally received into the +national Walhalla. + +The father of the so-called French Raphael, writes his biographer, was +not even a Giovanni Santi. Joseph Ingres, in the words of M. Mommeja, +was _un petit ornemaniste_, a fabricator of knick-knacks, turning out +models in clay, busts in plaster, miniatures and other trifles for sale +at country fairs. Who can say, this humble craftsman may yet have had +much to do with his son's aspirations? + +An inferior artist can appraise his masters. From the humble artificer +and purveyor of bagatelles the youth not only imbibed a passion for +art and technical knowledge: he inherited the next best thing to a +calling, in other words, a love of music. From the palette throughout +his long life Ingres would turn with never-abated enthusiasm to his +adored violin. + +The learned monograph above-named gives a succinct and judicial account +of the painter's career. The second writer mentioned tells the story of +his inner life; one, indeed, of perpetual and universal interest. + +For to this sturdy young bourgeois early came a crisis. He found himself +suddenly at the parting of the ways, on the one hand beckoning +Conscience, on the other ambition in the flattering shape of Destiny. To +which voice would he hearken? Would love and plighted troth overrule +that insistent siren song, Vocation? Would he yield, as have done +thousands of well-intentioned men and women before him, to self-interest +and worldly wisdom? The problem to be solved by this brilliantly endowed +artist just twenty-six--how many a historic parallel does it recall! +What three words can convey so much pathos, heroism and generosity as +"il gran riffiuto?"--the great renunciation. Does the French language +contain a more touching record than that of the great Navarre's farewell +to his Huguenot brethren? What bitter tears shed Jeanne d'Albret's son +ere he could bring himself to sacrifice conscience on the altar of +expediency and a great career! + +At the age of twenty we find Dominique Ingres studying in Paris under +David, then in his apogee. + +The son of an obscure provincial, however promising, would hardly be +overwhelmed with hospitalities; all the more welcome came the +friendliness of an honourable magistrate and his wife, by name +Forestier. During five years the young man had lived on terms of +closest intimacy with these good folks, under his eyes growing up their +only daughter. + +Alas! poor Julie. Mighty, says Goethe, is the god of propinquity. On +Dominique's part attachment seems to have come insensibly, as a matter +of course and despite the precariousness of his position. M. Forestier +encouraged the young man's advances. To Julie love for the brilliant +winner of the Prix de Rome became an absorption, her very life. Not +particularly endowed by Nature--we have her portrait in M. Mommeja's +volume--she described her own physiognomy as "not at all remarkable, but +expressive of candour and goodness of heart." For Julie, as we shall +see, turned her love-story into a little novel, only unearthed the other +day by M. Lapauze. + +The Prix de Rome meant, of course, a call to Rome, the worthy magistrate +exacting from his prospective son-in-law a promise that in twelve +months' time he would return. During that interval correspondence went +on apace not only between the affianced lovers, but between M. Forestier +and Ingres, the former taking affectionate and not uncritical interest +in the other's projects. For Ingres was before all things a projector, +anticipating by decades the achievements of his later years. The glow of +enthusiasm, the fever of creativeness were at its height. Italy +possessed Ingres' entire being when the crisis came. + +After delays, excuses, pleadings, Julie's father lost patience. He would +brook no further tergiversations. Ingres must choose between Italy and +Paris; in other words, so the artist interpreted it, between art and +marriage, a proud destiny or self-extinction. + +Never had a young artist more completely fallen under the spell of +Italy. The recall seemed a death-blow. "On my knees," he wrote to Julie, +whom he really loved, "I implore you not to ask this. It is impossible +for me to quit immediately a land so full of marvel." + +But the practical M. Forestier would not give way. Ingres' persistence +looked like folly, even madness in his eyes. The young man was with +difficulty living from hand to mouth, portraits and small orders barely +keeping the wolf from the door. The return home and marriage would +ensure his future materially and socially, and up to a certain point +render him independent of malevolent criticism. For already Ingres was +fiercely attacked by Parisian authorities on art: he had become +important enough to be a target. After cruellest heart-searching and +prolonged self-reproach, _il gran riffiuto_ was made, youthful passion, +worldly advantages--and plighted faith--were cast to the winds. +Henceforth he would live for his palette only, defying poverty, +detraction and fiercely antagonistic opinion; if failing in allegiance +to others, at least remaining staunch to his first, best, highest self, +his genius. + +Julie, the third imperishable Julie of French romance, never married. +Let us hope that the writing of her artless little autobiography called +a novel brought consolation. Did she ever forgive the recalcitrant? Her +story, _Emma, ou la fiancee,_ ends with the aphorism: "Without the +scrupulous fulfilment of the given word, there can be neither happiness +nor inner peace." + +Did that backsliding in early life disturb the great painter's stormy +but dazzling career? Who can say? We learn that Ingres was twice, and, +according to accredited reports, happily, married. His first wife, a +humbly-born maiden from his native province, died in 1849, leaving the +septuagenarian so desolate, helpless and stricken that kindly +interveners set to work and re-married him. The second Mme. Ingres, +although thirty years his junior, gave him, his biographer tells us, +"that domestic peace and happiness of which for a brief space he had +been deprived." Heaped with honours, named by Napoleon III. Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour, Senator, Member of the Institut, Ingres +died in 1869. Within a year of ninety, he was Dominique Ingres to the +last, undertaking new works with the enthusiasm and vitality of Titian. +A few days before his death he gave a musical party, favourite works of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven being performed by skilled amateurs. His +funeral was a veritable apotheosis, disciples, admirers and detractors +swelling the enormous cortege. + +Those who, like myself, have times without number contemplated the +master's _opus magnum_ in the Louvre, and have studied his art as +represented in the provincial museums, will quit the Musee Ingres with +mixed feelings. It must occur to many that, perhaps, after all, _il gran +riffiuto_ of opposite kind might have better served art and the artist's +fame. Had he returned to France--and to Julie--at the stipulated period, +the following eighteen years being spent not on Italian but on native +soil, how different the result! Then of his work he could have said, as +did Chantecler of his song-- + + "Mon chant + Qui n'est pas de ces chants qu'on chante en cherchant + Mais qu'on recoit du sol natal comme une seve." + +Would not most of us willingly give Ingres' greatest classical and +historic canvases for one or two portraits, say that of Bertin, or, +better still, for a group like that of the Stamiti family? What a +portrait gallery he would have bequeathed, how would he have made the +men and women of his time live again before us! + +[Footnote: Both are reproduced, with many other works, in M. +Mommeja's volume.] + +Ingres, the artist, ever felt sure of himself. Did the lover look back, +regretting the broken word, the wrong done to another? We do not know. +His life was throughout upright, austere, free from blot; born and bred +a Catholic, he had doubtless Huguenot blood in his veins, many of his +most striking characteristics pointed to this inference. + +A word more concerning Montauban itself. The stronghold of reform, that +defied all Richelieu's attempts to take it, is to this day essentially a +Protestant town. Half of its inhabitants have remained faithful to the +faith of their ancestors. Tourists will note the abundance of cypress +trees marking Huguenot graves, the capital of Tarn and Garonne is a +veritable Calvinistic _Campo Santo_. After the Revocation, many families +fled hence to England, their descendants to this day loving and +reverencing the country which gave them a home. + +Montauban, as we should expect, has raised a splendid monument to its +one great citizen. + +Since writing these lines, an Ingres exhibition has been opened in the +Georges Petit Gallery, Paris. Apropos of this event, the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_ (May 15, 1911) contains a striking paper by the art-critic, M. +de Sizeraine. Some of the conclusions here arrived at are startling. +Certain authorities on art are said to regard the great Montalbanais as +a victim of daltonism--in other words, colour-blind! + +In company of the mere amateur, this authority turns with relief from +the master's historical and allegorical pieces to his wonderfully +speaking portraits. Here, he says, all is simple, nothing is +commonplace, nothing is unexpected, and yet nothing resembles what we +have seen elsewhere; we find no embellishment, no stultification. He +adds: "In art, as in literature, works which survive are perhaps those +in which the artist or writer has put the most of himself, not those in +which he has had most faith. The "Voeu de Louis XIII," the "Thetis" of +Ingres, we may compare to Voltaire's _Henriade_ and to the +_Franciade_ of Ronsard, all belong to the category of the +_opus magnum_ that has failed, and of which its creator is proud." +With the following charming simile the essay closes-- + +"Posterity is a great lady, she passes, reviews the _opus magnum, la +grande machine_ disdainfully, satirically; all seems lost, the artist +condemned. But by chance she catches sight of a neglected picture turned +to the wall in a corner or passage, some happy inspiration that has cost +its author little pains, but in which he has not striven beyond his +powers, and in which he has put the best of himself. The _grande dame_ +catches it up, holds it to the light. 'Ha! here is something pretty!' +she cries. And the artist's fame is assured." + +Has not Victor Hugo focused the same truth in a line-- + + "Ici-bas, le joli c'est le necessaire!" + +And our own Keats also-- + + "For 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty should be first in might." + + + +X + +MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + + + + Osse, la bien aimee + Toi, du vallon + Le choix, la fille ainee + Le vrai fleuron! + C'est sur toi qu'est fixee + Dans son amour, + La premiere pensee + Du roi du jour + Comme a sa fiancee + L'amant accourt. + Xavier Navarrot. + + +Between Toulouse and Tarbes the scenery is quite unlike that of the +Gard and the Aude. Instead of the interminable vineyards round about +Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne, we gaze here upon a varied landscape. +Following the Garonne with the refrain of Nadaud's famous song in +our minds-- + + "Si la Garonne avait voulu,"-- + +we traverse a vast plain or low vale rich in many-coloured crops: +buckwheat, sweeps of creamy blossom, dark-green rye, bluish-green Indian +corn with silvery flower-head, and purple clover, and here and there a +patch of vine are mingled together before us; in the far distance the +Pyrenees, as yet mere purple clouds against the horizon. + +We soon note a peculiarity of this region--vines trained to trees, a +method in vogue a hundred years ago. "Here," wrote Arthur Young, when +riding from Toulouse to St. Martory on his way to Luchon, "for the first +time I see rows of maples with vines trained in festoons from tree to +tree"; and farther on he adds, "medlars, plums, cherries, maples in +every hedge with vines trained." The straggling vine-branches have a +curious effect, but the brightness of the leafage is pleasant to the +eye. No matter how it grows, to my thinking the vine is a lovely thing. + +The rich plain passed, we reach the slopes of the Pyrenees, their wooded +sides presenting a strange, even grotesque, appearance, owing to the +mathematical regularity with which the woods are cut, portions being +close shaven, others left intact in close juxtaposition, solid phalanxes +of trees and clearings at right angles. The fancy conjures up a +Brobdingnagian wheat-field partially cut in the green stage. Sad havoc +is thus made of once beautiful scenes, richly-wooded slopes having lost +half their foliage. + +A hundred years ago Lourdes was a mere mountain fortress, a State prison +to which unhappy persons were consigned by _lettres de cachet_. +Apologists of the Ancien Regime assert, in the first place, that these +Bastilles were comfortable, even luxurious retreats; in the second, that +_lettres de cachet_ were useful and necessary; in the third, that +neither Bastilles nor _lettres de cachet_ were resorted to on the eve +of the Revolution. Let us hear what Arthur Young has to say on the +subject. "I take the road to Lourdes," he writes in August 1787, "where +is a castle on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping State +prisoners, sent hither by _lettres de cachet_. Seven or eight are known +to be here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and many for +life--torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from the bosom of +domestic comfort, from wives, children, friends, and hurried, for crimes +unknown to themselves, most probably for virtues, to languish in this +detested abode, and die of despair. Oh liberty, liberty!" + +Great is the contrast between the lovely entourage of this notorious +place and the triviality and vulgar nature of its commerce. The one +long, winding street may be described as a vast bazaar, more suited to +Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims than to holders of railway tickets and +contemporaries of the Eiffel Tower. + +A brisk trade is done here, the place wearing the aspect of a huge fair. +Rosaries, crosses, votive tablets, ornamental cans for holding the +miraculous waters, drinking-cups, candles, photographs, images, medals +are sold by millions. The traffic in these wares goes on all day long, +the poorest "pilgrim" taking away souvenirs. + +The Lourdes of theology begins where the Lourdes of bartering ends. As +we quit the long street of bazaars and brand-new hotels, the first +glimpse gives us an insight into its life and meaning, makes us feel +that we ought to have been living two or three hundred years ago. We +glance back at the railway station, wondering whether a halt were wise, +whether indeed the gibbet, wheel, and stake were not really prepared for +heretics like ourselves! + +The votive church built on the outer side of the rock from which flows +the miraculous fountain is a basilica of sumptuous proportions, +representing an outlay of many millions of francs. Its portico, with +horse-shoe staircase in marble, spans the opening of the green hills, +behind which lie grotto and spring. We are reminded of the enormous +church now crowning the height of Montmartre at Paris; here, as there +and at Chartres, is a complete underground church of vast proportions. +The whole structure is very handsome, the grey and white building-stone +standing out against verdant hills and dark rocks. A beautifully +laid-out little garden with a statue of the miracle-working Virgin lies +between church and town. + +Looking from the lofty platform on the other side of the upper church, +we behold a strange scene. The space below is black with people, +hundreds and thousands of pilgrims, so called, priests and nuns being in +full force, one and all shouting and gesticulating with fierce zealotry, +a priest or two holding forth from a temporary pulpit. + +Between these closely-serried masses is a ghastly array. On litters, +stretchers, beds, chairs, lie the deformed, the sick, the moribund, +awaiting their turn to be sprinkled with the miraculous waters or +blessed by the bishop. These poor people, many of whom are in the last +stage of illness, have for bearers, volunteers; these are priests, young +gentlemen of good family, and others, who wear badges and leather +traces, by which they attach themselves to their burden. + +All day long masses are held inside the church and in the open air; at a +given signal the congregation stretching out their arms in the form of a +cross, prostrating themselves on the ground, kissing the dust. + +We must descend the broad flight of steps in order to obtain a good view +of the grotto, an oval opening in the rocks made to look like a +stalactite cave, with scores and hundreds of _ex-votos_ in the shape +of crutches. Judging from this display, there should be no more lame folks +left in France. The Virgin of Lourdes must have healed them all. In a +niche of the grotto stands an image of the Virgin, and behind, +perpetually lighted with candles, an altar, at which mass is celebrated +several times daily. + +On one side, the rock has been pierced in several places, deliciously +pure, cool water issuing from the taps. Crowds are always collected +here, impatient to drink of the miraculous fountain, and to fill vessels +for use at home. We see tired, heated invalids, and apparently dying +persons, drinking cups of this ice-cold water; enough, one would think, +to kill them outright. Close by is a little shop full of trifles for +sale, but so thronged at all hours of the day that you cannot get +attended to; purchasers lay down their money, take up the object +desired, and walk away. Here may be bought a medal for two sous, or a +crucifix priced at several hundred francs. + +The praying, chanting, and prostrating are at their height when the +violet-robed figure of a bishop is caught sight of, tripping down a +side-path leading from the town. Blessing any who chance to meet him on +the way, chatting pleasantly with his companion, a portly gentleman +wearing the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour, the bishop hastens +towards the grotto, dons his sacerdotal robes of ivory-white and gold, +and celebrates mass. The ceremony over, there is a general stir. +Adjusting their harness, the bearers form a procession, the bishop +emerges from the grotto, and one by one the thirty and odd litters are +drawn before him to be sprinkled, blessed--and healed! alas, such, +doubtless, is the fond delusion of many. + +The sight of so many human wrecks, torsos and living skeletons all agog +for life, health, and restoration, is even less heart-breaking than that +of their companions. Here we see a mother bending with agonized looks +over some white-faced, wasted boy, whose days, even hours, are clearly +numbered; there a father of a wizen-faced, terribly deformed girl, a +mite to look at, but fast approaching womanhood, brought hither to be +put straight and beautiful. Next our eye lights on the emaciated form of +a young man evidently in the last stage of consumption, his own face +hopeful still, but what forlornness in that of the adoring sister by his +side! These are spectacles to make the least susceptible weep. Grotesque +is the sight of a priest who must be ninety at least; what further +miracle can he expect, having already lived the life of three +generations? + +The last litter drawn by, the enormous crowd breaks up; tall candles are +offered to those standing near, and a procession is formed, headed by +the bishop under his gold and white baldachin, a large number of priests +following behind, then several hundred men, women, and children, the +black and white robes of the priests and nuns being conspicuous. +Chanting as they go, outsiders falling on their knees at the approach of +the baldachin, the pilgrims now wind in solemn procession round the +statue in front of the church, and finally enter, when another religious +celebration takes place. Services are going on all day long and late +into the night. Hardly do these devotees give themselves time for meals, +which are a scramble at best, every hotel and boarding-house much +overcrowded. The _table d'hote_ dinner, or one or two dishes, are +hastily swallowed, and the praying, chanting, marching and prostrating +begin afresh. At eight o'clock from afar comes the sound of pilgrims' +voices as the procession winds towards the grotto. + +There is picturesqueness in these nocturnal celebrations, the tapers +twinkling against the dark heavens, the voices dying away in the +distance. Superstition has its season as well as sulphur-baths and +chalybeate springs. The railway station is a scene of indescribable +confusion; enormous contingents come for a few hours only, the numbered +trains that brought them are drawn up outside the main lines awaiting +their departure. Here we are hustled by a motley throng; fashionable +ladies bedizened with rosaries, badges, and medallions; elegant young +gentlemen, the _jeunesse doree_ of a vanished _regime_, proudly +wearing the pilgrim's badge, all travelling third-class and in humble +company for their soul's good; peasant women from Brittany in charming +costumes; a very, very few blue blouses of elderly civilians'; enormous +numbers wearing religious garb. + +It seems a pity that a bargain could not be struck by France and +Germany, the Emperor William receiving Lourdes in exchange for Metz or +Strasburg! Lourdes must represent a princely revenue, far in excess, I +should say, of any profit the Prussian Government will ever make out of +the annexed provinces; and as nobody lives there, and visitors only +remain a day or two, it would not matter to the most patriotic French +pilgrim going to whom the place belonged. + +The tourist brings evil as well as good in his track, and the tax upon +glorious scenery here is not the globe-trotter but the mendicant. +Gavarnie is, without doubt, as grandiose a scene as Western Europe can +show. In certain elements of grandeur none other can compete with it. +But until a balloon service is organized between Luz and the famous +Cirque it is impossible to make the journey with an unruffled temper. +The traveller's way is beset by juvenile vagrants, bare-faced and +importunate as Neapolitans or Arabs. Lovers of aerial navigation have +otherwise not much left to wish for. Nothing can be more like a ride in +cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to +Gavarnie. The splendid rock-hewn road is just broad enough to admit of +two carriages abreast. On one side are lofty, shelving rocks, on the +other a stone coping two feet high, nothing else to separate us from the +awful abyss below, a ravine deep as the measure of St. Paul's Cathedral +from base to apex of golden cross. We hear the thunder of the river as +it dashes below by mountains two-thirds the height of Mont Blanc, their +dark, almost perpendicular sides wreathed with cloud, on their summits +gleaming never-melted snow, here and there the sombre parapets streaked +with silvery cascades. At intervals the Titanic scene is relieved by +glimpses of pastoral grace and loveliness, and such relief is necessary +even to those who can gaze without giddiness on such awfulness. Between +gorge and gorge lie level spaces, amid dazzlingly-green meadows the +river flows calm and crystal clear, the form and hue of every pebble +distinct as the pieces of a mosaic. Looking upwards we see hanging +gardens and what may be called farmlets, tiny homesteads with minute +patches of wheat, Indian corn, and clover on an incline so steep as to +look vertical. Most beautiful and refreshing to the eye are the little +hayfields sloping from the river, the freshly-mown hay in cocks or being +turned, the shorn pasture around bright as emerald. Harvest during the +year 1891 was late, and in the first week of September corn was still +standing; nowhere, surely, corn so amber-tinted, so golden, nowhere, +surely, ripened so near the clouds. In the tiny chalets perched on the +mountain ridges, folks literally dwell in cloudland, and enjoy a kind of +supernal existence, having for near neighbours the eagles in their +eyries and the fleet-footed chamois or izard. + +These vast panoramas--towering rocks of manifold shape, Alp rising above +Alp snow-capped or green-tinted, terrace upon terrace of fields and +homesteads--show every variety of savage grandeur and soft beauty till +we gradually reach the threshold of Gavarnie. This is aptly called +"chaos" which we might fancifully suppose the leavings, "the fragments +that were left," of the semicircular wall now visible, thrown up by +transhuman builders, insurmountable barrier between heaven and earth. No +sooner does the awful amphitheatre break upon the view, than we discern +the white line of the principal fall, a slender silvery column reaching, +so it seems, from star-land and moon-land to earth; river of some upper +world that has overleaped the boundaries of our own. No words can convey +the remotest idea of such a scene. + +We may say with regard to scenery what Lessing says of pictures, we only +see in both what we bring with us to the view. More disconcerting than +the importunities of beggars and donkey-drivers are the supercilious +remarks of tourists. To most, of course, the whole thing is "a sad +disappointment." Everything must necessarily be a disappointment to some +beholders; and with critics of a certain order, the mere fact of not +being pleased implies superiority. The hour's walk from the village to +the Cirque is an event also in the life of the flower-lover. We have +hardly eyes for Gavarnie, so completely is our gaze fascinated by the +large luminous gold and silver stars gleaming conspicuously from the +brilliant turf. These are the glorious flower-heads of the white and +yellow Pyrenean thistle that open in sunshine as do sea-anemones, +sending out lovely fringes, sunrays and moonbeams not more strikingly +contrasted. As we rush hither and thither to gather them--if we +can--their roots are veritable tentaculae, other lovely flowers are to +be had in plenty, the beautiful deep-blue Pyrenean gentian, monk's-hood +in rich purple blossom, rose-coloured antirrhinum, an exquisite little +yellow sedum, with rare ferns. On one side, a narrow bridle-path winds +round the mountain towards Spain; on the other, cottage-farms dot the +green slopes; between both, parting the valley, flows the Gave, here a +quietly meandering streamlet, whilst before us rises Gavarnie; a scene +to which one poet only--perhaps the only one capable of grappling with +such a subject--has done justice-- + + "Cirque, hippodrome, + Stage whereon Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, London, Rome, + With their myriads could find place, whereon Paris at ease + Might float, as at sundown a swarm of bees, + Gavarnie, dream, miracle!" + + [Footnote: "Un cirque, un hippodrome, + Un theatre ou Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, Londres, Rome, + Avec leurs millions d'hommes pourraient s'asseoir. + Ou Paris flotterait comme un essaim du soir. + Gavarnie!--un miracle! un reve!"--Victor Hugo, "Dieu."] + +How to give some faint conception of the indescribable? Perhaps the +great French poet has best succeeded in a single line-- + + "L'impossible est ici debout." + +We feel, indeed, that we are here brought face to face with the +impossible. + +Let the reader then conjure up a solid mass of rock threefold the +circumference of St. Paul's Cathedral; let him imagine the facade of +this natural masonry of itself exceeding the compass of our great +Protestant minster; then in imagination let him lift his eyes from stage +to stage, platform to platform, the lower nearly three times the height +of St. Paul's from base to apex of golden cross, the higher that of four +such altitudes; their gloomy parapets streaked with glistening white +lines, one a vast column of water, although their shelving sides show +patches of never-melted snows; around, framing in the stupendous scene, +mountain peaks, each unlike its majestic brother, each in height +reaching to the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Such is Gavarnie. + +My next halting-place was a remote Pyrenean village admirably adapted +for the study of rural life. Within a few hours' journey of the Spanish +frontier, Osse lies in the beautiful valley of Aspe, and is reached by +way of Pau and Oloron. At the latter town the railway ends, and we have +to drive sixteen miles across country, a delightful expedition in +favourable weather. The twin towns, old and new Oloron, present the +contrast so often seen throughout France, picturesque, imposing +antiquity beside utilitarian ugliness and uniformity. The open suburban +spaces present the appearance of an enormous drying-ground, in which are +hung the blankets of the entire department. Blankets, woollen girdles or +sashes, men's bonnets are manufactured here. "Pipers, blue bonnets, and +oatmeal," wrote an English traveller a hundred years ago, "are found in +Catalonia, Auvergne, and Suabia as well as in Lochaber." We are now in +the ancient kingdom of Beam, with a portion of Navarre added to the +French crown by Henry IV, and, two hundred years later, named the +department of the Basses Pyrenees. + +[Illustration: OSSE] + +Every turn of the road reveals new features as we journey towards Osse, +having always in view the little Gave d'Aspe, after the manner of +Pyrenean rivers, making cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools on its way. +Most beautiful are these mountain streams, their waters of pure, deep +green, their surface broken by coruscations of dazzlingly white foam and +spray, their murmur ever in our ears. When far away we hardly miss the +grand contours of the Pyrenees more than the music of their rushing +waters. No tourists meet us here, yet whither shall we go for scenes +sublimer or more engaging? On either side of the broadening velvety +green valley, with its tumbling stream, rises a rampart of stately +peaks, each unlike its neighbour, each having a graciousness and +grandeur of its own. Here and there amid these vast solitudes is seen a +white glittering thread breaking the dark masses of shelving rock, +mountain torrent falling into the river from a height of several hundred +feet. Few and far between are the herdsmen's chalets and scattered +cornfields and meadows, and we have the excellent carriage road to +ourselves. Yet two or three villages of considerable size are passed on +the way; of one, an inland spa much frequented by the peasants, I shall +make mention presently. + +For three hours we have wound slowly upward, and, as our destination is +approached, the valley opens wide, showing white-walled, grey-roofed +hamlets and small towns all singularly alike. The mountains soon close +round abruptly on all sides, making us feel as if we had reached the +world's end. On the other side of those snow-capped peaks, here so +majestically massed before our gaze, lies Spain. We are in a part of +France thoroughly French, yet within a few hours of a country strikingly +contrasted with it; manners, customs, modes of thought, institutions +radically different. + +[Illustration: NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER] + +The remoteness and isolation of Osse explain the existence of a little +Protestant community in these mountain fastnesses. For centuries the +Reformed faith has been upheld here. Not, however, unmolested. A tablet +in the neat little church tells how the original place of Protestant +worship was pulled down by order of the king in 1685, and only +reconstructed towards the close of the following century. Without +church, without pastor, forbidden to assemble, obliged to bury their +dead in field or garden, these dales-folk and mountaineers yet clung +tenaciously to their religion. One compromise, and one only, they made. +Peasant property has existed in the Pyrenees from time immemorial, and +in order to legitimize their children and enjoy the privilege of +bequeathing property, the Protestants of the Vallee d'Aspe were married +according to the rites of the Romish Church. In our own days, here as +elsewhere throughout France, the religious tenets handed down from +father to son are adhered to without wavering, and at the same time +without apparent enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants live amicably +side by side; but intermarriages are rare, and conversions from Rome to +rationalism infrequent. The Sunday services of the little Protestant +church are often attended by Catholics. Strangers passing through Osse, +market-folk, peasants and others, never fail to inspect it curiously. +The Protestant pastor is looked up to with respect and affection alike +by Catholic and Protestant neighbours. The rival churches neither lose +nor gain adherents to any extent. This fact is curious, especially in a +spot where Protestantism is seen at its best. It shows the extreme +conservatism and stability of the French character, often set down as +revolutionary and fickle. In England folks often and avowedly change +their religion several times during their lives. Is not the solemn +reception into Rome of instructed men and women among ourselves a matter +of every day? In France it is otherwise, and when a change is made we +shall generally find that the step is no retrograde one. + +If the social aspect is encouraging at Osse, the same may be said of +peasant property. Even a Zola must admit some good in a community +unstained by crime during a period of twenty years, and bound by ties of +brotherhood which render want impossible. A beautiful spirit of +humanity, a delicacy rare among the most polished societies, +characterize these frugal sons and daughters of the soil. Nor is +consideration for others confined to fellow-beings only. The animal is +treated as the friend, not the slave of man. "We have no need of the Loi +Grammont here," said a resident to me; and personal observation +confirmed the statement. + +As sordidness carried to the pitch of brutality is often imputed to the +French peasant, let me relate an incident that occurred hereabouts, not +long before my visit. The land is minutely divided, many possessing a +cottage and field only. One of these very small owners was suddenly +ruined by the falling of a rock, his cottage, cow and pig being +destroyed. Without saying a word, his neighbours, like himself in very +humble circumstances, made up a purse of five hundred francs, a large +sum with such donors, and, too delicate-minded to offer the gift +themselves, deputed an outsider to do it anonymously. Another instance +in point came to my knowledge. This was of a young woman servant, who, +during the illness of her employer, refused to accept wages. "You shall +pay me some other time," said the girl to her mistress; "I am sure you +can ill afford to give me the money now." + +Peasant property and rural life generally here presented to me some +wholly new features; one of these is the almost entire self- +sufficingness of very small holdings, their owners neither buying nor +selling, making their little crops and stock almost completely supply +their needs. Thus on a field or two, enough flax is grown with which to +spin linen for home use, enough wheat and Indian corn for the year's +bread-making, maize being mixed with wheaten flour; again, pigs and +poultry are reared for domestic consumption--expenditure being reduced +to the minimum. Coffee is a luxury seldom indulged in, a few drink home- +grown wine, but all are large milk-drinkers. The poorest is a good +customer of the dairy farmer. + +I was at first greatly puzzled by the information of a neighbour that he +kept cows for the purpose of selling milk. Osse being sixteen miles from +a railway station, possessing neither semi-detached villas, hotels, +boarding-houses, convents, barracks, nor schools, and a population of +from three to four hundred only, most of these small farmers--who were +his patrons? + +I afterwards learned that the "ha'porth of milk," which means much more +in all senses than with us, takes the place of tea, coffee, beer, to say +nothing of more pernicious drinks, with the majority. New milk from the +cow costs about a penny a quart, and perhaps if we could obtain a +similar commodity at the same price in England, even gin might be +supplanted. Eggs and butter are also very cheap; but as the peasants +rear poultry exclusively for their own use, it is by no means easy at +Osse to procure a chicken. A little, a very little money goes to the +shoemaker and general dealer, and fuel has to be bought; this item is +inconsiderable, the peasants being allowed to cart wood from the +communal forests for the sum of five or six francs yearly. The village +is chiefly made up of farmhouses; on the mountain-sides and in the +valley are the chalets and shepherds' huts, abandoned in winter. The +homesteads are massed round the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, +most having a narrow strip of garden and balcony carried along the upper +storey, which does duty as a drying-ground. + +One of these secluded hamlets, with its slated roofs, white walls, and +brown shutters, closely resembles another; but Osse stands alone in +possessing a Protestant church and community. + +Although the little centre of a purely agricultural region, we find +here one of those small, specific industries, as characteristic of +French districts as soil and produce. Folks being great water-drinkers, +they will have their drinking-water in a state of perfection. Some +native genius long ago invented a vessel which answers the requirement +of the most fastidious. This is a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, +bound with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being kept +exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels remains cool throughout the +hottest hours of the hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly +durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds of years. The +turning and encasing of yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars is a +flourishing manufacture at Osse. + +Here may be seen and studied peasant property in many stages. I would +again remark that any comparison between the condition of the English +agricultural labourer and the French peasant proprietor is irrelevant +and inconclusive. In the cottage of a small owner at Osse, for +instance, we may discover features to shock us, often a total absence +of the neatness and veneer of the Sussex ploughman's home. Our disgust +is trifling compared with that of the humblest, most hard-working +owner of the soil, when he learns under what conditions lives his +English compeer. To till another's ground for ten or eleven shillings +a week, inhabit a house from which at a week's notice that other can +eject him, possess neither home, field nor garden, and have no kind of +provision against old age, such a state of things appears to our +artless listener wholly inconceivable, incommensurate with modern +civilization and bare justice. + +As an instance of the futility of comparisons, I will mention one +experience. I was returning home late one afternoon when a +poorly-dressed, sunburnt woman overtook me. She bore on her head a +basket of bracken, and her appearance was such that in any other country +I should have expected a demand for alms. Greeting me, however, +cheerfully and politely, she at once entered into conversation. She had +seen me at church on Sunday, and went on to speak of the pastor, with +what esteem both Catholics and Protestants regarded him, then of the +people, their mode of life and condition generally. + +"No," she said, in answer to my inquiry, "there is no real want here, +and no vagrancy. Everybody has his bit of land, or can find work. I come +from our vineyard on the hillside yonder, and am now returning home to +supper in the village--our farmhouse is there". She was a widow, she +added, and with her son did the work of their little farm, the +daughter-in-law minding the house and baby. They reared horses for sale, +possessed a couple of cows, besides pigs and poultry. + +The good manners, intelligence, urbanity, and quiet contentment of this +good woman were very striking. She had beautiful white teeth, and was +not prematurely aged, only very sun-burnt and shabby, her black stuff +dress blue with age and mended in many places, her partially bare feet +thrust in sabots. The women here wear toeless or footless stockings, the +upper part of the foot being bare. I presume this is an economy, as +wooden shoes wear out stockings. We chatted of England, of +Protestantism, and many topics before bidding each other good-night. +There was no constraint on her part, and no familiarity. She talked +fluently and naturally, just as one first-class lady traveller might do +to a fellow-passenger. Yet, if not here in contact with the zero of +peasant property, we are considering its most modest phase. + +A step higher and we found an instance of the levelling process +characteristic of every stage of French society, yet hardly to be looked +for in a remote Pyrenean village. In one of our afternoon rambles we +overtook a farmeress, and accepted an invitation to accompany her home. +She tripped cheerfully beside us; although a Catholic, on friendliest +terms with her Protestant neighbours. Her thin white feet in toeless +stockings and sabots, well-worn woollen petticoat, black stuff jacket, +headgear of an old black silk handkerchief, would have suggested +anything but the truth to the uninitiated. Here also the unwary stranger +might have fumbled for a spare coin. She had a kindly, intelligent face, +and spoke volubly in patois, having very little command of French. It +was, indeed, necessary for me to converse by the medium of an +interpreter. On approaching the village we were overtaken by a slight, +handsome youth conducting a muck-wagon. This was her younger son, and +his easy, well-bred greeting, and correct French, prepared me for the +piece of intelligence to follow. The wearer of peasant's garb, carting +manure, had passed his examination of Bachelor of Arts and Science, had, +in fact, received the education of a gentleman. In his case, the +patrimony being small, a professional career meant an uphill fight, but +doubtless, with many another, he would attain his end. + +The farmhouse was large, and, as is unusual here, apart from stables and +cow-shed, the kitchen and outhouse being on the ground floor, the young +men's bedrooms above. Our hostess slept in a large, curtained +four-poster, occupying a corner of the kitchen. A handsome wardrobe of +solid oak stood in a conspicuous place, but held only a portion of the +family linen. These humble housewives count their sheets by the dozen of +dozens, and linen is still spun at home, although not on the scale of +former days. The better-off purchase strong, unbleached goods of local +manufacture. Here and there I saw old women plying spindle and distaff, +but the spinning-wheel no longer hums in every cottage doorway. + +Meantime our hospitable entertainer--it is ever the women who wait on +their guests--brought out home-grown wine, somewhat sour to the +unaccustomed palate, and, as a corrective, home-made brandy, which, with +sugar, formed an agreeable liqueur, walnuts--everything, indeed, that +she had. We were also invited to taste the bread made of wheaten and +maize flour mixed, a heavy, clammy compound answering Mrs. Squeers's +requirement of "filling for the price." It is said to be very wholesome +and nutritious. + +The kitchen floor, as usual, had an unsecured look, but was clean swept, +and on shelves stood rows of earthen and copper cooking-vessels and the +yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars before mentioned. The facade of the +house, with its shutters and balcony, was cheerful enough, but just +opposite the front door lay a large heap of farmhouse manure awaiting +transfer to the pastures. A little, a very little, is needed to make +these premises healthful and comfortable. The removal of the +manure-heap, stables, and cow-shed; a neat garden plot, a flowering +creeper on the wall, and the aspect would be in accordance with the +material condition of the owner. + +The property shared by this widow and her two sons consisted of between +five and six acres, made up of arable land and meadow. They kept four +cows, four mares for purposes of horse-breeding, and a little poultry. +Milch cows here are occasionally used on the farm, an anomaly among a +population extremely gentle to animals. + +My next visits were paid on a Sunday afternoon, when everybody is at +home to friends and neighbours. Protestant initiative in the matter of +the seventh day test has been uniformly followed, alike man and beast +enjoy complete repose. As there are no cabarets and no trippers to +disturb the public peace, the tranquillity is unbroken. + +Our first call was upon an elder of the Protestant Church, and one of +the wealthier peasants of the community. The farmhouse was on the usual +Pyrenean plan, stables and neat-houses occupying the ground floor, an +outer wooden staircase leading to kitchen, parlour, and bedrooms; on the +other side a balcony overlooking a narrow strip of garden. + +Our host, dressed in black cloth trousers, black alpaca blouse, and +spotless, faultlessly-ironed linen, received us with great cordiality +and the ease of a well-bred man. His mother lived with him, a charming +old lady, like himself peasant-born, but having excellent manners. She +wore the traditional black hood of aged and widowed Huguenot women, and +her daughter-in-law and little granddaughter, neat stuff gowns and +coloured cashmere kerchiefs tied under the chin. + +We were first ushered into the vast kitchen or "living room," as it +would be called in some parts of England, to-day with every other part +of the house in apple-pie order. Large oak presses, rows of earthen and +copper cooking-vessels, an enormous flour-bin, with plain deal table and +chairs, made up the furniture, from one part of the ceiling hanging +large quantities of ears of Indian corn to dry. Here bread is baked once +a week, and all the cooking and meals take place. + +Leading out of the kitchen was the salon or drawing-room, the first I +had ever seen in a peasant farmer's house. A handsome tapestry +table-cover, chimney ornaments, mirror, sofa, armchairs, rugs, betokened +not only solid means but taste. We were next shown the grandmother's +bedchamber, which was handsomely furnished with every modern +requirement, white toilet-covers and bed-quilt, window-curtains, rug, +wash-stand; any lady unsatisfied here would be hard indeed to please. +The room of master and mistress was on the same plan, only much larger, +and one most-unlooked-for item caught my eye. This was a towel-horse +(perhaps the comfortably-appointed parsonage had set the fashion?), a +luxury never seen in France except in brand-new hotels. As a rule the +towel is hung in a cupboard. We were then shown several other bedrooms, +all equally suggestive of comfort and good taste; yet the owner was a +peasant, prided himself on being so, and had no intention of bringing up +his children to any other condition. His farm consisted of a few +hectares only, but was very productive. We saw his cows, of which he is +very fond, the gentle creatures making signs of joy at their master's +approach. Four or five cows, as many horses for breeding purposes, a few +sheep, pigs, and poultry made up his stock. All that I saw of this +family gave me a very high notion of intelligence, morality, thrift and +benevolence. + +Very feelingly all spoke of their animals and of the duty of human +beings towards the animal world generally. It was the first time I had +heard such a tone taken by French peasants, but I was here, be it +remembered, among Protestants. The horrible excuse made in Italy and +Brittany for cruelty to beasts, "Ce ne sont pas des chretiens," finds no +acceptance among these mountaineers. + +Our second visit brought us into contact with the bourgeois element. The +farmhouse, of much better appearance than the rest, also stood in the +village. The holding was about the size of that just described. The +young mistress was dressed in conventional style, had passed an +examination at a girls' Lycee, entitling her to the _brevet superieur_ +or higher certificate, her husband wore the dress of a country +gentleman, and we were ushered into a drawing-room furnished with piano, +pictures, a Japanese cabinet, carpets, and curtains. + +The bedrooms might have been fitted up by an upholsterer of Tottenham +Court Road. It must be borne in mind that I am not describing the +wealthy farmers of the Seine and Marne or La Venidee. + +The fact that these young people let a part of their large, +well-furnished house need not surprise us. There is no poverty here, but +no riches. I do not suppose that any one of the small landowners to whom +I was introduced could retire to-morrow and live on his savings. I dare +aver that one and all are in receipt of a small income from invested +capital, and have a provision against sickness and old age. + +The master of the house showed me his stock, five or six handsome cows +of cross breed, in value from L10 to L16, the latter the maximum price +here. We next saw several beautiful mares and young colts, and four +horned sheep. Sheepkeeping and farming are seldom carried on together, +and this young farmer was striking out a new path for himself. He told +me that he intended to rear and fatten sheep, also to use artificial +manure. Up to the present time, guanos and phosphates are all but +unknown in these regions, only farmhouse dung is used, cows being partly +kept for that purpose. Although the land is very productive, my +informant assured me that much remained to be done by departure from +routine and the adoption of advanced methods. The cross-breeding of +stock was another subject he had taken up. Such initiators are needed in +districts remote from agricultural schools, model farms, and State-paid +chairs of agriculture. + +Each of the four instances just given differed from the other. The first +showed us peasant property in its simplest development, a little family +contentedly living on their bit of land, making its produce suffice for +daily needs, independent of marts and markets as the members of a +primitive community. + +The second stage showed us a wholly dissimilar condition, yet not +without its ideal side. We were brought face to face with that +transitional phase of society and pacific revolution, of happiest augury +for the future. From the peasant ranks are now recruited contingents +that will make civil wars impossible, men who carry into politics +learning and the arts, those solid qualities that have made rural France +the admiration of the world, and more than once saved her Republic. + +The first instance exemplified the intense conservatism of the French +peasant. Liberal in politics, enlightened in religion, open to the +reception of new ideas, here was nevertheless a man absolutely satisfied +with social conditions as they affected himself and his children, +utterly devoid of envy or worldly ambition. To reap the benefits of his +toil, deserve the esteem of his neighbours, bequeath his little estate, +improved and enriched, to his heirs, surely this was no contemptible +ideal either. + +The last case differed from the other three. We were now reminded of the +English tenant, or even gentleman-farmer--with a difference. Alike master +and mistress had received a good education and seen something of the +world; they could enjoy music and books. But in spite of her _brevet +superieur_, the wife attended to her dairy; and although the husband +was a gentleman in manners and appearance, he looked after the stock. +They lived, too, on friendliest terms with their less-instructed and +homelier neighbours, the black alpaca blouse and coloured kerchief, +doing duty for bonnet, being conspicuous at their Sunday receptions. Not +even a Zola can charge French village-life with the snobbishness so +conspicuous in England. It will be amply shown from the foregoing +examples that peasant property is no fixed condition to be arbitrarily +dealt with after the manner of certain economists. On the contrary, it +is many-phased; the fullest and widest development of modern France is +indeed modern France itself. The peasant owner of the soil has attained +the highest position in his own country. No other class can boast of +such social, moral and material ascendency. He is the acknowledged +arbitrator of the fortunes of France. + +I will now cite two facts illustrating the bright side of peasant +property in its humblest phase, where we have been told to expect +sordidness, even brutality. The land hereabouts, as I have before +stated, is excessively divided, the holdings being from two and a half +acres in extent and upwards. It often happens that the younger children +of these small owners give up their share of the little family estate +without claiming a centime of compensation, and seek their fortunes in +the towns. They betake themselves to handicrafts and trade, in their +turn purchasing land with the savings from daily wages. + +Again, it is supposed that the life of the peasant owner is one of +uniform, unbroken drudgery, his daily existence hardly more elevated +than that of the ox harnessed to his plough. Who ever heard of an +English labourer taking a fourteen days' rest at the seaside? When did a +rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton? They order these +things better in France. + +Between Osse and Oloron stands Escot, long famous for its warm springs. +The principal patrons of this modest watering-place are the peasants. It +is their Carlsbad, their Homburg, many taking a season as regularly as +the late King Edward. The thing is done with thoroughness, but at a +minimum of cost. They pay half a franc daily for a room, and another +half-franc for the waters, cooking their meals in the general kitchen of +the establishment. Where the French peasant believes, his faith is +phenomenal. Some of these valetudinarians drink as many as forty-six +glasses of mineral water a day! What must be their capacities in robust +health? The bourgeois or civilian element is not absent. Hither from Pau +and Oloron come clerks and small functionaries with their families. +Newspapers are read and discussed in company. We may be sure that the +rustic spa is a little centre of sociability and enlightenment. + +Let me now say something about the crops of this sweet Pyrenean +valley. The chief of these are corn, maize, rye, potatoes, and clover; +the soil being too dry and poor for turnips and beetroot. Flax is +grown in small quantities, and here and there we seen vines, but the +wine is thin and sour. + +From time immemorial, artificial irrigation has been carried on in the +Vallee d'Aspe, and most beautiful is the appearance of the brilliantly +green pastures, intersected by miniature canals in every direction; the +sweet pastoral landscape framed by mountain peaks of loveliest colour +and majestic shape. These well-watered grasslands produce two or even +three crops a year; the second, or _regain_ as it is called, was being +got in early in September, and harvest having taken place early, clover +was already springing up on the cleared cornfields. Everywhere men and +women were afield making hay or scattering manure on the meadows, the +latter sometimes being done with the hands. + +All these small farmers keep donkeys and mules, and on market-days the +roads are alive with cavalcades; the men wearing gay waist-sashes, flat +cloth caps, or berets, the women coloured kerchiefs. The type is +uniform--medium stature, spareness, dark eyes and hair, and olive +complexion predominating. Within the last thirty years the general +health and physique have immensely improved, owing to better food and +wholesomer dwellings. Goitre and other maladies arising from +insufficient diet have disappeared. Epidemics, I was assured, seldom +work havoc in this valley; and though much remains to be done in the way +of drainage and sanitation, the villages have a clean, cheerful look. + +The last ailment that would occur to us proves most fatal to those +hardy country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as +the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality +arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend +oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was +tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. +Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises +from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks +above tempts us to linger abroad. + +The scenery is grandiose and most beautiful. Above the white-walled, +grey-roofed villages and townlings scattered about the open, rise +sharp-pointed green hills or monticules, one gently overtopping the +other; surmounting these, lofty barren peaks, recalling the volcanic +chains of Auvergne, the highest snow-capped point twice the altitude of +the Puy de Dome, two-thirds that of Mont Blanc. + +Whichever way we go we find delightful scenery. Hidden behind the folded +hills, approached by lovely little glades and winding bridle-path, +tosses and foams the Gave d'Aspe, its banks thickly set with willow and +salicornia, its solitary coves inviting the bather. The witchery of +these mountain streams grows upon us in the Pyrenees. We hunger for the +music of their cascades when far away. The sun-lit, snow-lit peaks, +towering into the brilliant blue heavens, are not deserted as they +appear. Shepherd farmers throughout the summer dwell in huts here, and +welcome visitors with great affability. + +Let me narrate a fact interesting alike to the naturalist and +meteorologist. On the 7th September, 1891, the heat on one of these +summits, nine thousand feet above the sea-level, was so intense that a +little flock of sheep were seen literally hugging the snow, laying their +faces against the cool masses, huddled about them, as shivering mortals +round a fire in winter. And, a little way off, the eye-witnesses of this +strange scene gathered deep blue irises in full bloom. + +[Illustration: ORCUM] + +On the lower slopes the farmers leave their horses to graze, giving them +a look from time to time. One beautiful young horse lost its life just +before my arrival, unwarily approaching a precipitous incline. As a rule +accidents are very rare. + +The izard or Pyrenean chamois, although hunted as game, is not yet a +survival here, nor the eagle and bear, the latter only making its +appearance in winter-time. + +Tent-life in these mountain-sides is quite safe and practicable. Who can +say? A generation hence and these magnificent Alps may be tunnelled by +railways, crowned by monster hotels, peopled from July to October with +tourists in search of disappointments. + +At present the Vallee d'Aspe is the peacefullest in the world. Alike on +week-days and Sundays the current of life flows smoothly. Every morning +from the open windows of the parsonage may be heard the sweet, simple +hymns of the Lutheran Church, master and mistress, servants and +children, uniting in daily thanksgiving and prayer. + +And a wholesome corrective is the Sunday service after the sights +of Lourdes. + +The little congregation was striking. Within the altar railings stood +two _anciens_, or elders, of the church, middle-aged men, tall, +stalwart, the one fair as a Saxon, the other dark as a Spaniard. Both +wore the dress of the well-to-do peasant, short black alpaca blouses, +black cloth trousers, and spotless collars and cuffs, and both worthily +represented those indomitable ancestors who neither wavered nor lost +heart under direst persecution. + +By the time the pastor ascended the reading-desk, the cheerful, +well-kept little church was full, the men in black blouses, the women +wearing neat stuff or print gowns, with silk handkerchiefs tied under +the chin, widows and the aged, the sombre black-hooded garment, +enveloping head and figure, of Huguenot matrons of old--supposed to have +suggested the conventual garb. + +Among the rest were two or three Catholics, peasants of the +neighbourhood, come to look on and listen. The simple, intelligible +service, the quiet fervour of the assembly, might well impress a +sceptical beholder. Even more impressive is the inscription over the +door. A tablet records how the first Protestant church was pulled down +by order of the king after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +rebuilt on the declaration of religious liberty by the National +Assembly. Gazing on that inscription and the little crowd of +worshippers, a sentence of Tacitus came into my mind. Recording how not +only the biographers of good men were banished or put to death, but +their works publicly burnt by order of Domitian, the historian, whose +sentences are volumes condensed, adds: "They fancied, forsooth"--he is +speaking of the tyrant and his satellites--"that all records of these +actions being destroyed, mankind could never approve of them." An +illusion shared by enemies of intellectual liberty, from the Caesars to +their latest imitator, unhappily not wholly dispelled in our own day. + +Whether the homeward journey is made through the Landes by way of +Bayonne and Bordeaux, or through the Eastern Pyrenees by way of +Perpignan, we are brought face to face with scenes of strangest +transformation. In the former region the agency has been artificial, the +shifting sands being fixed and solidified by plantations on a gigantic +scale, and large tracts rendered fertile by artificial irrigation; in +the latter, Nature has prepared the field, the more laborious portion of +the husbandman's task is already done. + +"The districts of sand, as white as snow and so loose as to blow," seen +by Arthur Young towards the close of the last century, can hardly be +said to exist in our own day. Even within twenty-five years the changes +are so great as to render entire regions hardly recognizable. The +stilts, or _chanques_, of which our word "shanks" is supposed to be the +origin, become rarer and rarer. The creation of forests and sinking of +wells, drainage, artificial manures and canals are rapidly fertilizing a +once arid region; with the aspect of the country a proportionate change +taking place in the material condition of the people. + +No less startling is the transformation of lagoon into salt marsh, and +marsh into cultivable soil, witnessed between the Spanish frontier, +Perpignan and Nimes. + +Quitting Cerbere, the little town at which travellers from Barcelona +re-enter French territory, we follow the coast, traversing a region long +lost to fame and the world, but boasting of a brilliant history before +the real history of France began. + +We are here in presence of geological changes affected neither by shock +nor convulsion, nor yet by infinitesimally slow degrees. A few +centuries have sufficed to alter the entire contour of the coast and +reverse the once brilliant destinies of maritime cities. With the +recorded experience of mediaeval writers at hand, we can localize +lagoons and inland seas where to-day we find belts of luxuriant +cultivation. In a lifetime falling short of the Psalmist's threescore +years and ten observations may be made that necessitate the +reconstruction of local maps. + +The charming little watering-place of Banyulssur-Mer, reached soon after +passing the Spanish frontier, is the only place on this coast, except +Cette, without a history. The town is built in the form of an +amphitheatre, its lovely little bay surrounded by rich southern +vegetation. The oleanders and magnolias in full bloom, gardens and +vineyards, are no less strikingly contrasted with the barrenness and +monotony that follows, than Banyuls itself, spick and span, brand-new, +with the buried cities scattered on the way, ancient as Tyre and Sidon, +and once as flourishing. There is much sadness yet poetic charm in the +landscape sweeps of silvery-green olive or bluish salicornia against a +pale-blue sky, dull-brown fishing villages bordering sleepy lagoons, +stretches of white sand, with here and there a glimpse of the purple, +rock-hemmed sea. Little of life animates this coast, in many spots the +custom-house officer and a fisherman or two being the sole inhabitants, +their nearest neighbours removed from them by many miles. Only the +flamingo, the heron, and the sea-gull people these solitudes, within the +last few years broken by the whistle of the locomotive. We are following +the direct line of railway between Barcelona and Paris. + +The first of the buried cities is the musically-named Elne, anciently +Illiberis, now a poor little town of the department of the Eastern +Pyrenees, hardly, indeed, more than a village, but boasting a wondrous +pedigree. We see dull-brown walls, ilex groves, and above low-lying +walls the gleaming sea. This apparently deserted place occupies the site +of city upon city. Seaport, metropolis, emporium had here reached their +meridian of splendour before the Greek and the Roman set foot in Gaul. +Already in Pliny's time the glories of the Elne had become tradition. We +must go farther back than Phoenician civilization for the beginnings of +this town, halting-place of Hannibal and his army on their march towards +Rome. The great Constantine endeavoured to resuscitate the fallen city, +and for a brief space Elne became populous and animated. With other once +flourishing seaports it has been gradually isolated from the sea, and +the same process is still going on. + +Just beyond Perpignan a lofty tower, rising amid vineyards and pastures, +marks the site of Ruscino, another ancient city and former seaport. The +Tour de Roussillon is all that now remains of a place once important +enough to give its name to a province. Le Roussillon, from which was +formed the department of the Pyrenees Orientales, became French by the +treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Here also the great Carthaginian halted, +and here, we learn, he met with a friendly reception. + +Monotonous as are these wide horizons and vast stretches of marsh and +lagoon, they appeal to the lover of solitude and of the more pensive +aspects of nature. The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of +glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, +too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills. Not cities only seem +interred here: the railway hurries us through a world in which all is +hushed and inanimate, as if, indeed, mankind no less than good fortune +had deserted it. The prevailing uniformity is broken by the +picturesquely placed little town of Salses and the white cliffs of +Leucate. Strabo and Pomponius Mela describe minutely the floating +islands or masses of marine plants moving freely on the lake of Salses. +Here, as elsewhere, the coastline is undergoing slow but steady +modification, yet we are in presence of phenomena that engaged the +attention of writers two thousand years ago. + +From this point till we approach Cette the region defies definition. It +is impossible to determine nicely where the land ends and the sea +begins. The railway follows a succession of inland salt lakes and +lagoons, with isolated fishermen's cabins, reminding us of +lake-dwellings. In some places the hut is approached by a narrow strip +of solid ground, on either side surrounded by water, just admitting the +passage of a single pedestrian. The scene is unspeakably desolate. Only +sea-birds keep the fisher-folk company; only the railway recalls the +busy world far away. + +Of magnificent aspect is Narbonne, the Celtic Venice, as it rises above +the level landscape. The great seaport described by Greek historians six +centuries before our own era, the splendid capital of Narbonese Gaul, +rival of the Roman Nimes and of the Greek Arles, is now as dull a +provincial town as any throughout France. Invasions, sieges, plagues, +incendiaries, most of all religious persecutions, ruined the mediaeval +Narbonne. The Jewish element prevailed in its most prosperous phase, and +M. Renan in his history of Averroes shows how much of this prosperity +and intellectual pre-eminence was due to the Jews. The cruel edicts of +Philip Augustus against the race proved no less disastrous here than the +expulsion of Huguenots elsewhere later. The decadence of