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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Roof of France, by Matilda Betham-Edwards
+#2 in our series by Matilda Betham-Edwards
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+Title: The Roof of France
+
+Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9073]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 2, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOF OF FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Carlo Traverso, Michelle Shephard and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE ROOF OF FRANCE
+
+OR
+
+THE CAUSSES OF THE LOZERE
+
+
+BY
+
+M. BETHAM-EDWARDS
+
+
+
+To M. SADI CARNOT.
+
+THIS VOLUME, THE THIRD OF MY PUBLISHED TRAVELS IN FRANCE, IS
+INSCRIBED WITH ALL RESPECT TO HER HONOURED PRESIDENT.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+PART I.
+
+_MY FIRST JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES_.
+
+CHAP.
+
+   I. FROM LE PUY TO MENDE
+  II. MENDE
+ III. A GLIMPSE OF THE CAUSSES
+  IV. ON THE TOP OF THE ROOF
+   V. RODEZ AND AURILLAC
+  VI. THE LAND OF THE BURON
+
+PART II.
+
+_MY SECOND JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES._
+
+   I. THROUGH THE MORVAN
+  II. THROUGH THE MORVAN (_continued_)
+ III. FROM LYONS TO AVIGNON BY THE RHONE
+  IV. AVIGNON AND ORANGE
+   V. LE VIGAN
+  VI. NANT (AVEYRON)
+ VII. MILLAU (AVEYRON)
+VIII. FROM MENDE TO ST. ENIMIE
+  IX. ST. ENIMIE
+   X. THE CANON OF THE TARN
+  XI. SHOOTING THE RAPIDS
+ XII. LE ROZIER
+XIII. MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX
+ XIV. MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX (_continued_)
+  XV. LE ROZIER TO MILLAU AND RODEZ
+ XVI. RODEZ, VIC-SUR-CERE REVISITED.--A BREAKFAST ON THE BANKS OF THE
+SAONE
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+It is upon this occasion my rare and happy privilege to introduce the
+reader to something absolutely new. How many English-speaking tourists
+have found their way to the Roof of France--in other words, the ancient
+Gevaudan, the romantic department of the Lozere? How many English--or
+for the matter of that French travellers either--have so much as heard
+of the Causses, [Footnote: From calx, lime] those lofty tablelands of
+limestone, groups of a veritable archipelago, once an integral whole,
+now cleft asunder, forming the most picturesque gorges and magnificent
+defiles; offering contrasts of scenery as striking as they are sublime,
+and a phenomenon unique in geological history? On the plateau of the
+typical Causse, wide in extent as Dartmoor, lofty as Helvellyn, we
+realize all the sombreness and solitude of the Russian steppe. These
+stony wastes, aridity itself, yet a carpet of wild-flowers in spring,
+are sparsely peopled by a race having a peculiar language, a
+characteristic physique, and primitive customs. Here are laboriously
+cultivated oats, rye, potatoes--not a blade of wheat, not an apple-tree
+is to be discerned; no spring or rivulet freshens the parched soil. The
+length and severity of the winter are betokened by the trees and poles
+seen at intervals on either side of the road. But for such precautions,
+even the native wayfarer would be lost when six feet of snow cover the
+ground. Winter lasts eight months, and the short summer is tropical.
+
+But descend these grandiose passes, dividing one limestone promontory
+from another--go down into the valleys, each watered by lovely rivers,
+and we are, as if by magic, transported into the South! The peach, the
+almond, the grape ripen out of doors; all is smilingness, fertility,
+and grace. The scenery of the Causses may be described as a series of
+exhilarating surprises, whilst many minor attractions contribute to the
+stranger's enjoyment.
+
+The affability, dignity, and uprightness of these mountaineers, their
+freedom from vulgarity, subservience, or habits of extortion, their
+splendid physique and great personal beauty, form novel experiences of
+travel. The general character of the people--here I do not allude to
+the 'Caussenard,' or dweller on the Causse alone, but to the Lozerien
+as a type--may be gathered from one isolated fact. The summer sessions
+of 1888 were what is called _assizes blanches_, there being not a
+single cause to try. Such an occurrence is not unusual in this
+department.
+
+The Lozere, hitherto the Cinderella, poorest of the poor of French
+provinces, is destined to become one of the richest. Not only the
+Causses, but the Canon du Tarn, may be regarded in the light of a
+discovery by the tourist world. A few years ago the famous geographer,
+Joanne, was silent on both. Chance-wise, members of the French Alpine
+Club lighted upon this stupendous defile between the Causse de
+Sauveterre and the Causse Mejean; their glorious find became noised
+abroad, and now the Tarn is as a Pactolus flowing over golden sands--a
+mine of wealth to the simple country folk around. The river, springing
+from a cleft in the Lozere chain, winding its impetuous way, enriched
+by many a mountain torrent, through the Aveyron, Tarn, and Garonne,
+finally disemboguing into the Garonne, has lavished all its witchery on
+its native place.
+
+Every inch of the way between the little towns of St. Enimie and Le
+Rozier is enchanted ground by virtue of unrivalled scenery. In time the
+influx of tourists must make the river-side population rich. The sandy
+bed of the Tarn must attain the preciousness of a building site near
+Paris. This materialistic view of the question affords mixed feelings.
+I have in mind the frugality of these country folks, their
+laboriousness, their simple, upright, sturdy ways. I can but wish them
+well, even at the price of terrible disenchantment. Instead of rustic
+hostelries at St. Enimie, gigantic hotels after the manner of Swiss
+tourist barracks; the solitude of the Causses broken by enthusiastic
+tittle-tattle; tourist-laden flotillas bearing the ensign of Cook or
+Gaze skimming the glassy waters of the majestically environed Tarn!
+
+On the threshold of the Lozere, just outside the limits of the
+department, lies another newly-discovered marvel, more striking,
+stranger than the scenery of the Causses--as beautiful, though in quite
+another way, as the Canon or Gorge of the Tarn. This is the fantastic,
+the unique, the eerie Cite du Diable, or Montpellier-le-Vieux, with its
+citadel, ramparts, watch-towers, amphitheatres, streets, arcades,
+terraces--a vast metropolis in the wilderness, a Babylon untenanted
+from the beginning, a Nineveh fashioned only by the great builder
+Nature. Little wonder that the peasants formerly spoke of the dolomite
+city, when forced to speak at all, with bated breath, and gave it so
+ill-omened a name. The once uncanny, misprized, even accursed city,
+since surnamed Montpellier-le-Vieux, from a fancied resemblance to
+Montpellier, is now very differently regarded by its humble owners.
+
+Literally discovered in 1882, its first explorers being two members of
+the French Alpine Club, the Cite du Diable is already bringing in a
+revenue. French tourists, who first came by twos and threes, may now be
+counted by the hundred a month during the holiday season. Alert to the
+unmistakable rat-tat-tat of Dame Fortune at their front-doors, the good
+folks are preparing for the welcome invasions to come. The auberge is
+being transformed into an inn, roads are improving, a regular service
+of guides has been organized, and all charges for guides, carriages,
+and mules have been regulated by tariff. It is hardly possible to
+exaggerate the weird fascination and eldritch charm of this once
+dreaded, ill-omened place. Only one pen--that, alas! at rest for ever--
+could have done justice to such a theme. In the hands of the great
+Sand, Montpellier-le-Vieux might have afforded us a chef d'oeuvre to set
+beside 'La Ville Noire' or the adorable 'Jeanne.'
+
+Fresh and interesting as is a sojourn on the Roof of France, a name in
+verity accorded to the Lozere, I have not restricted myself within such
+limits. The climbing up and the getting down offer many a racy and
+novel experience. I have given not only the middle of my journey, but
+the beginning and the end. Those of my country-folk who have traversed
+the picturesque little land of the French Morran, who have steamed from
+Lyons to Avignon, made their way by road through the Gard and the
+Aveyron, and sojourned in the cheese-making region of the Cantal--I
+fancy their number is not legion--may pass over my chapters thus
+headed. Had I one object in view only, to sell my book, I must have
+reversed the usual order of things, and put the latter half in place of
+the first. I prefer the more methodical plan, and comfort myself with
+the reflection that France, excepting Brittany, Normandy, the Pyrenees,
+the Riviera and the Hotel du Jura, Dijon, is really much less familiar
+to English travellers than Nijni-Novgorod or Jerusalem. I no more
+encountered anyone British born during my two journeys in the Lozere
+than I did a beggar. This privileged corner of the earth enjoys an
+absolute immunity from excursionists and mendicants. Strong
+enthusiasts, lovers of France, moved to tread in my footsteps, will
+hardly accuse me of exaggerating either the scenery, the good qualities
+and good looks of the people, or the flawless charm of Lozerien travel.
+In years to come I may here be found too eulogistic of all classes with
+whom I came in contact, who shall say? A long period of increasing
+prosperity, a perpetually swelling stream of holiday-makers, may by
+degrees change, and perhaps ultimately pervert, the character of the
+peasants, so glowingly delineated in the following pages. Let us hope
+that such a contingency is at least very far off, and that many another
+may bring home the same cordial recollections of the boatmen of the
+Tarn, the aubergistes and voituriers of the Causses, the peasant owners
+of the Cite du Diable. I need hardly add that I give a mere record of
+travel. The geology of the strange district visited, its rich and
+varied flora, its wealth of prehistoric remains, are only touched upon.
+For further information the reader is referred to other writers. On the
+subject of agriculture I have occasionally dwelt at more length, being
+somewhat of a farmeress, as Arthur Young styles it, and having now
+studied a considerable portion of France from an agricultural point of
+view. The noble dictum of 'that wise and honest traveller'--thus aptly
+does our great critic describe the Suffolk squire--'the magic of
+property turns sands to gold,' will be here as amply illustrated as in
+my works on Eastern and Western France.
+
+One word more. No one must undertake a journey in the Lozere with a
+scantily-furnished purse. A well-known artist lately contributed a
+paper to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ in which he set forth--in the
+strangest English surely ever penned by man, woman, or child--the
+facilities and delights of cycling in France on seven francs a day. Why
+anyone in his sober senses should dream of travelling abroad on seven
+francs a day passes my comprehension. Money means to the traveller not
+only health, enjoyment, comfort, but knowledge. Why should we expect,
+moreover, to be wholesomely housed and fed in a foreign country upon a
+sum altogether inadequate to the tourist's needs at home? The little
+wayside inns in out-of-the-way places mentioned by me were indeed very
+cheap, but taking into account horses, carriages and guides, the
+exploration of the Causses, the Canon du Tarn and Montpellier-le-Vieux
+will certainly cost twenty-five francs per diem, this outlay being
+slightly reduced in the case of two or more persons. Of course, when
+not absolutely making excursions, when settling down for days or weeks
+in some rural retreat, expenses will be moderate enough as far as inns
+are concerned. But carriage-hire is costly all the world over, and the
+inquiring traveller must have his carriage. There will also be a daily
+call upon his purse in the matter of pourboire to guides and
+conductors. A pound a day is by no means too liberal an allowance for
+the wise bent upon having the best, of everything. Those content to put
+up with the worst may exist upon the half.
+
+
+
+
+THE ROOF OF FRANCE
+
+
+PART I.
+
+_MY FIRST JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+FROM LE PUY TO MENDE.
+
+
+The traveller in France will not unseldom liken his fortunes to those
+of Saul the son of Kish, who, setting forth in search of his father's
+asses, found a kingdom; or, to use a homelier parable, will compare his
+case to that of the donkey between two equally-tempting bundles of hay.
+
+Such, at least, was my luck when starting for my annual French tour in
+1887. I had made up my mind to see something of the Lozere and the
+Cantal, settling down in two charming spots respectively situated in
+these departments, when, fortunately for myself, I was tempted
+elsewhere. Instead of rusticating for a few weeks in the country nooks
+alluded to, there observing leisurely the condition of the peasants and
+of agriculture generally, I took a contrary direction, thus ultimately
+becoming acquainted with one of the most romantic and least-known
+regions of Central France.
+
+'Since you intend to visit the Lozere' wrote a correspondent to me,
+'why not explore the Causses? The scenery is, I believe, very
+remarkable, and the geology deeply interesting.'
+
+The Causses? the Causses? I had travelled east, west, north, south on
+French soil for upwards of thirteen years, yet the very name was new to
+me. Having once heard of the Causses, it was, of course, quite certain
+that I should hear of them twice.
+
+Meeting by chance a fellow-countryman at Dijon, as enthusiastic a lover
+of French scenery as myself, and comparing our experiences, he suddenly
+asked:
+
+'But the Causses? Have you seen the wonderful Causses of the Lozere?'
+
+It was a curious and highly-characteristic fact that both my informants
+should be English, thus bearing out the assertion of an old French
+writer, author of the first real tourist's guide for his own country,
+that we are 'le peuple le plus curieux de l'Europe'; he adds, 'le plus
+observateur,' perhaps a compliment rather paid to Arthur Young than to
+the English as a nation. The work I refer to ('Itineraire descriptif de
+la France,' by Vaysse de Villiers, 1816) was evidently written under
+the inspiration of our great agriculturist.
+
+From French friends and acquaintances I could learn absolutely nothing
+of the Causses. The region was a _terra incognita_ to one and all.
+I might every whit as well have asked my way to Swift's Liliputia or
+Cloud Cuckoo Town, and the Island of Cheese of his precursor, the witty
+Lucian. People _had_ heard of l'Ecosse; oh yes! but why an
+Englishwoman should seek information about Scotland in the heart of
+France, they could not quite make out.
+
+There was nothing for me to do but trust to happy chance and the guide-
+book, and set out; and as a stray swallow is the precursor of myriads,
+so no sooner had I got an inkling of one marvel than I was destined to
+hear of half a dozen.
+
+Wonderful the scenery of the Causses, still more wonderful the canon or
+gorge of the Tarn and the dolomite city of Montpellier-le-Vieux, so I
+now learned.
+
+There were difficulties in the way of seeing all these. I had been
+unexpectedly detained at Dijon. It was the second week in September,
+and the Roof of France--in other words, the department of the Lozere--
+is ofttimes covered with snow before that month is out. My travelling
+companion was a young French lady, permitted by her parents to travel
+with me, and for whose health, comfort and safety I felt responsible.
+It seemed doubtful whether this year at least I should be able to
+realize my new-formed project, and penetrate into the solitudes of the
+Causses. However, I determined to try.
+
+My journey begins at the ancient town of Le Puy, former capital of the
+Vivarais, chef-lieu of the department of the Haute Loire, and, it is
+unnecessary to say, one of the most curious towns in the world. We had
+journeyed thither by way of St. Etienne, and were bound for Mende, the
+little mountain-girt bishopric and capital of the Lozere.
+
+We had to be up betimes, as our train for Langogne, corresponding with
+the Mende diligence, started at five in the morning. It might have been
+midnight when we quitted the Hotel Gamier--would that I could say a
+single word in its favour!--so blue black the frosty heavens, so
+brilliant the stars, the keen September air biting sharply.
+
+More fortunate than a friend whose pocket was lately picked of twenty-
+five pounds at the railway-station here, I waited whilst the terribly
+slow business of ticket-taking and registration was got over, thankful
+enough that I had breakfasted overnight--that is to say, had made tea
+at three o'clock in the morning. Not a cup of milk, not a crust of
+bread, would that inhospitable inn offer its over-charged guests before
+setting out. As I have nothing but praise to bestow upon the hostelries
+of the Lozere and the Cantal, I must give vent to a well-deserved
+malediction here.
+
+By slow degrees the perfect day dawned, a glorious sun rising in a
+cloudless sky. We now discovered that our travelling companions were
+two sisters--the one, an admirable specimen of the belle villageoise,
+in her charming lace coiffe; the other, equally good-looking, but as
+much vulgarized by her Parisian costume as Lamartine's sea-heroine,
+Graziella, when she had exchanged her contadine's dress for modern
+millinery. These pretty and becoming head-dresses of Auvergne, made
+often of the richest lace and ribbon, may now be described as
+survivals, the bonnet, as well as the chimney-pot hat, making the round
+of the civilized world.
+
+From Le Puy to Langogne, via Langeac, we traversed a region familiar to
+many a tourist as he has journeyed from Clermont-Ferrand to Nimes. The
+shifting scenes of gorge and ravine are truly of Alpine grandeur,
+whilst the railway is one of those triumphs of engineering skill to
+which Alpine travellers are also accustomed.
+
+One remark only I make by the way. The sarcasms levelled against the
+system of peasant proprietorship, that would be cruel were they not
+silly, are here silenced for once and for all. Nothing can be more
+self-evident than the beneficial result of small holdings to the State,
+wholly setting aside the superiority of the peasant-owner's position,
+moral, social and material, to that of the English farm labourer. Even
+a prejudiced observer must surely be touched by the indomitable
+perseverance, the passionate love of the soil, evinced by the small
+cultivators in the valley of the Allier, and, indeed, witnessed
+throughout every stage of our day's journey.
+
+Wherever exists a patch of cultivable soil, we see crops of rye,
+buckwheat and potatoes, some of these plots being only a few yards
+square, and to all appearances inaccessible. In many places earth has
+been carried by the basketful to narrow, lofty ledges of rock, an
+astounding instance of toil, hopefulness and patience. No matter the
+barrenness of the spot, no matter its isolation or the difficulty of
+approach, wherever root or seed will grow, there the French peasant
+owner plies hoe and spade, and gradually causes the wilderness to
+blossom as the rose.
+
+So true it is, as Arthur Young wrote a hundred years ago, 'Give a man
+secure possession of a black rock, and he will turn it into a garden.'
+A considerable proportion of the land hereabouts has been quite
+recently laid under cultivation, and on every side we see bits of waste
+being ploughed up.
+
+At Langeac, a little junction between Le Puy and St. Georges d'Aurac,
+we had a halt of over two hours, easily spent amid charming scenery.
+The air is sweet and fresh, everyone is busy in the fields, and as we
+saunter here and there, people look up from their work to greet us with
+a smile of contentment and bonhomie. It is a scene of peace and homely
+prosperity. A short railway jaunt to Langogne; a bustling breakfast at
+the little restaurant; then begins the final packing of the diligence.
+The crazy old berline looks as full as it can be before our four boxes
+and numerous small packages are taken from the railway van, and the
+group of bag and basket laden folks standing round, priests, nuns, and
+commis-voyageurs, evidently waiting for a place. Surely room can never
+be found for all these! Just then a French tourist came up and accosted
+us, smiling ruefully.
+
+'Ah!' he said, shaking his head with affected malice, 'just like you
+English--you have secured the best places.'
+
+True enough, the English when they travel are as the wise virgins, and
+secure the best places. The French are as the foolish virgins, and
+trust ofttimes to chance.
+
+I had, of course, telegraphed from Le Puy the day before for two seats
+in the coupe. Our interlocutor, an army surgeon, making a holiday trip
+with his wife, was obliged to relinquish the third good place to
+madame, placing himself beside the driver on the banquette. The little
+disappointment over, we became the best of friends, a highly desirable
+contingency in such terribly close quarters.
+
+Once securely packed, we stood no more chance of being unpacked than
+potted anchovies on their way from Nantes to Southampton. There we
+were, and there perforce we must remain till we reached our
+destination. To move a finger, to stir an inch, was out of the
+question. Nothing short of physical torture for the space of six hours
+seemed in store for us--for the three occupants of that narrow coupe,
+like fashionable ladies of old,
+
+           'Close mewed in their sedans for fear of air.'
+
+We could at least enjoy the selfish satisfaction of faring better than
+our neighbours. The unlucky occupants inside were as short of elbow-
+room as ourselves, and had not the enjoyment of the view; the
+passengers of the banquette were literally perched on a knife-board,
+whilst one old man, a cheery old fellow, supernumerary of the service,
+hung mid-air on one side of the vehicle, literally sitting on nothing.
+Like the Indian jugglers and the Light Princess of George Macdonald's
+wonderful fairy-tale, he had found means to set at nought the law of
+gravity.
+
+There he hung, and as the sturdy horses set off at a fast trot, and we
+were whirled round one sharp corner after another, I at first expected
+to see him lose balance and fall with terrible risk to life and limb.
+But we soon discovered that he had mastered the accomplishment of
+sitting on air, and was as safe on his invisible seat as we on our hard
+benches; old as he was, he seemed to glory in the exploit--exploit, it
+must be allowed, of the first water.
+
+Once fairly off, our own bodily discomforts were entirely forgotten, so
+splendid the sunshine, so exhilarating the air, so romantic the
+scenery. The forty miles' drive passed like a dream.
+
+Our companion, like her husband, was full of health, spirits and
+information. She could see nothing of the military surgeon but a pair
+of neat, well-polished boots, as he sat aloft beside the driver; every
+now and then she craned forward her neck with wifely solicitude and
+interrogated the boots:
+
+'Well, love, how do you get on?'
+
+And the boots would make affectionate reply:
+
+'As well as possible, my angel--and you?'
+
+'We couldn't be better off,' answered the enthusiastic little lady
+cheerily. Nor in one sense could we; earth could hardly show fairer or
+more striking scenes than these highlands of the Lozere.
