_THE WATERING PLACES OF NORMANDY._
'Trouville est une double extrait de Paris--la vie est une fête, et
le costume une mascarade.'--_Conty._
The watering-places of Normandy are so well known to English people that
there is little that is new to be said respecting them; at the same time
any description of this country would not be considered complete without
some mention of the sea-coast.
The principal bathing places on the north coast are the following,
commencing from the east:--DIEPPE, FÉCAMP, ÉTRETAT, TROUVILLE
and DEAUVILLE, VILLERS-SUR-MER, HOULGATE, CABOURG, and CHERBOURG.
We will say a few words about Trouville and Étretat (as representative
places) and conclude with some statistics, in an APPENDIX, which may
be useful to travellers.
Life at Trouville is the gayest of the gay: it is not so much to bathe
that we come here, as because on this fine sandy shore near the mouth of
the Seine, the world of fashion and delight has made its summer home;
because here we can combine the refinements, pleasures, and
'distractions' of Paris with northern breezes, and indulge without
restraint in those rampant follies that only a Frenchman, or a
Frenchwoman, understands. It is a pretty, graceful, and rational idea,
no doubt, to combine the ball room with the sanatorium, and the opera
with any amount of ozone; and we may well be thankful to Dumas for
inventing a seaside resort at once so pleasant and so gay.
Of the daily life at Trouville and Deauville there is literally nothing
new to be told; they are the best, the most fashionable, and the most
extravagant of French watering-places; and there is the usual round of
bathing in the early morning, breakfast at half-past ten, donkey-riding,
velocipede racing, and driving in the country until the afternoon,
promenade concerts and in-door games at four, dinner at six or seven
(table-d'hôte, if you please, where new comers are stared at with that
solid, stony stare, of which only the politest nation in the world, is
capable)--casino afterwards, with pleasant, mixed society, concert again
and '_la danse_.'
Of the fashion and extravagance at Trouville a moralist might feel
inclined to say much, but we are here for a summer holiday, and we
_must_ be gay both in manner and attire. It is our business to be
delighted with the varied scene of summer costume, and with all the
bizarre combinations of colour that the beautiful Parisians try upon us;
but it is impossible altogether to ignore the aspect of anxiety which
the majority of people bring with them from Paris. They come
'possessed,' (the demon is in those huge boxes, which have caused the
death of so many poor _facteurs_, and which the railway pours out upon
us, daily); they bring their burden of extravagance with them, they take
it down to the beach, they plunge into the water with it, and come up
burdened as before.
_Dress_ is the one thing needful at Trouville--in the water, or on the
sands. Look at that old French gentleman, with the cross of the Legion
of Honour on his breast; he is neat and clean, his dress is, in all
respects, perfection; and it is difficult to say whether it is the make
of his boots, the fit of his gloves, or his hat, which is most on his
mind--they furnish him with food for much thought, and sometimes
trouble him not a little. Of the ladies' attire what shall we say? It is
all described in the last number of '_Le Follet_,' and we will not
attempt to compete with that authority; we will rather quote two lines
from the letter of a young English lady, who thus writes home to quiet
friends,--'We are all delighted with Trouville; we have to make _five
toilettes daily_, the gentlemen are so particular.'
Of the bathing at Trouville, a book might be written on the costumes
alone--on the suits of motley, the harlequins, the mephistopheles, the
spiders, the 'grasshoppers green,' and the other eccentric _costumes de
bain_--culminating in a lady's dress trimmed with death's heads, and a
gentleman's, of an indescribable colour, after the pattern of a trail of
seaweed. Strange, costly creatures--popping in and out of little wooden
houses, seated, solitary on artificial rocks, or pacing up and down
within the limits prescribed by the keeper of the show--tell us,
'Monsieur l'administrateur,' something about their habits; stick some
labels into the sand with their Latin names, tell us how they manage to
feather their nests, whether they 'ruminate' over their food--and we
shall have added to our store of knowledge at the seaside!
It is all admirably managed ('administered' is the word), as everything
of the kind is in France. In order to bathe, as the French understand
it, you must study costume, and to make a good appearance in the water
you must move about with the dexterity and grace required in a ball
room; you must remember that you are present at a _bal de mer_, and that
you are not in a tub. There are water velocipedes, canoes for ladies,
and floats for the unskilful; fresh water for the head before bathing,
and tubs of hot water afterwards for the feet, on the sands; an
appreciating and admiring audience on the shore; a lounge across the
sands and through the 'Établissement,' in costumes more scanty than
those of Neapolitan fish girls!
Yes, youth and beauty come to Trouville-by-the-sea; French beauty of the
dresden china pattern, side by side and hand in hand, with the young
English girl of the heavy Clapham type (which elderly Frenchmen
adore)--all in the water together, in the prettiest dresses, 'sweetly
trimmed' and daintily conceived; all joining hands, men and women having
a 'merry go round' in the water--some swimming, some diving, shouting,
and disporting themselves, and 'playing fantastic tricks before high
heaven,'--to the admiration of a crowded beach.
'_Honi soit qui mal y pense_,' when English ladies join the party, and
write home that 'it is delightful, that there is a refreshing disregard
for what people may think at French watering-places, and a charming
absence of self-consciousness that disarms criticism'! What does quiet
paterfamilias think about his mermaid daughter, and of that touch about
the 'absence of self-consciousness;' and would anything induce _him_ to
clothe himself in a light-green skin, to put on a pair of 'human fins,'
or to perch himself on the rocks before a crowd of ladies on the beach,
within a few yards of him? Yes, it _is_ delightful--the prettiest sight
and the brightest life imaginable; but is it quite the thing, we may
ask, for English girls to take their tone (ever so little) from the
Casino, and from the '_Guides Conty;_' which they do as surely, as the
caterpillar takes its colour from the leaf on which it feeds?
