The Opera-house—The Cathedral—The Synagogue—A Jewish Wedding—Strange
Show-house—Wellington and King Ferdinand.
Head-quarters, Bordeaux,
June 16, 1814.
MY DEAR M——,
As I have no news to communicate, you must be satisfied with the best
account of Bordeaux which the excessive heat permits me to give you.
The Duke is gone for good, and we are left here in a state of dull, and
almost feverish uncertainty. Time slips away fast, however, and my fate
will soon be decided.
Before breakfast I take an hour’s ride to look about the town and
suburbs, and make my observations. The restaurateurs are so hot that I
prefer my own society and a mutton-chop with abundance of vegetables
and fruit, and my bottle of claret or Sauterne, to the incessant
dinners going on in public. My wine I get from the housekeeper of my
landlord, Monsieur Emerigon, the counsellor, as she in his absence
sells his produce for him—his wine, namely Sauterne Emerigon, which is
really very good, his pigeons, his ortolans, his poultry, his cherries,
his vegetables, &c. As he has not yet returned from Paris, I have
also taken possession of his _salle à manger_, and drawing-room, in
addition to my bedroom. I only now want to get into his library. He is
a royalist, and one of the commissioners sent from Bordeaux to Paris.
Bordeaux is a very handsome town, and very superior to Toulouse—as a
city indeed there is no comparison; still in my opinion there was more
_ton_ and fashion at Toulouse. The prosperity of the place was arrested
by the Revolution, when it was in a state of splendid commercial
prosperity, rapidly increasing in magnificence. Toulouse, on the
contrary, I take it, was even then on the decline. Another advantage
Bordeaux has, in addition to its having been laid out, like Bath,
with modern improvement as to the width of the streets, namely, the
convenience of stone quarries close at hand, instead of bricks to form
the buildings, and this with water carriage. It has besides a stone
somewhat similar to Portland stone, a complete Bath stone cut by the
saw and adze like that at Bath; and of course these advantages have not
been neglected by Frenchmen.
The Garonne is a noble river, not very much wider than the Thames at
London Bridge, but it appears deeper, and of more importance; the tide
occasionally reaches up as high as the neighbourhood of Langon. The
quays probably extend nearly two miles, and in general are well-built
and handsome, and the river just now full of shipping. The quays are
inferior to those at Lyons, and the few half-rotten ships on the stocks
in the spacious yard, show strongly the urgent necessity of what the
people did on the late occasion.
The Grand Theatre is a very handsome building, with a colonnade of
twelve pillars in front. The whole height of the building, with its
connexions of taverns, Exeter Change, &c., runs back to the river. In
its front is a square, with two handsome streets branching off right
and left. One has the double row of trees, in the foreign fashion,
in the centre, with paved carriage-roads outside, and is spacious,
ornamental, and useful. At the end of this is the other Theatre, de
la Gaieté, and that leads into a sort of wide avenue street planted
all the way, and nearly a mile long. On one side again of this is
the _ci-devant_ Champ de Mars, or Jardin Publique, a spacious public
planted walk. The town contains several other planted wide streets, and
a handsome Palais-Royal, _ci-devant_ Du Préfet. There is not any one
very handsome square, and upon the whole Brussels is to be preferred;
and it is a town probably nearly of the same size.
The Opera House is handsome in the inside, but dirty, and not well
contrived so as to hold the greatest numbers. It consists of twelve
large Corinthian pillars, which occupy much of the room; and all
the upper boxes are like baskets projecting between them, and only
two deep. The shape of the house is a flat horseshoe, and well
proportioned. The singing tolerably good; and the dancing by no means
despicable. Except perhaps one or two of our best, it is better than at
our London theatres. The dresses are rich and expensive. The reception
of our Duke was very gracious; and it was not a little curious to
hear “God save the King” sung constantly with “_Vive Henri IV.!_”
_A l’Anglois, à l’Anglois!_ was also a popular cry, and produced a
hornpipe tune, always attended with great acclamation, but what the
connexion was I cannot say. Some impudent sailors always called out
for “Rule Britannia,” but French _politesse_ could not go so far. Two
Americans would not pull off their hats one night to “God save the
King,” and were shouldered out of the house in consequence.
The upper boxes are entirely filled with very smartly dressed ladies
of a certain class, whose wardrobes have improved during the last two
months, I have no doubt, as much as that of the similar class of ladies
at Toulouse,—and the last was very visible. The Theatre de la Gaieté
is a sort of Sadler’s Wells, neither more elegant, nor more chaste.
The rope dancing is decidedly good. There is also a Musée here, as
well as at Toulouse, but much inferior. There are not half a dozen
original pictures of any tolerable master. The antique inscriptions
are very uninteresting, to me at least, and there were no antiques
affording pleasure to an artist or amateur. The collection of birds,
serpents, butterflies, minerals, &c., are tolerable, but only of the
second order. The library also appeared smaller and inferior to that at
Toulouse, but there were many more readers, which surprised me.