+
+The first part of our way lay amid wild mountain passes, deep ravines,
+dusky with pine and fir, lofty granite peaks shining like blocks of
+diamond against an amethyst heaven. Alternating with such scenes of
+savage magnificence are idyllic pictures, verdant dells and glades,
+rivers bordered by alder-trees wending even course through emerald
+pastures, or making cascade after cascade over a rocky bed. On little
+lawny spaces about the sharp spurs of the Alps, we see cattle browsing,
+high above, as if in cloudland. Excepting an occasional cantonnier at
+work by the roadside, or a peasant woman minding her cows, the region
+is utterly deserted. Tiny hamlets lie half hidden in the folds of the
+hills or skirting the edges of the lower mountain slopes; none border
+the way.
+
+During the long winter these fine roads, winding between steep
+precipices and abrupt rocks, are abandoned on account of the snow. The
+diligence ceases to run, and letters and newspapers are distributed
+occasionally by experienced horsemen familiar with the country and able
+to trust to short cuts.
+
+What the icy blasts of January are like on these stupendous heights we
+can well conceive. At one point of our journey we reach an altitude
+above the sea equal to that of the Puy de Dome. This is the lofty
+plateau of granitic formation called Le Palais du Roi, a portion of the
+Margeride chain, and as the old writer before mentioned writes, 'la
+partie la plus neigeuse de la route'--the snowiest bit of the road. On
+this superb September day, although winter might be at hand, the
+temperature was of an English July. As we travelled on, amid scenes of
+truly Alpine grandeur and loveliness, the thought arose to my mind, how
+little even the much-travelled English dream of the wealth of scenery
+in France! Our cumbersome old diligence carried only French passengers.
+Nowhere else in Europe does the English tourist find himself more
+isolated from the common-place of travel.
+
+Many of the landscapes now passed recall scenes in Algeria, especially
+as we get within sight of the purple, porphyritic chain of the Lozere.
+We gaze on undulations of delicate violet and gray, as in Kabylia,
+whilst deep down below lie oases of valley and pasture, the dazzling
+golden green contrasting, with the aerial hues of distant mountain and
+cloud.
+
+Nothing under heaven could be more beautiful than the shifting lights
+and shadows on the remoter hills, or the crimson and rosy flush of
+sunset on the nearer rocks; at our feet we see well-watered dales and
+luxuriant meadows, whilst on the higher ground, here as in the valley
+of the Allier, we have proofs of the astounding, the unimaginable
+patience and laboriousness of peasant owners.
+
+In many places rings of land have been cleared round huge blocks of
+granite, the smaller stones, wrenched up, forming a fence or border,
+whilst between the immovable, columnar masses of rock, potatoes, rye,
+or other hardy crops, have been planted. Not an inch of available soil
+is wasted. These scenes of mingled sternness and grace are not marred
+by any eyesore: no hideous chimney of factory with its column of black
+smoke, as in the delicious valleys of the Jura; no roar of millwheel or
+of steam-engine breaks the silence of forest depths. The very genius of
+solitude, the very spirit of beauty, broods over the woods and
+mountains of the Lozere. The atmospheric effects are very varied and
+lovely, owing to the purity of the air. As evening approaches, the vast
+porphyry range before us is a cloud of purple and ruddy gold against
+the sky. And what a sky! That warm, ambered glow recalls Sorrento. By
+the time we wind down into the valley of the Lot night has overtaken
+us. We dash into the little city too hungry and too tired, it must be
+confessed, to think of anything else but of beds and dinner; both of
+which, and of excellent quality, awaited us at the old-fashioned Hotel
+Chabert.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+MENDE.
+
+
+Mende was the last but one of French bishoprics and chef-lieux to be
+connected with the great highroads of railway.
+
+That tardy piece of justice only remained due to St. Claude in the Jura
+when, owing to the Republic, Mende obtained its first iron road. Much
+time and fatigue will henceforth be spared the traveller by these new
+lines of railway, now spreading like a network over every part of
+France; yet who can but regret the supersession of the diligence--that
+antiquated vehicle recalling the good old days of travel, when folks
+journeyed at a jog-trot pace, seeing not only places, but people, and
+being brought into contact with wholly new ideas and modes of life?
+
+The benefits of the railway in the Lozere and the Jura are incalculable
+from an economic point of view, to say nothing of the convenience and
+comfort thereby placed within reach of all classes. It is an English
+habit to rail at the lavish expenditure of the French Government.
+Cavillers of this kind wholly lose sight of the tremendous strides made
+during the last fifteen years in the matter of communication. Surely
+money thus laid out is a justifiable expenditure on the part of any
+State?
+
+I lately revisited the Vendee after twelve years' absence. I found the
+country absolutely transformed--new lines of railway intersecting every
+part, increased commercial activity in the towns, improved agriculture
+in rural districts, schools opened, buildings of public utility erected
+on all sides-evidences of an almost incredible progress. In Anjou the
+same rapid advance, social, intellectual, material, strikes the
+traveller whose first acquaintance with that province was made, say,
+fifteen years ago. Take Segre by way of example; compare its condition
+in 1888 with the state of things before the Franco-Prussian War. And
+this little town is one instance out of hundreds.
+
+It was high time that something should be done for Mende. No town ever
+suffered more from wolves and wolf-like enemies in human shape. Down
+almost to our own day the depredations of wolves were frightful. The
+old French traveller before cited, writing in 1816, speaks of the large
+number of children annually devoured by these animals in the Lozere.
+The notorious 'Bete du Gevaudan,' at an earlier period, was the terror
+of the country. It is an exciting narrative, that of the gigantic four-
+footed demon of mischief, how, after proving the scourge of the country
+for years, desolating home after home, in all devouring no less than a
+hundred old men, women, and children, he was at last caught in 1767 by
+a brave monster-destroying baron, the Hercules and the Perseus of local
+story. The ravages of wild beasts were a trifle compared to the
+enormities committed by human foes.
+
+It is not my intention to do more than touch upon the religious wars of
+the Cevennes. Those blood-stained chronicles have been given again and
+again elsewhere. No one, however, can make a sojourn at Mende without
+recalling the atrocities perpetrated in the name of religion, and
+compared to which the excesses of the Jacquerie and the Terror sink
+into insignificance. If any of my readers doubt this, let them turn to
+the impartial pages of the eminent French historian, the late M. Henri
+Martin; or, to take a shorter road to conviction, get up the history of
+the Gevaudan, or of this same little town of Mende.
+
+On a smaller scale, the horrors of the siege of Magdeburgh were here
+repeated, the Tilly of the campaign being the Calvinist leader Merle.
+
+Devastated in turn by Catholic and Protestant, Royalist and Huguenot,
+Mende was taken by assault on Christmas Day, 1579, and during three
+days given up to fire, pillage, and slaughter. A general massacre took
+place; the cathedral was fired and partially destroyed, the bells,
+thirteen in number--one of these called the 'Nonpareil,' and reputed
+the most sonorous in Christendom--being melted down for cannon. All
+that fiendish cruelty and the demon of destruction could do was done.
+In vain Henry of Navarre tried to put down atrocities committed in his
+name. A second time Merle possessed himself of Mende, only consenting
+to go forth on payment of a large sum in gold.
+
+The history of Mende is the history of Marvejols, of one town after
+another visited by the traveller in the Cevennes; and in the wake of
+the burnings, pillagings and massacres of that horrible period follows
+the more horrible period still of the guerilla warfare of the
+Camisards, quelled by means of the rack, the stake, and the wheel.
+
+The Revolution, be it ever remembered, abolished all these; torture
+ended with the Ancien Regime; and, although M. Taine seems of opinion
+that the new state of things could have been brought about by a few
+gentlemen quietly discussing affairs in dress-coats and white gloves,
+we read of no great social upheaval being thus bloodlessly effected. At
+such times a spirit of lawlessness and vengeance will break loose
+beyond the power of leaders to hold in check.
+
+The approach to Mende is very fine, and the little city is most
+romantically placed; above gray spires, slated roofs and verdant
+valley, framing it in on all sides, rise bare, brown and purple
+mountains.
+
+The cathedral presents an incongruity. Its twin-towers, each crowned
+with a spire, recall two roses on a single stem, the one full-blown,
+beautiful, a floral paragon, the other withered, dwarfed, abortive.
+
+The first towers over its brother by a third, and is a lovely specimen
+of Gothic architecture in the period of later efflorescence. The second
+is altogether unbeautiful, and we wonder why such a work should ever
+have been undertaken at all. Far better to have left the cathedral one-
+towered, as those of Sens and Auxerre.
+
+The town itself would be pleasant enough if its aediles were more alive
+to the importance of sanitation. It never seems to occur to the
+authorities in these regions to have the streets scoured and swept.
+Just outside Mende is a delicious little mountain-path, commanding a
+wondrous panorama: although this walk to the hermitage of St. Privat is
+evidently the holiday-stroll of the inhabitants, accumulations of filth
+lie on either side. [Footnote: The same remark might be made by a
+Frenchman of the lanes near Hastings!] No one takes any notice. As
+Mende has without doubt an important future before it, let us hope that
+these drawbacks will not afflict travellers in years to come. The
+little capital of the Lozere must by virtue of position become a
+tourist centre; surely the townsfolk will at last wake up to the
+importance of making their streets clean and wholesome.
+
+To obtain the prettiest view of this charming, albeit tatterdemalion,
+little city, we follow a walk bordered with venerable willows to the
+railway station. Here is seen a belt of beautifully kept vegetable
+gardens and orchards, all fresh and green as if just washed by April
+showers. These are the property of peasant-owners, who dispose of their
+crops here and at Langogne. As yet the good townsfolk are hardly alive
+to the benefits of a railway. One of our drivers complained that it
+ruined the trades alike of carriage proprietor, conductor, and carter;
+another averred that the local manufacture of woollen goods, formerly
+of considerable account, was at a standstill owing to the importations
+of cheaper cloths. These grumblers will doubtless erelong take a
+different tone, as the glorious scenery of the Lozere becomes more
+widely known and Mende is made the tourists' headquarters. Our hotel,
+situated in the middle of the town, offers good beds, good food, dirty
+floors, charges low enough to please Mr. Joseph Pennell, and a total
+absence of anything in the shape of modern ideas. The people are
+charming, and the house is a mousy, ratty, ramshackle place hundreds of
+years old.
+
+It may be as well to mention that folk assured me I was the first
+English-speaking lady ever seen at Mende. A short time before no little
+excitement had been created by the appearance of six young Englishmen
+in knickerbockers, footing it with knapsack on shoulder. But lady-
+tourists from the other side of La Manche? Never! Be this as it may, it
+is as well for my country-women, if any follow me hither, to avoid
+insular eccentricities of dress. The best plan, before exploring wholly
+remote regions of France, is to buy the neatest possible head-gear and
+travelling-costume in Paris. Without meaning to be impertinent,
+bystanders will stand agape at the sight of any strangers, English or
+French. Even my young French companion was stared at, just because she
+was not a native of the place. Very obligingly, she offered to fetch my
+letters from the poste restante, and look out for photographs. As she
+had spent some time in England and acquired certain habits of
+independence, I accepted. But not twice!
+
+The poor girl found so many eyes following her, that she took refuge in
+the cathedral. As there chanced to be an abbe in the confessional
+handy, she very sensibly seized the opportunity by the forelock, and
+performed the duty of confession. But I did not permit her to roam
+about alone after that.
+
+Meantime, the medecin militaire and his wife had set out for the
+Causses and the Canon du Tarn, and their enthusiasm but served to
+heighten my own. That shooting of the rapids, too, I now heard of for
+the first time, lent a spice of exhilarating hazard and adventure to
+the excursion. They were going to shoot the rapids of the Tarn. Why
+should I not follow their example?
+
+Sorely tempted as I was to carry out the same programme, once more I
+hesitated. I could obtain very little precise information as to the
+real difficulties, if any, that beset the way, but everyone agreed that
+it was not at all a commonplace journey--in other words, not a very
+easy one. The long drive across the solitary Causse to St. Eminie or
+Florac, the four relays of boatmen necessary for the descent of the
+Tarn, the doubtfulness of the accommodation at the different halting-
+places--all these details had to be considered. Touring it through the
+Causses seemed, indeed, beset with difficulties. You have not only to
+take food with you for horse and man, but water also--ay, and make sure
+that your driver, besides being trustworthiness and sobriety itself,
+carries a revolver in his pocket. The Caussenards, or dwellers on these
+steppes, are said to be harmless enough, but suspicious-looking tramps
+from a distance, who always go in pairs, may sometimes be met. Wayside
+inns there are none, and as relays are therefore unattainable, the
+traveller must quit civilization as soon as dawn breaks, and contrive
+to reach it before overtaken by nightfall. Lastly, during the brief
+summer, the heat is torrid, and if you start on your travels towards
+its close, say the middle or end of September, today's scorching sun
+may be followed by tomorrow's snowstorm. And to be caught in a
+snowstorm on the Causses would be an Alpine adventure with no chance of
+a rescuing St. Bernard.
+
+Had I been alone I might have ventured, but, as before-mentioned, my
+companion was a young French lady confided to my care by her parents.
+On the whole, therefore, and with keenest regret, I felt it more
+prudent to defer the undertaking, for undertaking it undoubtedly was,
+till another year. Next summer, I said to myself, as soon as the snows
+were melted, I would again climb the Roof of France. And delightful as
+was the society of a bright, amiable, ready-witted girl, I would
+instead find a travelling companion of maturer years, and responsible
+for her own safety.
+
+There was one compensation within reach. If we could not enter the land
+of Canaan, we could at least behold it from Mount Pisgah. So I engaged
+a carriage with sturdy horses and a trustworthy driver, and we set off
+for the plateau rising over against Mende in a south-easterly
+direction, the veritable threshold of the Causses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+A GLIMPSE OF THE CAUSSES.
+
+
+The drive from Mende to the plateau of Sauveterre is a curious
+experience. Here the Virgilian and Dantesque schemes are reversed:
+Pluto's dread domain, the horrible Inferno, lies above; deep down below
+are the Fields of the Blest and the celestial Paradise.
+
+Dazzlingly bright the verdure, fertile and sunny the valleys we now
+leave behind--arid and desolate beyond the power of words to express
+the tableland reached so laboriously.
+
+Between these two extremes, Elysium and Tartarus, we pass shifting,
+panoramic scenes of wondrous beauty, stage upon stage of pastoral
+charm, picture after picture of idyllic sweetness and grace. Long we
+can glance behind us and see the little gray town, its spires outlined
+in steely gray against the embracing hills, its gardens and orchards
+bright as emerald--towering above all, the bare, purple, wide-
+stretching Lozere.
+
+The weather is superlative, and the clear, gemlike lines of sky and
+foliage are as brilliantly contrasted as in an Algerian spring.
+
+All this time we seemed to be climbing a mountain; we are, in reality,
+ascending the steep, wooded sides or walls of the Causse de Mende,
+prototype on a smaller scale of the rest--a vast mass of limestone, its
+summit a wilderness, its shelving sides a marvel of luxuriant
+vegetation.
+
+Every step has to be made at a snail's pace, the precipitous slopes
+close under our horses' hoofs being frightful to contemplate. This
+drive is an excellent preparation for an exploration of the Lozere. We
+are always, metaphorically, going up or coming down in a balloon.
+
+After two hours' climb, the features of the landscape change. One by
+one are left behind meandering river, chestnut and acacia groves,
+meadows fragrant with newly-mown hay, grazing cattle, and cheerful
+homesteads.
+
+We now behold a scene grandiose indeed as a panorama, but unspeakably
+wild and dreary.
+
+Here and there are patches of potatoes, buckwheat and rye, the yellow
+and green breaking the gray surface of the rocky waste; not a
+habitation, not a living creature, is in sight. Before us and around
+stretch desert upon desert of bare limestone, the nearer undulations
+cold and slaty in tone, the remoter taking the loveliest, warmest dyes
+--gold brown, deep orange, just tinted with crimson, reddish purple and
+pale rose. We are on the threshold of the true Caussien region.
+Sterility of soil, a Siberian climate, geographical isolation, here
+reach their climax, whilst at the base of these lofty calcareous
+tablelands lie sequestered valleys fertile fields and flowery gardens,
+oases of the Lozerien Sahara.
+
+Above, not a rill, not a beck, refreshes the spongy, crumbling earth;
+we must travel far, penetrate the openings just indicated by the dark-
+blue shadows in the distance, and descend the lofty walls of the
+Causses to find silvery cascades, impetuous rivers, and fountains
+gushing from mossy clefts. The showers of spring, the torrential rains
+of autumn, the snows of winter, have filtered to a depth of several
+thousand feet.
+
+We are not within sight of the grand Causse Mejean, nor of the Black
+Causse, or Causse Noir, and only on the threshold of Sauveterre, yet
+some idea may be gathered here of what M. E. Reclus calls a 'Jurassic
+archipelago,' once a vast Jurassic island. Imagine, then, a group of
+promontories, their area equal to that of Salisbury Plain, Dartmoor and
+Exmoor combined, with the varying altitudes of the loftiest Devonshire
+tor and Cumberland hill.
+
+Such a comparison may convey some feeble notion of the three Causses
+just named, two of which belong to the Lozere. The Causse Noir is
+partly in the Aveyron. Their extraordinary conformation must be seen
+and studied by all who would familiarize themselves with this
+geological phenomenon.
+
+No solitude can be more complete than these wastes, except when a
+leaden sky replaces the warm sunshine of to-day, and a deep,
+impenetrable mantle of snow covers the plateau from end to end. Then
+the little life that animates it is hushed, and none from the outer
+world penetrates the fastnesses of the Causses.
+
+We drive on for a mile or two till we reach the summit of the plateau.
+Here, at a height of 2,952 feet above the sea-level, is a ruined
+chateau turned into a farmhouse, where we rest our horses a little and
+prepare to make tea. The farmer's wife and two children come out to
+chat with our driver and look at us, evidently welcoming such a
+distraction. And no wonder! I brought out our bonbon box--one must
+never take a drive in France unprovided with sweetmeats--and tried to
+tame the children; but they clung to mother's skirts, and only
+consented to have the bonbons popped into their mouths, with faces
+shyly hidden in her apron.
+
+'Would you like a cup of tea?' I asked.
+
+But madame shook her head, giggling, and I do not suppose ever heard of
+such an infusion in her life.
+
+Meantime, tea-making on that breezy eminence was no easy matter. The
+little flames of my spirit-lamp were blown hither and thither--anywhere
+but in the right direction. At last our excellent driver, resourceful
+as a true son of Gaul is bound to be, lifted up the tiny machine, all
+afire as it was, and thrust it into that convenient box behind the
+caleche all travellers know of. The good man burnt his fingers, but had
+the satisfaction of making the water boil, and there for the first
+time, without doubt, tea was made after the English fashion. No place
+could be better adapted for a holiday resort. In summer these sweeps
+are one gorgeous mosaic of wild-flowers, and the short stunted grass
+shoots up, making verdure everywhere.
+
+As I sipped tea, squatted gipsy-wise on the ground, the thought
+occurred to my mind what a delightful, a unique villegiatura this spot
+might make. A clean, comfortable inn on the site of the ruined chateau,
+a sympathetic companion, a trusty guide, plenty of tea and one book--
+the book absolutely necessary to existence--perhaps mine would be
+Spinoza's Ethics or Schiller's 'Letters on the AEsthetic Education of
+Mankind'--under these conditions, months would glide by like an hour in
+such eerie, poetic, inspiring solitudes.
+
+The existence of a chateau on the borders of a veritable desert need
+not surprise us. The entire department of the Lozere was devastated by
+religious and seigneurial wars, and although the Causses themselves
+were not invaded, offering as they did no temptation to the thirsters
+after blood and spoil, the feudal freebooters had their strongholds
+near.
+
+The treeless condition of the Lozere chain and other once well-wooded
+regions was thus brought about. The Government is replanting many bare
+mountain-sides here, as in the Hautes Alpes, in order to improve the
+soil and climate. The barrenness of the Causses arises, as will be
+seen, from natural causes.
+
+Even in autumn--at least, on such a day as this--with these wild scenes
+is mingled much fairy charm and loveliness. Just as the distant scenery
+is made up of sharp contrasts--on the lofty plateaux, weird solitude
+and desolation; below, almost a southern luxuriance--so every square
+yard of rocky waste shows fragrant plant and sweet flower. We have only
+to stretch out our hands as we lie to gather half a dozen spikes of
+lavender, wild thyme, rosemary, Deptford pink, melilot, blue pimpernel,
+and white scabious. But the afternoon is wearing on. We must collect
+our tea-things, give the children a farewell sweetmeat, cast a last
+look round, and depart.
+
+It cost me many a pang to turn my back upon that farmhouse, boundary-
+mark between savagery and civilization, romance and the terre-a-terre
+of daily existence.
+
+Yonder diverging roads both led to fairy land and worlds of marvel--the
+one to Florac, so majestically placed under the colossal shadow of the
+Causse Mejean and above the lovely valley of the Jonte; the other
+across the steppe of Sauveterre and by the strange dwellings of the
+Caussenards to the picturesque little town of St. Eminie, the rapids of
+the Tarn, and the dolomite city.