But the system of bathing in France is so sensible and good compared
with our own; the facilities for learning to swim, the accommodation for
bathers, and the accessories, are so superior to anything we know of in
England, that we hardly like to hint at any drawbacks. We need not all
go to Trouville (some of us cannot afford it), but we may live at most
of these bathing places at less cost, and with more comfort and
amusement than at home. They do manage some things better in France: at
the seaside here the men dress in suits of flannel, and wear light
canvas shoes habitually; the women swim, and take their children with
them into the water,--floating them with gourds, which accustoms them to
the water, and to the use of their limbs. At the hotels and restaurants,
they provide cheap and appetizing little dinners; there is plenty of ice
in hot weather, and cooling drinks are to be had everywhere: in short,
in these matters the practical common sense of the French people strikes
us anew, every time we set foot on their shores. Why it should be so, we
cannot answer; but as long as it is so, our countrymen and countrywomen
may well crowd to French watering-places.
The situation of Trouville is thus described by Blanchard Jerrold, who
knows the district better than most Englishmen:--'Even the shore has
been subdued to comfortable human uses; rocks have been picked out of
the sand, until a carpet as smooth as Paris asphalte has been obtained
for the fastidious feet of noble dames, who are the finishing bits of
life and colour in the exquisite scene. Even the ribbed sand is not
smooth enough; a boarded way has been fixed from the casino to the
mussel banks, whither the dandy resorts to play at mussel gathering, in
a nautical dress that costs a sailor's income. The great and rich have
planted their Louis XIII. chateaux, their 'maisons mauresques' and
'pavillons à la renaissance,' so closely over the available slopes,
round about the immense and gaudily-appointed Casino, and the Hotel of
the Black Rocks, that it has been found necessary to protect them with
masonry of more than Roman strength. From these works of startling
force, and boldness of design, the view is a glorious one indeed. To the
right stretches the white line of Havre, pointed with its electric
_phare_; to the left, the shore swells and dimples, and the hills, in
gentle curves, rise beyond. Deauville is below, and beyond--a flat,
formal place of fashion, where ladies exhibit the genius of Worth to one
another, and to the astonished fishermen.
Imagine a splendid court playing at seaside life; imagine such a place
as Watteau would have designed, with inhabitants as elegantly rustic as
his, and you imagine a Trouville. It is the village of the
millionaire--the stage whereon the duchess plays the hoyden, and the
princess seeks the exquisite relief of being natural for an hour or two.
No wonder every inch of the rock is disputed; there are so many now in
the world who have sipped all the pleasures the city has to give.
Masters of the art of entering a drawing-room, the Parisians crowd
seaward to get the sure foot of the mussel-gatherer upon the slimy
granite of a bluff Norman headland; they bring their taste with them,
and they get heartiness in the bracing air. The _salon_ of the casino,
at the height of the season, is said to show at once the most animated
and diverting assemblage of Somebodies to be seen in the world.'
DEAUVILLE, separated only by the river Touques, is a place of
greater pretension even than Trouville. It is, however, quite in its
infancy; it was planned for a handsome and extensive watering-place, but
the death of the Duc de Morny has stopped its growth,--large tracts of
land, in what should be the town, still lying waste. It is quiet
compared with Trouville, select and 'aristocratic,' and boasts the
handsomest casino in France; it is built for the most part upon a sandy
plain, but the houses are so tastefully designed, and so much has been
made of the site, that (from some points of view) it presents, with its
background of hills, a singularly picturesque appearance.
No matter how small or uninteresting the locality, if it is to be
fashionable, _il n'y aura point de difficulté_. If there are no natural
attractions, the ingenious and enterprising speculator will provide
them; if there are no trees, he will bring them,--no rocks, he will
manufacture them,--no river, he will cut a winding canal,--no town, he
will build one,--no casino, he will erect a wooden shed on the sands!
But of all the bathing-places on the north coast of Normandy the little
fishing-village of ÉTRETAT will commend itself most to English
people, for its bold coast and bracing air. Situated about seventeen
miles north-east of Havre, shut in on either side by rocks which form a
natural arch over the sea, the little bay of Étretat--with its brilliant
summer crowd of idlers and its little group of fishermen who stand by it
in all weathers--is one of the quaintest of the nooks and corners of
France.
There is a homelike snugness and retirement about the position of
Étretat, and a mystery about the caves and caverns--extending for long
distances under its cliffs--which form an attraction that we shall find
nowhere else. Since Paris has found it out, and taken it by storm as it
were, the little fishermen's village has been turned into a gay
_parterre_; its shingly beach lined with chairs _à volonté_, and its
shores smoothed and levelled for delicate feet. The _Casino_ and the
_Établissement_ are all that can be desired; whilst pretty châlets and
villas are scattered upon the hills that surround the town. There is
scarcely any 'town' to speak of; a small straggling village, with the
remains of a Norman church, once close to the sea (built on the spot
where the people once watched the great flotilla of William the
Conqueror drift eastward to St. Valery), and on the shore, old worn-out
boats, thatched and turned into fishermen's huts and bathing retreats.
Étretat has its peculiar customs; the old fisher-women, who assume the
more profitable occupation of washerwomen during the summer, go down to
the shore as the tide is ebbing, and catch the spring water on its way
to the sea; scooping out the stones, and making natural washing-tubs of
fresh water close to the sea--a work of ten minutes or so, which is all
washed away by the next tide. At Étretat almost everybody swims and
wears a costume of blue serge, trimmed with scarlet, or other bright
colour; and everybody sits in the afternoon in the gay little bay,
purchases shell ornaments and useless souvenirs, sips coffee or ices,
and listens to the band. For a very little place, without a railway, and
with only two good hotels, Étretat is wonderfully lively and attractive;
and the drives in the neighbourhood add to its natural attractions.