There is also a deaf and dumb establishment here similar to that at
Paris, and a very civil and apparently very intelligent master. I
stayed there two hours, to have a regular lesson of the principles
of the education illustrated by the female pupils, who were the most
forward. There were about seventy scholars, mainly supported by the
Government. The pupils were not quite so skilful as those at Paris,
but it is always an interesting exhibition. To find out what we were,
the teacher ingeniously made a pupil ask us what nation we were of,
and of what profession, and as all the deaf and dumb pupils rejoiced
in the answer, and seemed much pleased, I determined to keep up our
good character, and gave the damsels a Napoleon, for which I got much
dumb-show thanks in return.
The cathedral, or principal church, of St. André, is a good Gothic
building of about the second class, built by “_vos Messieurs les
Anglais_,” as we are instantly told. It is in one respect unfinished;
for both the north and south fronts are intended to have each two light
Gothic spires on the towers, whereas only one pair is built—the other
has been but just commenced. The pair that exist were some little
time since out of repair, and a part had fallen down. Bonaparte saw
this, and graciously said they must be put in order directly. The
Bourdelois were grateful, thinking he intended to have it done, but he
only ordered it, and a tax on the commune at the same time, to pay for
it. In the same way, as he came from Lyons to Bordeaux, he found the
road bad, and much out of repair: this he also ordered to be repaired
immediately; but an _impôt_ all along the communes on the road, beyond
the expense of the repairs, followed likewise as immediately. The
Préfet’s palace he also ordered to be put in complete order, and it was
just finished in time to receive the Duke d’Angoulême, which was not
quite according to the wishes and intentions of the said Bonaparte.
The Exchange at Bordeaux is a well-contrived handsome building, and the
square in the centre, roofed in with sky-lights, to form a convenient
place for the different walks. The cloisters round are full of shops,
jewellery, maps, &c.
_June 28th._—I have just returned from the synagogue, where I have been
these two hours. There are nearly two thousand Jews at Bordeaux. “It
is no wonder the Christians are well fleeced,” as my French companion
observed, “when there are two thousand persons in the town who impose
it upon themselves as a duty, and cheat for religion’s sake.” The
chapel is a new building, the style of architecture not good, being
a sort of imitation of Saxon, or rather of no particular order, but
the shape of the temple is excellent, the proportions good, and the
whole imposing. A colonnade formed by pillars runs all round, with a
gallery above for the women, who are separated from the men. The altar
at the end, with the ark of the covenant and the books of Moses, &c.
The branch in the centre; round this the reading-desks, with the rows
of lights for the priests, &c. The upper gallery is arched over like
Covent Garden, with a circular roof.
The Jews were very civil. The singing was tolerably good; the singing
boys, about twenty in number, in white surplices and sky-blue silk
sashes and scarfs, and bonnets, had a good effect, mixed with the
old priests in their hoods. The ceremony of producing the books of
Moses and returning them to the ark was the most imposing in point
of solemnity, and was attended by music; but what to me was the most
striking, was when at a certain period in the service called the
Benediction, every parent found immediately his son or grandson, or the
children their parents. In short, after a few moments’ bustle, you saw
every one, whatever his age, imposing his hooded head and hands on his
own offspring, and every generation thus at the same instant receiving
the benediction from his own parent respectively. This was really an
imposing scene.
The most truly Jewish part followed, for by solemn proclamation
every sacred office, namely, the opening of the ark, the drawing the
curtains, carrying the books, putting on the ornaments, reading out
of them when produced, the right of assisting in every part of the
ceremonies, was regularly put up to auction, and sold to the highest
bidder. The biddings were from one franc to three and five, and even
at times up to forty and fifty. As I was informed, these profits were
given to the poor. There was a little spoilt Jew child, about six years
old, for whom its papa had, I conclude, bought the privilege of placing
the silver ornaments on the tops of the wooden rollers of the vellum
Pentateuch, and the little creature seemed much pleased and excessively
proud of his office. On Wednesday next there is to be a wedding, and if
not engaged, it is my intention to be present.
The coffee-houses here, before we came, were very good, and are not
very dear. They are now so hot and crowded, and in such confusion that
I prefer my dinner solo. Being in a great measure fixed by _la carte_
as to prices, I believe we are less imposed upon at the restaurateurs
than anywhere else.