+
+There was, however, the consolatory hope of seeing all the following
+year. Who could tell? Perhaps that very day twelve months later I might
+delight the children with my bonbon box, and a second time make tea on
+their breezy playground. At any rate, I entertained the project, and
+
+                   'Should life be dull and spirits low,
+                       'Twill soothe us in our sorrow,
+                   That earth has something yet to show,
+                       The bonny holms of Yarrow.'
+
+We are overtaken by two pedestrians only on our way home--ill-looking
+fellows enough, strangers in these parts, our driver assured us. 'No
+Caussenards, they,' he said. 'The Caussenard is harmless enough, only a
+trifle slow.'
+
+We get magnificent views of Mende and the Valley of the Lot--some
+slight recompense for having had to retrace our footsteps--and what was
+equally valuable, much useful information.
+
+'Is the land cut up into small parcels here?' I asked.
+
+We were just then on the outskirts of the town, and he pointed with his
+whip to a large, well-built farmhouse, with solid, walled-in buildings.
+
+'Most of the land round about Mende is farmed by the monsieur who lives
+there,' he replied. 'There he is, true enough, with his wife and
+children.'
+
+Just then we passed a hooded carriage, in which were seated father,
+mother, two little ones, and nursemaid, all taking a holiday jaunt, the
+day being Sunday.
+
+'That is the owner of the farm,' he went on: 'several hundred acres--I
+can't say how many--but it is stocked with two hundred sheep, ten oxen,
+besides cows and pigs. There you have an idea of the size,'
+
+'Are there no small farms here, then?'
+
+'There are all sorts: little farms, big ones, and betwixt and between,'
+he replied. 'Everybody has his little bit' (Tout le monde a son petit
+lot); 'but the land immediately round the town is farmed by the
+neighbour you saw in the caleche.'
+
+'Is he a peasant?' I asked.
+
+'A peasant if you like. He is a cultivator' (Un paysan si vous voulez.
+C'est un cultivateur), was the answer.
+
+When a French peasant becomes what in rustic phraseology is called a
+substantial man, owning or hiring a considerable extent of land, he
+ceases to be called 'paysan,' and is designated 'cultivateur.' The very
+word 'peasant,' as I have shown elsewhere, will, in process of time,
+become a survival, so steady and sure is the social upheaval of rural
+France. The most eminent Frenchmen of the day, witness the late Paul
+Bert, are often peasant-born; and hardly a village throughout the
+country but sends some promising son of the soil to Paris, destined for
+one of the learned professions. I know of a village baker's son near
+Dijon now studying for the Bar--one instance out of many. In one of her
+clever novelettes, 'Un Gascon,' Madame Th. Bentzon gives us for hero
+the village doctor, son of a peasant. The portrait of this young man,
+devoted to duty, high-minded, self-sacrificing, is no mere ideal, as
+experience proves. But if readers, compelled to make the acquaintance
+of French peasants on paper, will accept Zola and certain English
+writers as a guide to his moral and material condition, they will be
+landed on some conclusions strangely at variance with experience.
+[Footnote: I may add that I have received appreciative testimony from
+various French journals--_L'Economiste_, and others--also from no
+less an authority than M. Henri Baudrillart, of the Institut, of my
+studies of the French peasant, notably the contribution to the
+_Fortnightly Review_, August, 1887, in which I have summed up the
+experiences of twelve years' French residence and travel.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+ON THE TOP OF THE ROOF.
+
+
+The temperature of the Lozere is excessively variable. The traveller
+must always be provided with winter wraps and the lightest summer
+clothing. We had enjoyed almost tropic sunshine on the plateau of
+Sauveterre. Next day (September 19th), when half-way to St. Flour, the
+very blasts of Siberia seemed to overtake us. The weather was splendid
+at starting, and for some hours we had a brisk air only, and unclouded
+skies; but there were signs of a change, and I began to doubt whether I
+should accomplish even my second programme. Having relinquished the
+Causses, the rapids of the Tarn, and Montpellier-le-Vieux for this
+year, I had hired a carriage, intending to drive straight across the
+Lozere, sleeping at St. Chely, to St. Flour, chef-lieu of the Cantal,
+thence making excursions to the two departments. I wanted especially to
+see Condat-es-Feniers and La Chaldette, the two sweet spots already
+alluded to. The hire of the carriage with two good horses was eighty
+francs--forty for the two days' drive thither, and forty for the
+return.
+
+It is a striking journey from Mende to St. Amans-la-Lozere, half-way
+halting-place between Mende and St. Chely. The region traversed is very
+solitary, the Causse itself hardly more so, and now, as yesterday, we
+follow a road wonderfully cut round the mountain-sides. Here also we
+find certain English notions concerning peasant property entirely
+disproved. So far is French territory from being cut into minute
+portions of land, that on this side of Mende farms are let, not by the
+hectare, but by the tract, many tenant farmers being unable to tell you
+of how many hectares their occupation consists. The extent of land is
+reckoned not by acreage, but by the heads of cattle it will keep.
+
+Much of the soil between Mende and St. Amans-la-Lozere is very stony
+and unproductive; we heard even of a farm of several hundred acres let
+at a rental of fifty pounds a year. And here, as in the valley of the
+Allier, and on the road from Langogne to Mende, it is wonderful to see
+the uncompromising devotion of the French peasant to Mother Earth--
+neither stones, brushwood, nor morass daunting his energy. These tenant
+farmers are almost invariably small freeholders also, but to read
+certain English writers one might suppose that no such thing as a
+tenant farm, much less one of a thousand acres, existed in France at
+all, the entire superficies of the country, according to their account,
+being cut up into minute patches, each by a process of subdivision,
+growing smaller by degrees and beautifully less; in fact, the French
+peasant owner of the future, according to these theorists, will possess
+about as much of his native soil as can be got into a flower-pot, the
+contents of the said flower-pot being mortgaged for a hundred times its
+value.
+
+By the time we have driven for an hour and a half we obtain a most
+beautiful view, looking back upon Mende, the gray and purple hills set
+in a glowing semicircle round it, showing loveliest light and shadow.
+The verdure of the valley is fresh as in May, and sweet scents of newly
+mown hay, the autumn crop, reach us as we go. We look down on smooth,
+lawn-like meadows, little rivers winding between alder-trees, tan-
+coloured cows and orange-brown sheep browsing at their ease. The
+contours of the pine and fir clad hills are bold and varied, whilst
+deep gorges and ravines alternate with the more smiling aspects. Fruit-
+trees and flowers are wholly absent from the sparsely scattered
+villages, and there is little in the way of farming going on, only the
+second hay-crops being turned, and the land ploughed for autumn sowing.
+Buckwheat, rye, oats and hay form the chief crops. The road is set on
+either side by young trees, service berry and mountain ash, or granite
+pillars almost the height of a man. These columns, recalling Druidic
+stones, are completely hidden by snow in winter.
+
+Fortunately, in another year or two the Lozere will be traversed by
+railway, and its comparative isolation during several months of the
+year cease for once and for all.
+
+Meantime we were anxiously looking out for St. Amans and our promised
+breakfast, and here let me note a failing of the French rustic. His
+notions of time and distance are often not in the very least to be
+relied on. Thus, a countryman will tell you such and such a place lies
+at a distance of 'une petite lieue,' and you will find you have to walk
+or drive six miles instead of three. Again, a village conductor will
+assure you that you will arrive at your destination 'dans une petite
+demi-heure,' and you find on arriving that an hour and a half have
+elapsed since putting the question. We were terribly tried by this
+habit now. Our old driver--not the master, who had accompanied us to
+the plateau, but his employe--seemed to have no more idea of the real
+distance of St. Amans than of Spitzbergen. Again and again my young
+companion put her head out of the window and cried: 'Well, driver, how
+many kilometres _now_ to St. Amans?'
+
+And the reply would be:
+
+'Three more' or 'Two more--just two, mademoiselle.'
+
+Whereas mademoiselle laughingly counted half a dozen by the milestones
+between each inquiry. We had fondly looked forward to a fair inn and a
+good meal at noon--it was nearly two o'clock when our driver
+triumphantly deposited us before the dirtiest, most repulsive-looking
+hostelry it was ever my fate to enter.
+
+In the kitchen, with walls blackened by smoke, hens and chickens
+disported at will; the uneven, floor was innocent of broom or
+scrubbing-brush as the road; in the salle-a-manger, gendarmes,
+soldiers, carters, and gamekeepers were smoking, drinking and
+discussing at the tops of their voices.
+
+The old man whispered a word in the ear of the patrone--a veritable hag
+to look at--and she immediately begged us to walk upstairs.
+
+'You will find no elegance, but comfort here' ('Vous ne trouvez pas le
+luxe, mais le confortable ici),' she said.
+
+Then, with evident pride, she threw open the door of what was evidently
+the public bedchamber of the inn.
+
+Let not the reader take alarm. In these out-of-the-way places such
+accommodation is often all that is offered the traveller, namely, a
+spacious room, set round with four posters, each well curtained, so as
+to form a tiny room in itself. As women never, or very rarely, travel
+in such regions, the chief patrons being commis-voyageurs and soldiers,
+the inconvenience is not great. The bedding looked good and clean, and
+the room was airy.
+
+We opened the window. Madame complacently spread a snowy cloth, then,
+with the airy aplomb of a head waiter of some famous restaurant, say,
+the Chapeau Rouge at Bordeaux, asked:
+
+'And what would these ladies like for breakfast?'
+
+There seemed cruel, double-edged irony in the question. What could we
+expect in such a place but just something to stay the cravings of
+hunger: that something rendered uneatable by the terribly dirty--no,
+let me say, smoke-dried--look of the speaker, who seemed to be cook and
+waitress in one?
+
+'Suppose we have an omelette?' suggested my young friend.
+
+An omelette cooked by those hands! The very notion took away my
+appetite; however, there were new-laid eggs, and no matter the unwashed
+condition of the cook, the inside of a boiled egg may always be eaten
+with impunity. We could have anything we chose by waiting a little, our
+hostess said--mutton cutlets, roast chicken, partridges, fish,
+vegetables; the resources of that rustic larder seemed inexhaustible.
+Then she had choice wine, Burgundy and Bordeaux, besides liqueurs, in
+the cellar.
+
+We had no time or inclination for a feast, but made an excellent meal--
+what with the eggs and a tiny leg of cold-boiled mutton, I do honestly
+believe the very best I ever tasted in my life.
+
+The mountain-fed mutton of these regions is renowned, and the country
+folk boil it with just a slice of garlic by way of a flavour.
+
+This dingy little wayside hostelry could really offer a first-rate
+ordinary, and, on principles not to be controverted, guests here pay,
+not according to what they order, but the quantity they eat. Would that
+all restaurant-keepers were equally conscientious!
+
+When we went downstairs and asked for the reckoning, the old woman, who
+was all obligingness and good-nature, charming, indeed, but for her
+neglected personal appearance, replied:
+
+'I must first see how much you have eaten, of course.'
+
+And true enough we were charged so much per item. Here let me give the
+traveller a hint: never venture in out of-the-way parts of France
+without a well-filled muffineer and pepper-box; but for our dry clean
+pepper and salt brought from England, even the eggs would have been
+swallowed with a painful effort.
+
+In the large kitchen I took note of extensive preparations going on for
+dinner, huge caldrons bubbling above the wood fire; heaps of
+vegetables, leeks, onions, garlic predominating, prepared for the pot,
+with ample provision in the shape of flesh and fowl.
+
+At St. Amans the sun shone warm and bright, and the blue sky was of
+extraordinary depth and softness. I was reminded of Italy. As we
+sauntered about the long straggling village, a scene of indescribable
+contentment and repose met our eyes. We are in one of the poorest
+departments of France, but no signs of want or vagrancy are seen. The
+villagers, all neatly and suitably dressed, were getting in their hay
+or minding their flocks and herds, with that look of cheerful
+independence imparted by the responsibilities of property. Many greeted
+us in the friendliest manner, but as we could not understand their
+patois, a chat was impossible. They laughed, nodded, and passed on.
+
+No sooner were we fairly on our way to St. Chely than the weather
+changed. The heavens clouded over, and the air blew keenly. We got out
+our wraps one by one, wanting more. If the scenery is less wildly
+beautiful here than between Mende and St. Amans, it is none the less
+charming, were we only warm enough to enjoy it. The pastoralness of
+many a landscape is Alpine, with brilliant stretches of turf, scattered
+chalets, groups of haymakers, herds and flocks browsing about the
+rocks. Enormous blocks of granite are seen everywhere superimposed
+after the manner of dolmens, and everywhere the peasant's spade and hoe
+is gradually redeeming the waste. It is nightfall when we reach St.
+Chely d'Apcher, reputed the coldest spot in France, and certainly well
+worthy of its reputation.
+
+It stands on an elevation of 980 metres--_i.e._, over 3,000 feet
+above the sea-level. If the Lozere is aptly termed the Roof of France,
+then St. Chely may be regarded as its Chimney top. Summer here lasts
+only two months. No wonder that the searching wind seemed as if it
+would blow not merely the clothes off our shoulders, but the flesh off
+our bones. Yet the people of the inn smiled and said: 'Wait here
+another month, and you will find out what WE call cold.'
+
+The little Hotel Bardol wore a look of cheerfulness and welcome,
+nevertheless. There were white and pink oleanders before the door,
+geraniums in the window, testifying to the fact that winter this year,
+at all events, had not yet begun. Men and maids bustled about intent on
+our comfort. Soon the big logs crackled on the hearth; with curtains
+drawn, tea and a good fire, the discomforts of the last hour or two
+were soon forgotten. Needless, perhaps, to say that we found in this
+small old-fashioned inn beds of first-rate quality, a good dinner, and
+really fine old Bordeaux.
+
+St. Chely will necessarily become a junction town of considerable
+importance when the new line of railway, by way of St. Flour, is
+completed to Neussargues. As the proprietor of the Hotel Bardol seems
+fully alive to the requirements of tourists and the progress of ideas,
+future visitors will doubtless find many improvements--well-appointed
+rooms, bells, and other comforts. I hope myself to pay this obliging
+host another visit ere long.
+
+The rain poured down all night, and next morning it was evident that
+the projected journey by road to St. Flour must be given up. A long
+day's drive across country in the teeth of biting wind and downpour was
+not to be thought of, though both my young friend and myself had set
+our minds upon seeing the wonderful Pont de Garabit, a tour de force of
+engineering, worthy to be set beside the Eiffel Tower, and an
+achievement of the same genius. But we were now within reach of the
+railway. At the cost of a great disappointment and a forfeiture of
+sixty francs, I determined to send the carriage back to Mende, and
+reach the Cantal by way of Rodez, in the Aveyron. The Pont de Garabit,
+like the Causses, all well, should be seen another year.
+
+Never shall I forget the amazement of my host.
+
+'To make a round-about journey like that by rail, when you have your
+own carriage and horses!' he cried. 'Are you mad? Are you a
+millionaire,' his face said, 'to pay eighty francs for one day's drive?
+And the weather--the rain? you have glass windows; you can shut
+yourselves in; you won't take any harm.'
+
+Say what I would, I could not convince him that it was wiser to forfeit
+sixty francs than drive across the Lozere in a storm of wind and rain,
+with the thermometer rapidly falling to freezing-point.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+RODEZ AND AURILLAC.
+
+
+To travel from St. Chely d'Apcher to Rodez is like descending a snow-
+capped Alpine peak for the flowery, sunbright valley below. Instead of
+the stern grandeur of the Lozere, frowning peaks, sombre pine-forests,
+vast stony deserts and wintry blasts, we glide swiftly into a balmy
+region of golden vineyards, rich chestnut woods, softly murmuring
+streams, and the temperature of July. The transformation is magical. It
+is like closing a volume of Ossian and opening the pages of Theocritus.
+
+We had spent our morning indoors at St. Chely, cloaked and shawled over
+a blazing wood fire, quitting at one o'clock p.m. ice-cold rain, biting
+winds, and a gloomy sky. By sundown we had reached the chef-lieu of the
+Aveyron; we were in the South indeed! The scenery during the latter
+part of the way is beautiful and exhilarating, every feature showing
+the ripest, most brilliant tints--hills clothed with the yellowing
+chestnut, soil of deep purplish red, the bright gold foliage of the
+vine, and between spring-like greenery and azure sky, close to the
+railway, the crystal-clear Aveyron.
+
+And here all is new and fresh; no familiar tourist element enters into
+the day's experience. As our train stops at one picturesque village
+after another, we see young soldiers, reservistes, alight, returning
+home after the twenty-eight days' service, nuns, cures, village folks,
+family groups, not an English traveller but myself.
+
+Rodez is superbly situated on a lofty, sunny plateau, surrounded by
+hills and far mountain chains; but between these and the city, which is
+almost encircled by the Aveyron, lies a broad belt of fertile country,
+the soil of a deep claret colour.
+
+Just as Venice should be approached by sea at dawn, so all travellers
+should reach Rodez at sunset.
+
+Never shall I forget the first enchanting view of its glorious
+cathedral that September afternoon, the three-storied tower of
+Flamboyant Gothic dominating the vast landscape, the rich red stone
+flushed to a warmer dye, the noble masonry of the whole glowing with
+the lustre and solidity of copper against the clear heavens.
+
+This lofty, triple-terraced tower is called the marvel of Southern
+France, and no wonder. The cathedral of Antwerp itself is not more
+captivatingly lightsome and lovely. High above the ancient city, with
+its encompassing river and wide-stretched plain, confronting the far-
+off mountains, almost on a level with their summits, visible from afar
+as a lighthouse in mid-ocean, rises this belfry of Rodez.
+
+Certain places, as well as certain individualities, exercise
+extraordinary fascination. The old capital of Rouergne, and later of
+the Comte of Rodez, is one. Many and many a French city I have visited
+of far greater architectural and historic importance; Poitiers among
+these--Troyes is another; yet I should never go out of my way to
+revisit Poitiers or Troyes, whilst certain other towns in France I
+visit regularly once a year. They are like old friends, and every visit
+makes them more precious. I determined to revisit Rodez during the
+following summer. The cathedral is rich within and without. Its rood-
+loft, carved stalls, altar screen, and monuments require a chapter to
+themselves. Let us hope that some future traveller, more learned than
+myself in such matters, will give us their history in detail. The town,
+too, possesses some fine remains of Renaissance architecture, and the
+views from the ancient ramparts are magnificent.
+
+But the memory I carry away is of that lovely three-storied tower, the
+whole carved delicately as lace-work; the colour, deep terra-cotta;
+above it a warm southern sky.
+
+Such a sight is worth a long journey, and the discomforts of a dingy
+hotel, dirty floors, foul-smelling passages, broken chairs, scant
+toilet appliances, as usual, in part compensated by excellent beds,
+good food, good wine, and very moderate charges. The oddest part of
+these experiences is that the dirtier the inn the better the fare.
+Wherever we found a little smartness and tidiness, there we were sure
+to find also a decided falling-off in the cuisine.
+
+Perhaps herein is to be found the true philosophical cause of our own
+poor cookery. English cooks and housewives are ready to go mad on the
+subject of scouring pots and pans, but pay scant heed to what goes
+into, much less what comes out of them. In France the quality of the
+dinner is the first question of national importance, after the recovery
+of Alsace-Lorraine!
+
+The railway takes us direct to Aurillac, chef-lieu of the Cantal, and
+ancient capital of Haute Auvergne. At first the scenery resembles that
+passed through the day before, close under the embankment, the river
+flowing clear and bright between green slopes, hanging chestnut-woods,
+and sweeps of vineyards. The earth everywhere seems soaked with claret;
+and this wine-red colour of the soil, contracted with the golden-leafed
+vine, makes a landscape of wonderful brilliance.
+
+The aspect of the country changes as we quit the bright valley of the
+Aveyron, and enter the department of the Cantal at Capdenac, where we
+join the main line from Clermont-Ferrand to Toulouse. We just touch the
+department of the Lot at Figeac, a quaint town, birthplace of the great
+Orientalist Champollion, then enter the valley of the Cere, and are
+soon at Aurillac.
+
+A bit of dull prose after a glorious poem! Whilst it is difficult to
+tear one's self away from Rodez, despite its ill-kept hotel, there is
+nothing whatever to detain the ordinary tourist at Aurillac beyond an
+hour or two. It is prettily situated in a fair open country, watered by
+the river Jordanne, and is an excellent centre for the study of rural
+life.
+
+I had come hither provided with a letter introductory to the State-paid
+professor of agriculture, and here let me explain matters a little. The
+French State, stanch to the maxim of the great Sully, 'Le labourage et
+le paturage sont les deux mamelles de France,' is making tremendous
+efforts on behalf of agricultural progress throughout the country. A
+few years since, professorships of agriculture were appointed by the
+Government in the various departments. The duties of these professors
+is two-fold: they hold classes on the theory and practice of
+agriculture in the Ecole Normale, or training-school for male teachers,
+in winter, and in summer give free lectures, out of doors, in the
+various towns and villages. Recruited from the great agricultural
+schools of Grand Jouan, near Nantes, Grignan in the Seine, and Oise and
+Montpellier, these lecturers have had the benefit of a thoroughly
+practical training, and by little and little will doubtless effect
+quite a revolution in out-of-the-way places.