The show is nearly over for the season, at Étretat, by the time we leave
it; the puppets are being packed up for Paris, and even the boxes that
contained them will soon be carted away to more sheltered places. It is
late in September, and the last few bathers are making the most of their
time, and wandering about on the sands in their most brilliant attire;
but their time is nearly over, Étretat will soon be given up to the
fishermen again--like the bears in the high Pyrenees, that wait at the
street corners of the mountain towns, and scramble for the best places
after the visitors have left, the natives of Étretat are already
preparing to return to their winter quarters.
It is the finest weather of the year, and the setting sun is brilliant
upon the shore; a fishing-boat glides into the bay, and a little
fisher-boy steps out upon the sands. He comes down towards us, facing
the western sun, with such a glory of light about his head, such a halo
of fresh youth, and health, as we have not seen once this summer, in the
'great world.' His feet are bare, and leave their tiny impress on the
sand--a thousand times more expressive than any Parisian boot; his
little bronzed hands are crystallized with the salt air; his dark-brown
curls are flecked with sea-foam, and flutter in the evening breeze; his
face is radiant--a reflection of the sun, a mystery of life and beauty
half revealed.
After all we have seen and heard around us, it is like turning, with a
thankful sense of rest, from the contemplation of some tricky effect of
colour, to a painting by Titian or Velasquez; it is, in an artistic
sense, transition from darkness to light--from the glare of the lamp to
the glory of the true day.
APPENDIX TO NORMANDY PICTURESQUE.
Sketch of Route, showing the Distances, Fares, &c., to and from the
principal Places in Normandy.
TRAVELLING EXPENSES over the whole of this Route (including the
journey from London to Havre, or Dieppe, and back) do not amount to more
than 4l. 4s. first class, and need not exceed 3l. 10s. (see p.
240). HOTEL EXPENSES average about 10s. a day.
Thus it is possible to accomplish month's tour for £20, and one of two
months for £35.
There are _no good hotels_ in Normandy (excepting at the seaside)
according to modern ideas of comfort and convenience. CAEN,
AVRANCHES, and ROUEN may be mentioned as the best places
at which to stay, _en route_.
Havre to Pont Audemer.--Steamboat direct.--Fare 2frs. Or viâ Honfleur
or Trouville, by boat and diligence.
Dieppe to Pont Audemer.--Railway (viâ Rouen and Glosmontfort) 65
miles. Fare, first class, 12frs. 50c. (10s.)
PONT AUDEMER (Pop. 6000). Hotels: _Pôt d'Étain_ (old-fashioned in
style, but no longer in prices); _Lion d'Or_.
Pont Audemer to Lisieux.--Diligence. Distance, 22 miles.--Or by Ry. 43
miles; fare, 8frs. 50c. (7s.) Fare.[64]
LISIEUX (Pop. 13,000). Hotels: _de France_, (on a quiet boulevard,
with garden); _d'Espagne_, &c.
Lisieux to Caen.--Railway, 30 miles. Fare, 5frs. 50c. (4s. 6d.)
CAEN (Pop. 44,000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre_, (well-managed, central,
and bustling); _d'Espagne_, &c.
Caen to Bayeux.--Railway, 19 miles. Fare, 3frs. 40c. (2s. 9d.)
BAYEUX (Pop. 9,500). Hotels: _du Luxembourg, Grand Hotel_, &c.
Bayeux to St. Lo.--Railway 28 miles. Fare, 5frs. (4s.)
[Bayeux to Cherbourg. Rly. 63 miles. Fare, 11frs. 40s. (9s. 6d.)]
[For Hotels, &c., see App., p. iv.]
ST. LO (Pop. 10,000). Hotel: _du Soleil
Levant_ (quiet and commercial.)
St. Lo to Coutances.--Diligence, 16 miles.
COUTANCES (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _de
France, du Dauphin, &c._ (indifferent).
Coutances to Granville.--Diligence, 18 miles.
GRANVILLE (Pop. 17,000). Hotels: _du
Nord_ (large and bustling, crowded with
English from the Channel Islands);
_Trois Couronnes, &c._ (See p. 123.)
Granville to Avranches.--Diligence, 16 miles.
AVRANCHES (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre,
de Bretagne, &c._ (accustomed
to English people.)
[Excursion to Mont St. Michel and back in one day; Carriage,
15frs, (12s. 6d.). Distance, 10 miles; or by Pont Orson
(the best route), 13 miles.]
Avranches to Vire.--Diligence, 36 miles (viâ Mortain).
VIRE (Pop. 8000). Hotel: _du Cheval
Blanc_.
[Mortain to Domfront. Diligence, 17 miles. (Pop. 3000.)
_Hotel de la Poste_.]
Vire to Falaise.--Diligence, 34 miles [or by Rly. 65 miles.
Fare, 12frs. (9s. 9d.)]
FALAISE (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _de Normandie,
&c._ (All commercial.)
Falaise to Rouen.--Rly. 83 miles (viâ Mezidon and Serquiny).
Fare, 15frs. 50c. (12s. 6d.)
[At Serquiny turn off to Evreux, 26 miles. Fare from Serquiny,
4frs. 60c. (3s. 9d.) Hotel: _Grand Cerf_.]
ROUEN (Pop. 103,000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre,
d'Albion, &c._ (none first-rate,
generally full of English people.)
Rouen to Havre by the Seine; or by Rly.
_List of the_ WATERING-PLACES OF NORMANDY, _from east to west,
with a few notes for Visitors_.
Dieppe (Pop. 20,000).--Busy seaport town--fashionable and expensive
during the season--good accommodation facing the sea--pretty rides
and drives in the neighbourhood--shingly beach, bracing air.
HOTELS: _Royal, des Bains, de Londres, &c. Ry. to Paris._
Fécamp (13,000).--A dull uninteresting town, inns second-rate and
dear, in summer--situated on a river, the town reaching for nearly
a mile inland.
HOTELS: _de la Plage, des Bains, Chariot d'Or. Ry. to Paris._
Étretat (2000).--Romantic situation--bracing air--rocky coast--shingly
beach--only two good hotels--a few villas and apartments--no
town--very amusing for a time.
