CXLIV. Chambord. strangers with a favourable idea of the situation. The BOOK ancient church of the jesuits, built after the plans of Mansard, the Roman aqueduct dug in the rock, the public library, the prefect's palace on an eminence, the long walk which terminates in a large forest, are certainly ornamental to any city, but all of them are less imposing than the old castle, where the good Lewis the Twelfth was born, which was inhabited by Francis the First and Charles the Ninth; and where too, during the last meeting of the states under Henry the Third, the Duke of Guise, and the cardinal were assassinated by order of the king, who was himself afterwards murdered by a bigot. The curious repair to the village of Chambord about four leagues distant, in order to see a castle which was built in the reign of Francis the First after the plans of Primatice; the monarch employed 1800 workmen during twelve years, his successors followed his example, and the edifice was completed by Lewis the Fourteenth. Although an irregular assemblage of towers and turrets, it is one of the most imposing Gothic buildings in France. A double spiral stair in the interior has been often admired, one person may mount and another descend it without seeing each other. The park round the castle is enclosed by a wall seven leagues in circumference. This fine domain was the residence of king Stanislas; Lewis the Fifteenth ceded it afterwards to the Marshal de Saxe, who died there in the year 1750. Napoleon presented it to the prince of Wagram; lastly, having been purchased by means of a national subscription, it became the appanage of the duke of Bordeaux. SaintAignan on the banks of the Cher, carries on a considerable trade in cloth and in flints, which are cut in the neighbourhood. Ten manufactories render the small town of Romarantin Romarantin. a place of some importance; and it may be mentioned as a proof of its prosperity, that it has lately been embellished with several new streets. It is celebrated in history on account of the edict that was past by the chancellor de l'Hopital, an edict that saved France from the horrors of the inquisition. The Loire divides itself into several Vendome. branches near Vendome, which stands below a hill covered BOOK CXLIV. Depart- Nogent-le- with fruitful vineyards. The town is well built, and the college is not inferior in point of architecture to any in France; the finest buildings are those in the vicinity of the horse-barracks, and no view near the town can be compared with the one, which may be seen from the ruins of the ancient castle. Vendome was the birthplace of the poet Ronsard. A flat country, in some places narrow valleys, in others extensive and fruitful plains watered by different rivers, of which the largest are the Eure and the Loire, make up the department of the same name, in an agricultural point of view, one of the most productive in France. It is formed by the greater part of the ancient Beauce and Perche. It furnishes corn in sufficient abundance for the consumption of the inhabitants, and exports besides a great quantity to Paris and the neighbouring departments. It has been proved by official returns, that the grain raised in Eure and Loire, is three times greater than the average produce of the French departments. The inhabitants rear numerous flocks and herds; the quantity of wool exceeds twice the mean quantity in the other departments, and the same may be said of the number of horses that are bred in the country.* As the agricultural products are so abundant, it may be supposed that the inhabitants are not engaged in other occupations, but all the branches of industry are mutually connected with each other; thus, the mines furnish materials to several important iron works, and the wool, to cloth and different manufactories. It may be unnecessary to mention the vineyards, as all the wines are of ordinary quality; the quantity produced may be equal to 20,000 tuns; cider, however, is a very common beverage in different parts of the country. The department of Eure and Loire contains four districts; Nogent-le-Rotrou is the chief town in one of them; the houses are mostly well-built, it stands in a fruitful valley watered by the Huysne and the Arcise; the latter turns several mills, and forms a cascade near the town. The Gothic castle, which commands Nogent, need not be men * Forces productives et commerciales de la France par M. Cha. Dupin. CXLIV. tioned on account of its architecture, but it may be re- BOOK marked that it was the residence of Sully. Senonches is an industrious burgh, the inhabitants carry on a trade in machinery and agricultural implements. Maillebois has several cloth manufactories; the other places in the district are too insignificant to require notice. It would be a waste of time to inquire whether Dreux Dreux. derives its name from the Druids or from Dryus, the fourth king of the Gauls, more particularly as the antiquity of the town cannot be disputed, as it is known that it was called Durocasses before the Roman conquest, a name which was afterwards changed into Droca, and lastly into Dreux. The inhabitants carry on a trade in leather, printed cottons, woollen stuffs, stockings and hats, all of which they themselves manufacture. Rotrou the poet, Philidor the musician and celebrated chess player were born in the town. The battle in which the troops of Charles the Ninth took the prince of Condé prisoner, was fought under the walls in 1562. The ruins of the ancient castle that was inhabited by the counts of Dreux are still seen on a neighbouring