By-Roads and Battle-Fields in Picardy; with incidents and gatherings by the way between Ambleteuse and Ham; including Agincourt and Crécy. With illustrations

Front matter

BY-ROADS AND BATTLE-FIELDS IN PICARDY. LONDON : MINTED BY B. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL. BY-ROADS AND BATTLE-FIELDS IN PICARDY: WITH INCIDENTS AND GATHERINGS BY THE WAY BETWEEN AMBLETEUSE AND HAM; iNOT.rniNU AGINCOURT AND CRECY. BY G. M. MUSGRAVE, M.A. AUTHOR OF ' A FILORIIIAQI INTO DAFrHIN^,' ETC. ETC. ETC. WITH /LUSTRATIONS. " ro oo " COUNTRIES, AND CLIMES ; MANNERS, AND MEN TO KNOW : "T'EXTHACT, AND CHOOSE THE BEST or ALI. THESE KNOWN." /,'. n Jonson LONDON : BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET. 1861. TO HENRY WILLIAM GREGG Esquire •A TRAVELLED GENTLEMAN' FAMILIAR WITH THE FAIREST LANDS ON THE GREAT CONTINENT OF EUKOPE AND yVITH THE MANNERS CUSTOMS AND CHARACTERS OF REMOTE AND RENOWNED NATIONS THIS VOLUME THE RESULT OF A SHORT EXCURSION IN THE ANCIENT PROVINCE OF PICARDV IS DEDICATED BY HIS (iiMRANION IN MANY A FOREIGN HOME AND HIS SINCERE FRIEND THE AITHOl!

Preface

. The man who, having accomplished a Plan de Route in spite of such ' skiey influences ' as afflicted all tourists in the July and August of last Summer, contrived to land in the Printing House before Christmas, may, perhaps, be classed with those who have figured in the pursuit and diffusion of Knowledge under difficulties ; and these must be my apology for any shortcomings in the following pages, intended to introduce to the Reader some few subjects of interest to which perseverance in one only beaten track has kept most of our travelling countrymen entire strangers. It was a saying of Thomas Carlyle that " of all the things which Man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy, are the things we call ' Books." I am far from being of his opinion ; and share the sentiment of the wisest man, that the making of many of these things is inconsistent with the shortness of human life. The reading of many produces, beyond all controversy, "•real "weariness of the flesh ! " The volume here offered to

PREFACE.

. VIII the Public pretends to nothing important, marvellous, or meritorious ; yet I trust it will be welcomed as a sort of Appendix to its precursors from the same pen employing itself on the same subject — the desirableness of rendering all Travel accessory to the attainment of useful information while abroad ; and to the strengthening of those principles which must ever conduce to our honour and happiness at home. G. M. M February, CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Introduction : Advantages of occasional deviation from tbe High Road — Reminiscences of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries — Depressing influences of the Weather in the Summer of 1860 in France as in England — Hotel at Folkestone — Hotel de l'Europe at Boulogne — M. Moses — Fort Building— French Farming and Sheep — Rent of Land — Wages — Lean Stock and bad .Meat — Alleged cause of the absence of fine Grass Lawns on the Continent — The Duke of Nassau's success at Biberich. Ambleteuse : James II. Wimereux : Louis Napoleon's disembarkation in 1840. Wiss.vnt : Portus Itius of Julius Cæsar — His camp — The Coal mines of Hardinghen Page 1

Chapter II

Banks of the River Somme — Charm of Historical Associations — Pont de Briques — River Canche. ETArLES : A morning with the Flemish Consul — Ancient Churches and Castle of Etaples— St. Peter of the Mackerel — Mont aux Baudets, or Donkeys' Hill. sSt. Vallery : Fleet of William the Conqueror — Calamities of St. Vallery — The Wheelbarrow ; an Episode. Crotoy : Excursion to Airaines and Oisemont — Superstitions at Airaines — The Bell-man on All-Saints' Eve — Gigantic Cabbage growth — Chateau de Rambures Page 17

