BOOK CXLIV. Former prosperity of Touraine. which these two rivers, the Cher, the Claise and the Vienne traverse from east to west. The mildness of the climate, the fruitful valleys, the romantic banks of the Loire, on which the scenery has not been too much extolled by poets, and the varied productions inadequately described by geographers, render the country one of the most delightful in France. But the celebrity that has been conferred on the whole department, strengthened by the repetition of the same praises, may be reduced or more correctly estimated after a minute examination. If the traveller leave the banks of the Loire, or the majestic course bounded by heights, covered with vineyards, castles or villages, and pass through the valleys watered by the other streams that have been mentioned, he may observe large heaths or desert plains, and discover that a region apparently so rich, which has been compared to the promised land, which supplies France and other countries with different fruits, docs not furnish a sufficient quantity of grain for the consumption of the inhabitants. Thus, the rich banks of the Loire may be said to resemble one of those magnificent frames which deceive the ignorant, and enhance in their opinion the value of a picture. The following passage concerning Touraine, appears in a work that was published about forty years ago.* "The province was formerly enriched by different manufactures, such as leather, cloth, silk and ribbons; but all of them have fallen into decay; those of cloth and leather are no longer worked. The silk looms amounted in the sixteenth century to eight thousand, the number of mills to seven hundred, and the individuals who found employment in manufacturing silk, to more than forty thousand, but at present they do not exceed two thousand. Of three thousand ribbon looms, fifty are all that now remain." The impolitic revocation of the edict of Nantes, and duties equivalent to prohibitions on foreign trade, have been so fatal to the department, that it has not participated in the immense progress that French industry has made during the last twenty years. The cloth, carpet and cotton manufac * Encyclopedie Methodique, Dictionnaire geographique-article Touraine. tories, the paper mills and leather works are without doubt both more numerous and important than they were fifty years ago, but they are not nearly so productive as might have been reasonably anticipated." BOOK CXLIV. The state of the department justifies these reflections, Tours. although few towns in the kingdom can be compared with Tours on the banks of the Loire. The entrance into it is very imposing. A circus leads to one of the best built bridges in Europe, terminating in a spacious court that communicates with the Royal street, the finest in the town, and inferior to none in any other. Broad, straight, lined with large houses, public buildings or well furnished shops, it joins the road to Poitiers, in which a long range of lofty trees extends to a green hill, surmounted with ruins, forming an admirable perspective. Near the same bridge, but in an opposite direction, is situated the Tranchée, an excellent road, cut across a height, and bounded by a verdant talus and different buildings; it leads to the telegraph, not an uninteresting object, but very different from the ancient ruins that crown the other hill. The Royal street extends through the broadest part of the town; several straight and modern streets cross it; but the old quarters consist of narrow and crooked lanes. The cathedral is an admirable Gothic edifice, the nave is remarkable for its size and ornaments, the windows in the choir display the most dazzling colours. A very precious monument of the regeneration of art may be seen within the same building, it is the tomb of Charles the Eighth and Anne of Brittany, his wife. The public library is one of the best and most valuable in France: it contains more than 30,000 volumes, a great many copies of rare editions, numerous manuscripts, among others, the Hours of Charles the Fifth, those of Queen Anne of Brittany, and a book of the gospels, written in gold letters, on which the kings of France used to swear in the capacity of abbots and canons of Saint Martin's church, where it was formerly preserved. The collection of paintings was removed a short time ago to a more commodious gallery; they are sufficiently numerous and of various styles, some of them are by the greatest masters. Tours possesses a medical society, another of agriculture, BOOK CXLIV. Amboise. Chateau Renault, and a third of arts and sciences; the last boasts of some distinguished members. Several celebrated men have been born in the town, we may mention Destouches, a dramatic writer, Dutens, the author of different valuable works on numismatics, and the canon Grecourt, whose licentious poems find but few admirers in the present day. The period in which Tours was founded, has not been ascertained; Ptolemy mentions it by the name of Cæsarodunum, a name that was derived from the conqueror of the Gauls; but it is not less certain that the Turones had no capital at the time Cæsar entered their country. Can the Roman general be considered the founder of a town, which a short time after the conquest was of some importance, which afterwards became the capital of the third Lyonnaise, and of which the name was distinguished by a Celtic termination? It is known besides that the termination dunum indicates invariably a position on a height. Tours then, although at present on the left bank, was originally on the right bank of the Loire, perhaps on the very eminence where the telegraph has been erected. Amboise, the ancient Ambacia, at five leagues on the east of Tours, has