+
+Among the least progressive regions, agriculturally speaking, must be
+pronounced the Cantal. As yet the use of machinery and artificial
+manure is almost unknown. The professor gets the peasants together on a
+Sunday afternoon and discourses to them in an easy, colloquial way on
+the advantages of scientific methods. The conference over, he shows
+specimens of superphosphates, top-dressings, new seeds, roots, etc.,
+and here and there succeeds in inducing the more adventurous than the
+rest to try an experiment.
+
+The agricultural shows have much effect in stimulating progress. The
+country folks delight to obtain prizes for their cattle, cheese and
+other products. They are, as a rule, averse to innovation, especially
+when it involves expenditure. The departmental professor will have to
+bring proof positive to bear out his theories ere he can induce his
+listeners to spend their savings--in French phrase, 'argent mignon'--
+upon unknown good, instead of investing in Government three per cents.
+
+Other interesting facts I learned here, all confirmatory of my former
+accounts of the French peasant. These Cantal farmers, many of them
+hiring land on lease, others small owners, are well-to-do; L1,200 is
+not infrequently given as a dowry to the daughter of a small
+proprietor; I was told of one, possessor of a few hectares only, who
+had just before invested in the funds L80, one year's savings.
+
+Avarice, I admit, is not infrequently the besetting sin of the French
+peasant in these parts, but other characteristics of the Auvergnat,
+such as roughness of manner, suspiciousness of strangers, a habit of
+extortion, did not come under my notice during this stay in the Cantal.
+
+One of my pleasantest experiences, indeed, of French rural life, is
+that of an afternoon visit paid to a farmer in the neighbourhood of
+Aurillac. No well-bred gentleman, no lady accustomed to society, could
+have received an entire stranger with more urbanity, kindliness and
+grace, than did this peasant of the Cantal and his wife. A charming
+drive of an hour through well-wooded and neatly cultivated country
+brought us to the farmstead called Le Croizet, a group of buildings
+lying a hundred yards or so from the roadside.
+
+In front of the well-built, roomy dwelling-house was a fruit and
+vegetable garden, with a border of flowers and ornamental shrubs. The
+place was not perhaps so neatly kept as English farm premises, but the
+general look betokened comfort and well-being.
+
+The farmer and his wife were absent, and their daughter-in-law received
+us somewhat awkwardly. She seemed puzzled by the fact of English ladies
+wanting to see a farm, but after a little her shyness vanished. Her
+husband, she told us, was just then minding his own farm; he was a
+small proprietor, possessing a bit of land and a cow or two. Two cows,
+she informed us, as we chatted on, would suffice for the maintenance of
+a family of five persons. Such reckoning, of course, only holds good of
+thrifty, homely France. The magic of property not only turns sands to
+gold: it teaches the great lesson of looking forward, of confronting
+the morrow--realizing 'the unseen time.'
+
+Soon the housewife came up, all cheeriness and hospitality. She made us
+sit down in the large, airy, well-furnished kitchen--hitherto we had
+chatted outside--and my curiosity being explained by the fact that I
+was an English author, travelling for information, she readily answered
+any questions I put to her.
+
+'My husband will be here in a minute. He can tell you much more about
+farming than I can,' she said.
+
+She was a pleasant-looking, well-mannered, intelligent woman--a peasant
+born and bred. Meantime I glanced round the kitchen.
+
+The floor certainly was of uncarpeted stone and uneven, but the place
+was clean and tidy, and everything in order. Against the wall were rows
+of well-scoured cooking vessels; also shelves of china--evidently
+reserved for high days and holidays--and a few pictures for further
+adornment.
+
+True, the curtained bedstead of master and mistress stood in one
+corner, but leading out of the kitchen was a second room for the son
+and son's wife; whilst the hired women-servants occupied in the dairy
+slept upstairs.
+
+It may here be mentioned that the habit of sleeping in the kitchen
+arises from the excessive cold. I found on lately revisiting Anjou, and
+in the Berri, that the better-off peasants are building houses with
+upper bedrooms.
+
+'It is tidier' (C'est plus propre), said a Berrichon to me. This
+custom, therefore, of turning the kitchen into a bedchamber may be
+considered as on the wane.
+
+Our hostess now brought out one local dainty after another--galettes,
+or flat cakes of rye and oaten flour, peculiar in flavour, and said to
+be extremely nutritious; cream, curds and whey, fresh butter, and wine
+--and was quite distressed that we could not make a hearty afternoon
+meal. Then the master came in, one of Nature's gentlemen, if ever any
+existed--stalwart, sunburnt to the complexion of an Arab, with a frank,
+manly, shrewd face. He wore sabots, and, like his wife, was
+stockingless. Stockings are objected to by French country-folks in hot
+weather, and it seems to me on good grounds. His clothes were clean,
+neat, and appropriate, and all of the material that goes into the
+weekly wash-tub. Like his wife, he was most willing to give me any
+information, and a pleasant and instructive time I had of it.
+
+My host leased his farm. He was a tenant farmer precisely as the name
+is understood here, with this difference--he owned a little land as
+well. He could not tell me the exact size of his occupation in
+hectares; land here, as in the Lozere, being computed instead by heads
+of cattle, one hectare and a half of pasture allowed for each cow. Some
+notion of its extent may be gathered from the fact that he possessed
+120 cows. Besides these 200 hectares of pasturage, the farm comprised
+arable land, the whole making up a total of nearly 1,000 acres. Much
+larger farms, he told me, were to be found in the Cantal. The notion of
+France being cut up into tiny parcels of land amused him not a little.
+The crops here consist of wheat, barley, maize, rye, oats, buckwheat,
+clover--a little of everything.
+
+'But this is a cheese-making country. We don't grow anything like corn
+enough for ourselves in the Cantal,' he said. 'Large quantities are
+imported every year. It is our cows that pay.'
+
+The principal stock kept is this beautiful Cantal cow, a small, red,
+glossy-coated breed, very gentle, and very shy. The enormous quantities
+of milk afforded by these dairy farms are sold in part at Aurillac for
+home consumption. By far the larger proportion is used in the cheese-
+makers' huts, or 'burons,' on the surrounding hills. The pleasant,
+mild-flavoured Cantal cheese has hitherto not been an article of
+export. It is decidedly inferior to Roquefort, fabricated from ewes'
+milk in the Aveyron, and to the Gruyere of the French Jura. As the
+quality of the milk is first-rate, a delicious flavour being imparted
+by the fragrant herbs that abound here, this inferiority doubtless
+arises from want of skill, or, perhaps, want of cleanliness in the
+preparation. The numerous schools for dairy-farming that now exist in
+France, and the new State-paid teachers of agriculture, will most
+likely ere long revolutionize the art of cheese-making throughout the
+department. We may then expect to find Cantal cheese at every English
+grocer's.
+
+Many more interesting facts I learned, my host chatting leisurely.
+
+'It is usual in these parts,' he said, 'for the eldest son to inherit
+an extra fourth part of land, he, in return, being bound to maintain
+his parents in old age. A heritage is often thus divided during the
+life-time of father and mother, the old folks not caring any longer to
+be burdened with the toil of business.'
+
+Much he told me also concerning the rights of 'pacage,' or pasturage on
+commons--privileges upheld rather by custom than law. These rights of
+pasturing cattle on common-grounds date from the earliest times, and we
+read in French history of certain communes being ruined by the mortgage
+of their 'pacage.'
+
+After a stay of more than an hour we took leave, our host accompanying
+us to the road, where the carriage waited.
+
+I have before alluded to the excessive timidity of the cattle here,
+perhaps arising from the infrequency of strangers in these regions. As
+we now walked up the narrow lane separating the farm from the road, we
+met three separate droves of cows returning to their stalls. It was
+curious to note the suspiciousness of the gentle creatures, also their
+quickness of observation. Had we been a couple of peasant women from a
+distance, they would have passed us without hesitation. I had evidently
+an outlandish look in their eyes. Only by dint of coaxing and calling
+each animal by name could the master get them to go by.
+
+'It is always well to be careful with beasts that don't know you,' he
+said, as he planted himself between us and each drove. 'Gentle as my
+cows are, they might give a stranger a kick.'
+
+When all were gone, he extricated my gown from a bramble, then, baring
+his head, bade us adieu with the courtesy of a polished gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE LAND OF THE BURON.
+
+
+Vic-sur-Cere, half an hour distant from Aurillac, is an earthly
+paradise, a primitive Eden, as yet unspoiled by fashion and
+utilitarianism. The large 'Etablissement des Bains,' described in
+French and English guide-books, has long ceased to exist; bells,
+carpets, curtains, and other luxuries are unknown; but the unfastidious
+traveller, who prefers homeliness and honesty to elegance and
+extortion, may here drink waters rivalling those of Spa without being
+exposed to the exorbitant prices and insolence of the Spa hotel-
+keepers. Rustic inns, or rather pensions, may be had at Vic-sur-Cere,
+in which the tourist is wholesomely lodged and handsomely 'tabled' at a
+cost that would enrapture Mr. Joseph Pennell. Two or three hundred
+visitors, chiefly from the neighbouring towns, spend the summer
+holidays here, one and all disappearing about the middle of September.
+
+When we arrived, we had the entire place to ourselves--inn, river-side
+walks, and dazzlingly green hills. No palm island in mid-Pacific could
+offer a sweeter, more pastoral halting-place. It is indeed a perfect
+little corner of earth, beauty of the quiet kind here reaching its
+acme; and neither indoors nor abroad is there any drawback to mar the
+traveller's enjoyment.
+
+From the windows of our hotel, close to the station, we enjoy a
+prospect absolutely flawless--Nature in one of her daintiest moods is
+here left to herself. The inn stands amid its large vegetable, fruit
+and flower gardens; looking beyond these, we see the prettiest little
+town imaginable nestled in a beautiful valley, around it rising
+romantic crags, wooded heights, and gentle slopes, fresh and verdant as
+if the month were May. Through the smooth meadows between the
+encompassing hills winds the musically-named stream, the Iraliot, and
+from end to end the broad expanse of green is scented with newly-mown
+hay. The delightful scenery, the purity of the air, the excellent
+quality of the waters, ought to turn Vic-sur-Cere into a miniature
+Vichy. Fortunately for the lovers of rusticity and calm, such has not
+as yet been the case, and the simple, straightforward character of the
+people is still unspoiled by contact with the outer world. Here, also,
+the pervading aspect is of well-being and contentment. 'Everybody can
+live here,' we were told by an intelligent resident; 'only the idle,
+the drunkard, and the thriftless need come to want.'
+
+Vagrancy is altogether absent; the children are neatly dressed and very
+clean; the men and women have all a look of cheerful independence as
+they toil on their little farms or mind their small flocks and herds.
+
+Here also, as elsewhere, the greatest variety exists in the matter of
+holdings. We find tiny freeholds and large tenant farms side by side.
+With few exceptions, all possess a house and bit of land. Folks toil
+hard and fare hard, but live in no terror of sickness or old age. The
+house and bit of land will not support a family; with the savings of a
+man's best years, it is the harbour of refuge when work is past.
+
+Without meeting here the urbanity and hospitable welcome that awaited
+us near Aurillac, we found the peasant farmers exceedingly civil to
+strangers; and when once made to understand the motives of my
+inquisitiveness, they were quite ready to give me any information I
+required.
+
+One farm I visited in the neighbourhood was a tenant-holding of about
+1,000 acres, let at a fixed rental of L600 a year, and this is far from
+the largest farm hereabouts. The stock consisted of seventy-eight cows,
+five horses, four pair of team oxen, besides large numbers of sheep,
+pigs, and poultry. Five women-servants were boarded in the house, and
+several cheese-makers employed on the alps during summer.
+
+The farmer's wife received us pleasantly, and after a little
+explanation, when she quite understood the reason of my visit, answered
+all questions with ease and intelligence. She was resting from the
+labours of the day, a piece of knitting in her hands, which she
+politely laid aside whilst chatting.
+
+The kitchen was large, clean, and airy, its principal ornaments
+consisting of rows of prize medals on tablets, awarded at different
+agricultural shows. On the shelves were rows of copper cooking vessels,
+burnished as those of a Dutch interior. The bed-chambers were apart.
+
+Certainly, the housewife's personal appearance left something to
+desire, but we were assured that on Sundays she turned out for Mass
+gloved, veiled and bonneted like any town lady. French peasants will
+not set about the day's labour in smart or shabby-genteel clothes.
+
+Here, as near Aurillac, modern agricultural methods, machinery and
+artificial manures are not yet the order of the day. As an instance of
+what peasant farmers in France can effect whilst following old plans,
+let me cite the predecessor of my hostess's husband. This man had
+lately retired, having saved up enough money to live upon. He had, in
+fact, become a rentier.
+
+Another tenant farm near consisted of 1,000 acres, stocked with 120
+cows, eight pair of team oxen, besides sheep, horses and pigs.
+Adjoining such large holdings are small freeholds farmed by their
+peasant owners--dairy farms of a few acres, market-gardens of one or
+two, and so on.
+
+Metayage, or the system of half-profits, is rarely found in the Cantal.
+Tenancy at a fixed rental is preferred, as less complicated and
+troublesome. [Footnote: I have described the metayage of Berri in a
+contribution to _Macmillan's Magazine_, 'In George Sand's
+Country,' 1886.] It was pleasant to see the people working in their
+little field or garden, or minding their goats and sheep, their decent
+appearance, cheerfulness and healthful looks testifying to the
+satisfactory conditions of existence.
+
+I do not for a moment aver that such a state of things exists in every
+part of France; but everywhere we find the same qualities--
+independence, thrift and foresight--called forth by the all-potent
+agency of possession. I have somewhere seen the fact mentioned, and
+adduced as an argument against peasant property, that the owner of
+seven cows had not a wardrobe in which to hang so much as his wife's
+clothes; they were suspended on a rope. Was the writer aware of the
+money-value of seven cows, the capital thereby represented, and could
+she point to any farm-labourer in England, however well off in the
+matter of cupboards and clothes-pegs, possessed of seven cows, their
+stalls and pasture-ground--in other words, a capitalist to the extent
+of several hundred pounds? Few French peasants, we fancy, would
+exchange their house, land and stock for the furniture of an English
+labourer's cottage, wardrobe included. As a matter of fact, most of
+these small farmers own furniture, clothes and house-linen in
+abundance.
+
+Cheese-making is the chief industry of the place. Far away on the
+summit of every green hill may be descried the red-roofed hut, or
+buron, of the cheese-maker. Here, with his dog, and sometimes a
+shepherd, he spends the summer months, descending to the valleys before
+the first snow falls. The dairyman, or fromager, is generally a hired
+workman, specially trained for the work. He is paid at the rate of L25
+or L30 a year, besides board and lodging. As soon as the snows melt and
+the cows can be driven afield, he betakes himself to his buron on the
+alp, if married, leaving his wife in the valley below.
+
+Have the fromager of the Cantal hills and the Caussenard of the
+Lozerien steppe their legends, folklore, songs? Have their love-stories
+been chronicled by some French Auerbach, their ballads found a
+translator in a French Hebel? Without doubt this sequestered life of
+shepherd and mountain has its vein of poetry and romance as well as any
+other. To reach one of these cheese-makers' huts is quite an
+expedition, and on foot is only practicable to hardy pedestrians. It is
+a beautiful drive from the valley of the Cere to the open pasture-
+ground, dotted with burons, behind its steep green hills on the
+southern side. As the road winds upwards, we see the crags and slopes
+clothed with the delicate greenery of young fir and pine. These are
+seedlings planted by the State; here, as in other departments, some
+strenuous efforts being made to replant the ancient forests. Goats are
+no longer permitted to browse on the mountain-sides promiscuously, as
+in former days, and thus slowly, but surely, not only the soil, but the
+climate and products of these re-wooded districts, will undergo
+complete transformation. And who can tell? Perhaps the Causse itself
+will, generations hence, cease to exist, and the Roof of France become
+a vast flowery garden. The country people here all speak a patois, and
+the fromager is not communicative. It is always well to be accompanied
+by a blue-bloused native on these visits. The dogs, too, that keep
+guard over the buron, like the cows, are very suspicious of strangers.
+
+More attractive than the interior of the cheese-maker's hut--often
+dark, ill-ventilated, and malodorous--is the scene without, a wide
+prospect of pastoral, idyllic charm. The Cantal offers many a superb
+mountain panorama and grandiose scene. Nowhere is to be found more
+sweetness, graciousness and repose than in the valley of the Cere.
+
+After a few days' sojourn we journeyed to Clermont-Ferrand, which I
+found much embellished since my long stay in that city, just ten years
+before. Thence, seeing the Puy de Dome flushed with the red light of
+the rising sun, a sight compensating for much insolence and discomfort
+at the Hotel de l'Univers, we proceeded to St. Germain-des-Fosses,
+where we parted, my young companion taking the train to Autun, I
+proceeding by way of Lyons to Gap, on a visit to a beloved French
+friend.
+
+The weather had remained brilliantly fine throughout our expedition,
+although the cold of early morning was now piercing. And brilliantly
+fine it remained till my departure for England, early in October.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+MY SECOND JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THROUGH THE MORVAN.
+
+
+Of the four hundred and fifty passengers who crossed with us from Dover
+to Calais, in August, 1888, we lost every trace when quitting the
+Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee line at La Roche. Writing a hundred years ago,
+the great agriculturist, Arthur Young, gave his countrymen the
+following excellent piece of advice, which, it need hardly be said, has
+been generally neglected from that day to this: 'It may be useful to
+those who see no more of France than by once passing to Italy, to
+remark that if they would view the finest parts of the kingdom they
+should land at Dieppe, and follow the Seine to Paris, then take the
+great road to Moulins, and thence quit it for Auvergne, and pass to
+Viviers, the Rhone, and so by Aix to Italy. By such a variation from
+the frequented road the traveller might suffer for want of good inns,
+but would be repaid by the sight of a much finer and more singular
+country than the common road by Dijon offers, which passes in a great
+measure through the worst parts of France.'
+
+The Suffolk squire who rode through France on the eve of the Great
+Revolution, in spite of his conscientious desire to see all that the
+country had to show, lost much from want of roads, maps, and any kind
+of accommodation. Nowadays, as will be seen from the following pages,
+good food and good beds await the traveller in the most remote
+districts; but in vain! Ninety-nine tourists out of a hundred remain of
+the poet Shelley's opinion--there is nothing to see in France--and
+hurry on as fast as the express can carry them to Geneva.
+
+At the clean, bright, friendly little town of Auxerre we find ourselves
+as isolated from the beaten track as well can be. We are free to roam,
+sketch, stare at will, and no one notices us; not even an importunate
+beggar molests the sketcher as she brings out her book in the middle of
+the street.
+
+This immunity from observation and annoyance forms a minor charm of
+French travel.
+
+Auxerre possesses a beautiful little cathedral. It is one-towered, as
+that of Sens, a circumstance probably due to want of funds for the
+completion.
+
+We always carry away in the memory some striking characteristic of
+French cathedrals, and no one can forget the exquisite tint of the
+building-stone here, a ruddy hue as of gold lighting up the dark,
+richly-sculptured mass without, nor the charming cluster of airy
+columns joining the Lady Chapel to the choir within, daintiest bit of
+architectural fancy. Whilst we were revelling in the contrast afforded
+by the intense glow of the stained glass and the pure white marble--the
+interior being one of the loveliest, if least spacious, in France--the
+sacristan's wife came up and said that if we waited a few minutes
+longer we should see a wedding.
+
+'Although,' she added with an air of apology, 'a wedding of the third
+class.'
+
+Now, whilst fairly familiar with French ways, I had never heard of
+marriages being divided after the manner of railway-carriages, into
+first, second, and third class. Our informant hastened to enlighten us.
+It seems that only wedding-parties of the first and second classes are
+entitled to enter by the front-door, to music of the full church
+orchestra, and to carpets laid down from porch to altar, every detail
+of pomp and ceremony depending on the price paid.
+
+I must say that were I a French bride I should bargain for a wedding of
+the first class at any sacrifice. To have the big doors of the front
+portal flung open at the thrice-repeated knock of the beadle's staff;
+to hear Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' pealed from the great organ; to
+march in solemn procession up the aisle, preceded by that wonderful
+figure in cocked hat, red sash, pink silk stockings, and shoes
+sparkling with huge buckles, all the congregation a-titter--it seems to
+me it were worth while being married simply for the intoxication of
+such a moment.
+
+The third-class wedding-party, entering by a small side-door, and
+passing without music to the altar, made nevertheless a pretty picture:
+the bride, a handsome demoiselle de boutique, or shop assistant, in
+white, with veil and wreath; behind her, girls in bright dresses
+bearing enormous bouquets; bridegroom and supporters, all in spick and
+span swallow-tail coats, with white ties and gloves, like beaux in a
+French comedy, backwards and forwards; the priests looking gorgeous,
+although in their second-best robes, their gold plates shining as they
+collected the money; for whether married first, second or third class,
+the Church exacts its due. I felt real commiseration for these middle-
+class, evidently hard-working people, as the gold plate was presented
+again and again, first, I presume, for the Church; secondly, for the
+poor; thirdly, for Heaven knows what. Then two of the bridesmaids, each
+taking the arm of a white-gloved, swallow-tailed cavalier, made the
+round of the wedding guests, begging money of them. In fact, there
+seemed no end to the giving. Small wonder that marriages are on the
+decline in France! We left the bridal party still on their crimson
+velvet fauteuils--twelve being the number allotted to a wedding of the
+third class, the remaining guests being accommodated on rush-bottomed
+chairs--and next visited the underground Church of St. Germain.