Chapter III

Noyelle : Recollections of the English Army and Philippe de Valois — Sir Godeniar de Foy. — " La Route de Valois" — Edward III. and Gobin Agace — The Ford of Blauctaque — Practical test of Historical Records. Abbeville: Wide improvements — The Waiter and the Whitening — The Sermon in the Cathedral — Shameful behaviour of Girls during Divine Service — M. Boucher de la Perthe — M. Marcotte — Town Hall and Library — Prudence L'Anglois — The Ursulines' Convent — Female Education in France. — The Mayor's considerate Placards — Three weeks' Fair — Music of the 2d Regiment of Lancers — The new Clarionet — Blended harmonies ! Page 3!)

Chapter IV

Abbeville. Peculiar relish for Tales of Horror prevailing in the French people — Monsr. de C.'s " Poisoning Story " : begun and finished under an Archway — Two hours' further shelter in the Hotel de Ville — Record Office, and an Extract, by way of Passa-tempo. — Antiquity of Abbeville — Contrast between English and French Criminal Law. Page 5S b CONTENTS. X

Chapter V

Excursion to St. Ricquier— History of its Abbey— The Church— Remarkable pillars- Beautiful statue by Girardon— Large picture painted without hands— The " Angelus." — M. Le Cure— The Treasury, or old Curiosity Store— Relics and Wonders— The Priest's hand-warmer — Very ancient oil painting — The Three Living and the Three Dead— Reference to similar pictures and "moralities" in remote ages . . Page 75

Chapter VI

A ride from St. Ricquier with a Priest, a Nun, and a Burgomaster ; and the consequences of looking into the Priest's Breviary and Doctrines — A scene enacted in the " Interieur" of a small Diligence: and now represented in letter-press . Page 98

Chapter VII

Pint Remy : Vast increase of Factories in France — Approximation to the excellence of British machinery — Cutlets eaten under suspicion — Recollections of other questionable delicacies. Long Pre. Hangest : Route of Edward III.'s Marshals— Dialect of the Picard peasants — How to imitate it very closely. Picquigny : The Castle— Old feudal castles — Palatial ruins — The " Precepteur" — His gift of certain manuscripts relative to Louis XI. and Edward IV. — Their interview described — Discover}' of two pieces of Cannon — Narrow escape of Mdme. Lameth's cuisiniere Tabac du Caporal— A sketch <>f Infant France Pa*>*e 120

Chapter VIII

Excursion to the Battle Field of Crecy— Documents— Opinions of the men of the sixteenth century on Cuns and Gunpowder Page 130

Chapter IX

Amiens: Feelings with regard to War— " The Times" Newspaper— The Emperor's Letter to Ct. Persigny— Hotel du Rhin— Tables d'Hote— Cookery— Effects of paying for "Attendance" in the Bill: at home and abroad— St. Anthony— Departure for Peronne-Villers Bretonneaux— Corbie— La Motte— Cultivation and extensive appropriation of the Poppy plant— Female Hostlers— Views of Female Employment— PmoHHB-Louis XI Page 161

Chapter X

From Peronne to Ham-The Fortress-Apartments for State Prisoners, occupied bv Louis Xapoleon-The Escape pa(7e

Chapter XI

From Peronne to Bapaume : splendid Church— Demolition of the fortifications— Evils of the Reign of Louis XIV.— To Arras : The very remarkable features of this Town— The Ramparts and Squares— Misgivings of the public mind— Price of Laud— The Agricultural Society— Medical Report on Bread diet— Labourers' wages and dwellings. —The French menage— Notions about England— Agitation in favour of Female Employment pagi. ,',,_ CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XII