I rode out one day about four miles on the old Bayonne road, to see
a house and garden much talked of here, belonging to a Mons. R——, the
Portuguese Consul, a queer old man, who goes about in a scarlet uniform
like that of our former English Generals, and with a white-feathered
General’s hat. The grounds and gardens are large, and in the first
style of a Paddington tea-garden, with a mixture of Hawkstone nonsense
and Walsh Porter’s sham villages, &c. The house is nothing remarkable,
consisting of a number of rooms by no means good; not a single good
picture, only some bad indecent ones and very free prints. The most
ludicrous part was a regular inscription of “Library” over a door which
led to a little closet with one small set of book-shelves, containing a
dozen or two of great almanacs, and a few odd volumes of all sorts of
books, the whole in number about a hundred.
On the landing-place on the stairs is a negro, carved in wood, holding
a bottle and glass. The flower-garden—which is in the old style, is
tolerable. There are no good statues, but plenty of cut trees in all
shapes, temples, &c., the whole being an endeavour to make poor Nature
as little likely to know herself as possible. There were trees with
the stems in frames and the tops pointed. In the cut promenades in
the woods were tombs and wooden painted figures, of all sorts and
descriptions. There were dogs in their houses, the prodigal son feeding
swine, a mad lady half naked in a cage, &c. In another part of the
garden was a labyrinth, and a windmill with a wooden man looking out of
one window and a woman out of the other, and below these a wooden cow
and some sheep, goats, deer of the same material, grazing.
Strangers are admitted to survey this place on any day. The doors were
opened to about a dozen of us, and we were turned loose, without any
showman, into the house and grounds, and ranged about where we pleased.
On Sunday every one is admitted, and it is said there is much company.
The walks are cool, and it is not surprising that they are frequented.
The whole is one mode out of many of obtaining notoriety. An ingenious
way for preserving the flowers is by an inscription insinuating that
every flower is a transformed female. This would not, I fear, succeed
in England. The poor ladies would have many a pinch and squeeze, and
lose many a limb, if Kensington Gardens were full of such flowers, and
had no other protector.
_Sunday, 19th._—The embarkation of the troops is now going on with
more spirit. The fourth division are, I believe, all on board, if
not sailed, and everything is by degrees moving down towards the
camp at Blanquefort, and the place of embarkation, Pouillac, about
thirty-five miles below this. From the state of uncertainty in which
I remain I shall be one of the last, if I go at all, that is, whether
our Tarragona Court-martial is put an end to. All accounts which have
reached me agree with P——’s. I have thought all along that, with the
help and assistance of Bonaparte himself, who was our best ally,
almost the whole of what has happened has arisen, as it were, from the
peculiar state of the nations of Europe, and from a natural course of
events directed by Providence, and with which the Allies had nothing to
do, except not to prevent it by their blunders or quarrels.
We have various letters from Toulouse, to officers of the army, full of
regret for the loss of their English friends, and by no means satisfied
with the exchange for their own countrymen. The army is vexed at this,
and matters are worse, as they do nothing but grumble and quarrel in
consequence. The reception of the French troops when they entered, it
is said, was very flat and provoking. D’Armagnac, who was supposed to
have saved the town by advising Soult to be off, was sent in first,
with two thousand five hundred men, and he and his officers bowed and
were very anxious to court a cordial greeting; but the dull silence
was scarcely broken, and the French officers could not contain their
vexation and abuse in consequence. There was, I believe, more sincerity
in the professions of the Toulousians towards us, as far as the
majority was concerned, than is usual with Frenchmen, or than we could
reasonably have expected from them.
On the other hand, the accounts from the cavalry, of their treatment in
their march through France, is very different from ours at Toulouse:—in
this they all agree. The officers, trusting to French hospitality, have
left their own beds behind, and having had to bivouac almost as much
as in Spain, they have had a bad time of it. Several letters have come
from Mr. H——, who went with the column through Angoulême and Poictiers.
He has written from both these places. He says, “The inhabitants
profess openly that, as we chose to march through France, they will
try and make us repent of it. They scarcely give any quarters, send
the men leagues about out of the road, and only let the Commissary buy
his provisions on the road. At Angoulême, a town which might quarter
ten thousand men without inconvenience for a short time, they would
only suffer a few officers and the General in the town, and most
of those were quartered at inns. The General and one servant got a
billet at a private house, but he was to pay if he took more in with
him. The incivility is general; the doors were all shut against us.
The playhouse at Angoulême was empty the night it was known that our
officers would be there. Nothing to be had without paying.” This is the
same spirit of vexation as that in the army—a conviction that they have
been beaten, and that this march is a sort of proof and token of it.
_Head-Quarters, Bordeaux, June 26th, 1814._—My life has been every day
the same—a ride early, at work at home all the middle of the day, a
dinner generally solo, and another walk or ride in the evening, or, as
the weather has become cooler again, sometimes the play.
I have spoken to Colonel M—— about your friends who think of a removal
to the south of France, he having many connexions at Toulouse. He is
decidedly of opinion that that should be the place of abode, for a
family of ladies especially; I am rather disposed to be of the same
opinion. Pau, however, which I have not seen, is much recommended.