HOTELS: _Blanquet, Hauville, Dil. to Fécamp, and Havre._
Havre (75,000).--Large and important seaport on the right bank of the
Seine--harbour, docks, warehouses, fine modern buildings, streets,
and squares--picturesque old houses and fishing-boats on the
quay--bathing not equal to Dieppe or Trouville.
HOTELS: _de l'Europe, de l'Amirauté, &c., and Frascatî's on the
sea-shore. Ry. to Paris; Steamboats to Trouville, &c._
Honfleur (10,000).--Opposite Havre, on the Seine--old and picturesque
town--pleasant walks--English society--sea-bathing, "_mais quels
bains_," says Conty, "_bains impossible!_" Living is not dear for
residents.
HOTELS: _du Cheval Blanc, de la Paix, &c. Ry. to Paris_.
Trouville (5000 or 6000).--Fashionable and very dear at the best
hotels--ample accommodation to suit all purses--good
sands--splendid casino--handsome villas, and plenty of apartments.
Less bracing than Dieppe or Étretat.
HOTELS: _Roches-Noires, Paris, Bras d'Or, &c. Ry. to Paris._
Deauville.--A scattered assemblage of villas and picturesque
houses--very exclusive and select, and dull for a stranger--grand
casino--quite a modern town--separated from Trouville by the river
Touques.
HOTELS: _Grand, du Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._
Villers-sur-mer.--A pretty village, six miles from Trouville--crowded
during the season--beautiful neighbourhood--good apartments, but
expensive--inns moderate.
HOTELS: _du Bras d'Or, Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._
Houlgate.--One large hotel surrounded by pretty and well-built châlets
to be let furnished; also many private villas in gardens--beautiful
situation--good sands--small Casino--becoming fashionable and
dear--accommodation limited. _Dil. to Trouville, 11 miles_.
Beuzeval.--A continuation of Houlgate, westward; lower, near the mouth
of the Dives--one second-rate hotel close to the sands--quiet and
reasonable--sea recedes half-a-mile (no boating at Houlgate or
Beuzeval)--beautiful neighbourhood--a few villas and apartments--no
Établissement. _Dil. to Trouville or Caen_.
Cabourg.--A small, but increasing, town in a fine open situation on
the left bank of the Dives--good accommodation and moderate--not as
well known as it deserves to be. HOTELS: _de la Plage,
Casino, &c. Dil. do. do_.
[Then follow nine or ten minor sea-bathing places, situated north of
Caen and Bayeux, in the following order:--Lies, Luc, Lasgrune, St,
Aubin, Coutances, Aromanches, Auxelles, Vierville, and Grandcamp;
where accommodation is more or less limited, and board and lodging need
not cost more than seven or eight francs a-day in the season. They are
generally spoken of in French guide-books as, '_bien tristes sans
ressources;_' 'fit only for fathers of families'! St. Aubin, about
twelve miles from Caen, is one of the best.]
Cherbourg (42,000).--Large, fortified town--bold coast--good
bathing--splendid views from the heights--wide
streets and squares--docks and harbours--hotels--good
and dear.
HOTELS: _l'Univers, l'Amirauté, &c. Ry. to Paris_.
Granville.--See pp. 122 and following; also Appendix, p. ii.
* * * * *
The average charge at seaside hotels in Normandy, during the season (if
taken by the week) is 8 or 9 francs a-day, for sleeping accommodation
and the two public meals; nearly everything else being charged for
'extra.' At Trouville, Deauville, and Dieppe, 10 or 12 francs is
considered 'moderate.' Furnished houses and apartments can be had nearly
everywhere, and at all prices. The sum of 10_l._ or 15_l_. a week is
sometimes paid at Trouville, or Deauville, for a furnished house.
Conty's guide-book, '_Les Côtes de Normandie_,' should be recommended
for its very practical information on these matters, but not for its
illustrations.
_London, May, 1870._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] We have not put CHERBOURG, DOMFRONT, or EVREAUX, as a matter of
course, on our list, although they should be included in a tour,
especially the two latter towns, for their archæological interest.
[2] The same remark applies to Mantes, familiar to us from its
historical associations, and by its graceful towers, which so many have
seen from the railway in going to Paris. "All the world goes by Mantes,
but very few stop there," writes a traveller. "The tourist, on his way
to Paris, generally has a ticket which allows him to stop at Rouen but
not at Mantes. People very anxious to stop at Mantes, and to muse, so to
speak, amongst its embers, have had great searchings of heart how to get
there, and have not accomplished their object until after some years of
reflection."
[3] Trouville and Deauville-sur-mer.
[4] The architecture of Rouen, which is better known to our countrymen
than that of any other town in Normandy, is later than that of Caen or
Bayeux. Notwithstanding the magnificence of its cathedral, we venture to
say that there is nothing in all Rouen to compare with the norman
romanesque of the latter towns.
[5] 'I am not enthusiastic about gutters and gables, and object to a
population composed exclusively of old women,' wrote the author of 'Miss
Carew;' but she could not have seen Pont Audemer.
[6] The brightness and cleanliness of the peasant and market-women, is a
pleasant feature to notice in Normandy.
[7] It is worthy of note that the very variety and irregularity that
attracts us so much in these buildings does not meet with universal
approval in the French schools. In the _'Grammaire des Arts du Dessin_,'
M. Charles Blanc lays down as an axiom, that "sublimity in architecture
belongs to three essential conditions--simplicity of surface,
straightness, and continuity of line." Nevertheless we find many modern
French houses built in the style of the 13th and 14th century;
especially in Lower Normandy.
[8] There is a great change in the aspect of Pont Audemer during the
last year or two; streets of new houses having sprung up, hiding some of
the best old work from view; and one whole street of wooden houses
having been lately taken down.
[9] There is one peculiarity about the position of Pont Audemer which is
charming to an artist; the streets are ended by hills and green slopes,
clothed to their summits with trees, which are often in sunshine, whilst
the town is in shadow.