Narbonne as a +port is due to natural causes. Formerly surrounded by lagoons affording +free communication with the sea, the Languedocian Venice has gradually +lost her advantageous position. The transitional stage induced such +unhealthy climatic conditions that at one period there seemed a +likelihood of the city being abandoned altogether. In proportion as the +marsh solidified the general health improved. Day by day the slow but +sure process continues, and when the remaining salt lakes shall have +become dry land, this region, now barren and desolate, will blossom like +the rose. The hygienic and atmospheric effects of the _Eucalyptus +globulus_ in Algeria are hardly more striking than the amelioration +wrought here in a natural way. The Algerian traveller of twenty-five +years ago now finds noble forests of blue gum tree, where, on his first +visit, his heart was wrung by the spectacle of a fever-stricken +population. On the coast of Languedoc the change has been slower. It has +taken not only a generation but a century to transform pestilential +tracts into zones of healthfulness and fertility. + +An interesting fact, illustrating the effect of physical agencies upon +human affairs, must be here mentioned. Till within the last few years +this town counted a considerable Protestant community. The ravages of +the phylloxera in the neighbouring vineyards caused a wholesale exodus +of vine-growers belonging to the Reformed Church, and in 1886 the number +had dwindled to such an extent that the services of a pastor were no +longer required. The minister in charge was transferred elsewhere. + +The dull little town of Agde is another ancient site. Its name is alike +a poem and a history. The secure harbourage afforded by this sheltered +bay won for the place the name of Good Fortune, [Greek: agathae tuchae], +whence Agathe, Agde. A Greek settlement, its fine old church was in part +constructed of the materials of a temple to Diana of Ephesus. Agde +possesses interest of another kind. It is built of lava, the solitary +peak rising behind it, called Le Pic de St. Loup, being the southern +extremity of that chain of extinct volcanoes beginning with Mont Mezenc +in the Cantal. A pathetic souvenir is attached to this lonely crater. At +a time when geological ardour was rare, a Bishop of Agde, St. Simon by +name, devoted years of patient investigation to the volcanic rocks in +his diocese. The result of his studies were recorded in letters to a +learned friend, but the Revolution stopped the poor bishop's +discoveries. He perished by the guillotine during the Terror. The +celebrated founder of socialism in France was his nephew. + + + +XI + +AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +The friendly visit of a few Russian naval officers lately put the +country into as great a commotion as a hostile invasion. I started +southward from Lyons on the 12th October, 1893, amid scenes of wholly +indescribable confusion; railway stations a mere compact phalanx of +excited tourists bound for Toulon, with no immediate prospect of getting +an inch farther, railway officials at their wits' end, carriage after +carriage hooked on to the already enormously long train, and yet crowds +upon crowds left behind. Every train was, of course, late; and on the +heels of each followed supplementary ones, all packed to their utmost +capacity. As we steamed into the different stations "Vive la Russie!" +greeted our ears. The air seemed filled with the sound; never surely was +such a delirium witnessed in France since the fever heat of 1789! + +At Valence, Montelimar, Avignon, Arles, the same tumult reigned; but +before reaching the second place, the regulation number of carriages, +twenty-five, had been exceeded, and as hardly one per cent of the +travellers alighted, we could only pass by the disconcerted multitudes +awaiting places. And a mixed company was ours--the fashionable world, +select and otherwise, the demi-monde in silks and in tatters, +musicians, travelling companies of actors and showmen, decorated +functionaries, children, poodles, all bound for the Russian fleet! + +At Marseilles, a bitter disappointment awaited some, I fear, many. No +sooner were we fairly within the brilliantly-lighted, crowded station, +and before the train had come to a standstill, than a stentorian voice +was heard from one end of the platform to the other, crying-- + +"LOOK TO YOUR PURSES!" + +And as the gorged carriages slowly discharged their burden, the stream +of passengers wending towards the door marked "Way out," a yet louder +and more awe-inspiring voice came from above, the official being perched +high as an orator in the pulpit, repeating the same words-- + +"ATTENTION A VOTRE PORTE-MONNAIE!" + +The dismay of the thwarted pickpockets may be better imagined than +described. Many, doubtless, had come from great distances, confident of +a golden harvest. Let us hope that the authorities of Toulon were +equally on the alert. Marseilles no more resembles Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, than those cities resemble each other. Less elegant than Lyons, +less majestic than Bordeaux, gayer by far than Nantes, the capital of +Southern France has a stamp of its own. Today, as three thousand years +ago, Marseilles may be called the threshold of the East. In these hot, +bustling, noisy streets, Paris is quiet by comparison; London a Trappist +monastery! Orientals, or what our French neighbours call exotics, are so +common that no one looks at them. Japanese and Chinese, Hindus, +Tonquinois, Annamites, Moors, Arabs, all are here, and in native dress; +and writing letters in the salon of your hotel, your _vis-a-vis_ at the +_table d'hote_, your fellow sightseers, east and west, to-day as of old, +here come into friendly contact; and side by side with the East is the +glowing life of the South. We seem no longer in France, but in a great +cosmopolitan mart that belongs to the whole world. + +The Marseillais, nevertheless, are French; and Marseilles, to their +thinking, is the veritable metropolis. "If Paris had but her +Cannebiere," they say, "she would be a little Marseilles!" + +Superbly situated, magnificently endowed as to climate, the _chef-lieu_ +of the Bouches du Rhone must be called a slatternly beauty; whilst +embellishing herself, putting on her jewels and splendid attire, she +has forgotten to wash her face and trim her hair! Not in Horatian +phrase, dainty in her neatness, Marseilles does herself injustice. Lyons +is clean swept, spick and span as a toy town; Bordeaux is coquettish as +her charming Bordelaise; Nantes, certainly, is not particularly careful +of appearances. But Marseilles is dirty, unswept, littered from end to +end; you might suppose that every householder had just moved, leaving +their odds and ends in the streets, if, indeed, these beautifully-shaded +walks can be so called. The city in its development has laid out alleys +and boulevards instead of merely making ways, with the result that in +spite of brilliant sky and burning sun, coolness and shadow are ever to +be had. The Cannebiere, with its blue sky, glowing foliage and gay, +nonchalant, heterogeneous crowds, reminds me of the Rambla of Barcelona. +Indeed, the two cities have many points of resemblance. Marseilles is +greatly changed from the Marseilles I visited twenty-five years ago, to +say nothing of Arthur Young's description of 1789. The only advantage +with which he accredited the city was that of possessing newspapers. Its +port, he wrote, was a horsepond compared to that of Bordeaux; the number +of country houses dotting the hills disappointingly small. At the +present time, suburban Marseilles, like suburban London, encroaches +year by year upon the country; another generation, and the sea-coast +from Toulon to the Italian frontier will show one unbroken line of +country houses. Of this no one can doubt who sees what is going on in +the way of building. + +But it is not only by beautiful villas and gardens that the city has +embellished itself. What with the lavishness of the municipality, public +companies, and the orthodox, noble public buildings, docks, warehouses, +schools, churches, gardens, promenades, have rendered Marseilles the +most sumptuous French capital after Paris. Neither Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, can compare with it for sumptuosity. In the Palais de +Longchamps, the splendour of municipal decoration reaches its acme; the +horsepond Arthur Young sneered at now affords accommodation of 340 +acres, with warehouses, said to be the finest in the world; last, but +not least, comes the enormous Byzantine Cathedral not yet finished, +built at the cost of a quarter of a million sterling. Other new churches +and public buildings without number have sprung up of late years, the +crowning glory of Marseilles being its Palais de Longchamps. + +This magnificent group of buildings may be called a much enlarged and +much more grandiose Trocadero. Worthily do these colossal Tritons and +sea-horses commemorate the great achievement of modern Marseilles; +namely, the conveying of a river to its very doors. Hither, over a +distance of fifty-four miles, are brought the abundant waters of the +Durance; as we stand near, their cascades falling with the thunder of +our own Lodore. But having got the river and given the citizens more +than enough water with which to turn their mills, supply their domestic +wants, fertilize suburban fields and gardens, the Town Council seem +satisfied. The streets are certainly, one and all, watered with rushing +streams, greatly to the public health and comfort. A complete system of +drainage is needed to render the work complete. When we learn that even +Nice is not yet drained from end to end, we need not be astonished at +tardy progress elsewhere. Sanitation is ever the last thing thought of +by French authorities. Late in the afternoon we saw two or three men +slowly sweeping one street. No regular cleaning seems to take place. Get +well out of the city, by the sea-shore, or into the Prado--an avenue of +splendid villas--and all is swept and garnished. The central +thoroughfares, so glowing with life and colour, and so animated by day +and night, are malodorous, littered, dirty. It is a delightful drive by +the sea, over against the Chateau d'If, forts frowning above the rock, +the deep blue waves, yellowish-brown shore, and green foliage, all in +striking contrast. + +We with difficulty realize that Marseilles is not the second city in +France. The reason is obvious. Lyons lies less compactly together, its +thickly-peopled Guillotiere seems a town apart; the population of Lyons, +moreover, is a sedentary one, whilst the Marseillais, being seafarers, +are perpetually abroad. The character, too, is quite different, less +expansive, less excitable, less emotional in the great silk-weaving +capital, here gay, noisy, nonchalant. Nobody seems to find the cares of +the day a burden, all to have some of the sunshine of the place in their +composition. "Mon bon," a Marsellais calls his neighbour; there is no +stillness anywhere. Everybody is "Mon bon" to everybody. + +The out-of-door, rollicking, careless life, more especially strikes a +northerner. We seem here as remote from ordinary surroundings as if +suddenly transported to Benares. The commercial prosperity of the first +French sea-port is attested by its lavish public works, and number of +country houses, a disappointing handful in Arthur Young's time. Hardly a +householder, however modest his means, who does not possess a cottage or +chalet; the richer having palatial villas and gardens. Nothing can +convey a greater notion of ease and wealth than the prospect of suburban +Marseilles, its green hills, rising above the sea, thickly dotted with +summer houses in every part. + +All who wish to realize the advance of French cities since 1870-71 +should visit Marseilles. Only those who knew it long ago can measure the +change, and greater changes still are necessary ere its sanitary +conditions match climate and situation. + +From Marseilles to Nice, from the land of the olive to that of the palm, +is a long and wearisome journey. That tyrannical monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee Railway Company, gives only slow trains, except +to travellers provided with through tickets; and these so inconveniently +arranged, that travellers unprovided with refreshments, have no +opportunity of procuring any on the way. Whenever we travel by railway +in France we are reminded of the crying need for competition. The +all-omnipotent P.-L.-M. does as it pleases, and it is quite useless for +travellers to complain. Every inch of the way points to the future of +the Riviera--a future not far off. A few years hence and the sea-coast +from Marseilles to Mentone will be one unbroken line of hotels and +villas. The process is proceeding at a rapid rate. When Arthur Young +made this journey a century ago, he described the country around Toulon +thus: "Nine-tenths are waste mountain, and a wretched country of pines, +box, and miserable aromatics." At the present time, the brilliant red +soil, emerald crops, and gold and purple leafage of stripped vine, make +up a picture of wondrous fertility. At every point we see vineyards of +recent creation; whilst not an inch of soil between the olive trees is +wasted. On the 28th of October the landscape was bright with autumn +crops, some to be _repique_, or planted out according to the Chinese +system before mentioned. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger at Nice is its Italian +population. These black-eyed, dark-complexioned, raven-haired, +easy-going folks form as distinct a type as the fresh-complexioned, +blue-eyed Alsatian. That the Nicois are French at heart is self-evident, +and no wonder, when we compare their present condition with that of the +past. We see no beggars or ragged, wretched-looking people. If the +municipal authorities have set themselves the task of putting down +mendicity, they have succeeded. French enterprise, French capital is +enriching the population from one end of the Alpes Maritimes to the +other. At the present time there must be tens of thousands of workmen +employed in the building of hotels and villas between Marseilles and +Ventimille. That the Riviera will finally be overbuilt no one can +doubt; much of the original beauty of the country is already destroyed +by this piling up of bricks and mortar, more beauty is doomed. But +meantime work is brisk, wages are high, and the Post Office savings bank +and private banks tell their own tale. + +Of course the valetudinarians contribute to the general prosperity, a +prosperity which it is difficult for residents in an English +watering-place to realize. Thus I take up a Hastings newspaper to find a +long list of lodging-house keepers summoned for non-payment of taxes. +Arrived at Nice, a laundress employed by my hostess immediately came to +see if I had any clothes for her. On bringing back the linen she +deposited it in my room, saying I could pay her when fetching the next +bundle. I let her go, but called her back, thinking that perhaps the +poor woman had earned nothing for months and was in distress. My hostess +afterwards informed me with a smile that this good woman had L2,500 in +the bank. I could multiply instances in point. + +If the condition of the working classes has immensely improved, the cost +of living has not stood still. A householder informed me that prices of +provisions, servants' wages, house rent and other items of domestic +economy have tripled within the last twenty years. There is every +prospect that this increase will continue. Last winter hotels and +boarding-houses at Nice were all full; fast as new ones are built, they +fill to overflowing. And, of course, the majority of visitors are rich. +No others should come; they are not wanted. + +In studying the rural population we must bear in mind one fact--namely, +the line of demarcation separating the well-to-do peasants of the plain +from the poor and frugal mountaineer. Follow the mule track from Mentone +to Castillon, and we find a condition of things for squalor and poverty +unmatched throughout France. Visit an olive-grower in the valley of the +Var, and we are once more amid normal conditions of peasant property. My +first visit was to the land of Goshen. + +Provided with a letter of introduction to a farmer, I set off for the +village of St. Martin du Var, a village of five hundred and odd souls, +only within the last year or two accessible by railway. The new line, +which was to have connected Nice with Digne and Cap, had been stopped +short half-way, the enterprising little company who projected it being +thereby brought to the verge of ruin. This fiasco, due, I am told, to +the jealous interference of the P.-L.-M., is a great misfortune to +travellers, the line partially opened up leading through a most wildly +picturesque and lovely region, and being also of great commercial and +strategic importance. But that terrible monopoly, the Paris-Lyon- +Mediterranee, will tolerate no rivals. Folks bound from Gap to Nice must +still make the long round by way of Marseilles in order to please the +Company; merchandise--and, in case of a war with Italy, which may Heaven +avert!--soldiers and ammunition must do the same. + +The pretty new "Gare du Sud" invites patronage, and three services are +performed daily. On this little line exists no third class. I imagine, +then, that either the very poor are too poor to take train at all, or +that there are none unable to pay second-class fare. In company of +priests, peasants, and soldiers, I took a second-class place, the guard +joining us and comfortably reading a newspaper as soon as we were +fairly off. + +It is a superb little journey to St. Martin du Var. The line may be +described as a succession of tunnels, our way lying between lofty +limestone cliffs and the Var, at the present time almost dry. As we +slowly advance, the valley widens, and on either side are broad belts +of verdure and fertility; fields, orchards, gardens, olive trees +feathering the lower slopes, here and there, little villages perched +high above the valley. One charming feature of the landscape is the +aspen; so silvery were its upper leaves in the sun that at first I +took them for snow-white blossoms. These verdant stretches on either +side of the river were formerly mere waste, redeemed and rendered +cultivable by means of dykes. + +My destination is reached in an hour, a charmingly placed village amid +beautiful mountain scenery, over against it towering the hamlet of La +Roquette, apparently inaccessible as cloudland. Here a tributary +stream joins the Var, the long winding valley, surrounded by lofty +crags and olive-clad slopes, affording a delightful and most +exhilarating prospect. The weather on this 20th of October was that of +a perfect day in July. + +St. Martin du Var has its Mairie, handsome communal schools, and large +public walks or recreation ground, a parallelogram planted with trees. +The place has a neglected, Italian aspect; at the same time an aspect of +ease and contentment. The black-eyed, olive-complexioned, +Italian-looking children are uniformly well dressed, with good shoes and +stockings. French children, even of the poorest class, are always +decently shod. + +I found my host at dinner with his wife, little daughter, and +sister-in-law. The first impression of an uninitiated traveller would be +of poverty. The large bare kitchen was unswept and untidy; the family +dishes--soup, vegetables, olives, good white bread, wine--were placed on +the table without cloth or table-cover. As will be seen, these +hard-working, frugal people were rich; in England they would have +servants to wait upon them, fine furniture, and wear fashionable +clothes. My letter of introduction slowly read and digested, the head of +the family placed himself at my disposal. We set off on a round of +inspection, the burning mid-day sun here tempered by a delicious breeze. + +We first visited the olive-presses and corn-mill--this farmer was +village miller as well as olive grower--all worked by water-power and +erected by himself at a heavy outlay. Formerly these presses and mills +were worked by horses and mules after the manner of old-fashioned +threshing-machines, but in Provence as in Brittany, progress is now the +order of the day. + +In order to supply these mills, a little canal was dug at my host's own +expense, and made to communicate with the waters of the Var; thus a good +supply is always at hand. + +The enormous olive-presses and vats are now being got in for the first +or October harvest. This is the harvest of windfalls or fallen fruit, +green or black as the case may be, and used for making an inferior kind +of oil. The second harvest or gathering of the olives remaining on the +trees takes place in April. Linen is spread below, and the berries +gently shaken off. I may add that the periods of olive harvests vary in +different regions, often being earlier or later. An olive tree produces +on an average a net return of twelve francs, the best returns being +alternate or biennial; the roots are manured from time to time, +otherwise the culture is inexpensive. The trees are of great age and, +indeed, are seldom known to die. The "immortal olive" is, indeed, no +fiction. In this especial district no olive trees have, within living +memory, been killed by frost, as was the case in Spain some years ago. +Nevertheless, the peaks around St. Martin du Var are tipped with snow in +winter. The olive harvests and necessary preparations require a large +number of hands, the wages of men averaging three francs, of women, the +half. Thus at the time I write of, day labourers in remote regions of +Provence receive just upon fourteen shillings and sixpence per week; +whereas I read in the English papers that Essex farmers are reducing the +pittance of twelve and even ten shillings per week for able-bodied men. + +Ten days later, my cicerone said that the first harvest would be in +active progress, and he most cordially invited me to revisit him for +the purpose of looking on. From the lees of the crushed berries a +third and much inferior oil is made and used in the manufacture of +soap, just as what is called _piquette_ or sour wine is made in +Brittany from the lees of crushed grapes. I was assured by this farmer +that the impurity of olive oil we so often complain of in England, +arises from adulteration at the hands of retailers. Table oil as it +issues from the presses of the grower is absolutely pure; merchants add +inferior qualities or poppy oil, described by me in an earlier page, +and which my present host looked upon with supreme contempt. The olive, +with the vine and tobacco, attains the maximum of agricultural profits. +This farmer alone sells oil to the annual value of several thousand +pounds, and to the smaller owner also it is the principal source of +income. Peasant owners or tenants of an acre or two grow a little corn +as well, this chiefly for their own use. + +The interior of the corn-mill presented an amusing scene. Two or three +peasants were squabbling with my host's subordinate over their sacks of +flour; one might have supposed from the commotion going on and the +general air of vindictive remonstrance that we were suddenly transported +to a seigneurial mill. A few conciliatory words from the master put all +straight, and soon after we saw the good folks, one of them an old +woman, trotting off on donkeys with their sack of corn slung before +them. I need hardly say that the talk of these country-people among +themselves is always in patois, not a word of which is intelligible to +the uninitiated. + +Just above the mills are groves of magnificent old olive trees, and +alongside the little railway were bright strips of lucerne and pasture, +folks here and there getting in their tiny crops of hay. + +The iron road is not yet regarded as an unmixed good. My host told me +that local carters and carriers had been obliged in consequence to sell +their horses and carts and betake themselves to day labour. Such +drawbacks are, of course, inevitable, but the ulterior advantage +effected by the railway is unquestionable. I should say that nowhere are +life and property safer than in these mountain-hemmed valleys. The +landlady of the little hotel at St. Martin du Var assured me that she +always left her front door open all night. Nothing had ever happened to +alarm her but the invasion of three English ladies at midnight, one of +these of gigantic stature and armed with a huge stick. The trio were +making a pedestrian journey across country, apparently taking this +security for granted. Neither brigands nor burglars could have given +the poor woman a greater fright than the untimely appearance of my +countrywomen. + +It was now too hot to visit the open tracts of pasture and cultivation +alongside the Var. The farmer's wife proposed a shady walk to a +neighbouring farm instead, our errand being to procure milk for my five +o'clock tea. Without hat or umbrella, my companion set off, chatting as +we went. She explained to me that on Sundays she wore bonnet and mantle +after the fashion of a _bourgeoise_; in other words, she dressed like a +lady, but that neither in summer nor winter at any other time did she +cover her head. She was a pleasant-mannered, intelligent, affable woman, +almost toothless, as are so many well-to-do middle-aged folks in France. +Dentists must fare badly throughout the country. No one ever seems to +have a guinea to spend upon false teeth. + +We were soon out of the village, and passing the pretty garden of the +Gendarmerie, reached a scene of unimaginable, unforgettable beauty. +Never shall I forget the splendour of the olive trees set around a +wide, brilliantly green meadow; near the farmhouse groves of +pomegranate, orange and lemon with ripening fruit; beside these, medlar +and hawthorn trees (_cratoegus azarolus_), the golden leafage and +coral-red fruit of the latter having a striking effect; beyond, silvery +peaks, and, above all, a heaven of warm, yet not too dazzling blue. At +the farther end of the meadow, in which a solitary cow grazed at will, +a labourer was preparing a ribbon-like strip of land for corn, beside +him, pretending to work too, his little son of five years. My hostess +held up her jug and stated her errand, proposing that the cow should be +milked a trifle earlier in order to suit my convenience. The man +good-naturedly replied that, as far as the matter concerned himself, he +was agreeable enough, but that the cow was not so easily to be put out +of her way. She was milked regularly as clockwork at a quarter to five, +the clock had only just struck four; he might leave his work and take +her home, but not a drop of milk would she give before the proper time! +Leaving our jug, we roamed about this little paradise, unwilling to +quit a scene of unblemished beauty. A more bewitching spot I do not +recall; and it seemed entirely shut off from the world, on all sides, +unbroken quiet, nothing to mar the exquisiteness of emerald turf, +glossy foliage of orange and lemon trees, silvery olive in striking +contrast, and above, a cloudless sky. In the heart of a primeval forest +we could not feel more alone. + +The thought occurred to me how perfect were such a holiday resort could +a clean little lodging be found near! With some attention to +cleanliness and sanitation, the little hotel at St. Martin du Var might +satisfy the unfastidious. I am bound to admit that in French phrase it +leaves much to desire. + +My host gave me a good deal of interesting information about the place +and the people. Excellent communal schools with lay teachers of both +sexes have been opened under French regime; and the village of five +hundred and odd souls has, of course, its Mairie, Hotel de Ville, and +Gendarmerie, governing itself after the manner of French villages. + +Whilst the ladies of the house chatted with me they knitted away at +socks and stockings, in coarse, bright-coloured wool. Such articles are +never bought, the home-made substitute being much more economical in the +end. As an instance of the solid comfort of these apparently frugal +folks, let me mention their homespun linen sheets. My hostess showed me +some coarse bed-linen lately woven for her in the village. Calico +sheets, she said, were much cheaper, but she preferred this durable +home-spun even at three times the price. An old woman in the village +still plied the loom, working up neighbours' materials at three francs a +day. The flax has to be purchased also, so that the homespun sheet is a +luxury; "and at the same time," the housewife added, "a work of +charity. This poor old woman lives by her loom. It is a satisfaction to +help her to a mouthful of bread." + +The moon had risen when I took leave, hostess, little daughter, and +sister all accompanying me to the station, reiterating their wish to see +me again. Nothing, indeed, would have been pleasanter than to idle away +weeks amid this adorable scenery and these charming people. But life is +short and France is immense. The genially uttered _au revoir_ becomes +too often a mere figure of speech. + +I add, by the way, that the little daughter, now trotting daily to the +village school, is sure to have a handsome dowry by and by. Four +thousand pounds is no unusual portion of a rich peasant's daughter in +these regions. As an old resident at Nice informed me, "The peasants are +richer than the _bourgeoisie_"--as they deserve to be, seeing their +self-denial and thrift. + + + +XII + +PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +Pessicarz is a hamlet not mentioned in either French or English +guide-books; yet the drive thither is far more beautiful than the +regulation excursions given in tourists' itineraries. The road winds in +corkscrew fashion above the exquisite bay and city, gleaming as if built +of marble, amid scenes of unbroken solitude. Between groves of veteran +olives and rocks rising higher and higher, we climb for an hour and a +half, then leaving behind us the wide panorama of Nice, Cimiez, the sea, +and villa-dotted hills, take a winding inland road, as beautiful as can +be imagined. Here, nestled amid chestnut woods, lay the little farm I +had come to see, consisting of three hectares let at a rent of five +hundred francs (between seven and eight acres, rented at twenty pounds a +year), the products being shared between owner and tenant. This modified +system of _metayage_ or half profits is common here, and certainly +affords a stepping-stone to better things. By dint of uncompromising +economy, the metayer may ultimately become a small owner. The farmhouse +was substantially built and occupied by both landlord and tenant, the +latter with his family living on the ground floor. This arrangement +probably answers two purposes, economy is effected, and fraud prevented +on the part of the metayer. Pigs and poultry are noisy animals, and if a +dishonest tenant wanted to smuggle any of these away by night, they +would certainly betray him. The housewife, in the absence of her +husband, received me very kindly. I was of course introduced by a +neighbour, who explained my errand, and she at once offered to show me +round. She was a sturdy, good-natured-looking woman, very well-dressed +and speaking French fairly. The first thing she did was to show me her +poultry, of which she was evidently very proud. This she accomplished by +calling out in a loud voice, "Poules, poules, poules" ("chickens, +chickens, chickens"), as if addressing children, whereupon they came +fluttering out of the chestnut woods, fifty or more, some of fine breed. +These fowls are kept for laying, and not for market, the eggs being sent +daily into Nice. She then asked me indoors, the large kitchen being on +one side of the door, the outhouses on the other. Beyond the kitchen was +a large bedroom, her children, she explained, sleeping upstairs. Both +rooms were smoke-dried to the colour of mahogany, unswept and very +untidy, but the good woman seemed quite sensible of these disadvantages +and apologized on account of narrow space. A large supply of clothes +hung upon pegs in the bed-chamber, and it possessed also a very handsome +old upright clock. The kitchen, besides stores of cooking utensils, had +a stand for best china, and on the walls were numerous unframed +pictures. I mention these trifling details to show that even among the +poorer peasant farmers something is found for ornament; they do not live +as Zola would have us believe, for sordid gains alone. + +We next visited the pigs, of which she possessed about a dozen in three +separate styes. These are fed only upon grain and the kitchen wash +supplied from hotels; but she assured me that the disgusting story I +had heard at Nice was true. There are certain pork-rearing +establishments in the department at which carrion is purchased and +boiled down for fattening pigs. My hostess seemed quite alive to the +unwholesomeness of such a practice, and we had a long talk about pigs, +of which I happen to know something; that they are dirt-loving animals +is quite a mistake; none more thoroughly enjoy a good litter of clean +straw. I was glad to find this good woman entirely of the same opinion. +She informed me with evident satisfaction that fresh straw was always +thrown down on one side of the piggery at night, and that the animals +always selected it for repose. + +The first lot were commodiously housed, but I reasoned with her with +regard to the other two, the pig-styes being mere caverns without light +or air, and the poor creatures grunting piteously to be let out. She +told me that they were always let out at sundown, and heard what I had +to say about pigs requiring air, let us hope to some purpose. Certainly, +departmental professors have an uphill task before them in +out-of-the-way regions. These poor people are said to be extremely +frugal as a rule, but too apt to squander their years' savings at a +paternal fete, wedding or any other festivity. Generations must elapse +ere they are raised to the level of the typical French peasant. On the +score of health they may compare favourably with any race. A fruit and +vegetable diet seems sufficient in this climate. Besides her poultry and +pigs my farmeress had not much to show me; but a plot of flowers for +market, a little corn, and a few olive trees added grist to the mill. On +the whole, want of comfort, cleanliness, and order apart, I should say +that even such a condition contrasts favourably with that of an English +agricultural labourer. Without doubt, were we to inquire closely into +matters, we should discover a sum of money invested or laid by for +future purchases utterly beyond the reach of a Suffolk ploughman. + +Just below the little farm I visited a philanthropic experiment +interesting to English visitors. This was an agricultural orphanage +founded by an Englishman two years before, seventeen waifs and strays +having been handed over to him by the Municipal Council of Nice. The +education of the poor little lads is examined once a year by a school +inspector, in other respects the proteges are left to their new patron. +Here they are taught household and farm work, fruit and flower culture, +the business of the dairy, carpentering, and other trades; being +afterwards placed out. I question whether an English Board of Guardians +would so readily hand over seventeen workhouse lads to a foreigner, but +it is to be hoped that the Nicois authorities will have no reason to +regret their confidence. The boys do no work on Sundays, and once a year +have a ten days' tramp in the country; the buildings are spacious and +airy, but I was sorry to see a plank-bed used as a punishment. + +Indeed, I should say that the system pursued savours too much of the +military. Here, be it remembered, no juvenile criminals are under +restraint, only foundlings guilty of burdening society. Whether this +school exists still I know not. + +Very different was the impression produced by the State Horticultural +College recently opened at Antibes. + +Around the lovely little bay the country still remains pastoral and +unspoiled; a mile or two from the railway station and we are in the +midst of rural scenes, tiny farms border the road, patches of corn, +clover, vineyard, and flower-garden--flowers form the chief harvest of +these sea-board peasants--orange, lemon and olive groves with here and +there a group of palms, beyond these the violet hills and dazzling blue +sea, such is the scenery, and could a decent little lodging be found in +its midst, the holiday resort were perfect. + +One drawback to existence is the treatment of animals. As I drove +towards the college a countryman passed with a cart and pair of horses, +the hindmost had two raw places on his haunches as large as a penny +piece. I hope and believe that in England such an offender would have +got seven days' imprisonment. The Italians, as we all know, have no +feeling for animals, and the race here is semi-Italian--wholly so, if we +may judge by physiognomy and complexion. + +Until the foundation of the Horticultural College here, the only one in +existence on French soil was that of Versailles. Whilst farm-schools +have been opened in various parts of the country, and special branches +have their separate institutions, the teaching of horticulture remained +somewhat in abeyance. Forestry is studied at Nancy, husbandry in general +at Rennes, Grignan, and Amiens, the culture of the vine at Montpellier, +drainage and irrigation at Quimperle, all these great schools being made +accessible to poorer students by means of scholarships. + +In no other region of France could a Horticultural College be so +appropriately placed as in the department of the Alpes Maritimes. It is +not only one vast flower-garden, but at the same time a vast +conservatory, the choice flowers exported for princely tables in winter +being all reared under glass. How necessary, then, that every detail of +this delightful and elaborate culture should be taught the people, whose +mainstay it is, a large proportion being as entirely dependent upon +flowers as the honey bee! Here, and in the neighbourhood of Nice, they +are cultivated for market and exportation, not for perfume distilleries +as at Grasse. + +The State School of Antibes was created by the Minister of Agriculture +in 1891, and is so unlike anything of the kind in England that a brief +description will be welcome. The first point to be noted is its +essentially democratic spirit. When did a farm-labourer's son among +ourselves learn any more of agriculture than his father or +fellow-workmen could teach him? At Antibes, as in the numerous +farm-schools (fermes-ecoles) now established throughout France, the +pupils are chiefly recruited from the peasant class. + +How, will it be asked, can a small tenant farmer or owner of three or +four acres afford to lose his son's earnings as soon as he quits school, +much less to pay even a small sum for his education? The difficulty is +met thus: in the first place, the yearly sum for board, lodging and +teaching is reduced to the minimum, viz. five hundred francs a year; in +the second, large numbers of scholarships are open to pupils who have +successfully passed the examination of primary schools, and whose +parents can prove their inability to pay the fees. No matter how poor he +may be, the French peasant takes a long look ahead. He makes up his mind +to forfeit his son's help or earnings for a year or two in view of the +ulterior advantage. A youth having studied at Antibes, would come out +with instruction worth much more than the temporary loss of time and +money. That parents do reason in this way is self-evident. On the +occasion of my visit, of the twenty-seven students by far the larger +proportion were exhibitioners, sons of small owners or tenants. Lads are +admitted from fourteen years and upwards, and must produce the +certificate of primary studies, answering to that of our Sixth Standard, +or pass an entrance examination. The school is under State supervision, +the teaching staff consisting of certificated professors. The discipline +is of the simplest, yet, I was assured, quite efficacious. If a lad, +free scholar or otherwise, misbehaves himself, he is called before the +director and warned that a second reprimand only will be given, the +necessity of a third entailing expulsion. No more rational treatment +could be devised. + +Besides practical teaching in the fields and gardens, consisting as yet +of only twenty-five hectares, or nearly sixty acres, a somewhat +bewildering course of study is given. The list of subjects begins well. +First, a lad is here taught his duties as the head of a family, a +citizen, and a man of business. Then come geography, history, +arithmetic, book-keeping, trigonometry, linear drawing, mechanics, +chemistry, physics, natural history, botany, geology, _agrologie_, or +the study of soils, irrigation, political economy. Whilst farming +generally is taught, the speciality of the school is fruit and flower +culture. A beautiful avenue of palm and orange trees leads from the +road to the block of buildings, the director's house standing just +outside. I was fortunate in finding this gentleman at home, and he +welcomed me with the courtesy, I may say cordiality, I have ever +received from professors of agriculture and practical farmers in France. + +We immediately set out for our survey, my companion informing me, to my +surprise, that the gardens I now gazed on so admiringly formed a mere +wilderness a few years ago, that is to say, until their purchase by the +State. The palm and orange trees had been brought hither and +transplanted, everything else had sprung up on the roughly-cleared +ground. Palm trees are reared on the school lands for exportation to +Holland, there, of course, to be kept under glass; ere long the +exportation of palms and orange trees will doubtless become as +considerable as that of hothouse flowers. + +I was shown magnificent palms fifteen years old, and nurseries of tiny +trees, at this stage of their existence unlovely as birch brooms. +Hitherto, majestic although its appearance, the palm of the Riviera has +not produced dates. The director is devoting much time to this subject, +and hopes ere long to gather his crop. + +As we passed between the orange trees, here and there the deep green +glossy fruit turning to gold, I heard the same report as at Pessicarz. +At neither place can the lads resist helping themselves to the unripe +oranges. Sour apples and green oranges seem quite irresistible to +hobbledehoys. The trees were laden with fruit, and, unless blown off by +a storm, the crop would be heavy. An orange tree on an average produces +to the value of two hundred francs. + +I was next taken to the newly-created vineyards, some consisting of +French grafts on American stock, others American plants; but vines are +capricious, and one vineyard looked sickly enough, although free from +parasites. The climate did not suit it, that was all. + +But by far the most important and interesting crops here are the +hothouse flowers. I fancy few English folks think of glass-houses in +connection with the Riviera. Yet the chief business of horticulturists +during a large portion of the year is in the conservatory. Brilliant as +is the winter sun, the nights are cold and the fall of temperature +after sundown extremely rapid. Only the hardier flowers, therefore, +remain out of doors. + +I was now shown the glass-houses being made ready for the winter. All +the choice flowers, roses, carnations and others, sent to Paris, London, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, are grown under glass. Roses thus cultivated +will bring four francs per dozen to the grower; I was even told of +choicest kinds sold from the conservatories at a franc each. It may +easily be conceived how profitable is this commerce, destined without +doubt to become more so as the culture of flowers improves. New +varieties are ever in demand for royal or millionaires' tables, bridal +bouquets, funeral wreaths. I was told the discoverer or creator of a +blue carnation would make his fortune. I confess this commercial aspect +of flowers takes something from their poetry. Give me a cottager's plot +of sweet-williams and columbine instead of the floral paragon evolved +for the gratification of the curious! As we strolled about we came upon +groups of students at work. All politely raised their hats when we +passed, and by their look and manner might have been taken for young +gentlemen. + +A great future doubtless awaits this delightfully placed Horticultural +School. Whilst the object primarily aimed at by the State is the +education of native gardeners and floriculturists, other results may be +confidently expected. No rule keeps out foreigners, and just as our +Indian candidates for the Forestry service prepare themselves at Nancy, +so intending fruit-growers in Tasmania will in time betake themselves to +Antibes. A colonial, as well as an international element is pretty sure +to be added. French subjects beyond seas will certainly avail themselves +of privileges not to be had at home, carrying away with them knowledge +of the greatest service in tropical France. Horticulture as a science +must gain greatly by such a centre, new methods being tried, improved +systems put into practice. In any case, the department may fairly be +congratulated on its recent acquisition, one, alas, we have to set +against very serious drawbacks! In these intensely hot and glaring days +of mid-October, the only way of enjoying life is to betake oneself to a +sailing-boat. Few English folks realize the torture of mosquito-invaded +nights on the Riviera. As to mosquito curtains, they afford a remedy +ofttimes worse than the disease, keeping out what little air is to be +had and admitting, here and there, one mosquito of slenderer bulk and +more indomitable temper than the rest. After two or three utterly +sleepless nights the most enthusiastic traveller will sigh for grey +English skies, pattering drops and undisturbed sleep. At sea, you may +escape both blinding glare and mosquito bites. A boat is also the only +means of realizing the beauty of the coast. Most beautiful is the +roundabout sail from Cannes to the Ile St. Marguerite: I say roundabout, +because, if the wind is adverse, the boatmen have to make a circuit, +going out of their course to the length of four or five miles. Every +tourist knows the story of the Iron Mask; few are perhaps aware that in +the horrible prison in which Louis XIV kept him for seventeen years, +Protestants were also incarcerated, their only crime being that they +would not perjure themselves, in other words, feign certain beliefs to +please the tyrant. + +At the present time the cells adjoining the historic dungeon of the +Masque de Fer are more cheerfully occupied. Soldiers are placed there +for slight breaches of discipline, their confinement varying from twelve +hours to a few days. We heard two or three occupants gaily whiling away +the time by singing patriotic songs, under the circumstances the best +thing they could do. Lovely indeed was the twenty minutes' sail back to +Cannes, the sea, deep indigo, the sky, intensest blue, white villas +dotting the green hills, far away the violet mountains. When we betake +ourselves to the railway or carriage road, we must make one comparison +very unfavourable to English landscape. Here building stone, as bricks +and mortar with us, is daily and hourly invading pastoral scenes, but +the hideous advertizing board is absent in France. We do not come upon +monster advertisements of antibilious pills, hair dye, or soap amid +olive groves and vineyards. Let us hope that the vulgarization +permitted among ourselves will not be imitated by our neighbours. + +In 1789 Arthur Young described the stretch of country between Frejus +and Cannes as a desert, "not one mile in twenty cultivated." Will +Europe and America, with the entire civilized world, furnish +valetudinarians in sufficient numbers to fill the hotels, villas, and +boarding houses now rising at every stage of the same way? The matter +seems problematic, yet last winter accommodation at Nice barely +sufficed for the influx of visitors. + +Nice is the most beautiful city in France, I am tempted to say the most +beautiful city I ever beheld. It is the last in which I should choose to +live or even winter. + +Site, sumptuosity, climate, vegetation here attain their acme; so far, +indeed, Nice may be pronounced flawless. During a certain portion of the +year, existence, considered from the physical and material point of +view, were surely here perfect. When we come to the social and moral +aspect of the most popular health resort in Europe, a very different +conclusion is forced upon us. + +Blest in itself, Nice is cursed in its surroundings. So near is that +plague spot of Europe, Monte Carlo, that it may almost be regarded as a +suburb. For a few pence, in half-an-hour, you may transport yourself +from a veritable earthly Paradise to what can only be described as a +gilded Inferno. Unfortunately evil is more contagious than good. Certain +medical authorities aver that the atmosphere of Mentone used to be +impregnated with microbes of phthisis; the germs of moral disease +infecting the immediate neighbourhood of Nice are far more appalling. +Nor are symptoms wanting of the spread of that moral disease. The +municipal council of this beautiful city, like Esau, had just sold their +birthright for a mess of pottage. They had conceded the right of +gambling to the Casino, the proprietors purchasing the right by certain +outlays in the way of improvements, a new public garden, and so on. As +yet roulette and rouge-et-noir are not permitted at Nice, the gambling +at present carried on being apparently harmless. It is in reality even +more insidious, being a stepping-stone to vice, a gradual initiation +into desperate play. Just as addiction to absinthe is imbibed by potions +quite innocuous in the beginning, so the new Casino at Nice schools the +gamester from the outset, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees preparing +him for ruin, dishonour and suicide. + +The game played is called _Petits Chevaux_, and somewhat resembles our +nursery game of steeplechase. The stakes are only two francs, but as +there are eight to each horse, and you may take as many as you please, +it is quite easy to lose several hundred francs in one evening--or, for +the matter of that, one afternoon. Here, as at Monte Carlo, the gambling +rooms remain open from noon till midnight. The buildings are on an +imposing scale: reading rooms, a winter garden, concerts, entertainments +of various kinds blinding the uninitiated to the real attraction of the +place, namely, the miniature horses spinning around the tables. +Already--I write of October--eager crowds stood around, and we heard +the incessant chink of falling coin. This modified form of gambling is +especially dangerous to the young. Parents, who on no account would let +their children toss a five-franc piece on to the tables of Monte Carlo, +see no harm in watching them play at _petits chevaux_. They should, +first of all, make a certain ghastly pilgrimage I will now relate. + +Monaco does not as yet, politically speaking, form a part of French +territory; from a geographical point of view we are obliged so to regard +it. Thus French geographers and writers of handbooks include the tiny +principality, which for the good of humanity, let us hope, may ere long +be swallowed up by an earthquake--or moralized! The traveller then is +advised to take train to Monaco, and, arrived at the little station, +whisper his errand in the cab-driver's ear, "To the suicides' cemetery." + +For the matter of that, it is an easy walk enough for all who can stand +the burning sun and glare of white walls and buildings. Very lovely, +too, is the scene as we slowly wind upwards, the road bordered with +aloes and cypresses; above, handsome villas standing amid orange groves +and flowers; below, the sparkling sea. + +A French cemetery, with its wreaths of beadwork and artificial violets, +has ever a most depressing appearance. That of Monaco is like any other, +we find the usual magnificence, and usual tinsel. Many beautiful trees, +shrubs, and flowers, however, relieve the gloom, and every inch is +exquisitely kept. + +Quite apart from this vast burial-ground, on the other side of the main +entrance, is a small enclosure, walled in and having a gate of open +ironwork always locked. Here, in close proximity to heaps of garden +rubbish, broken bottles and other refuse, rest the suicides of Monte +Carlo, buried by the parish gravedigger, without funeral and without any +kind of religious ceremony. Each grave is marked by an upright bit of +wood, somewhat larger than that by which gardeners mark their seeds, and +on which is painted a number, nothing more. Apart from these, are +stakes driven into the ground which mark as yet unappropriated spots. +The indescribable dreariness of the scene is heightened by two +monumental stones garlanded with wreaths and surrounded by flowers. The +first records the memory of a young artisan, and was raised by his +fellow-workmen; the second commemorates brotherly and sisterly +affection. Both suicides were driven to self-murder by play. The +remainder are mere numbers. There are poor gamesters as well as rich, +and it is only or chiefly these who are put into the ground here. The +bodies of rich folks' relatives, if identified, are immediately removed, +and, by means of family influence, interred with religious rites. Many +suicides are buried at Nice and Mentone, but the larger proportion, +farther off still. Not to descant further on this grim topic, let me now +say something about Monte Carlo itself. + +Never anywhere was snare more plainly set in the sight of any bird. +There is little in the way of amusement that you do not get for nothing +here, a beautiful pleasure-ground, reading-rooms as luxurious and +well-supplied as those of a West End club, one of the best orchestras in +Europe, and all without cost of a farthing. + +The very lavishness arouses suspicion in the minds of the wary. Why +should we be supplied, not only with every English newspaper we ever +heard of, but with _Punch_, _Truth_, and similar publications to boot? Why +should Germans, Russians, Dutch, every other European nation, receive +treatment equally generous? Again, to be able to sit down at elegant +writing-tables and use up a quire of fine notepaper and a packet of +envelopes to match, if we chose, how is all this managed? The concerts +awaken a feeling of even intenser bewilderment. Not so much as a penny +are we allowed to pay for a programme, to say nothing of the trained +musicians. Where is the compensation of such liberality? + +The gambling tables, crowded even at three o'clock on an October +afternoon, answer our question. The season begins later, but gamblers +cannot wait. "Faites le jeu, messieurs; messieurs, faites le jeu," is +already heard from noon to midnight, and the faster people ruin +themselves and send a pistol shot through their heads, the faster others +take their place. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how many once +respectable lives, heads of families, even wives and mothers, are being +gradually lured on to bankruptcy and suicide. + +In cruellest contrast to the moral degradation fostered below, is the +enormous cathedral, at the time of my visit in course of erection +directly above the gambling rooms. The millions of francs expended on +this sumptuous basilica were supplied by the proprietors of the Casino +and the Prince of Monaco. Nothing can strike the stranger with a +stronger sense of incongruity--a church rising from the very heart of a +Pandemonium! + +Monaco is a pretty, toy-like, Lilliputian kingdom compared with which +the smallest German principality of former days was enormous. Curiously +enough, whilst Monte Carlo is peopled with gamesters, the only tenants +of Monaco seem to be priests, nuns and their pupils. The miniature +capital, state and kingdom in one, consists chiefly of convents and +seminaries, and wherever you go you come upon these Jesuit fathers with +their carefully-guarded troops of lads in uniform. A survey of the +entire principality of Monaco, Monte Carlo included, requires about a +quarter of an hour. Nowhere, surely, on the face of the civilized globe +is so much mischief contained in so small a space. Fortunately, the +poisonous atmosphere of the Casino does not seem to affect the native +poor. Everywhere we are struck by the thrifty, sober, hard-working +population; beggars or ragged, wretched-looking creatures are very rare. +If the authorities of the Alpes Maritimes have set themselves to put +down vagrancy, they have certainly succeeded. + +Nice is a home for the millionaire and the working man. The intermediate +class is not wanted. Visitors are expected to have money, are welcomed +on that account, and if they have to look to pounds, shillings, and +pence, had much better remain at home. + +Woe betide the needy invalid sent thither in search of sunshine! +Sunshine is indeed a far more expensive luxury on the Riviera than we +imagine, seeing that only rooms with a north aspect are cheap, and a +sunless room is much more comfortless and unwholesome than a well-warmed +one, no matter its aspect, in England. The only cheap commodity, one +unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet. In October, that is +to say, before the arrival of winter visitors, flowers are to be had for +the asking; on the market-place an enormous bouquet of tuberoses, +violets, carnations, myrtle, priced at two or three francs, the price in +Paris being twenty. Fruit also I found cheap, figs fourpence a dozen, +and other kinds in proportion. This market is the great sight of Nice, +and seen on a cloudless day--indeed it would be difficult to see it on +any other--is a glory of colour of which it is impossible to give the +remotest notion. I was somewhat taken aback to find Sunday less +observed here as a day of rest than in any other French town I know, and +not many French towns are unknown to me. The flower and fruit markets +were crowded, drapers', grocers', booksellers' shops open all day long, +traffic unbroken as usual. I should have imagined that a city, for +generations taken possession of by English visitors, would by this time +have fallen into our habit of respecting Sunday alike in the interests +of man and beast. Of churches, both English and American, there is no +lack. Let us hope that the Protestant clergy will turn their attention +to this subject. Let us hope also that the entire English-speaking +community will second their efforts in this direction. Further, I will +put in a good word for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals founded at Nice some years since, and sadly in need of funds. +The Society is backed up by the Government in accordance with the +admirable Loi Grammont, but, as is the case with local societies in +England, requires extraneous help. Surely rich English valetudinarians +will not let this humane work stand still, seeing, as they must do +daily, the urgent necessity of such interference! From the windows of a +beautiful villa on the road to Villefranche, I saw baskets of chickens +brought in from Italy, the half of which were dead or dying from +suffocation. As the owner of the villa said, "Not even self-interest +teaches this Italian humanity." By packing his fowls so as to afford +them breathing space, he would double his gains. The habit of cruelty is +too inveterate. My host assured me that large numbers of poultry sent +across the frontier are suffocated on the way. + +Horrible also is the pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo. Hundreds of these +wretched birds are killed for sport every day during the winter. The +wounded or escaped fly back after a while to be shot at next day. + +The word "villa" calls for comment. Such a designation is appropriate +here. The palatial villas of Nice, standing amid orangeries and palm +groves, are worthy of their Roman forerunners. For the future I shall +resent the term as applied in England to eight-roomed, semi-detached +constructions, poorly built, and with a square yard of flower-bed in +front. Many of the Nicois villas are veritable palaces, and what adds to +their sumptuousness is the indoor greenery, dwarf palms, india-rubber +trees, and other handsome evergreens decorating corridor and +landing-places. The English misnomer has, nevertheless, compensations in +snug little kitchen and decent servant's bedroom. I looked over a +handsome villa here, type, I imagine, of the rest. The servants' +bedrooms were mere closets with openings on to a dark corridor, no +windows, fireplace, cupboard, or any convenience. The kitchen was a +long, narrow room, after the manner of French kitchens, with space by +the window for two or three chairs. I ventured to ask the mistress of +the house where the servants sat when work was done. Her answer was +suggestive-- + +"They have no time to sit anywhere." + +It will be seen that our grey skies and mean-looking dwellings have +compensations. + + + +XIII + +GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +"Nine hours' rolling at anchor" was Arthur Young's experience of a +Channel passage in 1787, and on the return journey he was compelled to +wait three days for a wind. Two years later, what is in our own time a +delightful little pleasure cruise of one hour and a quarter, the journey +from Dover to Calais occupied fourteen hours. + +We might suppose from the hundreds of thousands of English travellers +who yearly cross the Manche, that Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders +would overflow with them, that we should hear English speech wherever we +go, and find ourselves amid more distinctly English surroundings than +even in Switzerland or Norway; but no such thing. From the moment I +quitted Boulogne to that of my departure from Calais, having made the +round by way of Hesdin, Arras, Vitry-en-Artois, Douai, Lille, St. Omer, +I no more encountered an English tourist than on the Causses of the +Lozere a few years before. Many years later, on going over much of the +same ground, with a halt at Etaples and Le Touquet, it was much the +same. Yet such a tour, costing so little as regards money, time and +fatigue, teems with interest of very varied and unlooked-for kind. + +Every inch of ground is historic to begin with, and has contributed its +page to Anglo-French annals or English romance. We may take the little +railway from Hesdin to Abbeville, traversing the forest of Crecy, and +drive across the cornfields to Agincourt. We may stop at Montreuil, +which now looks well, not only "on the map," but from the railway +carriage, reviving our recollections of Tristram Shandy. At Douai we +find eighty English boys playing cricket and football under the eye of +English Benedictine monks--their college being a survival of the +persecutions of Good Queen Bess. + +And to come down from history and romance to astounding prose, we find, +a few years ago, Roubaix, a town of 114,000 souls, that is to say, a +fourth of the population of Lyons--a town whose financial transactions +with the Bank of France exceed those of Rheims, Nimes, Toulouse, or +Montpellier, represented by a man of the people, the important functions +of mayor being filled by the proprietor of a humble _estaminet_ and +vendor of newspapers, character and convictions only having raised the +Socialist leader to such a post! + +In rural districts there is also much to learn. Peasant property exists +more or less in every part of France, but we are here more especially in +presence of agriculture on a large scale. In the Pas-de-Calais and the +Nord we find high farming in right good earnest, holdings of from ten to +fifteen hundred acres conducted on the footing of large industrial +concerns, capital, science and enterprise being alike brought to bear +upon the cultivation of the soil and by private individuals. + +I travelled from Boulogne to Hesdin, in time for the first beautiful +effect of spring-tide flower and foliage. The blackthorn and pear trees +were already in full blossom, and the elm, poplar and chestnut just +bursting into leaf. Everything was very advanced, and around the +one-storeyed, white-washed cottages the lilacs showed masses of bloom, +field and garden being a month ahead of less favoured years. + + * * * * * + +Near Etaples the wide estuary of the Canche showed clear, lake-like +sheets of water amid the brilliant greenery; later are passed sandy +downs with few trees or breaks in the landscape. This part of France +should be seen during the budding season; of itself unpicturesque, it is +yet beautified by the early foliage. Hesdin is an ancient, quiet little +town on the Canche, with tanneries making pictures--and smells--by the +river, unpaved streets, and a very curious bit of civic architecture, +the triple-storeyed portico of the Hotel de Ville. Its 7000 and odd +souls were soon to have their museum, the nucleus being a splendid set +of tapestries representing the battle of Agincourt, in loveliest shades +of subdued blue and grey. The little inn is very clean and comfortable; +for five francs a day you obtain the services of the master, who is +cook; the mistress, who is chambermaid; and the daughters of the house, +who wait at table. Such, at least, was my experience. + + * * * * * + +My errand was to the neighbouring village of Hauteville-Caumont, whither +I drove one afternoon. Quitting the town in a north-easterly direction, +we enter one of those long, straight French roads that really seem as if +they would never come to an end. The solitude of the scene around is +astonishing to English eyes. For miles we only meet two road-menders and +an itinerant glazier. On either side, far as the glance could reach, +stretches the chessboard landscape--an expanse oceanic in its vastness +of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land +prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this +plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness +of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays +of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level +uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips +here and there, showing tiny combes and bits of refreshing wood. The +houses, whether of large landowner, functionary or peasant, are +invariably one-storeyed, the white walls, brown tiles, or thatched roof +having an old-fashioned, rustic effect. One might suppose earthquakes +were common from this habit of living on the ground floor. The dryness +of the climate doubtless obviates risk of damp. Much more graceful are +the little orchards of these homesteads than the mathematically planted +cider apples seen here in all stages of growth. Even the blossoms of +such trees later on cannot compare with the glory of an orchard, in the +old acceptance of the word, having reached maturity in the natural way. +Certain portions of rural France are too geometrical. That I must admit. + +Exquisitely clean, to use a farmer's expression, are these sweeps of +corn and ploughed land, belonging to different owners, yet apparently +without division. Only boundary stones at intervals mark the limits. +Here we find no infinitesimal subdivision and no multiplicity of crops. +Wheat, clover, oats form the triennial course, other crops being rye, +potatoes, Swede turnips, sainfoin and the _oeillette_ or oil poppy. The +cider apple is also an important product. + +I found my friend's friend at home, and after a chat with madame and her +daughter, we set out for our round of inspection. This gentleman farmed +his own land, a beautifully cultivated estate of several hundred acres; +here and there a neighbour's field dovetailed into his own, but for the +greater part lying compactly together. The first object that attracted +my notice was a weather-beaten old windmill--sole survivor of myriads +formerly studding the country. This antiquated structure might have been +the identical one slashed at by Don Quixote. Iron grey, dilapidated, +solitary, it rose between green fields and blue sky, like a lighthouse +in mid-ocean. These mills are still used for crushing rye, the mash +being mixed with roots for cattle, and the straw used here, as +elsewhere, for _liage_ or tying up wheatsheaves. The tenacity of this +straw makes it very valuable for such