A Sunday in Arras : The Cathedral— Ideas of the Abolitionists — Opinions with regard to the Pope and his authority — House of the Robespierre family — The Morning Preacher at the Cathedral — The Reader solicited to grant ten minutes to his Sermon. — Catechism — Influence of Catechetical teaching — Personal appearance of the French Clergy — The Cure de Pleurteuil Page 219

Chapter XIII

From Arras to St. Omer : Indifference of the French to Scenery and Agriculture. .St. Omer *. Its pr.aises — Disappearance of the floating islets in the Clairmarais — An inscription in the style of Tacitus ! — Abboy of St. Bertin — Melancholy history — Military Hospital— A Flemish Gentleman's opinions on English travelling — The Cathedral : Chapelle des Evcques — Remarkable Picture ; and Inscription relative to Pontius Pilate — Rehearsal of the Hymn to the Virgin — The singing master's tormentors — Rural Psalmody in England — The Rosary — Isabel's request to have one ; and the reason Page 241

Chapter XIV

Excursion to the Plains of Agincourt : Account of the Expedition of Henry V.— Costs of it— Extreme perils of his troops — Their escape — Relative force — Shakespeare — The King's gallantry— Bivouac at Maisoncelles Page 264

Chapter XV

The relative positions of the English and French Armies on the Plains of Agincourt— The Battle— Reflections Page 284

Chapter XVI

From Agincourt to St. Omer : Village and Church of Fauquenbergues— Beautiful Architecture— Churchwardens' whitewash— Improvement in French building— Colours in Stucco— Road-side directions— How to employ the Nuns— Feelings of the French with regard to our Volunteer Forces— Sketch of the general mind and condition of the French People at this moment— Their very imperfect knowledge of the English Middle Class, Aristocracy, Squires, &c— The only way by which such ignorance may be enlightened, shown— Reflections on the Civil and Military classes in France— The ( llergy— Return by Calais to Dover— Conclusion Page 307 CORRIGENDA. Page 9 line 22, for Mangel read Mangold „ 123, „ 23, 'E — 'En 1H2, „ 17, — saul letter : — manifesto : "„ 17(5, ., 22, — were — was six. d-C.

Chapter I

Introduction : Advantages of occasional deviation from the High Road — Reminiscences of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries— Depressing influences of the Weather in the Summer of 1860 in France as in England — Hotel at Folkestone — Hotel de l'Europe at Boulogne — M. Moses — Fort Building — French Farming and Sheep — Rent of Land — Wages — Lean Stock and bad Meat — Alleged cause of the absence of fine Grass Lawns on the Continent — The Duke of Nassau's success at Biberich. Ambleteuse : James II. Wimereux : Louis Napoleon's disembarkation in 1840. Wissant : Portus Itius of Julius Cæsar — His camp — The Coal mines of Hardinghen. More than forty eventful years have elapsed since the author of this volume, wending his way through the Via Tordinona in Rome, aster a long day spent amid the treasures of the Vatican, turned aside, for mere love of exploring terra incognita, to ascertain how near to the flowing waters of the Tiber he yvould find himself, by threading one of those little narrow arched passages which open into the said street at one end, and descend to the river's bank at the other.

The vicolo here alluded to (for that is the term applied to these covered lanes or courts,) was that " del arco di Parma." 1 had passed it at least two hundred times, in the course of nine months, only to regard it, in common yvith several other lying in the same direction, as a defile of darkness and bad odours, serving, probably, as a short cut for water-carriers and scavengers to and from the main street ; but the memory is still fresh as ever of the delight with yvhich, on emerging from this repulsive by-way, I found myself standing on a projection of i. BV-KOADS AND BATTLE-FIELDS. 2 rough bankv ground, whence, beyond all possibility of doubt, that eminently gifted Flemish artist. Hendrick Van Lint, commonly called Studio V. L., must have painted the representation of the Cathedral of St. Peter, the Vatican, the Castle of St. Angelo, the bridge of that name, and the stream of Tiber beneath : — a picture of exceeding beauty, and, as Pilkington characterizes his yvorks, a " most truthful imitation of Nature," on yvhich, as long as I can remember existence in this planet, I had gazed with an undefinable feeling of interest and delight, in my grandfather's collection, till, as years rolled onward, the hope of treading the soil of Italy yvas realized, and by a mere chance I lighted on the self-same spot where, as in a " coigne of 'vantage," the discerning Belgian had set his palette upwards of tyvo hundred years before; yvell knowing hoyv exquisitely all these objects yvould compose, and working, yvith that knowledge, in most grateful shade.