+
+What a contrast it presented to the lightness, brilliancy, and gaiety,
+if we may use such a word, of the cathedral! There the effect on the
+mind is of pure delight; we feel the exhilaration, not the austerity,
+of religion. Very different is the impression produced by St. Germain,
+which may be described as a church of tombs, a temple consecrated to
+the dead. Although on a smaller scale, this ancient burial-place of
+saints and martyrs recalls the awful mausoleum of Spanish kings. The
+Escurial itself is hardly more impressive.
+
+The upper church stands airily in the garden of the town hospital, its
+fine tower all that is left of the original building. The lower remains
+intact. We descend into a perfect little Gothic interior, with naves,
+choir, and chapel, all in darkness but for the feeble glimmer of the
+sacristan's candle, every part showing ancient frescoes in wonderful
+preservation. In huge niches of the walls and under our feet, the
+enormous lids of the tombs yielding to our guide's touch, lie the bones
+of saints deposited there nearly a thousand years ago, 'English saints,
+many of them, who crossed the water with St. Germain,' our cicerone
+said with animation, evidently thinking the fact would interest us
+extremely. No less curious than these tombs are the frescoes,
+illustrating, among other subjects, the life of St. Maxime, companion
+of St. Germain, whose bones lie here. 'St. Maxime, St. Maxime,' I said,
+as I laboriously deciphered the Latin inscription on the tomb. 'Does
+this name, then, belong to a woman?'
+
+'Si fait,' rejoined our guide, no little astonished at such ignorance,
+'we have many names in France that do for both sexes, and she belonged
+to your own country.'
+
+I did not feel in a position to contradict the statement, but no matter
+to what country she belonged, St. Maxime has secured double
+immortality--first, in the saints' calendar; secondly, in the mausoleum
+of Auxerre. Alike these tombs and frescoes, with the sepulchres of the
+Pharaohs, seem able to defy the encroachments of Time.
+
+During the Revolution, great consternation prevailed concerning the
+precious relics. The bones of the saintly bishop were disinterred and
+hidden elsewhere for safety, and in the after-confusion were never
+replaced, but buried elsewhere.
+
+The huge sarcophagus in the wall is a cenotaph.
+
+No similar panic is likely to create a second disturbance of the sacred
+relics in this subterranean abbey church. And who can say? Centuries
+hence, devout Catholics, dark-skinned descendants of races only just
+emerging from cannibalism, may make a solemn pilgrimage hither and find
+the pictured story of St. Maxime still intact on the walls! Be this as
+it may, no travellers within reach of Auxerre should fail to visit its
+two beautiful and perfect churches, the one with its majestic front and
+single tower rising airily above the level landscape, its noble
+proportions standing out in the bright sunshine, radiant and lightsome
+alike within and without; the other, hidden in the bowels of the earth,
+giving no visible evidence of its existence, aisle, vaulted roofs,
+vistas of delicate columns, only to be realized in the glimmer of a
+semi-twilight.
+
+But Auxerre possesses other antiquities and many ancient houses, in one
+of which, the Fontaine Hotel, the traveller is comfortably and
+reasonably housed. When we descended to our late supper in the salle a
+manger, we found master, mistress, and their children dining with the
+entire staff of servants. Such a circumstance indicates the difference
+between English and French ways. In an English hotel, would the chef
+sit down to talk with boots?--the lady bookkeeper condescend to break
+bread with the kitchen-maid? Just as in France there is nothing like
+our differentiation of domestic labour, one servant there fulfilling
+what are called the duties of three here, so there is no parallel to
+our social inequalities, kept up even in the kitchen.
+
+The chef here, who obligingly quitted the table and the company to cook
+our cutlets, was a strikingly handsome man, as so many head-cooks are.
+The connection between cookery as a fine art and personal beauty I
+leave to others to discover. I must say that after a considerable
+acquaintance with these officials I can hardly call to mind any of mean
+appearance. One of the handsomest, I remember, was an accomplished
+young chef, who gave me lessons in the art of omelette-making at the
+well-known, home-like Hotel du Jura, Dijon.
+
+Auxerre, although possessing a cathedral, is not a bishopric, its See
+having been annexed to that of Sens, after the Revolution.
+
+Formerly capital of the Auxerrois part of the kingdom of Burgundy,
+Auxerre is now chef-lieu of the department of the Yonne, the little
+river making such pretty pictures between Sens and La Roche.
+
+Between Auxerre and Autun much of the scenery has an English look. We
+might be in Surrey or Sussex. Lofty hedges enclosing fields and
+meadows, stretches of heath-covered waste, oak woods, and homesteads
+half hidden by orchards form the landscape. As our train crawls on,
+stopping at every station, we have ample time to enjoy the scenery and
+scrutinize the agriculture, here somewhat backward. These very slow
+trains off the great lines should always be resorted to by the
+inquiring traveller, the Bommelzug as it is called in German, the train
+de boeufs in French. What can be seen from the windows of the flying
+_Rapide_? Here we might almost alight and pluck the wild flowers
+growing so temptingly on the embankment. Brisk tourists might even turn
+the long halt at Avallon to good account, and get a hasty peep of one
+of the most wonderful sites in this part of France, not so much as
+hinted at from the railway. It was hard to pass Avallon by, 'most
+musical name, recalling the "Idylls of the King," a place that may be
+compared with Granada, with anything;' harder still, not to revisit the
+abbey church of Vezelay, beautiful in itself, so celebrated in history;
+so majestically placed on a ridge overlooking the two departments of
+the Yonne and the Nievre, but Goethe's invaluable maxim must be that of
+the conscientious traveller, 'An der Naechste muss man denken' (We must
+think of the nearest, the most important thing). Time did not now admit
+of a two days' halt here. As I have described Avallon and Vezelay fully
+elsewhere, [Footnote: I allude to several papers contributed to the
+_Pall Mall Gazette_ whilst under the editorship of Mr. John Morley
+(September and October, 1881), also to my edition of Murray's 'Handbook
+to France,' part ii., 1884.] I will only now assure all tempted to take
+this suggestion and visit both, that they cannot be disappointed. So
+the train crawled on till the pretty home-like landscape was lost in
+the twilight, and night over took us.
+
+It was late when we reached Autun, not too late, however, to receive a
+right cordial welcome from the author of 'Round my House,' who had
+ridden from his country home in the starlight to welcome us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THROUGH THE MORVAN (continued).
+
+
+A delightful Sunday spent among delightful English and French friends,
+long bright hours of perfect weather, long bright hours of genial and
+affectionate intercourse, English sobriety lightened with French esprit
+and playfulness-such reminiscences, however precious to the possessor,
+hardly form materials for a chapter. I pass on to say something about
+Autun itself, a town so rarely visited by my country-folk, that the
+principal hotels have not as yet set up a teapot. The people, however,
+are so obliging that they will let you go into the kitchen and there
+make your own tea, even a plum-pudding, if you want it.
+
+First some will ask the meaning of a name at the head of my page. The
+Morvan-what may that be? I must explain, then, without going over
+ground I have already described, that the Morvan, accessible as a
+tourist-ground from Avallon, Autun, or Nevers, is a little Celtic
+kingdom, isolated till recent times from the rest of France, alike by
+position, language, and customs.
+
+The name is familiar to French ears as Wales is to our own. Just as we
+talk of such-and-such a place being in Wales, instead of specifying the
+particular shire, so French folks will tell you that they have just
+made a journey into the Morvan, that so-and-so lives in the Morvan,
+without naming the department--Saone-et-Loire, the Yonne or Nievre, in
+each of which a portion of the Morvan lies. In the very heart of the
+country, especially round about Chateau-Chinon, its marvellously placed
+little capital, we still see the saie, a garment identical with the
+Gallic sagum, and the Morvandial, although gradually losing his once so
+strongly-marked characteristics, prefers his own dialect to French.
+Throughout the entire country, indeed, Morvandial is spoken.
+
+From many points of view this region of survivals is full of interest.
+Till half-way through the present century, village communism existed
+here in full force, having withstood the shocks of the French
+Revolution. The last village commune was not broken up till 1848.
+
+The ancient industry of wood-floating, or flottage a buches perdues, is
+still actively carried on. The logs, which are cut in summer, each
+being marked with the owner's name, are floated down the rivers in
+winter to Paris, women and children doing the greater part of the work.
+This simple system of water transport, without any kind of vehicle, was
+invented by a Parisian, Rouvet by name, so long ago as 1569.
+
+More interesting than these facts, perhaps, to most travellers, is the
+delightful scenery of the Morvan, and the beauty of its white oxen, a
+race apart. We find these gentle, majestic creatures everywhere
+tenderly cared for, as perhaps no other animals are in France, and
+lending wonderful picturesqueness and charm to every landscape. No
+matter whither you go, winding up the forest-girt mountain road, from
+Autun to Chateau-Chinon, traversing the romantic valley of the Cure,
+from Avallon to Vezelay, exploring the pretty, Surrey-like woods and
+hills around the gay little watering-place of St. Honore-les-Bains, are
+to be seen the white, lustrous-skinned, majestic creatures, who almost
+make us forgive the ungallant refrain of Pierre Dupont's famous song:
+'J'aime bien Jeanne, ma femme, mais j'aimerais mieux la voir mourir,
+que de voir mourir mes boeufs' (I love my wife Jane, but I would rather
+see her die than my oxen).
+
+The best plan for the tourist wishing to see the Morvan is to hire one
+of the light carriages called a caleche, and drive, not only round the
+country so called, but right through--a journey occupying about a
+fortnight when leisurely made.
+
+Travellers pressed for time may, however, visit Chateau-Chinon in a day
+from Autun. This five hours' drive to the former capital of the Morvan,
+one continued ascent, gives one an excellent idea of the Morvandial
+scenery, and in clear weather is delightful. From the not too
+comfortable coupe of the cumbersome old vehicle, we come ever upon
+wider and more magnificent prospects; on either side are brilliant
+green pastures, watered by little rivers clear as crystal, lofty alders
+fringing their banks, and the grand white oxen pasturing peacefully
+here and there; beyond these gracious scenes rise wooded hills, or
+masses of granite, taking weird forms; while as we journey further on
+we get tremendous panoramas, with a background of violet hills. These
+heights are about equal to the Cumberland range, the loftiest peak of
+the Morvan rising to that of Skiddaw.
+
+Far away the famous Mont Beuvray, the Bibracte of the 'Commentaries'
+lying half-way between Chateau-Chinon and Autun, is a bold, grand
+outline to day, under a cold, gray sky. Wild crags to climb and
+romantic sites abound, also scenes of quiet caressing grace and smiling
+pastoralness. Nowhere can be found  more beautiful pastures, winding
+lanes, tossing streams. The country round about is wonderfully
+solitary, but newly-built schools in the scattered villages tell of
+progress.
+
+Meantime driver and passengers alight whilst our steady horses climb
+one sharp ascent after another. As we wind about the hills we catch
+sight of tiny hamlets perched on airy crests, recalling the castellated
+villages of the African Kabylia.
+
+Arrived at our destination, the ancient capital and stronghold of the
+Celtic Morvan, the whole country lies at our feet as a map--sunny
+pasture and cornland, glen and dale, mountain stream, tumbling river
+and glittering cascade, alternating with sterner and grander features--
+dark forests covering vast spaces, rugged peaks towering aloft, wild
+sweeps of heather-covered moorland. Seen as I saw this region, under a
+wind-tossed lowering heaven, the impression was of extreme desolation
+and wildness; only a glimpse of sunshine was needed to bring out the
+witchery of each shifting scene. Nothing can be prettier in a quiet way
+than these countless rivers and rivulets, each fringed with lofty
+alders, these velvety glades and winding lanes. Forests abound, and I
+was assured by a peasant that the poor never need buy any firewood.
+They can pick up enough to last them all winter.
+
+Immediately below Chateau-Chinon opens a fair valley, threaded by the
+river Yonne. Bewildering is the sense of space and atmosphere we obtain
+here, as we look straight down into the clifts below, or allow the eye
+to wander over the vast panorama stretching around.
+
+A town perched on a height two thousand feet above the sea-level, so
+placed as to command an entire kingdom, should have a history, and the
+history of Chateau-Chinon goes very far back indeed. The fortified
+citadel of the seigneury was built on the site of a Gallo-Roman camp,
+or castrum, the castrum on that of a Gallic oppidum. The once warlike,
+grim little place, that often defied its enemies in the seigneurial
+wars, is now the most dead-alive, sleepy little provincial place
+imaginable.
+
+'We will breakfast together,' said the gray-haired conductor of the
+diligence to me; 'and you will afterwards have time to look round
+before we start home.'
+
+Although pure Celts, the Morvandiaux have not the proud reserve and,
+perhaps, distrust of strangers found among the Bretons. I have driven
+for miles across country alone with a Breton peasant, and he would
+never once open his lips. Had I carried bags of gold about me, I should
+have been perfectly safe under such protection. But a sociable
+invitation to chat over the ordinary of an auberge would never have
+entered the head of a diligence-driver in the Morbihan or Finistere.
+
+The little inn looked temptingly rustic and primitive, and the smiling,
+round-faced, rosy-cheeked landlady might have just walked out of a
+picture. Exactly such a landlady I remember at Llangollen years ago.
+
+I had, however, no time to stay, and we drove v back to Autun, making
+the descent at a rapid rate, catching by the way the glimpse of a
+stately peasant, with the Gallic saie, or mantle, thrown over his
+shoulders. He might have sat for a study of Vercingetorix! It was worth
+while going to Chateau-Chinon for the sight of such a piece of
+antiquity as that!
+
+Alas! Chateau-Chinon is to have a railway, and alike the mantle worn by
+Vercingetorix and his countrymen, the ancient Gallic speech--even the
+time-honoured system of log-floating--are doomed. Instead of being
+invited to breakfast with the blue-bloused pleasant driver of the
+diligence, I shall expect to find at table-d'hote half a score of
+English undergraduates, members of the bicyclist club, or a party of
+enterprising ladies from Chicago.
+
+A word about Autun itself, a town that improves marvellously on
+acquaintance. This was my third visit, and I found it more attractive
+than ever. The beauty of its site is best appreciated from the lower
+ground beyond its western suburb. And beautiful it is--the graceful
+cathedral, with its airy spire and twin towers, pencilled in soft,
+silvery gray against the dimpled green hills, every feature of the
+landscape in harmony with it, as if, indeed, made to be in harmony with
+it. Turning from the cathedral in an opposite direction, in order to
+make the circuit of the city, we realize how grand was the predecessor
+of modern Autun the Augustodonum of Gallic Rome. Keeping to this higher
+ground, we can follow with the eye the tremendous span of the Roman
+wall, fragmentary for the most part, yet perfect in places, and built
+neither of bricks nor blocks of stone, but of small stones.
+
+Inside the enclosure we see the mediaeval wall and picturesque watch-
+towers of the French king Francis. Picturesque as these are--also the
+bits of ordinary domestic architecture between airily-perched dormers,
+stone balconies filled with flowers, little terraced gardens rising one
+above the other-the mind is too much occupied with the grand Roman
+aspect of the place to dwell as yet upon minor points. The circuit of
+the city, so made as to visit its two magnificent Roman gateways, and
+equally fine so-called Temple of Janus, is beyond the reach of moderate
+walkers. All are noble specimens of Augustan architecture, more
+especially the Porte d'Arroux. This stands on the north side of the
+town, beyond the suburbs, its lofty arches spanning the road, and
+wearing, from the distance, the look of an aqueduct. It is built of
+huge blocks of stone adjusted without cement. Between the upper tiers
+of arches are sculptured Corinthian columns, all happily uninjured. So
+massive is this structure, so firmly it stands, that we feel as if,
+like the Pyramids, it might last for ever.
+
+Beyond, on either side, stretches the pleasant open country-fields and
+meadows and market-gardens; whilst far away, in bright sunny weather
+looking like a violet cloud, is the vast height of Bibracte, so
+celebrated in the 'Commentaries.'
+
+But the most curious monument at Autun is the so-called Pierre de
+Couhard. From all parts of the city may be seen, rising conspicuously
+from its green eminence, this stately relic-maybe of Roman or Gallic
+times, perhaps raised of remoter date still--a vast pyramid of stone,
+worthy to be compared to the great tomb of Caius Sextius in Rome.
+
+It is a pleasant walk to what the townsfolk call the Pierre de Quare.
+Leaving behind us the cathedral and suburbs, we follow a road winding
+in a south-easterly direction to the little village of Couhard, watered
+by a gurgling stream, and sheltered by a fair green hill. As we quit
+the highroad to reach the monument, we come upon pretty pastoral
+groups. It is supper-time-l'heure de la soupe, as French rustics say--
+and before every cottage-door are squatted family groups, eating their
+pottage on the doorsteps. Around are the dogs and cats, chickens, pigs
+and goats. To every humble homestead is attached orchard, garden, even
+a patch of corn or vineyard. All is peace and contentment.
+
+Certainly these rural interiors would not satisfy everybody. Neatness
+and cleanliness do not always prevail among poor folks in France, any
+more than in England. But, alike, young and old are neatly and
+wholesomely dressed. Beggars are almost nil, and the prevailing aspect
+is one of unforgettable well-being, independence, and cheerfulness.
+
+In strange contrast with these domestic pictures--pet kittens and
+children playing close under its shadow, tiny cabbage and tomato beds
+planted to its very edge-stands the huge, angular, pyramidal pile
+called the Pierre de Quare.
+
+Very striking is the effect of the huge, solid brown mass, tapering to
+a point, from summit to base reaching half the height of the cathedral-
+spire, its original height in all probability having been much loftier.
+
+The whole is a ruin, yet intact, if I may be pardoned the paradox.
+Whilst the inner part of the monument remains uninjured, its sides have
+been stripped of the marble slabs or polished stones that once in all
+probability covered and adorned them. The outer surface now shows a
+rough, jagged ensemble of masses of stone rudely put together, the
+entire pyramid being solid.
+
+We walked home in the evening light, getting dozens of charming
+pictures in the twilight--pictures already familiar to me, yet ever
+bringing a sense of newness. French towns, like French scenery, should
+be revisited thus, and I hope ere very long to pay Autun my fourth
+visit, and to take, for a second time, those delightful drives from
+Avallon to Vezelay, and from the modern capital of the little Celtic
+kingdom to the ancient, perched so airily above the surrounding hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+FROM LYONS TO AVIGNON BY THE RHONE.
+
+
+From Autun to Lyons is a journey that calls for little comment, unless
+made, as wise Arthur Young made it a hundred years ago, on horseback;
+or unless we take the steamer at Chalon, and enjoy the scenery of the
+Saone, Mr. Hamerton's favourite river.
+
+We were too impatient, however, to reach the Causses to stop, even for
+the sake of a sail on the Saone, and made haste to catch the very next
+_Gladiateur_ bound to Avignon. Why all these Rhone steamers should
+be called _Gladiateur_ I don't know, but so it is.
+
+By half-past five this bright August day we are on the deck of the
+little steamer, to find a scene of indescribable liveliness and bustle.
+All kinds of merchandise were being stowed away--bedding, fruit,
+bicycles, bird-cages, passengers' luggage, cases, and packages of every
+imaginable description.
+
+A stream of peasants poured in, bound for various stations on the way,
+all heavily laden, some accompanied by their pet dogs. First-class
+passengers were not numerous. We had an elderly bridegroom, who might
+have been a small innkeeper, with his youthful bride, evidently making
+a cheap wedding-trip; a family party or two; an excitable man with a
+sick wife; a couple of pretty girls with two or three youths--brothers
+or cousins; a sprinkling of priests and nuns--that was all. The
+peasants with their baskets and bundles, at the other end of the
+vessel, made picturesque groups, and the whole scene was as French as
+French could be.
+
+I was just thinking how pleasant it was thus to escape the routine of
+travel, to find one's self in a purely foreign atmosphere, among French
+people, picking up by the way French habits and ways of thought, when
+one of the officials of the company bustled up to me.
+
+'Pray pardon me, madame,' he said, bringing out a note-book. 'I see
+that you are English. Will you be so very kind as to give me the name
+and address of the great tourist agency in London? We are organizing an
+entirely new service between Lyons and Avignon; we are going to make
+our steamers attractive to tourists. You will oblige us extremely by
+giving a little information.'
+
+Crestfallen and with a sinking of the heart, I took his pencil--I
+could, of course, not do otherwise--and wrote in big letters:
+
+
+                       MM. Thomas Cook et Cie.,
+                              Ludgate Hill,
+                                     Londres.
+
+But those few words I had written sufficed to dispel the delightful
+visions of the moment before. Another year or two, then, and the Rhone
+will be then handed over to Messrs. Cook, Gaze and Caygill--benefactors
+of their kind, no doubt, but ruthless destroyers of the romance of
+travel.