been considered by its townsmen, a place of greater antiquity, but the honors which they claim, are at best doubtful. Peopled by five thousand five hundred souls, memorable from events connected with the troublous times of French history, it is as ill built as at the period when Lewis the Eleventh instituted in its old castle the order of Saint Michael. Charles the Eighth was born and died in the same edifice, there too the conspiracy against the Guises proved abortive, a family that contributed by their intrigues to make the catholics and protestants of the same country, two hostile people, that first rendered popular the reproachful epithet of Huguenots, by which reformed Christians have been since designated. One old tower in the castle rises to the height of eighty-four feet, a spiral stair leads to the summit, and commands a view of the rich landscapes that bound the Loire and the Cher. A well built bridge, finished in 1822, crosses the river and communicates with the road to Paris. Chatean-Renault, situated on the north of Amboise, is divided into the upper and lower town; the burgh of Saint Paterne at no great distance eastwards, contains 2000 inhabitants and more than twenty manufactories of woollen and linen stuffs. One of the streams that fall into the Loire, waters the small town or rather burgh of Luynes, which was erected into a titular dutchy by Lewis the Thirteenth in favour of the constable D'Albert. It possesses a large hospital and several lace manufactories. Habitations similar to those that have been remarked in a neighbouring department, are dug in the depths of chalky rocks, and the ground above them is covered with rich vineyards. Paul Lewis Courier, one of the most profound hellenists in France, and not less distinguished as a civilian, was born in the neighbourhood. BOOK CXLIV. The small town of Langeais at some leagues from Luynes, Langeais. carries on a trade in linen stuffs and earthen ware; it consists of a single street, and contains 2500 inhabitants. The old Gothic castle is still in a good state of preservation; it was built in the eleventh century; the articles according to which Brittany was united to France, and the marriage contract between Anne and Charles the Eighth, were signed in one of the halls on the ground floor. The other parts of the building have been changed into a prison. Although the town is included in the district of Chinon, it is separated from it by the Loire, the Cher and the Indre. The last town or Chinon carries on a considerable trade in wines and Chinon. also in the excellent prunes produced in the district. The walls which encompass it, are all that remain of the old fortifications. The venerable ruins of an ancient castle adorn the town; it was there that Henry the Second of England died in 1189; Joan of Arc presented herself in the same place before Charles the Seventh, and offered to deliver France from a foreign yoke. Chinon was the birthplace of the celebrated curate of Meudon. The minister of Lewis the Thirteenth changed Richelieu, then a mere village, into a town; he embellished it with a castle, which has been since destroyed. The houses and streets are built with great regularity. La Haye on the banks of the Creuse, has been La Haye surnamed Descartes after the celebrated philosopher who was born within its walls, and whose house and modest furniture are still preserved with scrupulous care. Loches, the Descartes. BOOK CXLIV. Loches. Depart- Blois, chief town in a district, that produces in abundance the excellent plums, which the French call the plums of Tours, rises like an amphitheatre on the left of the Indre. The foursided tower which commands it, was built by the Romans; it formed part of the castle in which Agnes Sorel used the empire of her charms to inspire her royal lover with the desire of glory. The building was converted into a state prison by Lewis the Eleventh, and the cardinal Balue, one of his ungrateful favourites, was confined there during eleven years, in an iron cage. The tomb of Agues Sorel, which Lewis the Sixteenth removed from the choir in the church of Loches to another part of the building, was afterwards placed in the residence of the subprefect; the epitaph attests that she was charitable to all, giving largely of her wealth to the church and the poor. Blois, Vendome and Romarantin are the three principal towns in the department of the Loire and Cher, a low and uniform country, but in some places varied by hills, and covered with vineyards, where the eye rests with pleasure. The soil is much more fruitful in some parts than in others; the lands on the north of the Loire are very fertile, but on the south of the river, marshes, heaths and forests cover a third part of the soil. The country yields more corn than the inbitants require, fruits and leguminous plants of every sort, a great quantity of hemp, naval timber, and some good wines, particularly those of the Côte du Cher. Many sheep and oxen are reared; the turf pits are by no means unprofitable; iron mines are worked, and the silex on the chalky hills forms a branch of commerce. As a manufacturing department, it is not inferior to the last. Different remains of antiquity render it probable that Blois was founded before the Roman conquest; and in it, as in all the ancient French towns, the oldest buildings are situated on a height, and form so many narrow and steep streets; modern houses are erected below them, they extend to the quay on the right bank of the Loire, to the bridge of eleven arches, adorned with a lofty pyThe last ramid, and communicating with the suburbs. portion of the city is well built, and the views which extend from it in different directions, are likely to impress |