purposes. + +Corn, rye and sainfoin were already very advanced, all here testifying +to highly scientific farming; and elsewhere roots were being sown. The +soil is prepared by a process called _marnage_, _i.e_. dug up to the +extent of three feet, the _marne_ or clayey soil being brought to the +surface. A very valuable manure is that of the scoria or residue of +dephosphated steel, formerly thrown away as worthless, but now largely +imported from Hungary for agricultural purposes. Nitrate is also largely +used to enrich the soil. Sixty years ago the Pas-de-Calais possessed +large forests. Here at Caumont vast tracts have been cleared and brought +under culture since that time. These denuded plateaux, at a considerable +elevation above the sea-level, are naturally very dry and very cold in +winter, the climate being gradually modified by the almost total absence +of trees. Wisely has the present Government interdicted further +destruction; forests are now created instead, and we find private +individuals planting instead of hacking down. Lucerne is not much +cultivated, and my host told me an interesting fact concerning it; in +order to grow lucerne, farmers must procure seeds of local growers. +Seeds from the south of France do not produce robust plants. + +The purple-flowered poppy, cultivated for the production of oil, must +form a charming crop in summer, and is a most important product. I was +assured that oil procured from crushed seeds is the only kind absolutely +free from flavour, and as such superior even to that of olives. Of equal +importance is the cider apple. + +The economic results of war are curiously exemplified here. During the +war of 1871 German troops were stationed in the neighbouring department +of the Somme, and there acquired the habit of drinking cider. So +agreeable was found this drink that cider apples are now largely +exported to Germany, and just as a Frenchman now demands his Bock at a +cafe, so in his Biergarten the German calls for cider. + +My host informed me that all his own apples, grown for commerce, went +over the northern frontier. Cider is said to render the imbiber +gout-proof and rheumatism-proof, but requires a long apprenticeship to +render it palatable. The profits of an apple orchard are threefold. +There is the crop gathered in October, which will produce in fair +seasons 150 francs per hectare, and the two grass crops, apple trees not +hurting the pasture. + +The labourer's harvest here are his potato-fed pigs. In our walks we +came upon men and women sowing potatoes on their bit of hired land; for +the most part their bit of land is tilled on Sundays, a neighbour's +horse being hired or borrowed for the purpose. Thus neither man nor +beast rest on the seventh day, and as a natural consequence church-going +gradually falls into abeyance. My host deplored this habit of turning +Sunday into a veritable _corvee_ for both human beings and cattle, but +said that change of system must be very slow. + +On the whole, the condition of the agricultural labourer here contrasts +very unfavourably with that of the peasant owner described elsewhere. + +The same drawbacks exist as in England. Land for the most part being +held by large owners, accommodation for poorer neighbours is +insufficient. Many able-bodied workmen migrate to the towns, simply +because they cannot get houses to live in; such one-storeyed dwellings +as exist have an uncared-for look, neither are the village folks so well +dressed as in regions of peasant property. In fact, I should say, after +a very wide experience, that peasant property invariably uplifts and +non-propertied labour drags down. This seems to me a conclusion +mathematically demonstrable. + +Mayor of his commune, my host was a man of progress and philanthropy in +the widest sense of the word. He had lately brought about the opening of +an infant school here, and dwelt on the beneficial results; children not +being admitted to the communal schools under the age of seven, were +otherwise thrown on the streets all day. Infant schools are generally +found in the larger communes. Intersecting my host's vast stretches of +field and ploughed land lay the old strategic road from Rouen to St. +Omer, a broad band of dazzling white thrown across the tremendous +panorama. An immense plain is spread before us as a map, now crudely +brilliant in hue, two months later to show blending gold and purple. +Vast, too, the views obtained on the homeward drive. Over against Hesdin +rises its forest--holiday ground of rich and poor, as yet undiscovered +by the tourist. From this friendly little town a charming woodland +journey may be made by the railway now leading through the forest of +Crecy to Abbeville. + +Between Hesdin and Arras the geometrically planted cider apple trees and +poplars growing in parallel lines are without beauty, but by the railway +are bits of waste ground covered with cowslip, wind flowers, +cuckoo-pint, and dandelion. On the top of lofty elms here and there are +dark masses; these are the nests of the magpie, and apparently quite +safe from molestation. + +By the wayside we see evidences of peasant ownership on the most modest +scale, women cutting their tiny patch of rye, as green food for cattle, +sowing their potato field, or keeping a few sheep. Everywhere lilacs +are in full bloom, and the pear and cherry trees burdened with blossom +as snow. Everything is a month ahead of ordinary years. I write of +April 1893. + +The Hotel St. Pol at Arras looks, I should say, precisely as it did in +Robespierre's time. The furniture certainly belongs to that epoch, +sanitary arrangements have made little advance, and the bare staircases +and floors do not appear as if they had been well swept, much less +scoured, since the fall of the Bastille. It is a rambling, I should say +rat-haunted, old place, but fairly quiet and comfortable, with civil +men-servants and no kind of pretence. + +Arras itself, that is to say its Petite Place, is a specimen of +Renaissance architecture hardly to be matched even in France. The +Flemish gables and Spanish arcades, not a vestige of modernization +marring the effect, make a unique picture. Above all rises the first of +those noble belfry towers met by the traveller on this round, souvenirs +of civic rights hardly won and stoutly maintained. The first object +looked for will be Robespierre's birthplace, an eminently respectable +middle-class abode, now occupied by a personage almost as generally +distasteful as that of the Conventionnel himself, namely, a +process-server or bailiff. A bright little lad whom I interrogated on +the way testified the liveliest interest in my quest, and would not lose +sight of me till I had discovered the right house. It is a +yellow-walled, yellow-shuttered, symbolically atrabilious-looking place, +with twenty-three front windows. Robespierre's parents must have been in +decent circumstances when their son Maximilian was born, and perhaps the +reverses of early life had no small share in determining his after +career. Left an orphan in early life, he owed his education and start in +life to charity. The fastidious, poetic, austere country lawyer, unlike +his fellow-conventionnels, was no born orator. Thoughts that breathe and +words that burn did not drop from his lips as from Danton's. His +carefully prepared speeches, even in the apogee of his popularity, were +often interrupted by the cry "Cut it short" or "Keep to the point." The +exponent of Rousseau was ofttimes "long preaching," like St. Paul. + +But there are early utterances of Robespierre's that constitute in +themselves a revolution, when, for instance, in 1789 he pleaded for the +admission of Jews, non-Catholics, and actors to political rights. "The +Jews," he protested, "have been maligned in history. Their reputed vices +arise from the ignominy into which they have been plunged." And although +his later discourses breathe a spirit of frenzied vindictiveness, +certain passages recall that "humane and spiritual element" commented +upon by Charles Nodier. This is especially noticeable in what is called +his _discours-testament_, the speech delivered on the eve of Thermidor. +At one moment, with positive ferocity, he lashes the memory of former +friends and colleagues sent by himself to the guillotine; at another he +dilates upon the virtue of magnanimity in lofty, Platonic strains. + +[ILLUSTRATION: ARRAS, LA PETITE PALACE] + +With Danton's implacable foe it was indeed a case of "Roses, roses, all +the way. Thus I enter, and thus I go." Twenty-four hours after that +peroration he awaited his doom, an object of ruthless execration. And +visitors are still occasionally shown in the Hotel des Archives the +table on which was endured his short but terrible retribution. + +A public day school for girls exists at Arras, but the higher education +of women--we must never lose sight of the fact--is sternly denounced by +Catholic authorities. Lay schools and lay teachers for girls are not +only unfashionable, they are immoral in the eyes of the orthodox. + +The museum and public library, 40,000 and odd volumes, of this town +of 26,000 souls are both magnificent and magnificently housed in the +ancient Abbaye de St. Vaast, adjoining cathedral, bishopric and +public garden. + +Besides pictures, statuary, natural history and archaeological +collections, occupying three storeys, is a room devoted exclusively to +local talent and souvenirs. Among the numerous bequests of generous +citizens is a collection of _faience_ lately left by a tradeswoman, +whose portrait commemorates the deed. Some fine specimens of ancient +tapestry of Arras, hence the name arras, chiefly in shades of grey and +blue, and also specimens of the delicate hand-made Arras lace, are here. +There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used +in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles. + +Quite a third of the visitors thronging these sumptuous rooms were young +recruits. A modern picture of Eustache St. Pierre and his companions, at +the feet of Edward III and his kneeling Queen, evoked much admiration. I +heard one young soldier explaining the subject to a little group. There +were also many family parties, and some blue blouses. How delightful +such a place of resort-not so much in July weather, on this 9th of April +one might fancy it harvest time!--but on bleak, rainy, uninviting days! +One of the officials advised me to visit the recently erected Ecole des +Beaux Arts at the other end of the town, which I did. I would here note +the pride taken in their public collections by all concerned. This +elderly man, most likely an old soldier, seemed as proud of the museum +as if it were his own especial property. + +I was at once shown over the spacious, airy, well-kept building--school +of art and conservatorium of music in one, both built, set on foot, and +maintained by the municipality. Here youths and girls of all ranks can +obtain a thorough artistic and musical training without a fraction of +cost. The classes are held in separate rooms, and boys in addition learn +modelling and mechanical drawing. + +The school was opened four years ago, and already numbers eighty +students of both sexes, girls meeting two afternoons a week, boys every +evening. Arras also possesses an Ecole Normale or large training school +for female teachers. + +On this brilliant Sunday afternoon, although many small shops were open, +I noted the cessation of street traffic. Every one seemed abroad, and +business at a standstill. All the newspaper kiosks were closed. + +Next morning soon after eight o'clock I was off to Vitry-en-Artois for +a day's farming. At the little station I was met by a friend's +friend--a typical young Frenchman, gaiety itself, amiable, easy, all +his faculties alert--and driven by him in a little English dogcart to +the neighbouring village. Twenty-five minutes brought us to our +destination--house and model farm of a neighbour, upwards of twelve +hundred acres, all cultivated on the most approved methods. Our host +now took my young friend's reins, he seating himself behind, and we +drove slowly over a large portion of the estate, taking a zigzag course +across the fields. There are here three kinds of soil--dry, chalky and +unproductive, rich loam, and light intermediate. In spite of the +drought of the last few weeks, the crops are very luxuriant, and quite +a month ahead of former seasons. + +This estate of six hundred and odd hectares is a specimen of high +farming on a large scale, such as I had never before witnessed in +France. I do not exaggerate when I say that from end to end could not +be discerned a single weed. Of course, the expense of cultivation on +such a scale is very great, and hardly remunerative at the present +price of wheat. + +Sixty hectares, _i.e._ nearly 150 acres, are planted with wheat, and +two-thirds of that superficies with beetroot. The young corn was as +advanced as in June with us, some kinds of richer growth than others, +and showing different shades of green, each tract absolutely weedless, +and giving evidence of highest cultivation. Fourteen hectolitres per +hectare of corn is the average, forty the maximum. Besides beetroot for +sugar, clover and sainfoin are grown, little or no barley, and neither +turnips nor mangel-wurzel. + +[Footnote: Hectolitre = 2 bushels 3 pecks.] + +The land is just now prepared for planting beetroot, by far the most +important crop here, and on which I shall have much to say. Henceforth, +indeed, the farming I describe may be called industrial, purely +agricultural products being secondary. + +On the importance of beetroot sugar it is hardly necessary to dwell at +length. A few preliminary facts, however, may be acceptable. Up till the +year 1812, cane sugar only was known in France; the discovery of +beetroot sugar dates from the Continental blockade of that period. In +1885 the amount of raw sugar produced from beetroot throughout France +was 90 millions of kilos. In 1873 the sum-total had reached 400 +millions. The consumption of sugar per head here is nevertheless +one-third less than among ourselves. + +[Footnote: Kilogramme = 2 lb. 3 oz.] + +We come now to see the results of fiscal regulation upon agriculture. +Formerly duty was paid not upon the root itself but its product. This is +now changed, and, the beetroot being taxed, the grower strives after +that kind producing the largest percentage of saccharine matter. Hardly +less important is the residue. The pulp of the crushed beetroot in +these regions forms the staple food of cows, pigs and sheep. Mixed with +chopped straw, it is stored for winter use in mounds by small +cultivators, in enormous cellars constructed on purpose by large owners. +Horses refuse to eat this mixture, which has a peculiar odour, scenting +farm premises from end to end. The chief manure used is that produced on +the farm and nitrates. On this especial estate dried fish from Sweden +had been tried, and, as on the farm before mentioned, chalky land is dug +to the depth of three feet, the better soil being put on the top. This +is the process called _marnage_. We now drove for miles right across the +wide stretches of young wheat and land prepared for beetroot. The wheels +of our light cart, the host said, would do good rather than harm. Horse +beans, planted a few weeks before, were well up; colza also was pretty +forward. Pastures there were none. Although the cornfields were as clean +as royal gardens we came upon parties of women, girls and boys hoeing +here and there. The rows of young wheat showed as much uniformity as a +newly-planted vineyard. + +Ploughing and harrowing were being done chiefly by horses, only a few +oxen being used. My host told me that his animals were never worked on +Sundays. On week-days they remain longer afield than with us, but a +halt of an hour or two is made for food and rest at mid-day. Another +crop to be mentioned is what is called _hivernage_ or winter fodder, +_i.e._ lentils planted between rows of rye, the latter being grown +merely to protect the other. On my query as to the school attendance of +boys and girls employed in agriculture, my host said that authorities +are by no means rigid; at certain seasons of the year, indeed, they are +not expected to attend. Among some large landowners we find tolerably +conservative notions even in France. Over-education, they say, is +unfitting the people for manual labour, putting them out of their place, +and so forth. + +Moles are not exterminated. "They do more good than harm," said my host, +"and I like them." I had heard the same thing at Caumont, where were +many mole-hills. Here and there, dove-tailed into these enormous fields, +were small patches farmed by the peasants, rarely their own property. +Their condition was described as neither that of prosperity nor want. +"They get along." That was the verdict. + +In our long drive across weedless corn and clover fields we came upon a +small wood, a recent plantation of our host. Even this bit of greenery +made a pleasant break in the uniform landscape. We then drove home, and +inspected the premises on foot. Everything was on a colossal scale, +and trim as a Dutch interior. The vast collection of machinery included +the latest French, English, Belgian and American inventions. Steam +engines are fixtures, the consumption of coal being 160 tons yearly per +300 hectares. + +We are thus brought face to face with the agriculture of the future, +ancient methods and appliances being supplanted one by one, manual +labour reduced to the minimum, the cultivation of the soil become purely +mechanical. The idyllic element vanishes from rural life and all savours +of Chicago! Stables and neat-houses were the perfection of cleanliness +and airiness. Here for the first time I saw sheep stabled like cows and +horses. Their quarters were very clean, and littered with fresh straw. +They go afield for a portion of the day, but, as I have before +mentioned, pastures are few and far between. + +The enormous underground store-houses for beetroot, pulp and chopped +straw were now almost empty. At midday, the oxen were led home and fell +to their strange food with appetite, its moistness being undoubtedly an +advantage in dry weather. The cart horses were being fed with boiled +barley, and looked in first-rate condition. Indeed, all the animals +seemed as happy and well-cared for as my host's scores upon scores of +pet birds. Birds, however, are capricious, and nothing would induce a +beautiful green parrot to cry, "Vive la France" in my presence. After an +animated breakfast--thoroughly French breakfast, the best of everything +cooked and served in the best possible manner--we took leave, and my +young friend drove me back to Vitry to call upon his own family. + +M.D., senior, is a miller, and the family dwelling, which adjoins his +huge water-mill, is very prettily situated on the Scarpe. We entered +by a little wooden bridge running outside, a conservatory filled with +exotics and ferns lending the place a fairy look. I never saw anything +in rural France that more fascinated me than this water-mill with its +crystal clear waters and surrounding foliage. M.D. with his three sons +quitted their occupation as we drove up. Madame and her young daughter +joined us in the cool salon, and we chatted pleasantly for a quarter +of an hour. + +I was much struck with the head of the family, an elderly man with blue +eyes, fine features, and a thoughtful expression. He spoke sadly of the +effect of American competition, and admitted that protection could offer +but a mere palliative. Hitherto I had found a keenly protectionist bias +among French agriculturists. Of England and the English he spoke with +much sympathy, although at this time we were as yet far from the Entente +Cordiale. "C'est le plus grand peuple au monde" ("It is the greatest +nation in the world"), he said. + +Nothing could equal the ease and cordiality with which this charming +family received me. The miller with his three elder sons had come +straight from the mill. Well-educated gentlemen are not ashamed of +manual labour in France. How I wished I could have spent days, nay +weeks, in the neighbourhood of the water-mill! + + + +XIV + +LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + +Only three museums in France date prior to the Revolution, those of +Rheims, founded in 1748, and of Dijon and Nancy, founded in 1787. The +opening in Paris of the Museum Francais in 1792, consisting of the royal +collections and art treasures of suppressed convents, was the beginning +of a great movement in this direction. At Lille the municipal +authorities first got together a few pictures in the convent of the +Recollets, and Watteau the painter was deputed to draw up a catalogue. +On the 12th May, 1795, the collection consisted of 583 pictures and 58 +engravings. On the 1st September, 1801, the consuls decreed the +formation of departmental museums and distribution of public art +treasures. It was not, however, till 1848 that the municipal council of +Lille set to work in earnest upon the enrichment of the museum, now one +of the finest in provincial cities. The present superb building was +erected entirely at the expense of the municipality, and was only opened +two years ago. It has recently been enriched by art treasures worth a +million of francs, the gift of a rich citizen and his wife, tapestries, +_faience_, furniture, enamels, ivories, illuminated MSS., rare bindings, +engraved gems. Before that time the unrivalled collection of drawings by +old masters had lent the Lille museum a value especially its own. + +The collections are open every day, Sundays included. Being entirely +built of stone, there is little risk of fire. Thieves are guarded +against by two caretakers inside the building at night and two patrols +outside. It is an enormous structure, and arranged with much taste. + +The old wall still encircles the inner town, and very pretty is the +contrast of grey stone and fresh spring foliage; lilacs in full bloom, +also the almond, cherry, pear tree, and many others. + +Lille nowadays recalls quite other thoughts than those suggested by +Tristram Shandy. It may be described as a town within towns, the +manufacturing centres around having gradually developed into large rival +municipalities. Among these are Tourcoing, Croix, and Roubaix, now more +than half as large as Lille itself. I stayed a week at Lille, and had I +remained there a year, in one respect should have come away no whit the +wiser. The manufactories, one and all, are inaccessible as the interior +of a Carmelite convent. Queen Victoria could get inside the monastery of +the Grande Chartreuse, but I question whether Her Majesty would have +been permitted to see over a manufactory of thread gloves at Lille! + +Such jealousy has doubtless its reason. Most likely trade secrets have +been filched by foreign rivals under the guise of the ordinary tourist. +Be this as it may, the confection of a tablecloth or piece of beige is +kept as profoundly secret as that of the famous pepper tarts of Prince +Bedreddin or the life-sustaining cordial of celebrated fasters. + +In the hope of winning over a feminine mind, I drove with a friend to +one of the largest factories at Croix, the property of a lady. + +Here, as at Mulhouse, mill-owners live in the midst of their works. They +do not leave business cares behind them, after English fashion, dwelling +as far away as possible from factory chimneys. The premises of Mme. C. +are on a magnificent scale; all in red brick, fresh as if erected +yesterday, the mistress's house--a vast mansion--being a little removed +from these and surrounded by elegantly-arranged grounds. A good deal of +bowing and scraping had to be got through before we were even admitted +to the portress's lodge, as much more ceremonial before the portress +could be induced to convey our errand to one of the numerous clerks in a +counting-house close by. At length, and after many dubious shakes of the +head and murmurs of surprise at our audacity, the card was transmitted +to the mansion. + +A polite summons to the great lady's presence raised our hopes. There +seemed at least some faint hope of success. Traversing the gravelled +path, as we did so catching sight of madame's coach-house and half-dozen +carriages, landau, brougham, brake, and how many more! we reached the +front door. Here the clerk left us, and a footman in livery, with no +little ceremony, ushered us into the first of a suite of reception +rooms, all fitted up in the modern style, and having abundance of ferns +and exotics. + +At the end of the last salon a fashionably dressed lady, typically +French in feature, manners and deportment, sat talking to two gentlemen. +She very graciously advanced to meet us, held out a small white hand +covered with rings, and with the sweetest smile heard my modestly +reiterated request to be allowed a glimpse of the factory. Would that I +could convey the gesture, expression of face and tone of voice with +which she replied, in the fewest possible words! + +After that inimitable, unforgettable "Jamais, jamais, jamais!" there was +nothing to do but make our bow and retire, discomfiture being amply +atoned by the little scene just described. + +We next drove straight through Lille to the vast park or Bois, as it is +called, not many years since acquired by the town as a pleasure-ground. +Very wisely, the pretty, irregular stretch of glade, dell and wood has +been left as it was, only a few paths, seats and plantations being +added. No manufacturing town in France is better off in this respect. +Wide, handsome boulevards lead to the Bois and pretty botanical garden, +many private mansions having beautiful grounds, but walled in completely +as those of cloistered convents. The fresh spring greenery and multitude +of flowering trees and shrubs make suburban Lille look its best; outside +the town every cottage has a bit of ground and a tree or two. + +During this second week of April the weather suddenly changed. Rain +fell, and a keen east wind rendered fires and winter garments once +more indispensable. On one of these cold, windy days I went with +Lille friends to Roubaix, as cold and windy a town, I should say, as +any in France. + +A preliminary word or two must be said about Roubaix, the city of +strikes, pre-eminently the Socialist city. + +City we may indeed call it, and it is one of rapidly increasing +dimensions. In the beginning of the century Roubaix numbered 8000 souls +only. Its population is now 114,000. Since 1862 the number of its +machines has quintupled. Every week 600 tons of wool are brought to the +mills. As I have before mentioned, more business is transacted with the +Bank of France by this _cheflieu_ of a canton than by Toulouse, Rheims, +Nimes, or Montpellier. The speciality of Roubaix is its dress stuffs and +woollen materials, large quantities of which are exported to America. To +see these soft, delicate fabrics we must visit Regent Street and other +fashionable quarters, not an inch is to be caught sight of here. + +Roubaix is a handsome town, with every possible softening down of grimy +factory walls and tall chimneys. A broad, well-built street leads to the +Hotel de Ville; another equally wide street, with mansions of wealthy +mill-owners and adjacent factories, leads to the new Boulevard de Paris +and pretty public park, where a band plays on Sunday afternoons. + +But my first object was to obtain an interview with the Socialist mayor, +a man of whom I had heard much. A friend residing at Lille kindly paved +the way by sending his own card with mine, the messenger bringing back a +courteous reply. Unfortunately, the Conseil-General then sitting at +Lille curtailed the time at the mayor's disposal, but before one o'clock +he would be pleased to receive me, he sent word. Accordingly, conducted +by my friend's clerk, I set out for the Town Hall. + +We waited some little time in the vestibule, the chief magistrate of +Roubaix being very busy. Deputy-mayors, adjoints, were coming and going, +and liveried officials bustled about, glancing at me from time to time, +but without any impertinent curiosity. Impertinent curiosity, by the +way, we rarely meet with in France. People seem of opinion that +everybody must be the best judge of his or her own business. I was +finally ushered into the council chamber, where the mayor and three +deputy-mayors sat at a long table covered with green baize, transacting +business. He very courteously bade me take a seat beside him, and we at +once entered into conversation. The working man's representative of what +was then the city _par excellence_ of strikes and socialism is a +remarkable-looking man in middle life. Tall, angular, beardless, with +the head of a leader, he would be noticed anywhere. There was a look of +indomitable conviction in his face, and a quiet dignity from which +neither his shabby clothes nor his humble calling detract. Can any +indeed well be humbler? The first magistrate of a city of a hundred and +fourteen thousand souls, a large percentage of whom are educated, +wealthy men of the world, keeps, as I have said, a small _estaminet_ or +cafe in which smoking is permitted, and sells newspapers, himself early +in the morning making up and delivering his bundles to the various +retailers. Here, indeed, we have the principles of the Republic-- +Liberty, Equality, Fraternity--carried out to their logical conclusion. +Without money, without social position, this man owes his present +dignity to sheer force of character and conviction. We chatted of +socialism and the phases of it more immediately connected with Roubaix, +on which latter subject I ventured to beg a little information. + +[Footnote: I give Littre's meaning of _estaminet_.] + +"We must go to the fountain-head," he replied very affably. "I regret +that time does not permit me to enter into particulars now; but leave me +your English address. The information required shall be forwarded." + +We then talked of socialism in England, of his English friends, and he +was much interested to learn that I had once seen the great Marx and +heard him speak at a meeting of the International in Holborn twenty-five +years before. + +Then I told him, what perhaps he knew, of the liberty accorded by our +Government to hold meetings in Trafalgar Square, and we spoke of +Gladstone. "A good democrat, but born too early for socialism--the +future of the world. One cannot take to socialism at eighty-three years +of age," I said. + +"No, that is somewhat late in the day," was the smiling reply. + +I took leave, much pleased with my reception. From a certain point of +view, the socialist mayor of Roubaix was one of the most interesting +personalities I had met in France. + +Roubaix has been endowed by the State with a handsome museum, +library, technical and art school, the latter for young men only. +These may belong to any nationality, and obtain their professional or +artistic training free of charge. The exhibition of students' work +sufficiently proclaims the excellence of the teaching. Here we saw +very clever studies from the living model, a variety of designs, and, +most interesting of all, fabrics prepared, dyed and woven entirely by +the students. + +The admirably arranged library is open to all, and we were courteously +shown some of its choicest treasures. These are not bibliographical +curiosities, but albums containing specimens of Lyons silk, a marvellous +display of taste and skill. Gems, butterflies' wings, feathers of +tropical birds are not more brilliant than these hues, while each design +is thoroughly artistic, and in its way an achievement. + +The picture gallery contains a good portrait of the veteran song-writer +Nadaud, author of the immortal "Carcassonne." Many Germans and Belgians, +engaged in commerce, spend years here, going away when their fortunes +are made. More advantageous to the place are those capitalists who take +root, identifying themselves with local interests. Such is the case with +a large English firm at Croix, who have founded a Protestant church and +schools for their workpeople. + +Let me record the spectacle presented by the museum on Sunday afternoon +during the brilliant weather of April 1893. What most struck me was the +presence of poorly-dressed boys; they evidently belonged to the least +prosperous working class, and came in by twos and threes. Nothing could +equal the good behaviour of these lads, or their interest in everything. +Many young shop-women were also there, and, as usual, a large contingent +of soldiers and recruits. + +Few shops remained open after mid-day, except one or two very large +groceries, at which fresh vegetables were sold. It is pleasant to note a +gradual diminution of Sunday labour throughout France. + +The celebration of May-Day, which date occurred soon after my visit, was +not calculated either to alarm the Republic or the world in general. It +was a monster manifestation in favour of the Three Eights, and I think +few of us, were we suddenly transformed into Roubaix machinists, would +not speedily become Three Eighters as well. + +At five o'clock in the morning the firing of cannon announced the annual +"Fete du Travail," or workmen's holiday, not accorded by Act of +Parliament, but claimed by the people as a legitimate privilege. + +Unwonted calm prevailed in certain quarters. Instead of men, women, boys +and girls pouring by tens of thousands into the factories, the streets +leading to them were empty. In one or two cases, where machinery had +been set in motion and doors opened, public opinion immediately effected +a stoppage of work. Instead, therefore, of being imprisoned from +half-past five in the morning till seven or eight at night, the entire +Roubaisien population had freed itself to enjoy "a sunshine holiday." +Such a day cannot be too long, and at a quarter past seven vast crowds +had collected before the Hotel de Ville. + +Here a surprise was in store for the boldest Three Eighter going. The +tricolour had been hoisted down, and replaced, not by a red flag, but by +a large transparency, showing the following device in red letters upon +a white ground:-- + + FETE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL, + 1er Mai 1893. + + Huit Heures du Travail, + Huit Heures du Loisir, + Huit Heures du Repos. + +[Footnote: Translation-International festival of labour; eight hours' +work, eight hours' leisure, eight hours' repose.] + +The mayor, in undress, that is to say in garments of every day, having +surveyed these preparations, returned to his _estaminet_, the Plat d'Or, +and there folded his newspapers as usual for the day's distribution. + +In the meantime the finishing touch was put to other decorations, +consisting of flags, devices and red drapery, everywhere the Three +Eights being conspicuous. + +A monster procession was then formed, headed by the Town Council and a +vast number of bands. There was the music of the Fire Brigade, the +socialist brass band, the children's choir, the Choral Society of +Roubaix, the Franco-Belgian Choral Society, and many others. Twenty +thousand persons took part in this procession, the men wearing red +neckties and a red flower in their button-holes, the forty-seven groups +of the workmen's federation bearing banners, all singing, bands +playing, drums beating, cannons firing as they went. + +At mid-day the defile was made before the Hotel de Ville, and delegates +of the different socialist groups were formally received by the mayor +and deputy-mayors, wearing their tricolour scarves of office. + +I must say the mayor's speech was a model of conciseness, good sense +and, it must be added, courtesy; addressing himself first to his +fellow-townswomen, then to his fellow-townsmen, he thanked the labour +party for the grandiose celebration of the day, dwelt on the +determination of the municipal council to watch over the workmen's +interests, then begged all to enjoy themselves thoroughly, taking care +to maintain the public peace. + +Toasts were drunk, the mayor's health with especial enthusiasm, but when +at the stroke of noon he waved the tricolour and an enormous number of +pigeons were let loose, not to be fired at but admired as they flew away +in all directions, their tricolour ribbons fluttering, the general +delight knew no bounds. "Long live our mayor," resounded from every +mouth, "Vive le citoyen Carrette!" + +The rest of the day was devoted to harmless, out-of-door amusements: a +balloon ascent, on the car being conspicuous in red, "Les trois huits," +concerts, gymnastic contests, finally dancing and illuminations. + +Thus ended the first of May, 1893, in Lille. + + * * * * * + +St. Omer is a clean, well-built and sleepy little town, with some fine +old churches. The mellow tone of the street architecture, especially +under a burning blue sky, is very soothing; all the houses have a +yellowish or pinkish hue. + +The town abounds in convents and seminaries, and the chief business of +well-to-do ladies seems that of going to church. In the cathedral are +many votive tablets to "Our Lady of Miracles"--one of the numerous +miracle-working Virgins in France. Here we read the thanksgiving of a +young man miraculously preserved throughout his four years' military +service; there, one records how, after praying fervently for a certain +boon, after many years the Virgin had granted his prayer. Parents +commemorate miraculous favours bestowed on their children, and so on. + +The ancient ramparts at this time were in course of demolition, and the +belt of boulevards which are to replace them will be a great +improvement. The town is protected by newly-constructed works. Needless +to say, it possesses a public library, on the usual principle--one +citizen one book,--a museum, and small picture gallery. The population +is 21,000. + +I was cordially received by a friend's friend, foremost resident in the +place, and owner of a large distillery. As usual, the private dwelling, +with coach-house, stables and garden adjoined the business premises. The +_genievre_ or gin, so called from the juniper used in flavouring it, +here manufactured, is a choice liqueur, not the cheap intoxicant of our +own public-houses. Liqueurs are always placed with coffee on French +breakfast-tables. Every one takes a teaspoonful as a help to digestion. + +French people are greatly astonished at the absence of liqueurs in +England. The excellence of French digestions generally would not seem to +discredit the habit. In the fabrication of gin here only the corn of rye +is used, and in small quantities, the juniper berry; it is ready for +drinking in six months, although improved by keeping. I saw also curacoa +in its various stages. The orange peel used in the manufacture of this +liqueur is soaked in alcohol for four months. + +My object, however, was to see the high farming on an extensive scale +for which this region is famous. Accordingly my host, accompanied by his +amiable wife, placed themselves, their carriage, and time at my +disposal, and we set out for a long round. + +In harvest time the aspect of the country must be one of extreme +richness. The enormous sweeps of corn, clover, and beetroot have no +division from each other or the road; no hedges are to be seen, and not +a tree in the middle of the crops, few trees, indeed, anywhere. +Everywhere, on this 17th of April, the corn was a month ahead of former +seasons, and, in spite of the long drought, very flourishing. + +The first farm visited consists of 360 hectares (just upon 900 acres), +all in the highest cultivation, and conducted strictly on the footing of +a large industrial concern, with offices, counting-house, carpenters', +saddlers' and wheelwrights' shops, smithies, mills and machinery, every +agricultural process down to grinding the corn being performed on the +premises, and by workmen in the employ of the owner. + +As we enter these vast premises, and hear the buzz of machinery, we feel +the complete prosaicization of rustic life. The farmhouse scenes of my +own childhood in Suffolk, the idyllic descriptions of George Eliot, no +more resemble actualities than the poetic spinning-wheel of olden times +the loom of latest invention. Utility is the object aimed at, +incontestably with great results, but in effect unromantic as Chicago. +It is high farming made to pay. All was bustle and activity as we made +the round of the premises, beginning with the vast machinery and +workshops. These walled-in buildings, divided into two portions, each +covering three-quarters of an acre, reminded me of nothing so much as of +the caravanserais of Algerian travel twenty-five years ago. Once the +doors are bolted none can enter, yet to render security doubly sure dogs +are chained up in every corner--we will hope, let loose at night. + +I will not here go into agricultural details, only adding a few +particulars. + +The splendid wheat, clover, bean and rye crops attested the +excellence of the farming. Dovetailing into these enormous fields +were small patches of peasant owners or tenants, all without division +or apparent boundary. + +In the villages I was struck by the tidy appearance of the children +coming out of school. The usual verdict on peasant proprietors +hereabouts was that they do not accumulate, neither are they in want. +Very little, if any, beggary meets the eye, either in town or country. +We then drove to the chateau, with its English grounds, of the Vicomte +de----, friend of my host, and an ardent admirer of England and English +ways. This gentleman looked, indeed, like an English squire, and spoke +our tongue. He had visited King Edward, then Prince of Wales, at +Sandringham. As an illustration of his lavish method of doing things, I +mention a quantity of building stone lately ordered from Valenciennes. +This stone, for the purpose of building offices, had cost L800. In this +part of France clerks and counting-houses seem an indispensable feature +of farm premises. An enormous bell for summoning work-people to work or +meals is always conspicuous. The whole thing has a commercial aspect. + +Here we saw some magnificent animals, among these a prize bull of +Flemish breed. It was said to be very fierce, and on this account had a +ring in its nose. This cruel custom is now, I believe, prohibited here +by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On the other +hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in +Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card +of membership over offenders _in terrorem_. + +We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in +his agricultural pursuits. High farming was nevertheless here the order +of the day. + +We next drove to Clairmarais, a village some miles off in quite another +direction, coming in sight of magnificent forests. Our errand was to +the ancient Cistercian abbey, now the property of a capitalist, and +turned into the business premises of his large farm. Of the original +monastery, founded in 1140, hardly a trace remains. Abutting on the +outer wall is the chapel, and before it a small enclosed flower-garden +full of wallflowers and flowering shrubs, a bit of prettiness welcome to +the eye. Just beyond, too, was an old-fashioned, irregularly planted +orchard, with young cattle grazing under the bloom-laden trees, the turf +dazzlingly bright, but less so than the young corn and rye, now ready +for first harvesting. + +The vaulted kitchens with vast fireplaces are relics of the ancient +abbey, and even now form most picturesque interiors. At a long wooden +table in one sat a blue-bloused group drinking cider out of huge yellow +mugs--scene for a painter. Another, fitted up as a dairy, was hardly +less of a picture. On shelves in the dark, antiquated chamber lay large, +red-earthen pans full of cream for cheese-making. The brown-robed figure +of a lay brother would have seemed appropriate in either place. + +Outside these all was modernization and hard prose. We saw the shepherd +returning with his sheep from the herbage, the young lambs bleating +pitifully in an inner shed. It is the custom here to send the sheep +afield during the day, the lambs meantime being fed on hay. Here again, +I should say, is a commercial mistake. The lamb of pasture-fed animals +must be incontestably superior. Humanity here seems on the side of +utilitarianism. Who can say? Perhaps the inferiority of French meat in +certain regions arises from this habit of stabling cattle and sheep. The +drive from Clairmarais to St. Omer took us through a quite different and +much more attractive country. We were now in the marais, an amphibious +stretch of country, cut up into gardens and only accessible by tiny +canals. It is a small Holland. This vast stretch of market garden, +intersected by waterways just admitting the passage of a boat, is very +productive. Three pounds per hectare is often paid in rent. The early +vegetables, conveyed by boat to St. Omer, are largely exported to +England. Every inch of ground is turned to account, the turf-bordered, +canal-bound gardens making a pretty scene, above the green levels +intersected by gleaming water the fine towers of St. Omer clearly +outlined against the brilliant sky. + +The English colony of former days vanished on the outbreak of the last +war, not to return. A few young English Catholics still prepare for the +priesthood here, and eighty more were at this time pursuing their +studies at Douai, under the charge of English Benedictines. "Why," +impatiently asked Arthur Young in 1788, "are Catholics to emigrate in +order to be ill-educated abroad, instead of being allowed institutions +that would educate them well at home?" + +The disabilities he reprobates have long since been removed, but +English-speaking seminarists still flock to Douai. + +Here I close this agricultural and industrial round in Picardy and +French Flanders, regions so near home, yet so unfamiliar to most of us! +And here I close what, in many respects, may be called another round in +unfrequented France. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Heart of the Vosges +by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES *** + +This file should be named 7vosg10.txt or 7vosg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7vosg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7vosg10a.txt + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: In the Heart of the Vosges + And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9480] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES + +[Illustration] + +AND OTHER SKETCHES BY A "DEVIOUS TRAVELLER" + +BY + +MISS BETHAM-EDWARDS + +OFFICIER DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE DE FRANCE + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION_ + +1911 + + + +"I travel not to look for Gascons in Sicily. I have left them at home." +--Montaigne. + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +Some of these sketches now appear for the first time, others have been +published serially, whilst certain portions, curtailed or enlarged +respectively, are reprinted from a former work long since out of print. +Yet again I might entitle this volume, "Scenes from Unfrequented France," +many spots being here described by an English traveller for the first +time. + +My warmest thanks are due to M. Maurice Barrès for permission to +reproduce two illustrations by M. Georges Conrad from his famous romance, +_Au Service de l'Allemagne_; also to M. André Hallays for the use of +two views from his _À Travers l'Alsace_; and to the publishers of +both authors, MM. Fayard and Perrin, for their serviceableness in the +matter. + +Nor must I omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. Sampson Low & +Co., to whom I owe the reproduction of Gustave Doré's infantine _tours +de force_; and to Messrs. Rivington, who have allowed large reprints +from the work published by them over twenty years ago. + +And last but not least, I thank the Rev. Albert Cadier, the son of my old +friend, the much respected pastor of Osse, for the loan of his charming +photographs. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + +I GÉRARDMER AND ITS ENVIRONS + +II THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +III IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY + +IV FROM BARR TO STRASBURG + +V THE "MARVELLOUS BOY" OF ALSACE + +VI QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +VII AN IMMORTALIZER + +VIII TOULOUSE + +IX MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +X MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + +XI AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +XII PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +XIII GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +XIV LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +ST. ODILE + +PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW + +PROVINS, THE CAPITOL + +PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS + +GÉRARDMER + +A VOSGIAN SCENE + +CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER + +THE PINNACLE OF ODILE + +ETTENHEIM + +COLMAR + +GUSTAVE DORÉ, INFANTINE SKETCH + +GUSTAVE DORÉ, DO + +OSSE + +NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER + +ORCUM + +ARRAS, LA PETITE PLACE + + + +I + +GÉRARDMER AND ENVIRONS + +[Illustration: PROVINS, GENERAL VIEW] + +The traveller bound to eastern France has a choice of many routes, none +perhaps offering more attractions than the great Strasburg line by way of +Meaux, Châlons-sur-Marne, Nancy, and Épinal. But the journey must be made +leisurely. The country between Paris and Meaux is deservedly dear to +French artists, and although Champagne is a flat region, beautiful only +by virtue of fertility and highly developed agriculture, it is rich in +old churches and fine architectural remains. By the Troyes-Belfort route, +Provins may be visited. This is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of +the mediaeval walled-in town in France. To my thinking, neither +Carcassonne, Semur nor Guérande surpass Hégésippe Moreau's little +birthplace in beauty and picturesqueness. The acropolis of Brie also +possesses a long and poetic history, being the seat of an art-loving +prince, and the haunt of troubadours. A word to the epicure as well as +the archaeologist. The bit of railway from Châlons-sur-Marne to Nancy +affords a series of gastronomic delectations. At Épernay travellers are +just allowed time to drink a glass of champagne at the buffet, half a +franc only being charged. At Bar-le-Duc little neatly-packed jars of the +raspberry jam for which the town is famous are brought to the doors of +the railway carriage. Further on at Commercy, you are enticed to regale +upon unrivalled cakes called "Madeleines de Commercy," and not a town, I +believe, of this favoured district is without its speciality in the shape +of delicate cates or drinks. + +Châlons-sur-Marne, moreover, possesses one of the very best hotels in +provincial France--the hotel with the queer name--another inducement for +us to idle on the way. The town itself is in no way remarkable, but it +abounds in magnificent old churches of various epochs--some falling into +decay, others restored, one and all deserving attention. St. Jean is +especially noteworthy, its beautiful interior showing much exquisite +tracery and almost a fanciful arrangement of transepts. It is very rich +in good modern glass. But the gem of gems is not to be found in Châlons +itself; more interesting and beautiful than its massive cathedral and +church of Notre Dame, than St. Jean even, is the exquisite church of +Notre Dame de l'Épine, situated in a poor hamlet a few miles beyond the +octroi gates. We have here, indeed, a veritable cathedral in a +wilderness, nothing to be imagined more graceful than the airy open +colonnades of its two spires, light as a handful of wheat ears loosely +bound together. The colour of the grey stone gives solemnity to the rest +of the exterior, which is massive and astonishingly rich in the grotesque +element. We carefully studied the gargoyles round the roof, and, in spite +of defacements, made out most of them--here a grinning demon with a +struggling human being in its clutch--there an odd beast, part human, +part pig, clothed in a kind of jacket, playing a harp--dozens of comic, +hideous, heterogeneous figures in various attitudes and travesties. + +[Illustration: Provins, The Capitol] + +Notre Dame de l'Épine--originally commemorative of a famous shrine--has +been restored, and purists in architecture will pass it by as an +achievement of Gothic art in the period of its decline, but it is +extremely beautiful nevertheless. On the way from Châlons-sur-Marne to +Nancy we catch glimpses of other noble churches that stand out from the +flat landscape as imposingly as Ely Cathedral. These are Notre Dame of +Vitry le François and St. Étienne of Toul, formerly a cathedral, both +places to be stopped at by leisurely tourists. + +The fair, the _triste_ city of Nancy! There is an indescribable charm +in the sad yet stately capital of ancient Lorraine. No life in its +quiet streets, no movement in its handsome squares, nevertheless Nancy +is one of the wealthiest, most elegant cities in France! Hither +flocked rich Alsatian families after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, +and perhaps its proximity to the lost provinces in part accounts for the +subdued, dreamy aspect of the place as a whole. A strikingly beautiful +city it is, with its splendid monuments of the house of Lorraine, and +handsome modern streets bearing evidence of much prosperity in these +days. In half-an-hour you may get an unforgettable glimpse of the Place +Stanislas, with its bronze gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great +capital; of the beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine, on +horseback, under an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and +its airy colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte +de la Craffe, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. + +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly a day or two should be devoted to it, and here, as at +Châlons-sur-Marne, creature comforts are to be had in the hotels. In the +Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of Charles +le Téméraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of that +Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver plate, +and wore on the battlefield diamonds worth half a million. In a little +church outside the town, commemorative of this victory, are collected the +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine--the _chapelle ronde_, as the +splendid little mausoleum is designated--with its imposing monuments in +black marble, and richly-decorated octagonal dome, making up a solemn and +beautiful whole. Graceful and beautiful also are the monuments in the +church itself, and those of another church, Des Cordeliers, close to the +Ducal Palace. + +[Illustration: PROVINS, THE CITY WALLS] + +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are to be fairly enchanted by the marble statues of the +four doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Grégoire, St. Léon, and +St. Jerome. These are the work of Nicolas Drouin, a native of Nancy, and +formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a whole +than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary observer. +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the fine, dignified figure of +St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. We would +fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain return to all +else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. From Nancy by way of +Épinal we may easily reach the heart of the Vosges. + +[Illustration: GÉRARDMER] + +How sweet and pastoral are these cool resting-places in the heart of the +Vosges! Gérardmer and many another as yet unfrequented by the tourist +world, and unsophisticated in spite of railways and bathing seasons. The +Vosges has long been a favourite playground of our French neighbours, +although ignored by the devotees of Cook and Gaze, and within late years, +not a rustic spot possessed of a mineral spring but has become +metamorphosed into a second Plombières. Gérardmer--"_Sans Gérardmer et +un peu Nancy, que serait la Lorraine?_" says the proverb--is resorted +to, however, rather for its rusticity and beauty than for any curative +properties of its sparkling waters. Also in some degree for the sake of +urban distraction. The French mind when bent on holiday-making is social +in the extreme, and the day spent amid the forest nooks and murmuring +streams of Gérardmer winds up with music and dancing. One of the chief +attractions of the big hotel in which we are so wholesomely housed is +evidently the enormous salon given up after dinner to the waltz, country +dance, and quadrille. Our hostess with much ease and tact looks in, +paying her respects, to one visitor after another, and all is enjoyment +and mirth till eleven o'clock, when the large family party, for so our +French fellowship may be called, breaks up. These socialities, giving as +they do the amiable aspect of French character, will not perhaps +constitute an extra charm of Gérardmer in the eyes of the more morose +English tourist. After many hours spent in the open air most of us prefer +the quiet of our own rooms. The country, too, is so fresh and delicious +that we want nothing in the shape of social distraction. Drawing-room +amenities seem a waste of time under such circumstances. Nevertheless the +glimpses of French life thus obtained are pleasant, and make us realize +the fact that we are off the beaten track, living among French folks, for +the time separated from insular ways and modes of thought. Our fellowship +is a very varied and animated one. We number among the guests a member of +the French ministry--a writer on the staff of Figaro--a grandson of one +of the most devoted and unfortunate generals of the first Napoleon, known +as "the bravest of the brave," with his elegant wife--the head of one of +the largest commercial houses in eastern France--deputies, diplomats, +artists, with many family parties belonging to the middle and upper ranks +of society, a very strong Alsatian element predominating. Needless to add +that people make themselves agreeable to each other without any +introduction. For the time being at least distinctions are set aside, and +fraternity is the order of the day. + +I do not aver that my country-people have never heard of Gérardmer, but +certainly those who stray hither are few and far between. Fortunately for +the lover of nature no English writer has as yet popularized the Vosges. +An Eden-like freshness pervades its valleys and forests, made ever +musical with cascades, a pastoral simplicity characterizes its +inhabitants. Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out +in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure! + +It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gérardmer and its +lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the +popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late +Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, +have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend +their holidays and their money on French soil. Thus enterprise has been +stimulated in various quarters, and we find really good accommodation in +out-of-the-way spots not mentioned in guide-books of a few years' date. +Gérardmer is now reached by rail in two hours from Épinal, on the great +Strasburg line, but those who prefer a drive across country may approach +it from Plombières, Remiremont, Colmar and Münster, and other attractive +routes. Once arrived at Gérardmer, the traveller will certainly not care +to hurry away. No site in the Vosges is better suited for excursionizing +in all directions, and the place itself is full of quiet charm. There is +wonderful sweetness and solace in these undulating hill-sides, clothed +with brightest green, their little tossing rivers and sunny glades all +framed by solemn hills--I should rather say mountains--pitchy black with +the solemn pine. You may search far and wide for a picture so engaging as +Gérardmer when the sun shines, its gold-green slopes sprinkled with white +châlets, its red-roofed village clustered about a rustic church tower, +and at its feet the loveliest little lake in the world, from which rise +gently the fir-clad heights. + +And no monotony! You climb the inviting hills and woods day by day, week +after week, ever to find fresh enchantment. Not a bend of road or winding +mountain-path but discloses a new scene--here a fairy glen, with graceful +birch or alder breaking the expanse of dimpled green; there a spinny of +larch or of Scotch fir cresting a verdant monticule; now we come upon a +little Arcadian home nestled on the hill-side, the spinning-wheel hushed +whilst the housewife turns her hay or cuts her patch of rye or wheat +growing just outside her door. Now we follow the musical little river +Vologne as it tosses over its stony bed amid banks golden with yellow +loosestrife, or gently ripples amid fair stretches of pasture starred +with the grass of Parnassus. The perpetual music of rushing, tumbling, +trickling water is delightful, and even in hot weather, if it is ever +indeed hot here, the mossy banks and babbling streams must give a sense +of coolness. Deep down, entombed amid smiling green hills and frowning +forest peaks, lies the pearl of Gérardmer, its sweet lake, a sheet of +turquoise in early morn, silvery bright when the noon-day sun flashes +upon it, and on grey, sunless days gloomy as Acheron itself. + +[Illustration: A VOSGIAN SCENE] + +Travellers stinted for time cannot properly enjoy the pastoral scenes, +not the least charm of which is the frank, pleasant character of the +people. Wherever we go we make friends and hear confidences. To these +peasant folks, who live so secluded from the outer world, the annual +influx of visitors from July to September is a positive boon, moral as +well as material. The women are especially confidential, inviting us into +their homely yet not poverty-stricken kitchens, keeping us as long as +they can whilst they chat about their own lives or ask us questions. The +beauty, politeness, and clear direct speech of the children, are +remarkable. Life here is laborious, but downright want I should say rare. +As in the Jura, the forest gorges and park-like solitudes are disturbed +by the sound of hammer and wheel, and a tall factory chimney not +infrequently spoils a wild landscape. The greater part of the people +gain, their livelihood in the manufactories, very little land here being +suitable for tillage. + +Gérardmer is famous for its cheeses; another local industry is turnery +and the weaving of linen, the linen manufactories employing many hands, +whilst not a mountain cottage is without its handloom for winter use. +Weaving at home is chiefly resorted to as a means of livelihood in +winter, when the country is covered with snow and no out-door occupations +are possible. Embroidery is also a special fabric of the Vosges, but its +real wealth lies in mines of salt and iron, and mineral waters. + +One chief feature in Gérardmer is the congeries of handsome buildings +bearing the inscription _"École Communale"_ and how stringently the +new educational law is enforced throughout France may be gathered from +the spectacle of schoolboys at drill. We saw three squadrons, each under +the charge of a separate master, evidently made up from all classes of +the community. Some of the boys were poorly, nay, miserably, clad, +others wore good homely clothes, a few were really well dressed. + +Our first week at Gérardmer was wet and chilly. Fires and winter clothes +would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we +set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, +and the goal of every traveller in these regions. + +[Illustration: CIRQUE DE RETOURNEMER] + +There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gérardmer, a +little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude +and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours +only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gérardmer into a dreary place, +but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less +majestic and solemn. One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, +so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the +culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually +ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gérardmer, +till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the +Schlucht. For the first half-hour we skirt the alder-fringed banks of the +tossing, foaming little river Vologne, as it winds amid lawny spaces, on +either side the fir-clad ridges rising like ramparts. Here all is +gentleness and golden calm, but soon we quit this warm, sunny region, and +enter the dark forest road curling upwards to the airy pinnacle to which +we are bound. More than once we have to halt on our way. One must stop to +look at the cascade made by the Vologne, never surely fuller than now, +one of the prettiest cascades in the world, masses of snow-white foam +tumbling over a long, uneven stair of granite through the midst of a +fairy glen. The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we +continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, +and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving +forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and +Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest +environment. Deep down they lie, the two silvery sheets of water with +their verdant holms, making a little world of peace and beauty, a toy +dropped amid Titanic awfulness and splendour. The vantage ground is on +the edge of a dizzy precipice, but the picture thus sternly framed is too +exquisite to be easily abandoned. We gaze and gaze in spite of the vast +height from which we contemplate it; and when at last we tear ourselves +away from the engaging scene, we are in a region all ruggedness and +sublimity, on either side rocky scarps and gloomy forests, with reminders +by the wayside that we are approaching an Alpine flora. Nothing can be +wilder or more solitary than the scene. For the greater part, the forests +through which our road is cut are unfrequented, except by the wild boar, +deer, and wild cat, and in winter time the fine mountain roads are +rendered impenetrable by the accumulation of snow. + +This approach to the Col is by a tunnel cut in the granite, fit entrance +to one of the wildest regions in France. The road now makes a sudden bend +towards the châlet cresting the Col, and we are able in a moment to +realize its tremendous position. + +From our little châlet we look upon what seems no mere cleft in a +mountain chain, but in the vast globe itself. This huge hollow, brought +about by some strange geological perturbation, is the valley of Münster, +no longer a part of French territory, but of Prussian Elsass. The road we +have come by lies behind us, but another as formidable winds under the +upper mountain ridge towards Münster, whilst the pedestrian may follow a +tiny green footpath that will lead him thither, right through the heart +of the pass. Looking deep down we discern here and there scattered +châlets amid green spaces far away. These are the homesteads or +_chaumes_ of the herdsmen, all smiling cheerfulness now, but +deserted in winter. Except for such little dwellings, barely +discernible, so distant are they, there is no break in the solitary +scene, no sign of life at all. + +The châlet is a fair hostelry for unfastidious travellers, its chief +drawback being the propensity of tourists to get up at three o'clock in +the morning in order to behold the sunrise from the Hoheneck. Good beds, +good food, and from the windows, one of the finest prospects in the +world, might well tempt many to linger here in spite of the disturbance +above mentioned. For the lover of flowers this halting-place would be +delightful. + +Next morning the day dawned fair, and by eight o'clock we set off with a +guide for the ascent of the Hoheneck, rather, I should say, for a long +ramble over gently undulating green and flowery ways. After climbing a +little beechwood, all was smoothness under our feet, and the long +_détour_ we had to make in order to reach the summit was a series of +the gentlest ascents, a wandering over fair meadow-land several thousand +feet above the sea-level. Here we found the large yellow gentian, used in +the fabrication of absinthe, and the bright yellow arnica, whilst instead +of the snow-white flower of the Alpine anemone, the ground was now +silvery with its feathery seed; the dark purple pansy of the Vosges was +also rare. We were a month too late for the season of flowers, but the +foxglove and the bright pink Epilobium still bloomed in great luxuriance. + +It was a walk to remember. The air was brisk and genial, the blue sky +lightly flecked with clouds, the turf fragrant with wild thyme, and +before our eyes we had a panorama every moment gaining in extent and +grandeur. As yet indeed the scene, the features of which we tried to make +out, looked more like cloudland than solid reality. On clear days are +discerned here, far beyond the rounded summits of the Vosges chain, the +Rhine Valley, the Black Forest, the Jura range, and the snow-capped Alps. +To-day we saw grand masses of mountains piled one above the other, and +higher still a pageantry of azure and gold that seemed to belong to the +clouds. + +No morning could promise fairer, but hardly had we reached the goal of +our walk when from far below came an ominous sound of thunder, and we saw +heavy rain-clouds dropping upon the heights we had left behind. + +All hope of a fine prospect was now at an end, but instead we had a +compensating spectacle. For thick and fast the clouds came pouring into +one chasm after another, drifting in all directions, here a mere +transparent veil drawn across the violet hills, there a golden splendour +as of some smaller sun shining on a green little world. At one moment the +whole vast scene was blurred and blotted with chill winter mist; soon a +break was visible, and far away we gazed on a span of serene amethystine +sky, barred with lines of bright gold. Not one, but a dozen, horizons--a +dozen heavens--seemed there, whilst the thunder that reached us from +below seemed too remote to threaten. But at last the clouds gathered in +form and volume, hiding the little firmaments of violet and amber; the +bright blue sky, bending over the green oasis--all vanished as if by +magic. We could see no more, and nothing remained but to go back, and the +quicker the better. The storm, our guide said, was too far off to reach +us yet, and we might reach the châlet without being drenched to the skin, +as we fortunately did. No sooner, however, were we fairly under shelter +than the rain poured down in torrents and the thunder pealed overhead. In +no part of France are thunderstorms so frequent and so destructive as +here, nowhere is the climate less to be depended on. A big umbrella, +stout shoes, and a waterproof are as necessary in the Vosges as in our +own Lake district. + +We had, however, a fine afternoon for our drive back, a quick downhill +journey along the edge of a tremendous precipice, clothed with +beech-trees and brushwood. A most beautiful road it is, and the two +little lakes looked lovely in the sunshine, encircled by gold-green +swards and a delicate screen of alder branches. Through pastures white +with meadow-sweet the turbulent, crystal-clear little river Vologne +flowed merrily, making dozens of tiny cascades, turning a dozen +mill-wheels in its course. All the air was fragrant with newly-turned +hay, and never, we thought, had Gérardmer and its lake made a more +captivating picture. + +Excursions innumerable may be made from Gérardmer. We may drive across +country to Remiremont, to Plombières, to Wesserling, to Colmar, to St. +Dié, whilst these places in turn make very good centres for excursions. +On no account must a visit to La Bresse be omitted. This is one of the +most ancient towns in the Vosges. Like some of the villages in the Morvan +and in the department of La Nièvre, La Bresse remained till the +Revolution an independent commune, a republic in miniature. The heads of +families of both sexes took part in the election of magistrates, and from +this patriarchal legislation there was seldom any appeal to the higher +court--namely, that of Nancy. La Bresse is still a rich commune by +reason of its forests and industries. The sound of the mill-wheel and +hammer now disturbs these mountain solitudes, and although so isolated by +natural position, this little town is no longer cut off from cosmopolitan +influence. The little tavern is developing into a very fair inn. In the +summer tourists from all parts of France pass through it, in carriages, +on foot, occasionally on horseback. Most likely it now possesses a +railway station, a newspaper kiosk, and a big hotel, as at Gérardmer! + +As we drop down upon La Bresse after our climb of two hours and more, we +seem to be at the world's end. Our road has led us higher and higher by +dense forests and wild granite parapets, tasselled with fern and +foxglove, till we suddenly wheel round upon a little straggling town +marvellously placed. Deep down it lies, amid fairy-like greenery and +silvery streams, whilst high above tower the rugged forest peaks and +far-off blue mountains, in striking contrast. + +The sloping green banks, starred with the grass of Parnassus, and musical +with a dozen streams, the pastoral dwellings, each with its patch of +flower garden and croft; the glades, dells and natural terraces are all +sunny and gracious as can be; but round about and high above frown +inaccessible granite peaks, and pitchy-black forest summits, impenetrable +even at this time of the year. As we look down we see that roads have +been cut round the mountain sides, and that tiny homesteads are perched +wherever vantage ground is to be had, yet the impression is one of +isolation and wildness. The town lies in no narrow cleft, as is the case +with many little manufacturing towns in the Jura, but in a vast opening +and falling back of the meeting hills and mountain tops, so that it is +seen from far and wide, and long before it is approached. We had made the +first part of our journey at a snail's pace. No sooner were we on the +verge of the hills looking down upon La Bresse, than we set off at a +desperate rate, spinning breathlessly round one mountain spur after +another, till we were suddenly landed in the village street, dropped, as +it seemed, from a balloon. + +A curious feature to be noted in all the places I have mentioned is the +outer wooden casing of the houses. This is done as a protection against +the cold, the Vosges possessing, with the Auvergne and the Limousin, the +severest climate in France. La Bresse, like Gérardmer and other sweet +valleys of these regions, is disfigured by huge factories, yet none can +regret the fact, seeing what well-being these industries bring to the +people. Beggars are numerous, but we are told they are strangers, who +merely invade these regions during the tourist season. + +Remiremont, our next halting-place, may be reached by a pleasant carriage +drive, but the railway is more convenient to travellers encumbered with +half-a-dozen trunks. The railway, moreover, cuts right through the +beautiful valley of the Moselle--a prospect which is missed by road. +Remiremont is charming. We do not get the creature comforts of Gérardmer, +but by way of compensation we find a softer and more genial climate. The +engaging little town is indeed one of nature's sanatoriums. The streets +are kept clean by swift rivulets, and all the air is fragrant with +encircling fir-woods. Like Gérardmer and La Bresse, however, Remiremont +lies open to the sun. A belt of flowery dells, terraced orchards, and +wide pastures, amid which meanders the clear blue Moselle, girds it round +about, and no matter which path you take, it is sure to lead to inviting +prospects. The arcades lend a Spanish look to the town, and recall the +street architecture of Lons-le-Saunier and Arbois in the Jura. Flower +gardens abound, and the general atmosphere is one of prosperity and +cheerfulness. + +The historic interest of this now dead-alive little town centres around +its lady abbesses, who for centuries held sovereign rule and state in +their abbatial palace, at the present time the Hôtel de Ville. These +high-born dames, like certain temporal rulers of the sex, loved battle, +and more than one _chanoinesse_, when defied by feudal neighbours, +mounted the breach and directed her people. One and all were of noble +birth, and many doubtless possessed the intellectual distinction and +personal charm of Renan's _Abbesse de Jouarre_. + +There are beautiful walks about Remiremont, and one especial path amid +the fragrant fir-woods leads to a curious relic of ancient time--a little +chapel formerly attached to a Lazar-house. It now belongs to the +adjoining farm close by, a pleasant place, with flower-garden and +orchard. High up in the woods dominating the broad valley in which +Remiremont is placed are some curious prehistoric stones. But more +inviting than the steep climb under a burning sun--for the weather has +changed on a sudden--is the drive to the Vallée d'Hérival, a drive so +cool, so soothing, so delicious, that we fancy we can never feel heated, +languid, or irritated any more. + +The isolated dwellings of the dalesfolk in the midst of tremendous +solitudes--little pastoral scenes such as Corot loved to paint--and +hemmed round by the sternest, most rugged nature, are one of the +characteristics of Vosges scenery. We also find beside tossing rivers and +glittering cascades a solitary linen factory or saw-mill, with the +modern-looking villa of the employer, and clustered round it the cottages +of the work-people. No sooner does the road curl again than we are once +more in a solitude as complete as if we were in some primeval forest of +the new world. We come suddenly upon the Vallée d'Hérival, but the deep +close gorge we gaze upon is only the beginning of the valley within +valley we have come to see. Our road makes a loop round the valley so +that we see it from two levels, and under two aspects. As we return, +winding upwards on higher ground, we get glimpses of sunny dimpled sward +through the dark stems of the majestic fir-trees towering over our head. +There is every gradation of form and colour in the picture, from the ripe +warm gold barring the branches of the firs, to the pale silveriness of +their upper foliage; from the gigantic trees rising from the gorge below, +each seeming to fill a chasm, to the airy, graceful birch, a mere toy +beside it. Rare butterflies abound, but we see few birds. + +The hardy pedestrian is an enviable person here, for although excellent +carriages are to be had, some of the most interesting excursions must be +made on foot. + +I do not suppose that matters are very greatly changed in hotels here +since my visit so many years ago. In certain respects travellers fare +well. They may feast like Lucullus on fresh trout and on the dainty +aniseed cakes which are a local speciality. But hygienic arrangements +were almost prehistoric, and although politeness itself, mine host and +hostess showed strange nonchalance towards their guests. Thus, when +ringing and ringing again for our tea and bread and butter between seven +and eight o'clock, the chamber--not maid, but man--informed us that +Madame had gone to mass, and everything was locked up till her return. + +Even the fastidious tourist, however, will hardly care to exchange his +somewhat rough and noisy quarters at Remiremont for the cosmopolitan +comforts of Plombières within such easy reach. It is a pretty drive of an +hour and a half to Plombières, and all is prettiness there--its little +park, its tiny lake, its toy town. + +It is surely one of the hottest places in the world, and like Spa, of +which it reminds me, must be one of the most wearisome. Just such a +promenade, with a sleepy band, just such a casino, just such a routine. +This favourite resort of the third Napoleon has of late years seen many +rivals springing up. Vittel, Bains, Bussang--all in the Vosges--yet it +continues to hold up its head. The site is really charming, but so close +is the valley in which the town lies, that it is a veritable hothouse, +and the reverse, we should think, of what an invalid wants. Plombières +has always had illustrious visitors--Montaigne, who upon several +occasions took the waters here--Maupertuis, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the +Empress Josephine, and a host of historic personages. But the emperor may +be called the creator of Plombières. The park, the fine road to +Remiremont, the handsome Bain Napoleon (now National), the church, all +these owe their existence to him, and during the imperial visits the +remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road +along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant +and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going +of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont +and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place, +making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere +throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit +more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on +the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of +Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of +that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too +vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of +the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been +enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side +of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of +circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain--French at +heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this +feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of +Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the +supporters of retaliation, such journals as _L'Alsacien-Lorrain_, +and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But +the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No +wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French +tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines, +they flock to Gérardmer and other family resorts. And if some +Frenchwoman--maybe, sober matron--dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and +dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is +too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each +other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of +patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief +charms. You must here live with French people, whether you will or no. +Insular reserve cannot resist the prevailing friendliness and +good-fellowship. How long such a state of things will exist, who can say? +Fortunately for the lover of nature, most of the places I have mentioned +are too unobtrusive ever to become popular. "Nothing to see here, and +nothing to do," would surely be the verdict of most globe-trotters even +on sweet Gérardmer itself! + + + +II + +THE CHARM OF ALSACE + +The notion of here reprinting my notes of Alsatian travel was suggested +by a recent French work--_À travers l'Alsace en flânant_, from the +pen of M. André Hallays. This delightful writer had already published +several volumes dealing with various French provinces, more especially +from an archaeological point of view. In his latest and not least +fascinating _flânerie_ he gives the experiences of several holiday +tours in Germanized France. + +My own sojourns, made at intervals among French friends, _annexés_ +both of Alsace and Lorraine, were chiefly undertaken in order to realize +the condition of the German Emperor's French subjects. But I naturally +visited many picturesque sites and historic monuments in both, the +forfeited territories being especially rich. Whilst volume after volume +of late years have appeared devoted to French travel, holiday tourists +innumerable jotting their brief experiences of well-known regions, +strangely enough no English writer has followed my own example. No work +has here appeared upon Alsace and Lorraine. On the other side of the +Channel a vast literature on the subject has sprung up. Novels, travels, +reminiscences, pamphlets on political and economic questions, one and all +breathing the same spirit, continue to appear in undiminished numbers. + +Ardent spirits still fan the flame of revolt. The burning thirst for +re-integration remains unquenched. Garbed in crape, the marble figure of +Strasburg still holds her place on the Place de la Concorde. The French +language, although rigidly prohibited throughout Germanized France, is +studied and upheld more sedulously than before Sedan. And after the lapse +of forty years a German minister lately averred that French Alsatians +were more French than ever. _Les Noëllets_ of René Bazin, M. Maurice +Barrès' impassioned series, _Les Bastions de l'Est_, enjoy immense +popularity, and within the last few months have appeared two volumes +which fully confirm the views of their forerunners--M. Hallays' +impressions of many wayfarings and _Après quarante ans_ by M. Jules +Claretie, the versatile, brilliant and much respected administrator-general +of the Comédie Française. + +Whilst in these days of peace and arbitration propaganda the crime of +enforced denationalization seems more heinous than ever, there appears +little likelihood of the country conquered by Louis XIV., and re-conquered +by German arms a century and a half later, again waving the Tricolour. + +Let us hope, however, that some _via media_ may be found, and that +if not recovering its lost privilege, the passionately coveted French +name, as a federal state Alsace and Lorraine may become independent and +prosperous. + +For a comprehensive study of Alsace and its characteristics, alike +social, artistic and intellectual, readers must go to M. Hallays' volume. +In every development this writer shows that a special stamp may be found. +Neither Teutonic nor Gallic, art and handicrafts reveal indigenous +growth, and the same feature may be studied in town and village, in +palace, cathedral and cottage. + +We must remember that we are here dealing with a region of very ancient +civilization. Taste has been slowly developed, artistic culture is of no +mushroom growth. Alsace formed the highroad between Italy and Flanders. +In M. Hallays' words, already during the Renaissance, aesthetic Alsace +blended the lessons of north and south, her genius was a product of good +sense, experience and a feeling of proportion. And he points out how in +the eighteenth century French taste influenced Alsatian faïence, woven +stuffs, ironwork, sculpture, wood-carving and furniture, even peasant +interiors being thereby modified. "Alsace," he writes, "holds us +spell-bound by the originality of culture and temperament found among her +inhabitants. It has generally been taken for granted that native genius +is here a mere blend of French and German character, that Alsatian +sentiment appertains to the latter stock, intellectual development to the +former, that the inhabitants think in French and imagine in German. There +is a certain leaven of truth in these assumptions, but when we hold +continued intercourse with all classes, listen to their speech, +familiarize ourselves with their modes of life and mental outlook, we +arrive again and again at one conclusion: we say to ourselves, here is an +element which is neither Teutonic nor Gallic. I cannot undertake to +particularize, I only note in my pages those instances that occur by the +way. And the conviction that we are here penetrating a little world +hitherto unknown to us, such novelty being revealed in every stroll and +chat, lends extraordinary interest to our peregrination." + +It is especially an artistic Alsace that M. Hallays reveals to us. +Instead of visiting battlefields, he shows us that English travellers may +find ample interest of other kind. The artist, the ecclesiologist, the +art-loving have here a storehouse of unrevealed treasure. A little-read +but weighty writer, Mme. de Staël, has truly averred that the most +beautiful lands in the world, if devoid of famous memories and if bearing +no impress of great events, cannot be compared in interest to historic +regions. Hardly a spot of the annexed provinces but is stamped with +indelible and, alas! blood-stained, records. From the tenth century until +the peace of Westphalia, these territories belonged to the German empire, +being ruled by sovereign dukes and princes. In 1648 portions of both +provinces were ceded to France, and a few years later, in times of peace, +Strasburg was ruthlessly seized and appropriated by the arch-despot and +militarist, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Ryswick, that of Westphalia was +ratified, and thenceforward Alsace and Lorraine remained radically and +passionately French. In 1871 was witnessed an awful historic retribution, +a political crime paralleling its predecessor committed by the French +king two centuries before. Alsace-Lorraine still awaits the fulfilment of +her destiny. Meantime, as Rachel mourning for her children, she weeps +sore and will not be comforted. + +Historically speaking, therefore, the annexed provinces present a +strangely complex patchwork and oft-repeated palimpsest, civilization +after civilization overlapping each other. If Alsace-Lorraine has +produced no Titan either in literature or art, she yet shows a goodly +roll-call. + +The name heading the list stands for France herself. It was a young +soldier of Strasburg--not, however, Alsatian born--who, in April, 1792, +composed a song that saved France from the fate of Poland and changed the +current of civilization. By an irony of destiny the Tricolour no longer +waves over the cradle of the Marseillaise! + +That witty writer, Edmond About, as well as the "Heavenly Twins" of +Alsatian fiction, was born in Lorraine, but all three so thoroughly +identified themselves with this province that they must be regarded as +her sons. Those travellers who, like myself, have visited Edmond About's +woodland retreat in Saverne can understand the bitterness with which he +penned his volume--_Alsace 1870-1_--and the concluding lines of the +preface-- + +"If I have here uttered an untrue syllable, I give M. de Bismarck +permission to treat my modest dwelling as if it were a villa of Saint +Cloud." + +The literary brethren whose pictures of Alsatian peasant life, both in +war and peace, have become world-wide classics, suffered no less than +their brilliant contemporary, and their works written after annexation +breathe equal bitterness. The celebrated partnership which began in 1848 +and lasted for a quarter of a century, has been thus described by Edmond +About: "The two friends see each other very rarely, whether in Paris or +in the Vosges. When they do meet, they together elaborate the scheme of +a new work. Then Erckmann writes it. Chatrian corrects it--and sometimes +puts it in the fire!" One at least of their plays enjoys equal +popularity with the novel from which it is drawn. To have witnessed +_L'Ami Fritz_ at Molière's house in the last decade of the nineteenth +century was an experience to remember. That consummate artist, Got, was +at his very best--if the superlative in such a case is applicable--as +the good old Rabbi. No less enchanting was Mlle. Reichenbach, the +_doyenne_ of the Comédie Française, as Suzel. Of this charming artist +Sarcey wrote that, having attained her sixteenth year, there she made +the long-stop, never oldening with others. _L'Ami Fritz_ is, in reality, +a German bucolic, the scene being laid in Bavaria. But it has long been +accepted as a classic, and on the stage it becomes thoroughly French. +This delightful story was written in 1864, that is to say, before any +war-cloud had arisen over the eastern frontier, and before the evocation +of a fiend as terrible, the anti-Jewish crusade culminating in the +Dreyfus crime. + +It is painful to reflect that whilst twenty years ago the engaging old +Jew of this piece was vociferously acclaimed on the first French stage, +the drama of a gifted Jewish writer has this year been banned in Paris! + +Edmond About and Erckmann and Chatrian belong to the same period as +another native, and more famous, genius, the precocious, superabundantly +endowed Gustave Doré. Of this "admirable Crichton" I give a sketch. + +For mere holiday-makers in search of exhilaration and beauty, Alsace +offers attractions innumerable, sites grandiose and idyllic, picturesque +ruins, superb forests, old churches of rare interest and many a splendid +historic pile. + +There are naturally drawbacks to intense lovers of France. Throughout M. +Hallays' volume he acknowledges the courtesy of German officials, a fact +to which I had borne testimony when first journalizing my own +experiences. Certain aspects of enforced Germanization can but afflict +all outsiders. There is firstly that obtrusive militarism from which we +cannot for a moment escape. Again, a no less false note strikes us in +matters aesthetic. Modern German taste in art, architecture and +decoration do not harmonize with the ancientness and historic severity of +Alsace. The restoration of Hohkönigsburg and the new quarters of +Strasburg are instances in point. All who visited the German art section +of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 will understand this dis-harmony. + +The reminiscences of my second and third journeys in Alsace and Lorraine +having already appeared in volume form, still in print (_East of +Paris_), are therefore omitted here. For the benefit of English +travellers in the annexed portion of the last-named province I cite a +passage from M. Maurice Barrès' beautiful story, _Colette Baudoche_. +His hero is German and his heroine French, a charming _Messine_ or +native of Metz. In company of Colette's mother and a friend or two, the +_fiancés_ take part in a little festival held at Gorze, a village +near the blood-stained fields of Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour-- + +"At Gorze, church, lime-trees, dwellings and folks belong to the olden +time, that is to say, all are very French.... In crossing the square the +five holiday-makers halted before the Hôtel de Ville and read with +interest a commemorative inscription on the walls. A tablet records +English generosity in 1870, when, after the carnage and devastation of +successive battles, money, roots and seeds were distributed among the +peasants by a relief committee. The inspection over, the little party +gaily sat down to dinner in an inn close by, regaling themselves with +fried English potatoes, descendants of those sent across the Manche forty +years before." + +As I re-read this passage I think sadly how the tribute from such a pen +would have rejoiced the two moving spirits of that famous relief +committee--Sir John Robinson and Mr. Bullock Hall, both long since +passed, away. To the whilom editor of the _Daily News_ both +initiative and realization were mainly owing, the latter being the +laborious and devoted agent of distribution. + +But an omission caused bitterness. Whilst Mr. Bullock Hall most +deservedly received the Red Ribbon, his leader was overlooked. The tens +of thousands of pounds collected by Sir John Robinson which may be said +to have kept alive starving people and vivified deserts, were gratefully +acknowledged by the French Government. By some unaccountable +misconception, the decoration here only gratified one good friend of +France. + +"I should much have liked the Legion of Honour," sighed the kindly old +editor to me, a year or two before he died. + +I add that my second sojourn in Alsace-Lorraine was made at Sir John's +suggestion, the series of papers dealing with Metz, Strasburg, and its +neighbourhood appearing from day to day in the _Daily News_. + +English tourists must step aside and read the tablet on the Hôtel de +Ville of Gorze, reminder, by the way, of the Entente Cordiale! + + + +III + +IN GUSTAVE DORÉ'S COUNTRY + +The Vosges and Alsace-Lorraine must be taken together, as the tourist is +constantly compelled to zigzag across the new frontier. Many of the most +interesting points of departure for excursionizing in the Vosges lie in +Alsace-Lorraine, while few travellers who have got so far as Gérardmer +or St. Dié will not be tempted to continue their journey, at least as far +as the beautiful valleys of Munster and St. Marie-aux-Mines, both +peopled by French people under German domination. Arrived at either of +these places, the tourist will be at a loss which route to take of the +many open to him. On the one hand are the austere sites of the Vosges, +impenetrable forests darkening the rounded mountain tops, granite +precipices silvered with perpetual cascades, awful ravines hardly less +gloomy in the noonday sun than in wintry storms, and as a relief to these +sombre features, the sunniest little homesteads perched on airy terraces +of gold-green; crystal streams making vocal the flowery meadow and the +mossy dell, and lovely little lakes shut in by rounded hills, made double +in their mirror. In Alsace-Lorraine we find a wholly different landscape, +and are at once reminded that we are in one of the fairest and most +productive districts of Europe. All the vast Alsatian plain in September +is a-bloom with fruit garden and orchard, vineyard and cornfield, whilst +as a gracious framework, a romantic background to the picture, are the +vineclad heights crested with ruined castles and fortresses worthy to be +compared to Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein. We had made a leisurely +journey from Gérardmer to St. Dié, bishopric and _chef-lieu_ of the +department of the Vosges, without feeling sure of our next move. +Fortunately a French acquaintance advised us to drive to +St. Marie-aux-Mines, one of the most wonderful little spots in these +regions, of which we had never before heard. A word or two, however, +concerning St. Dié itself, one of the most ancient monastic foundations +in France. The town is pleasant enough, and the big hotel not bad, as +French hotels go. But in the Vosges, the tourist gets somewhat spoiled +in the matter of hotels. Wherever we go our hosts are so much interested +in us, and make so much of us, that we feel aggrieved at sinking into +mere numbers three or four. Many of these little inns offer homely +accommodation, but the landlord and landlady themselves wait upon the +guests, unless, which often happens, the host is cook, no piece of +ill-fortune for the traveller! These good people have none of the false +shame often conspicuous among the same class in England. At Remiremont, +our hostess came bustling down at the last moment saying how she had +hurried to change her dress in order to bid us good-bye. Here the +son-in-law, a fine handsome fellow, was the cook, and when dinner was +served he used to emerge from his kitchen and chat with the guests or +play with his children in the cool evening hour. There is none of that +differentiation of labour witnessed in England, and on the whole the +stranger fares none the worse. With regard to French hotels generally +the absence of competition in large towns strikes an English mind. At +St. Dié, as in many other places, there was at the time of my visit but +one hotel, which had doubtless been handed down from generation to +generation, simply because no rival aroused a spirit of emulation. + +St. Dié has a pleasant environment in the valley of the Meurthe, and may +be made the centre of many excursions. Its picturesque old Romanesque +cathedral of red sandstone, about which are grouped noble elms, grows +upon the eye; more interesting and beautiful by far are the Gothic +cloisters leading from within to the smaller church adjoining. These +delicate arcades, in part restored, form a quadrangle. Greenery fills the +open space, and wild antirrhinum and harebell brighten the grey walls. +Springing from one side is an out-of-door pulpit carved in stone, a +striking and suggestive object in the midst of the quiet scene. We should +like to know what was preached from that stone pulpit, and what manner of +man was the preacher. The bright green space, the delicate arcades of +soft grey, the bits of foliage here and there, with the two silent +churches blocking in all, make up an impressive scene. + +We wanted the country, however, rather than the towns, so after a few +days at St. Dié, hired a carriage to take us to St. Marie-aux-Mines or +Markirch, on the German side of the frontier, and not accessible from +this side by rail. We enter Alsace, indeed, by a needle's eye, so narrow +the pass in which St. Marie lies. Here a word of warning to the tourist. +Be sure to examine your carriage and horses well before starting. We were +provided for our difficult drive with what Spenser calls "two unequal +beasts," namely, a trotting horse and a horse that could only canter, +with a very uncomfortable carriage, the turnout costing over a +pound--pretty well, that, for a three hours' drive. However, in spite of +discomfort, we would not have missed the journey on any account. The +site of this little cotton-spinning town is one of the most extraordinary +in the world. We first traverse a fruitful, well cultivated plain, +watered by the sluggish Meurthe, then begin to ascend a spur of the +western chain of the Vosges, formerly dividing the two French +departments of Vosges and Haut Rhin, now marking the boundaries of +France and German Elsass. Down below, amid the hanging orchards, +flower-gardens and hayfields, we were on French soil, but the flagstaff, +just discernible on yonder green pinnacles, marks the line of +demarcation between France and the conquered territory of the German +empire. For the matter of that, the Prussian helmet makes the fact +patent. As surely as we have set foot in the Reich, we see one of these +gleaming casques, so hateful still in French eyes. They seem to spring +from the ground like Jason's warriors from the dragon's teeth. This new +frontier divided in olden times the dominions of Alsace and Lorraine, +when it was the custom to say of many villages that the bread was +kneaded in one country and baked in the other. + +Nothing could be more lovely than the dim violet hills far away, and the +virginal freshness of the pastoral scenery around. But only a +stout-hearted pedestrian can properly enjoy this beautiful region. We +had followed the example of another party of tourists in front of us, +and accomplished a fair climb on foot, and when we had wound and wound +our way up the lofty green mountain to the flagstaff before mentioned, +we wanted to do the rest of our journey on foot also. But alike +compassion for the beasts and energy had gone far enough, we were only +too glad to reseat ourselves, and drive, or rather be whirled, down to +St. Marie-aux-Mines in the vehicle. Do what we would there was no +persuading our driver to slacken pace enough so as to admit of a full +enjoyment of the prospect that unfolded before us. + +The wonderful little town! Black pearl set in the richest casket! This +commonplace, flourishing centre of cotton spinning, woollen, and +cretonne manufacture, built in red brick, lies in the narrow, beautiful +valley of the Lièpvrette, as it is called from the babbling river of +that name. But there is really no valley at all. The congeries of +red-roofed houses, factory chimneys and church towers, Catholic and +Protestant, is hemmed round by a narrow gorge, wedged in between the +hills which are just parted so as to admit of such an intrusion, no +more. The green convolutions of the mountain sides are literally folded +round the town, a pile of green velvet spread fan-like in a draper's +window has not softer, neater folds! As we enter it from the St. Dié side +we find just room for a carriage to wind along the little river and the +narrow street. But at the other end the valley opens, and St. +Marie-aux-mines spreads itself out. Here are factories, handsome country +houses, and walks up-hill and down-hill in abundance. Just above the +town, over the widening gorge, is a deliciously cool pine-wood which +commands a vast prospect--the busy little town caught in the toils of +the green hills; the fertile valley of the Meurthe as we gaze in the +direction from which we have come; the no less fertile plains of +Lorraine before us; close under and around us, many a dell and woodland +covert with scattered homes of dalesfolk in sunny places and slanting +hills covered with pines. It is curious to reflect that St. +Marie-aux-Mines, mentioned as Markirch in ancient charts, did not become +entirely French till the eighteenth century. Originally the inhabitants +on the left bank of the Lièpvrette were subjects of the Dukes of +Lorraine, spoke French, and belonged to the Catholic persuasion, whilst +those dwelling on the right bank of the river, adhered to the seigneury +of Ribeaupaire, and formed a Protestant German-speaking community. +Alsace, as everybody knows, was annexed to France by right--rather +wrong--of conquest under Louis XIV., but it was not till a century later +that Lorraine became a part of French territory, and the fusion of +races, a task so slowly accomplished, has now to be undone, if, indeed, +such undoing is possible! + +The hotel here is a mere _auberge_ adapted to the needs of the +_commis-voyageur_, but our host and hostess are charming. As is the +fashion in these parts, they serve their guests and take the greatest +possible interest in their movements and comfort. We would willingly have +spent some days at Marie-aux-Mines--no better headquarters for +excursionizing in these regions!--but too much remained for us to do and +to see in Alsace. We dared not loiter on the way. + +Everywhere we find plenty of French tourists, many of them doing their +holiday travel in the most economical fashion. We are in the habit of +regarding the French as a stay-at-home nation, and it is easy to see how +such a mistake arises. English people seldom travel in out-of-the-way +France, and our neighbours seldom travel elsewhere. Thus holiday-makers +of the two nations do not come in contact. Wherever we go we encounter +bands of pedestrians or family parties thoroughly enjoying themselves. +Nothing ruffles a French mind when bent on holiday-making. The good-nature, +_bonhomie_, and accommodating spirit displayed under trying +circumstances might be imitated by certain insular tourists with advantage. + +From St. Marie-aux-Mines we journeyed to Gustave Doré's favourite resort, +Barr, a close, unsavoury little town enough, but in the midst of +bewitching scenery. "An ounce of sweet is worth a pound of sour," sings +Spenser, and at Barr we get the sweet and the sour strangely mixed. The +narrow streets smell of tanneries and less wholesome nuisances, not a +breath of fresh pure air is to be had from one end of the town to the +other. But our pretty, gracious landlady, an Alsacienne, and her husband, +the master of the house and _chef de cuisine_ as well, equally +handsome and courteous, took so much pains to make us comfortable that +we stayed on and on. Not a thousand bad smells could drive us away! Yet +there is accommodation for the traveller among the vineyards outside the +town, and also near the railway station, so Barr need not be avoided on +account of its unsavouriness. No sooner are you beyond the dingy streets +than all is beauty, pastoralness and romance. Every green peak is crested +with ruined keep or tower, at the foot of the meeting hills lie peaceful +little villages, each with its lofty church spire, whilst all the air is +fragrant with pine-woods and newly turned hay. + +These pine-woods and frowning ruins set like sentinels on every green +hill or rocky eminence, recall many of Doré's happiest efforts. "_Le +pauvre garçon_," our hostess said. "_Comme il était content chez +nous_!" I can fancy how Doré would enjoy the family life of our little +old-fashioned hotel, how he would play with the children, chat with +master and mistress, and make himself agreeable all round. One can also +fancy how animated conversation would become if it chanced to take a +patriotic turn. For people speak their thoughts in Alsace,--nowhere more +freely. In season and out of season, the same sentiment comes to the +surface. "_Nous sommes plus Français que les Français_." This is the +universal expression of feeling that greeted our ears throughout our +wanderings. Such, at least, was formerly the case. The men, women and +children, rich and poor, learned and simple, gave utterance to the same +expression of feeling. Barr is a town of between six and seven thousand +souls, about twenty of whom are Prussians. A pleasant position, truly, +for the twenty officials! And what we see at Barr is the case throughout +the newly acquired German dominion. Alike the highest as well as the +humblest functionary of the imperial government is completely shut off +from intercourse with his French neighbours. + +Barr lies near so much romantic scenery that the tourist in these parts +had better try the little hotel amid the mines. For, in spite of the +picturesque stork's nest close by, an excellent ordinary and the most +delightful host and hostess in the world, I cannot recommend a sojourn in +the heart of the town. The best plan of all were to halt here simply for +the sake of the excursion to St. Odile--St. Odile leads nowhither--then +hire a carriage, and make leisurely way across country by the Hohwald, +and the Champ de Feu to Rothau, Oberlin's country, thence to Strasburg. +In our own case, the fascinations of our hosts overcame our repugnance to +Barr itself, so we stayed on, every day making long drives into the +fresh, quiet, beautiful country. One of the sweet spots we discovered for +the benefit of any English folks who may chance to stray in that region +is the Hohwald, a _ville giatura_ long in vogue with the inhabitants +of Strasburg and neighbouring towns, but not mentioned in any English +guide-book at the time of my visit. + +We are reminded all the way of Rhineland. The same terraced vineyards, +the same limestone crags, each with its feudal tower, the same fertility +and richness everywhere. Our road winds for miles amid avenues of +fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are +stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and +fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this +magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must +be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut +woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are +to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts. +I followed the _curé_ and sacristan as they took a path that wound high +above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained +a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire, +and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine façade of the +castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with +massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the +neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with +greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are +indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird, +fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers +past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to +rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they +will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild +visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of +Doré's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood, +jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite +familiar to us in the pages of his _Dante_ and _Don Quixote._ + +The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is +the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road +green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling +amid the alders, the noisy little river. + +The Hohwald is the creation of a woman; that is to say, the Hohwald of +holiday-makers, tourists and tired brain-workers. "Can you imagine," +wrote M. Edmond About, forty years ago, "an inn at the world's end that +cost a hundred thousand francs in the building? I assure you the owner +will soon have recouped her outlay. She had not a centime to begin with, +this courageous lady, left a widow without resources, and a son to bring +up. The happy thought occurred to her of a summer resort in the heart of +these glorious woods, within easy reach of Strasburg." There are gardens +and reception-rooms in common, and here as at Gérardmer croquet, music +and the dance offer an extra attraction. It must be admitted that these +big family hotels, in attractive country places with prices adapted to +all travellers, have many advantages over our own seaside lodgings. +People get much more for their money, better food, better accommodation, +with agreeable society into the bargain, and a relief from the harass of +housekeeping. The children, too, find companionship, to the great relief +of parents and nursemaids. + +The Hohwald proper is a tiny village numbering a few hundred souls, +situated in the midst of magnificent forests at the foot of the famous +Champ de Feu. This is a plateau on one of the loftiest summits of the +Vosges, and very curious from a geological point of view. To explore it +properly you must be a good pedestrian. Much, indeed, of the finest +scenery of these regions is beyond reach of travellers who cannot walk +five or six hours a day. + +Any one, however, may drive to St. Odile, and St. Odile is the great +excursion of Alsace. Who cares a straw for the saint and her story now? +But all tourists must be grateful to the Bishop of Strasburg, who keeps a +comfortable little inn at the top of the mountain, and, beyond the +prohibition of meat on fast-days, smoking, noise and levity of manner on +all days, makes you very comfortable for next to nothing. + +The fact is, this noble plateau, commanding as splendid a natural +panorama as any in Europe, at the time I write of the property of +Monseigneur of Strasburg, was once a famous shrine and a convent of +cloistered men and women vowed to sanctity and prayer. The convent was +closed at the time of the French Revolution, and the entire property, +convent, mountain and prospect, remained in the hands of private +possessors till 1853, when the prelate of that day repurchased the whole, +restored the conventual building, put in some lay brethren to cultivate +the soil, and some lay sisters, who wear the garb of nuns, but have taken +no vows upon them except of piety, to keep the little inn and make +tourists comfortable. No arrangement could be better, and I advise any +one in want of pure air, superb scenery, and complete quiet, to betake +himself to St. Odile. + +Here again I must intercalate. Since these lines were jotted down, many +changes, and apparently none for the better, have taken place here. +Intending tourists must take both M. Hallays' volume and Maurice Barrès' +_Au Service d'Allemagne_ for recent accounts of this holiday resort. +The splendid natural features remain intact. + +The way from Barr lies through prosperous villages, enriched by +manufactories, yet abounding in pastoral graces. There are English-like +parks and fine châteaux of rich manufacturers; but contrasted with these +nothing like abject poverty. The houses of working-folk are clean, each +with its flower-garden, the children are neatly dressed, no squalor or +look of discontent to be seen anywhere. Every hamlet has its beautiful +spire, whilst the country is the fairest, richest conceivable; in the +woods is seen every variety of fir and pine, mingled with the lighter +foliage of chestnut and acacia, whilst every orchard has its walnut and +mulberry trees, not to speak of pear and plum. One of the chief +manufactures of these parts is that of paints and colours: there are also +ribbon and cotton factories. Rich as is the country naturally, its chief +wealth arises from these industries. In every village you hear the hum of +machinery. + +You may lessen the distance from Barr to St. Odile by one-half if you +make the journey on foot, winding upwards amid the vine-clad hills, at +every turn coming upon one of those grand old ruins, as plentiful here as +in Rhineland, and quite as romantic and beautiful. The drive is a slow +and toilsome ascent of three hours and a half. As soon as we quit the +villages and climb the mountain road cut amid the pines, we are in a +superb and solitary scene. No sound of millwheels or steam-hammers is +heard here, only the summer breeze stirring the lofty pine branches, the +hum of insects, and the trickling of mountain streams. The dark-leaved +henbane is in brilliant yellow flower, and the purple foxglove in +striking contrast; but the wealth of summer flowers is over. + +Who would choose to live on Ararat? Yet it is something to reach a +pinnacle from whence you may survey more than one kingdom. The prospect +from St. Odile is one to gaze on for a day, and to make us dizzy in +dreams ever after. From the umbrageous terrace in front of the convent-- +cool and breezy on this, one of the hottest days of a hot season--we see, +as from a balloon, a wonderful bit of the world spread out like a map at +our feet. The vast plain of Alsace, the valley of the Rhine, the Swiss +mountains, the Black Forest, Bâle, and Strasburg--all these we dominate +from our airy pinnacle close, at it seems, under the blue vault of +heaven. But though they were there, we did not see them: for the day, as +so often happens on such occasions, was misty. We had none the less a +novel and wonderful prospect. As we sit on this cool terrace, under the +shady mulberry trees, and look far beyond the richly-wooded mountain we +have scaled on our way, we gradually make out some details of the fast +panorama, one feature after another becoming visible as stars shining +faintly in a misty heaven. Villages and little towns past counting, each +with its conspicuous spire, break the monotony of the enormous plain. +Here and there, miles away, a curl of white vapour indicates the passage +of some railway train, whilst in this upper stillness sweet sounds of +church bells reach us from hamlets close underneath the convent. Nothing +can be more solid, fresher, or more brilliant than the rich beech- and +pine-woods running sheer from our airy eminence to the level world below, +nothing more visionary, slumberous, or dimmer than that wide expanse +teeming, as we know, with busy human life, yet flat and motionless as a +picture. + +[Illustration] + +On clear nights the electric lights of the railway station at Strasburg +are seen from this point; but far more attractive than the prospects from +St. Odile is its prehistoric wall. Before the wall, however, came the +dinner, which deserves mention. It was Friday, so in company of priests, +nuns, monks and divers pious pilgrims, with a sprinkling of fashionable +ladies from Strasburg, and tourists generally, we sat down to a very fair +_menu_ for a fast-day, to wit: rice-soup, turnips and potatoes, +eggs, perch, macaroni-cheese, custard pudding, gruyère cheese, and fair +vin ordinaire. Two shillings was charged per head, and I must say people +got their money's worth, for appetites seem keen in these parts. The +mother-superior, a kindly old woman, evidently belonging to the working +class, bustled about and shook hands with each of her guests. After +dinner we were shown the bedrooms, which are very clean; for board and +lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger +of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical +hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that +all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing. +However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are +very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we +always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us +welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us +to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this +famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications +similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not +far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be +compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness. + +We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb +for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which +the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily +lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although +where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is +inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered +with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful +notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled +together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The +points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly +we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive +constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no +doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been +hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of +pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and +dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and +in many places mortised together. We find no trace of cement, a fact +disproving the hypothesis that the wall may have been of Roman origin. We +must doubtless go much farther back, and associate these primitive +builders with such relics of prehistoric times as the stones of Carnac +and Lokmariaker. And not to seek so wide for analogies, do we not see +here the handiwork of the same rude architects I have before alluded to +in my Vosges travels, who flung a stone bridge across the forest gorge +above Remiremont and raised in close proximity the stupendous monolith of +Kirlinkin? The prehistoric stone monuments scattered about these regions +are as yet new to the English archaeologist, and form one of the most +interesting features of Vosges and Alsatian travel. + +We may follow these lightly superimposed blocks of stone for miles, and +the _enceinte_ has been traced round the entire plateau, which was +thus defended from enemies on all sides. As we continue our walk on the +inner side of the wall we get lovely views of the dim violet hills, the +vast golden plain, and, close underneath, luxuriant forests. Eagles are +flying hither and thither, and except for an occasional tourist or two, +the scene is perfectly solitary. An hour's walk brings us to the +Menelstein, a vast and lofty platform of stone, ascended by a stair, both +untouched by the hand of man. Never was a more formidable redoubt raised +by engineering skill. Nature here helped her primitive builders well. +From a terrace due to the natural formation of the rock, we obtain +another of those grand and varied panoramas so numerous in this part of +the world, but the beauty nearer at hand is more enticing. Nothing can +exceed the freshness and charm of our homeward walk. We are now no longer +following the wall, but free to enjoy the breezy, heather-scented +plateau, and the broken, romantic outline of St. Odile, the Wartburg of +Alsace, as the saint herself was its Holy Elizabeth, and with as romantic +a story for those with a taste for such legends. + +Here and there on the remoter wooded peaks are stately ruins of feudal +castles, whilst all the way our path lies amid bright foliage of young +forest trees, chestnut and oak, pine and acacia, and the ground is purple +with heather. Blocks of the conglomerate used in the construction of the +so-called Pagan Wall meet us at every turn, and as we gaze down the steep +sides of the promontory we can trace its massive outline. A scene not +soon to be forgotten! The still, solitary field of Carnac, with its +avenues of monoliths, is not more impressive than these Cyclopean walls, +thrown as a girdle round the green slopes of St. Odile. + +We would fain have stayed here some time, but much more still remained to +be seen and accomplished in Alsace. Rothau, the district known as the Ban +de la Roche, where Oberlin laboured for sixty years, Thann, Wesserling, +with a sojourn among French subjects of the German Empire at Mulhouse-- +all these things had to be done, and the bright summer days were drawing +to an end. + + + +IV + +FROM BARR TO STRASBURG, MULHOUSE AND BELFORT + +The opening sentences of this chapter, written many years ago, are no +longer applicable. Were I to revisit Alsace-Lorraine at the present time, +I should only hear French speech among intimate friends and in private, +so strictly of late years has the law of lèse-majesté been, and is still, +enforced. + +Nothing strikes the sojourner in Alsace-Lorraine more forcibly than the +outspokenness of its inhabitants regarding Prussian rule. Young and old, +rich and poor, wise and simple alike unburden themselves to their +chance-made English acquaintance with a candour that is at the same time +amusing and pathetic. For the most part no heed whatever is paid to +possible German listeners. At the ordinaries of country hotels, by the +shop door, in the railway carriage, Alsatians will pour out their +hearts, especially the women, who, as two pretty sisters assured us, are +not interfered with, be their conversation of the most treasonable kind. +We travelled with these two charming girls from Barr to Rothau, and they +corroborated what we had already heard at Barr and other places. The +Prussian inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine--for the most part Government +officials--are completely shut off from all social intercourse with the +French population, the latter, of course, still forming the vast +majority. Thus at Barr, a town consisting of over six thousand +inhabitants, only a score or two are Prussians, who are employed in the +railway and postal service, the police, the survey of forests, etc. The +position of these officials is far from agreeable, although, on the +other hand, there is compensation in the shape of higher pay, and much +more material comfort, even luxury, than are to be had in the +Fatherland. Alsace-Lorraine, especially by comparison with Prussia, may +be called a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey. The vine +ripens on these warm hill-sides and rocky terraces, the plain produces +abundant variety of fruit and vegetables, the streams abound with trout +and the forests with game. No wonder, therefore, that whilst thousands +of patriotic Alsatians have already quitted the country, thousands of +Prussians are ready to fill their places. But the Alsatian exodus is far +from finished. At first, as was only natural, the inhabitants could not +realize the annexation. They refused to believe that the Prussian +occupation was final, so, for the most part, stayed on, hoping against +hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born +since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or +French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in +their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and +renounce the cherished _patrie_ and _tricolor_ for ever. + + +The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of +things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the +poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade +it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army. +For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of +life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken +account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons +across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education. +The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another +grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore +under the necessity of providing private masters for their children, +unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue. +And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in +Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural +population speak a _patois_ made up of bad German and equally bad +French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most +patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in +this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation +of races that has been going on for many generations. + +Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In +Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of +the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women +graceful and often exceedingly lovely, French piquancy and symmetrical +proportions combined with Teutonic fairness of complexion, blonde hair, +and blue eyes. + +I will now continue my journey from Barr to Strasburg by way of the Ban +de la Roche, Oberlin's country. A railway connects Barr with Rothau, a +very pleasant halting-place in the midst of sweet pastoral scenery. It is +another of those resorts in Alsace whither holiday folks flock from +Strasburg and other towns during the long vacation, in quest of health, +recreation and society. + +Rothau is a very prosperous little town, with large factories, handsome +châteaux of mill-owners, and trim little cottages, having flowers in all +the windows and a trellised vine in every garden. Pomegranates and +oleanders are in full bloom here and there, and the general aspect is +bright and cheerful. At Rothau are several _blanchisseries_ or +laundries, on a large scale, employing many hands, besides dye-works and +saw-mills. Through the town runs the little river Bruche, and the whole +district, known as the Ban de la Roche, a hundred years ago one of the +dreariest regions in France, is now all smiling fertility. The principal +building is its handsome Protestant church--for here we are among +Protestants, although of a less zealous temper than their fore-fathers, +the fervid Anabaptists. I attended morning service, and although an +eloquent preacher from Paris officiated, the audience was small, and the +general impression that of coldness and want of animation. + +From the sweet, fragrant valley of Rothau a road winds amid green hills +and by the tumbling river to the little old-world village of Foudai, +where Oberlin lies buried. The tiny church and shady churchyard lie above +the village, and a more out-of-the-way spot than Foudai itself can hardly +be imagined. Yet many a pious pilgrim finds it out and comes hither to +pay a tribute to the memory of "Papa Oberlin," as he was artlessly +called by the country folk. This is the inscription at the head of the +plain stone slab marking his resting-place; and very suggestive it is of +the relation between the pastor and his flock. Oberlin's career of sixty +years among the primitive people of the Ban de la Roche was rather that +of a missionary among an uncivilized race than of a country priest among +his parishioners. How he toiled, and how he induced others to toil, in +order to raise the material as well as moral and spiritual conditions of +his charges, is pretty well known. His story reads like the German +narrative, _Des Goldmachers Dorf_. Nor does it require any lively +fancy to picture what this region must have been like before Oberlin and +his fellow-workers made the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The soil +is rocky and barren, the hill-sides whitened with mountain streams, the +more fertile spots isolated and difficult of access. An elaborate system +of irrigation has now clothed the valleys with rich pastures, the river +turns a dozen wheels, and every available inch of soil has been turned to +account. The cottages with orchards and flower-gardens are trim and +comfortable. The place in verity is a veritable little Arcadia. No less +so is Waldersbach, which was Oberlin's home. The little river winding +amid hayfields and fruit-trees leads us thither from Foudai in +half-an-hour. It is Sunday afternoon, and a fête day. Young and old in +Sunday garb are keeping holiday, the lads and lasses waltzing, the +children enjoying swings and peep-shows. No acerbity has lingered among +these descendants of the austere parishioners of Oberlin. Here, as at +Foudai, the entire population is Protestant. The church and parsonage +lie at the back of the village, and we were warmly welcomed by the +pastor and his wife, a great-great-granddaughter of Oberlin. Their six +pretty children were playing in the garden with two young girls in the +costume of Alsace, forming a pleasant domestic picture. Our hosts +showed us many relics of Oberlin, the handsome cabinets and presses of +carved oak, in which were stored the family wardrobe and other +treasures, and in the study the table on which he habitually wrote. +This is a charming upper room with wide views over the green hills and +sunny, peaceful valley. + +We were offered hospitality for days, nay, weeks, if we chose to stay, +and even the use of Oberlin's study to sit and write in! A summer might +be pleasantly spent here, with quiet mornings in this cheerful chamber, +full of pious memories, and in the afternoon long rambles with the +children over the peaceful hills. From Foudai, too, you may climb the +wild rocky plateau known as the Champ de Feu--no spot in the Vosges chain +is more interesting from a geological point of view. + +After much pleasant talk we took leave of our kind hosts, not going away, +however, without visiting the church. A tablet with medallion portrait of +Oberlin bears the touching inscription that for fifty-nine years he was +"the father of this parish." Then we drove back as we had come, stopping +at Foudai to rest the horse and drink tea. We were served in a cool +little parlour opening on to a garden, and, so tempting looked the tiny +inn that we regretted we could not stay there a week. A pleasant pastoral +country rather than romantic or picturesque is the Ban de la Roche, but +close at hand is the lofty Donon, which may be climbed from Rothau or +Foudai, and there are many other excursions within reach. + +Here, for the present, the romance of Alsace travel ends, and all is +prose of a somewhat painful kind. The first object that attracted our +attention on reaching Strasburg was the new railway station, of which we +had already heard so much. This handsome structure, erected by the German +Government at an enormous cost, had only been recently opened, and so +great was the soreness of feeling excited by certain allegorical +bas-reliefs decorating the façade that for many days after the opening +of the station police-officers in plain clothes carefully watched the +crowd of spectators, carrying off the more seditious to prison. To say +the least of it, these mural decorations are not in the best of taste, +and at any rate it would have been better to have withheld them for a +time. The two small bas-reliefs in question bear respectively the +inscription, "_Im alten, und im neuen Reich_" ("In the old and new +Empire"), improved by a stander-by, to the great relish of others, thus, +"_Im alten, reich, im neuen, arm_" ("In the old, rich, in the new, +poor"). They give a somewhat ideal representation of the surrender of +Strasburg to the German Emperor. But the bombardment of their city, the +destruction of public monuments and the loss of life and property +thereby occasioned, were as yet fresh in the memories of the +inhabitants, and they needed no such reminder of the new state of +things. Their better feelings towards Germany had been bombarded out of +them, as an Alsacienne wittily observed to the Duchess of Baden after +the surrender. The duchess, daughter to the Emperor William, made the +round of the hospitals, and not a single Alsatian soldier but turned his +face to the wall, whereupon she expressed her astonishment at not +finding a better sentiment. Nor can the lover of art help drawing a +painful contrast between the Strasburg of the old and the new _régime_. +There was very little to see at Strasburg except the cathedral at this +time. The Library, with its 300,000 volumes and 1,500 manuscripts--the +priceless _Hortus Deliciarium_ of the twelfth century, richly +illuminated and ornamented with miniatures invaluable to the student of +men and manners of the Middle Ages, the missal of Louis XII., bearing +his arms, the _Recueil de Prières_ of the eighth century--all these had +been completely destroyed by the ruthless Prussian bombardment. The +Museum, rich in _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the French school, both of sculpture +and painting, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, all shared the same fate, not to speak of buildings of lesser +importance, including four hundred private dwellings, and of the fifteen +hundred civilians, men, women and children, killed and wounded by the +shells. The fine church of St. Thomas suffered greatly. Nor was the +cathedral spared, and it would doubtless have perished