" He," too, "had travelled to Rome at an early age;" and had he devoted his attention through all the summer months to the discovery of the best point of vieyv, he must still have recurred to this particular nook on the river's bank yvhence I saw, even yvith recognition of certain yvindows on tlie kit, and of little doors and loop-holes on the right, the identical objects in foreground and middle distance his exquisite skill had pour trayed. All this gratification, and it yvas intense, yvas derived from a momentary inclination to leave the beaten track that lay betyveen the Vatican and the Corso ; and the circumstance, hoyvever insignificant in itself, has exercised its influence ever since ; encouraging the notion that more information and amusement are often to be found in discursive wanderings than in direct undeviating lines of journey.

Where such cross-roads diverge into provinces rich in historical associations, and in relics of high antiquity — to say nothing of the picturesque and beautiful in scenery, or of primitive life and manners in the secluded villages yvith yvhich the traveller most unexpectedly becomes acquainted — the contrast between these localities and the iron yvays along which the less inquisitive of mankind, yvith their Murray beside them, and their port manteaux before or behind, rush from one capital to another, is great indeed. We have read how Broyvn, Jones, and Robinson saw Belgium. The Hogarth of the nineteenth century has immortalised their positions of ease, and the abandon of their weariness; but even admitting that the railway tourist have a wide-ayvake curiosity, as yvell as hat, through out his pilgrimage, he appears to travel only too much like a parcel, ticketed and paid for ; his halts on the way being restricted to the pause made by the train at the several stations ; and his insight into the interior being obtained by his mind's eye, as he reads, here and there, in the red book just mentioned, some passage to this effect : — " About two leagues from this station is the celebrated battle-field [or the venerable ruin, or the ancient and renowned castle] of As B. or C. D. well worth the attention of the visitor, whose journey, as tolerably convenient caleches may be procured fur the excursion, would only be lengthened by three or four hours."

In eleven cases out of twelve, those three or four hours are voted by the family party yvith their half-ton of luggage, or by the bachelor with his carpet-bag, to be hardly worth yvhile sacrificing ; especially as every mile is to involve delay and extra expenditure and trouble in some shape; and on these accounts the " visitor " is not to be found either among the In midi of the slain, or beneath the ivy-grown arch, or in the donjon of the old chateau ; his attention being limited to the line of rail ; and his notes by the way to a memorandum that A. B. lay not far from it ! It is an undeniable fact that multiform trouble is often attached to these endeavours to explore the indirect ways comprised in a voyage of discovery. They arc not to be taken at a hand canter by the horseman ; the pedestrian must not expect even and pleasant walking ; and he who rides in the "tolerably convenient ealeche," or carriage of the country, must look out for shocks and bruises which will make themselves remembered as well as the new scenery and incidents.

The exploring party must be competent to make clearly intelligible inquiries in the vernacular tongue, and to comprehend it when spoken in æon-Parisian phrase and accent ; and he must be prepared to contend yvith ignorance and a large amount of indifference, perhaps, on all points to yvhich the spirit of enterprise stimulates his attention. The people of the interest ing localitg may either mystify their questioner yvith rhodomontadc and mere inventions, or declare their total unacquaintance yvith any one fact upon yvhich he seeks information — a sorry requital of the trouble already b spoken of; and thus the painstaking tourist who was to find it yvell worth his while to devote three or four hours to these outlying attrac tions, is prompted, like Captain Cuttle, to make a note of it, that, when found, they were not worth the time or expense bestoyved upon them!

