long and loud over our heads, leaving no excuse for those who chose to
slumber on. I got up, and found two places by the diligence for Laon.
M. was in a great hurry, so I exercised a piece of self-denial and
woke him, and we hurried off. It was, indeed, with great regret I
departed from under the shadow of that noble church, feeling that I
left so much of its beauty undiscerned, or rather so few of its forms
impressed on the mind. We were four hours and a half reaching Laon,
from 6 to 10½, in the intérieur; two fat women and a child made it
latterly very uncomfortable. The country flat for some way, then hills
and fine prospects. But the position of Laon is very remarkable
indeed, a triangular hill rising out of a great plain: in short,
another Enna, though not so lofty. The resemblance is very marked
indeed, and presented itself to me again and again. Near to one corner
of the triangle rises the cathedral, with its four lofty towers, two
at the west end, and one at each end of the transept; there are the
beginnings of two others, and all six were intended to have had spires
as lofty as themselves; the south-west had one, which was taken down.
Their present height is, the S.W. 220 feet each, (French,) the N. and
S. 235. They are very striking, but want their crown of spires, and
are in the most splendid situation for such a building which I
ever saw. The view is accordingly very extensive, to the north flat,
but to the south terminated by fine hills. We viewed these towers in a
great number of positions, on the promenades, and from another corner
of the triangle, to the south. The church within is very stately;
early English, 400 feet long, and quite uniform in style, or at least
with only here and there a decorated window, as in the S. transept.
The curve of the roof is very beautiful; after Reims it struck us as
low, though at least 80 feet high. The west front is fine, though the
portals require more work to conceal their vast depth. I could not but
greatly admire the skill of the architect of Reims, who had evidently
studied and adopted the towers and western front of this church, which
is said in its time (1130) to have been the finest in France, and yet
has produced a work incomparably more beautiful, and quite original.
Laon has a double triforium, making four stages in its interior.
We walked about here a great deal. The situation is one of the finest
I have ever seen; it inspires a sort of elevation in the mind. Beyond
the church a caserne is building, and a fort already made--a bad
exchange for the tower of Louis d'Outremer. The church of St. Martin
is very disappointing inside, being very low. As the diligence was
full for the night, we hired a cab, to take us to St. Quentin. It took
us from 5½ to 11½, stopping half an hour at La Fère. Road
generally flat, and very bad indeed, having no pavé to La Fère. We saw
a village church or two, Norman in style. Our conveyance was one of
the most uncomfortable I ever experienced; besides that we were
overwhelmed with bags and coats. Our driver served at eighteen in one
of Napoleon's battles, and had carried off a token in a sabre cut on
the cheek; it was the battle of Fleury, where, he said, "L'Empereur
était trahi." So the French guide-book says of the battle of Crecy:
"Les Français perdirent 30,000 par la faute du Comte d'Alençon."
_Thursday, July 24._--We are at l'Hôtel du Cygne: comfortable enough.
The church is of first-rate beauty; the nave, from its great height
and purity of style, even more striking than that of Reims _inside_;
and so the transept: but the choir and many parts of the church have
swerved from the perpendicular, and are braced with iron,--a sad
drawback. The architect has raised his central building, with extreme
boldness, to an enormous height; but he has not thrown strength and
breadth enough into his aisles to resist the pressure. The windows
throughout of geometric tracery, remarkably beautiful; and the pillars
of the nave spring from the ground to the roof without capital at the
lower arches, and are of great beauty, an advance certainly on Reims,
and in one respect on Amiens, in that they are not merely cylinders,
with columns at the four corners, but have two colonnettes
introduced again between these, which produces an effect of great
lightness. Beautiful end of north transept, a decorated window below,
an open triforium of eight lights, and a vast decorated window
terminating in a great rosace above--stained glass. The apse of seven
windows, with most brilliant stained glass, beginning from a second
transept of great beauty, making a double cross, the southern part
flamboyant. I think the nave of this church, and the apse and
arrangements of its chapels might be profitably studied as an almost
perfect specimen; it may compete with Amiens and St. Ouen, and
undoubtedly surpasses Reims. Height, 128 English feet; vaulting of
roof very beautiful. We went in at 11 o'clock, and found preparations
for a funeral of some importance: presently all the choir was filled
with well dressed persons; and the body being deposited under a
catafalque, surrounded with burning tapers, in the centre of the nave
and transept, mass was chanted. The black velvet chasuble, and the
copes and other robes to match, like all the dresses of the Roman
clergy, are very handsome. We went into the upper part of the choir,
but I could not avoid noticing with what indifference most of the
attendants on the funeral treated the holiest rite of the Church; they
were, no doubt, unbelievers; and some ragged boys close beside me were
a serious annoyance, incessantly spitting, laughing, and talking.