altogether, too, +but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city. On my second visit +ten years later I found immense changes, new German architecture to be +seen everywhere. + + +Strasburg is said to contain a much larger German element than any other +city of Alsace-Lorraine, but the most casual observer soon finds out how +it stands with the bulk of the people. The first thing that attracted our +notice in a shop window was a coloured illustration representing the +funeral procession of Gambetta, as it wound slowly past the veiled statue +of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde. These displays of patriotic +feeling are forbidden, but they come to the fore all the same. Here, as +elsewhere, the clinging to the old country is pathetically--sometimes +comically--apparent. A rough peasant girl, employed as chambermaid in the +hotel at which we stayed, amused me not a little by her tirades against +the Prussians, spoken in a language that was neither German nor French, +but a mixture of both--the delectable tongue of Alsace! + +Strasburg is now a vast camp, with that perpetual noisy military parade +so wearisome in Berlin and other German cities, and, as I have said, +there was very little to see. It was a relief to get to Mulhouse, the +comparatively quiet and thoroughly French city of Mulhouse, in spite of +all attempts to make it German. But for the imperial eagle placed over +public offices and the sprinkling of Prussian helmets and Prussian +physiognomies, we could hardly suppose ourselves outside the French +border. The shops are French. French is the language of the better +classes, and French and Jews make up the bulk of the population. The Jews +from time immemorial have swarmed in Alsace, where, I am sorry to say, +they seemed to be little liked. + +This thoroughly French appearance of Mulhouse, to be accounted for, +moreover, by an intensely patriotic clinging to the mother country, +naturally occasions great vexation to the German authorities. It is, +perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that undignified provocations and +reprisals should be the consequence. Thus the law forbids the putting up +of French signboards or names over shop doors in any but the German +language. This is evaded by withholding all else except the surname of +the individual, which is of course the same in both languages. + +One instance more I give of the small annoyances to which the French +residents of Mulhouse are subject, a trifling one, yet sufficient to +irritate. Eight months after the annexation, orders were sent round to +the pastors and clergy generally to offer up prayers for the Emperor +William every Sunday. The order was obeyed, for refusal would have been +assuredly followed by dismissal, but the prayer is ungraciously +performed. The French pastors invoke the blessing of Heaven on +"_l'Empereur qui nous gouverne_". The pastors who perform the +service in German, pray not for "our Emperor," as is the apparently loyal +fashion in the Fatherland, but for "the Emperor." These things are +trifling grievances, but, on the other hand, the Prussians have theirs +also. Not even the officials of highest rank are received into any kind +of society whatever. Mulhouse possesses a charming zoological garden, +free to subscribers only, who have to be balloted for. Twenty years after +the annexation not a single Prussian has ever been able to obtain access +to this garden. + +Even the very poorest contrive to show their intense patriotism. It is +the rule of the German government to give twenty-five marks to any poor +woman giving birth to twins. The wife of a French workman during my +sojourn at Mulhouse had three sons at a birth, but though in very poor +circumstances, refused to claim the donation. "My sons shall never be +Prussian," she said, "and that gift would make them so." + +The real thorn in the flesh of the annexed Alsatians is, however, as I +have before pointed out, military service, and the enforced German +education. All who have read Alphonse Daudet's charming little story, +_La dernière leçon de Français_, will be able to realize the +painfulness of the truth, somewhat rudely brought home to French parents. +Their children must henceforth receive a German education, or none at +all, for this is what the law amounts to in the great majority of cases. +Rich people, of course, and those who are only well-to-do, can send their +sons to the Lycée, opened at Belfort since the annexation, but the rest +have to submit, or, by dint of great sacrifice, obtain private French +teaching. And, whilst even Alsatians are quite ready to render justice to +the forbearance and tact often shown by officials, an inquisitorial and +prying system is pursued, as vexatious to the patriotic as enforced +vaccination to the Peculiar People or school attendance to the poor. One +lady was visited at seven o'clock in the morning by the functionary +charged with the unpleasant mission of finding out where her boy was +educated. "Tell those who sent you," said the indignant mother, "that my +son shall never belong to you. We will give up our home, our prospects, +everything; but our children shall never be Prussians." True enough, the +family have since emigrated. No one who has not stayed in Alsace among +Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, +nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the +true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known +outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and +character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a +ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. + +[Illustration: ETTENHEIM] + +"Nous ne sommes pas heureux à Mulhouse" were almost the first words +addressed to me by that veteran patriot and true philanthropist, Jean +Dollfus. + +And how could it be otherwise? M. Dollfus, as well as other +representatives of the French subjects of Prussia in the Reichstag, had +protested against the annexation of Alsace in vain. They pointed out the +heavy cost to the German empire of these provinces, in consequence of the +vast military force required to maintain them, the undying bitterness +aroused, the moral, intellectual, and material interests at stake. I use +the word intellectual advisedly, for, amongst other instances in point, I +was assured that the book trade in Mulhouse had greatly declined since +the annexation. The student class has diminished, many reading people +have gone, and those who remain feel too uncertain about the future to +accumulate libraries. Moreover, the ordeal that all have gone through has +depressed intellectual as well as social life. Mulhouse has been too much +saddened to recover herself as yet, although eminently a literary place, +and a sociable one in the old happy French days. The balls, soirées and +reunions, that formerly made Mulhouse one of the friendliest as well as +the busiest towns in the world, have almost ceased. People take their +pleasures very soberly. + +It is hardly possible to write of Mulhouse without consecrating a page +or two to M. Jean Dollfus, a name already familiar to some English +readers. The career of such a man forms part of contemporary history, +and for sixty years the great cotton-printer of Mulhouse, the +indefatigable philanthropist--the fellow-worker with Cobden, +Arles-Dufour, and others in the cause of Free Trade--and the ardent +patriot, had been before the world. + +The year before my visit was celebrated, with a splendour that would be +ridiculed in a novel, the diamond wedding of the head of the numerous +house of Dollfus, the silver and the golden having been already kept in +due form. + +Mulhouse might well be proud of such a fête, for it was unique, and the +first gala-day since the annexation. When M. Dollfus looked out of his +window in the morning, he found the familiar street transformed as if by +magic into a bright green avenue abundantly adorned with flowers. The +change had been effected in the night by means of young fir-trees +transplanted from the forest. The day was kept as a general holiday. +From an early hour the improvised avenue was thronged with visitors of +all ranks bearing cards, letters of congratulation or flowers. The great +Dollfus works were closed, and the five thousand workmen with their +wives, children and superannuated parents, were not only feasted but +enriched. After the banquet every man, woman and child received a present +in money, the oldest and those who had remained longest in the employ of +M. Dollfus being presented with forty francs. But the crowning sight of +the day was the board spread for the Dollfus family and the gathering of +the clan, as it may indeed be called. There was the head of the house, +firm as a rock still, in spite of his eighty-two years; beside him the +partner of sixty of those years, his devoted wife; next according to age, +their numerous sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; duly +following came the grandsons and grand-daughters, then the +great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, and lastly, the babies of their +fifth generation, all accompanied by their nurses in the picturesque +costume of Alsace and Lorraine. This patriarchal assemblage numbered +between one and two hundred guests. On the table were represented, in the +artistic confectionery for which Mulhouse is famous, some of the leading +events of M. Dollfus's busy life. Here in sugar was a model of the +achievement which will ever do honour to the name of Jean Dollfus, +namely, the _cités ouvrières_, and what was no less a triumph of the +confectioner's skill, a group representing the romantic ride of M. and +Mme. Dollfus on camels towards the Algerian Sahara when visiting the +African colony some twenty years before. + +This patriarchal festival is said to have cost M. Dollfus half a million +of francs, a bagatelle in a career devoted to giving! The bare conception +of what this good man has bestowed takes one's breath away! Not that he +was alone; never was a city more prolific of generous men than Mulhouse, +but Jean Dollfus, _"Le Père Jean,"_ as he is called, stood at the +head. He received with one hand to bestow with the other, and not only on +behalf of the national, intellectual and spiritual wants of his own +workmen and his own community--the Dollfus family are Protestant--but +indiscriminately benefiting Protestant, Catholic, Jew; founding schools, +hospitals, libraries, refuges, churches, for all. + +We see at a glance after what fashion the great manufacturers set to work +here to solve the problem before them. The life of ease and the life of +toil are seen side by side, and all the brighter influences of the one +brought to bear on the other. The tall factory chimneys are unsightly +here as elsewhere, and nothing can be uglier than the steam tramways, +noisily running through the streets. But close to the factories and +workshops are the cheerful villas and gardens of their owners, whilst +near at hand the workmen's dwellings offer an exterior equally +attractive. These _cités ouvrières_ form indeed a suburb in +themselves, and a very pleasant suburb too. Many middle-class families in +England might be glad to own such a home, a semi-detached cottage or +villa standing in a pretty garden with flowers and trees and plots of +turf. Some of the cottages are models of trimness and taste, others of +course are less well kept, a few have a neglected appearance. The general +aspect, however, is one of thrift and prosperity, and it must be borne in +mind that each dwelling and plot of ground are the property of the owner, +gradually acquired by him out of his earnings, thanks to the initiative +of M. Dollfus and his fellow-workers. "It is by such means as these that +we have combated Socialism," said M. Dollfus to me; and the gradual +transformation of the workman into an owner of property, is but one of +the numerous efforts made at Mulhouse to lighten, in so far as is +practicable, the burden of toil. + +These pleasant avenues are very animated on Sundays, especially when a +universal christening of babies is going on. The workmen at Mulhouse are +paid once a fortnight, in some cases monthly, and it is usually after +pay-day that such celebrations occur. We saw one Sunday afternoon quite +a procession of carriages returning from the church to the _cité +ouvrière_, for upon these occasions nobody goes on foot. There were +certainly a dozen christening parties, all well dressed, and the babies +in the finest white muslin and embroidery. A very large proportion of the +artisans here are Catholics, and as one instance among others of the +liberality prevailing here, I mention that one of the latest donations of +M. Dollfus is the piece of ground, close to the _cité ouvrière_, on +which now stands the new, florid Catholic church. + +There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been +opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French +pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Köchlins, to their +native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French +as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among +the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of +De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71 +that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was +withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The +bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse. + +I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real +pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a +charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the +Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and +suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of +existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase +a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden +I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the +Black Forest. + +Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of +Notre Dame des Trois Épis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann, +with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and +the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of +the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account +be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully +is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave +and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later +period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty, +and no less so the façade and side porch, both very richly decorated. +One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a +place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance +and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish +community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve +their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up. + +[Illustration: COLMAR] + +Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge +from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort--the +heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid +rock--the little Protestant town of Montbéliard, and Besançon. Belfort is +well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and +purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin +saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort" +comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly +industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many +communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country +between Montbéliard and Besançon, well worth seeing, if only from the +railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on +the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid +the _détour_ by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages +many. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, AETAT EIGHT YEARS] + + + +V + +THE 'MARVELLOUS BOY' OF ALSACE + +I + +It is especially at Strasburg that travellers are reminded of another +"marvellous boy," who, if he did not "perish in his pride," certainly +shortened his days by overreaching ambition and the brooding bitterness +waiting upon shattered hopes. + +Gustave Doré was born and reared under the shadow of Strasburg +Cathedral. The majestic spire, a world in itself, became indeed a world +to this imaginative prodigy. He may be said to have learned the minster +of minsters by heart, as before him Victor Hugo had familiarized himself +with Notre Dame. The unbreeched artist of four summers never tired of +scrutinizing the statues, monsters, gargoyles and other outer +ornamentations, while the story of the pious architect Erwin and of his +inspirer, Sabine, was equally dear. Never did genius more clearly +exhibit the influence of early environment. True child of Alsace, he +revelled in local folklore and legend. The eerie and the fantastic had +the same fascination for him as sacred story, and the lives of the +saints, gnomes, elves, werewolves and sorcerers bewitched no less than +martyrs, miracle-workers and angels. + +His play-hours would be spent within the precincts of the cathedral, +whilst the long winter evenings were beguiled with fairy-tales and +fables, his mother and nurse reading or reciting these, their little +listener being always busy with pen or pencil. Something much more than +mere precocity is shown in these almost infantine sketches. Exorbitant +fancy is here much less striking than sureness of touch, outlined +figures drawn between the age of five and ten displaying remarkable +precision and point, each line of the silhouette telling. At six he +celebrated his first school prize with an illustrated letter, two +portraits and a mannikin surmounting the text. + +[Footnote: See his life by Blanch Roosevelt, Sampson Low & Co. 1885; +also the French translation of the same, 1886.] + +His groups of peasants and portraits, made three or four years later, +possess almost a Rembrandt strength, unfortunately passion for the +grotesque and the fanciful often lending a touch of caricature. +Downright ugliness must have had an especial charm for the future +illustrator of the _Inferno_, his unconscious models sketched by the +way being uncomely as the immortal Pickwick and his fellows of Phiz. A +devotee of Gothic art, he reproduced the mediæval monstrosities adorning +cornice and pinnacle in human types. Equally devoted to nature out of +doors, the same taste predominated. What he loved and sought was ever +the savage, the legend-haunted, the ghoulish, seats and ambuscades of +kelpie, hobgoblin, brownie and their kind. + +[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, ÆTAT EIGHT YEARS] + +From the nursery upwards, if the term can be applied to French children, +his life was a succession of artistic abnormalities and _tours de +force_. The bantling in petticoats who could astound his elders with +wonderfully accurate silhouettes, continued to surprise them in other +ways. His memory was no less amazing than his draughtsmanship. When +seven years of age, he was taken to the opera and witnessed _Robert le +Diable_. On returning home he accurately narrated every scene. + +At eight he broke his right arm, but became as if by magic ambidextrous, +whilst confined to bed, cheerily drawing all day long with the left +hand. At ten he witnessed a grand public ceremony. In 1840 Strasburg +celebrated the inauguration of a monument to Gutenberg, the festival +being one of extraordinary splendour. Fifteen cars represented the +industrial corporations of the city, each symbolically adorned, and in +each riding figures suitably travestied and occupied, men, women and +children wearing the costumes of the period represented. Among the +corporations figured the _Peintres-verriers_, or painters on stained +glass, their car proving especially attractive to one small looker-on. + +Intoxicated by the colour and movement of the fête, garlanded and +beflagged streets, the symbolic carriages, the bands, civic and +military, and the prevailing enthusiasm, the child determined to get up +an apotheosis of his own: in other words, to repeat the performance on a +smaller scale. Which he did. Cars, costumes, banners and decorations +were all designed by this imp of ten. With the approval of his +professors and the collaboration of his school-fellows, the Doré +procession, consisting of four highly decorated cars, drawn by boys, +defiled before the college authorities and made the round of the +cathedral, the youthful impresario at its head. The car of the painters +on glass was conspicuously elaborate, a star copied from a Cathedral +window showing the superscription, _G. Doré, fecit_. Small wonder is it +that the adoring mother of an equally adoring son should have believed +in him from the first, and seen in these beginnings the dawn of genius, +the advent, indeed, of a second Michael Angelo or Titian. + +The more practical father might chide such overreaching vaticinations, +might reiterate-- + +"Do not fill the boy's head with nonsense." + +The answer would be-- + +"I know it. Our son is a genius." + +And Doré _père_ gave way, under circumstances curious enough. + + +II + + +In 1847 the family visited Paris, there to Gustave's delight spending +four months. Loitering one day in the neighbourhood of the Bourse, his +eye lighted upon comic papers with cuts published by MM. Auber and +Philipon. Their shop windows were full of caricatures, and after a long +and intent gaze the boy returned home, in two or three days presenting +himself before the proprietors with half-a-dozen drawings much in the +style of those witnessed. The benevolent but businesslike M. Philipon +examined the sketches attentively, put several questions to his young +visitor, and, finding that the step had been taken surreptitiously, +immediately sat down and wrote to M. and Mme. Doré. He urged them with +all the inducements he could command to allow their son the free choice +of a career, assuring them of his future. + +A few days later an agreement was signed by father and publisher to this +effect: During three years the latter was to receive upon certain terms +a weekly cartoon from the sixteen-year-old artist, who, on his side, +bound himself to offer no sketches elsewhere. + +[Footnote: This document was reproduced in _Le Figaro_ of +December 4, 1848.] + +Meanwhile, Gustave would pursue his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne, +his patron promising to look after his health and well-being. The +arrangement answered, and in _Le Journal pour rire_ the weekly +caricature signed by Doré soon noised his fame abroad. Ugly, even +hideous, as were many of these caricatures, they did double duty, paying +the lad's school expenses, and paving the way to better things. Of +caricature Doré soon tired, and after this early period never returned +to it. Is it any wonder that facile success and excessive laudation +should turn the stripling's head? Professionally, if not artistically +speaking, Doré passed straight from child to man; in one sense of the +word he had no boyhood, the term tyro remained inapplicable. This +undersized, fragile lad, looking years younger than he really was, soon +found himself on what must have appeared a pinnacle of fame and fortune. + +Shortly after his agreement with Philipon, his father died, and Mme. +Doré with her family removed to Paris, settling in a picturesque and +historic hôtel of the Rue St. Dominique. Here Doré lived for the rest of +his too short life. + +The house had belonged to the family of Saint Simon, that terrible +observer under whose gaze even Louis XIV. is said to have quailed. So +aver historians of the period. The associations of his home immediately +quickened Doré's inventive faculties. He at once set to work and +organized a brilliant set of _tableaux vivants_, illustrating scenes +from the immortal Mémoires. The undertaking proved a great social +success, and henceforth we hear of galas, soirées, theatricals and other +entertainments increasing in splendour with the young artist's +vogue--and means. + +The history of the next twenty years reads like a page from the _Arabian +Nights_. Although dazzling is the record from first to last, and despite +the millions of francs earned during those two decades, the artist's +ambition was never satisfied. We are always conscious of bitterness and +disillusion. As an illustrator, no longer of cheap comic papers but of +literary masterpieces brought out in costly fashion, Doré reached the +first rank at twenty, his _Rabelais_ setting the seal on his renown. So +immense was the success of this truly colossal undertaking and of its +successors, the _Don Quixote_, the _Contes de fées_ of Perrault +and the rest, that he meditated nothing less than the illustration of +cosmopolitan _chefs 'd' oeuvre, en bloc_, a series which should include +every great imaginative work of the Western world! Thus in 1855 we find +him noting the following projects, to be carried out in ten years' +time:--illustrations of Æschylus, Lucan, Ovid, Shakespeare, Goethe +_(Faust)_, Lamartine _(Méditations)_, Racine, Corneille, Schiller, +Boccaccio, Montaigne, Plutarch's Lives--these names among others. The +jottings in question were written for a friend who had undertaken to +write the artist's biography. + + +The _Rabelais, Don Quixote, The Inferno_, and several more of these +sumptuous volumes were brought out in England. Forty years ago Doré's +bold and richly imaginative work was in great favour here; indeed, +throughout his life he was much more appreciated by ourselves than by +his countrymen. All the drawings were done straight upon wood. Lavish in +daily life, generous of the generous, Doré showed the same lavishness in +his procedure. Some curious particulars are given upon this head. +Fabulous sums were spent upon his blocks, even small ones costing as +much as four pounds apiece. He must always have the very best wood, no +matter the cost, and it was only the whitest, smoothest and glossiest +boxwood that satisfied him. Enormous sums were spent upon this material, +and to his honour be it recorded, that no matter the destination of a +block, the same cost, thought and minute manipulation were expended upon +a trifling commission as upon one involving thousands of pounds. The +penny paper was treated precisely the same as the volume to be brought +out at two guineas. In the zenith of his fame as an illustrator, at a +time when tip-top authors and editors were all clamouring for his +drawings, he did not despise humbler admirers and clients. His delight +in his work was only equalled by quite abnormal physical and mental +powers. Sleep, food, fresh air, everything was forgotten in the +engrossment of work. At this time he would often give himself three +hours of sleep only. + +Doré's ambition--rather, one of his ambitions--was to perfect wood +engraving as an art, hence his indifference to the cost of production. +Hence, doubtless, his persistence in drawing on wood without preliminary +sketch or copy. + +Perhaps such obsession was natural. How could he foresee the variety of +new methods that were so soon to transform book illustration? Anyhow, +herein partly lies the explanation of the following notice in a +second-hand book catalogue, 1911-- + +"No. 355. Gustave Doré: _Dante's Inferno_, with 76 full-page +illustrations by Doré. 4to, gilt top, binding soiled, but otherwise good +copy. _42s._ for _3s. 6d._ London, n.d." + +A leading London publisher consulted by me on the subject, writes +as follows-- + +"Doré's works are no longer in vogue. One of the reasons lies in the +fact that his pictures were done by the old engraved process. He drew +them straight on wood, and there are, accordingly, no original drawings +to be reproduced by modern methods." + +The words "fatal facility" cannot be applied to so consummate a +draughtsman as the illustrator of Dante, Cervantes and Victor Hugo. But +Doré's almost superhuman memory was no less of a pitfall than manual +dexterity. The following story will partly explain his dislike of +facsimile and duplication. + +An intimate friend, named Bourdelin, relates how one day during the +siege of Paris, the pair found themselves by the Courbevoie bridge. One +side of this bridge was guarded by French gendarmes, the other by +German officers, Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, a dozen in all. For a +quarter of an hour the two Frenchmen lingered, Doré intently gazing on +the group opposite. On returning home some hours later he produced a +sketch-book and in Bourdelin's presence swiftly outlined the twelve +figures, exactly reproducing not only physiognomic divergences but +every detail of costume! Poor Doré! In those ardently patriotic days he +entirely relied upon victory and drew an anticipatory picture of France +triumphant, entitled, "Le Passage du Rhin." But the French never +crossed the Rhine, and the drawing was given to this friend with the +words: "My sketch has no longer any _raison d'être_. Keep it in memory +of our fallacious hopes." + + +III + + +In an evil hour for his peace of mind and his fame, Doré decided to +leave illustration and become a historic painter. He evidently regarded +genius as a Pandora's gift, an all-embracing finality, an endowment that +could neither be worsened nor bettered, being complete in itself. + +A reader of Ariosto, he had not taken to heart one of his most memorable +verses, those mellifluous lines in which the poet dwells upon the +laboriousness of intellectual achievement. Nor when illustrating the +_Arabian Nights_ had the wonderful story of Hasan of El-Basrah +evidently brought home to him the same moral. + +Between a Doré and his object--so he deemed--existed neither "seven +valleys nor seven seas, nor seven mountains of vast magnitude." A Doré +needed no assistance of the flying Jinn and the wandering stars on his +way, no flying horse, "which when he went along flew, and when he flew +the dust overtook him not." + +Without the equipment of training, without recognition of such a +handicap, he entered upon his new career. + +In 1854 for the first time two pictures signed by Doré appeared on the +walls of the Salon. But the canvases passed unnoticed. The Parisians +would not take the would-be painter seriously, and the following year's +experience proved hardly less disheartening. Of four pictures sent in, +three were accepted, one of these being a historic subject, the other +two being landscapes. The first, "La Bataille de l'Alma," evoked +considerable criticism. The rural scenes were hung, as Edmond About +expressed it, so high as to need a telescope. + +Both About and Th. Gautier believed in their friend's newly-developed +talent, but art-critics and the public held aloof. No medal was decreed +by the jury, and, accustomed as he had been to triumph after triumph, +his fondest hopes for the second time deceived, Doré grew bitter and +acrimonious. That his failure had anything to do with the real question +at issue, namely, his genius as a historic painter, he would never for a +moment admit. Jealousy, cabals, prejudice only were accountable. + +The half dozen years following were divided between delightfully gay and +varied sociabilities, feverishly prolonged working hours and foreign +travel. The millions of francs earned by his illustrations gave him +everything he wanted but one, that one, in his eyes, worth all the rest. + +Travel, a splendid studio, largesses--he was generosity itself--all +these were within his reach. The craved-for renown remained ungraspable. + +Even visits to his favourite resort, Barr, brought disenchantment. He +found old acquaintances and the country folks generally wanting in +appreciation. With greater and lesser men, he subacidly said to himself +that a man was no prophet in his own country. + +Ten years after the fiasco of his first canvases in the Salon came an +invitation to England and the alluring project of a Doré gallery. The +Doré Bible and Tennyson, with other works, had paved the way for a right +royal reception. The streets of London, as he could well believe, were +paved with gold. But many were the _contra_. "I feel the presentiment," +he wrote to a friend, "that if I betake myself to England, I shall break +with my own country and lose prestige and influence in France. I cannot +exist without my friends, my habits and my _pot-au-feu_. Folks tell me +that England is a land of fogs, that the sun never shines there, that +the inhabitants are cold, and that I should most likely suffer from +sea-sickness in crossing the Manche. To sum up, England is a long way +off, and I have a great mind to give up the project." + +Friendly persuasion, self-interest, wounded self-love carried the day. +Reluctantly he decided upon the redoubtable sea-voyage. Whether he +suffered from sea-sickness or no we are not told. In any case the visit +was repeated, John Bull according the great Alsatian, as he was called, +what France had so persistently withheld. + +Doré was here accorded the first rank among historic painters. His +gallery in Bond Street became one of the London sights; in fashionable +society, if not in the close ring of the great Victorian artists, he +made a leading figure. Royalty patronized and welcomed him. The Queen +bought one of his pictures ("Le Psalterion," now at Windsor), and invited +him to Balmoral. The heir-apparent, the late King, admired his talent +and relished his society. By the clerical world he was especially +esteemed, being looked upon as a second Leonardo da Vinci. And, in fine, +Doré must be regarded as an anticipator of the Entente cordiale. +"Gustave Doré," his compatriots would say, "he is half an Englishman!" +Forty years ago our popular favourite might indeed have believed in the +fulfilment of his dream. The Thorwaldsen Gallery of Copenhagen had ever +dazzled his imagination. Bond Street was not Paris, certainly, but in +the greatest metropolis of the world his memory would be for ever +perpetuated. Turning to the dithyrambic utterances of the London Press +at the time we can hardly wonder at the hallucination. + +Here are one or two passages culled from leading dailies and weeklies-- + +"In gravity and magnitude of purpose, no less than in the scope and +power of his imagination, he towers like a Colossus among his +contemporaries. Compared with such a work as 'Christ leaving the +Prætorium,' the pictures in Burlington House look like the production of +a race of dwarfs whose mental faculties are as diminutive as their +stature. And it is not alone the efforts of the English School of +Painting that appear puny in presence of so great and gigantic an +undertaking; the work of all the existing schools of Europe sinks into +equal insignificance, and we must go back to the Italian painters of the +sixteenth century to find a picture worthy of being classed with this +latest and most stupendous achievement of the great French master." + +Elsewhere we read-- + +"The most marvellous picture of the present age is to be seen at 35, New +Bond Street. The subject is 'Christ leaving the Prætorium,' The painter +is the world-renowned Gustave Doré." + +A journal devoted to art-criticism wrote-- + +"In 'The Christian Martyrs' we have a striking, thrilling and +ennobling picture." + +And so on, and so on. Yet at this time among "the dwarfs" of Burlington +House then exhibiting was Millais, and contemporaneously with Doré in +our midst, 1870-1, was Daubigny, whose tiniest canvases now fetch their +thousands! + +It was during Doré's apogee in England that a well-known French amateur, +also visiting our shores, was thus addressed by an English friend: "Come +with me to Bond Street, you will there see the work of your greatest +living painter." + +"_Our_ greatest painter!" exclaimed the other. "You mean your own. Doré +is our first draughtsman of France, yes, but painter, never, neither the +greatest nor great; at least we were ignorant of the fact till informed +of it by yourself and your country-people." + +Doré knew well how matters stood, and bitterly resented the attitude of +his own nation. Accorded a princely welcome across the Manche, his work +worth its weight in gold on the other side of the Atlantic, in France he +was looked at askance, even as a painter ignored. He regarded himself as +shut out from his rightful heritage, and the victim, if not of a +conspiracy, of a cabal. His school playmates and close friends, Taine, +Edmond About and Th. Gautier, might be on his side; perhaps, with +reservations, Rossini and a few other eminent associates also. But the +prescient, unerring verdict of the collective "man in the street"-- + +"The people's voice, the proof and echo of all human fame"-- + +he missed; resentment preyed upon his spirits, undermined his vitality, +and doubtless had something to do with his premature breakdown. + +The Doré gallery indeed proved his Capua, the long-stop to his fame. + + +IV + + +As a personality the would-be Titian, Dürer, Thorwaldsen and Benvenuto +Cellini in one presents an engaging figure. His domestic life makes very +pleasant reading. We find no dark holes and corners in the career of one +who may be said to have remained a boy to the end, at fifty as at five +full of freak and initiative, clingingly attached to a devoted and +richly-endowed mother, and the ebullient spirit of a happy home. With +his rapidly increasing fortune, the historic house in the Rue Dominique +became an artistic, musical and dramatic centre. His fêtes were worthy +of a millionaire, and, alike in those private theatricals, _tableaux +vivants_ or concerts, he ever took a leading part. An accomplished +violinist, Doré found in music a never-failing stimulant and +refreshment. Rossini was one of his circle, among others were the two +Gautiers, the two Dumas, Carolus Duran, Liszt, Gounod, Patti, Alboni and +Nilsson, Mme. Doré, still handsome and alert in her old age, proudly +doing the honours of what was now called the Hôtel Doré. By his literary +and artistic brethren the many-faceted genius and exhilarating host was +fully appreciated. Generosities he ever freely indulged in, the wealth +of such rapid attainment being dispensed with an ungrudgeful hand. To +works of charity the great illustrator gave largely, but we hear of no +untoward misreckonings, nor bills drawn upon time, health or talents. +With him, as with the average Frenchman, solvency was an eleventh +commandment. + +Meantime, as the years wore on, again and again he bid desperately for +the suffrages withheld, his legitimately won renown held by him of small +account. To his American biographer he said, on showing her some of his +pictures: "I illustrate books in order to pay for my colours and +paint-brushes. I was born a painter." + +On the lady's companion, an American officer, naively asking if +certain canvases were designed for London or Paris, he answered with +bitter irony-- + +"Paris, forsooth! I do not paint well enough for Paris." As he spoke his +face became clouded. The gay, jovial host of a few minutes before sighed +deeply, and during their visit could not shake off depression. + +Two crowning humiliations came before the one real sorrow of his life, +the loss of that gifted mother who was alike his boon companion, closest +confidante and enthusiastic Egeria. Perpetually seeking laurels in new +fields, in 1877 he made his _début_ as a sculptor. The marble group, "La +Parque et l'Amour," signed G. Doré, won a _succès d'estime_, no more. +In the following year was opened the great international exhibition on the +Champ de Mars, Doré's enormous monumental vase being conspicuously +placed over one of the porticoes. This astounding achievement in bronze, +appropriately named the "Poème de la Vigne," created quite a sensation +at the time. Reproductions appeared in papers of all countries +containing a printing press or photographic machine. But for the +artist's name, doubtless his work would have attained the gold medal and +other honours. The Brobdingnagian vase, so wonderfully decorated with +flowers, animals and arabesques, was passed over by the jury. + +Equally mortifying was the fate of his marble group in the same year's +Salon. This subject, "La Gloire," had a place of honour in the sculpture +gallery and won universal suffrages. The critics echoed popular +approval. The jury remained passive. It was in the midst of these +unnecessarily crushing defeats--for why, indeed, should any mortal have +craved more than mortal success?--that Mme. Doré's forces gave way. From +that time till her death, which occurred two years later, her son's +place was by her side, floutings, projects, health and pleasure, +forgotten, his entire thoughts being given to the invalid. No more +beautiful picture of filial devotion could suggest itself to the painter +of domestic subjects than this, Doré with table and sketching materials +seated in his mother's sick-room, or at night ministering to her in +wakeful moments. At dawn he would snatch a few hours' sleep, but that +was all. No wonder that his own health should give way so soon after the +death-blow of her loss. + +"My friend," he wrote to an English boon companion, on March 16, 1881, +"she is no more. I am alone. You are a clergyman, I entreat you to pray +for the repose of her beloved soul and the preservation of my reason." + +A few days later he wrote to the same friend of his "frightful +solitude," adding his regret at not having anticipated such a blank and +made for himself a home--in other words, taken a wife. + +Some kind matchmaking friends set to work and found, so at least they +fancied, a bride exactly calculated to render him happy. + +But on January 23, 1883, Doré died, prematurely aged and broken +down by grief, corroding disappointment and quite frenzied overwork +and ambition. + +He never attained recognition as a historic painter among his +country-folks. One canvas, however, "Tobit and the Angel," is placed in +the Luxembourg, and his monument to Dumas ornaments the capital. His +renown as an illustrator remains high as ever in France. And one, that +one, the passionately desired prize of every Frenchman, became his: in +1861 he was decorated with the Red Ribbon. Six of Doré's great religious +subjects retain their place in the Bond Street Gallery, but for reasons +given above his wonderfully imaginative illustrations are here +forgotten. + +The superb edition of the _Enid_ (Moxon, 1868), a folio bound in royal +purple and gold, and printed on paper thick as vellum, the volume +weighing four pounds, awakens melancholy reflections. What would have +been poor Doré's feelings had he lived to see such a guinea's worth, and +cheap at the price, gladly sold, rather got rid of, for three shillings! + +Doré's last work, the unconventional monument to the elder Dumas, was +left unfinished. + +Completed by another hand, the group now forms a conspicuous object in +the Avenue Villiers, Paris. + +The striking figure of the great quadroon, with his short crisped +locks, suggests a closer relationship to the race thus apostrophized by +Walt Whitman-- + + "You, dim descended, black, divine souled African...." + +He surmounts a lofty pedestal, on the base being seated a homely group, +three working folks, a mob-capped woman reading a Dumas novel to two +companions, evidently her father and husband, sons of the soil, drinking +in every word, their attitude of the most complete absorption. +Classicists and purists in art doubtless look askance at a work which +would certainly have enchanted the sovereign romancer. + +"Will folks read my stories when I am gone, doctor?" he asked as he lay +a-dying. The good physician easily reassured his patient. "When we have +patients awaiting some much-dreaded operation in hospital," he replied, +"we have only to give them one of your novels. Straightway they forget +everything else." And Dumas--"the great, the humane," as a charming poet +has called him--died happy. As well he might, in so far as his fame was +concerned. _La Tulipe Noire_ would alone have assured his future. + + + +VI + +QUISSAC AND SAUVE + +One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is +to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the +lodestar ahead. The way to almost any place of renown, natural, historic +or artistic, is sure to teem with as much interest as that to which we +are bound. So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is +French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every +town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we +set out. Thus it has ever been my rule to indulge in the most +preposterous peregrination, taking no account whatever of days, seasons +or possible cons, hearkening only to the pros, and never so much as +glancing at the calendar. Such protracted zigzaggeries have been made +easy to the "devious traveller" by one unusual advantage. Just as +pioneers in Australasia find Salvation Army shelters scattered +throughout remotest regions, so, fortunately, have I ever been able to +count upon "harbour and good company" during my thirty-five years of +French sojourn and travel. + +To reach a certain Pyrenean valley in which I was to spend a holiday +would only have meant a night's dash by express from Paris. Instead, I +followed the south-eastern route, halting at--Heaven knows how +many!--already familiar and delightful places between Paris and Dijon, +Dijon and Lyons, Lyons and Nîmes; from the latter city being bound for +almost as many more before reaching my destination. + +Quite naturally I would often find myself on the track of that "wise and +honest traveller," so John Morley calls Arthur Young. + +Half-way between Nîmes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at +which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a +disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." + +But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I +went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and +odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery-- + +"Here I am!" + +As a rule I am entirely of Montaigne's opinion. "When I travel in +Sicily," said the philosopher of Gascony, "it is not to find Gascons." +Dearly as we love home and home-folk, the gist of travel lies in +oppositeness and surprises. We do not visit the uttermost ends of the +globe in search of next-door neighbours. That cordial "Here I am!" +however, had an unmistakable accent, just a delightful suspicion of +French. My host was a gallant naval officer long since retired from +service, with his English wife and two daughters, spending the long +vacation in his country home. + +High above the little village of Quissac rises the residence of +beneficent owners, master and mistress, alas! long since gone to their +rest. From its terrace the eye commands a vast and beautiful panorama, a +richly cultivated plain dotted with villages and framed by the blue +Cévennes. Tea served after English fashion and by a dear countrywoman, +everywhere _"le confortable Anglais"_ admittedly unattainable by French +housewives, could not for a single moment make me forget that I was in +France. And when the dinner gong sounded came the final, the +unequivocal, proof of distance. + +Imagine dining out of doors and in evening dress at eight o'clock in the +last week of August! The table was set on the wide balcony of the upper +floor, high above lawn and bosquets, the most chilly person having here +nothing to fear. It is above all things the French climate that +transports us so far from home and makes us feel ourselves hundreds, +nay, thousands of miles away. + +I have elsewhere, perhaps ofttimes, dwelt on the luminosity of the +atmosphere in southern and south-western France. To-night not a breath +was stirring, the outer radiance was the radiance of stars only, yet so +limpid, so lustrous the air that cloudless moonlight could hardly have +made every object seem clearer, more distinct. The feeling inspired by +such conditions is that of enchantment. For the nonce we may yield to a +spell, fancy ourselves in Armida's enchanted garden or other "delightful +land of Faëry." + +Not for long, however! Pleasant practical matters soon recall us to the +life of every day. That laborious, out-of-door existence, which seems +sordid in superfine English eyes, but which is never without the gaiety +that enchanted Goldsmith and Sterne a hundred and fifty years ago. + +Whilst host and guest dined on the balcony, the farming folk and such of +the household as could be spared were enjoying a starlit supper +elsewhere. Later, my hostess took me downstairs and introduced her +English visitor to a merry but strictly decorous party having a special +bit of sward to themselves, bailiff, vintagers, stockmen, dairywoman, +washerwoman and odd hands making up a round dozen of men, women and +boys. All seemed quite at home, and chatted easily with their employer +and the visitor, by no means perturbed, rather pleased by the intrusion. + +And here I will mention one of those incidents that lead English +observers into so many misconceptions concerning French rural life. +Little things that seem sordid, even brutifying to insular eyes, really +arise from incompatible standards. + +The Frenchman's ideal of material comfort begins and ends with solvency, +the sense of absolute security from want in old age. Small comforts he +sets little store by; provided that he gets a good dinner, lesser +considerations go. I do not hesitate to say that the comforts enjoyed by +our own farm-servants half a century ago were far in excess of those +thought more than sufficient by French labourers and their employers. On +the following day my hosts took me round the farmery, fowl-run, +piggeries, neat-houses and stalls being inspected one by one. When we +came to the last named, I noticed at the door of the long building and +on a level with the feeding troughs for oxen, a bed-shaped wooden box +piled up with fresh clean straw. + +"That is where our stockman sleeps," explained the lady. + +Here, then, quite contentedly slept the herdsman of a large estate in +nineteenth-century France, whilst his English compeers two generations +before, and in much humbler employ, had their tidy bedroom and +comfortable bed under the farmer's roof. What would my own Suffolk +ploughmen have said to the notion of spending the night in an ox-stall? +But _autres pays, autres moeurs_. In Déroulède's fine little poem, "Bon +gîte", a famished, foot-sore soldier returning home is generously +entreated by a poor housewife. When she sets about preparing a bed for +him, he remonstrates-- + + "Good dame, what means that new-made bed, + Those sheets so finely spun? + On heaped-up straw in cattle-shed, + I'd snore till rise of sun." + +The compensations for apparent hardship in the case of French peasants +are many and great. In Henry James's great series of dissolving views +called _The American Scene_, he describes the heterogeneous masses as +having "a promoted look". The French proletariat have not a promoted +look, rather one of inherited, traditional stability and self-respect. +One and all, moreover, are promoting themselves, rising by a slow +evolutionary process from the condition of wage-earner to that of +metayer, tenant, lastly freeholder. + +Although the immediate environs of Quissac and Sauve are not remarkable, +magnificent prospects are obtained a little farther afield--our drives +and walks abounded in interest--and associations! Strange but true it is +that we can hardly halt anywhere in France without coming upon historic, +literary or artistic memorials. Every town and village is redolent of +tradition, hardly a spot but is glorified by genius! + +Thus, half-an-hour's drive from our village still stands the château +and birthplace of Florian, the Pollux of fabulists, La Fontaine being +the Castor, no other stars of similar magnitude shining in their +especial arc. + +Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian was born here in 1755, just sixty years +after the great fabulist's death. Nephew of a marquis, himself +nephew-in-law of Voltaire, endowed with native wit and gaiety, the young +man was a welcome guest at Fernay, and no wonder! His enchanting fables +did not see the light till after Voltaire's death, but we will hope that +some of them had delighted his host in recitation. Many of us who loved +French in early years have a warm corner in our hearts for "Numa +Pompilius", but Florian will live as the second fabulist of France, to +my own thinking twin of his forerunner. + +How full of wisdom, wit and sparkle are these apologues! Take, for +instance, the following, which to the best of my ability I have rendered +into our mother tongue-- + + VANITY (LE PETIT CHIEN). + + I + Once on a time and far away, + The elephant stood first in might, + He had by many a forest fray + At last usurped the lion's right. + On peace and reign unquestioned bent, + The ruler in his pride of place, + Forthwith to life-long banishment + Doomed members of the lion race. + + II + Dispirited, their best laid low, + The vanquished could but yield to fate, + And turn their backs upon the foe + In silence nursing grief and hate. + A poodle neatly cropped and clipped, + With tasselled tail made leonine, + On hearing of the stern rescript, + Straightway set up a piteous whine. + + III + "Alas!" he moaned. "Ah, woe is me! + Where, tyrant, shall I shelter find; + Advancing years what will they be, + My home and comforts left behind?" + A spaniel hastened at the cry, + "Come, mate, what's this to-do about?" + "Oh, oh," the other gulped reply, + "For exile we must all set out!" + + IV + "Must all?" "No, you are safe, good friend; + The cruel law smites us alone; + Here undisturbed your days may end, + The lions must perforce begone." + "The lions? Brother, pray with these, + What part or lot have such as you?" + "What part, forsooth? You love to tease; + You know I am a lion too." + +[Footnote: The first translation appeared with others in _French Men, +Women and Books_, 1910. The second was lately issued in the +_Westminster Gazette_.] + +Here is another, a poem of essential worldly wisdom, to be bracketed +with Browning's equally oracular "The Statue and the Bust," fable and +poem forming a compendium. + + THE FLIGHTY PURPOSE + (LE PAYSAN AND LA RIVIERE). + + "I now intend to change my ways"-- + Thus Juan said--"No more for me + A round on round of idle days + 'Mid soul-debasing company. + I've pleasure woo'd from year to year + As by a siren onward lured, + At last of roystering, once held dear, + I'm as a man of sickness cured." + + "Unto the world I bid farewell, + My mind to retrospection give, + Remote as hermit in his cell, + For wisdom and wise friends I'll live." + "Is Thursday's worldling, Friday's sage? + Too good such news," I bantering spoke. + "How oft you've vowed to turn the page, + Each promise vanishing like smoke!" + + "And when the start?" "Next week--not this." + "Ah, you but play with words again." + "Nay, do not doubt me; hard it is + To break at once a life-long chain." + Came we unto the riverside, + Where motionless a rustic sate, + His gaze fixed on the flowing tide. + "Ho, mate, why thus so still and squat?" + + "Good sirs, bound to yon town am I; + No bridge anear, I sit and sit + Until these waters have run dry, + So that afoot I get to it." + "A living parable behold, + My friend!" quoth I. "Upon the brim + You, too, will gaze until you're old, + But never boldly take a swim!" + +As far as I know, no memorial has as yet been raised to the fabulist +either at Quissac or at Sauve, but as long as the French language lasts +successive generations will keep his memory green. Certain of his fables +every little scholar knows by heart. + +Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from +Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing +described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a +name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress. + +"From Ganges", wrote the great Suffolk farmer in July 1787, "to the +mountain of rough ground which I crossed" (in the direction of +Montdardier), "the ride has been the most interesting which I have +taken in France; the efforts of industry the most vigorous, the +animation the most lively. An activity has been here that has swept away +all difficulties before it and clothed the very rocks with verdure. It +would be a disgrace to common sense to ask the cause; the enjoyment of +property must have done it. _Give a man the sure possession of a bleak +rock, and he will turn it into a garden_." The italics are my own. When +will Arthur Young have his tablet in Westminster Abbey, I wonder? + +The department of the Gard offers an anomaly of the greatest historic +interest. Here and here only throughout the length and breadth of France +villages are found without a Catholic church, communities that have held +fast to Protestantism and the right of private judgment from generation +to generation during hundreds of years. Elsewhere, in the Côte d'Or, for +instance, as I have described in a former work, Protestantism was +completely stamped out by the Revocation, whole villages are now +ultramontane, having abjured, the alternatives placed before them being +confiscation of property, separation of children and parents, +banishment, prison and death. + +[Footnote: See _Friendly Faces_, chap. xvi.] + +The supremacy of the reformed faith may be gathered from the following +facts: A few years back, of the six deputies representing this +department five were Protestant and the sixth was a Jew. The _Conseil +Général_ or provincial council numbered twenty-three Protestants as +against seventeen Catholics. The seven members of the Board of Hospitals +at Nîmes, three of the four inspectors of public health, nine of the +twelve head-mistresses of girls' schools, twenty-nine of forty rural +magistrates, were Protestants. + +My host belonged to the same faith, as indeed do most of his class and +the great captains of local industry. It is not as in Michelet's +fondly-loved St. Georges de Didonne, where only the lowly and the toiler +have kept the faith aflame. + +But whilst neighbours now live peacefully side by side, a gulf still +divides Catholic and Protestant. Although half a millennium has elapsed +since the greatest crime of modern history, the two bodies remain apart: +French _annexés_ of Alsace-Lorraine and Germans are not more completely +divided. Mixed marriages are of rarest occurrence, intercourse limited +to the conventional and the obligatory. There are historic curses that +defy lustration. St. Bartholomew is one of these. I must now say +something about the country-folks. Calls upon our rustic neighbours, +long chats with affable housewives, and rounds of farmery, vineyard and +field attracted me more than the magnificent panoramas to be obtained +from Corconne and other villages within an easy drive. + +George Sand has ever been regarded as a poetizer of rural life, an +arch-idealist of her humbler country-folks. At Quissac I made more than +one acquaintance that might have stepped out of _La petite Fadette_ or +_La mare au Diable_. + +One old woman might have been "la paisible amie," the tranquil friend, +to whom the novelist dedicated a novel. Neat, contented, active and +self-respecting, she enjoyed a life-interest in two acres and a cottage, +her live stock consisting of a goat, a pig and poultry, her invested +capital government stock representing a hundred pounds. Meagre as may +seem these resources, she was by no means to be pitied or inclined to +pity herself, earning a few francs here and there by charing, selling +her little crops, what eggs and chickens she could spare, above all +things being perfectly independent. + +A charming idyll the great Sand could have found here. The owner of a +thirty-acre farm had lately died, leaving it with all he possessed to +two adopted children, a young married couple who for years had acted +respectively as steward and housekeeper. We are bound to infer that on +the one hand there had been affection and gratitude, on the other the +same qualities with conscientiousness in business matters. The +foster-father was childless and a widower, but, among the humble as well +as the rich French, ambition of posthumous remembrance often actuates +impersonal bequests. This worthy Jacques Bonhomme might have made an +heir of his native village, leaving money for a new school-house or some +other public edifice. Very frequently towns and even villages become +legatees of the childless, and the worthy man would have been quite sure +of a statue, a memorial tablet, or at least of having his name added to +a street or square. + +Before taking leave of Quissac I must mention one curious fact. + +The Proteus of Odyssean story or the King's daughter and the Efreet in +the "Second Royal Mendicant's Adventure," could not more easily +transform themselves than the French peasant. Husbandman to-day, +mechanic on the morrow, at one season he plies the pruning-hook, at +another he turns the lathe. This adaptability of the French mind, +strange to say, is nowhere seen to greater advantage than in +out-of-the-way regions, just where are mental torpidity and unbendable +routine. Not one of Millet's blue-bloused countrymen but masters a dozen +handicrafts. + +Thus, whilst the heraldic insignia of Sauve should be a trident, those +of Quissac should be surmounted by an old shoe! In the former place the +forked branches of the _Celtis australis_ or nettle tree, _Ulmaceæ_, +afford a most profitable occupation. From its tripartite boughs are made +yearly thousands upon thousands of the three-pronged forks used in +agriculture. The wood, whilst very durable, is yielding, and lends +itself to manipulation. + +In Florian's birthplace folks make a good living out of old boots and +shoes! Some native genius discovered that, however well worn footgear +may be, valuable bits of leather may remain in the sole. These fragments +are preserved, and from them boot heels are made; the _débris_, boots, +shoes and slippers, no matter the material, find their way to the soil +as manure. But this subject if pursued further would lead to a lane, +metaphorically speaking, without a turning, that is to say to a treatise +on French rural economy. + + + +VII + +AN IMMORTALIZER + +In Renan's exquisitely phrased preface to his _Drames Philosophiques_ +occurs the following sentence which I render into English _tant bien que +mal_: "Side by side are the history of fact and the history of the +ideal, the latter materially speaking of what has never taken place, but +which, in the ideal sense, has happened a thousand times." + +Who when visiting the beautiful little town of Saumur thinks of the +historic figures connected with its name? Even the grand personality of +Duplessis Morny sinks into insignificance by comparison with that of the +miser's daughter, the gentle, ill-starred Eugénie Grandet! And who when +Carcassonne first breaks upon his view thinks of aught but Nadaud's +immortal peasant and his plaint-- + + "I'm growing old, just three score year, + In wet and dry, in dust and mire, + I've sweated, never getting near + Fulfilment of my heart's desire. + Ah, well I see that bliss below + 'Tis Heaven's will to vouchsafe none, + Harvest and vintage come and go, + I've never got to Carcassonne!" + +The tragi-comic poem of six eight-lined verses ending thus-- + + "So sighed a peasant of Limoux, + A worthy neighbour bent and worn. + 'Ho, friend,' quoth I, 'I'll go with you. + We'll sally forth to-morrow morn.' + And true enough away we hied, + But when our goal was almost won, + God rest his soul!