[10] We, human creatures, little know what high revel is held at four
o'clock on a summer's morning, by the birds of the air and the beasts of
the field; when their tormentors are asleep.
[11] The approach to Lisieux from the railway station is singularly
uninteresting; a new town of common red brick houses, of the Coventry or
Birmingham pattern, having lately sprung up in this quarter.
[12] There is something not inappropriate, in the printed letters in
present use in France, to the 'Haussmann' style of street architecture;
some inscriptions over warehouses and shops could scarcely indeed be
improved. We might point as an illustration of our meaning to the
successful introduction of the word NORD, several times repeated, on the
façade of the terminus of the Great Northern Railway at Paris.
[13] We lately saw an english crest, bearing the motto "Courage without
fear;" a piece of tautology, surely of modern manufacturer?
[14] The contrast between the present and former states of society might
be typified by the general substitution of the screw for the nail in
building; both answering the purpose of the modern builder, but the
former preferred, because _removable_ at pleasure.
It is a restless age, in which advertisements of 'FAMILIES REMOVED' are
pasted on the walls of a man's house without appearing to excite his
indignation.
[15] The 'renaissance' work at the east end of this church is considered
by Herr Lübke to be 'the masterpiece of the epoch.' 'It is to be found,'
he says, 'at one extremity of a building, the other end of which is
occupied by the loveliest steeple and tower in the world.'
[16] It is remarkable that with all their care for this building, the
authorities should permit apple-stalls and wooden sheds to be built up
against the tower.
[17] An architect, speaking of the Albert Memorial, now approaching
completion, says:--'In ten years the spire and all its elaborate tracery
will have become obsolete and effaced for all artistic purposes. The
atmosphere of London will have performed its inevitable function. Every
'scroll work' and 'pinnacle' will be a mere clot of soot, and the bronze
gilt Virtues will represent nothing but swarthy denizens of the lower
regions; the plumage of the angels will be converted into a sort of
black-and-white check-work. 'All this fated transformation we see with
the mind's eye as plainly as we see with those of the body, the similar
change which has been effected in the Gothic tracery of some of our
latest churches.'
[18] The old woman is well known at Caen, and her encounter with the
'_garçon anglais_' it matter of history amongst her friends in the town.
[19] It was lately found necessary to repair the south door; but the
restoration of the carved work has been effected with the utmost skill
and care: indeed we could hardly point to a more successful instance of
'restoring' in France.
[20] We might point, as a notable exception, to the memorial window to
Brunel, the engineer, in Westminster Abbey; especially for its
appropriateness and harmony with the building.
[21] The _raconteurs_ of the middle ages used to travel on foot about
Europe, reciting, or repeating, the last new work or conversation of
celebrated men--a useful and lucrative profession in days before
printing was invented.
[22] In the British Museum there is a book containing a facsimile of the
whole of this tapestry (printed in colours, for the Society of
Antiquaries), where the reader may see it almost as well as at Bayeux;
just as, at the Crystal Palace, we may examine the modelling of
Ghiberti's gates, with greater facility than by standing in the windy
streets of Florence.
[23] The sketch of the pulpit (made on the spot by the author) is
erroneously stated in the List of Illustrations to be from a photograph.
[24] At the cathedral at Coutances the service is held under the great
tower, and the effect is most melodious from above.
[25] In an article in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, on the 'woman of the
future,' the writer argues that:--'As beauty is more or less a matter of
health, too much can never be said against the abuse of it. Quite
naturally the fragile type of beauty has become the standard of the
present day, and men admire in real lift the lily-cheeked,
small-waisted, diaphanous-looking creatures idealized by living artists.
When we become accustomed to a nobler kind of beauty we shall attain to
a loftier ideal. Men will seek nobility rather than prettiness, strength
rather than weakness, physical perfection rather than physical
degeneracy, in the women they select as mothers of their children.
Artists will rejoice and sculptors will cease to despair when this happy
consummation is reached--let none regard it as chimerical or Utopian.'
[26] The railway from Paris to Granville is nearly finished; and another
line is in progress to connect Cherbourg, Coutances, Granville, and St.
Malo.
[27] If this were the place to enlarge upon the general question of
bringing children abroad to be educated, we might suggest, at the
outset, that there were certain English qualities, such as manliness and
self-reliance; and certain English sports, such as cricket, hunting and
the like, which have less opportunity of fair development in boys
educated abroad. And as to girls--who knows the impression left for life
on young hearts, by the dead walls and silent trees of a French
_pension_?
[28] It is well that sportsmen do not always make a good bag, for
another drawback to the pleasures of sport in France is the 'heavy
octroi duty which a successful shot has to pay upon every head of game
which he takes back to town.' For a pheasant (according to the latest
accounts) he has to pay '3f. 50c. to 4f.; for a hare, 1f. 50c. to 2f.;
for a rabbit, 75c. to 1f. 25c.; for a partridge, 75c. to 1f. 50c. the
pound; and for every other species of feathered game, 18c. the
kilogramme.'
[29] The island, in this illustration, appears, after engraving, to be
about two miles nearer the spectator, and to be less covered with
houses, than it really is.
[30] During the last few years the prisoners have all been removed from
Mont St. Michael.
[31] The sands are so shifting and variable, that it is impossible to
cross with safety, excepting by well-known routes, and at certain times
of the tide; many lives, even of the fishermen and women, have been lost
on these sands.
[32] It a irresistible, here, not to compare in our minds, with these
twelfth-century relics of magnificence and festivity, certain emblazoned
'civic banquets,' and the gay 'halls by the sea,' with which the child
(old or young) of the nineteenth century is enraptured--the former being
the realities of a chivalrous epoch; the latter, masquerades or money
speculations, of a more advanced century. The comparison may be
considered unjust, but it is one that suggests itself again and again,
as typical of a curiously altered state of society and manners.