height. The burgh of Anet may be about Burgh of three leagues on the north of Dreux; it was near it that Henry the Second built a noble residence for Diana of Poitiers, his mistress; what remains of it enables us to form some notion of what it must have been; it may be considered a monument of the foolish passion that the king had for a women who was not always faithful to him, and who was the cause of many disasters to France. Anet. Epernon in the district of Chartres, may contain about fourteen hundred inhabitants; it rises in a pleasant valley. Maintenon, somewhat more populous and still more agree- Maintenon. ably situated than Epernon, was the native town of Colin d'Harleville. The castle or the finest edifice was built in -the sixteenth century; limpid streams water the park that surround it; there Lewis the Fourteenth raised an aqueduct, now in ruins, in order to transport the waters of the Eure to Versailles, for that purpose he employed during several years more than sixty thousand soldiers, and a great many workmen. Several Druidical monuments are situated in a plain beyond the park, the country people call BOOK CXLIV. Chartres. Collections them the stones of Gargantua. Dirty and mean villages extend in different directions in the country between Maintenon and the capital of the department; they are built in the same manner as were those belonging to the Carnutes in Cæsar's time; they consist of wretched hovels without windows, and made of clay mixed with straw, but what is very remarkable, the peasants who inhabit them, are not indigent. The two towers in the cathedral of Chartres may be seen from the heights in the neighbourhood of Maintenon, they might be mistaken for two lofty obelisks. A small wood, all that remains of the ancient forest inhabited by the chief of the Druids, is almost contiguous to Chartres. The Eure which flows below it, was the Celtic Autur, and the Latin Autura, hence the town was called Autricum, but the ancients designated it also by the name of Carnutum. An elegant square adorns the lower part, which is mostly wellbuilt, but the higher is formed by steep and irregular streets; in one of the narrow courts may be observed a monument erected to the memory of general Marceau, in every way unworthy of the young hero, whose ashes repose in a foreign land, and whose tomb was respected by the enemies he had defeated. The cathedral is the most remarkable edifice in Chartres; it stands on the summit of the town, and the towers rise to a great height. It was founded in the eleventh century, it was there that Saint Bernard excited his hearers to engage in the second crusade; at a later period Henry the Fourth was crowned in the same place. Among the ornaments may be mentioned a white marble figure of the Virgin by Coustou, and, in one of the small chapels, another Virgin with the infant Jesus. The last group and the relics of Saint Vast are held in great veneration by the people. The most valuable collections in the town, are a museum of natural history, and a public library consisting of 30,000 volumes and more than 700 manuscripts. Chartres has produced several distinguished men; we may mention Desportes and Regnier his nephew, two poets of the sixteenth century, Andrew Felibien, an author of considerable erudition, Thiers, better known as a critic CXLIV. than a theologian, Peter Nicole, an eminent writer of Port- BOOK Royal, Brissot de Warville and Petion de Villeneuve, two members of the Convention, the virtuous defenders of the unfortunate queen. The old ramparts of Chartres have been changed into public walks, they communicate with the lower part of the town; the gates are adorned with triumphal arches, and one of them flanked with turrets communicated with the drawbridge which was lowered before Henry, the Fourth. The road to Brittany passes through Courville, a small city about four leagues to the west of Chartres. Sully died in the neighbouring castle of Villebon, an elegant and well preserved Gothic edifice of the sixteenth century, The banks of the Loire lead to Bonneval, a burgh of Chateauseventeen hundred inhabitants, who carry on a trade in dun. cotton, woollen stuffs and leather; broad, straight and clean streets indicate the wealth of the people. Chateaudun on the banks of the same river, was destroyed by fire in 1723, a calamity which has contributed much to its improvement; it is at present one of the finest towns in France. It has been made the capital of a district, it contains a townhouse, a public library and a college. The market-place must be considered the greatest ornament to the town both on account of its size, and the number of public buildings; a pleasant walk extends along the peaceful banks of the Loire, bounded by natural grottos, which have been converted into habitations for the peasantry. A castle rises on a rock that commands the river; it belonged to the counts of Dunois, it was built in the tenth century; there is not perhaps another edifice of the same date in France that can be compared with it. Loiret, A well-made road through no very picturesque country, Departleads from Chateaudun to Orleans, the chief town in a de- ment of partment, of which the name has been derived from the Orleans. Loiret, a small river hardly three leagues in length from its source to its junction with the Loire, it is navigable the distance of a league; it has never been known to freeze, an advantage which renders it useful in more than one branch of industry. According to Lancelot and D'Anville, the ancient capital of Orleanais was originally called Genabum. |