+
+Instead of French folk, with whom we can chat about their crops, rural
+affairs, the passing scenes, gaining all kinds of information, feeling
+that we are really in France, and forgetting for awhile old
+associations, henceforth we shall find on board these steamers our near
+neighbours, whom, no matter how much respected, we are glad to quit for
+a time. From end to end of the vessel we shall hear the voices of
+English and Transatlantic tourists, one and all most probably
+'disappointed in the Rhone;' but, indeed, for the river, we should as
+well be at home! However, all this disenchantment happily belongs to
+the future; let us enjoy the present experience--one long bright summer
+day, so full of impressions as to seem many days rolled into one.
+
+The whistle sounds, punctually to the stroke of six; we are off.
+
+It is a noble sight as we steam out of the quay de la Charite: the vast
+city rearing its stately front between green hills and meeting rivers;
+above, white chateaux and villas dotting the greenery--below, the
+quays, bordered with warehouses that might be palaces, so lofty and
+handsome are they, and avenues of plane-trees.
+
+The day promises to be splendid, but mists as yet hang over the scene.
+Leaving behind us majestic cities and suburbs and the confluence of the
+Rhone and the Saone--one silvery sheet flowing into the other--we glide
+between low-lying banks bordered with poplars, and soon reach the
+little village of Irigny, its sheltering green hills dotted with
+country houses. As we go swiftly on we realize the appropriateness of
+the epithet ever applied to the Rhone. Truly in Michelet's phrase,
+'C'est un taureau furieux descendu des Alpes, et qui court a la mer.'
+If we are in haste to reach our destination in the heart of the
+Cevennes, the Rhone seems still more in haste to reach the sea. This
+swift current of the bright blue waters and the unspeakable freshness
+and purity of the air make our journey very exhilarating. Past Irigny
+we are so near the low, poplar-bordered shore to our left that we could
+almost reach it with a pebble, whilst to the right lies Millery. From
+this point the river winds abruptly, and we see far-off hills and
+gentle declivities nearer shore, with vineyards planted on the slopes.
+The country on both sides is beautifully wooded, and very verdant.
+
+The first halt is made at Givors, a little manufacturing town set round
+with vine-clad banks; here the little river Giers flows into the Rhone,
+one of the numerous tributaries gathered on the way. Just below the
+town is a graceful suspension-bridge. But for the mists we should have
+a lovely view a little further on, where the hills run nearer together,
+the wooded escarpments running steep down to the water's edge. On both
+right and left banks the scenery is now charming. Close to our left
+hand rise banks fringed with silvery-green willows, and above a bold
+line of hills, part wood, part vineyards, with white houses peeping
+here and there; on our right, a little island-like group of poplar, the
+whole picture very sweet and pastoral.
+
+For the most part our passengers, alike first and second class, pay
+scant heed to the scenery; the tiny salle-a-manger below and the
+resources of the kitchen seem more attractive.
+
+The excitable man with the sick wife, however, no sooner caught sight
+of me with pencil and note-book than he rushed up, anxious to impart
+information, also to pour out his own troubles.
+
+'That sick lady yonder is my wife; does she not look ill? Oh, the
+misfortune to have a sick wife!'
+
+Then he went on to relate to me the history of his wife's long illness,
+dilating on his own unhappiness in being so afflicted. It never seemed
+to occur to him that it might be worse to be ill one's self, even than
+to inflict one's illnesses on others. He had tried every imaginable
+remedy, and now, as a last expedient, was about to take her to her
+paternal home in the South, to see what native air might do. Poor lady!
+ill and depressed she looked indeed.
+
+As we get nearer Vienne the aspect of the country changes. There is an
+Italian look about the vines trellised on trees, and festooned under
+the tiled roofs of the little riverside chalets.
+
+The approach to the ancient city itself is very striking. A light
+suspension-bridge spans the river-banks just where Vienne faces the
+village of St. Colombe, ancient as itself. On the right we see the
+massive old town built by Philippe de Valois; to the left, behind the
+houses, crowded together pell-mell, rises the massive pile of Vienne
+Cathedral. Here another tributary, the Gere, flows into the Rhone.
+Vienne was reputed a fosterer of poetry in classic times. At 'beautiful
+Vienne,' Martial boasted that his works were read with avidity. The
+scenery now shows more variety and picturesqueness. In one spot the
+river winds so abruptly that we seem all on a sudden to be landlocked,
+the hills almost meeting where the swift, impetuous stream has forced a
+way. The cleft hills as they slope down to the shore show little dells
+and combes deliciously fresh and verdurous. Everywhere we see the vine,
+and with every bend we seem nearer the South. Between Vienne and
+Roussillon the aspect is no longer French, but Italian--the distant
+undulations dark purple, flecked with golden shadow, the nearer
+terraced with the yellowing vine.
+
+Our next halting-place is Condrien, on the right bank, celebrated for
+its white wines, a pretty, Italian-looking little town, with vineyards
+and gardens close to the riverside, the bright foliage of the acacia
+and vine contrasting with the soft yellows and grays of the building-
+stone. Above the straggling town on the sunny hill are deep-roofed
+chalets, and close to us--we could almost gather them--patches of
+glorious sunflowers in the riverside gardens. The mists had now cleared
+off, and we were promised a superb day.
+
+The traveller's mind is all at once struck by the extreme solitude of
+this noble, vast-bosomed, swift-flowing river. We had been on our way
+for hours without seeing a steamer or vessel of any kind, our little
+craft having the wide water-way all to itself. Whilst the Saone is the
+most navigable river in the world, quite opposite is the character of
+its brother Rhone. Not inaptly has the one river--all gentleness,
+yieldingness, and suavity--won a feminine, the other--all force,
+impetuosity and stern will--obtained for itself a masculine,
+appellative! And well has the Lyonnais sculptor given these
+characteristics in his charming statues adorning the Hotel de Ville of
+his native city.
+
+The Rhone has been called 'un chemin qui marche trop vite'; the
+rapidity of its currents and the difficulties of navigation up-stream
+are obstructions to traffic. But before the great line of railway was
+laid down between Paris and Marseilles, it was nevertheless very
+important. If we converse with French folk whose memory goes back to a
+past generation, we shall find that the journey South was invariably
+made this way. Formerly sixty-two steamers daily plied with passengers
+and goods between these riverside towns, now connected by railway. At
+the present time seven or eight suffice for the work.
+
+To render the Rhone adapted for navigation on a large scale, extensive
+works are necessary in order to regulate its current and deepen its
+bed. The question has long occupied the leading Chambers of Commerce
+throughout France. Plans of the proposed ameliorations have been made;
+works have even been begun. But the Rhone has that terribly powerful
+Compagnie de Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee to contend with. It remains to be
+seen whether wide public interests will be finally sacrificed to a
+grasping railway company. For myself, I owe the P.-L.-M. a great and
+lasting grudge.
+
+I am in the habit of paying yearly visits to French friends living in
+and near Dijon; but for the P.-L.-M., I could pleasantly vary these
+annual visits to the delightful Burgundian capital, going by way of
+Sens and Tonnerre, and returning by the Ligne de l'Est through
+Champagne.
+
+But no! The latter company is not permitted by the P.-L.-M. to set down
+passengers in the Dijon railway-station. Those travellers desirous of
+making the journey Paris-ward via Troyes are therefore forced to take
+tickets to Is-sur-Tille, half an hour by rail from Dijon, on the Ligne
+de l'Est. There they are permitted, and not before, to take through
+tickets and register baggage to Paris. I rejoice to hear, however, that
+influential Dijonnais are taking the matter up, and I yet live in hopes
+of being able to avoid the P.-L.-M. line to and from Dijon.
+
+It must be admitted that the great solitude of the Rhone adds to its
+majesty and impressiveness. Our little craft seems insignificant as a
+feather--a mere bird skimming the vast blue surface. After the clearing
+of the mists, we have a spell of unbroken blue sky and bright sunshine,
+followed by a deliciously cool, gray English heaven, with sunny
+glimpses and varied cloudage.
+
+Passing Serrieres, with pastures and meadows close to the water's edge,
+and groups of cattle grazing under the trees, we reach Annonay, crested
+by a quaint ruin, the birth-place of the great balloonists, the
+brothers Montgolfier. The first balloon ascent was made from this
+little town in 1783. Boissy d'Anglas, the heroic president of the
+Assembly in its stormiest days, was also born here.
+
+Next comes St. Vallier, an ancient little town close to the river-side,
+with its castle of the beauty who never grew old, Diane de Poitiers--
+she whose mysterious cosmetic was a daily plunge in cold water; so say
+the initiated in historic secrets. Opposite to St. Vallier rises a
+chain of sunny, vine-covered hills, with sharp clefts showing deep
+shadow.
+
+At Arras, on the right bank, is seen another picturesque ruin. No river
+in Europe boasts of more ruins than the Rhone. Then we reach the
+legendary rock called the Table du Roi. Just as AEneas and his
+companions made of their flat loaves, plates, and so fulfilled the
+Sibyl's prediction, St. Louis saw in this tabular block a dinner-table,
+providentially designed for the use of himself and his ministers. The
+great advantage of such a table lay in its immunity from listeners,
+thus the story runs. This al-fresco banquet above the banks of the
+Rhone took place on the eve of the Seventh Crusade.
+
+At this point the river is magnificent. Beyond the nearer hills rise
+the crumbling walls of a feudal stronghold, another ruin of imposing
+aspect. One hoary tower only is seen, half hidden by the folds of a
+valley. On every steep slope the vines make golden patches, little
+terraces being planted close to the rocky summits. This persistence in
+a phylloxera-ravaged district is quite touching.
+
+Passing Tournon and Tain, we soon come in sight of the famous little
+village of the Hermitage, a sunburnt, granitic slope, its three hundred
+acres once being a mine of gold. Formerly a hectare of this precious
+vineyard was worth 30,000 francs. The phylloxera, alas! has invaded it.
+
+We now see in the far distance the blue range of the Dauphinnois Alps,
+and can it be--is yonder silvery glimmer on the farthest horizon the
+mighty Mont Blanc? Nothing can be lovelier than these wide mountain
+vistas, far above broad blue river, plain, and hill.
+
+Passing the stately Gothic chateau of Chateaubourg, where sojourned St.
+Louis, we get a glimpse of the sharply-outlined limestone heights
+bordering on the vineyards of St. Peray, no less celebrated than those
+of the Hermitage. On the topmost crag stand out in bold relief the
+superb ruins of Crussol. At every turn we see gray walls of feudal
+strongholds frowning above the bright, broad river. By the time we
+reach Valence, soon after mid-day, we have passed one barge only.
+
+Valence is beautifully situated. [Footnote: In the early part of this
+century the Rhone threw up gold-dust here. The beaver, be it also
+mentioned, had his home then on the banks of this river, but it lived
+in isolation, showing little of the intelligence of the Canada beaver.]
+Facing the river and tawny, abrupt rocks rises the splendid panorama of
+the French Alps. Here we ought to stay, were we not in such feverish
+flurry to reach the Causses. And here we leave more than half our
+passengers and merchandise. The cook, having now nothing to do, comes
+on deck to chat with a friendly traveller. I may as well mention that
+we fare as well on this little steamer as at a second-class table-
+d'hote. There is a small dining-room below, as well as a very fairly
+comfortable saloon. The attendants are exceedingly civil, and charges
+regulated by a tariff.
+
+As an instance of the prevailing desire to please, I cite the following
+piece of amiability on the part of the chef. I had given tea and a
+teapot, with instructions, to the waiter. The chef, however, anxious
+that there should be no blunder, came up to me and begged for
+information at first hand.
+
+'Pray excuse me,' he said; 'but I did not understand whether the milk
+and sugar were to form part of the decoction.'
+
+I gave him a little dissertation on tea-making, with the result that
+future travellers by the _Gladiateur_ will obtain a fragrant cup
+admirably prepared. Even a French chef cannot be expected to know
+everything in the vast field of cookery.
+
+Below Valence the scenery changes. The hills on either side of the
+river recede, and we look above low reaches and lines of poplar upon
+the far-off mountain-range of Dauphine and Savoy. Here and there are
+little farmsteads close to the shore, with stacks of wheat newly piled
+and cattle grazing--everywhere a look of homely plenty and repose. The
+river winds in perpetual curves, giving us new horizons at every turn.
+
+Lavoutte, on the right bank, is a picturesque congeries of red-tiled
+houses massed round a square chateau. The town indeed looks a mere
+appendage of this chateau, so conspicuous is the ancient stronghold of
+the Vivarais. Livron, perched on a hill, looks very pretty. Soon we
+come to perhaps the grandest ruin cresting the bank of the Rhone, the
+donjon and chateau fort of Rochemaure, standing out formidably from the
+dark, jagged peaks, running sheer down to the river's edge.
+
+After Le Teil is passed the clouds gradually clear. We have the deep
+warm blue of a southern sky and burning sunshine.
+
+Viviers--ancient capital of the Vivarais, to which it gave the name--is
+most romantically placed on the side of a craggy hill, its ancient
+castle and old Romanesque cathedral conspicuous above the house-roofs.
+Just above the verdant river-bank run its mediaeval ramparts tapestried
+with ivy, the yellowish stone almost the colour of the rocks.
+
+The scenery here is wild and striking. Far away the grand snow-tipped
+Mont Ventoux, the limestone cliffs dazzlingly white against the warm
+heavens, deep purple shadows resting on the vine-clad slopes, whilst
+close to the water's edge are stretches of velvety turf and little
+shady dells. At one point the opposite coasts are as unlike in aspect
+as summer and winter; the right bank all grace and fertility, the left
+all barrenness and desolation. And still we have the noble river to
+ourselves as it winds between rock and hill. Pont St. Esprit is another
+old-world town with a wonderful old bridge, making a charming picture.
+It stands close to the water's edge, the houses grouped lovingly round
+its ancient church with tall spire. Here we do at last meet a steamer
+bound for Valence.
+
+After leaving Pont St. Esprit the scenery grows less severe, till by
+degrees all sternness is banished, and we see only a gentle pastoral
+landscape on either side.
+
+Bagnols, with its handsome old stone bridge, church, with perforated
+tower, facing the river, makes a quaint and picturesque scene. This
+curious old town, one of the most characteristic passed throughout the
+entire journey, lies so close to the water's edge that we could almost
+step from the steamer into its streets. Meantime, the long, bright
+afternoon, so rich in manifold impressions, draws on; cypresses and
+mulberry-trees announce the approach to Avignon. A golden softness in
+the evening sky, a heavy warmth and languor in the air, proclaim the
+South. Every inch of the way is varied and rememberable. Feudal walls
+still crest the distant heights, as we glide slowly between reedy banks
+and low sandy shores towards the papal city.
+
+At last it comes in sight, rather more than twelve hours since quitting
+the quay of Lyons, and well rewarded were we for having preferred the
+slower water-way to the four hours' flight in the railway express.
+
+The approach to Avignon by the Rhone may be set side by side in the
+traveller's mind with the first glimpse of Venice from the Adriatic, or
+of Athens from the AEgean.
+
+The river, after winding amid cypress-groves, makes a sudden curve, and
+we see all of a sudden the grand old Italian-looking city, its watch-
+towers, palaces, and battlements pencilled in delicate gray against a
+warm amber sky, only the cypresses by the water's edge making dark
+points in the picture. Far away, over against the city towers, the
+stately snow-crowned Mont Ventoux and the violet hills shutting in
+Petrarch's Vaucluse. How warm and southern--nay, Oriental--is the scene
+before us, although painted in delicatest pearly tints! It is difficult
+to believe that we are still in France; we seem suddenly to have waked
+up in Jerusalem!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+AVIGNON AND ORANGE.
+
+
+My first business at Avignon was, of course, to visit the tomb of our
+great countryman, John Stuart Mill.
+
+As we drive to the cemetery this cloudless August day there is little
+to remind us of northern latitudes: warm yellow walls, burning blue
+heaven, venerable fig-trees white with dust, peach and olive orchards--
+all combine to conjure up a vision of the far-off East. The perpetual
+wind, however, cools the air, and if it has not the delicious freshness
+of the desert breeze tasted towards nightfall near Cairo, at least it
+makes August in that apparently tropic region bearable. Avignon should
+without doubt be visited in the height of summer, otherwise we lose
+this Oriental aspect, which is its most striking and, at the same time,
+most beautiful characteristic.
+
+Passing the colossal palace of the popes--pity such superb masonry
+should be linked with the memories of crimes so horrible!--we reach the
+public gardens, containing the statue of a comparatively humble
+individual, who did more for the public weal than perhaps all the popes
+and anti-popes put together. This is Althen, who, by the introduction
+of the madder-root into France, promoted the peaceful industry and
+wellbeing of thousands of honest families. From the lofty terrace of
+this promenade--a natural precipice overlooking the river--we obtain a
+glorious panorama--the entire city, with its towers, palace, and
+churches, spread before us as a map, the glory of the Dauphinnois Alps,
+the magnificent Mont Ventoux stretching across the northern horizon,
+under the shadow of its sunny crest the pale violet hills of Vaucluse,
+and, to complete the picture, the Rhone, silvery bright--I protest it
+is not always muddy as some writers insist!--flowing swiftly between
+green banks towards the sea.
+
+An avenue of stone pines leads to the cemetery--announced by flower-
+stalls and stonemasons' yards--and we soon find the head-gardener--an
+ancient man, proud to show us the tomb of the 'grand Anglais.'
+
+'Do my country-people often come here to pay their respects to this
+grave?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, many, many!' he said; 'and the demoiselle, his daughter--it is she
+who sees to everything. She is always coming. Never was any grave so
+cared for, as you will see.'
+
+He was right. The sarcophagus of pure white marble stands in the midst
+of a tiny garden, exquisitely kept and railed in, with gate well-
+locked. The well-known inscription inscribed by Stuart Mill to the
+memory of his wife cannot be deciphered from outside the enclosure, and
+no one, under any circumstances whatever, is permitted to enter it; but
+the name of the noble apostle of liberty stands out bold and clear, and
+may be seen from a distance. The flower-borders around the tomb were
+bright with late summer and autumn flowers; not a seared leaf, not an
+unsightly weed anywhere. The reverential care bestowed on this grave is
+delightful to witness. Two English girls lie buried near the great
+champion of women and of liberty of thought. Rare flowers--roses and
+lilies--were not to be had, so I purchased a homely garland of zinnias
+and China asters, and laid it just outside the little railing. In
+paying this modest tribute to the memory of John Stuart Mill I
+fulfilled a wish very dear to my heart. One other pilgrimage of the
+like kind I would fain make did not wide seas intervene. I should like
+to place a wreath on the tomb of another apostle of liberty--the
+dauntless, the self-immolating Colenso!
+
+Schiller, great in poetry as in prose, says: 'The larger portion of
+humanity are too much concerned with the struggle for bare existence to
+occupy themselves with the search after truth.' Let us, then, rejoice
+in the memory of those who have consecrated their existences to this
+lofty task!
+
+Beautiful as is Avignon for a burial-place, we wonder how anyone could
+from choice live here. The perpetual mistral-like wind, the dazzling
+glare, the white dust, the malodorous streets of the old town, do not
+at any rate invite a long stay during the dog-days, and much of its
+picturesqueness would be lost in winter. With the prospect of the
+breezy Roof of France ever before us, we certainly felt little disposed
+to linger, in spite of our comfortable quarters and another attraction
+not mentioned in guide-books. I allude to the great beauty of the
+people, especially of the young girls and children. We seemed here to
+have touched the first note of a gradually ascending scale of beauty,
+the climax awaiting us in the mountain fastnesses of the Lozere. In and
+around Avignon we saw many a girl beautiful as one of Raphael's
+Madonnas, many a child lovely as an angel. We could not paint these
+charming heads, we could not make the acquaintance of their possessors;
+but it was delightful to obtain such glimpses of beauty by the way--to
+feel one's self in a living portrait-gallery of beauty. The great
+neatness and tidiness of the country people, and the absence of
+vagrancy, are very striking. Wherever we go, we see evidence of an
+existence laborious perhaps in the extreme, yet one of wholesomeness
+and content.
+
+Strange to say, chemical science has proved as disastrous to the rural
+population round about Avignon as the phylloxera has done in other
+parts of the department. The supersession of madder by aniline dyes
+has, indeed, for a time almost ruined the small farmers of Vaucluse.
+
+'Ah!' said an elderly man to me, 'in former days the madder made up for
+everything. It was the harvest of the year. If a peasant's corn was
+blighted, or potatoes and fruit crops failed, the madder was there to
+take to market. The madder paid his way in bad seasons and in good--
+gave him a little "argent mignon" to lay by. The peasant just manages
+to live nowadays, but when madder was cultivated 'twas his own fault if
+he didn't grow rich.'
+
+The culture of this plant, which extended over 13,500 hectares in
+Vaucluse in 1860, had diminished to eight, representing a loss of
+millions of francs. The vineyards have also been reduced, owing to the
+inroads of the phylloxera, although not in equal proportion. Even the
+silkworm, the third chief source of wealth here, has suffered from a
+parasite.
+
+But the peasant-owner of the soil never loses heart. He drives his
+plough across the ruined vineyard, digs up the madder-field, plants
+other crops, and cheerfully accepts a fourth part of former profits.
+
+My companion, of course, would no more have dreamed of quitting Avignon
+without a visit to Vaucluse than I should have thought it possible to
+go away leaving unvisited the tomb of John Stuart Mill. But next
+morning brought a lowering sky, heavy rain-drops, and an ominous
+rumbling of thunder. To set out for a twenty miles' drive across
+country under such auspices were madness.