[33] The latest, and perhaps the most complete, description of Mont St
Michael, will be found in the 'People's Magazine' for August, 1869.
[34] French artists flock together in the valleys of the Seine and the
Somme, like English landscape painters at the junction of the Greta and
the Tees--Mortain and Vire not being yet fashionable. It is hard,
indeed, to get English artists out of a groove; to those who, like
ourselves, have had to examine the pictures at our annual Exhibitions,
year by year, somewhat closely, the streams in Wales are as familiar on
canvas, as 'Finding the Body of Harold.'
[35] We speak of Mortain as we found it a few years ago; its sanitory
arrangements have, we understand, been improved, but people are not yet
enthusiastic about Mortain as a residence.
[36] Notwithstanding this apparent indifference to landscape, we
remember finding at a country inn, the walls covered with one of
Troyon's pictures (a hundred times repeated in paper-hanging); a pretty
pastoral scene which Messrs. Christie would have catalogued as 'a
landscape with cattle.'
[37] The neatness and precision with which they make their piles of
stones at the roadside will be remembered by many a traveller in this
part of Normandy. They accomplish it by putting the stones into a shape
(as if making a jelly), and removing the boards when full; and, as there
are no French boys, the loose pile remains undisturbed for months.
[38] Submitting to the exigencies of publishing expediency, we have been
unable to have this drawing reproduced on wood; although we were anxious
to draw attention to the bold forms of rocks which crown these heights,
and to the line old trees which surround the castle.
[39] There are' deeds of valour' (according to the _affiches_) to be
witnessed in these days at Falaise; we once saw a woman here, in a
circus, turning somersaults on horseback before a crowd of spectators.
The people of Falaise cannot be accused of being behind the age; one
gentleman advertises as his _specialité_,' the cure of injuries caused
by velocipedes'!
[40] Our peaceful proclivities may be noticed in small things; the
fierce and warlike devices, such as an eagle's head, a lion _rampant_,
and the like, which were originally designed to stimulate the warrior in
battle, now serve to adorn the panel of a carriage, or a sheet of
note-paper.
[41] It is rather a curious fact that Prout, notwithstanding his love
for historic scenes, seems to have had little sympathy with the poor
'Maid of Orleans.' In a letter which accompanied the presentation of
this drawing, the following passage occurs:--'I beg your acceptance of
what is miserable, though perhaps not uninteresting, as it is part of
the house in which Joan of Arc was confined at Rouen, and before which
the English, _very wisely_, burnt her for a witch!'
Mr. Prout evidently differed in opinion from Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of
Bauvais, who presided at the tribunal which condemned Joan of Arc to
death; for he founded a Lady Chapel at Lisieux, 'in expiation of his
false judgment of an innocent woman.'
[42] It is curious to note that the wealth of cities nearly always flow
westward,--converting, as in London, the market-gardens of the poor into
the 'Palace Gardens' of the rich; and, with steady advance, sweeps away
our landmarks,--turning the gravel pits of western London into the
decorum of a Ladbroke-square.
[43] It is no new remark that more than one Englishman of artistic taste
has returned to Rouen after visiting the buildings of Paris, having
found nothing equal in grandeur to this cathedral, and the church of St.
Ouen.
[44] The original spire was made of wood, and much more picturesque; our
artist evidently could not bring himself to copy with literal truth this
disfiguring element to the building.
[45] For a detailed description of the monuments in this Cathedral, and
of the church of St. Ouen, we cannot do better than refer the reader to
the very accurate account in Murray's 'Handbook;' and also to Cassell's
'Normandy,' from which we have made the above extracts.
[46] We must record an exception to this rule, in the case of the church
at Dives, which a kept closely locked, under the care of an old woman.
[47] Just as the words of our Baptismal service, enrolling a young child
into the 'church militant,' lose half their effect when addressed to men
whose ideas of manliness and fighting fall very short of their true
meaning.
It has a strange sound (to say the least that could be said) to hear
quiet town-bred godfathers promise that they will 'take care' that a
child shall 'fight under the banner' of the cross, and 'continue
Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end;' and it is
almost as strange to hear the good Bishop Heber's warlike imagery--'His
blood-red banner streams afar; who follows in his train?' &c., &c.--in
the mouths of little children.
[48] The incongruity strikes one more when we see him afterwards in the
town, marching along with a flat-footed shambling tread, holding an
umbrella in front of him in his clenched fist (as all french priests
hold it),--a figure as unromantic-looking as ungraceful.
[49] He could not be called naturally gifted, even in the matter of
speaking; but he had been well taught from his youth up, both the manner
and the method of fixing the attention of his hearers.
[50] On the quay at the front of the Hotel d'Angleterre, the public
seats under the trees are crowded with people in the afternoon,
especially of the poor and working classes.
[51] There seem to be few living French artists of genius, who devote
themselves to landscape painting; when we have mentioned the names of
Troyon, Lambinet, Lamorinière and Auguste Bonheur, we have almost
exhausted the list.
[52] It is unfortunately different in the case of the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood of Fécamp and Étretat, who are certainly not improved,
either in manners or morals, by the fashionable invasion of their
province.
[53] The London 'Illustrated Police News.'
[54] The people in this part of Normandy are becoming less political,
and more conservative, every day (a conservatism which, in their case,
may be taken as a sign of prosperity, and of a certain unwillingness to
be disturbed in their business); they are content with a paternal
government--at a distance; they wish for peace and order, and have no
objection to be taken care of. They are so willing to be led that, as a
Frenchman expressed it to us, 'they would almost prefer, if they could,
to have an omnipotent Postmaster-General to inspect all letters, and see
whether they were creditable to the sender and fitting to be received'!
[55] In the matter of bells, the same voices now ring half over
Europe--the music is the same at Bruges as at Birmingham; church bells
being made wholesale, to the same pattern and in the same mould, another
link in the chain of old associations, is broken.