Hence the prevailing preference ofthe high-road, and that unacquaintance yvith the internal portions of country lying on either side of the beaten track, yvhich leaves so many of the most remarkable spots referred to in romance or history unvisited and unknown. A solitary traveller, or two or three well-matched companions, may, nevertheless, accomplish anything, where knowledge, health, strength, courage, and a moderate supply of money, can be brought to bear on these out-of-the way expeditions ; and those only yvho have felt the genuine satisfaction of a successful day spent where foreigners, Englishmen especially, are nut seen much oftener than comets or eclipses, can appreciate the value us a havresac, yvith sketching-stool annexed, and the absolute freedom, amounting almost to happiness, of life sans luggage, and the labour one delights in fully repaid.

The reader shall here have the benefit of a diary penned, for the most part, under these gratifying circumstances, in a district of France about yvhich it might, at fust mention, be supposed nothing new remains to lie said ; aud though not servile to all the atmospheric phenomena that almost hourly thwarted the traveller, as well as the farmer, through the last summer, I had but the hostility of rough weather to deplore in an attempt to till a sketch book and a journal from The By-roads and High-eoaD8 or Picardy — a province yvhich Messieurs les Anglais regard but too commonly as a mere vestibule or porch of entry into France; and into yvhose comers they generally indicate as little inclination to turn the eye of careful inquiry, as they used to manifest in favour of the old plaster casts in the great hall of our Royal Academy; the upper rooms of which they kneyv to be abounding with the far more attractive exhibition of modern ait, and to be the really only interesting features of the mansion.

The usual mention of this part of Northern France is almost universally disparaging. Arthur Young, an agriculturist, traveller, and author of no insignificant repute, who visited France at the beginning of the present century, says, "The fertile territory of Artois is distin guished by its utility. Picardy is uninteresting:" and the modern traveller, yvith his bagages registered for Paris, speeds from Calais or Boulogne to the Rue Rivoli, as if it yvere almost a duty to get over so ugly and unattractive a line of country, as that which lies between those ports and the capital, as expeditiously as possible. We used to expend two days and a half ou the journey : it may noyv be accomplished in six hours ; but what a scamper is this ! If London had not already been overstocked yvith illustrations, from "Tom all alones"* to Timbuctoo, I should have been eager to publish every sketch made within the little space of seventeen days in this generally slighted province of France.

Of the picturesque and beautiful there are many specimens of high character ; of architectural yvonders, on a vast scale and in exquisite detail, the account yvould baffle enumeration : in points of historical interest two localities, at least, are identified yvith that ancient military renown of England yvhich no lapse of time can ever obliterate : and it yvas yvell remarked by Bishop Nicholson, in his " Historical Library," that Henry the Fifth's single victory at Agincourt might have afforded matter for more volumes than had been written on his yvhole reign. To the eye of an agriculturist, the yvide breadths of cereal grain, interspersed yvith every conceivable variety of green crops, yvithout regard to normal courses and shifts of husbandry — on plains where the telescope cannot discern a sheep, an ox, a barn, or a cottage — present a problem on the powers of production, the distribution of labour, and the «o;/-keeping of stock, which yvould all but exhaust the British farmer's curiosity, belief, and imagination.

If the pilgrim in a strange but civilized land will but address the faculties of his mind to the attentive examination of even these few points of interest, the study of men and things thus entered upon will amply requite all the pains bestowed on such inquiry; and though he may not have found sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good out of everything, his travels will materially improve his own stock of acquirements; and, simply narrated, may enlighten aud recreate his fellow-men : and this, I conceive, should be the chief end and object Dickens's "Bleak House.'' p. 442. of publication ; and if the perusal of these pages should induce the tourist of July, 1S61, to follow me up hill, down dale, regardless of rough benches and hard beds, bad cookery, stings, stenches, and short comings of endless, yet not intolerable, variety, there may yet be some credit attaching to the project of devoting three yveeks of fine weather to Artois and La Somme, previous to dashing into the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, on the Boulevard St. Denys, a Paris.

