NANCY.
It is a pleasant six hours’ journey from Dijon via Chalindrey to Nancy.
We pass the little village of Gemeaux, in which amongst French friends I
have spent so many happy days.
From the railway we catch sight of the monticule crowned by an obelisk;
surmounting the vine-clad slopes, we also obtain a glimpse of its “Ormes
de Sully,” or group of magnificent elms, one of many in France supposed
to have been planted by the great Sully. Since my first acquaintance
with this neighbourhood, more than twenty years ago, the aspect of the
country hereabouts has in no small degree changed. Hop gardens in
many spots have replaced vineyards, owing to the devastation of the
phylloxera. It was in the last years of the third Empire that the
inhabitants of Roquemaure on the Rhône found their vines mysteriously
withering.
A little later the left bank was attacked, and about the same time the
famous brandy producing region of Cognac in the Charente showed
similar symptoms. The cause of the mischief, the terrible Phylloxera
devastatrix, was brought to light in 1868. This tiny insect is hardly
visible to the naked eye, yet so formed by Nature as to be a wholesale
engine of destruction, its phenomenal productiveness being no less fatal
than its equally phenomenal powers of locomotion. One of these tiny
parasites alone propagates at the rate of millions of eggs in a season,
a thousand alone sufficing to destroy two acres and a half of vineyard.
As formidable as this terrible fertility is the speed of the insect’s
wings or rather sails according extraordinary ease of movement. A gust
of wind, a mere breath of air, and like a grain of dust or a tuft of
thistledown, this germ of destruction is borne whither chance directs,
to the certain ruin of any vineyard on which it lights. The havoc spread
with terrible rapidity. From every vine-growing region of France arose
cries of consternation. Within the space of a few years hundreds of
thousands of acres were hopelessly blighted. In 1878 the invader was
first noticed at Meursault in Burgundy; a few days later it appeared in
the Botanical Gardens of Dijon. The cost of replanting vineyards with
American stocks is so heavy, viz.: twenty pounds per hectare, that even
many rich vintagers have preferred to cultivate other crops. Some owners
have sold their lands outright.
On quitting Is-sur-Tille we enter the so-called Plat de Langres, or
richly cultivated plains stretching between that town and Toul, in the
Department of the Meurthe and Moselle.
With the almost sudden change of landscape--woods, winding rivers, and
hayfields in which peasants are getting in their autumn crop, literally
mauve-tinted from the profusion of autumn crocuses--we encounter
sharp contrasts, the events of 1870-1 changing the French frontier,
necessitating the transformation we now behold--once quiet, old-world
towns now wearing the aspect of a vast camp, everywhere to be seen
military defences on a wholly inconceivable scale. It is comforting to
hear from the lips of those who should know, that at the present time
war is impossible, the engines of warfare being so tremendous that the
result of a conflict would be simply annihilation on both sides. After
ten years’ absence, and in spite of radical changes, the elegant,
exquisitely kept town of Nancy appears little altered to me. The ancient
capital of Lorraine is now one of the largest garrisons on the eastern
frontier, but the military aspect is not too obtrusive. Except for the
perpetual roll of the heavy artillery waggons and perpetual sight of the
red pantalon, we are apt to forget the present position of Nancy from a
strategic point of view.
Other changes are pleasanter to dwell on. The Facultés, or schools of
medicine, science, and law, removed hither from Strasburg after the
annexation, have immensely increased the intellectual status of Nancy,
whilst from the commercial and industrial side the advance has been
no less. Its population has doubled since the events of 1870-1, and is
constantly increasing. Why so few English travellers visit this dainty
and attractive little capital is not easy to explain. More interesting
even than the artistic and historic collections of Nancy is the
celebrated School of Forestry. Formerly a few young Englishmen
were out-students of this school, but since the study had been made
accessible at home the foreign element at the time of my visit,
consisted of a few Roumanians, sent by their Government. The École
Forestière, courteously shown to visitors, was founded sixty years ago
and is conducted on almost a military system. Only twenty-four students
are received annually, and these must have passed severe examinations
either at the École Agronomique of Paris, or at the École Polytechnique.
The staff consists of a director and six professors, all paid by the
State. Two or three years form the curriculum and successful students
are sure of obtaining good Government appointments. Forestry being a
most important service, every branch of natural science connected with
the preservation of forests, and afforesting is taught, the school
collections forming a most interesting and wholly unique museum. Here we
see, exquisitely arranged as books on library shelves, specimens of
wood of all countries, whilst elsewhere sections from the tiniest to
the gigantic stems of America. Very instructive, too, are the models of
those regions in France already afforested, and of those undergoing
the process; we also see the system by means of which the soil is so
consolidated as to render plantation possible, namely, the arresting of
mountain torrents by dams and barrages. In the Dauphiné, and French
Alps generally, many denuded tracks are in course of transformation, the
expense being partly borne by the State and partly by the communes. It
is impossible to over-estimate the importance of such works, alike
from a climatic, economic, and hygienic point of view. The extensive
eucalyptus plantations in Algeria, teach us the value of afforesting,
vast tracks having been thereby rendered healthful and cultivable.
A strikingly beautiful city, sad of aspect withal, is this ancient
capital of Lorraine, ever wearing half mourning, as it seems, for the
loss of its sister Alsace.
Unforgettable is the glimpse of the Place Stanislas, with its bronze
gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great capital; of the
beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine on horseback, under
an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and its airy
colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte de la
Crafie, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France.
All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy
Nancy thoroughly, a day or two should be devoted to it, and creature
comforts are to be had in the hotels.
In the Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of
Charles le Téméraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of
that Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver
plate, and wore on the battle-field diamonds worth half a million. The
cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine are in a little church outside
the town--the _chapelle ronde_, as the splendid little mausoleum is
designated, its imposing monuments of black marble and richly-decorated
octagonal dome, making up a solemn and beautiful whole. Graceful and
beautiful also are the monuments in the church itself, and those of
another church, des Cordeliers, close to the Ducal Palace.
Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the
cathedral that we are enchanted by the marble statues of the four
doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Grégoire, St. Léon, and St.
Jerome. These are the work of Nicholas Drouin, a native of the town,
and formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just
mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are
well worthy of a sculptor’s closest study, but it is rather as a
whole than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary
observer.
All four sculptures are noble works of art; the beautiful, dignified
figure of St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination.
We would fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain
return to all else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy.
From Nancy, by way of Epinal, we may easily reach the heart of the
Vosges.