[56] We are tempted to remark, in passing, on the curious want of manner
in speaking French that we notice amongst English people abroad;
arising, probably, from their method of learning it. French people have
often expressed to us their astonishment at this defect, amongst so many
educated English women; a defect which, according to the same authority,
is less prominent amongst travelled Englishmen in the same position in
life. We will not venture to give an opinion upon the latter point; but
most of us have yet to learn that there are two French languages--one
for writing and one for speaking; and that the latter is almost made up
of _manner_, and depends upon the modulation of the voice.
[57] It is worthy of note that, in a cruel country like France, the
'blinkers' to the horses (which we are doing away with in England) are a
most merciful provision against the driver's brutality; and a security
to the traveller, against his habitual carelessness.
[58] We confess to a lively sympathy with the growth of artistic taste
in America; a sympathy not diminished by the knowledge that every
English work of credit on these subjects is eagerly bought and read by
the people.
[59] The carving may be machine-made, and the slate and fringes to the
roofs cut by steam; but we must remember that these houses are only 'run
up to let,' as it is called, some of them costing not more than 500_l._
or 600l.
[60] It is interesting to note how the changes in the modern systems of
warfare seem to be tending (both in attack and defence) to a more
practical and picturesque state of things. Thus in attack, the top boots
and loose costume of the engineers and sappers figure more conspicuously
in these days, than the smooth broad-cloth of the troops of the line;
and in defence (thanks to Captain Moncreiff's system), we are promised
guns that shall be concealed in the long grass of our southern downs,
whilst stone and brick fortifications need no longer desolate the
heights.
[61] In one of the west-end clubs a fresco has lately been exhibited as
a suggestion to the members, shewing the easy and graceful costume of
the fifteenth century.
[62] If the words in an ordinary letter in a lady's handwriting, were
measured, it would be found that the point of the pen had passed over a
distance of twenty or thirty feet.
[63] We are becoming so accustomed to the deliberate misuse of words,
that when a person (in London) informs us that he is going 'to dine at
the pallis,' we understand him at once to mean that he if going to spend
the day at the great glass bazaar at Sydenham.
[64] The fares by Diligence are not inserted because they are liable to
variation; but the traveller may safely calculate them, at not more than
2d. a mile for the best places, All _railway fares_ stated are _first
class_.
_Books by the same Author.
'ARTISTS AND ARABS.'
'TRAVELLING IN SPAIN.'
'THE PYRENEES.'_
_Published by Sampson Low and Co.,
Crown Buildings, Fleet Street, London._
_Crown 8vo._, 10s. 6d.
ARTISTS AND ARABS;
OR,
Sketching in Sunshine.
"Let us sit down here quietly for one day and paint a camel's head, not
flinching from the work, but mastering the wonderful texture and
shagginess of his thick coat or mane, its massive beauty, and its
infinite gradations of colour.
"Such a sitter no portrait painter ever had in England. Feed him up
first, get a boy to keep the flies from him, and he will remain almost
immoveable through the day. He will put on a sad expression in the
morning which will not change; he will give no trouble whatever, he will
but sit still and croak."--Chap. IV., '_Our Models_.'
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
Opinions of the Press on "Artists and Arabs."
_'"Artists and Arabs" is a fanciful name for a clever book, of which the
figures are Oriental, and the sceneries Algerian. It is full of air and
light, and its style is laden, so to speak, with a sense of unutterable
freedom and enjoyment; a book which would remind us, not of the article
on Algeria in a gazetteer, but of Turner's picture of a sunrise on the
African coast.'_--Athenæum.
_'The lesson which Mr. Blackburn sets himself to impress upon his
readers, is certainly in accordance with common sense. The first need of
the painter is an educated eye, and to obtain this he must consent to
undergo systematic training. He is in the position of a man who is
learning a language merely from his books, with nothing to recall its
accents in the daily life around him. If he will listen to Mr. Blackburn
he may get rid of all these uncongenial surroundings.'_--Saturday
Review.
_'This it a particularly pretty boor, containing many exquisite
illustrations and vignettes. Mr. Blackburn's style is occasionally
essentially poetical, while his descriptions of mountain and valley,
of sea and sky, of sunshine and storm, are vivid and
picturesque.'_--Examiner.
_'Mr. Blackburn is an artist in words, and can paint a picture in a
paragraph. He delights in the beauty of form and colour, in the perfume
of flowers, in the freedom of the desert, in the brilliant glow and
delicious warmth of a southern atmosphere.'_--Spectator.
_'This is a genuine book, full of character and trustworthiness. The
woodcuts, with which it is liberally embellished, are excellent, and
bear upon them the stamp of truth to the scenes and incidents they are
intended to represent. Mr. Blackburn's views of art are singularly
unsophisticated and manly.'_--Leader.
_'Interesting as are Mr. Blackburn's ascriptions of Algiers, we almost
prefer those of the country beyond it. His sketches of the little Arab
village, called the Bouzareah, and of the storm that overtook him there,
are in the best style of descriptive writing.'_--London Review.
_'Mr. Blackburn is an artist and a lover of nature, and he pretends to
nothing more in these gay and pleasing pages.'_--Daily News.
_'Since the days of Eöthen, we have not met with so lively, racy,
gossiping, and intellectual a book as this.'_--News of the World.
_'The reader feels, that in perusing the pages of "Artists and Arabs,"
he has had a glimpse of sunshine more intense than any ever seen in
cloudy England.'_--The Queen.
_'The narrative is told with a commendable simplicity and absence of
self display, or self boasting; and the illustrations are worthy the
fame of a reputable British artist.'_--Press.
_'The sparkling picturesqueness of the style of this book is combined
with sound sense, and strong argument, when the author pleads the claims
and the beauties of realism in art; and though addressed to artists, the
volume is one of that most attractive which hat been set before the
general reader of late.'_--Contemporary Review.
_&c. &c. &c._
* * * * *
Second Edition, Crown 8vo., Six Shillings.