Hardly more than seven or eight individuals left the Pavilion Hotel at Folkestone to take their passage yvith me on board the Princess Alice for Boulogne in the beginning of the fourth yveek of July. The disappointments and losses of the season had already begun to sadden the Kentish shore. The burden of Shakspeare's clown's song yvas in every waiter's lips — "The wind and the rain — The wind and the rain ! For the rain it raineth every day ! " A cold and grey cloud of depression seemed to darken the countenances of the serving men and the guests at this noble caravanserai. May, June, and July, had done but little for the good of the house. The dull-y isaged young Swiss (anything but the " merry boy " of the song !) yvho fetched and carried for me on that morning, looked so woe-begone, that I yvas induced to ask him why he had ever left his native Glarus for our coast; and it appeared that, in common yvith most of the small innkeepers' sons in Switzerland, he had come over to learn our language, and familiarise himself with English customs, for the eventual benefit of his family-hotel in the canton.

"But," said he, " I like not England: I cannot get on yvith the young men. I am utterly at a loss for recreation here. When my turn comes to go off, I go to bed ; for want of amusement. 1 miss my Musee ! " When 1 repeated this to his chef, the latter observed, " A hard working chap, sir ; but fitted for a cart, not for carriage-harness : a heavy breed, and not adapted for waiting on English gentlefolks." Here was Buffet versus Institute ! Probably, my man of Kent yvas in the right : but service is no inheritance ; and the young underlin"- sayv a Gast-haus in the Swiss future, for which it yvas better worth toiline o than for promotion chez Vantini in the marine solitude of Folkestone; for, except to embark or land at, it must be admitted to be the most uninviting of our ports. The passage to Boulogne yvas much as usual yvhen wind has been bloyving hard all night; and the majority of passengers did not enjoy it.

Cæsar's legions and William the First's Norman soldiery came, sayv, and conquered, after a sea-voyage in their little lug-sail boats ; the latter, too, about the autumn equinoctial gales. Sea-sickness, therefore, is but a poor guarantee against invasion ; though I remember hoyv Lord Ellesmere, some tyvelve years since, sketched a disembarkation of fifty thousand helpless invalids nauseating even glory ; not but that the bare idea of such an enterprise seems to be ridiculed quite as much among the French as on our side of the yvater, if not more so ; it being noyv the universal belief that Napoleon I. never, for an instant, seriously entertained the design of crossing the Channel. After a very satisfactory repast, at six o'clock, at the Hotel de l'Europe, presided over by Monsieur Moses (hoyv ludicrous the " Mon sieur" sounds in apposition yvith the son of Aniram !) — the only tolerable table d'hote dinner yvorth sitting down to during my absence from home — I strolled alone; the yvide military road that skirts the cliff in the direction of Wimereux.

At a mile's distance from the harbour, on an elevated poiut of this road, a battery is in progress of construction, which will command the bay, as yvell as the country on the land side. There is reason for believing that it is but the tardy completion of an old project ; for the six twenty-four pounder guns, yvithout carriages, ranged in front of a row of little cottages immediately contiguous, have lain there since the year 1804, having been brought to that spot for a battery intended to be raised there yvhile " the Army of Invasion " yvere encamped on the heights, at the beginning of the present century. Such ordnance yvould not be mounted noyv; but in its stead some half-dozen Vincennes pieces to rival our Armstrongs, and do nothing more ! For who threatens the shore thus ever making ready for battle?