The west end of this church has been barbarized in the style of
1681, most ugly to behold; it seems to have been intended to have two
towers, but no part of them at present exists. We went through the roof
of the church, and caught a view from the strange-looking steeple which
rises over the croisée. The country round is not remarkable--flat, and
in parts wooded. Rest of the day spent in writing. Found some common
prints of details in the life of the Holy Family which pleased us.
_Friday, July 25._--At 6 o'clock we started by the diligence to
Amiens by Peronne--had the coupé with an English woman, who got in a
few miles on the road. The country not remarkable--some hills and a
fertile succession of corn-fields. Reached Peronne a little before
nine, and breakfasted there. Several fortifications and drawbridges
both entering and going, but they did not seem kept up with much care.
The Church, de la Renaissance, not remarkable. The rest of the road to
Amiens a fine broad country, with occasional hills, of average beauty.
No view of Amiens cathedral but from the last hill, a few miles off,
and then it looked small, I suppose from the vastness of the plain in
which it stands. We did not reach Amiens, a distance of only 82
kiloms. from St. Quentin, till after three o'clock. At the last stage
some young seminarists got out of the rotonde, and were met by their
mother and sisters, as it seemed: they were apparently peasants,
very humbly clad, and of the most ordinary demeanour. I saw what
education had done for the young men (who had not received the
tonsure): even the retired life and poor salary of a country curé
would be a great elevation in the scale of society to them. I would
not mention this invidiously, but the lot of the French Curé de
Campagne has sometimes appeared to me so painful, that it was a relief
to see its bright side even in a material point of view.
I went to my old quarters at the Hôtel de France, and we were shown
into the same room I had occupied two years before. We got a light
dinner and set off to the cathedral. The first sight of its west front
was almost painful after that of Reims, there being certainly a
confusion and want of harmony in its parts; while the southern tower
being left twenty feet lower than the northern combines to spoil the
effect. But I was no sooner in the interior than a full sense of its
prodigious superiority to every other building we had seen established
itself on my mind; and the impression my first visit two years ago
made was more than repeated. Only St. Ouen may enter at all into
competition; but the vast proportions of Amiens, combined with the
great purity of its style, more than counterbalance the, if any,
superior grace and lightness of the other. In the evening we walked
out to the west, in the hope of catching a good view of the
cathedral, but we could not find the right place. Amiens has nothing
else remarkable which fell under our observation.
_Saturday, July 26._--After breakfast we went to the cathedral, and
passed over all the galleries inside and outside, and the roofs. The
best external view from the building itself is on the north tower; the
arcs boutants of the choir and the whole arrangement are much more
striking than those of the nave. The guide, a very intelligent man,
assured us there was no danger apprehended within or without to any
part of the building. As far as M. and I could judge, we thought it
would last as easily for the next 500 years as it had gone through the
last. The view through the eight compartments of the upper chamber of
the central clocher is pretty; it seems to fit into so many frames the
city and the vast plain in which it stands. We saw the towers of
Corbie. In the inside I noticed four particulars of its great
superiority, over and above the unequalled proportions of the whole.
1st, The triforium and its windows, especially of the choir; these
windows commence on the east side of the transept. In the rest there
are arches, which have been filled up with masonry from the beginning.
I think this triforium superior to that of St. Ouen, chiefly from the
geometric character of its forms; whereas those of St. Ouen approach
to the perpendicular. Each bay has six divisions, save the five
of the apse, which have four.
2nd, The windows of the clerestory, all of pure geometric tracery. I
measured one on the south side of the nave, nineteen feet three inches
wide, clear light.
3rd, The north transept end. A rosace above, of most brilliant glass,
thirty-six feet in diameter; open gallery of fifteen divisions.