TRAVELLING IN SPAIN
In the Present Day.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATION'S
By THE LATE John Phillip, R.A., E. LUNDGREN, WALTER SEVERN,
AND THE AUTHOR.
ALSO, A NEW MAP OF SPAIN, AND AN APPENDIX OF ROUTES.
Opinions of the Press on "Travelling in Spain."
_'This pleasant volume, dedicated to the Right Hon. E. Horsman, M.P., by
his late private secretary, admirably fulfils its author's design, which
was "to record simply and easily, the observations of ordinary English
travelers visiting the principal cities of Spain." The travellers whose
adventures are here recorded were, however, something more than ordinary
observers. Some artists being of the party, have given graceful evidence
of their observations in some spiritedly sketches of Spanish scenes and
Spanish life. There are no less than nineteen of these illustrations,
some by John Phillip, R.A.; and the ornaments at the beginning and close
of each chapter are fac-similes of embroideries brought from Granada.
The whole volume, in its getting up and appearance, is most attractive;
and the descriptions of Spanish men and women are singularly
interesting._
_'At the end there is an_ APPENDIX OF ROUTES, &c., _which will
be invaluable to all intending travellers in Spain.'_--Sun.
_'Mr. Blackburn's charming volume is on a different principle from that
of Irving and Cayley. He does not aspire to present Spain as it affected
him,--but Spain as it is. His travelling party consisted of two ladies
and two gentlemen--an arrangement fatal to romance. To go out on a
serenading adventure in wicked Madrid is quite impossible for Mr.
Horsman's ex-private secretary, having in charge two English gentlemen.
So Mr. Blackburn wisely did not go in for adventures, but preferred to
describe in straightforward fashion what he saw, so as to guide others
who may feel disposed for Spanish travel--and he describes capitally. He
saw a couple of bull-fights, one at Madrid and one at Seville, and
brings them before his readers in a very vigorous style. He has
admirably succeeded in sketching the special character in each of the
cities that he visited. The book is illustrated by several well-known
hands.'_--Press.
_'A delightful book is Mr. Blackburn's volume upon "Travelling in
Spain." Its artistic appearance is a credit to the publishers as well as
to the author. The pictures are of the best, and so is the text, which
gives a very clear and practical account of Spanish travel, that is
unaffectedly lively, and full of shrewd and accurate notes upon Spanish
character.'_--Examiner.
_'Mr. Blackburn sketches the aspect of the streets with considerable
humour, and with a correctness which will be admitted by all who have
basked in the sunshine of the Puerta del Sol.'_--Pall Mall Gazette.
_'The writer has genuine humour, and a light and graceful style, which
carries the reader through the notes with increasing relish.'_--Public
Opinion.
_'Extremely readable,--a lively picture of Spain as it is.'_--London
Review.
_'A truthful and pleasant record of the adventures of a party of ladies
and gentlemen--an accomplished and artistic little company of
friends.'_--Era.
_'This unpretending but practical volume is very
readable.'_--Standard.
_'Not only to be admired, but read.'_--Illustrated London News.
_'A lively and interesting sketch of a journey through
Spain.'_--Builder.
_'Very useful as well as entertaining.'_--Observer.
_'A most amusing book, profusely illustrated.'_--John Bull.
_'The dullest of books--a thing of shreds and patches.'_--Morning
Star.
_Royal 8vo._ (_cloth_ 18_s._, _or morocco_ 24_s._)
* * * * *
THE PYRENEES
_With One Hundred Illustrations by_ GUSTAVE DORÉ.
Opinions of the Press on "The Pyrenees."
_'This handsome volume will confirm the opinion of those who hold that
M. Doré's real strength lies in landscape. Mr. Blackburn's share in the
work is pleasant and readable, and is really what it pretends to be, a
description of summer life at French watering-places. It is a_ bonâ fide
_record of his own experiences, told without either that abominable
smartness, or that dismal book-making, which are the characteristics of
too many illustrated books.'_--Pall Mall Gazette.
_'The author of this volume has spared no pains in his endeavour to
present a work which shall be worthy of public approbation. He has
secured three elements favourable to a large success,--a popular and
fascinating subject, exquisite illustrative sketches from an artist of
celebrity, and letter-press dictated by an excellent judgment, neither
tedious by its prolixity, nor curtailed to the omission of any
circumstance worth recording.'_--Press.
_'Mr. Blackburn has accomplished his task with the ease and pleasantness
to be expected of the author of "Travelling in Spain." He writes
graphically, sometimes with humour, always like a gentleman, and without
a trace or tinge of false sentiment; in short, this is as acceptable a
book as we have seen far many a day.'_--Atheneum.
_'A general, but painstaking account, by a cultivated Englishman, of the
general impression, step by step, which an ordinary Englishman,
travelling for his pleasure, would derive from a visit to the
watering-places of the Pyrenees.'_--Spectator.
'_Mr. Blackburn has an eye for the beautiful in nature, and a faculty
for expressing pleasantly what is worth describing; moreover, his
pictures of men and manners are both amusing and life-like.'_--Art
Journal.
_'Readers of this book will gain therefrom a great deal of information
should they feel disposed to make a summer pilgrimage over the romantic
ground so well described by the author.'_--Era.
_'One of the most exquisite books of the present year is Mr. Henry
Blackburn's volume, "The Pyrenees;" it is brightly, amusingly, and
intelligently written.'_--Daily News.
_'Few persons will be able to turn over the leaves of the pretty book
before us, without a longing desire for a nearer acquaintance with the
scenes which it depicts.'_--Guardian.
_'A pleasant account of travel and summer life in the
Pyrenees.'_--Examiner.
_'The author has illustrated M. Gustavo Doré's engravings very
successfully.'_-The Times.
_'This is a noble volume, not unworthy of the stately
Pyrenees.'_--Illustrated London News.
_'A singularly attractive book, well written, and beautifully
illustrated.'_--Contemporary Review.
London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.