+
+We decided to visit Orange instead, a short distance by railway. We
+should be sure to obtain a covered carriage at the station. Under such
+circumstances, need a deluging shower or two and a thunderstorm keep us
+at home?
+
+The prospect brightened towards mid-day, so we started in high spirits,
+assuring ourselves of a delightful excursion. We found pleasant company
+in the railway-carriage, our fellow-travellers being all bound for
+Paris. One, a young Jesuit who had been in England, was delighted to
+practise his English.
+
+'You are not favoured with fine weather in your travels,' he said; 'but
+you are probably going to remain at Orange some time?'
+
+'Oh dear no,' was the reply. 'We are spending the afternoon there, that
+is all--just going to see the Roman theatre!'
+
+'I wish you enjoyment of your expedition,' he replied drily, no little
+amused, but evidently somewhat accustomed to insular eccentricity.
+
+The rest of the company could hardly keep a grave countenance. 'These
+English! these English!' their faces said, and the general verdict
+evidently was parodying the immortal words of Madame Roland: 'O
+Pleasure, what pains are endured under thy name!'
+
+By the time we reached our destination the storm had become truly
+awful. Rain fell in torrents; the crashing thunder was like the roar of
+artillery. The heavens were black as night, but for the blue flashes
+that seemed to set the place on fire. Outside the station was no
+vehicle of any kind; within, groups of storm-driven travellers and
+pedestrians waited for the tempest to abate.
+
+And long, indeed, we had to wait. The most rational alternative seemed
+to be to take the next train back to Avignon. But we might never again
+find ourselves at Orange. We recalled Addison's words, 'The remains of
+this Roman amphitheatre are worth the whole principality of Orange,' so
+we abided the storm. We were, after all, as well off in the
+comfortably-appointed little station as in a first class railway-
+carriage, and the tempest, if awful, afforded a sublime spectacle.
+Lightning so vivid I think I never before witnessed.
+
+At last the deluging rain slackened somewhat; the heavens grew clearer;
+and the omnibus of the Hotel de la Poste made its appearance. We took
+our seats and rattled into the town, the poor drenched horses paying no
+heed to the swiftly-recurring peals and flashes.
+
+At the Poste, most French and old-fashioned of French inns--very
+spacious, very handsome, and scrupulously clean--we found a charming
+landlady, to whom we carried friendly greetings from former visitors;
+and after tea and a little chat, the thunder and lightning having
+abated, we ventured forth.
+
+The streets, which on our arrival an hour before were like rivers, now
+began to dry up; the raindrops fell at intervals only; the thunder
+pealed from a distance. A few townspeople, like ourselves, were abroad.
+
+A noble avenue of plane-trees leads from the station to the ancient
+town. Hardly a bit of modernization to be seen anywhere, its quaint,
+narrow streets having deep, over-hanging roofs and round arched
+galleries, as seen in some of the old Spanish towns of Franche-Comte.
+After zigzagging for awhile in rain, we come suddenly upon the Roman
+theatre, a sight to take one's breath away. Rome itself shows nothing
+finer than this colossal mass of masonry--facade of the Augustan
+amphitheatre, and at the same time an acoustic wall, built of such
+thickness and solidity in order to retain the sound of the actors'
+voices. The entire facade is very nearly perfect, and forms a splendid
+specimen of Augustan architecture in its prime. It is constructed of
+huge blocks put together symmetrically, without the adjunct of cement.
+The colour is of deep, rich brown, the entire structure majestically
+dominating the town, whilst around, dwarfed by its gigantic
+proportions, rise the pleasant green hills.
+
+Close under the shadow of the facade, enhancing its grandeur by force
+of contrast, are mean little houses, and in front an open space, where
+poor people are washing their clothes and carrying on the homeliest
+avocations. Some notion of the interior may be gathered from without,
+but, on payment of a small fee, strangers are permitted to enter and
+wander at will about the stone benches raised on tiers, the corridors,
+and dressing-closets of the actors. Vandalism has all but done its
+worst; still, enough are left of proscenium and auditorium, originally
+constructed to hold 7,000 spectators, to admit of the performance of
+plays here. The stone corbels, pierced with holes to hold the enormous
+awning or velarium used in wet weather or extreme heat, remain intact.
+The gray stone is covered with moss and greenery, and the whole scene
+for magnificence and impressiveness may be compared with the great
+Dionysiac theatre at Athens.
+
+As we lingered outside, it was pleasant to witness the pride of the
+inhabitants in this great monument.
+
+'Ah, you should have been here a few days ago!' one bystander said to
+us; 'you might then have seen the "OEdipe Roi" of Corneille given in
+this amphitheatre, by the troupe of the Comedie Francaise. Never before
+was a fete so brilliant seen at Orange! People flocked hither from
+fifty miles and farther round!'
+
+We found, and lost, and lost, and found our way in the perplexing
+labyrinth of ancient streets, till we reached the fine but somewhat
+cold and uninspiring triumphal arch at the other end of the town. Then
+we returned to Avignon, the thunderstorm bursting forth with renewed
+fury. Our compartment was illuminated by the lightning from the
+beginning of our journey to the end, and when we alighted the blue
+flashes were positively appalling; the whole place seemed ablaze with
+the steely-blue, blinding coruscations. So we rattled through the
+lightning-lit streets and turned into bed, the storm taking its
+departure as soon as we were safely housed. It was worth while making a
+great effort to see Orange, but nothing--no, nothing--will ever tempt
+me to excursionize in such a storm again!
+
+It is odd that English folk so rarely visit Orange; but the attractions
+of Switzerland are too obvious, and the great Schweitzer Hof at Lucerne
+has more charms for the multitude than the thoroughly French Hotel de
+la Poste.
+
+One illustrious English traveller, however, just two hundred years ago,
+thought otherwise.
+
+In a recently-unearthed letter of Addison to Bishop Hough, dated 27th
+October, 1700, he wrote: 'I was about three days ago at Orange, which
+is a very fruitful and pleasant spot of ground. The governor, who is a
+native of the place, told me there were about 5,000 people in it, and
+one-third were Protestants. There is a Popish bishop and some convents,
+but all live very amicably together, and are, I believe, not a little
+pleased with their prince, who does not burden them with taxes and
+impositions. There are two pieces of antiquity--Marius' triumphal arch,
+and the remains of a Roman amphitheatre--that are worth the whole of
+the principality.'
+
+It may be as well to add here that the prevailing opinion of
+archaeologists now refers the arch to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and
+that the name Marius has no reference to the conqueror of the Cimbri,
+as has been generally supposed. The supposition was brought about by
+the name Mario inscribed on a shield, among the many facsimiles
+adorning the trophy. But it is clearly the name of the vanquished, not
+the victor, found here, and Mario, part of Marion, may well have been
+the name of a Gaulish prisoner.
+
+As all spoliations throughout France indiscriminately are imputed to
+the Revolution, it may be as well to remind the reader that it was
+Maurice, Prince of Nassau, who did his very utmost to demolish the
+noble Roman theatre of Orange.
+
+By the Treaty of Ryswick, signed 1697, the family of Nassau were
+confirmed in the possession of Orange, and the prince referred to in
+Addison's letter was our William the Third. The spoliator of the Roman
+theatre was his ancestor, the tyrannical and justly-hated Maurice. This
+fact is to be noted.
+
+The thunderstorm cooled the air, and the next day we had unclouded
+skies and burning sunshine, tempered with a brisk wind, for our
+expedition to Vaucluse. The wind blows ever at Avignon, no matter what
+the weather may be, and renders the tropic heat of summer tolerable.
+All the way we caught sight of beautiful faces, these peasant-girls and
+children having faultless features, a rich complexion, dark hair and
+eyes, and a dignified carriage. They go bare-headed in the broiling
+sun, and seem to revel in the heat. Passing suburban villas, close-
+shuttered, vine-trellised, handsome chateaux, each approached by
+stately avenues of plane or mulberry, cypress groves and vineyards, we
+are soon in the heart of the country.
+
+Little farmhouses are seen on either side, their ochre-coloured walls
+gleaming against the deep-blue sky--fig-trees in every garden, with
+peach-orchards beyond, showing the brilliant fruit. It is a bit of the
+East, only the blue-bloused peasant and the bare-headed, dignified
+country girls, wishing us 'Bonjour' as they pass, remind us that we are
+on French soil. There is no evidence here either of wealth or poverty;
+but the fruits of the earth, so laboriously cultivated, are equally
+shared by all. Everywhere we find cheerfulness, independence, and
+thrift.
+
+Pilgrims to Vaucluse must be prepared to pay dear for the privilege.
+Once--and once only during this journey-were we thoroughly overcharged,
+and it was at the little inn here.
+
+I have not kept the bill, but was it not worth any money to taste trout
+fished from Petrarch's stream, eggs whose ancestors had crowed in
+Petrarch's hearing, salad grown within perhaps a stone's-throw of
+Petrarch's garden? Thus doubtless our hostess reasoned, and in all
+probability she was right. What devotee would be deterred from visiting
+such a shrine by the prospect of a long bill?
+
+Many, however, will be deterred by another reason. I allude to the
+burning noonday sun, that makes this close-shut valley, as it is
+complimentarily called, a veritable furnace. It is in reality a deep
+winding cleft between lofty, yellow rocks, by virtue of position and
+formation a naturally formed sun-trap, not a ray being lost. Words can
+give no idea of the scorching, blinding heat this August afternoon. Yet
+a little girl who acts as our guide confronts the sun bareheaded, and
+as we go we find dozens of relic-vendors equally unprotected. No one
+seems to require a hat or umbrella. This child had the face of a
+miniature Madonna, and others we met on the way equally beautiful and
+well-formed. Strange thus to escape for a time altogether from the
+region of human ugliness, to be as completely isolated from ill-
+favoured looks and uncomely gait as if we were in a sculpture-gallery
+of Florence! These country-bred girls and children have not only
+statuesque features, but the stateliest carriage, holding themselves
+with the air of Nature's princesses.
+
+I stopped when half-way through the burning, blinding cul-de-sac, and
+took refuge under the shadow cast by a bit of wall and a fig-tree. If
+the deluging showers of yesterday had failed to damp my enthusiasm, the
+meridian heat of Vaucluse shrivelled it up. My companion, with her
+angelic-faced little cicerone, perseveringly went on.
+
+This rock-shut valley, watered by the Sorgues, a tiny thread of water
+and verdure amid towering walls of bare, sun-baked rock, has lost much
+of its poetry and romance. The stream flows clear as in the poet's
+time, but the solitude he loved so well is invaded. Of his garden not a
+trace remains. The perpetually whirring wheels of a water-mill, the
+clatter of washerwomen beating clothes on the bank, now drown the
+murmur of the waves, whilst at every turn the traveller is beset by
+vendors of immortelles and photographs. Truth to tell, an element of
+vulgarity has found its way to this once ideal spot! But it requires no
+very vivid imagination to transport ourselves to the Eden described so
+musically in Petrarch's letters; and close at the doors of the
+hermitage he has rendered immortal lies scenery that might well recall
+his native Italy. All this is vividly portrayed in the pages of Arthur
+Young, who was more fascinated by the scenery of Vaucluse than either
+myself or my companion.
+
+'And what was the fountain like?' I asked, when, after a quarter of an
+hour, she returned.
+
+This was her account:
+
+'Following the hot and dusty path, beset all the way with children
+selling wild-flowers and dried grasses-it seems providential that they
+don't all have sunstroke under this merciless sun-we at last reach a
+semicircle of rocks, a miniature stone bay, slanting slippery rocks
+leading down to the midst, covered, as my little guide said, in winter
+by water. From under these rocks burst the Sorgues-not a very tiny
+river at its first start-and flows into a dark pool of by no means
+clear water. Indeed, I should say it looked slightly scummy. On the
+only ledge of rock above, with soil enough for vegetation, is a bright
+spot of green, covered with the sweet-scented flower-a plant of the
+good King Henry tribe, which we had been pestered to buy all the way
+from the inn. This little patch looked so inaccessible that I think the
+children must find the plant elsewhere.
+
+'It is well,' sighed my friend, 'that Petrarch cannot see his beloved
+village and river; for although the Sorgues is still limpid and
+beautiful when flowing over the mossy rocks, what with guides,
+tourists, and paper-mills, the place is vulgarized by people who
+probably never read a line of the great poet of ideal love in their
+lives, and never will.' [Footnote:
+
+                     'The love from Petrarch's urn,
+                      A quenchless lamp by which the heart
+                      Sees things unearthly.'
+                                              SHELLEY.]
+
+If the outward drive amid orchards of peach and fig trees, vineyard and
+cypress, conjures up a vision of the East, the return journey will give
+some idea of the great olive-strewn plain of the Spanish Vega.
+
+Far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but one continuous sweep of
+country covered with the silvery-green olive. Beyond in a northerly
+direction the vast grandiose outline of Mont Ventoux shows an opaline
+hue, its deep violet tints being subdued in the paling afternoon light.
+All the tones in the picture are uniform and subdued, but none can be
+fairer, more harmonious, no spectacle more impressive, than the
+delicate sea-green foliage of myriads of olive-trees--plumage were the
+apter word--one unbroken sheeny wave from end to end of the immense
+horizon.
+
+That the half may be better than the whole in travel is an axiom
+verified every day. Was it worth while to incur a sunstroke for the
+sake of seeing Petrarch's fountain--nearly dry, moreover, at such
+seasons of the year? Far better to drive home without headache, and be
+able thoroughly to enjoy such compensation for what we could not see.
+
+After the tomb of John Stuart Mill, Petrarch's Vaucluse; after
+Petrarch's Vaucluse, the palace of the popes.
+
+But the sight of torture-chambers and horrid underground prisons is not
+inviting; the souvenirs here awakened are anything but attractive. The
+palace of the anti-popes, moreover, is turned into a caserne. I was
+content to pass it by. Does not Mr. Symonds relate, in his history of
+the Italian Renaissance, how a certain pope vivisected little children
+in the hope of prolonging his own infamous existence? In other words,
+the pope believed in the doctrine of transfusion of blood, and hapless
+little lads were bribed into undergoing the operation of blood-letting
+in order that the veins of the pontiff should be thereby revivified.
+
+The victims received the promised money and died, but I refer readers
+to Mr. Symonds' work for the story--as horrible as any in the horrible
+history of the sovereigns of the Vatican. Doubtless the walls of this
+outwardly imposing papal palace here could tell others as ghastly. I
+had not the slightest inclination to cross the threshold.
+
+At Avignon we made inquiries right and left as to the best means of
+reaching the Causses. Nobody had so much as heard of the name. One
+individual thus interrogated repeated after me:
+
+'L'Ecosse, l'Ecosse? Mon Dieu! je n'en sais absolument rien.'
+
+He thought we were asking the directest road to Scotland--a strangely
+random question for two Englishwomen to make, surely, in the South of
+France!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+LE VIGAN.
+
+
+Nimes in August is about as hot as Cairo in May, which certainly is
+saying a good deal. In front of the pleasant Hotel de Luxembourg are
+fountains and gardens, bright with oleanders and pomegranates; and the
+town is open and airy, but the heat is very oppressive. The unremitting
+precautions taken to keep out the sun show what is expected in summer-
+time. The rooms are not only protected by shutters, but by Venetian
+blinds as well, and are kept in semi-darkness during the greater
+portion of the day. How the business of daily life can be carried on in
+this perpetually enforced twilight I am unable to say. Whether or no
+the majority of the townsfolk have acquired by sheer force of habit the
+faculty of seeing in the dark, or contrive to transact all obligatory
+affairs in the cool of the evening, when for a brief moment shutters
+are thrown open and blinds drawn, is a mystery.
+
+I have no intention of describing Nimes--a city, perhaps, as familiar
+to my country-people as any in France; and, indeed, time only permitted
+of a glance at the beautiful Roman baths, a quite fairy-like scene, the
+exquisite little Greek temple, [Footnote: Colbert wished to move this
+lovely little temple to Versailles, bit by bit, and the Cardinal
+Alberoni demanded that it should be encased in gold.] known under the
+name of the Maison Carree, and the amphitheatre. All these have been
+well and amply described for tourists elsewhere; also the lovely group
+of Pradier adorning the principal fountain of the town--a modern chef-
+d'oeuvre that may well figure amid so many gems of classic art. The most
+hurried traveller will, of course, visit one and all.
+
+The modern aspect of Nimes is worthy of note.
+
+Distinguished Frenchmen--or, for the matter of that, Frenchwomen--may
+count with mathematical certainty upon the compensation of earthly
+ills: they are sure of their statue after death.
+
+Nimes, not behindhand in this appreciative spirit, has recently
+conferred such honours upon two illustrious sons--Reboul, the artisan
+poet; and Paul Soleillet, the gallant African explorer. Both monuments
+are well worth seeing, and both men deserved to be so remembered.
+
+One-fourth of the inhabitants of Nimes are Protestant; but a true
+spirit of toleration was very slow to make itself felt there. In 1876,
+for the first time, 'Les Huguenots' was given at the opera-house.
+Hitherto the experiment had been considered risky.
+
+It is strange that the inroads of the phylloxera should have any
+influence upon the movements of religious bodies, but so it is.
+Narbonne, in the neighbouring department, has lately lost its
+Protestant population, most of whom were wine-growers or wine-
+merchants, ruined by the terrible vine-pest. So complete was the exodus
+that the ministrations of a pastor were no longer needed. These facts I
+had from the then _desoeuvre_ pastor himself, who was appointed to
+the cure of souls in the little village of St. Georges de Didonne, at
+the mouth of the Gironde, during my stay there two years ago.
+
+Thankful as the visitor may feel to get away from Nimes in the dog-
+days, it should certainly be visited then, otherwise we lose that
+impression of the South--that warm glow of colour and Oriental languor
+so new and striking in Northern eyes. For ourselves, we would willingly
+have lingered days--nay, weeks--in the noble Roman city, but for the
+heat and our feverish desire to reach that cool, breezy Roof of France,
+so near, yet so apparently difficult to reach; in fact, the nearer we
+approached our destination, the more unattainable it appeared. No more
+at Nimes than at Avignon could we get an inkling of information as to
+the best means of reaching the Causses.
+
+We are but fairly off on our way to Le Vigan when we find a welcome
+change in the atmosphere. The air is cooler, the heavens show
+alternating cloud and sky; we feel able to breathe. Past olive grounds
+and mulberry plantations, ancient towns cresting the hill-tops,
+cheerful farmsteads dotted here and there--these are the pictures
+descried from the railway. It was hard to pass Tarascon without
+stopping, but the experience of last year was fresh in my memory. If we
+lingered at every interesting place on the way, we should find the Roof
+of France embedded in snow. There was nothing to be done but, in
+policeman's language, 'move on.' Some of the little towns passed on the
+way are very old and curious, but night closed in long ere we reached
+our destination.
+
+I had heard nothing in favour of Le Vigan. The hotel was described to
+us as a fair auberge. The very place was marked down in my itinerary
+simply because it seemed impossible to reach the region we were bound
+for from any other starting-point. At least, the two other alternatives
+had drawbacks: we must either make a circuitous railway journey round
+to Mende, or a still longer detour by way of Millau.
+
+Having therefore expected literally nothing either in the way of
+accommodation or surroundings, what was our satisfaction next day to
+wake up and find ourselves in quite delightful quarters, amid charming
+scenery! Our hotel, Des Voyageurs, is as unlike the luxurious barracks
+of Swiss resorts as can be. An ancient, picturesque, straggling house,
+brick-floored throughout, with spacious rooms, large alcoves, outer
+galleries and balconies facing the green hills, it is just the place to
+settle in for a summer holiday. On the low walls of the open corridor
+outside our rooms are pots of brilliant geraniums and roses; beyond the
+immediate premises of the hotel is a well-kept fruit and flower garden;
+everywhere we see bright blossoms and verdure, whilst the low spurs of
+the Cevennes, here soft green undulations, frame in the picture.
+
+The weather is now that of an English summer, with alternating clouds
+and sunshine and a fresh breeze.
+
+The people are no less winning than their entourage. Our host, a
+septuagenarian of the old-fashioned school, in his youth was cook to
+Louis Philippe, and has carried with him to this remote spot all the
+polish and urbanity of the court. Aristocratic as he was in manner, and
+evidently a man of substance, as behoved a royal cook to be, he yet
+exercised supervision in the kitchen, not only giving instructions, but
+inspecting saucepans, to see that the acme of cleanliness was arrived
+at.
+
+For what we may therefore call a royal cuisine, besides excellent
+accommodation, we were charged the modest sum of seven francs per diem
+each. Madame la patrone was no less dignified in manner than her
+husband, and from the first took me into her confidence.
+
+She told me that the prosperity of their old age had just been saddened
+by the death of their only child--the hope of hopes, the joy of joys.
+No one remained to inherit their good name and little fortune.
+
+'And a young girl so carefully brought up, so well educated and
+amiable, so useful in the house! Voyez-vous, madame, ces choses sont
+trop tristes,' she said with tears; and what could we say to comfort
+her?