4th, The whole arrangement of the aisles round the choir. There are
open chapels north and south, extending the whole four bays of the
choir, which give great lightness to it; while the seven arches of the
apse correspond to as many chapels. The Lady Chapel is beautiful,
though not so much developed as that of St. Ouen.
By the advice of the guide we went down to the river, immediately to
the north of the cathedral; from the other side of which, by a little
tree in front of a house painted green, is, perhaps, the best external
view of the whole mass from east to west. Even here, however, almost
all the windows of the aisles are covered by houses; on another branch
of the river, a little further north, rather more of these is
discovered. The near view from the extreme corner of the bishop's
garden is good; and the corresponding one to the south-east, as far
back as the street will allow, rather better. This gives the beauty of
the east end. But no complete view of this wonderful building
outside can be obtained, from the closeness of the houses; and that
which would be the grandest ornament of the finest city in the world
cannot even be seen in its full proportions.
The vaulting of Amiens is 140 feet (English) high; the ridge of the
roof outside reaches to nigh 200. Its internal and external galleries
must be traversed before the spectator can estimate the enormous pile
of masonry which that fabric contains. It can only be matched, I
think, by Milan. Amiens is only 442 feet in length, including the Lady
Chapel. In this also the French architects have shown great skill, for
an excess in this respect would have diminished the great effect
produced by their stupendous height. York or Canterbury would be
dwarfed beside Amiens, though the former exceeds it by 82 feet, and
the latter by 88 feet in length. But the height of the vaulting of
Canterbury nave is 80 feet, of York 99, of Amiens 140. It is a sad
result of a visit to the French cathedrals, that the Englishman must
be content to recognise ever after the immense inferiority of his own
in the one characteristic feature of Christian architecture,
elevation. A noble race of men they must have been, and not of the
tiger-monkey kind, who had hearts to conceive and hands to execute
such works as these. Overflowing with inward life must the Church have
been, who could impress such a character on her sons. Here,
indeed, may the Churchman feel, "He built His sanctuary like high
palaces; like the earth which He hath established for ever." Those
were the ages of faith, hope, and love; it would be well if the life
which glowed in those mediæval bosoms manifested itself by works in
ours.
"_Amiens. Feast of St. James, 1845._--I do not intend to say much
about things in general, but as you have touched on them, I do say a
few words. I am, I may say, fully convinced that neither the worship
of saints, nor the use of images, nor the withholding of the cup, at
all affect the life of the Roman Church. What I have seen has led me
to reflect bitterly on Mr. Bowdler's '_Quid Romæ faciam?_' The answer
is, all that you try in vain to do in England. For, in sober truth, he
has only told us that what exists there in _practice_ exists with us
in _theory_. However, I agree with him that it is our duty to put it
in practice at home. But, how to get ecclesiastics to live in
primitive brotherhood and in primitive poverty? How to bring people to
confession? How to induce candidates for holy orders to submit to
education? How to get the opportunity of restoring the daily
sacrifice? How to warm our churches with devotion, so that people may
come in, and be cheered and helped in their prayers, &c.? These are
questions to which he has supplied no answer, and the answer is
not easy. It requires every allowance for the reserved and retiring
character of the English to hope that we are not, even in comparison
with the French, a fallen people. Still, were it not for _one_ person
who thinks otherwise, I should view our failings calmly, as a mere
hindrance to be surmounted, and even take easily the painful
separation there is between us and so much that I must admire,
considering it as the result of an over-technical system on the one
side, and an unformed one on the other--a result that would vanish as
the one grew in life and the other in consistency."--_M._
We determined to leave this evening, that we might secure an early
passage from Boulogne on Monday morning. So at half-past-five we took
the diligence to Abbeville. It is an unusually pleasant drive thither,
partly by the river side, well wooded, a good road, and occasionally
diversified. We even went by one country house which had a fine flower
garden and lawn, and might have passed for English. It was so
unusually neat and nicely kept, that I inquired if it was a private
house. We had the coupé with a French gentleman, with whom I had
considerable talk. He was a fair representant of the tone of mind
produced by the first revolution; spoke with enthusiasm of the
military and naval establishments of France, the accomplishments
required of all officers, the preference given to pure merit,
the equality which subsisted in all the relations of Frenchmen;
contrasted his own country in these respects with ours. He claimed the
full possession of liberty, which I denied to them; but I fully
admitted the passion for equality and the existence of it. I observed
that, by their law of inheritance, they had destroyed all equilibrium
in the state, all power but the central power of the government, which
was continually increasing. He spoke with passionate fondness of the
late Duke of Orleans, that he had a marvellous gift of speaking,
attached every body to him, was exceedingly brave and able every way.