--the good man died, + He never got to Carcassonne!" + +No lover of France certainly should die without having seen Carcassonne, +foremost of what I will call the pictorial Quadrilateral, no formidable +array after the manner of their Austrian cognominal, but lovely, +dreamlike things. These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as +when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the +Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guérande, scene of +Balzac's _Béatrix_. To my thinking, and I have visited each, there is +little to choose between the first two, but exquisite as is the little +Briard acropolis, those imaginary "topless towers of Ilium" of Nadaud's +peasant bear the palm. That first view of Carcassonne as we approach it +in the railway of itself repays a long and tedious journey. A vision +rather than reality, structure of pearly clouds in mid-heaven, seems +that opaline pile lightly touched with gold. We expect it to evaporate +at evenfall! Vanish it does not, nor wholly bring disillusion, so fair +and harmonious are the vistas caught in one circuit of the citadel, mere +matter of twenty minutes. + +But the place by this time has become so familiar to travellers in +France and readers of French travel, that I will here confine myself to +its glorifier, author of a song that has toured the world. + +The first biography of the French Tom Moore, published last year, gives +no history of this much translated poem. Had, indeed, some worthy +vine-grower poured out such a plaint in the poet's ears? Very probably, +for one and all of Nadaud's rural poems breathe the very essence of the +fields, the inmost nature of the peasant, from first to last they reveal +Jacques Bonhomme to us, his conceptions of life, his mentality and +limitations. + +[Footnote: My own rendering of this piece and many other of Nadaud's +songs and ballads are given in _French Men, Women and Books_, 1910. +American translators have admirably translated _Carcassonne_.] + +Nadaud's career is uneventful, but from one point of view, far from +being noteless, he was pre-eminently the happy man. His biographer (A. +Varloy) tells us of a smooth, much relished, even an exuberant +existence. The son of an excellent bourgeois, whose ancestry, +nevertheless, like that of many another, could be traced for six hundred +years, his early surroundings were the least lyric imaginable. + +He was born at Roubaix, the flourishing seat of manufacture near Lille, +which, although a mere _chef-lieu du canton_, does more business with +the Bank of France than the big cities of Toulouse, Nîmes, Montpellier +and others thrice its size. Dress fabrics, cloths and exquisite napery +are the products of Roubaix and its suburb; vainly, however, does any +uncommercial traveller endeavour to see the weavers at work. Grimy walls +and crowded factory chimneys are relieved at Roubaix by gardens public +and private, and the town is endowed with museums, libraries, art and +technical schools. But Nadaud, like Cyrano de Bergerac, if asked what +gave him most delectation, would certainly have replied-- + + "Lorsque j'ai fait un vers et que je l'aime, + Je me paye en me le chantant à moi-même." + +Here is the boy's daily programme when a twelve-year-old student at the +Collège Rollin, Paris. The marvel is that the poetic instinct survived +such routine, marvellous also the fact that the dry-as-dust in authority +was a well-known translator of Walter Scott. If anything could have +conjured the Wizard of the North from his grave it was surely these +particulars written by Gustave Nadaud to his father on the 19th of +October, 1833-- + +"Five-thirty, rise; five-forty-five, studies till seven-thirty; +breakfast and recreation from seven-thirty till eight; from eight till +ten, school; from ten to a quarter past, recreation; from a quarter past +ten till half past twelve, school; then dinner and recreation from one +till two. School from two till half past four; collation from half past +four till a quarter past five; school from a quarter past five till +eight. Supper and to bed." + +Poetry here was, however, a healthy plant, and in his school-days this +born song-writer would scribble verses on his copy-books and read Racine +for his own amusement. Turning his back upon the mill-wheels of his +native town and an assured future in a Parisian business house, like Gil +Bias's friend, _il s'est jeté dans le bel esprit_--in other words, he +betook himself to the career of a troubadour. Never, surely, did master +of song-craft write and sing so many ditties! + +Quitting school with a tip-top certificate both as to conduct and +application, Gustave Nadaud quickly won fame if not fortune. Hardly of +age, he wrote somewhat Bohemian effusions that at once made the round of +Parisian music-halls. + +The revolution, if it brought topsy-turvydom in politics, like its great +forerunner '89 brought the apogee of song. The popular young lyrist, +ballader and minstrel, for Nadaud accompanied himself on the piano, now +made a curious compact, agreeing to write songs for twenty years, a firm +named Heugel paying him six thousand francs yearly by way of +remuneration. + +Two hundred and forty pounds a year should seem enough for a young man, +a bachelor brought up in bourgeois simplicity. But the cost of living in +Paris was apparently as high sixty years ago as now. In 1856-7 he wrote +to a friend: "How upon such an income I contrived to live and frequent +Parisian salons without ever asking a farthing of any one, only those +who have been poor can tell." The salons spoken of were not only +aristocratic but Imperial, the late Princess Mathilde being an +enthusiastic hostess and patroness. Several operettas were composed by +Nadaud for her receptions and philanthropic entertainments. Here is a +sketch of the French Tom Moore in 1868 by a witty contributor of the +_Figaro_-- + +"Nadaud then seated himself at the piano, and of the words he sang I +give you full measure, the impression produced by his performance I +cannot hope to convey. Quite indescribable was the concord of voice and +hands, on the music as on wings each syllable being lightly borne, yet +its meaning thereby intensified. In one's memory only can such delight +be revived and reproduced." + +With other poets, artists and musicians Nadaud cast vocation to the +winds in 1870-1, working in field and other hospitals. "I did my best to +act the part of a poor little sister of charity," he wrote to a friend. +His patriotic poem, "La grande blessée," was written during that +terrible apprenticeship. + +With Nadaud henceforward it was a case of roses, roses all the way. +Existence he had ever taken easily, warm friendships doing duty for a +domestic circle. And did he not write-- + + "I dreamed of an ideal love + And Benedick remain?" + +His songs proved a mine of wealth, and the sumptuously illustrated +edition got up by friends and admirers brought him 80,000 francs, with +which he purchased a villa, christened Carcassonne, at Nice, therein +spending sunny and sunny-tempered days and dispensing large-hearted +hospitality. To luckless brethren of the lyre he held out an ungrudgeful +hand, alas! meeting with scant return. The one bitterness of his life, +indeed, was due to ingratitude. Among his papers after death was found +the following note-- + +"Throughout the last thirty years I have lent sums, large considering +my means, to friends, comrades and entire strangers. Never, never, +never has a single centime been repaid by a single one of these +borrowers. I now vow to myself, never under any circumstances whatever +to lend money again!" + +Poor song-writers, nevertheless, he posthumously befriended. By his will +with the bulk of his property was founded "La petite Caisse des +chansonniers," a benefit society for less happy Nadauds to come. By aid +of these funds, lyrists and ballad-writers unable to find publishers +would be held on their onward path. Full of honours, Nadaud died in +1893, monuments being erected to his memory, streets named after him, +and undiminished popularity keeping his name alive. + +And the honour denied to Béranger, to Victor Hugo, to Balzac, the +coveted sword and braided coat of the Forty were Nadaud's also. With the +witty Piron he could not ironically anticipate his own epitaph thus-- + +"Here lies Nadaud who was nothing, not even an Academician!" + +Before taking leave of Carcassonne, poetic and picturesque, the most +inveterate anti-sightseer should peep into its museum. For this little +_chef-lieu_ of the Aude, with a population under thirty thousand, +possesses what, indeed, hardly a French townling lacks, namely, a +picture-gallery. If not remarkable from an artistic point of view, the +collection serves to demonstrate the persistent, self-denying and +constant devotion to culture in France. Times may be peaceful or stormy, +seasons may prove disastrous, the withered, thin and blasted ears of +corn may devour the seven ears full and golden, the ship of State may be +caught in a tornado and lurch alarmingly--all the same "the man in the +street," "the rascal many," to quote Spenser, will have a museum in +which, with wife and hopefuls, to spend their Sunday afternoons. The +local museum is no less of a necessity to Jacques Bonhomme than his +daily _pot-au-feu_, that dish of soup which, according to Michelet, +engenders the national amiability. + +The splendid public library--the determinative is used in the sense of +comparison--numbers just upon a volume per head, and the art school, +school of music, and other institutions tell the same story. Culture +throughout the country seems indigenous, to spread of itself, and, above +all things, to reach all classes. Culture on French soil is gratuitous, +ever free as air! We must never overlook that primary fact. + +One or two more noticeable facts about Carcassonne. Here was born that +eccentric revolutionary and poetic genius, Fabre d'Eglantine, of whom I +have written elsewhere. + + [Footnote: See Literary Rambles in France, 1906] + +Yet another historic note. From St. Vincent's tower during the +Convention, 1792-5, were taken those measurements, the outcome of which +was the metric system. Two mathematicians, by name Delambre and Méchain, +were charged with the necessary calculations, the _mètre_, or a +ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles and the equator +(32,808 English feet), being made the unit of length. Uniformity of +weight followed, and became law in 1799. + +But to touch upon historic Carcassonne is to glance upon an almost +interminable perspective. The chronicle of this charming little city +on the bright blue Aude has been penned and re-penned in blood and +tears. In 1560 Carcassonne suffered a preliminary Saint Bartholomew, a +general massacre of Protestants announcing the evil days to follow; +days that after five hundred years have left their trace, moral as +well as material. + + + +VIII + +TOULOUSE + +A zigzaggery, indeed, was this journey from Nîmes to my Pyrenean valley. +That metropolis of art and most heroic town, Montauban, I could not on +any account miss. Toulouse necessarily had to be taken on the way to +Ingres-ville, as I feel inclined to call the great painter's birthplace +and apotheosis. But why write of Toulouse? The magnificent city, its +public gardens, churches, superbly housed museums and art galleries, its +promenades, drives and panoramas are all particularized by Murray, +Joanne and Baedeker. Here, however, as elsewhere, are one or two +features which do not come within the province of a guide-book. + +The only city throughout France that welcomed the Inquisition was +among the first to open a _Lycée pour jeunes filles._ In accordance +with the acts of 1880-82 public day schools for girls were opened +throughout France; that of Toulouse being fairly representative, I +will describe my visit. + +The school was now closed for the long vacation, but a junior mistress +in temporary charge gave us friendliest welcome, and showed us over the +building and annexes. She evidently took immense and quite natural +pride in the little world within world of which she formed a part. Her +only regret was that we could not see the scholars at work. Here may be +noted the wide field thrown open to educated women by the above-named +acts, from under-mistresses to _Madame la directrice_, the position +being one of dignity and provision for life, pensions being the reward +of long service. + +The course of study is prepared by the rector of the Toulousain Academy, +and the rules of management by the municipal council, thus the programme +of instruction bears the signature of the former, whilst the prospectus, +dealing with fees, practical details, is signed by the mayor in the name +of the latter. + +We find a decree passed by the town council in 1887 to the effect that +in the case of two sisters a fourth of the sum-total of fees should be +remitted, of three, a half, of four, three-quarters, and of five, the +entire amount. Even the outfit of the boarders must be approved by the +same authority. A neat costume is obligatory, and the number and +material of undergarments is specified with the utmost minuteness. +Besides a sufficient quantity of suitable clothes, each student must +bring three pairs of boots, thirty pocket-handkerchiefs, a bonnet-box, +umbrella, parasol, and so forth. + +Such regulations may at first sight look trivial and unnecessary, but +there is much to be said on the other side. From the beginning of the +term to the end, the matron, whose province is quite apart from that of +the head-mistress, is never worried about the pupils' dress, no shoes in +need of repair, no garments to be mended, no letters to be written +begging Mme. A. to send her daughter a warm petticoat, Mme. B. to +forward a hair-brush, and so on. Again, the uniform obligatory on +boarders prevents those petty jealousies and rivalries provoked by fine +clothes in girls' schools. Alike the child of the millionaire and of the +small official wear the same simple dress. + +Children are admitted to the lower school between the ages of five and +twelve, the classes being in the hands of certificated mistresses. The +upper school, at which pupils are received from twelve years and +upwards, and are expected to remain five years, offers a complete course +of study, lady teachers being aided by professors of the Faculté des +Lettres and of the Lycée for youths. Students who have remained +throughout the entire period, and have satisfactorily passed final +examinations, receive a certificate entitling them to admission into the +great training college of Sèvres or to offer themselves as teachers in +schools and families. + +The curriculum is certainly modest compared with that obligatory on +candidates for London University, Girton College, or our senior local +examination; but it is an enormous improvement on the old conventual +system, and several points are worthy of imitation. Thus a girl quitting +the Lycée would have attained, first and foremost, a thorough knowledge +of her own language and its literature; she would also possess a fair +notion of French common law, of domestic economy, including needlework +of the more useful kind, the cutting out and making up of clothes, and +the like. Gymnastics are practised daily. In the matter of religion the +municipality of Toulouse shows absolute impartiality. No sectarian +teaching enters into the programme, but Catholics and Protestants and +Jews in residence can receive instruction from their respective +ministers. + +The Lycée competes formidably with the convents as regards fees. +Twenty-eight pounds yearly cover the expense of board, education, and +medical attendance at the upper school; twenty-four at the lower; day +boarders pay from twelve to fifteen pounds a year; books, the use of the +school omnibus, and laundress being extras. Three hundred scholars in +all attended during the scholastic year ending July 1891. + +Day-pupils not using the school omnibus must be accompanied to and from +the school, and here an interesting point is to be touched upon. In so +far as was practicable, the Lycée for girls has been modelled on the +plan of the time-honoured establishments for boys. As yet a uniform +curriculum to begin with was out of the question; the programme is +already too ambitious in the eyes of many, whilst ardent advocates of +the higher education of women in France regret that the vices as well as +the virtues of the existing system have been retained. Educationists and +advanced thinkers generally would fain see a less strait-laced routine, +a less stringent supervision, more freedom for play of character. The +Lycée student, boy or girl, youth or maiden, is as strictly guarded as a +criminal; not for a moment are these citizens of the future trusted to +themselves. + +In the vast dormitory of the high school here we see thirty neat +compartments with partitions between, containing bed and toilet +requisites, and at the extreme end of the room, commanding a view of +the rest, is the bed of the under-mistress in charge, _surveillante_ as +she is called. Sleeping or waking, the students are watched. This +massing together of numbers and perpetual supervision no longer find +universal favour. + +But I am here writing of fifteen years ago. Doubtless were I to repeat +my visit I should find progressive changes too numerous for detail. +Happy little middle-class Parisians now run to and from their Lycées +unattended. Young ladies in society imitate their Anglo-Saxon sisters +and have shaken off that incubus, _la promeneuse_ or walking chaperon. + +Works on social France, as is the case with almanacs, encyclopædias and +the rest, require yearly revision. Manners and customs change no less +quickly than headgear and skirts. + +Charles Lamb would have lived ecstatically at the Languedocian capital. +It is a metropolis of beggardom, a mendicant's Mecca, a citadel of Jules +Richepin's cherished _Gueux_. Here, indeed, Elia need not have lamented +over the decay of beggars, "the all sweeping besom of societarian +reformation--your only modern Alcides' club to rid time of its +abuses--is uplift with many-handed sway to extirpate the last fluttering +tatters of the bugbear _Mendicity_. Scrips, wallets, bags, staves, dogs +and crutches, the whole mendicant fraternity with all their baggage are +fast hasting out of the purlieus of this eleventh persecution." + +No, here is what the best beloved of English humorists calls "the oldest +and the honourablest form of pauperism," here his vision would have +feasted on "Rags, the Beggars' robes and graceful insignia of his +profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected +to show himself in public." "He is never out of fashion," adds Lamb, "or +limpeth outwardly behind it. He is not required to wear court mourning. +He weareth all colours, fearing none. His costume hath undergone less +change than the Quaker's. He is the only man in the universe who is not +obliged to study appearances." + +Here, too, would the unmatchable writer have gazed upon more than one +"grand fragment, as good as an Elgin marble." And alas! many deformities +more terrible still, and which, perhaps, would have damped even Lamb's +ardour. For in the Toulouse of 1894, as in the London of sixty years +before, its mendicants "were so many of its sights, its Lions." The city +literally swarmed with beggars. At every turn we came upon some living +torso, distorted limb and hideous sore. Begging seemed to be the +accepted livelihood of cripples, blind folk and the infirm. Let us hope +that by this time something better has been devised for them all. Was it +here that Richepin partly studied the mendicant fraternity, giving us in +poetry his astounding appreciation, psychological and linguistic? And +perhaps the bard of the beggars, like the English humorist, would wish +his _pauvres Gueux_ to be left unmolested. + +The sights of Toulouse would occupy a conscientious traveller many days. +The least leisurely should find time to visit the tiny square called +_place du Salin_. Here took place the innumerable _autos-da-fé_ of the +Toulousain Inquisition, and here, so late as 1618, the celebrated +physician and scientist Vanini was atrociously done to death by that +truly infernal tribunal, and for what? For simply differing from the +obscurantism of his age, and having opinions of his own. + +The atrocious sentence passed on Vanini was in part remitted, evidently +public opinion already making itself felt. His tongue was cut out, but +strangulation preceded the burning alive. Here one cannot help noting +the illogical, the puerile--if such words are applicable to devilish +wickedness--aspect of such Inquisitorial sentences. If these +hounders-down of common-sense and the reasoning faculty really believed, +as they affected to believe, that men who possessed and exercised both +qualities were thereby doomed to eternal torments, why set up the +horrible and costly paraphernalia of the Inquisition? After all, no +matter how ingeniously inventive might be their persecutors, they could +only be made to endure terminable and comparatively insignificant +torments, not a millionth millionth fraction of eternity! + +Refreshing it is to turn to the Toulouse of minstrelsy. The proud seat +of the troubadours, the Academy of the Gay Science and of the poetic +tourneys revived in our own day! Mistral's name has long been European, +and other English writers have charmingly described the _Feux Floraux_ +of the olden time and the society of _Lou Felibrige_ with its revival of +Provençal literature. But forty years ago, and twenty years before his +masterpiece had found a translator here, he was known and highly +esteemed by a great Englishman. + +In Mill's _Correspondence_ (1910) we find a beautiful letter, and +written in fine stately French, from the philosopher to the poet, dated +Avignon, October 1869. + +Mill had sent Mistral the French translation of his essay, "The +Subjection of Women," and in answer to the other's thanks and flattering +assurance of his own conversion, he wrote: "Parmi toutes les adhésions +qui ont été données à la thèse de mon petit livre, je ne sais s'il y en +a aucune qui m'ont fait plus de plaisir que la vôtre." + +The letter as a whole is most interesting, and ends with a +characterization, a strikingly beautiful passage in the life and +teaching of Jesus Christ. Hard were it to match this appreciation among +orthodox writers. + +So transparent is the atmosphere here that the Pyrenees appear within an +hour's ride: they are in reality sixty miles off! Lovely are the clearly +outlined forms, flecked with light and shadow, the snowy patches being +perfectly distinct. + + + +IX + +MONTAUBAN, OR INGRES-VILLE + +An hour by rail from Toulouse lies the ancient city of Montauban, as far +as I know unnoticed by English tourists since Arthur Young's time. This +superbly placed _chef-lieu_ of the Tarn and Garonne is alike an artistic +shrine and a palladium of religious liberty. Here was born that strongly +individualized and much contested genius, Dominique Ingres, and here +Protestantism withstood the League, De Luyne's besieging army and the +dragonnades of Louis XIV. + +The city of Ingres may be thought of by itself; there is plenty of food +for reflection here without recalling the prude whose virtue caused more +mischief than the vices of all the Montespans and Dubarrys put together. +Let us forget the Maintenon terror at Montauban, the breaking up of +families, the sending to the galleys of good men and women, the +torturings, the roastings alive, and turn to the delightful and soothing +souvenirs of genius! Every French town that has given birth to shining +talent is straightway turned into a Walhalla. This ancient town, so +strikingly placed, breathes of Ingres, attracts the traveller by the +magic of the painter's name, has become an art pilgrimage. The noble +monument erected by the townsfolk to their great citizen and the +picture-gallery he bequeathed his native city well repay a much longer +journey than that from Toulouse. We see here to what high levels public +spirit and local munificence can rise in France. We see also how close, +after all, are the ties that knit Frenchman and Frenchman, how the glory +of one is made the pride of all. The bronze statue of the painter, with +the vast and costly bas-relief imitating his "Apotheosis of Homer" in +the Louvre, stand in the public walk, the beauty of which aroused even +Arthur Young's enthusiasm. "The promenade," he wrote in June 1787, "is +finely situated. Built on the highest part of the rampart, and +commanding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richest in +Europe, which extends on one side to the sea and in front to the +Pyrenees, whose towering masses heaped one upon another in a stupendous +manner, and covered with snow, offer a variety of lights and shades from +indented forms and the immensity of their projections. This prospect, +which contains a semicircle of a hundred miles in diameter, has an +oceanic vastness in which the eye loses itself; an almost boundless +scene of cultivation; an animated but confused mass of infinitely varied +parts, melting gradually into the distant obscure, from which emerges +the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their silvered heads above +the clouds." + +The Ingres Museum contains, I should say, more works from the hand of a +single master than were ever before collected under the same roof. +Upwards of a thousand sketches, many of great power and beauty, are +here, besides several portraits and one masterpiece, the Christ in the +Temple, brilliant as a canvas of Holman Hunt, although the work of an +octogenarian. The painter's easel, palette, and brushes, his violin, the +golden laurel-wreath presented to him by his native town, and other +relics are reverently gazed at on Sundays by artisans, soldiers and +peasant-folk. The local museum in France is something more than a little +centre of culture, a place in which to breathe beauty and delight. It is +a school of the moral sense, of the nobler passions, and also a temple +of fame. Therein the young are taught to revere excellence, and here the +ambitious are stimulated by worthy achievement. + +Ingres-ville recalls an existence stormy as the history of Montauban +itself. This stronghold of reform throughout her vicissitudes did not +show a bolder, more determined front to the foe than did her great +citizen his own enemies and detractors. Dominique Ingres and his +life-story favour those physicists who discern in native soil and +surroundings the formative influences of aptitudes and character. The +man and his birthplace matched each other. Indomitableness characterized +both, and to understand both we must know something of their respective +histories. To Montauban Henri Martin's great history does ample justice, +to her illustrious son contemporary writers have recently paid worthy +tributes. + +[Footnote: See _Les Grands Artistes--Ingres_, par J. Mommeja, +Paris, Laurens; _Le Roman d'amour de M. Ingres_, par H. Lapauze, Paris, +Lafitte, 1911.] + +"When a writer is praised above his merits in his own times," wrote +Savage Landor, "he is certain of being estimated below them in the +times succeeding." In the case of Ingres, opposition and contumely were +followed by perhaps excessive laudation whilst he lived, after his +death ensuing a long period of reaction. Time has now set the seal upon +his fame. The great Montalbanais has been finally received into the +national Walhalla. + +The father of the so-called French Raphaël, writes his biographer, was +not even a Giovanni Santi. Joseph Ingres, in the words of M. Momméja, +was _un petit ornemaniste_, a fabricator of knick-knacks, turning out +models in clay, busts in plaster, miniatures and other trifles for sale +at country fairs. Who can say, this humble craftsman may yet have had +much to do with his son's aspirations? + +An inferior artist can appraise his masters. From the humble artificer +and purveyor of bagatelles the youth not only imbibed a passion for +art and technical knowledge: he inherited the next best thing to a +calling, in other words, a love of music. From the palette throughout +his long life Ingres would turn with never-abated enthusiasm to his +adored violin. + +The learned monograph above-named gives a succinct and judicial account +of the painter's career. The second writer mentioned tells the story of +his inner life; one, indeed, of perpetual and universal interest. + +For to this sturdy young bourgeois early came a crisis. He found himself +suddenly at the parting of the ways, on the one hand beckoning +Conscience, on the other ambition in the flattering shape of Destiny. To +which voice would he hearken? Would love and plighted troth overrule +that insistent siren song, Vocation? Would he yield, as have done +thousands of well-intentioned men and women before him, to self-interest +and worldly wisdom? The problem to be solved by this brilliantly endowed +artist just twenty-six--how many a historic parallel does it recall! +What three words can convey so much pathos, heroism and generosity as +"il gran riffiuto?"--the great renunciation. Does the French language +contain a more touching record than that of the great Navarre's farewell +to his Huguenot brethren? What bitter tears shed Jeanne d'Albret's son +ere he could bring himself to sacrifice conscience on the altar of +expediency and a great career! + +At the age of twenty we find Dominique Ingres studying in Paris under +David, then in his apogee. + +The son of an obscure provincial, however promising, would hardly be +overwhelmed with hospitalities; all the more welcome came the +friendliness of an honourable magistrate and his wife, by name +Forestier. During five years the young man had lived on terms of +closest intimacy with these good folks, under his eyes growing up their +only daughter. + +Alas! poor Julie. Mighty, says Goethe, is the god of propinquity. On +Dominique's part attachment seems to have come insensibly, as a matter +of course and despite the precariousness of his position. M. Forestier +encouraged the young man's advances. To Julie love for the brilliant +winner of the Prix de Rome became an absorption, her very life. Not +particularly endowed by Nature--we have her portrait in M. Momméja's +volume--she described her own physiognomy as "not at all remarkable, but +expressive of candour and goodness of heart." For Julie, as we shall +see, turned her love-story into a little novel, only unearthed the other +day by M. Lapauze. + +The Prix de Rome meant, of course, a call to Rome, the worthy magistrate +exacting from his prospective son-in-law a promise that in twelve +months' time he would return. During that interval correspondence went +on apace not only between the affianced lovers, but between M. Forestier +and Ingres, the former taking affectionate and not uncritical interest +in the other's projects. For Ingres was before all things a projector, +anticipating by decades the achievements of his later years. The glow of +enthusiasm, the fever of creativeness were at its height. Italy +possessed Ingres' entire being when the crisis came. + +After delays, excuses, pleadings, Julie's father lost patience. He would +brook no further tergiversations. Ingres must choose between Italy and +Paris; in other words, so the artist interpreted it, between art and +marriage, a proud destiny or self-extinction. + +Never had a young artist more completely fallen under the spell of +Italy. The recall seemed a death-blow. "On my knees," he wrote to Julie, +whom he really loved, "I implore you not to ask this. It is impossible +for me to quit immediately a land so full of marvel." + +But the practical M. Forestier would not give way. Ingres' persistence +looked like folly, even madness in his eyes. The young man was with +difficulty living from hand to mouth, portraits and small orders barely +keeping the wolf from the door. The return home and marriage would +ensure his future materially and socially, and up to a certain point +render him independent of malevolent criticism. For already Ingres was +fiercely attacked by Parisian authorities on art: he had become +important enough to be a target. After cruellest heart-searching and +prolonged self-reproach, _il gran riffiuto_ was made, youthful passion, +worldly advantages--and plighted faith--were cast to the winds. +Henceforth he would live for his palette only, defying poverty, +detraction and fiercely antagonistic opinion; if failing in allegiance +to others, at least remaining staunch to his first, best, highest self, +his genius. + +Julie, the third imperishable Julie of French romance, never married. +Let us hope that the writing of her artless little autobiography called +a novel brought consolation. Did she ever forgive the recalcitrant? Her +story, _Emma, ou la fiancée,_ ends with the aphorism: "Without the +scrupulous fulfilment of the given word, there can be neither happiness +nor inner peace." + +Did that backsliding in early life disturb the great painter's stormy +but dazzling career? Who can say? We learn that Ingres was twice, and, +according to accredited reports, happily, married. His first wife, a +humbly-born maiden from his native province, died in 1849, leaving the +septuagenarian so desolate, helpless and stricken that kindly +interveners set to work and re-married him. The second Mme. Ingres, +although thirty years his junior, gave him, his biographer tells us, +"that domestic peace and happiness of which for a brief space he had +been deprived." Heaped with honours, named by Napoleon III. Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour, Senator, Member of the Institut, Ingres +died in 1869. Within a year of ninety, he was Dominique Ingres to the +last, undertaking new works with the enthusiasm and vitality of Titian. +A few days before his death he gave a musical party, favourite works of +Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven being performed by skilled amateurs. His +funeral was a veritable apotheosis, disciples, admirers and detractors +swelling the enormous cortège. + +Those who, like myself, have times without number contemplated the +master's _opus magnum_ in the Louvre, and have studied his art as +represented in the provincial museums, will quit the Musée Ingres with +mixed feelings. It must occur to many that, perhaps, after all, _il gran +riffiuto_ of opposite kind might have better served art and the artist's +fame. Had he returned to France--and to Julie--at the stipulated period, +the following eighteen years being spent not on Italian but on native +soil, how different the result! Then of his work he could have said, as +did Chantecler of his song-- + + "Mon chant + Qui n'est pas de ces chants qu'on chante en cherchant + Mais qu'on reçoit du sol natal comme une sève." + +Would not most of us willingly give Ingres' greatest classical and +historic canvases for one or two portraits, say that of Bertin, or, +better still, for a group like that of the Stamiti family? What a +portrait gallery he would have bequeathed, how would he have made the +men and women of his time live again before us! + +[Footnote: Both are reproduced, with many other works, in M. +Momméja's volume.] + +Ingres, the artist, ever felt sure of himself. Did the lover look back, +regretting the broken word, the wrong done to another? We do not know. +His life was throughout upright, austere, free from blot; born and bred +a Catholic, he had doubtless Huguenot blood in his veins, many of his +most striking characteristics pointed to this inference. + +A word more concerning Montauban itself. The stronghold of reform, that +defied all Richelieu's attempts to take it, is to this day essentially a +Protestant town. Half of its inhabitants have remained faithful to the +faith of their ancestors. Tourists will note the abundance of cypress +trees marking Huguenot graves, the capital of Tarn and Garonne is a +veritable Calvinistic _Campo Santo_. After the Revocation, many families +fled hence to England, their descendants to this day loving and +reverencing the country which gave them a home. + +Montauban, as we should expect, has raised a splendid monument to its +one great citizen. + +Since writing these lines, an Ingres exhibition has been opened in the +Georges Petit Gallery, Paris. Apropos of this event, the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_ (May 15, 1911) contains a striking paper by the art-critic, M. +de Sizeraine. Some of the conclusions here arrived at are startling. +Certain authorities on art are said to regard the great Montalbanais as +a victim of daltonism--in other words, colour-blind! + +In company of the mere amateur, this authority turns with relief from +the master's historical and allegorical pieces to his wonderfully +speaking portraits. Here, he says, all is simple, nothing is +commonplace, nothing is unexpected, and yet nothing resembles what we +have seen elsewhere; we find no embellishment, no stultification. He +adds: "In art, as in literature, works which survive are perhaps those +in which the artist or writer has put the most of himself, not those in +which he has had most faith. The "Voeu de Louis XIII," the "Thétis" of +Ingres, we may compare to Voltaire's _Henriade_ and to the +_Franciade_ of Ronsard, all belong to the category of the +_opus magnum_ that has failed, and of which its creator is proud." +With the following charming simile the essay closes-- + +"Posterity is a great lady, she passes, reviews the _opus magnum, la +grande machine_ disdainfully, satirically; all seems lost, the artist +condemned. But by chance she catches sight of a neglected picture turned +to the wall in a corner or passage, some happy inspiration that has cost +its author little pains, but in which he has not striven beyond his +powers, and in which he has put the best of himself. The _grande dame_ +catches it up, holds it to the light. 'Ha! here is something pretty!' +she cries. And the artist's fame is assured." + +Has not Victor Hugo focused the same truth in a line-- + + "Ici-bas, le joli c'est le nécessaire!" + +And our own Keats also-- + + "For 'tis the eternal law, + That first in beauty should be first in might." + + + +X + +MY PYRENEAN VALLEY AT LAST + + + + Osse, la bien aimée + Toi, du vallon + Le choix, la fille aînée + Le vrai fleuron! + C'est sur toi qu'est fixée + Dans son amour, + La première pensée + Du roi du jour + Comme à sa fiancée + L'amant accourt. + Xavier Navarrot. + + +Between Toulouse and Tarbes the scenery is quite unlike that of the +Gard and the Aude. Instead of the interminable vineyards round about +Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne, we gaze here upon a varied landscape. +Following the Garonne with the refrain of Nadaud's famous song in +our minds-- + + "Si la Garonne avait voulu,"-- + +we traverse a vast plain or low vale rich in many-coloured crops: +buckwheat, sweeps of creamy blossom, dark-green rye, bluish-green Indian +corn with silvery flower-head, and purple clover, and here and there a +patch of vine are mingled together before us; in the far distance the +Pyrenees, as yet mere purple clouds against the horizon. + +We soon note a peculiarity of this region--vines trained to trees, a +method in vogue a hundred years ago. "Here," wrote Arthur Young, when +riding from Toulouse to St. Martory on his way to Luchon, "for the first +time I see rows of maples with vines trained in festoons from tree to +tree"; and farther on he adds, "medlars, plums, cherries, maples in +every hedge with vines trained." The straggling vine-branches have a +curious effect, but the brightness of the leafage is pleasant to the +eye. No matter how it grows, to my thinking the vine is a lovely thing. + +The rich plain passed, we reach the slopes of the Pyrenees, their wooded +sides presenting a strange, even grotesque, appearance, owing to the +mathematical regularity with which the woods are cut, portions being +close shaven, others left intact in close juxtaposition, solid phalanxes +of trees and clearings at right angles. The fancy conjures up a +Brobdingnagian wheat-field partially cut in the green stage. Sad havoc +is thus made of once beautiful scenes, richly-wooded slopes having lost +half their foliage. + +A hundred years ago Lourdes was a mere mountain fortress, a State prison +to which unhappy persons were consigned by _lettres de cachet_. +Apologists of the Ancien Régime assert, in the first place, that these +Bastilles were comfortable, even luxurious retreats; in the second, that +_lettres de cachet_ were useful and necessary; in the third, that +neither Bastilles nor _lettres de cachet_ were resorted to on the eve +of the Revolution. Let us hear what Arthur Young has to say on the +subject. "I take the road to Lourdes," he writes in August 1787, "where +is a castle on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping State +prisoners, sent hither by _lettres de cachet_. Seven or eight are known +to be here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and many for +life--torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from the bosom of +domestic comfort, from wives, children, friends, and hurried, for crimes +unknown to themselves, most probably for virtues, to languish in this +detested abode, and die of despair. Oh liberty, liberty!" + +Great is the contrast between the lovely entourage of this notorious +place and the triviality and vulgar nature of its commerce. The one +long, winding street may be described as a vast bazaar, more suited to +Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims than to holders of railway tickets and +contemporaries of the Eiffel Tower. + +A brisk trade is done here, the place wearing the aspect of a huge fair. +Rosaries, crosses, votive tablets, ornamental cans for holding the +miraculous waters, drinking-cups, candles, photographs, images, medals +are sold by millions. The traffic in these wares goes on all day long, +the poorest "pilgrim" taking away souvenirs. + +The Lourdes of theology begins where the Lourdes of bartering ends. As +we quit the long street of bazaars and brand-new hotels, the first +glimpse gives us an insight into its life and meaning, makes us feel +that we ought to have been living two or three hundred years ago. We +glance back at the railway station, wondering whether a halt were wise, +whether indeed the gibbet, wheel, and stake were not really prepared for +heretics like ourselves! + +The votive church built on the outer side of the rock from which flows +the miraculous fountain is a basilica of sumptuous proportions, +representing an outlay of many millions of francs. Its portico, with +horse-shoe staircase in marble, spans the opening of the green hills, +behind which lie grotto and spring. We are reminded of the enormous +church now crowning the height of Montmartre at Paris; here, as there +and at Chartres, is a complete underground church of vast proportions. +The whole structure is very handsome, the grey and white building-stone +standing out against verdant hills and dark rocks. A beautifully +laid-out little garden with a statue of the miracle-working Virgin lies +between church and town. + +Looking from the lofty platform on the other side of the upper church, +we behold a strange scene. The space below is black with people, +hundreds and thousands of pilgrims, so called, priests and nuns being in +full force, one and all shouting and gesticulating with fierce zealotry, +a priest or two holding forth from a temporary pulpit. + +Between these closely-serried masses is a ghastly array. On litters, +stretchers, beds, chairs, lie the deformed, the sick, the moribund, +awaiting their turn to be sprinkled with the miraculous waters or +blessed by the bishop. These poor people, many of whom are in the last +stage of illness, have for bearers, volunteers; these are priests, young +gentlemen of good family, and others, who wear badges and leather +traces, by which they attach themselves to their burden. + +All day long masses are held inside the church and in the open air; at a +given signal the congregation stretching out their arms in the form of a +cross, prostrating themselves on the ground, kissing the dust. + +We must descend the broad flight of steps in order to obtain a good view +of the grotto, an oval opening in the rocks made to look like a +stalactite cave, with scores and hundreds of _ex-votos_ in the shape +of crutches. Judging from this display, there should be no more lame folks +left in France. The Virgin of Lourdes must have healed them all. In a +niche of the grotto stands an image of the Virgin, and behind, +perpetually lighted with candles, an altar, at which mass is celebrated +several times daily. + +On one side, the rock has been pierced in several places, deliciously +pure, cool water issuing from the taps. Crowds are always collected +here, impatient to drink of the miraculous fountain, and to fill vessels +for use at home. We see tired, heated invalids, and apparently dying +persons, drinking cups of this ice-cold water; enough, one would think, +to kill them outright. Close by is a little shop full of trifles for +sale, but so thronged at all hours of the day that you cannot get +attended to; purchasers lay down their money, take up the object +desired, and walk away. Here may be bought a medal for two sous, or a +crucifix priced at several hundred francs. + +The praying, chanting, and prostrating are at their height when the +violet-robed figure of a bishop is caught sight of, tripping down a +side-path leading from the town. Blessing any who chance to meet him on +the way, chatting pleasantly with his companion, a portly gentleman +wearing the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour, the bishop hastens +towards the grotto, dons his sacerdotal robes of ivory-white and gold, +and celebrates mass. The ceremony over, there is a general stir. +Adjusting their harness, the bearers form a procession, the bishop +emerges from the grotto, and one by one the thirty and odd litters are +drawn before him to be sprinkled, blessed--and healed! alas, such, +doubtless, is the fond delusion of many. + +The sight of so many human wrecks, torsos and living skeletons all agog +for life, health, and restoration, is even less heart-breaking than that +of their companions. Here we see a mother bending with agonized looks +over some white-faced, wasted boy, whose days, even hours, are clearly +numbered; there a father of a wizen-faced, terribly deformed girl, a +mite to look at, but fast approaching womanhood, brought hither to be +put straight and beautiful. Next our eye lights on the emaciated form of +a young man evidently in the last stage of consumption, his own face +hopeful still, but what forlornness in that of the adoring sister by his +side! These are spectacles to make the least susceptible weep. Grotesque +is the sight of a priest who must be ninety at least; what further +miracle can he expect, having already lived the life of three +generations? + +The last litter drawn by, the enormous crowd breaks up; tall candles are +offered to those standing near, and a procession is formed, headed by +the bishop under his gold and white baldachin, a large number of priests +following behind, then several hundred men, women, and children, the +black and white robes of the priests and nuns being conspicuous. +Chanting as they go, outsiders falling on their knees at the approach of +the baldachin, the pilgrims now wind in solemn procession round the +statue in front of the church, and finally enter, when another religious +celebration takes place. Services are going on all day long and late +into the night. Hardly do these devotees give themselves time for meals, +which are a scramble at best, every hotel and boarding-house much +overcrowded. The _table d'hôte_ dinner, or one or two dishes, are +hastily swallowed, and the praying, chanting, marching and prostrating +begin afresh. At eight o'clock from afar comes the sound of pilgrims' +voices as the procession winds towards the grotto. + +There is picturesqueness in these nocturnal celebrations, the tapers +twinkling against the dark heavens, the voices dying away in the +distance. Superstition has its season as well as sulphur-baths and +chalybeate springs. The railway station is a scene of indescribable +confusion; enormous contingents come for a few hours only, the numbered +trains that brought them are drawn up outside the main lines awaiting +their departure. Here we are hustled by a motley throng; fashionable +ladies bedizened with rosaries, badges, and medallions; elegant young +gentlemen, the _jeunesse dorée_ of a vanished _régime_, proudly +wearing the pilgrim's badge, all travelling third-class and in humble +company for their soul's good; peasant women from Brittany in charming +costumes; a very, very few blue blouses of elderly civilians'; enormous +numbers wearing religious garb. + +It seems a pity that a bargain could not be struck by France and +Germany, the Emperor William receiving Lourdes in exchange for Metz or +Strasburg! Lourdes must represent a princely revenue, far in excess, I +should say, of any profit the Prussian Government will ever make out of +the annexed provinces; and as nobody lives there, and visitors only +remain a day or two, it would not matter to the most patriotic French +pilgrim going to whom the place belonged. + +The tourist brings evil as well as good in his track, and the tax upon +glorious scenery here is not the globe-trotter but the mendicant. +Gavarnie is, without doubt, as grandiose a scene as Western Europe can +show. In certain elements of grandeur none other can compete with it. +But until a balloon service is organized between Luz and the famous +Cirque it is impossible to make the journey with an unruffled temper. +The traveller's way is beset by juvenile vagrants, bare-faced and +importunate as Neapolitans or Arabs. Lovers of aerial navigation have +otherwise not much left to wish for. Nothing can be more like a ride in +cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to +Gavarnie. The splendid rock-hewn road is just broad enough to admit of +two carriages abreast. On one side are lofty, shelving rocks, on the +other a stone coping two feet high, nothing else to separate us from the +awful abyss below, a ravine deep as the measure of St. Paul's Cathedral +from base to apex of golden cross. We hear the thunder of the river as +it dashes below by mountains two-thirds the height of Mont Blanc, their +dark, almost perpendicular sides wreathed with cloud, on their summits +gleaming never-melted snow, here and there the sombre parapets streaked +with silvery cascades. At intervals the Titanic scene is relieved by +glimpses of pastoral grace and loveliness, and such relief is necessary +even to those who can gaze without giddiness on such awfulness. Between +gorge and gorge lie level spaces, amid dazzlingly-green meadows the +river flows calm and crystal clear, the form and hue of every pebble +distinct as the pieces of a mosaic. Looking upwards we see hanging +gardens and what may be called farmlets, tiny homesteads with minute +patches of wheat, Indian corn, and clover on an incline so steep as to +look vertical. Most beautiful and refreshing to the eye are the little +hayfields sloping from the river, the freshly-mown hay in cocks or being +turned, the shorn pasture around bright as emerald. Harvest during the +year 1891 was late, and in the first week of September corn was still +standing; nowhere, surely, corn so amber-tinted, so golden, nowhere, +surely, ripened so near the clouds. In the tiny chalets perched on the +mountain ridges, folks literally dwell in cloudland, and enjoy a kind of +supernal existence, having for near neighbours the eagles in their +eyries and the fleet-footed chamois or izard. + +These vast panoramas--towering rocks of manifold shape, Alp rising above +Alp snow-capped or green-tinted, terrace upon terrace of fields and +homesteads--show every variety of savage grandeur and soft beauty till +we gradually reach the threshold of Gavarnie. This is aptly called +"chaos" which we might fancifully suppose the leavings, "the fragments +that were left," of the semicircular wall now visible, thrown up by +transhuman builders, insurmountable barrier between heaven and earth. No +sooner does the awful amphitheatre break upon the view, than we discern +the white line of the principal fall, a slender silvery column reaching, +so it seems, from star-land and moon-land to earth; river of some upper +world that has overleaped the boundaries of our own. No words can convey +the remotest idea of such a scene. + +We may say with regard to scenery what Lessing says of pictures, we only +see in both what we bring with us to the view. More disconcerting than +the importunities of beggars and donkey-drivers are the supercilious +remarks of tourists. To most, of course, the whole thing is "a sad +disappointment." Everything must necessarily be a disappointment to some +beholders; and with critics of a certain order, the mere fact of not +being pleased implies superiority. The hour's walk from the village to +the Cirque is an event also in the life of the flower-lover. We have +hardly eyes for Gavarnie, so completely is our gaze fascinated by the +large luminous gold and silver stars gleaming conspicuously from the +brilliant turf. These are the glorious flower-heads of the white and +yellow Pyrenean thistle that open in sunshine as do sea-anemones, +sending out lovely fringes, sunrays and moonbeams not more strikingly +contrasted. As we rush hither and thither to gather them--if we +can--their roots are veritable tentaculae, other lovely flowers are to +be had in plenty, the beautiful deep-blue Pyrenean gentian, monk's-hood +in rich purple blossom, rose-coloured antirrhinum, an exquisite little +yellow sedum, with rare ferns. On one side, a narrow bridle-path winds +round the mountain towards Spain; on the other, cottage-farms dot the +green slopes; between both, parting the valley, flows the Gave, here a +quietly meandering streamlet, whilst before us rises Gavarnie; a scene +to which one poet only--perhaps the only one capable of grappling with +such a subject--has done justice-- + + "Cirque, hippodrome, + Stage whereon Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, London, Rome, + With their myriads could find place, whereon Paris at ease + Might float, as at sundown a swarm of bees, + Gavarnie, dream, miracle!" + + [Footnote: "Un cirque, un hippodrome, + Un théâtre où Stamboul, Tyre, Memphis, Londres, Rome, + Avec leurs millions d'hommes pourraient s'asseoir. + Ou Paris flotterait comme un essaim du soir. + Gavarnie!--un miracle! un rêve!"--Victor Hugo, "Dieu."] + +How to give some faint conception of the indescribable? Perhaps the +great French poet has best succeeded in a single line-- + + "L'impossible est ici debout." + +We feel, indeed, that we are here brought face to face with the +impossible. + +Let the reader then conjure up a solid mass of rock threefold the +circumference of St. Paul's Cathedral; let him imagine the façade of +this natural masonry of itself exceeding the compass of our great +Protestant minster; then in imagination let him lift his eyes from stage +to stage, platform to platform, the lower nearly three times the height +of St. Paul's from base to apex of golden cross, the higher that of four +such altitudes; their gloomy parapets streaked with glistening white +lines, one a vast column of water, although their shelving sides show +patches of never-melted snows; around, framing in the stupendous scene, +mountain peaks, each unlike its majestic brother, each in height +reaching to the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Such is Gavarnie. + +My next halting-place was a remote Pyrenean village admirably adapted +for the study of rural life. Within a few hours' journey of the Spanish +frontier, Osse lies in the beautiful valley of Aspe, and is reached by +way of Pau and Oloron. At the latter town the railway ends, and we have +to drive sixteen miles across country, a delightful expedition in +favourable weather. The twin towns, old and new Oloron, present the +contrast so often seen throughout France, picturesque, imposing +antiquity beside utilitarian ugliness and uniformity. The open suburban +spaces present the appearance of an enormous drying-ground, in which are +hung the blankets of the entire department. Blankets, woollen girdles or +sashes, men's bonnets are manufactured here. "Pipers, blue bonnets, and +oatmeal," wrote an English traveller a hundred years ago, "are found in +Catalonia, Auvergne, and Suabia as well as in Lochaber." We are now in +the ancient kingdom of Beam, with a portion of Navarre added to the +French crown by Henry IV, and, two hundred years later, named the +department of the Basses Pyrenées. + +[Illustration: OSSE] + +Every turn of the road reveals new features as we journey towards Osse, +having always in view the little Gave d'Aspe, after the manner of +Pyrenean rivers, making cascades, waterfalls, whirlpools on its way. +Most beautiful are these mountain streams, their waters of pure, deep +green, their surface broken by coruscations of dazzlingly white foam and +spray, their murmur ever in our ears. When far away we hardly miss the +grand contours of the Pyrenees more than the music of their rushing +waters. No tourists meet us here, yet whither shall we go for scenes +sublimer or more engaging? On either side of the broadening velvety +green valley, with its tumbling stream, rises a rampart of stately +peaks, each unlike its neighbour, each having a graciousness and +grandeur of its own. Here and there amid these vast solitudes is seen a +white glittering thread breaking the dark masses of shelving rock, +mountain torrent falling into the river from a height of several hundred +feet. Few and far between are the herdsmen's châlets and scattered +cornfields and meadows, and we have the excellent carriage road to +ourselves. Yet two or three villages of considerable size are passed on +the way; of one, an inland spa much frequented by the peasants, I shall +make mention presently. + +For three hours we have wound slowly upward, and, as our destination is +approached, the valley opens wide, showing white-walled, grey-roofed +hamlets and small towns all singularly alike. The mountains soon close +round abruptly on all sides, making us feel as if we had reached the +world's end. On the other side of those snow-capped peaks, here so +majestically massed before our gaze, lies Spain. We are in a part of +France thoroughly French, yet within a few hours of a country strikingly +contrasted with it; manners, customs, modes of thought, institutions +radically different. + +[Illustration: NEAR THE SPANISH FRONTIER] + +The remoteness and isolation of Osse explain the existence of a little +Protestant community in these mountain fastnesses. For centuries the +Reformed faith has been upheld here. Not, however, unmolested. A tablet +in the neat little church tells how the original place of Protestant +worship was pulled down by order of the king in 1685, and only +reconstructed towards the close of the following century. Without +church, without pastor, forbidden to assemble, obliged to bury their +dead in field or garden, these dales-folk and mountaineers yet clung +tenaciously to their religion. One compromise, and one only, they made. +Peasant property has existed in the Pyrenees from time immemorial, and +in order to legitimize their children and enjoy the privilege of +bequeathing property, the Protestants of the Vallée d'Aspe were married +according to the rites of the Romish Church. In our own days, here as +elsewhere throughout France, the religious tenets handed down from +father to son are adhered to without wavering, and at the same time +without apparent enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants live amicably +side by side; but intermarriages are rare, and conversions from Rome to +rationalism infrequent. The Sunday services of the little Protestant +church are often attended by Catholics. Strangers passing through Osse, +market-folk, peasants and others, never fail to inspect it curiously. +The Protestant pastor is looked up to with respect and affection alike +by Catholic and Protestant neighbours. The rival churches neither lose +nor gain adherents to any extent. This fact is curious, especially in a +spot where Protestantism is seen at its best. It shows the extreme +conservatism and stability of the French character, often set down as +revolutionary and fickle. In England folks often and avowedly change +their religion several times during their lives. Is not the solemn +reception into Rome of instructed men and women among ourselves a matter +of every day? In France it is otherwise, and when a change is made we +shall generally find that the step is no retrograde one. + +If the social aspect is encouraging at Osse, the same may be said of +peasant property. Even a Zola must admit some good in a community +unstained by crime during a period of twenty years, and bound by ties of +brotherhood which render want impossible. A beautiful spirit of +humanity, a delicacy rare among the most polished societies, +characterize these frugal sons and daughters of the soil. Nor is +consideration for others confined to fellow-beings only. The animal is +treated as the friend, not the slave of man. "We have no need of the Loi +Grammont here," said a resident to me; and personal observation +confirmed the statement. + +As sordidness carried to the pitch of brutality is often imputed to the +French peasant, let me relate an incident that occurred hereabouts, not +long before my visit. The land is minutely divided, many possessing a +cottage and field only. One of these very small owners was suddenly +ruined by the falling of a rock, his cottage, cow and pig being +destroyed. Without saying a word, his neighbours, like himself in very +humble circumstances, made up a purse of five hundred francs, a large +sum with such donors, and, too delicate-minded to offer the gift +themselves, deputed an outsider to do it anonymously. Another instance +in point came to my knowledge. This was of a young woman servant, who, +during the illness of her employer, refused to accept wages. "You shall +pay me some other time," said the girl to her mistress; "I am sure you +can ill afford to give me the money now." + +Peasant property and rural life generally here presented to me some +wholly new features; one of these is the almost entire self- +sufficingness of very small holdings, their owners neither buying nor +selling, making their little crops and stock almost completely supply +their needs. Thus on a field or two, enough flax is grown with which to +spin linen for home use, enough wheat and Indian corn for the year's +bread-making, maize being mixed with wheaten flour; again, pigs and +poultry are reared for domestic consumption--expenditure being reduced +to the minimum. Coffee is a luxury seldom indulged in, a few drink home- +grown wine, but all are large milk-drinkers. The poorest is a good +customer of the dairy farmer. + +I was at first greatly puzzled by the information of a neighbour that he +kept cows for the purpose of selling milk. Osse being sixteen miles from +a railway station, possessing neither semi-detached villas, hotels, +boarding-houses, convents, barracks, nor schools, and a population of +from three to four hundred only, most of these small farmers--who were +his patrons? + +I afterwards learned that the "ha'porth of milk," which means much more +in all senses than with us, takes the place of tea, coffee, beer, to say +nothing of more pernicious drinks, with the majority. New milk from the +cow costs about a penny a quart, and perhaps if we could obtain a +similar commodity at the same price in England, even gin might be +supplanted. Eggs and butter are also very cheap; but as the peasants +rear poultry exclusively for their own use, it is by no means easy at +Osse to procure a chicken. A little, a very little money goes to the +shoemaker and general dealer, and fuel has to be bought; this item is +inconsiderable, the peasants being allowed to cart wood from the +communal forests for the sum of five or six francs yearly. The village +is chiefly made up of farmhouses; on the mountain-sides and in the +valley are the châlets and shepherds' huts, abandoned in winter. The +homesteads are massed round the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, +most having a narrow strip of garden and balcony carried along the upper +storey, which does duty as a drying-ground. + +One of these secluded hamlets, with its slated roofs, white walls, and +brown shutters, closely resembles another; but Osse stands alone in +possessing a Protestant church and community. + +Although the little centre of a purely agricultural region, we find +here one of those small, specific industries, as characteristic of +French districts as soil and produce. Folks being great water-drinkers, +they will have their drinking-water in a state of perfection. Some +native genius long ago invented a vessel which answers the requirement +of the most fastidious. This is a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, +bound with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being kept +exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels remains cool throughout the +hottest hours of the hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly +durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds of years. The +turning and encasing of yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars is a +flourishing manufacture at Osse. + +Here may be seen and studied peasant property in many stages. I would +again remark that any comparison between the condition of the English +agricultural labourer and the French peasant proprietor is irrelevant +and inconclusive. In the cottage of a small owner at Osse, for +instance, we may discover features to shock us, often a total absence +of the neatness and veneer of the Sussex ploughman's home. Our disgust +is trifling compared with that of the humblest, most hard-working +owner of the soil, when he learns under what conditions lives his +English compeer. To till another's ground for ten or eleven shillings +a week, inhabit a house from which at a week's notice that other can +eject him, possess neither home, field nor garden, and have no kind of +provision against old age, such a state of things appears to our +artless listener wholly inconceivable, incommensurate with modern +civilization and bare justice. + +As an instance of the futility of comparisons, I will mention one +experience. I was returning home late one afternoon when a +poorly-dressed, sunburnt woman overtook me. She bore on her head a +basket of bracken, and her appearance was such that in any other country +I should have expected a demand for alms. Greeting me, however, +cheerfully and politely, she at once entered into conversation. She had +seen me at church on Sunday, and went on to speak of the pastor, with +what esteem both Catholics and Protestants regarded him, then of the +people, their mode of life and condition generally. + +"No," she said, in answer to my inquiry, "there is no real want here, +and no vagrancy. Everybody has his bit of land, or can find work. I come +from our vineyard on the hillside yonder, and am now returning home to +supper in the village--our farmhouse is there". She was a widow, she +added, and with her son did the work of their little farm, the +daughter-in-law minding the house and baby. They reared horses for sale, +possessed a couple of cows, besides pigs and poultry. + +The good manners, intelligence, urbanity, and quiet contentment of this +good woman were very striking. She had beautiful white teeth, and was +not prematurely aged, only very sun-burnt and shabby, her black stuff +dress blue with age and mended in many places, her partially bare feet +thrust in sabots. The women here wear toeless or footless stockings, the +upper part of the foot being bare. I presume this is an economy, as +wooden shoes wear out stockings. We chatted of England, of +Protestantism, and many topics before bidding each other good-night. +There was no constraint on her part, and no familiarity. She talked +fluently and naturally, just as one first-class lady traveller might do +to a fellow-passenger. Yet, if not here in contact with the zero of +peasant property, we are considering its most modest phase. + +A step higher and we found an instance of the levelling process +characteristic of every stage of French society, yet hardly to be looked +for in a remote Pyrenean village. In one of our afternoon rambles we +overtook a farmeress, and accepted an invitation to accompany her home. +She tripped cheerfully beside us; although a Catholic, on friendliest +terms with her Protestant neighbours. Her thin white feet in toeless +stockings and sabots, well-worn woollen petticoat, black stuff jacket, +headgear of an old black silk handkerchief, would have suggested +anything but the truth to the uninitiated. Here also the unwary stranger +might have fumbled for a spare coin. She had a kindly, intelligent face, +and spoke volubly in patois, having very little command of French. It +was, indeed, necessary for me to converse by the medium of an +interpreter. On approaching the village we were overtaken by a slight, +handsome youth conducting a muck-wagon. This was her younger son, and +his easy, well-bred greeting, and correct French, prepared me for the +piece of intelligence to follow. The wearer of peasant's garb, carting +manure, had passed his examination of Bachelor of Arts and Science, had, +in fact, received the education of a gentleman. In his case, the +patrimony being small, a professional career meant an uphill fight, but +doubtless, with many another, he would attain his end. + +The farmhouse was large, and, as is unusual here, apart from stables and +cow-shed, the kitchen and outhouse being on the ground floor, the young +men's bedrooms above. Our hostess slept in a large, curtained +four-poster, occupying a corner of the kitchen. A handsome wardrobe of +solid oak stood in a conspicuous place, but held only a portion of the +family linen. These humble housewives count their sheets by the dozen of +dozens, and linen is still spun at home, although not on the scale of +former days. The better-off purchase strong, unbleached goods of local +manufacture. Here and there I saw old women plying spindle and distaff, +but the spinning-wheel no longer hums in every cottage doorway. + +Meantime our hospitable entertainer--it is ever the women who wait on +their guests--brought out home-grown wine, somewhat sour to the +unaccustomed palate, and, as a corrective, home-made brandy, which, with +sugar, formed an agreeable liqueur, walnuts--everything, indeed, that +she had. We were also invited to taste the bread made of wheaten and +maize flour mixed, a heavy, clammy compound answering Mrs. Squeers's +requirement of "filling for the price." It is said to be very wholesome +and nutritious. + +The kitchen floor, as usual, had an unsecured look, but was clean swept, +and on shelves stood rows of earthen and copper cooking-vessels and the +yewen wood, brass-bound water-jars before mentioned. The façade of the +house, with its shutters and balcony, was cheerful enough, but just +opposite the front door lay a large heap of farmhouse manure awaiting +transfer to the pastures. A little, a very little, is needed to make +these premises healthful and comfortable. The removal of the +manure-heap, stables, and cow-shed; a neat garden plot, a flowering +creeper on the wall, and the aspect would be in accordance with the +material condition of the owner. + +The property shared by this widow and her two sons consisted of between +five and six acres, made up of arable land and meadow. They kept four +cows, four mares for purposes of horse-breeding, and a little poultry. +Milch cows here are occasionally used on the farm, an anomaly among a +population extremely gentle to animals. + +My next visits were paid on a Sunday afternoon, when everybody is at +home to friends and neighbours. Protestant initiative in the matter of +the seventh day test has been uniformly followed, alike man and beast +enjoy complete repose. As there are no cabarets and no trippers to +disturb the public peace, the tranquillity is unbroken. + +Our first call was upon an elder of the Protestant Church, and one of +the wealthier peasants of the community. The farmhouse was on the usual +Pyrenean plan, stables and neat-houses occupying the ground floor, an +outer wooden staircase leading to kitchen, parlour, and bedrooms; on the +other side a balcony overlooking a narrow strip of garden. + +Our host, dressed in black cloth trousers, black alpaca blouse, and +spotless, faultlessly-ironed linen, received us with great cordiality +and the ease of a well-bred man. His mother lived with him, a charming +old lady, like himself peasant-born, but having excellent manners. She +wore the traditional black hood of aged and widowed Huguenot women, and +her daughter-in-law and little granddaughter, neat stuff gowns and +coloured cashmere kerchiefs tied under the chin. + +We were first ushered into the vast kitchen or "living room," as it +would be called in some parts of England, to-day with every other part +of the house in apple-pie order. Large oak presses, rows of earthen and +copper cooking-vessels, an enormous flour-bin, with plain deal table and +chairs, made up the furniture, from one part of the ceiling hanging +large quantities of ears of Indian corn to dry. Here