From the same period have stood the small forts or Martello towers, considerably larger, however, than our own, which project into the offing, at about half-a-mile's distance from the beach, and two miles apart, all along this line of coast. Many of the French observed to me, with a smile, that yve yvere evidently afraid of a descent on our un fortified flats ; but, judging by appearances, as I used to say, they might be said to be at least cpiite as solicitous to protect their oyvn territory from trespassers, though it doth not appear in what mode we could ever again create a panic; for our night expeditions and "cuttings out" are noyv only matters of history ; and the only landing effected under the guns of these sea-shore forts, yvas that of the present Emperor, who, yvith General Montholon and some other attached folloyvers, stepped out of a row-boat, on the 6th of August, 1S40, unquestioned by police or powder, on to the sandy beach of Wimereux, to yvhich an hour's yvalk from Bou logne at length brought me.

This deserted and desolate port, named aster the little river that floyvs through it into the sea, lies nestling among the barren sand hills out of which it yvas excavated by the army of Buonaparte, in 1803. The yvorks yvere laid out on an immense scale, and progressed so rapidly, that in less than six months they were entirely finished: — the harbour being capable of containing upwards of 160 vessels of different sizes. At that period, the village presented the appearance of a small trading toyvn. It is now more like a rabbit-yvarren — a melancholy hamlet begirt with lofty cones of sand, yvhich, in a high yvind from sea yvard, is bloyvn far into the country, yvith blinding influence, and increases the hillocks already created by northerly gales. Vegetation there is none, except in the growth of rank yvceds, yvhich not even the goats will browse upon ; and, but for the spirit of enterprise evinced by the fisher men, by yvliom the cottages are chiefly inhabited, and whose industry yvas called into activity by the establishment of the camp formed hereabouts some six years since, yvhen the present substantial bridge yvas constructed, would, probably, have been deserted altogether.

On a little mound, at a few yards' distance from the road leading from Boulogne into the village, stands a stone obelisk of simple construction, about ten feet high, on the pedestal of yvhich is the folloyviiK-- in scription : — (Translation.) " On this spot fell, from the height of upwards of 5,000 feet, at 35 minutes past 7 in the morning ofthe 15th of June, 1785, the unfortunate aeronauts Pilatre de Rosier and Romain, sen., who ascended from Boulogne, thirty minutes previous. The former of the two was found dead, where he fell : the latter exhibited some symptoms of life, but died within the space of two minutes." These rash adventurers were intent upon crossing the straits of Dover ; and the balloon took a northerly direction, apparently favourable to their design, yvhen a current of air carried them inland ; and shortly afterwards the gas kindled into a flame, by yvhich the net-yvork and tackling yvere at once consumed, causing their instantaneous fall to earth.

The shattered remains were removed to Wimille, and a monument was there erected to their memory in the churchyard, on the edge of the high road from Calais to Paris, where I have some recollection of having seen it in the year 1810. Among the croyvd of spectators yvho stood around, at the moment of their perilous starting, yvas the Marquis de Maisonfort, whose enthusiastic relish of the enterprise impelled him to offer Romain tyvo hundred pounds for the privilege of taking his place in the car ; yvhich the latter refused ! As on all former occasions of walking abroad in the immediate neighbourhood of Boulogne, I yvas noyv again struck yvith the close resemblance these cultivated heights bear to those on the opposite cliffs of Thanet, except, in the husbandry. The French farmers set peas and horsebeans together.

Sections of this medley crop are cut green, and given to horses, cows, and sheep. The remaining portions are permitted, if there be green meat enough of any other kind, to stand till September. Mangul wurzel [yvhich they invariably call "Beet Root," never using the Syvcdish term] is common enough in their fields ; but no attempts are made to cultivate either Dutch or Swedish turnips. The universal reply to inquiries on this subject is, that there is not sufficient humidity in the climate to favour its growth ; the root never reaching the due proportions. Hence the lean mutton — the wretchedly bad mutton of France — and the equally disagreeable, disreputable beef, yvhich is larded with bacon (!) for want of a healthy proportion of fat. Besides all this, the absence of turnip, the mother of the dung heap, which is the mother of every thing else, leaves the farms destitute of compost.