Supposing they fix on Toulouse, Colonel M—— says, of course, that
the house which they will require for comfort must be large, giving
them four rooms with _lits de maître_, and four beds for _filles de
chambres_, and about four other servants, and three good sitting rooms,
&c. He thinks such a house may be had for about eighteen hundred francs
a-year, that is, about 75_l._ a-year. I can assure them, that in point
of economy, all must depend upon their arrangements being made by some
French friends, and not by an English one. In house-rent, in wine,
in everything, an inhabitant will get articles at one-third of the
price demanded of the English. The French have no ideas of honesty or
moderation towards the English, and not much towards any one in matters
of trade. The extortion, and even the downright frauds committed,
especially on travellers, are quite disgraceful, and every tradesman
assists his neighbour in getting a job, and fleecing the _milords_.
I believe they are like the Jews, and have, from continual practice,
arrived at the same conclusion as the others from religion, namely,
that they are performing a duty when they cheat an Englishman.
There are two Protestant chapels here, and one excellent preacher, in
the style of a London chapel preacher, only extempore; I heard one very
eloquent French sermon delivered by him, with great propriety. The
service, the singing, and other parts of the duty, are but moderately
performed.
The courts of justice are much the same as at Toulouse, and about nine
or ten judges generally attend. I was unfortunately obliged to leave
Toulouse before their criminal sessions with a jury commenced, and on
my arrival here they were over. This takes place only once in three
months, unless something extraordinary or a great press of business
occurs. I attended a case of misdemeanor, a bad assault, in the
criminal court, but that was an appeal only, and being of the class of
_petits delits_, there never is a jury—but a president and five judges.
The same number presides when there is a jury, in more penal trials;
and in certain cases when the jury are divided, as for instance seven
against five, then the judges are called in to vote as jurymen, and the
proportion of votes required by law calculated on the whole numbers.
There was much unnecessary delay and argument in the case I heard. It
was like one of our worst-managed cases of motions for a new trial
on account of deficiency of evidence, which are always of the most
tiresome class.
_Post-day, June 27th._—I have been to the Jew’s wedding. The ceremony
consists principally of singing and drinking, and blessings in Hebrew.
There must be something Jewish, however, as usual, and that is
concerning the ring, which, as soon as it is produced, is shown round
to all the rabbies near, and some elders, &c., and to the sponsors, to
be sure it is really gold, or otherwise the marriage is void, and the
true old clothesman-like way in which they all spied at the ring was
very amusing. Nearly the last ceremony is the bridegroom’s smashing a
wine-glass in a plate on the floor, with an idea that he and his spouse
are then as difficult to separate as it would be to reunite the glass.
The gentleman showed gallantry by exerting all his force, and looking
most fiercely as he broke the glass.
I understand that the Duke of Wellington came back from Madrid with a
much better impression of King Ferdinand than when he went, thinking
that he showed talent, firmness, and character. The manner in which he
received the Duke may have somewhat disposed him to this favourable
judgment. I understand the King immediately treated the Duke as a
grandee of Spain, by shaking hands with him, and putting his hat on,
and that the king declared almost the only two acts of the Cortes,
which he approved of _in toto_, were those which made the Duke
commander of all the Spanish armies, and gave him the estate in the
South.
We have had news from our cavalry from the vicinity of Paris, from
Chartres; all the officers have deserted their regiments to see
Paris—that present wonder of wonders! They have occasionally lately
been better treated, that is, whenever they met with a Royalist patron
at their quarters. H—— says there seems to be two parties everywhere,
and it is a sort of lottery which they fall into the hands of; that,
when he wrote last from Chartres he had been “stuffed to death,” made
to eat three or four meals a-day, and to attend a party given on
purpose for him every evening: this, I conclude, was all a _douce_
violence.
Still no news as to our Tarragona plan. My patron, Monsieur Emerigon,
says, that at Paris the Emperor of Russia individually was the most
popular, except perhaps the English and our Duke; that the Russian
troops were not in such favour; the King of Prussia so-so. Blucher and
his troops better, but the Emperor of Austria the worst of all; and
every one must have observed the marked difference of his reception
from that of the other sovereigns.
I am to-day turned out of my room, which is the dining-room, as my
patron gives a dinner, to which he has asked me. I must not therefore
complain.
We have been paid up a good deal of money at this place, where the
quantity of gold and silver we have circulated is quite incredible.
Every one talks of it, and the piles and piles of empty money-boxes
of all sorts, and from all quarters, fully prove it. At present we
have immense quantities of French money, Napoleons and Louis, gold
and silver, from Paris, whilst, on the other hand, I am told that the
French are here buying up our guineas and Portuguese gold, to turn them
into Louis, as they have begun a new coinage both here and at Paris.