bread is baked once +a week, and all the cooking and meals take place. + +Leading out of the kitchen was the salon or drawing-room, the first I +had ever seen in a peasant farmer's house. A handsome tapestry +table-cover, chimney ornaments, mirror, sofa, armchairs, rugs, betokened +not only solid means but taste. We were next shown the grandmother's +bedchamber, which was handsomely furnished with every modern +requirement, white toilet-covers and bed-quilt, window-curtains, rug, +wash-stand; any lady unsatisfied here would be hard indeed to please. +The room of master and mistress was on the same plan, only much larger, +and one most-unlooked-for item caught my eye. This was a towel-horse +(perhaps the comfortably-appointed parsonage had set the fashion?), a +luxury never seen in France except in brand-new hotels. As a rule the +towel is hung in a cupboard. We were then shown several other bedrooms, +all equally suggestive of comfort and good taste; yet the owner was a +peasant, prided himself on being so, and had no intention of bringing up +his children to any other condition. His farm consisted of a few +hectares only, but was very productive. We saw his cows, of which he is +very fond, the gentle creatures making signs of joy at their master's +approach. Four or five cows, as many horses for breeding purposes, a few +sheep, pigs, and poultry made up his stock. All that I saw of this +family gave me a very high notion of intelligence, morality, thrift and +benevolence. + +Very feelingly all spoke of their animals and of the duty of human +beings towards the animal world generally. It was the first time I had +heard such a tone taken by French peasants, but I was here, be it +remembered, among Protestants. The horrible excuse made in Italy and +Brittany for cruelty to beasts, "Ce ne sont pas des chrétiens," finds no +acceptance among these mountaineers. + +Our second visit brought us into contact with the bourgeois element. The +farmhouse, of much better appearance than the rest, also stood in the +village. The holding was about the size of that just described. The +young mistress was dressed in conventional style, had passed an +examination at a girls' Lycée, entitling her to the _brevet supérieur_ +or higher certificate, her husband wore the dress of a country +gentleman, and we were ushered into a drawing-room furnished with piano, +pictures, a Japanese cabinet, carpets, and curtains. + +The bedrooms might have been fitted up by an upholsterer of Tottenham +Court Road. It must be borne in mind that I am not describing the +wealthy farmers of the Seine and Marne or La Venidée. + +The fact that these young people let a part of their large, +well-furnished house need not surprise us. There is no poverty here, but +no riches. I do not suppose that any one of the small landowners to whom +I was introduced could retire to-morrow and live on his savings. I dare +aver that one and all are in receipt of a small income from invested +capital, and have a provision against sickness and old age. + +The master of the house showed me his stock, five or six handsome cows +of cross breed, in value from £10 to £16, the latter the maximum price +here. We next saw several beautiful mares and young colts, and four +horned sheep. Sheepkeeping and farming are seldom carried on together, +and this young farmer was striking out a new path for himself. He told +me that he intended to rear and fatten sheep, also to use artificial +manure. Up to the present time, guanos and phosphates are all but +unknown in these regions, only farmhouse dung is used, cows being partly +kept for that purpose. Although the land is very productive, my +informant assured me that much remained to be done by departure from +routine and the adoption of advanced methods. The cross-breeding of +stock was another subject he had taken up. Such initiators are needed in +districts remote from agricultural schools, model farms, and State-paid +chairs of agriculture. + +Each of the four instances just given differed from the other. The first +showed us peasant property in its simplest development, a little family +contentedly living on their bit of land, making its produce suffice for +daily needs, independent of marts and markets as the members of a +primitive community. + +The second stage showed us a wholly dissimilar condition, yet not +without its ideal side. We were brought face to face with that +transitional phase of society and pacific revolution, of happiest augury +for the future. From the peasant ranks are now recruited contingents +that will make civil wars impossible, men who carry into politics +learning and the arts, those solid qualities that have made rural France +the admiration of the world, and more than once saved her Republic. + +The first instance exemplified the intense conservatism of the French +peasant. Liberal in politics, enlightened in religion, open to the +reception of new ideas, here was nevertheless a man absolutely satisfied +with social conditions as they affected himself and his children, +utterly devoid of envy or worldly ambition. To reap the benefits of his +toil, deserve the esteem of his neighbours, bequeath his little estate, +improved and enriched, to his heirs, surely this was no contemptible +ideal either. + +The last case differed from the other three. We were now reminded of the +English tenant, or even gentleman-farmer--with a difference. Alike master +and mistress had received a good education and seen something of the +world; they could enjoy music and books. But in spite of her _brevet +supérieur_, the wife attended to her dairy; and although the husband +was a gentleman in manners and appearance, he looked after the stock. +They lived, too, on friendliest terms with their less-instructed and +homelier neighbours, the black alpaca blouse and coloured kerchief, +doing duty for bonnet, being conspicuous at their Sunday receptions. Not +even a Zola can charge French village-life with the snobbishness so +conspicuous in England. It will be amply shown from the foregoing +examples that peasant property is no fixed condition to be arbitrarily +dealt with after the manner of certain economists. On the contrary, it +is many-phased; the fullest and widest development of modern France is +indeed modern France itself. The peasant owner of the soil has attained +the highest position in his own country. No other class can boast of +such social, moral and material ascendency. He is the acknowledged +arbitrator of the fortunes of France. + +I will now cite two facts illustrating the bright side of peasant +property in its humblest phase, where we have been told to expect +sordidness, even brutality. The land hereabouts, as I have before +stated, is excessively divided, the holdings being from two and a half +acres in extent and upwards. It often happens that the younger children +of these small owners give up their share of the little family estate +without claiming a centime of compensation, and seek their fortunes in +the towns. They betake themselves to handicrafts and trade, in their +turn purchasing land with the savings from daily wages. + +Again, it is supposed that the life of the peasant owner is one of +uniform, unbroken drudgery, his daily existence hardly more elevated +than that of the ox harnessed to his plough. Who ever heard of an +English labourer taking a fourteen days' rest at the seaside? When did a +rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton? They order these +things better in France. + +Between Osse and Oloron stands Escot, long famous for its warm springs. +The principal patrons of this modest watering-place are the peasants. It +is their Carlsbad, their Homburg, many taking a season as regularly as +the late King Edward. The thing is done with thoroughness, but at a +minimum of cost. They pay half a franc daily for a room, and another +half-franc for the waters, cooking their meals in the general kitchen of +the establishment. Where the French peasant believes, his faith is +phenomenal. Some of these valetudinarians drink as many as forty-six +glasses of mineral water a day! What must be their capacities in robust +health? The bourgeois or civilian element is not absent. Hither from Pau +and Oloron come clerks and small functionaries with their families. +Newspapers are read and discussed in company. We may be sure that the +rustic spa is a little centre of sociability and enlightenment. + +Let me now say something about the crops of this sweet Pyrenean +valley. The chief of these are corn, maize, rye, potatoes, and clover; +the soil being too dry and poor for turnips and beetroot. Flax is +grown in small quantities, and here and there we seen vines, but the +wine is thin and sour. + +From time immemorial, artificial irrigation has been carried on in the +Vallée d'Aspe, and most beautiful is the appearance of the brilliantly +green pastures, intersected by miniature canals in every direction; the +sweet pastoral landscape framed by mountain peaks of loveliest colour +and majestic shape. These well-watered grasslands produce two or even +three crops a year; the second, or _regain_ as it is called, was being +got in early in September, and harvest having taken place early, clover +was already springing up on the cleared cornfields. Everywhere men and +women were afield making hay or scattering manure on the meadows, the +latter sometimes being done with the hands. + +All these small farmers keep donkeys and mules, and on market-days the +roads are alive with cavalcades; the men wearing gay waist-sashes, flat +cloth caps, or berets, the women coloured kerchiefs. The type is +uniform--medium stature, spareness, dark eyes and hair, and olive +complexion predominating. Within the last thirty years the general +health and physique have immensely improved, owing to better food and +wholesomer dwellings. Goître and other maladies arising from +insufficient diet have disappeared. Epidemics, I was assured, seldom +work havoc in this valley; and though much remains to be done in the way +of drainage and sanitation, the villages have a clean, cheerful look. + +The last ailment that would occur to us proves most fatal to those +hardy country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as +the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality +arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend +oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was +tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. +Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises +from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks +above tempts us to linger abroad. + +The scenery is grandiose and most beautiful. Above the white-walled, +grey-roofed villages and townlings scattered about the open, rise +sharp-pointed green hills or monticules, one gently overtopping the +other; surmounting these, lofty barren peaks, recalling the volcanic +chains of Auvergne, the highest snow-capped point twice the altitude of +the Puy de Dôme, two-thirds that of Mont Blanc. + +Whichever way we go we find delightful scenery. Hidden behind the folded +hills, approached by lovely little glades and winding bridle-path, +tosses and foams the Gave d'Aspe, its banks thickly set with willow and +salicornia, its solitary coves inviting the bather. The witchery of +these mountain streams grows upon us in the Pyrenees. We hunger for the +music of their cascades when far away. The sun-lit, snow-lit peaks, +towering into the brilliant blue heavens, are not deserted as they +appear. Shepherd farmers throughout the summer dwell in huts here, and +welcome visitors with great affability. + +Let me narrate a fact interesting alike to the naturalist and +meteorologist. On the 7th September, 1891, the heat on one of these +summits, nine thousand feet above the sea-level, was so intense that a +little flock of sheep were seen literally hugging the snow, laying their +faces against the cool masses, huddled about them, as shivering mortals +round a fire in winter. And, a little way off, the eye-witnesses of this +strange scene gathered deep blue irises in full bloom. + +[Illustration: ORCUM] + +On the lower slopes the farmers leave their horses to graze, giving them +a look from time to time. One beautiful young horse lost its life just +before my arrival, unwarily approaching a precipitous incline. As a rule +accidents are very rare. + +The izard or Pyrenean chamois, although hunted as game, is not yet a +survival here, nor the eagle and bear, the latter only making its +appearance in winter-time. + +Tent-life in these mountain-sides is quite safe and practicable. Who can +say? A generation hence and these magnificent Alps may be tunnelled by +railways, crowned by monster hotels, peopled from July to October with +tourists in search of disappointments. + +At present the Vallée d'Aspe is the peacefullest in the world. Alike on +week-days and Sundays the current of life flows smoothly. Every morning +from the open windows of the parsonage may be heard the sweet, simple +hymns of the Lutheran Church, master and mistress, servants and +children, uniting in daily thanksgiving and prayer. + +And a wholesome corrective is the Sunday service after the sights +of Lourdes. + +The little congregation was striking. Within the altar railings stood +two _anciens_, or elders, of the church, middle-aged men, tall, +stalwart, the one fair as a Saxon, the other dark as a Spaniard. Both +wore the dress of the well-to-do peasant, short black alpaca blouses, +black cloth trousers, and spotless collars and cuffs, and both worthily +represented those indomitable ancestors who neither wavered nor lost +heart under direst persecution. + +By the time the pastor ascended the reading-desk, the cheerful, +well-kept little church was full, the men in black blouses, the women +wearing neat stuff or print gowns, with silk handkerchiefs tied under +the chin, widows and the aged, the sombre black-hooded garment, +enveloping head and figure, of Huguenot matrons of old--supposed to have +suggested the conventual garb. + +Among the rest were two or three Catholics, peasants of the +neighbourhood, come to look on and listen. The simple, intelligible +service, the quiet fervour of the assembly, might well impress a +sceptical beholder. Even more impressive is the inscription over the +door. A tablet records how the first Protestant church was pulled down +by order of the king after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +rebuilt on the declaration of religious liberty by the National +Assembly. Gazing on that inscription and the little crowd of +worshippers, a sentence of Tacitus came into my mind. Recording how not +only the biographers of good men were banished or put to death, but +their works publicly burnt by order of Domitian, the historian, whose +sentences are volumes condensed, adds: "They fancied, forsooth"--he is +speaking of the tyrant and his satellites--"that all records of these +actions being destroyed, mankind could never approve of them." An +illusion shared by enemies of intellectual liberty, from the Caesars to +their latest imitator, unhappily not wholly dispelled in our own day. + +Whether the homeward journey is made through the Landes by way of +Bayonne and Bordeaux, or through the Eastern Pyrenees by way of +Perpignan, we are brought face to face with scenes of strangest +transformation. In the former region the agency has been artificial, the +shifting sands being fixed and solidified by plantations on a gigantic +scale, and large tracts rendered fertile by artificial irrigation; in +the latter, Nature has prepared the field, the more laborious portion of +the husbandman's task is already done. + +"The districts of sand, as white as snow and so loose as to blow," seen +by Arthur Young towards the close of the last century, can hardly be +said to exist in our own day. Even within twenty-five years the changes +are so great as to render entire regions hardly recognizable. The +stilts, or _chanques_, of which our word "shanks" is supposed to be the +origin, become rarer and rarer. The creation of forests and sinking of +wells, drainage, artificial manures and canals are rapidly fertilizing a +once arid region; with the aspect of the country a proportionate change +taking place in the material condition of the people. + +No less startling is the transformation of lagoon into salt marsh, and +marsh into cultivable soil, witnessed between the Spanish frontier, +Perpignan and Nîmes. + +Quitting Cerbère, the little town at which travellers from Barcelona +re-enter French territory, we follow the coast, traversing a region long +lost to fame and the world, but boasting of a brilliant history before +the real history of France began. + +We are here in presence of geological changes affected neither by shock +nor convulsion, nor yet by infinitesimally slow degrees. A few +centuries have sufficed to alter the entire contour of the coast and +reverse the once brilliant destinies of maritime cities. With the +recorded experience of mediaeval writers at hand, we can localize +lagoons and inland seas where to-day we find belts of luxuriant +cultivation. In a lifetime falling short of the Psalmist's threescore +years and ten observations may be made that necessitate the +reconstruction of local maps. + +The charming little watering-place of Banyulssur-Mer, reached soon after +passing the Spanish frontier, is the only place on this coast, except +Cette, without a history. The town is built in the form of an +amphitheatre, its lovely little bay surrounded by rich southern +vegetation. The oleanders and magnolias in full bloom, gardens and +vineyards, are no less strikingly contrasted with the barrenness and +monotony that follows, than Banyuls itself, spick and span, brand-new, +with the buried cities scattered on the way, ancient as Tyre and Sidon, +and once as flourishing. There is much sadness yet poetic charm in the +landscape sweeps of silvery-green olive or bluish salicornia against a +pale-blue sky, dull-brown fishing villages bordering sleepy lagoons, +stretches of white sand, with here and there a glimpse of the purple, +rock-hemmed sea. Little of life animates this coast, in many spots the +custom-house officer and a fisherman or two being the sole inhabitants, +their nearest neighbours removed from them by many miles. Only the +flamingo, the heron, and the sea-gull people these solitudes, within the +last few years broken by the whistle of the locomotive. We are following +the direct line of railway between Barcelona and Paris. + +The first of the buried cities is the musically-named Elne, anciently +Illiberis, now a poor little town of the department of the Eastern +Pyrenees, hardly, indeed, more than a village, but boasting a wondrous +pedigree. We see dull-brown walls, ilex groves, and above low-lying +walls the gleaming sea. This apparently deserted place occupies the site +of city upon city. Seaport, metropolis, emporium had here reached their +meridian of splendour before the Greek and the Roman set foot in Gaul. +Already in Pliny's time the glories of the Elne had become tradition. We +must go farther back than Phoenician civilization for the beginnings of +this town, halting-place of Hannibal and his army on their march towards +Rome. The great Constantine endeavoured to resuscitate the fallen city, +and for a brief space Elne became populous and animated. With other once +flourishing seaports it has been gradually isolated from the sea, and +the same process is still going on. + +Just beyond Perpignan a lofty tower, rising amid vineyards and pastures, +marks the site of Ruscino, another ancient city and former seaport. The +Tour de Roussillon is all that now remains of a place once important +enough to give its name to a province. Le Roussillon, from which was +formed the department of the Pyrénées Orientales, became French by the +treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Here also the great Carthaginian halted, +and here, we learn, he met with a friendly reception. + +Monotonous as are these wide horizons and vast stretches of marsh and +lagoon, they appeal to the lover of solitude and of the more pensive +aspects of nature. The waving reeds against the pale sky, the sweeps of +glasswort and terebinth, show delicate gradations of colour; harmonious, +too, the tints of far-off sea and environing hills. Not cities only seem +interred here: the railway hurries us through a world in which all is +hushed and inanimate, as if, indeed, mankind no less than good fortune +had deserted it. The prevailing uniformity is broken by the +picturesquely placed little town of Salses and the white cliffs of +Leucate. Strabo and Pomponius Mela describe minutely the floating +islands or masses of marine plants moving freely on the lake of Salses. +Here, as elsewhere, the coastline is undergoing slow but steady +modification, yet we are in presence of phenomena that engaged the +attention of writers two thousand years ago. + +From this point till we approach Cette the region defies definition. It +is impossible to determine nicely where the land ends and the sea +begins. The railway follows a succession of inland salt lakes and +lagoons, with isolated fishermen's cabins, reminding us of +lake-dwellings. In some places the hut is approached by a narrow strip +of solid ground, on either side surrounded by water, just admitting the +passage of a single pedestrian. The scene is unspeakably desolate. Only +sea-birds keep the fisher-folk company; only the railway recalls the +busy world far away. + +Of magnificent aspect is Narbonne, the Celtic Venice, as it rises above +the level landscape. The great seaport described by Greek historians six +centuries before our own era, the splendid capital of Narbonese Gaul, +rival of the Roman Nîmes and of the Greek Arles, is now as dull a +provincial town as any throughout France. Invasions, sieges, plagues, +incendiaries, most of all religious persecutions, ruined the mediæval +Narbonne. The Jewish element prevailed in its most prosperous phase, and +M. Renan in his history of Averroës shows how much of this prosperity +and intellectual pre-eminence was due to the Jews. The cruel edicts of +Philip Augustus against the race proved no less disastrous here than the +expulsion of Huguenots elsewhere later. The decadence of Narbonne as a +port is due to natural causes. Formerly surrounded by lagoons affording +free communication with the sea, the Languedocian Venice has gradually +lost her advantageous position. The transitional stage induced such +unhealthy climatic conditions that at one period there seemed a +likelihood of the city being abandoned altogether. In proportion as the +marsh solidified the general health improved. Day by day the slow but +sure process continues, and when the remaining salt lakes shall have +become dry land, this region, now barren and desolate, will blossom like +the rose. The hygienic and atmospheric effects of the _Eucalyptus +globulus_ in Algeria are hardly more striking than the amelioration +wrought here in a natural way. The Algerian traveller of twenty-five +years ago now finds noble forests of blue gum tree, where, on his first +visit, his heart was wrung by the spectacle of a fever-stricken +population. On the coast of Languedoc the change has been slower. It has +taken not only a generation but a century to transform pestilential +tracts into zones of healthfulness and fertility. + +An interesting fact, illustrating the effect of physical agencies upon +human affairs, must be here mentioned. Till within the last few years +this town counted a considerable Protestant community. The ravages of +the phylloxera in the neighbouring vineyards caused a wholesale exodus +of vine-growers belonging to the Reformed Church, and in 1886 the number +had dwindled to such an extent that the services of a pastor were no +longer required. The minister in charge was transferred elsewhere. + +The dull little town of Agde is another ancient site. Its name is alike +a poem and a history. The secure harbourage afforded by this sheltered +bay won for the place the name of Good Fortune, [Greek: agathae tuchae], +whence Agathe, Agde. A Greek settlement, its fine old church was in part +constructed of the materials of a temple to Diana of Ephesus. Agde +possesses interest of another kind. It is built of lava, the solitary +peak rising behind it, called Le Pic de St. Loup, being the southern +extremity of that chain of extinct volcanoes beginning with Mont Mezenc +in the Cantal. A pathetic souvenir is attached to this lonely crater. At +a time when geological ardour was rare, a Bishop of Agde, St. Simon by +name, devoted years of patient investigation to the volcanic rocks in +his diocese. The result of his studies were recorded in letters to a +learned friend, but the Revolution stopped the poor bishop's +discoveries. He perished by the guillotine during the Terror. The +celebrated founder of socialism in France was his nephew. + + + +XI + +AN OLIVE FARM IN THE VAR + +The friendly visit of a few Russian naval officers lately put the +country into as great a commotion as a hostile invasion. I started +southward from Lyons on the 12th October, 1893, amid scenes of wholly +indescribable confusion; railway stations a mere compact phalanx of +excited tourists bound for Toulon, with no immediate prospect of getting +an inch farther, railway officials at their wits' end, carriage after +carriage hooked on to the already enormously long train, and yet crowds +upon crowds left behind. Every train was, of course, late; and on the +heels of each followed supplementary ones, all packed to their utmost +capacity. As we steamed into the different stations "Vive la Russie!" +greeted our ears. The air seemed filled with the sound; never surely was +such a delirium witnessed in France since the fever heat of 1789! + +At Valence, Montélimar, Avignon, Arles, the same tumult reigned; but +before reaching the second place, the regulation number of carriages, +twenty-five, had been exceeded, and as hardly one per cent of the +travellers alighted, we could only pass by the disconcerted multitudes +awaiting places. And a mixed company was ours--the fashionable world, +select and otherwise, the demi-monde in silks and in tatters, +musicians, travelling companies of actors and showmen, decorated +functionaries, children, poodles, all bound for the Russian fleet! + +At Marseilles, a bitter disappointment awaited some, I fear, many. No +sooner were we fairly within the brilliantly-lighted, crowded station, +and before the train had come to a standstill, than a stentorian voice +was heard from one end of the platform to the other, crying-- + +"LOOK TO YOUR PURSES!" + +And as the gorged carriages slowly discharged their burden, the stream +of passengers wending towards the door marked "Way out," a yet louder +and more awe-inspiring voice came from above, the official being perched +high as an orator in the pulpit, repeating the same words-- + +"ATTENTION À VOTRE PORTE-MONNAIE!" + +The dismay of the thwarted pickpockets may be better imagined than +described. Many, doubtless, had come from great distances, confident of +a golden harvest. Let us hope that the authorities of Toulon were +equally on the alert. Marseilles no more resembles Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, than those cities resemble each other. Less elegant than Lyons, +less majestic than Bordeaux, gayer by far than Nantes, the capital of +Southern France has a stamp of its own. Today, as three thousand years +ago, Marseilles may be called the threshold of the East. In these hot, +bustling, noisy streets, Paris is quiet by comparison; London a Trappist +monastery! Orientals, or what our French neighbours call exotics, are so +common that no one looks at them. Japanese and Chinese, Hindus, +Tonquinois, Annamites, Moors, Arabs, all are here, and in native dress; +and writing letters in the salon of your hotel, your _vis-à-vis_ at the +_table d'hôte_, your fellow sightseers, east and west, to-day as of old, +here come into friendly contact; and side by side with the East is the +glowing life of the South. We seem no longer in France, but in a great +cosmopolitan mart that belongs to the whole world. + +The Marseillais, nevertheless, are French; and Marseilles, to their +thinking, is the veritable metropolis. "If Paris had but her +Cannebière," they say, "she would be a little Marseilles!" + +Superbly situated, magnificently endowed as to climate, the _chef-lieu_ +of the Bouches du Rhône must be called a slatternly beauty; whilst +embellishing herself, putting on her jewels and splendid attire, she +has forgotten to wash her face and trim her hair! Not in Horatian +phrase, dainty in her neatness, Marseilles does herself injustice. Lyons +is clean swept, spick and span as a toy town; Bordeaux is coquettish as +her charming Bordelaise; Nantes, certainly, is not particularly careful +of appearances. But Marseilles is dirty, unswept, littered from end to +end; you might suppose that every householder had just moved, leaving +their odds and ends in the streets, if, indeed, these beautifully-shaded +walks can be so called. The city in its development has laid out alleys +and boulevards instead of merely making ways, with the result that in +spite of brilliant sky and burning sun, coolness and shadow are ever to +be had. The Cannebière, with its blue sky, glowing foliage and gay, +nonchalant, heterogeneous crowds, reminds me of the Rambla of Barcelona. +Indeed, the two cities have many points of resemblance. Marseilles is +greatly changed from the Marseilles I visited twenty-five years ago, to +say nothing of Arthur Young's description of 1789. The only advantage +with which he accredited the city was that of possessing newspapers. Its +port, he wrote, was a horsepond compared to that of Bordeaux; the number +of country houses dotting the hills disappointingly small. At the +present time, suburban Marseilles, like suburban London, encroaches +year by year upon the country; another generation, and the sea-coast +from Toulon to the Italian frontier will show one unbroken line of +country houses. Of this no one can doubt who sees what is going on in +the way of building. + +But it is not only by beautiful villas and gardens that the city has +embellished itself. What with the lavishness of the municipality, public +companies, and the orthodox, noble public buildings, docks, warehouses, +schools, churches, gardens, promenades, have rendered Marseilles the +most sumptuous French capital after Paris. Neither Lyons, Bordeaux, +Nantes, can compare with it for sumptuosity. In the Palais de +Longchamps, the splendour of municipal decoration reaches its acme; the +horsepond Arthur Young sneered at now affords accommodation of 340 +acres, with warehouses, said to be the finest in the world; last, but +not least, comes the enormous Byzantine Cathedral not yet finished, +built at the cost of a quarter of a million sterling. Other new churches +and public buildings without number have sprung up of late years, the +crowning glory of Marseilles being its Palais de Longchamps. + +This magnificent group of buildings may be called a much enlarged and +much more grandiose Trocadéro. Worthily do these colossal Tritons and +sea-horses commemorate the great achievement of modern Marseilles; +namely, the conveying of a river to its very doors. Hither, over a +distance of fifty-four miles, are brought the abundant waters of the +Durance; as we stand near, their cascades falling with the thunder of +our own Lodore. But having got the river and given the citizens more +than enough water with which to turn their mills, supply their domestic +wants, fertilize suburban fields and gardens, the Town Council seem +satisfied. The streets are certainly, one and all, watered with rushing +streams, greatly to the public health and comfort. A complete system of +drainage is needed to render the work complete. When we learn that even +Nice is not yet drained from end to end, we need not be astonished at +tardy progress elsewhere. Sanitation is ever the last thing thought of +by French authorities. Late in the afternoon we saw two or three men +slowly sweeping one street. No regular cleaning seems to take place. Get +well out of the city, by the sea-shore, or into the Prado--an avenue of +splendid villas--and all is swept and garnished. The central +thoroughfares, so glowing with life and colour, and so animated by day +and night, are malodorous, littered, dirty. It is a delightful drive by +the sea, over against the Château d'If, forts frowning above the rock, +the deep blue waves, yellowish-brown shore, and green foliage, all in +striking contrast. + +We with difficulty realize that Marseilles is not the second city in +France. The reason is obvious. Lyons lies less compactly together, its +thickly-peopled Guillotière seems a town apart; the population of Lyons, +moreover, is a sedentary one, whilst the Marseillais, being seafarers, +are perpetually abroad. The character, too, is quite different, less +expansive, less excitable, less emotional in the great silk-weaving +capital, here gay, noisy, nonchalant. Nobody seems to find the cares of +the day a burden, all to have some of the sunshine of the place in their +composition. "Mon bon," a Marsellais calls his neighbour; there is no +stillness anywhere. Everybody is "Mon bon" to everybody. + +The out-of-door, rollicking, careless life, more especially strikes a +northerner. We seem here as remote from ordinary surroundings as if +suddenly transported to Benares. The commercial prosperity of the first +French sea-port is attested by its lavish public works, and number of +country houses, a disappointing handful in Arthur Young's time. Hardly a +householder, however modest his means, who does not possess a cottage or +châlet; the richer having palatial villas and gardens. Nothing can +convey a greater notion of ease and wealth than the prospect of suburban +Marseilles, its green hills, rising above the sea, thickly dotted with +summer houses in every part. + +All who wish to realize the advance of French cities since 1870-71 +should visit Marseilles. Only those who knew it long ago can measure the +change, and greater changes still are necessary ere its sanitary +conditions match climate and situation. + +From Marseilles to Nice, from the land of the olive to that of the palm, +is a long and wearisome journey. That tyrannical monopoly, the +Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée Railway Company, gives only slow trains, except +to travellers provided with through tickets; and these so inconveniently +arranged, that travellers unprovided with refreshments, have no +opportunity of procuring any on the way. Whenever we travel by railway +in France we are reminded of the crying need for competition. The +all-omnipotent P.-L.-M. does as it pleases, and it is quite useless for +travellers to complain. Every inch of the way points to the future of +the Riviera--a future not far off. A few years hence and the sea-coast +from Marseilles to Mentone will be one unbroken line of hotels and +villas. The process is proceeding at a rapid rate. When Arthur Young +made this journey a century ago, he described the country around Toulon +thus: "Nine-tenths are waste mountain, and a wretched country of pines, +box, and miserable aromatics." At the present time, the brilliant red +soil, emerald crops, and gold and purple leafage of stripped vine, make +up a picture of wondrous fertility. At every point we see vineyards of +recent creation; whilst not an inch of soil between the olive trees is +wasted. On the 28th of October the landscape was bright with autumn +crops, some to be _répiqué_, or planted out according to the Chinese +system before mentioned. + +The first thing that strikes the stranger at Nice is its Italian +population. These black-eyed, dark-complexioned, raven-haired, +easy-going folks form as distinct a type as the fresh-complexioned, +blue-eyed Alsatian. That the Niçois are French at heart is self-evident, +and no wonder, when we compare their present condition with that of the +past. We see no beggars or ragged, wretched-looking people. If the +municipal authorities have set themselves the task of putting down +mendicity, they have succeeded. French enterprise, French capital is +enriching the population from one end of the Alpes Maritimes to the +other. At the present time there must be tens of thousands of workmen +employed in the building of hotels and villas between Marseilles and +Ventimille. That the Riviera will finally be overbuilt no one can +doubt; much of the original beauty of the country is already destroyed +by this piling up of bricks and mortar, more beauty is doomed. But +meantime work is brisk, wages are high, and the Post Office savings bank +and private banks tell their own tale. + +Of course the valetudinarians contribute to the general prosperity, a +prosperity which it is difficult for residents in an English +watering-place to realize. Thus I take up a Hastings newspaper to find a +long list of lodging-house keepers summoned for non-payment of taxes. +Arrived at Nice, a laundress employed by my hostess immediately came to +see if I had any clothes for her. On bringing back the linen she +deposited it in my room, saying I could pay her when fetching the next +bundle. I let her go, but called her back, thinking that perhaps the +poor woman had earned nothing for months and was in distress. My hostess +afterwards informed me with a smile that this good woman had £2,500 in +the bank. I could multiply instances in point. + +If the condition of the working classes has immensely improved, the cost +of living has not stood still. A householder informed me that prices of +provisions, servants' wages, house rent and other items of domestic +economy have tripled within the last twenty years. There is every +prospect that this increase will continue. Last winter hotels and +boarding-houses at Nice were all full; fast as new ones are built, they +fill to overflowing. And, of course, the majority of visitors are rich. +No others should come; they are not wanted. + +In studying the rural population we must bear in mind one fact--namely, +the line of demarcation separating the well-to-do peasants of the plain +from the poor and frugal mountaineer. Follow the mule track from Mentone +to Castillon, and we find a condition of things for squalor and poverty +unmatched throughout France. Visit an olive-grower in the valley of the +Var, and we are once more amid normal conditions of peasant property. My +first visit was to the land of Goshen. + +Provided with a letter of introduction to a farmer, I set off for the +village of St. Martin du Var, a village of five hundred and odd souls, +only within the last year or two accessible by railway. The new line, +which was to have connected Nice with Digne and Cap, had been stopped +short half-way, the enterprising little company who projected it being +thereby brought to the verge of ruin. This fiasco, due, I am told, to +the jealous interference of the P.-L.-M., is a great misfortune to +travellers, the line partially opened up leading through a most wildly +picturesque and lovely region, and being also of great commercial and +strategic importance. But that terrible monopoly, the Paris-Lyon- +Méditerranée, will tolerate no rivals. Folks bound from Gap to Nice must +still make the long round by way of Marseilles in order to please the +Company; merchandise--and, in case of a war with Italy, which may Heaven +avert!--soldiers and ammunition must do the same. + +The pretty new "Gare du Sud" invites patronage, and three services are +performed daily. On this little line exists no third class. I imagine, +then, that either the very poor are too poor to take train at all, or +that there are none unable to pay second-class fare. In company of +priests, peasants, and soldiers, I took a second-class place, the guard +joining us and comfortably reading a newspaper as soon as we were +fairly off. + +It is a superb little journey to St. Martin du Var. The line may be +described as a succession of tunnels, our way lying between lofty +limestone cliffs and the Var, at the present time almost dry. As we +slowly advance, the valley widens, and on either side are broad belts +of verdure and fertility; fields, orchards, gardens, olive trees +feathering the lower slopes, here and there, little villages perched +high above the valley. One charming feature of the landscape is the +aspen; so silvery were its upper leaves in the sun that at first I +took them for snow-white blossoms. These verdant stretches on either +side of the river were formerly mere waste, redeemed and rendered +cultivable by means of dykes. + +My destination is reached in an hour, a charmingly placed village amid +beautiful mountain scenery, over against it towering the hamlet of La +Roquette, apparently inaccessible as cloudland. Here a tributary +stream joins the Var, the long winding valley, surrounded by lofty +crags and olive-clad slopes, affording a delightful and most +exhilarating prospect. The weather on this 20th of October was that of +a perfect day in July. + +St. Martin du Var has its Mairie, handsome communal schools, and large +public walks or recreation ground, a parallelogram planted with trees. +The place has a neglected, Italian aspect; at the same time an aspect of +ease and contentment. The black-eyed, olive-complexioned, +Italian-looking children are uniformly well dressed, with good shoes and +stockings. French children, even of the poorest class, are always +decently shod. + +I found my host at dinner with his wife, little daughter, and +sister-in-law. The first impression of an uninitiated traveller would be +of poverty. The large bare kitchen was unswept and untidy; the family +dishes--soup, vegetables, olives, good white bread, wine--were placed on +the table without cloth or table-cover. As will be seen, these +hard-working, frugal people were rich; in England they would have +servants to wait upon them, fine furniture, and wear fashionable +clothes. My letter of introduction slowly read and digested, the head of +the family placed himself at my disposal. We set off on a round of +inspection, the burning mid-day sun here tempered by a delicious breeze. + +We first visited the olive-presses and corn-mill--this farmer was +village miller as well as olive grower--all worked by water-power and +erected by himself at a heavy outlay. Formerly these presses and mills +were worked by horses and mules after the manner of old-fashioned +threshing-machines, but in Provence as in Brittany, progress is now the +order of the day. + +In order to supply these mills, a little canal was dug at my host's own +expense, and made to communicate with the waters of the Var; thus a good +supply is always at hand. + +The enormous olive-presses and vats are now being got in for the first +or October harvest. This is the harvest of windfalls or fallen fruit, +green or black as the case may be, and used for making an inferior kind +of oil. The second harvest or gathering of the olives remaining on the +trees takes place in April. Linen is spread below, and the berries +gently shaken off. I may add that the periods of olive harvests vary in +different regions, often being earlier or later. An olive tree produces +on an average a net return of twelve francs, the best returns being +alternate or biennial; the roots are manured from time to time, +otherwise the culture is inexpensive. The trees are of great age and, +indeed, are seldom known to die. The "immortal olive" is, indeed, no +fiction. In this especial district no olive trees have, within living +memory, been killed by frost, as was the case in Spain some years ago. +Nevertheless, the peaks around St. Martin du Var are tipped with snow in +winter. The olive harvests and necessary preparations require a large +number of hands, the wages of men averaging three francs, of women, the +half. Thus at the time I write of, day labourers in remote regions of +Provence receive just upon fourteen shillings and sixpence per week; +whereas I read in the English papers that Essex farmers are reducing the +pittance of twelve and even ten shillings per week for able-bodied men. + +Ten days later, my cicerone said that the first harvest would be in +active progress, and he most cordially invited me to revisit him for +the purpose of looking on. From the lees of the crushed berries a +third and much inferior oil is made and used in the manufacture of +soap, just as what is called _piquette_ or sour wine is made in +Brittany from the lees of crushed grapes. I was assured by this farmer +that the impurity of olive oil we so often complain of in England, +arises from adulteration at the hands of retailers. Table oil as it +issues from the presses of the grower is absolutely pure; merchants add +inferior qualities or poppy oil, described by me in an earlier page, +and which my present host looked upon with supreme contempt. The olive, +with the vine and tobacco, attains the maximum of agricultural profits. +This farmer alone sells oil to the annual value of several thousand +pounds, and to the smaller owner also it is the principal source of +income. Peasant owners or tenants of an acre or two grow a little corn +as well, this chiefly for their own use. + +The interior of the corn-mill presented an amusing scene. Two or three +peasants were squabbling with my host's subordinate over their sacks of +flour; one might have supposed from the commotion going on and the +general air of vindictive remonstrance that we were suddenly transported +to a seigneurial mill. A few conciliatory words from the master put all +straight, and soon after we saw the good folks, one of them an old +woman, trotting off on donkeys with their sack of corn slung before +them. I need hardly say that the talk of these country-people among +themselves is always in patois, not a word of which is intelligible to +the uninitiated. + +Just above the mills are groves of magnificent old olive trees, and +alongside the little railway were bright strips of lucerne and pasture, +folks here and there getting in their tiny crops of hay. + +The iron road is not yet regarded as an unmixed good. My host told me +that local carters and carriers had been obliged in consequence to sell +their horses and carts and betake themselves to day labour. Such +drawbacks are, of course, inevitable, but the ulterior advantage +effected by the railway is unquestionable. I should say that nowhere are +life and property safer than in these mountain-hemmed valleys. The +landlady of the little hotel at St. Martin du Var assured me that she +always left her front door open all night. Nothing had ever happened to +alarm her but the invasion of three English ladies at midnight, one of +these of gigantic stature and armed with a huge stick. The trio were +making a pedestrian journey across country, apparently taking this +security for granted. Neither brigands nor burglars could have given +the poor woman a greater fright than the untimely appearance of my +countrywomen. + +It was now too hot to visit the open tracts of pasture and cultivation +alongside the Var. The farmer's wife proposed a shady walk to a +neighbouring farm instead, our errand being to procure milk for my five +o'clock tea. Without hat or umbrella, my companion set off, chatting as +we went. She explained to me that on Sundays she wore bonnet and mantle +after the fashion of a _bourgeoise_; in other words, she dressed like a +lady, but that neither in summer nor winter at any other time did she +cover her head. She was a pleasant-mannered, intelligent, affable woman, +almost toothless, as are so many well-to-do middle-aged folks in France. +Dentists must fare badly throughout the country. No one ever seems to +have a guinea to spend upon false teeth. + +We were soon out of the village, and passing the pretty garden of the +Gendarmerie, reached a scene of unimaginable, unforgettable beauty. +Never shall I forget the splendour of the olive trees set around a +wide, brilliantly green meadow; near the farmhouse groves of +pomegranate, orange and lemon with ripening fruit; beside these, medlar +and hawthorn trees (_cratoegus azarolus_), the golden leafage and +coral-red fruit of the latter having a striking effect; beyond, silvery +peaks, and, above all, a heaven of warm, yet not too dazzling blue. At +the farther end of the meadow, in which a solitary cow grazed at will, +a labourer was preparing a ribbon-like strip of land for corn, beside +him, pretending to work too, his little son of five years. My hostess +held up her jug and stated her errand, proposing that the cow should be +milked a trifle earlier in order to suit my convenience. The man +good-naturedly replied that, as far as the matter concerned himself, he +was agreeable enough, but that the cow was not so easily to be put out +of her way. She was milked regularly as clockwork at a quarter to five, +the clock had only just struck four; he might leave his work and take +her home, but not a drop of milk would she give before the proper time! +Leaving our jug, we roamed about this little paradise, unwilling to +quit a scene of unblemished beauty. A more bewitching spot I do not +recall; and it seemed entirely shut off from the world, on all sides, +unbroken quiet, nothing to mar the exquisiteness of emerald turf, +glossy foliage of orange and lemon trees, silvery olive in striking +contrast, and above, a cloudless sky. In the heart of a primeval forest +we could not feel more alone. + +The thought occurred to me how perfect were such a holiday resort could +a clean little lodging be found near! With some attention to +cleanliness and sanitation, the little hotel at St. Martin du Var might +satisfy the unfastidious. I am bound to admit that in French phrase it +leaves much to desire. + +My host gave me a good deal of interesting information about the place +and the people. Excellent communal schools with lay teachers of both +sexes have been opened under French régime; and the village of five +hundred and odd souls has, of course, its Mairie, Hôtel de Ville, and +Gendarmerie, governing itself after the manner of French villages. + +Whilst the ladies of the house chatted with me they knitted away at +socks and stockings, in coarse, bright-coloured wool. Such articles are +never bought, the home-made substitute being much more economical in the +end. As an instance of the solid comfort of these apparently frugal +folks, let me mention their homespun linen sheets. My hostess showed me +some coarse bed-linen lately woven for her in the village. Calico +sheets, she said, were much cheaper, but she preferred this durable +home-spun even at three times the price. An old woman in the village +still plied the loom, working up neighbours' materials at three francs a +day. The flax has to be purchased also, so that the homespun sheet is a +luxury; "and at the same time," the housewife added, "a work of +charity. This poor old woman lives by her loom. It is a satisfaction to +help her to a mouthful of bread." + +The moon had risen when I took leave, hostess, little daughter, and +sister all accompanying me to the station, reiterating their wish to see +me again. Nothing, indeed, would have been pleasanter than to idle away +weeks amid this adorable scenery and these charming people. But life is +short and France is immense. The genially uttered _au revoir_ becomes +too often a mere figure of speech. + +I add, by the way, that the little daughter, now trotting daily to the +village school, is sure to have a handsome dowry by and by. Four +thousand pounds is no unusual portion of a rich peasant's daughter in +these regions. As an old resident at Nice informed me, "The peasants are +richer than the _bourgeoisie_"--as they deserve to be, seeing their +self-denial and thrift. + + + +XII + +PESSICARZ AND THE SUICIDES' CEMETERY + +Pessicarz is a hamlet not mentioned in either French or English +guide-books; yet the drive thither is far more beautiful than the +regulation excursions given in tourists' itineraries. The road winds in +corkscrew fashion above the exquisite bay and city, gleaming as if built +of marble, amid scenes of unbroken solitude. Between groves of veteran +olives and rocks rising higher and higher, we climb for an hour and a +half, then leaving behind us the wide panorama of Nice, Cimiez, the sea, +and villa-dotted hills, take a winding inland road, as beautiful as can +be imagined. Here, nestled amid chestnut woods, lay the little farm I +had come to see, consisting of three hectares let at a rent of five +hundred francs (between seven and eight acres, rented at twenty pounds a +year), the products being shared between owner and tenant. This modified +system of _métayage_ or half profits is common here, and certainly +affords a stepping-stone to better things. By dint of uncompromising +economy, the metayer may ultimately become a small owner. The farmhouse +was substantially built and occupied by both landlord and tenant, the +latter with his family living on the ground floor. This arrangement +probably answers two purposes, economy is effected, and fraud prevented +on the part of the metayer. Pigs and poultry are noisy animals, and if a +dishonest tenant wanted to smuggle any of these away by night, they +would certainly betray him. The housewife, in the absence of her +husband, received me very kindly. I was of course introduced by a +neighbour, who explained my errand, and she at once offered to show me +round. She was a sturdy, good-natured-looking woman, very well-dressed +and speaking French fairly. The first thing she did was to show me her +poultry, of which she was evidently very proud. This she accomplished by +calling out in a loud voice, "Poules, poules, poules" ("chickens, +chickens, chickens"), as if addressing children, whereupon they came +fluttering out of the chestnut woods, fifty or more, some of fine breed. +These fowls are kept for laying, and not for market, the eggs being sent +daily into Nice. She then asked me indoors, the large kitchen being on +one side of the door, the outhouses on the other. Beyond the kitchen was +a large bedroom, her children, she explained, sleeping upstairs. Both +rooms were smoke-dried to the colour of mahogany, unswept and very +untidy, but the good woman seemed quite sensible of these disadvantages +and apologized on account of narrow space. A large supply of clothes +hung upon pegs in the bed-chamber, and it possessed also a very handsome +old upright clock. The kitchen, besides stores of cooking utensils, had +a stand for best china, and on the walls were numerous unframed +pictures. I mention these trifling details to show that even among the +poorer peasant farmers something is found for ornament; they do not live +as Zola would have us believe, for sordid gains alone. + +We next visited the pigs, of which she possessed about a dozen in three +separate styes. These are fed only upon grain and the kitchen wash +supplied from hotels; but she assured me that the disgusting story I +had heard at Nice was true. There are certain pork-rearing +establishments in the department at which carrion is purchased and +boiled down for fattening pigs. My hostess seemed quite alive to the +unwholesomeness of such a practice, and we had a long talk about pigs, +of which I happen to know something; that they are dirt-loving animals +is quite a mistake; none more thoroughly enjoy a good litter of clean +straw. I was glad to find this good woman entirely of the same opinion. +She informed me with evident satisfaction that fresh straw was always +thrown down on one side of the piggery at night, and that the animals +always selected it for repose. + +The first lot were commodiously housed, but I reasoned with her with +regard to the other two, the pig-styes being mere caverns without light +or air, and the poor creatures grunting piteously to be let out. She +told me that they were always let out at sundown, and heard what I had +to say about pigs requiring air, let us hope to some purpose. Certainly, +departmental professors have an uphill task before them in +out-of-the-way regions. These poor people are said to be extremely +frugal as a rule, but too apt to squander their years' savings at a +paternal fête, wedding or any other festivity. Generations must elapse +ere they are raised to the level of the typical French peasant. On the +score of health they may compare favourably with any race. A fruit and +vegetable diet seems sufficient in this climate. Besides her poultry and +pigs my farmeress had not much to show me; but a plot of flowers for +market, a little corn, and a few olive trees added grist to the mill. On +the whole, want of comfort, cleanliness, and order apart, I should say +that even such a condition contrasts favourably with that of an English +agricultural labourer. Without doubt, were we to inquire closely into +matters, we should discover a sum of money invested or laid by for +future purchases utterly beyond the reach of a Suffolk ploughman. + +Just below the little farm I visited a philanthropic experiment +interesting to English visitors. This was an agricultural orphanage +founded by an Englishman two years before, seventeen waifs and strays +having been handed over to him by the Municipal Council of Nice. The +education of the poor little lads is examined once a year by a school +inspector, in other respects the protégés are left to their new patron. +Here they are taught household and farm work, fruit and flower culture, +the business of the dairy, carpentering, and other trades; being +afterwards placed out. I question whether an English Board of Guardians +would so readily hand over seventeen workhouse lads to a foreigner, but +it is to be hoped that the Niçois authorities will have no reason to +regret their confidence. The boys do no work on Sundays, and once a year +have a ten days' tramp in the country; the buildings are spacious and +airy, but I was sorry to see a plank-bed used as a punishment. + +Indeed, I should say that the system pursued savours too much of the +military. Here, be it remembered, no juvenile criminals are under +restraint, only foundlings guilty of burdening society. Whether this +school exists still I know not. + +Very different was the impression produced by the State Horticultural +College recently opened at Antibes. + +Around the lovely little bay the country still remains pastoral and +unspoiled; a mile or two from the railway station and we are in the +midst of rural scenes, tiny farms border the road, patches of corn, +clover, vineyard, and flower-garden--flowers form the chief harvest of +these sea-board peasants--orange, lemon and olive groves with here and +there a group of palms, beyond these the violet hills and dazzling blue +sea, such is the scenery, and could a decent little lodging be found in +its midst, the holiday resort were perfect. + +One drawback to existence is the treatment of animals. As I drove +towards the college a countryman passed with a cart and pair of horses, +the hindmost had two raw places on his haunches as large as a penny +piece. I hope and believe that in England such an offender would have +got seven days' imprisonment. The Italians, as we all know, have no +feeling for animals, and the race here is semi-Italian--wholly so, if we +may judge by physiognomy and complexion. + +Until the foundation of the Horticultural College here, the only one in +existence on French soil was that of Versailles. Whilst farm-schools +have been opened in various parts of the country, and special branches +have their separate institutions, the teaching of horticulture remained +somewhat in abeyance. Forestry is studied at Nancy, husbandry in general +at Rennes, Grignan, and Amiens, the culture of the vine at Montpellier, +drainage and irrigation at Quimperlé, all these great schools being made +accessible to poorer students by means of scholarships. + +In no other region of France could a Horticultural College be so +appropriately placed as in the department of the Alpes Maritimes. It is +not only one vast flower-garden, but at the same time a vast +conservatory, the choice flowers exported for princely tables in winter +being all reared under glass. How necessary, then, that every detail of +this delightful and elaborate culture should be taught the people, whose +mainstay it is, a large proportion being as entirely dependent upon +flowers as the honey bee! Here, and in the neighbourhood of Nice, they +are cultivated for market and exportation, not for perfume distilleries +as at Grasse. + +The State School of Antibes was created by the Minister of Agriculture +in 1891, and is so unlike anything of the kind in England that a brief +description will be welcome. The first point to be noted is its +essentially democratic spirit. When did a farm-labourer's son among +ourselves learn any more of agriculture than his father or +fellow-workmen could teach him? At Antibes, as in the numerous +farm-schools (fermes-écoles) now established throughout France, the +pupils are chiefly recruited from the peasant class. + +How, will it be asked, can a small tenant farmer or owner of three or +four acres afford to lose his son's earnings as soon as he quits school, +much less to pay even a small sum for his education? The difficulty is +met thus: in the first place, the yearly sum for board, lodging and +teaching is reduced to the minimum, viz. five hundred francs a year; in +the second, large numbers of scholarships are open to pupils who have +successfully passed the examination of primary schools, and whose +parents can prove their inability to pay the fees. No matter how poor he +may be, the French peasant takes a long look ahead. He makes up his mind +to forfeit his son's help or earnings for a year or two in view of the +ulterior advantage. A youth having studied at Antibes, would come out +with instruction worth much more than the temporary loss of time and +money. That parents do reason in this way is self-evident. On the +occasion of my visit, of the twenty-seven students by far the larger +proportion were exhibitioners, sons of small owners or tenants. Lads are +admitted from fourteen years and upwards, and must produce the +certificate of primary studies, answering to that of our Sixth Standard, +or pass an entrance examination. The school is under State supervision, +the teaching staff consisting of certificated professors. The discipline +is of the simplest, yet, I was assured, quite efficacious. If a lad, +free scholar or otherwise, misbehaves himself, he is called before the +director and warned that a second reprimand only will be given, the +necessity of a third entailing expulsion. No more rational treatment +could be devised. + +Besides practical teaching in the fields and gardens, consisting as yet +of only twenty-five hectares, or nearly sixty acres, a somewhat +bewildering course of study is given. The list of subjects begins well. +First, a lad is here taught his duties as the head of a family, a +citizen, and a man of business. Then come geography, history, +arithmetic, book-keeping, trigonometry, linear drawing, mechanics, +chemistry, physics, natural history, botany, geology, _agrologie_, or +the study of soils, irrigation, political economy. Whilst farming +generally is taught, the speciality of the school is fruit and flower +culture. A beautiful avenue of palm and orange trees leads from the +road to the block of buildings, the director's house standing just +outside. I was fortunate in finding this gentleman at home, and he +welcomed me with the courtesy, I may say cordiality, I have ever +received from professors of agriculture and practical farmers in France. + +We immediately set out for our survey, my companion informing me, to my +surprise, that the gardens I now gazed on so admiringly formed a mere +wilderness a few years ago, that is to say, until their purchase by the +State. The palm and orange trees had been brought hither and +transplanted, everything else had sprung up on the roughly-cleared +ground. Palm trees are reared on the school lands for exportation to +Holland, there, of course, to be kept under glass; ere long the +exportation of palms and orange trees will doubtless become as +considerable as that of hothouse flowers. + +I was shown magnificent palms fifteen years old, and nurseries of tiny +trees, at this stage of their existence unlovely as birch brooms. +Hitherto, majestic although its appearance, the palm of the Riviera has +not produced dates. The director is devoting much time to this subject, +and hopes ere long to gather his crop. + +As we passed between the orange trees, here and there the deep green +glossy fruit turning to gold, I heard the same report as at Pessicarz. +At neither place can the lads resist helping themselves to the unripe +oranges. Sour apples and green oranges seem quite irresistible to +hobbledehoys. The trees were laden with fruit, and, unless blown off by +a storm, the crop would be heavy. An orange tree on an average produces +to the value of two hundred francs. + +I was next taken to the newly-created vineyards, some consisting of +French grafts on American stock, others American plants; but vines are +capricious, and one vineyard looked sickly enough, although free from +parasites. The climate did not suit it, that was all. + +But by far the most important and interesting crops here are the +hothouse flowers. I fancy few English folks think of glass-houses in +connection with the Riviera. Yet the chief business of horticulturists +during a large portion of the year is in the conservatory. Brilliant as +is the winter sun, the nights are cold and the fall of temperature +after sundown extremely rapid. Only the hardier flowers, therefore, +remain out of doors. + +I was now shown the glass-houses being made ready for the winter. All +the choice flowers, roses, carnations and others, sent to Paris, London, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, are grown under glass. Roses thus cultivated +will bring four francs per dozen to the grower; I was even told of +choicest kinds sold from the conservatories at a franc each. It may +easily be conceived how profitable is this commerce, destined without +doubt to become more so as the culture of flowers improves. New +varieties are ever in demand for royal or millionaires' tables, bridal +bouquets, funeral wreaths. I was told the discoverer or creator of a +blue carnation would make his fortune. I confess this commercial aspect +of flowers takes something from their poetry. Give me a cottager's plot +of sweet-williams and columbine instead of the floral paragon evolved +for the gratification of the curious! As we strolled about we came upon +groups of students at work. All politely raised their hats when we +passed, and by their look and manner might have been taken for young +gentlemen. + +A great future doubtless awaits this delightfully placed Horticultural +School. Whilst the object primarily aimed at by the State is the +education of native gardeners and floriculturists, other results may be +confidently expected. No rule keeps out foreigners, and just as our +Indian candidates for the Forestry service prepare themselves at Nancy, +so intending fruit-growers in Tasmania will in time betake themselves to +Antibes. A colonial, as well as an international element is pretty sure +to be added. French subjects beyond seas will certainly avail themselves +of privileges not to be had at home, carrying away with them knowledge +of the greatest service in tropical France. Horticulture as a science +must gain greatly by such a centre, new methods being tried, improved +systems put into practice. In any case, the department may fairly be +congratulated on its recent acquisition, one, alas, we have to set +against very serious drawbacks! In these intensely hot and glaring days +of mid-October, the only way of enjoying life is to betake oneself to a +sailing-boat. Few English folks realize the torture of mosquito-invaded +nights on the Riviera. As to mosquito curtains, they afford a remedy +ofttimes worse than the disease, keeping out what little air is to be +had and admitting, here and there, one mosquito of slenderer bulk and +more indomitable temper than the rest. After two or three utterly +sleepless nights the most enthusiastic traveller will sigh for grey +English skies, pattering drops and undisturbed sleep. At sea, you may +escape both blinding glare and mosquito bites. A boat is also the only +means of realizing the beauty of the coast. Most beautiful is the +roundabout sail from Cannes to the Île St. Marguerite: I say roundabout, +because, if the wind is adverse, the boatmen have to make a circuit, +going out of their course to the length of four or five miles. Every +tourist knows the story of the Iron Mask; few are perhaps aware that in +the horrible prison in which Louis XIV kept him for seventeen years, +Protestants were also incarcerated, their only crime being that they +would not perjure themselves, in other words, feign certain beliefs to +please the tyrant. + +At the present time the cells adjoining the historic dungeon of the +Masque de Fer are more cheerfully occupied. Soldiers are placed there +for slight breaches of discipline, their confinement varying from twelve +hours to a few days. We heard two or three occupants gaily whiling away +the time by singing patriotic songs, under the circumstances the best +thing they could do. Lovely indeed was the twenty minutes' sail back to +Cannes, the sea, deep indigo, the sky, intensest blue, white villas +dotting the green hills, far away the violet mountains. When we betake +ourselves to the railway or carriage road, we must make one comparison +very unfavourable to English landscape. Here building stone, as bricks +and mortar with us, is daily and hourly invading pastoral scenes, but +the hideous advertizing board is absent in France. We do not come upon +monster advertisements of antibilious pills, hair dye, or soap amid +olive groves and vineyards. Let us hope that the vulgarization +permitted among ourselves will not be imitated by our neighbours. + +In 1789 Arthur Young described the stretch of country between Fréjus +and Cannes as a desert, "not one mile in twenty cultivated." Will +Europe and America, with the entire civilized world, furnish +valetudinarians in sufficient numbers to fill the hotels, villas, and +boarding houses now rising at every stage of the same way? The matter +seems problematic, yet last winter accommodation at Nice barely +sufficed for the influx of visitors. + +Nice is the most beautiful city in France, I am tempted to say the most +beautiful city I ever beheld. It is the last in which I should choose to +live or even winter. + +Site, sumptuosity, climate, vegetation here attain their acme; so far, +indeed, Nice may be pronounced flawless. During a certain portion of the +year, existence, considered from the physical and material point of +view, were surely here perfect. When we come to the social and moral +aspect of the most popular health resort in Europe, a very different +conclusion is forced upon us. + +Blest in itself, Nice is cursed in its surroundings. So near is that +plague spot of Europe, Monte Carlo, that it may almost be regarded as a +suburb. For a few pence, in half-an-hour, you may transport yourself +from a veritable earthly Paradise to what can only be described as a +gilded Inferno. Unfortunately evil is more contagious than good. Certain +medical authorities aver that the atmosphere of Mentone used to be +impregnated with microbes of phthisis; the germs of moral disease +infecting the immediate neighbourhood of Nice are far more appalling. +Nor are symptoms wanting of the spread of that moral disease. The +municipal council of this beautiful city, like Esau, had just sold their +birthright for a mess of pottage. They had conceded the right of +gambling to the Casino, the proprietors purchasing the right by certain +outlays in the way of improvements, a new public garden, and so on. As +yet roulette and rouge-et-noir are not permitted at Nice, the gambling +at present carried on being apparently harmless. It is in reality even +more insidious, being a stepping-stone to vice, a gradual initiation +into desperate play. Just as addiction to absinthe is imbibed by potions +quite innocuous in the beginning, so the new Casino at Nice schools the +gamester from the outset, slowly and by infinitesimal degrees preparing +him for ruin, dishonour and suicide. + +The game played is called _Petits Chevaux_, and somewhat resembles our +nursery game of steeplechase. The stakes are only two francs, but as +there are eight to each horse, and you may take as many as you please, +it is quite easy to lose several hundred francs in one evening--or, for +the matter of that, one afternoon. Here, as at Monte Carlo, the gambling +rooms remain open from noon till midnight. The buildings are on an +imposing scale: reading rooms, a winter garden, concerts, entertainments +of various kinds blinding the uninitiated to the real attraction of the +place, namely, the miniature horses spinning around the tables. +Already--I write of October--eager crowds stood around, and we heard +the incessant chink of falling coin. This modified form of gambling is +especially dangerous to the young. Parents, who on no account would let +their children toss a five-franc piece on to the tables of Monte Carlo, +see no harm in watching them play at _petits chevaux_. They should, +first of all, make a certain ghastly pilgrimage I will now relate. + +Monaco does not as yet, politically speaking, form a part of French +territory; from a geographical point of view we are obliged so to regard +it. Thus French geographers and writers of handbooks include the tiny +principality, which for the good of humanity, let us hope, may ere long +be swallowed up by an earthquake--or moralized! The traveller then is +advised to take train to Monaco, and, arrived at the little station, +whisper his errand in the cab-driver's ear, "To the suicides' cemetery." + +For the matter of that, it is an easy walk enough for all who can stand +the burning sun and glare of white walls and buildings. Very lovely, +too, is the scene as we slowly wind upwards, the road bordered with +aloes and cypresses; above, handsome villas standing amid orange groves +and flowers; below, the sparkling sea. + +A French cemetery, with its wreaths of beadwork and artificial violets, +has ever a most depressing appearance. That of Monaco is like any other, +we find the usual magnificence, and usual tinsel. Many beautiful trees, +shrubs, and flowers, however, relieve the gloom, and every inch is +exquisitely kept. + +Quite apart from this vast burial-ground, on the other side of the main +entrance, is a small enclosure, walled in and having a gate of open +ironwork always locked. Here, in close proximity to heaps of garden +rubbish, broken bottles and other refuse, rest the suicides of Monte +Carlo, buried by the parish gravedigger, without funeral and without any +kind of religious ceremony. Each grave is marked by an upright bit of +wood, somewhat larger than that by which gardeners mark their seeds, and +on which is painted a number, nothing more. Apart from these, are +stakes driven into the ground which mark as yet unappropriated spots. +The indescribable dreariness of the scene is heightened by two +monumental stones garlanded with wreaths and surrounded by flowers. The +first records the memory of a young artisan, and was raised by his +fellow-workmen; the second commemorates brotherly and sisterly +affection. Both suicides were driven to self-murder by play. The +remainder are mere numbers. There are poor gamesters as well as rich, +and it is only or chiefly these who are put into the ground here. The +bodies of rich folks' relatives, if identified, are immediately removed, +and, by means of family influence, interred with religious rites. Many +suicides are buried at Nice and Mentone, but the larger proportion, +farther off still. Not to descant further on this grim topic, let me now +say something about Monte Carlo itself. + +Never anywhere was snare more plainly set in the sight of any bird. +There is little in the way of amusement that you do not get for nothing +here, a beautiful pleasure-ground, reading-rooms as luxurious and +well-supplied as those of a West End club, one of the best orchestras in +Europe, and all without cost of a farthing. + +The very lavishness arouses suspicion in the minds of the wary. Why +should we be supplied, not only with every English newspaper we ever +heard of, but with _Punch_, _Truth_, and similar publications to boot? Why +should Germans, Russians, Dutch, every other European nation, receive +treatment equally generous? Again, to be able to sit down at elegant +writing-tables and use up a quire of fine notepaper and a packet of +envelopes to match, if we chose, how is all this managed? The concerts +awaken a feeling of even intenser bewilderment. Not so much as a penny +are we allowed to pay for a programme, to say nothing of the trained +musicians. Where is the compensation of such liberality? + +The gambling tables, crowded even at three o'clock on an October +afternoon, answer our question. The season begins later, but gamblers +cannot wait. "Faites le jeu, messieurs; messieurs, faites le jeu," is +already heard from noon to midnight, and the faster people ruin +themselves and send a pistol shot through their heads, the faster others +take their place. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how many once +respectable lives, heads of families, even wives and mothers, are being +gradually lured on to bankruptcy and suicide. + +In cruellest contrast to the moral degradation fostered below, is the +enormous cathedral, at the time of my visit in course of erection +directly above the gambling rooms. The millions of francs expended on +this sumptuous basilica were supplied by the proprietors of the Casino +and the Prince of Monaco. Nothing can strike the stranger with a +stronger sense of incongruity--a church rising from the very heart of a +Pandemonium! + +Monaco is a pretty, toy-like, Lilliputian kingdom compared with which +the smallest German principality of former days was enormous. Curiously +enough, whilst Monte Carlo is peopled with gamesters, the only tenants +of Monaco seem to be priests, nuns and their pupils. The miniature +capital, state and kingdom in one, consists chiefly of convents and +seminaries, and wherever you go you come upon these Jesuit fathers with +their carefully-guarded troops of lads in uniform. A survey of the +entire principality of Monaco, Monte Carlo included, requires about a +quarter of an hour. Nowhere, surely, on the face of the civilized globe +is so much mischief contained in so small a space. Fortunately, the +poisonous atmosphere of the Casino does not seem to affect the native +poor. Everywhere we are struck by the thrifty, sober, hard-working +population; beggars or ragged, wretched-looking creatures are very rare. +If the authorities of the Alpes Maritimes have set themselves to put +down vagrancy, they have certainly succeeded. + +Nice is a home for the millionaire and the working man. The intermediate +class is not wanted. Visitors are expected to have money, are welcomed +on that account, and if they have to look to pounds, shillings, and +pence, had much better remain at home. + +Woe betide the needy invalid sent thither in search of sunshine! +Sunshine is indeed a far more expensive luxury on the Riviera than we +imagine, seeing that only rooms with a north aspect are cheap, and a +sunless room is much more comfortless and unwholesome than a well-warmed +one, no matter its aspect, in England. The only cheap commodity, one +unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet. In October, that is +to say, before the arrival of winter visitors, flowers are to be had for +the asking; on the market-place an enormous bouquet of tuberoses, +violets, carnations, myrtle, priced at two or three francs, the price in +Paris being twenty. Fruit also I found cheap, figs fourpence a dozen, +and other kinds in proportion. This market is the great sight of Nice, +and seen on a cloudless day--indeed it would be difficult to see it on +any other--is a glory of colour of which it is impossible to give the +remotest notion. I was somewhat taken aback to find Sunday less +observed here as a day of rest than in any other French town I know, and +not many French towns are unknown to me. The flower and fruit markets +were crowded, drapers', grocers', booksellers' shops open all day long, +traffic unbroken as usual. I should have imagined that a city, for +generations taken possession of by English visitors, would by this time +have fallen into our habit of respecting Sunday alike in the interests +of man and beast. Of churches, both English and American, there is no +lack. Let us hope that the Protestant clergy will turn their attention +to this subject. Let us hope also that the entire English-speaking +community will second their efforts in this direction. Further, I will +put in a good word for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to +Animals founded at Nice some years since, and sadly in need of funds. +The Society is backed up by the Government in accordance with the +admirable Loi Grammont, but, as is the case with local societies in +England, requires extraneous help. Surely rich English valetudinarians +will not let this humane work stand still, seeing, as they must do +daily, the urgent necessity of such interference! From the windows of a +beautiful villa on the road to Villefranche, I saw baskets of chickens +brought in from Italy, the half of which were dead or dying from +suffocation. As the owner of the villa said, "Not even self-interest +teaches this Italian humanity." By packing his fowls so as to afford +them breathing space, he would double his gains. The habit of cruelty is +too inveterate. My host assured me that large numbers of poultry sent +across the frontier are suffocated on the way. + +Horrible also is the pigeon-shooting at Monte Carlo. Hundreds of these +wretched birds are killed for sport every day during the winter. The +wounded or escaped fly back after a while to be shot at next day. + +The word "villa" calls for comment. Such a designation is appropriate +here. The palatial villas of Nice, standing amid orangeries and palm +groves, are worthy of their Roman forerunners. For the future I shall +resent the term as applied in England to eight-roomed, semi-detached +constructions, poorly built, and with a square yard of flower-bed in +front. Many of the Niçois villas are veritable palaces, and what adds to +their sumptuousness is the indoor greenery, dwarf palms, india-rubber +trees, and other handsome evergreens decorating corridor and +landing-places. The English misnomer has, nevertheless, compensations in +snug little kitchen and decent servant's bedroom. I looked over a +handsome villa here, type, I imagine, of the rest. The servants' +bedrooms were mere closets with openings on to a dark corridor, no +windows, fireplace, cupboard, or any convenience. The kitchen was a +long, narrow room, after the manner of French kitchens, with space by +the window for two or three chairs. I ventured to ask the mistress of +the house where the servants sat when work was done. Her answer was +suggestive-- + +"They have no time to sit anywhere." + +It will be seen that our grey skies and mean-looking dwellings have +compensations. + + + +XIII + +GUEST OF FARMER AND MILLER + +"Nine hours' rolling at anchor" was Arthur Young's experience of a +Channel passage in 1787, and on the return journey he was compelled to +wait three days for a wind. Two years later, what is in our own time a +delightful little pleasure cruise of one hour and a quarter, the journey +from Dover to Calais occupied fourteen hours. + +We might suppose from the hundreds of thousands of English travellers +who yearly cross the Manche, that Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders +would overflow with them, that we should hear English speech wherever we +go, and find ourselves amid more distinctly English surroundings than +even in Switzerland or Norway; but no such thing. From the moment I +quitted Boulogne to that of my departure from Calais, having made the +round by way of Hesdin, Arras, Vitry-en-Artois, Douai, Lille, St. Omer, +I no more encountered an English tourist than on the Causses of the +Lozère a few years before. Many years later, on going over much of the +same ground, with a halt at Étaples and Le Touquet, it was much the +same. Yet such a tour, costing so little as regards money, time and +fatigue, teems with interest of very varied and unlooked-for kind. + +Every inch of ground is historic to begin with, and has contributed its +page to Anglo-French annals or English romance. We may take the little +railway from Hesdin to Abbeville, traversing the forest of Crécy, and +drive across the cornfields to Agincourt. We may stop at Montreuil, +which now looks well, not only "on the map," but from the railway +carriage, reviving our recollections of Tristram Shandy. At Douai we +find eighty English boys playing cricket and football under the eye of +English Benedictine monks--their college being a survival of the +persecutions of Good Queen Bess. + +And to come down from history and romance to astounding prose, we find, +a few years ago, Roubaix, a town of 114,000 souls, that is to say, a +fourth of the population of Lyons--a town whose financial transactions +with the Bank of France exceed those of Rheims, Nîmes, Toulouse, or +Montpellier, represented by a man of the people, the important functions +of mayor being filled by the proprietor of a humble _estaminet_ and +vendor of newspapers, character and convictions only having raised the +Socialist leader to such a post! + +In rural districts there is also much to learn. Peasant property exists +more or less in every part of France, but we are here more especially in +presence of agriculture on a large scale. In the Pas-de-Calais and the +Nord we find high farming in right good earnest, holdings of from ten to +fifteen hundred acres conducted on the footing of large industrial +concerns, capital, science and enterprise being alike brought to bear +upon the cultivation of the soil and by private individuals. + +I travelled from Boulogne to Hesdin, in time for the first beautiful +effect of spring-tide flower and foliage. The blackthorn and pear trees +were already in full blossom, and the elm, poplar and chestnut just +bursting into leaf. Everything was very advanced, and around the +one-storeyed, white-washed cottages the lilacs showed masses of bloom, +field and garden being a month ahead of less favoured years. + + * * * * * + +Near Étaples the wide estuary of the Canche showed clear, lake-like +sheets of water amid the brilliant greenery; later are passed sandy +downs with few trees or breaks in the landscape. This part of France +should be seen during the budding season; of itself unpicturesque, it is +yet beautified by the early foliage. Hesdin is an ancient, quiet little +town on the Canche, with tanneries making pictures--and smells--by the +river, unpaved streets, and a very curious bit of civic architecture, +the triple-storeyed portico of the Hôtel de Ville. Its 7000 and odd +souls were soon to have their museum, the nucleus being a splendid set +of tapestries representing the battle of Agincourt, in loveliest shades +of subdued blue and grey. The little inn is very clean and comfortable; +for five francs a day you obtain the services of the master, who is +cook; the mistress, who is chambermaid; and the daughters of the house, +who wait at table. Such, at least, was my experience. + + * * * * * + +My errand was to the neighbouring village of Hauteville-Caumont, whither +I drove one afternoon. Quitting the town in a north-easterly direction, +we enter one of those long, straight French roads that really seem as if +they would never come to an end. The solitude of the scene around is +astonishing to English eyes. For miles we only meet two road-menders and +an itinerant glazier. On either side, far as the glance could reach, +stretches the chessboard landscape--an expanse oceanic in its vastness +of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land +prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this +plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness +of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays +of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level +uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips +here and there, showing tiny combes and bits of refreshing wood. The +houses, whether of large landowner, functionary or peasant, are +invariably one-storeyed, the white walls, brown tiles, or thatched roof +having an old-fashioned, rustic effect. One might suppose earthquakes +were common from this habit of living on the ground floor. The dryness +of the climate doubtless obviates risk of damp. Much more graceful are +the little orchards of these homesteads than the mathematically planted +cider apples seen here in all stages of growth. Even the blossoms of +such trees later on cannot compare with the glory of an orchard, in the +old acceptance of the word, having reached maturity in the natural way. +Certain portions of rural France are too geometrical. That I must admit. + +Exquisitely clean, to use a farmer's expression, are these sweeps of +corn and ploughed land, belonging to different owners, yet apparently +without division. Only boundary stones at intervals mark the limits. +Here we find no infinitesimal subdivision and no multiplicity of crops. +Wheat, clover, oats form the triennial course, other crops being rye, +potatoes, Swede turnips, sainfoin and the _oeillette_ or oil poppy. The +cider apple is also an important product. + +I found my friend's friend at home, and after a chat with madame and her +daughter, we set out for our round of inspection. This gentleman farmed +his own land, a beautifully cultivated estate of several hundred acres; +here and there a neighbour's field dovetailed into his own, but for the +greater part lying compactly together. The first object that attracted +my notice was a weather-beaten old windmill--sole survivor of myriads +formerly studding the country. This antiquated structure might have been +the identical one slashed at by Don Quixote. Iron grey, dilapidated, +solitary, it rose between green fields and blue sky, like a lighthouse +in mid-ocean. These mills are still used for crushing rye, the mash +being mixed with roots for cattle, and the straw used here, as +elsewhere, for _liage_ or tying up wheatsheaves. The tenacity of this +straw makes it very valuable for such purposes. + +Corn, rye and sainfoin were already very advanced, all here testifying +to highly scientific farming; and elsewhere roots were being sown. The +soil is prepared by a process called _marnage_, _i.e_. dug up to the +extent of three feet, the _marne_ or clayey soil being brought to the +surface. A very valuable manure is that of the scoria or residue of +dephosphated steel, formerly thrown away as worthless, but now largely +imported from Hungary for agricultural purposes. Nitrate is also largely +used to enrich the soil. Sixty years ago the Pas-de-Calais possessed +large forests. Here at Caumont vast tracts have been cleared and brought +under culture since that time. These denuded plateaux, at a considerable +elevation above the sea-level, are naturally very dry and very cold in +winter, the climate being gradually modified by the almost total absence +of trees. Wisely has the present Government interdicted further +destruction; forests are now created instead, and we find private +individuals planting instead of hacking down. Lucerne is not much +cultivated, and my host told me an interesting fact concerning it; in +order to grow lucerne, farmers must procure seeds of local growers. +Seeds from the south of France do not produce robust plants. + +The purple-flowered poppy, cultivated for the production of oil, must +form a charming crop in summer, and is a most important product. I was +assured that oil procured from crushed seeds is the only kind absolutely +free from flavour, and as such superior even to that of olives. Of equal +importance is the cider apple. + +The economic results of war are curiously exemplified here. During the +war of 1871 German troops were stationed in the neighbouring department +of the Somme, and there acquired the habit of drinking cider. So +agreeable was found this drink that cider apples are now largely +exported to Germany, and just as a Frenchman now demands his Bock at a +café, so in his Biergarten the German calls for cider. + +My host informed me that all his own apples, grown for commerce, went +over the northern frontier. Cider is said to render the imbiber +gout-proof and rheumatism-proof, but requires a long apprenticeship to +render it palatable. The profits of an apple orchard are threefold. +There is the crop gathered in October, which will produce in fair +seasons 150 francs per hectare, and the two grass crops, apple trees not +hurting the pasture. + +The labourer's harvest here are his potato-fed pigs. In our walks we +came upon men and women sowing potatoes on their bit of hired land; for +the most part their bit of land is tilled on Sundays, a neighbour's +horse being hired or borrowed for the purpose. Thus neither man nor +beast rest on the seventh day, and as a natural consequence church-going +gradually falls into abeyance. My host deplored this habit of turning +Sunday into a veritable _corvée_ for both human beings and cattle, but +said that change of system must be very slow. + +On the whole, the condition of the agricultural labourer here contrasts +very unfavourably with that of the peasant owner described elsewhere. + +The same drawbacks exist as in England. Land for the most part being +held by large owners, accommodation for poorer neighbours is +insufficient. Many able-bodied workmen migrate to the towns, simply +because they cannot get houses to live in; such one-storeyed dwellings +as exist have an uncared-for look, neither are the village folks so well +dressed as in regions of peasant property. In fact, I should say, after +a very wide experience, that peasant property invariably uplifts and +non-propertied labour drags down. This seems to me a conclusion +mathematically demonstrable. + +Mayor of his commune, my host was a man of progress and philanthropy in +the widest sense of the word. He had lately brought about the opening of +an infant school here, and dwelt on the beneficial results; children not +being admitted to the communal schools under the age of seven, were +otherwise thrown on the streets all day. Infant schools are generally +found in the larger communes. Intersecting my host's vast stretches of +field and ploughed land lay the old strategic road from Rouen to St. +Omer, a broad band of dazzling white thrown across the tremendous +panorama. An immense plain is spread before us as a map, now crudely +brilliant in hue, two months later to show blending gold and purple. +Vast, too, the views obtained on the homeward drive. Over against Hesdin +rises its forest--holiday ground of rich and poor, as yet undiscovered +by the tourist. From this friendly little town a charming woodland +journey may be made by the railway now leading through the forest of +Crécy to Abbeville. + +Between Hesdin and Arras the geometrically planted cider apple trees and +poplars growing in parallel lines are without beauty, but by the railway +are bits of waste ground covered with cowslip, wind flowers, +cuckoo-pint, and dandelion. On the top of lofty elms here and there are +dark masses; these are the nests of the magpie, and apparently quite +safe from molestation. + +By the wayside we see evidences of peasant ownership on the most modest +scale, women cutting their tiny patch of rye, as green food for cattle, +sowing their potato field, or keeping a few sheep. Everywhere lilacs +are in full bloom, and the pear and cherry trees burdened with blossom +as snow. Everything is a month ahead of ordinary years. I write of +April 1893. + +The Hôtel St. Pol at Arras looks, I should say, precisely as it did in +Robespierre's time. The furniture certainly belongs to that epoch, +sanitary arrangements have made little advance, and the bare staircases +and floors do not appear as if they had been well swept, much less +scoured, since the fall of the Bastille. It is a rambling, I should say +rat-haunted, old place, but fairly quiet and comfortable, with civil +men-servants and no kind of pretence. + +Arras itself, that is to say its Petite Place, is a specimen of +Renaissance architecture hardly to be matched even in France. The +Flemish gables and Spanish arcades, not a vestige of modernization +marring the effect, make a unique picture. Above all rises the first of +those noble belfry towers met by the traveller on this round, souvenirs +of civic rights hardly won and stoutly maintained. The first object +looked for will be Robespierre's birthplace, an eminently respectable +middle-class abode, now occupied by a personage almost as generally +distasteful as that of the Conventionnel himself, namely, a +process-server or bailiff. A bright little lad whom I interrogated on +the way testified the liveliest interest in my quest, and would not lose +sight of me till I had discovered the right house. It is a +yellow-walled, yellow-shuttered, symbolically atrabilious-looking place, +with twenty-three front windows. Robespierre's parents must have been in +decent circumstances when their son Maximilian was born, and perhaps the +reverses of early life had no small share in determining his after +career. Left an orphan in early life, he owed his education and start in +life to charity. The fastidious, poetic, austere country lawyer, unlike +his fellow-conventionnels, was no born orator. Thoughts that breathe and +words that burn did not drop from his lips as from Danton's. His +carefully prepared speeches, even in the apogee of his popularity, were +often interrupted by the cry "Cut it short" or "Keep to the point." The +exponent of Rousseau was ofttimes "long preaching," like St. Paul. + +But there are early utterances of Robespierre's that constitute in +themselves a revolution, when, for instance, in 1789 he pleaded for the +admission of Jews, non-Catholics, and actors to political rights. "The +Jews," he protested, "have been maligned in history. Their reputed vices +arise from the ignominy into which they have been plunged." And although +his later discourses breathe a spirit of frenzied vindictiveness, +certain passages recall that "humane and spiritual element" commented +upon by Charles Nodier. This is especially noticeable in what is called +his _discours-testament_, the speech delivered on the eve of Thermidor. +At one moment, with positive ferocity, he lashes the memory of former +friends and colleagues sent by himself to the guillotine; at another he +dilates upon the virtue of magnanimity in lofty, Platonic strains. + +[ILLUSTRATION: ARRAS, LA PETITE PALACE] + +With Danton's implacable foe it was indeed a case of "Roses, roses, all +the way. Thus I enter, and thus I go." Twenty-four hours after that +peroration he awaited his doom, an object of ruthless execration. And +visitors are still occasionally shown in the Hôtel des Archives the +table on which was endured his short but terrible retribution. + +A public day school for girls exists at Arras, but the higher education +of women--we must never lose sight of the fact--is sternly denounced by +Catholic authorities. Lay schools and lay teachers for girls are not +only unfashionable, they are immoral in the eyes of the orthodox. + +The museum and public library, 40,000 and odd volumes, of this town +of 26,000 souls are both magnificent and magnificently housed in the +ancient Abbaye de St. Vaast, adjoining cathedral, bishopric and +public garden. + +Besides pictures, statuary, natural history and archaeological +collections, occupying three storeys, is a room devoted exclusively to +local talent and souvenirs. Among the numerous bequests of generous +citizens is a collection of _faïence_ lately left by a tradeswoman, +whose portrait commemorates the deed. Some fine specimens of ancient +tapestry of Arras, hence the name arras, chiefly in shades of grey and +blue, and also specimens of the delicate hand-made Arras lace, are here. +There is also a room of technical exhibits, chemicals and minerals used +in the industrial arts, dyes, textiles. + +Quite a third of the visitors thronging these sumptuous rooms were young +recruits. A modern picture of Eustache St. Pierre and his companions, at +the feet of Edward III and his kneeling Queen, evoked much admiration. I +heard one young soldier explaining the subject to a little group. There +were also many family parties, and some blue blouses. How delightful +such a place of resort-not so much in July weather, on this 9th of April +one might fancy it harvest time!--but on bleak, rainy, uninviting days! +One of the officials advised me to visit the recently erected Ecole des +Beaux Arts at the other end of the town, which I did. I would here note +the pride taken in their public collections by all concerned. This +elderly man, most likely an old soldier, seemed as proud of the museum +as if it were his own especial property. + +I was at once shown over the spacious, airy, well-kept building--school +of art and conservatorium of music in one, both built, set on foot, and +maintained by the municipality. Here youths and girls of all ranks can +obtain a thorough artistic and musical training without a fraction of +cost. The classes are held in separate rooms, and boys in addition learn +modelling and mechanical drawing. + +The school was opened four years ago, and already numbers eighty +students of both sexes, girls meeting two afternoons a week, boys every +evening. Arras also possesses an École Normale or large training school +for female teachers. + +On this brilliant Sunday afternoon, although many small shops were open, +I noted the cessation of street traffic. Every one seemed abroad, and +business at a standstill. All the newspaper kiosks were closed. + +Next morning soon after eight o'clock I was off to Vitry-en-Artois for +a day's farming. At the little station I was met by a friend's +friend--a typical young Frenchman, gaiety itself, amiable, easy, all +his faculties alert--and driven by him in a little English dogcart to +the neighbouring village. Twenty-five minutes brought us to our +destination--house and model farm of a neighbour, upwards of twelve +hundred acres, all cultivated on the most approved methods. Our host +now took my young friend's reins, he seating himself behind, and we +drove slowly over a large portion of the estate, taking a zigzag course +across the fields. There are here three kinds of soil--dry, chalky and +unproductive, rich loam, and light intermediate. In spite of the +drought of the last few weeks, the crops are very luxuriant, and quite +a month ahead of former seasons. + +This estate of six hundred and odd hectares is a specimen of high +farming on a large scale, such as I had never before witnessed in +France. I do not exaggerate when I say that from end to end could not +be discerned a single weed. Of course, the expense of cultivation on +such a scale is very great, and hardly remunerative at the present +price of wheat. + +Sixty hectares, _i.e._ nearly 150 acres, are planted with wheat, and +two-thirds of that superficies with beetroot. The young corn was as +advanced as in June with us, some kinds of richer growth than others, +and showing different shades of green, each tract absolutely weedless, +and giving evidence of highest cultivation. Fourteen hectolitres per +hectare of corn is the average, forty the maximum. Besides beetroot for +sugar, clover and sainfoin are grown, little or no barley, and neither +turnips nor mangel-wurzel. + +[Footnote: Hectolitre = 2 bushels 3 pecks.] + +The land is just now prepared for planting beetroot, by far the most +important crop here, and on which I shall have much to say. Henceforth, +indeed, the farming I describe may be called industrial, purely +agricultural products being secondary. + +On the importance of beetroot sugar it is hardly necessary to dwell at +length. A few preliminary facts, however, may be acceptable. Up till the +year 1812, cane sugar only was known in France; the discovery of +beetroot sugar dates from the Continental blockade of that period. In +1885 the amount of raw sugar produced from beetroot throughout France +was 90 millions of kilos. In 1873 the sum-total had reached 400 +millions. The consumption of sugar per head here is nevertheless +one-third less than among ourselves. + +[Footnote: Kilogramme = 2 lb. 3 oz.] + +We come now to see the results of fiscal regulation upon agriculture. +Formerly duty was paid not upon the root itself but its product. This is +now changed, and, the beetroot being taxed, the grower strives after +that kind producing the largest percentage of saccharine matter. Hardly +less important is the residue. The pulp of the crushed beetroot in +these regions forms the staple food of cows, pigs and sheep. Mixed with +chopped straw, it is stored for winter use in mounds by small +cultivators, in enormous cellars constructed on purpose by large owners. +Horses refuse to eat this mixture, which has a peculiar odour, scenting +farm premises from end to end. The chief manure used is that produced on +the farm and nitrates. On this especial estate dried fish from Sweden +had been tried, and, as on the farm before mentioned, chalky land is dug +to the depth of three feet, the better soil being put on the top. This +is the process called _marnage_. We now drove for miles right across the +wide stretches of young wheat and land prepared for beetroot. The wheels +of our light cart, the host said, would do good rather than harm. Horse +beans, planted a few weeks before, were well up; colza also was pretty +forward. Pastures there were none. Although the cornfields were as clean +as royal gardens we came upon parties of women, girls and boys hoeing +here and there. The rows of young wheat showed as much uniformity as a +newly-planted vineyard. + +Ploughing and harrowing were being done chiefly by horses, only a few +oxen being used. My host told me that his animals were never worked on +Sundays. On week-days they remain longer afield than with us, but a +halt of an hour or two is made for food and rest at mid-day. Another +crop to be mentioned is what is called _hivernage_ or winter fodder, +_i.e._ lentils planted between rows of rye, the latter being grown +merely to protect the other. On my query as to the school attendance of +boys and girls employed in agriculture, my host said that authorities +are by no means rigid; at certain seasons of the year, indeed, they are +not expected to attend. Among some large landowners we find tolerably +conservative notions even in France. Over-education, they say, is +unfitting the people for manual labour, putting them out of their place, +and so forth. + +Moles are not exterminated. "They do more good than harm," said my host, +"and I like them." I had heard the same thing at Caumont, where were +many mole-hills. Here and there, dove-tailed into these enormous fields, +were small patches farmed by the peasants, rarely their own property. +Their condition was described as neither that of prosperity nor want. +"They get along." That was the verdict. + +In our long drive across weedless corn and clover fields we came upon a +small wood, a recent plantation of our host. Even this bit of greenery +made a pleasant break in the uniform landscape. We then drove home, and +inspected the premises on foot. Everything was on a colossal scale, +and trim as a Dutch interior. The vast collection of machinery included +the latest French, English, Belgian and American inventions. Steam +engines are fixtures, the consumption of coal being 160 tons yearly per +300 hectares. + +We are thus brought face to face with the agriculture of the future, +ancient methods and appliances being supplanted one by one, manual +labour reduced to the minimum, the cultivation of the soil become purely +mechanical. The idyllic element vanishes from rural life and all savours +of Chicago! Stables and neat-houses were the perfection of cleanliness +and airiness. Here for the first time I saw sheep stabled like cows and +horses. Their quarters were very clean, and littered with fresh straw. +They go afield for a portion of the day, but, as I have before +mentioned, pastures are few and far between. + +The enormous underground store-houses for beetroot, pulp and chopped +straw were now almost empty. At midday, the oxen were led home and fell +to their strange food with appetite, its moistness being undoubtedly an +advantage in dry weather. The cart horses were being fed with boiled +barley, and looked in first-rate condition. Indeed, all the animals +seemed as happy and well-cared for as my host's scores upon scores of +pet birds. Birds, however, are capricious, and nothing would induce a +beautiful green parrot to cry, "Vive la France" in my presence. After an +animated breakfast--thoroughly French breakfast, the best of everything +cooked and served in the best possible manner--we took leave, and my +young friend drove me back to Vitry to call upon his own family. + +M.D., senior, is a miller, and the family dwelling, which adjoins his +huge water-mill, is very prettily situated on the Scarpe. We entered +by a little wooden bridge running outside, a conservatory filled with +exotics and ferns lending the place a fairy look. I never saw anything +in rural France that more fascinated me than this water-mill with its +crystal clear waters and surrounding foliage. M.D. with his three sons +quitted their occupation as we drove up. Madame and her young daughter +joined us in the cool salon, and we chatted pleasantly for a quarter +of an hour. + +I was much struck with the head of the family, an elderly man with blue +eyes, fine features, and a thoughtful expression. He spoke sadly of the +effect of American competition, and admitted that protection could offer +but a mere palliative. Hitherto I had found a keenly protectionist bias +among French agriculturists. Of England and the English he spoke with +much sympathy, although at this time we were as yet far from the Entente +Cordiale. "C'est le plus grand peuple au monde" ("It is the greatest +nation in the world"), he said. + +Nothing could equal the ease and cordiality with which this charming +family received me. The miller with his three elder sons had come +straight from the mill. Well-educated gentlemen are not ashamed of +manual labour in France. How I wished I could have spent days, nay +weeks, in the neighbourhood of the water-mill! + + + +XIV + +LADY MERCHANTS AND SOCIALIST MAYORS + +Only three museums in France date prior to the Revolution, those of +Rheims, founded in 1748, and of Dijon and Nancy, founded in 1787. The +opening in Paris of the Muséum Français in 1792, consisting of the royal +collections and art treasures of suppressed convents, was the beginning +of a great movement in this direction. At Lille the municipal +authorities first got together a few pictures in the convent of the +Récollets, and Watteau the painter was deputed to draw up a catalogue. +On the 12th May, 1795, the collection consisted of 583 pictures and 58 +engravings. On the 1st September, 1801, the consuls decreed the +formation of departmental museums and distribution of public art +treasures. It was not, however, till 1848 that the municipal council of +Lille set to work in earnest upon the enrichment of the museum, now one +of the finest in provincial cities. The present superb building was +erected entirely at the expense of the municipality, and was only opened +two years ago. It has recently been enriched by art treasures worth a +million of francs, the gift of a rich citizen and his wife, tapestries, +_faïence_, furniture, enamels, ivories, illuminated MSS., rare bindings, +engraved gems. Before that time the unrivalled collection of drawings by +old masters had lent the Lille museum a value especially its own. + +The collections are open every day, Sundays included. Being entirely +built of stone, there is little risk of fire. Thieves are guarded +against by two caretakers inside the building at night and two patrols +outside. It is an enormous structure, and arranged with much taste. + +The old wall still encircles the inner town, and very pretty is the +contrast of grey stone and fresh spring foliage; lilacs in full bloom, +also the almond, cherry, pear tree, and many others. + +Lille nowadays recalls quite other thoughts than those suggested by +Tristram Shandy. It may be described as a town within towns, the +manufacturing centres around having gradually developed into large rival +municipalities. Among these are Tourcoing, Croix, and Roubaix, now more +than half as large as Lille itself. I stayed a week at Lille, and had I +remained there a year, in one respect should have come away no whit the +wiser. The manufactories, one and all, are inaccessible as the interior +of a Carmelite convent. Queen Victoria could get inside the monastery of +the Grande Chartreuse, but I question whether Her Majesty would have +been permitted to see over a manufactory of thread gloves at Lille! + +Such jealousy has doubtless its reason. Most likely trade secrets have +been filched by foreign rivals under the guise of the ordinary tourist. +Be this as it may, the confection of a tablecloth or piece of beige is +kept as profoundly secret as that of the famous pepper tarts of Prince +Bedreddin or the life-sustaining cordial of celebrated fasters. + +In the hope of winning over a feminine mind, I drove with a friend to +one of the largest factories at Croix, the property of a lady. + +Here, as at Mulhouse, mill-owners live in the midst of their works. They +do not leave business cares behind them, after English fashion, dwelling +as far away as possible from factory chimneys. The premises of Mme. C. +are on a magnificent scale; all in red brick, fresh as if erected +yesterday, the mistress's house--a vast mansion--being a little removed +from these and surrounded by elegantly-arranged grounds. A good deal of +bowing and scraping had to be got through before we were even admitted +to the portress's lodge, as much more ceremonial before the portress +could be induced to convey our errand to one of the numerous clerks in a +counting-house close by. At length, and after many dubious shakes of the +head and murmurs of surprise at our audacity, the card was transmitted +to the mansion. + +A polite summons to the great lady's presence raised our hopes. There +seemed at least some faint hope of success. Traversing the gravelled +path, as we did so catching sight of madame's coach-house and half-dozen +carriages, landau, brougham, brake, and how many more! we reached the +front door. Here the clerk left us, and a footman in livery, with no +little ceremony, ushered us into the first of a suite of reception +rooms, all fitted up in the modern style, and having abundance of ferns +and exotics. + +At the end of the last salon a fashionably dressed lady, typically +French in feature, manners and deportment, sat talking to two gentlemen. +She very graciously advanced to meet us, held out a small white hand +covered with rings, and with the sweetest smile heard my modestly +reiterated request to be allowed a glimpse of the factory. Would that I +could convey the gesture, expression of face and tone of voice with +which she replied, in the fewest possible words! + +After that inimitable, unforgettable "Jamais, jamais, jamais!" there was +nothing to do but make our bow and retire, discomfiture being amply +atoned by the little scene just described. + +We next drove straight through Lille to the vast park or Bois, as it is +called, not many years since acquired by the town as a pleasure-ground. +Very wisely, the pretty, irregular stretch of glade, dell and wood has +been left as it was, only a few paths, seats and plantations being +added. No manufacturing town in France is better off in this respect. +Wide, handsome boulevards lead to the Bois and pretty botanical garden, +many private mansions having beautiful grounds, but walled in completely +as those of cloistered convents. The fresh spring greenery and multitude +of flowering trees and shrubs make suburban Lille look its best; outside +the town every cottage has a bit of ground and a tree or two. + +During this second week of April the weather suddenly changed. Rain +fell, and a keen east wind rendered fires and winter garments once +more indispensable. On one of these cold, windy days I went with +Lille friends to Roubaix, as cold and windy a town, I should say, as +any in France. + +A preliminary word or two must be said about Roubaix, the city of +strikes, pre-eminently the Socialist city. + +City we may indeed call it, and it is one of rapidly increasing +dimensions. In the beginning of the century Roubaix numbered 8000 souls +only. Its population is now 114,000. Since 1862 the number of its +machines has quintupled. Every week 600 tons of wool are brought to the +mills. As I have before mentioned, more business is transacted with the +Bank of France by this _cheflieu_ of a canton than by Toulouse, Rheims, +Nîmes, or Montpellier. The speciality of Roubaix is its dress stuffs and +woollen materials, large quantities of which are exported to America. To +see these soft, delicate fabrics we must visit Regent Street and other +fashionable quarters, not an inch is to be caught sight of here. + +Roubaix is a handsome town, with every possible softening down of grimy +factory walls and tall chimneys. A broad, well-built street leads to the +Hôtel de Ville; another equally wide street, with mansions of wealthy +mill-owners and adjacent factories, leads to the new Boulevard de Paris +and pretty public park, where a band plays on Sunday afternoons. + +But my first object was to obtain an interview with the Socialist mayor, +a man of whom I had heard much. A friend residing at Lille kindly paved +the way by sending his own card with mine, the messenger bringing back a +courteous reply. Unfortunately, the Conseil-Général then sitting at +Lille curtailed the time at the mayor's disposal, but before one o'clock +he would be pleased to receive me, he sent word. Accordingly, conducted +by my friend's clerk, I set out for the Town Hall. + +We waited some little time in the vestibule, the chief magistrate of +Roubaix being very busy. Deputy-mayors, adjoints, were coming and going, +and liveried officials bustled about, glancing at me from time to time, +but without any impertinent curiosity. Impertinent curiosity, by the +way, we rarely meet with in France. People seem of opinion that +everybody must be the best judge of his or her own business. I was +finally ushered into the council chamber, where the mayor and three +deputy-mayors sat at a long table covered with green baize, transacting +business. He very courteously bade me take a seat beside him, and we at +once entered into conversation. The working man's representative of what +was then the city _par excellence_ of strikes and socialism is a +remarkable-looking man in middle life. Tall, angular, beardless, with +the head of a leader, he would be noticed anywhere. There was a look of +indomitable conviction in his face, and a quiet dignity from which +neither his shabby clothes nor his humble calling detract. Can any +indeed well be humbler? The first magistrate of a city of a hundred and +fourteen thousand souls, a large percentage of whom are educated, +wealthy men of the world, keeps, as I have said, a small _estaminet_ or +café in which smoking is permitted, and sells newspapers, himself early +in the morning making up and delivering his bundles to the various +retailers. Here, indeed, we have the principles of the Republic-- +Liberty, Equality, Fraternity--carried out to their logical conclusion. +Without money, without social position, this man owes his present +dignity to sheer force of character and conviction. We chatted of +socialism and the phases of it more immediately connected with Roubaix, +on which latter subject I ventured to beg a little information. + +[Footnote: I give Littré's meaning of _estaminet_.] + +"We must go to the fountain-head," he replied very affably. "I regret +that time does not permit me to enter into particulars now; but leave me +your English address. The information required shall be forwarded." + +We then talked of socialism in England, of his English friends, and he +was much interested to learn that I had once seen the great Marx and +heard him speak at a meeting of the International in Holborn twenty-five +years before. + +Then I told him, what perhaps he knew, of the liberty accorded by our +Government to hold meetings in Trafalgar Square, and we spoke of +Gladstone. "A good democrat, but born too early for socialism--the +future of the world. One cannot take to socialism at eighty-three years +of age," I said. + +"No, that is somewhat late in the day," was the smiling reply. + +I took leave, much pleased with my reception. From a certain point of +view, the socialist mayor of Roubaix was one of the most interesting +personalities I had met in France. + +Roubaix has been endowed by the State with a handsome museum, +library, technical and art school, the latter for young men only. +These may belong to any nationality, and obtain their professional or +artistic training free of charge. The exhibition of students' work +sufficiently proclaims the excellence of the teaching. Here we saw +very clever studies from the living model, a variety of designs, and, +most interesting of all, fabrics prepared, dyed and woven entirely by +the students. + +The admirably arranged library is open to all, and we were courteously +shown some of its choicest treasures. These are not bibliographical +curiosities, but albums containing specimens of Lyons silk, a marvellous +display of taste and skill. Gems, butterflies' wings, feathers of +tropical birds are not more brilliant than these hues, while each design +is thoroughly artistic, and in its way an achievement. + +The picture gallery contains a good portrait of the veteran song-writer +Nadaud, author of the immortal "Carcassonne." Many Germans and Belgians, +engaged in commerce, spend years here, going away when their fortunes +are made. More advantageous to the place are those capitalists who take +root, identifying themselves with local interests. Such is the case with +a large English firm at Croix, who have founded a Protestant church and +schools for their workpeople. + +Let me record the spectacle presented by the museum on Sunday afternoon +during the brilliant weather of April 1893. What most struck me was the +presence of poorly-dressed boys; they evidently belonged to the least +prosperous working class, and came in by twos and threes. Nothing could +equal the good behaviour of these lads, or their interest in everything. +Many young shop-women were also there, and, as usual, a large contingent +of soldiers and recruits. + +Few shops remained open after mid-day, except one or two very large +groceries, at which fresh vegetables were sold. It is pleasant to note a +gradual diminution of Sunday labour throughout France. + +The celebration of May-Day, which date occurred soon after my visit, was +not calculated either to alarm the Republic or the world in general. It +was a monster manifestation in favour of the Three Eights, and I think +few of us, were we suddenly transformed into Roubaix machinists, would +not speedily become Three Eighters as well. + +At five o'clock in the morning the firing of cannon announced the annual +"Fête du Travail," or workmen's holiday, not accorded by Act of +Parliament, but claimed by the people as a legitimate privilege. + +Unwonted calm prevailed in certain quarters. Instead of men, women, boys +and girls pouring by tens of thousands into the factories, the streets +leading to them were empty. In one or two cases, where machinery had +been set in motion and doors opened, public opinion immediately effected +a stoppage of work. Instead, therefore, of being imprisoned from +half-past five in the morning till seven or eight at night, the entire +Roubaisien population had freed itself to enjoy "a sunshine holiday." +Such a day cannot be too long, and at a quarter past seven vast crowds +had collected before the Hôtel de Ville. + +Here a surprise was in store for the boldest Three Eighter going. The +tricolour had been hoisted down, and replaced, not by a red flag, but by +a large transparency, showing the following device in red letters upon +a white ground:-- + + FÊTE INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL, + 1er Mai 1893. + + Huit Heures du Travail, + Huit Heures du Loisir, + Huit Heures du Repos. + +[Footnote: Translation-International festival of labour; eight hours' +work, eight hours' leisure, eight hours' repose.] + +The mayor, in undress, that is to say in garments of every day, having +surveyed these preparations, returned to his _estaminet_, the Plat d'Or, +and there folded his newspapers as usual for the day's distribution. + +In the meantime the finishing touch was put to other decorations, +consisting of flags, devices and red drapery, everywhere the Three +Eights being conspicuous. + +A monster procession was then formed, headed by the Town Council and a +vast number of bands. There was the music of the Fire Brigade, the +socialist brass band, the children's choir, the Choral Society of +Roubaix, the Franco-Belgian Choral Society, and many others. Twenty +thousand persons took part in this procession, the men wearing red +neckties and a red flower in their button-holes, the forty-seven groups +of the workmen's federation bearing banners, all singing, bands +playing, drums beating, cannons firing as they went. + +At mid-day the defile was made before the Hôtel de Ville, and delegates +of the different socialist groups were formally received by the mayor +and deputy-mayors, wearing their tricolour scarves of office. + +I must say the mayor's speech was a model of conciseness, good sense +and, it must be added, courtesy; addressing himself first to his +fellow-townswomen, then to his fellow-townsmen, he thanked the labour +party for the grandiose celebration of the day, dwelt on the +determination of the municipal council to watch over the workmen's +interests, then begged all to enjoy themselves thoroughly, taking care +to maintain the public peace. + +Toasts were drunk, the mayor's health with especial enthusiasm, but when +at the stroke of noon he waved the tricolour and an enormous number of +pigeons were let loose, not to be fired at but admired as they flew away +in all directions, their tricolour ribbons fluttering, the general +delight knew no bounds. "Long live our mayor," resounded from every +mouth, "Vive le citoyen Carrette!" + +The rest of the day was devoted to harmless, out-of-door amusements: a +balloon ascent, on the car being conspicuous in red, "Les trois huits," +concerts, gymnastic contests, finally dancing and illuminations. + +Thus ended the first of May, 1893, in Lille. + + * * * * * + +St. Omer is a clean, well-built and sleepy little town, with some fine +old churches. The mellow tone of the street architecture, especially +under a burning blue sky, is very soothing; all the houses have a +yellowish or pinkish hue. + +The town abounds in convents and seminaries, and the chief business of +well-to-do ladies seems that of going to church. In the cathedral are +many votive tablets to "Our Lady of Miracles"--one of the numerous +miracle-working Virgins in France. Here we read the thanksgiving of a +young man miraculously preserved throughout his four years' military +service; there, one records how, after praying fervently for a certain +boon, after many years the Virgin had granted his prayer. Parents +commemorate miraculous favours bestowed on their children, and so on. + +The ancient ramparts at this time were in course of demolition, and the +belt of boulevards which are to replace them will be a great +improvement. The town is protected by newly-constructed works. Needless +to say, it possesses a public library, on the usual principle--one +citizen one book,--a museum, and small picture gallery. The population +is 21,000. + +I was cordially received by a friend's friend, foremost resident in the +place, and owner of a large distillery. As usual, the private dwelling, +with coach-house, stables and garden adjoined the business premises. The +_genièvre_ or gin, so called from the juniper used in flavouring it, +here manufactured, is a choice liqueur, not the cheap intoxicant of our +own public-houses. Liqueurs are always placed with coffee on French +breakfast-tables. Every one takes a teaspoonful as a help to digestion. + +French people are greatly astonished at the absence of liqueurs in +England. The excellence of French digestions generally would not seem to +discredit the habit. In the fabrication of gin here only the corn of rye +is used, and in small quantities, the juniper berry; it is ready for +drinking in six months, although improved by keeping. I saw also curaçoa +in its various stages. The orange peel used in the manufacture of this +liqueur is soaked in alcohol for four months. + +My object, however, was to see the high farming on an extensive scale +for which this region is famous. Accordingly my host, accompanied by his +amiable wife, placed themselves, their carriage, and time at my +disposal, and we set out for a long round. + +In harvest time the aspect of the country must be one of extreme +richness. The enormous sweeps of corn, clover, and beetroot have no +division from each other or the road; no hedges are to be seen, and not +a tree in the middle of the crops, few trees, indeed, anywhere. +Everywhere, on this 17th of April, the corn was a month ahead of former +seasons, and, in spite of the long drought, very flourishing. + +The first farm visited consists of 360 hectares (just upon 900 acres), +all in the highest cultivation, and conducted strictly on the footing of +a large industrial concern, with offices, counting-house, carpenters', +saddlers' and wheelwrights' shops, smithies, mills and machinery, every +agricultural process down to grinding the corn being performed on the +premises, and by workmen in the employ of the owner. + +As we enter these vast premises, and hear the buzz of machinery, we feel +the complete prosaicization of rustic life. The farmhouse scenes of my +own childhood in Suffolk, the idyllic descriptions of George Eliot, no +more resemble actualities than the poetic spinning-wheel of olden times +the loom of latest invention. Utility is the object aimed at, +incontestably with great results, but in effect unromantic as Chicago. +It is high farming made to pay. All was bustle and activity as we made +the round of the premises, beginning with the vast machinery and +workshops. These walled-in buildings, divided into two portions, each +covering three-quarters of an acre, reminded me of nothing so much as of +the caravanserais of Algerian travel twenty-five years ago. Once the +doors are bolted none can enter, yet to render security doubly sure dogs +are chained up in every corner--we will hope, let loose at night. + +I will not here go into agricultural details, only adding a few +particulars. + +The splendid wheat, clover, bean and rye crops attested the +excellence of the farming. Dovetailing into these enormous fields +were small patches of peasant owners or tenants, all without division +or apparent boundary. + +In the villages I was struck by the tidy appearance of the children +coming out of school. The usual verdict on peasant proprietors +hereabouts was that they do not accumulate, neither are they in want. +Very little, if any, beggary meets the eye, either in town or country. +We then drove to the château, with its English grounds, of the Vicomte +de----, friend of my host, and an ardent admirer of England and English +ways. This gentleman looked, indeed, like an English squire, and spoke +our tongue. He had visited King Edward, then Prince of Wales, at +Sandringham. As an illustration of his lavish method of doing things, I +mention a quantity of building stone lately ordered from Valenciennes. +This stone, for the purpose of building offices, had cost £800. In this +part of France clerks and counting-houses seem an indispensable feature +of farm premises. An enormous bell for summoning work-people to work or +meals is always conspicuous. The whole thing has a commercial aspect. + +Here we saw some magnificent animals, among these a prize bull of +Flemish breed. It was said to be very fierce, and on this account had a +ring in its nose. This cruel custom is now, I believe, prohibited here +by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On the other +hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in +Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card +of membership over offenders _in terrorem_. + +We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in +his agricultural pursuits. High farming was nevertheless here the order +of the day. + +We next drove to Clairmarais, a village some miles off in quite another +direction, coming in sight of magnificent forests. Our errand was to +the ancient Cistercian abbey, now the property of a capitalist, and +turned into the business premises of his large farm. Of the original +monastery, founded in 1140, hardly a trace remains. Abutting on the +outer wall is the chapel, and before it a small enclosed flower-garden +full of wallflowers and flowering shrubs, a bit of prettiness welcome to +the eye. Just beyond, too, was an old-fashioned, irregularly planted +orchard, with young cattle grazing under the bloom-laden trees, the turf +dazzlingly bright, but less so than the young corn and rye, now ready +for first harvesting. + +The vaulted kitchens with vast fireplaces are relics of the ancient +abbey, and even now form most picturesque interiors. At a long wooden +table in one sat a blue-bloused group drinking cider out of huge yellow +mugs--scene for a painter. Another, fitted up as a dairy, was hardly +less of a picture. On shelves in the dark, antiquated chamber lay large, +red-earthen pans full of cream for cheese-making. The brown-robed figure +of a lay brother would have seemed appropriate in either place. + +Outside these all was modernization and hard prose. We saw the shepherd +returning with his sheep from the herbage, the young lambs bleating +pitifully in an inner shed. It is the custom here to send the sheep +afield during the day, the lambs meantime being fed on hay. Here again, +I should say, is a commercial mistake. The lamb of pasture-fed animals +must be incontestably superior. Humanity here seems on the side of +utilitarianism. Who can say? Perhaps the inferiority of French meat in +certain regions arises from this habit of stabling cattle and sheep. The +drive from Clairmarais to St. Omer took us through a quite different and +much more attractive country. We were now in the marais, an amphibious +stretch of country, cut up into gardens and only accessible by tiny +canals. It is a small Holland. This vast stretch of market garden, +intersected by waterways just admitting the passage of a boat, is very +productive. Three pounds per hectare is often paid in rent. The early +vegetables, conveyed by boat to St. Omer, are largely exported to +England. Every inch of ground is turned to account, the turf-bordered, +canal-bound gardens making a pretty scene, above the green levels +intersected by gleaming water the fine towers of St. Omer clearly +outlined against the brilliant sky. + +The English colony of former days vanished on the outbreak of the last +war, not to return. A few young English Catholics still prepare for the +priesthood here, and eighty more were at this time pursuing their +studies at Douai, under the charge of English Benedictines. "Why," +impatiently asked Arthur Young in 1788, "are Catholics to emigrate in +order to be ill-educated abroad, instead of being allowed institutions +that would educate them well at home?" + +The disabilities he reprobates have long since been removed, but +English-speaking seminarists still flock to Douai. + +Here I close this agricultural and industrial round in Picardy and +French Flanders, regions so near home, yet so unfamiliar to most of us! +And here I close what, in many respects, may be called another round in +unfrequented France. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Heart of the Vosges +by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE HEART OF THE VOSGES *** + +This file should be named 8vosg10.txt or 8vosg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8vosg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8vosg10a.txt + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Colin Cameron and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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