I asked if he thought Louis Philippe had contrived the revolution. He
said he could not acquit him as to that. The whole of his family were
patterns to France, whereas, he said, the Duke de Berri was a beast,
an animal. He seemed to think there would be attempts on Louis
Philippe's death, but they would not succeed; the country generally
was well satisfied with his rule. He defended the system of passports
as admirable, but when at Abbeville his own was kept some time being
deciphered he waxed impatient. He defended the conscription too, and
abused the construction of our army; nothing but the firmness of the
English character produced good soldiers out of such materials. He
seemed to think all property in England descended to the eldest son,
and abused our horrible aristocracy. I said the old Saxon blood
loved an aristocracy and would always have it.
We reached Abbeville just after dark, got some coffee, and rested a
few hours at the Hotel d'Angleterre. At half-past-two the diligence
from Paris took us up, and landed us at Boulogne between nine and ten.
A fine rich country all along, but with nothing remarkable, except
perhaps the site of Montreuil, a brow something like Windsor.
_Sunday, July 27._--Went to the British Chapel, in the Rue du
Temple--a miserable meeting-house begalleried all round, with one
pulpit for the prayers and another for the sermon, flanking a table in
the midst. The reading and the preaching quite in correspondence.
Indeed the sermon, which was without book, was one of the most
extraordinary productions I ever heard: its tone may be imagined, from
the speaker calling our Lord "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords--and
Emperor of Emperors." "What was half an hour to speak of immortal
things to an immortal soul!" The chapel was very full of well-dressed
people, whose demeanour was as little religious as can be conceived;
but they were bidden to beware of the superstition of the Roman
Church, and of the seductions to the animal nature which it afforded.
Later we walked into the upper town, and, after dinner, along the
sands, and over the cliffs home. But the view of Boulogne on
every side is dreary and wretched; and I should never stay there an
hour longer than was necessary. We were at l'Hôtel de l'Europe--civil
people, and excellent table d'hôte.
_Monday, July 28._--At six this morning we left Boulogne, and crossed
to Folkstone in two hours and five minutes; a very fast vessel. We
breakfasted at the hotel near the beach, got through the custom house
rather quickly, were ready for the half-past-nine train, and in London
shortly after one o'clock. M. and I called on E. Hawkins and Acland,
and then went down to Eton, and I home to Launton.
[2] The observations between inverted commas, and ended with the
letter _M._, are taken, by permission, from the journal of my
fellow-traveller, the Rev. C. Marriott.
[3] It should be mentioned that the two brothers Labbé set up this
school some twenty years ago, without any resources, and have
maintained it ever since, living upon Providence, gradually building
accommodations for their scholars, a chapel, &c.
[4] "La monition consiste à faire connaître à celui, qui nous a
chargés de lui rendre cet office de charité, ses imperfections et ses
défauts extérieurs contraires aux vertus Chrétiennes et ecclésiastiques."
LETTERS FROM FRANCE AND ITALY.--1847.
Hotel Windsor, Rue de Rivoli,
7th July, 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
* * * The weather for the last three or four days has been melting. We
have had plenty to do, and have been well occupied, instructed, and
pleased. Last evening we dined with M. Defresne, a very clever, able,
and energetic talker. He is a great friend of the old Royal Family,
and calls Louis Philippe the greatest scoundrel under the sun. We met
l'Abbé Pététot, curé of St. Louis d'Antin, one of the parishes of
Paris, with 18,000 inhabitants; he has eight curates, besides
occasional assistance. They give the most astonishing account of the
change which has taken place in France in the last fifteen years in
religious matters. Formerly a young man dared not confess that he was
a Christian, or show himself in a church; now the bitter sarcasm and
ridicule with which all religious subjects were treated have passed
away; earnestness has laid hold of the mind of the nation, and
even those who are not Christians appear to be searching for the
truth, and treat Christianity as a reality, and conviction with
respect. Even now, _not one young man in a hundred is a Christian_. I
asked l'Abbé Pététot particularly, if he felt sure of this proportion,
and he confirmed it. Out of the thirty-two millions of French, they
reckon two millions who are really Christians, practising confession;
many of the others send for a priest in their last illness, confess,
and receive the sacraments; but M. Defresne thought this very
unsatisfactory, as we should. They are making great exertions to
christianise the class of workmen, the great majority of whom are not
even nominally believers. You may judge of their life by the fact that
they live with many different women in common, sometimes after a time
selecting one of these, and confining themselves to her, but without
legitimate marriage. The Church has gained about 15,000 of this class
out of a hundred thousand in Paris, and worked a great reformation. At
St. Sulpice they have every other Sunday a meeting of these, called
conférences, at which they are addressed by different persons, clergy
or lay, on religious, moral, or instructive subjects. We went to the
meeting on Sunday night, and were much pleased with what we saw and
heard. Their minds are laid hold of and interested; by drawing
together they get a sense of union and the force of numbers, and
are encouraged by each other's progress; they see their superiors in
knowledge and station exerting themselves for their improvement.
L'Abbé Pététot told us he had preached _eighty_ times last Lent,
seven times in one day. This is entirely without note. Their labour
must be very great. His manner of speaking is very pleasing, and I
think the priests generally speak with great propriety, and with an
abundance and arrangement of matter which is not common with us. We
have just returned from a visit to M. Martin Noirlieu, once
sub-preceptor of the Duke de Bordeaux, and now a curé at Paris. He has
been in England, and speaks favourably of us. He thinks there is much
good and real religion in the people of England, though very
defective, and though the Church is suffering under many abuses. He
said they computed that the Bishop of London received as much as all
the French Bishops put together. The state of things here is totally
different from what it is with us. There is no state religion, no
temptation whatever to pretend to be a Christian if you are not. The
consequence is, that there is little hypocrisy; infidelity is openly
professed by a great number. On the other hand, the believers are so
from real conviction, and generally after a personal conversion; there
are comparatively few hereditary Christians.
The Church is gradually gaining, but much more in the higher
than in the lower ranks. There are 800 priests in Paris; they want 400
more: before the great Revolution there were 5000.
On Monday we were taken to see the house of the Priests for foreign
Missions. They count many martyrs in late times in China, &c. There
are the bones of several in their museum; Chinese pictures of the mode
in which they were tortured, expressed to the life with a frightful
reality. The mother of one of these martyrs is living now, and had
sent to her the original picture of her son's martyrdom, drawn by
Christians in China. There is a long frame of wood, which they were
forced to carry round the neck, and which prevented them from taking
any rest. Young men are regularly trained here for missionary work;
their disposition and talents attentively considered; above all their
vocation, and without this is very decided, they are not allowed to
attempt so perilous a task. Indeed, where the reverse of honour, or
ease, or wealth, or leisure, or anything that delights the natural
man, is all that they can expect in this life, they are not likely to
have any hypocritical aspirants for the work of a missionary. As for
sending out a man with a wife and children to convert the heathen, the
idea would appear to them too ridiculous. Near adjoining to these we
saw the central establishment of the Sœurs de Charité; they have
six hundred sisters here, many novices. They count about 6000
all over the world, and are increasing rapidly. They were entirely put
down at the great Revolution, so that this is all since 1801. They
renew their vows annually; there are instances, though very rare, of
sisters retiring. Every sister passes one week of the year in what is
called a _retreat_; that is, a complete self-examination and inquiry
into the past year, progress made in things spiritual, &c. This is
likewise the case with every monk, nun, or priest. These _retreats_
are productive of great effects.
_July 8._--We dine to-day with M. Defresne again, to meet M. Martin
Noirlieu.
We have had l'Abbé Labbé here three hours this morning. We are going a
round with l'Abbé Carron at two. We have the dinner in the evening, so
do pretty well.
Yours sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
Genoa, July 20, 1847.
MY DEAR ----.