+
+To attend upon us we had a delightful peasant woman, neat, clean,
+sturdy, unlettered; yet very intelligent, and full of interest in
+English inventions and English ways. What a treasure such a woman would
+be at home! but for the hindrance of husband and children, we should
+have felt sorely tempted to bring her away with us. Then there was a
+tall, handsome fellow, a man of all work, in the establishment, who
+would rap at my door at all hours of the day with two enormous jugs of
+boiling water. I required a considerable supply of hot water early in
+the morning wherewith to fill my portable indiarubber bath--a perpetual
+source of amusement in the Lozere-and he seemed to think that a warm
+bath, like a cigarette or a petit verre, was a luxury to be indulged in
+at all hours of the day.
+
+I would be absorbed in the study of maps and geographies when a
+thundering rat-tat-tat would make me start from my seat, and, lo! on
+opening the door, there stood the tall, soldierly, well-favoured
+Francois, holding in each hand a huge steaming jug filled to the brim,
+his handsome face beaming with satisfaction at having thus anticipated
+my wishes.
+
+He evidently thought, too, that anyone with an appetite so unreasonable
+in the matter of hot water must have innumerable wants equally
+unreasonable. So quite unexpectedly, I believe whenever he had a spare
+moment, he would knock at our door and stand there, stock-still,
+awaiting commands.
+
+Seductive as is Le Vigan by virtue of site and surroundings, I am sorry
+to have to say that the town is badly kept. Its aediles are terribly
+wanting in a sense of what is due to public health and enjoyment. The
+streets look as if they were never cleaned from January to December,
+although there is an abundant supply of water. Sanitation is for the
+most part woefully disregarded, and the little that is needed to make
+the place wholesome and attractive is left unattempted. What distressed
+my companion more than the neglected aspect of the streets was the
+sight of so many apparently uncared-for, ill-fed cats and dogs. As a
+rule, French people are kind to their domestic pets, but the bare-
+ribbed cats and their kittens here told a different story. Fortunately,
+when sketching just outside the town one day, the cure came up and
+entered into conversation with the sketchers. Here was an opportunity
+not to be neglected, and it was eagerly seized upon.
+
+'Do, M. le Cure,' pleaded the English lady, after drawing his attention
+to the destitute condition of many four-footed parishioners, 'speak to
+your people, and make them see how wrong it is thus to rear cats and
+dogs, and leave them to starve,'
+
+The benevolent old man promised to do his best, reminding me of the
+different response made to a similar appeal by a Breton priest.
+
+I was once so shocked at the cruel treatment of calves at a country
+fair that I boldly stopped the cure in the middle of the road, and
+entreated him to preach against such wickedness.
+
+'Madame' was his reply, 'ce n'est pas un teche' (it is no sin);
+meaning, I suppose, that diabolical cruelty to animals did not come
+under the head of offences against the Church.
+
+It may be a consolation to many readers to know that the Loi Grammont
+now prohibits the misdeeds ignored by so-called ministers of religion
+in France; and it is a law, if not often, occasionally enforced with
+little ceremony. At Clermont-Ferrand, a few weeks later, a cab-driver
+was carried off to prison before our eyes for having brutally beaten
+his fallen horse.
+
+Throughout the remainder of this journey I am bound to say that we were
+struck with the kindness and gentleness of our drivers to their horses.
+Any sign of ill-temper or skittishness was always coaxed away, an angry
+word or blow never being resorted to.
+
+As I have said, Le Vigan might easily be made a charming halting-place
+for tourists in these regions. The pulling down of a few ancient, ill-
+favoured streets, a wholesale cleaning and white-washing, a general
+reparation of the town from end to end, open spaces utilized as public
+gardens--all this might be done at half the expense of the
+supernumerary statues now being raised all over France. Sanitation
+first, statues afterwards, should be the maxim of its prefets and
+maires in these remote and behindhand regions. Our hotel, it must be
+added, is clean and well kept, and even furnished with the luxury of
+baths. A few more royal cooks at the head of French country inns, and
+we should soon find cosmopolitan luxuries in out-of-the-way corners.
+
+But such an epithet will not long apply to our favourite town. A
+railway now in course of construction will soon link it to Millau, on
+the Toulouse line, thus rendering it accessible from all south-westerly
+points. Who knows? This quaint, old-fashioned, thoroughly French hotel
+may be replaced a few years hence by some huge fashionable barracks, in
+which there will be a perpetual come and go of tourists furnished with
+return tickets, including the Causses, the gorges of the Tarn and
+Montpellier le Vieux.
+
+An English pedestrian or cyclist or two have, I believe, found their
+way hither, but no lady tourists.
+
+Poorly off in matters of sanitation, Le Vigan could not, nevertheless,
+afford to lose its one statue to its one hero. We all know the story of
+the gallant young Chevalier d'Assas, captain of an Auvergnat regiment,
+and of his no less heroic companion, the Sergeant Dubois: how when
+reconnoitring at night in the forest near Closter-camp, their men in
+ambush behind them, they came suddenly upon the foe. A dozen bayonets
+were pointed at their breasts with the whisper, 'Silence or death!'
+
+The pair in a breath gave the warning: 'The enemy! Fire!' and fell side
+by side, pierced with the bullets alike of friend and foe.
+
+This bronze statue is the only monument the town can boast of, but it
+possesses a compensation for many monuments--I allude to its noble
+grove of venerable chestnuts. Well-planted boulevards of plane-trees
+lead to what appears a bit of primeval forest--an assemblage of ancient
+trees, their knotted, hoary trunks each in girth huge as a windmill, in
+striking contrast to the bright foliage and abundant fruit. Nothing can
+be more weird and fantastic than these broken, corrugated stems,
+battered by storm, worn out by time, apparently dropping to pieces, yet
+at the root full of vitality, sending forth the most luxuriant harvest,
+the freshest, youthfullest leafage: the whole--the gray old world
+below, the fairy-like greenery above--making a glorious scene under the
+bright blue sky. May not this chestnut grove symbolize the phenomenal
+richness and activity of highly-endowed natures in old age--the
+Goethes, the Titians, the Voltaires? From these pleasant suburbs,
+little paths wind invitingly upward among the hills, planted on all
+sides with the vine, and although the summer is already so far
+advanced, wild-flowers abound. What a paradise this would be for the
+botanist in spring, or for the portrait painter! The good looks of the
+people, their rich colouring, fine stature, and dignified bearing,
+strike us ever with a sense of novelty.
+
+How many makable places, if I may coin such a word, still remain in
+France--sweet spots, Cinderellas of the natural world, only awaiting
+the fairy godmother to turn them into princesses, courted by wealth and
+fashion. Many a nook in the environs of Le Vigan doubtless answers to
+this description. I will only describe one, Cauvalet, an inland
+watering-place sadly in need of enterprise and patronage.
+
+The 'Etablissement des Bains' stands in a nest of greenery within ten
+minutes' drive of the town; its mineral waters, strongly impregnated
+with sulphur, are said to be very efficacious in rheumatic affections.
+We found a few visitors lounging in the gardens; with proper
+accommodation, and under good management, the place might doubtless
+become a miniature Vals. The same remark might be applied to many other
+equally favoured spots I have met with in my French travels. It is a
+consolation to remember that, sooner or later, their time must come. So
+enormously has the habit of travelling increased of late years among
+French people, that France itself will erelong prove too narrow for its
+own tourists, to say nothing of foreigners.
+
+Our good hosts were very anxious that we should see everything.
+Accordingly we were escorted to one of the numerous silk factories in
+the town. Here, as at Vic-sur-Cere the year before, and in places to be
+described later on, we were rather treated as guests in a country house
+than Nos. 1 and 2 of an ordinary hotel. Everybody--master, mistress,
+and servants--wanted to do the honours of their native place for us,
+and this without any thought of interest or advantage. It was the good,
+invaluable, middle-aged chambermaid who, out of her own head and on her
+own account, carried us off to see the silk factory. The fact of two
+English ladies having come so far to see the country evidently
+impressed her wonderfully.
+
+'Ah!' she sighed cheerfully, 'were it not for my good man and my
+demoiselles' (her daughters), 'how pleased I should be to return with
+you and see l'Angleterre!' and as she went along, having dressed
+herself in her Sunday's best for the occasion, she stopped in high glee
+to tell chance-met friends and neighbours that we were two Englishwomen
+come across the sea 'pour s'instruire'--for self-instruction. The fact
+of having crossed that tiny strip of sea ever impresses French country
+folk. Had we reached France by land, no matter the distance--say, from
+St. Petersburg--the exploit would not appear half so striking to them.
+
+The work-room of a silk factory affords a curious spectacle.
+
+At long narrow tables, stretched from end to end of the workshop, sit
+rows of girls manipulating in bowls of hot water the cocoons--in
+Gibbon's phrase, 'the golden tombs whence a worm emerges in the form of
+a butterfly'--carefully disengaging the almost imperceptible film of
+silk therein concealed, transferring it to the spinning-wheel, where it
+is spun into what looks like a thread of solid gold. Throughout the
+vast atelier hundreds of shuttles are swiftly plied, and on first
+entering the eye is dazzled with the brilliance of these broad bands of
+silk, bright, lustrous, metallic, as if of solid gold. This flash of
+gold is the only brightness in the place, otherwise dull and
+monotonous.
+
+Gibbon gives a splendid page on the 'education of silkworms,' once
+considered as the labour of queens, and shows impatience with the
+learned Salmasius, who also wrote on the subject, because, unlike
+himself, he did not know everything. He tells us how two Persian monks,
+long resident in China, amid their pious occupations viewed with a
+curious eye the manufacture of silk; how they made the long journey to
+Constantinople, imparting their knowledge of the silkworm and its
+strictly guarded culture to the great Justinian; finally, how a second
+time they entered China, 'deceived a jealous people by concealing the
+eggs of the silkworm in a hollow cane, and returned in triumph with the
+spoils of the East.' 'I am not insensible of the benefits of an elegant
+luxury,' adds the historian, 'yet I reflect with some pain that if the
+importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already practised
+by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander and the entire decade of Livy
+would have been perpetuated in the sixth century.'
+
+Alas! a pound of silk is no longer worth twelve ounces of gold, as the
+Emperor Aurelian complained; and the education of the silkworm, instead
+of being the labour of queens, is far from a remunerative occupation.
+
+The hours in these factories are terribly long--fifteen--two of which
+are, however, allowed for meals. The wages, on the other hand, contrast
+favourably with those of many of our own factories in which women are
+chiefly employed. About fifteenpence a day is the average pay, the
+ateliers being always closed on Sundays. Several causes have brought
+about a temporary depression of the French silk trade. Just as cheap
+Chinese and Japanese straw-plaits have paralyzed our home industry of
+hand-plaited straw in Bedfordshire, so cheap Oriental silks have, for a
+time at least, done much to supplant the more solid, richer, and more
+brilliant Lyons manufacture.
+
+Again, the silkworm industry, not only in France, but in other
+countries, was some years back threatened with an enemy as ruthless as
+the phylloxera. It is interesting to learn that here science has come
+to aid with a simple but effectual remedy, which it is said has
+benefited French industry to the extent of the Prussian war indemnity,
+viz., four hundred million sterling (five milliards of francs). The
+silkworm-rearers are now taught to breed from healthy moths only. Girls
+and women are employed in examining the bodies of the moths with
+microscopes. If the diseased corpuscles are found, the eggs are
+discarded.
+
+Thus, by a simple method of artificial selection, the silkworm industry
+has been rescued from what threatened to be a collapse.
+
+Of course, one consequence of these fluctuations in rural industries is
+a universal migration into the towns, and consequent diminution of
+population in country places. The towns gain, but the villages lose. We
+find Le Vigan a little centre of increasing commercial activity, and
+the same may be averred of the secondary towns of this department, this
+prosperity having originally a different source.
+
+The Protestant communities of France, formerly deprived, like the Jews,
+of civil and political rights, threw heart and soul into industrial
+pursuits. Wherever they settled they founded manufactures--cotton-
+mills, silk-factories, manufactures of woollen stuffs--many of which
+have flourished in these small towns on the outskirts of the Cevennes
+till this day.
+
+The Gard is foremost of all other departments in the matter of silk-
+worm rearing, the Ardeche alone surpassing it in the number of silk-
+factories. In all the villages around Le Vigan are small silk-worm
+farms, the peasants rearing them on their own account, and selling them
+to the manufacturers. The curious on this subject will everywhere be
+cordially received, and gain any information they may require. At
+least, such was our own experience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+NANT (AVEYRON).
+
+
+All this time Le Vigan was to us as Capua to Hannibal's soldiers--
+Circe's charmed cup held to the lips of Odysseus.
+
+We ought not to have stayed there an unnecessary hour. We should have
+continued our journey at once. On and on we lingered, nevertheless, and
+when at last we braced ourselves up for an effort, the terrible truth
+was broken to us. Instead of being nearer to the goal of our wishes, we
+had come out of the way, and were indeed getting farther and farther
+from that mysterious, so eagerly longed-for region, the terribly
+unattainable Causses. Our project at last began to wear the look of a
+nightmare, a harassing, feverish dream. We seemed to be fascinated
+hither and thither by an ignis fatuus, enticed into quagmires and
+quicksands by an altogether illusive, mocking, malicious Will-o'-the-
+wisp.
+
+I was painfully reminded of what had been a pleasing puzzle in childish
+days: the maze at Needham Market, famous throughout Suffolk, and
+familiar to all Suffolk-bred folk. This is a wonderfully constructed
+shrubbery or thicket, cut into numerous little circular and
+semicircular paths, so contrived that the most ingenious are caught
+like flies in a spider's trap. Round and round, backwards and forwards,
+in and out, scuttle the uninitiated, only to find themselves at the
+precise point whence they had started hours before. The conviction of
+being thus foiled in my purpose, and for the second time, weighed upon
+my spirits. My companion also became somewhat dejected. The superb
+weather might forsake us. September was at hand. It really seemed as if
+we were doomed to return to our dogs and cats at Hastings without
+having reached the Roof of France after all.
+
+True, a matter of eighty miles only divided us from our destination,
+but surely the most impracticable eighty miles out of Arabia Petraea! We
+were bound for a certain little town called St. Enimie, but between us
+and St. Enimie stretched a barrier, insurmountable as Dante's fog
+isolating Purgatory from Paradise, or as the black river separating
+Pluto's domain from the region of light. We seemed as far off the
+Causses as Christian from the heavenly Jerusalem when imprisoned in
+Castle Doubting, or as the Israelites from Canaan when in the
+wilderness of Zin.
+
+To reach St. Enimie, then, meant two long days' drive, _i.e._,
+from six a.m. to perhaps eight p.m., in the lightest, which stands for
+the most uncomfortable, vehicle, across a country the greater part of
+which is as savage as Dartmoor. Our first halting-place would be
+Meyrueis, and between Le Vigan and Meyrueis relays could be had, but at
+that point civilization ended. The second day's journey must lie
+through a treeless, waterless, uninhabited desert; in other words, as a
+glance at the map will show, we must traverse the Causse Mejean itself.
+
+Romantic as this expedition sounded, our host, the royal cook, shook
+his head at the proposal. Suppose we were overtaken by a storm in that
+wilderness? Suppose any accident happened to horses or harness?
+Suppose----
+
+'In fact,' he said, 'there is nothing for these ladies to do but make
+the round to Mende by railway.'
+
+'To Mende!' I cried aghast. 'Back to Nimes, back to heaven knows where!
+Never! Get to St. Enimie we can, we will, we must, without making the
+round by railway to Mende.'
+
+After a good deal of somewhat painful excitement, a rueful inspection
+of the only kind of vehicle that was practicable on the stony, uphill
+Causse, the Helvellyn we wanted to climb, I gave in. Yes, it was out of
+the question to drive for fourteen hours at a stretch, seated on such a
+knifeboard. I had made a blunder in thinking eighty miles only eighty
+miles under any circumstances. Crestfallen, and having in mind the
+dictum of the great Lessing: 'Kein mensch muss muessen,' I again took in
+hand maps and guidebooks. At this stage of affairs came to aid the
+voiturier who had gallantly proposed to drive us to the top of the
+Lozerien Helvellyn, provided we could sit on a knifeboard. He was one
+of the handsomest men we saw in these parts, which is saying a good
+deal. Tall, well-made, dignified, with superb features and rich
+colouring, it seemed a thousand pities he should be only a carriage
+proprietor in this out-of-the-way spot. He appeared, however, as every
+other good-looking person does here, altogether unconscious of his
+magnificent physique and striking features. What occupied him much more
+was evidently his business, and the duty incumbent upon him to make
+things pleasant to strangers.
+
+'If these ladies,' he said in country fashion, thus addressing
+ourselves--if these ladies will let me drive them to Millau, they can
+have my most comfortable carriage, as the roads are excellent. They can
+sleep at a good auberge on the way. From Millau it is only five hours
+by railway to Mende, and from Mende only a four hours' drive to St.
+Enimie.'
+
+We joyfully hailed the proposal. It seemed a roundabout way to St.
+Enimie, but it did seem a way; and, at any rate, if we were going back,
+we were not going back to the precise point from which we had started.
+
+My companion still persisted in the melancholy conviction that we
+should never get to the Causses, but I comforted her with the
+observation that if we did not get to the Causses, we should at all
+events get somewhere. Before starting, our host presented us with a
+letter of introduction to the master of the auberge at our halting-
+place for the night--the little village of Nant, half-way between Le
+Vigan and Millau.
+
+'It is only an auberge,' he said apologetically; 'you must not expect
+much. But the patron is a friend of mine; he will do his very best for
+you after what I have written.'
+
+The letter of introduction being, of course, an open one, we read it.
+'Permit me to commend to your attentive care,' wrote the royal cook,
+'two respectable ladies----' Here amusement got the better of
+curiosity; we laid down the missive and had a hearty laugh over what
+seemed at best a strange, almost ludicrous, compliment. Surely he might
+have substituted an adjective of a more flattering nature, accorded us
+some more winning attribute--charming, amiable, learned. Could we lay
+claim to none of these?
+
+I summed up the matter in our favour, after all. Such a testimony
+coming from a courtier, as the chef of a king's cuisine must be called,
+was, perhaps, the very highest he felt able to give; and to be
+respectable means more than meets the ear.
+
+Does not La Bruyere say: 'Un homme de bien est respectable par lui-meme
+et independamment de tous les dehors'? He had, perhaps, that axiom in
+his mind.
+
+Having sent on our four big boxes to Millau by diligence, we set off
+for the first stage of our journey. The weather was perfect, and I
+cannot at any time reconcile my experiences of French weather with
+those of another ardent explorer of France a hundred years ago.
+'Amusements,' wrote Arthur Young from the North of France in September,
+1787, 'in truth, ought to be taken within doors, for in such a climate
+none are to be depended on without; the rain that has fallen here is
+hardly credible. I have, for five-and-twenty years past, remarked in
+England that I never was prevented by rain from taking a walk every
+day, with going out while it actually rains; it may fall heavily for
+many hours, but a person who watches an opportunity gets a walk or a
+ride. Since I have been at Liancourt we have had three days in
+succession of such incessantly heavy rain that I could not go a hundred
+yards from the house without danger of being quite wet. For ten days
+more rain fell here, I am confident, had there been a gauge to measure
+it, than ever fell in England in thirty.'
+
+We are accustomed to reverse this comparison, and I should say that the
+years 1787-88-89, during which the Suffolk squire journeyed through the
+country on horseback, must have been revolutionary in a meteorological
+as well as a political sense. I have now made travels and sojourns in
+various parts of France during fifteen years, and I should say to all
+who want sunshine for their holiday trip, go to France for it.
+
+Upon this, as upon the occasion of former expeditions, a rainy day
+never came except when a spell of bad weather was an unmitigated boon,
+enforcing rest, and giving leisure for the utilization of daily
+experiences.
+
+On the whole, the route now decided upon has much to recommend it,
+especially to travellers unfit for excessive fatigue. The drive from Le
+Vigan to Millau is thus divided into two easy stages, and the scenery
+for the greater part of the way is diversified and interesting.
+
+Gradually winding upwards from the green hills surrounding our
+favourite little town, its bright river, the Arre, playing hide-and-
+seek as we go, we take a lonely road cut around barren, rocky slopes
+covered with stunted foliage, here and there tiny enclosures of corn
+crop or garden perched aloft.
+
+The charm of this drive consists in the sharp contrasts presented at
+unexpected turns. Now we are in a sweet, sunbright, sheltered valley,
+where all is verdure and luxuriance. At every door are pink and white
+oleanders in full bloom, in every garden peach-trees showing their
+rich, ruby-coloured fruit--the handsome-leaved mulberry, the shining
+olive, with lovely little chestnut-woods on the heights around. Now we
+seem in a wholly different latitude. The vegetation and aspect of the
+country are transformed. Instead of the vine, the peach, and the olive,
+we are in a region of scant fruitage, and only the hardiest crops,
+apple orchards sparsely mingled with fields of oats and rye. And yet
+again we seem to be traversing a Scotch or Yorkshire moor--so vast and
+lonely the heather-clad wastes, so bleak and wild the heavens.
+
+But every zone has its wild-flowers. As we go on, our eyes rest upon
+white salvias, the pretty Deptford pink, wild lavender, several species
+of broom and ferns in abundance. The wild fig-tree grows here, and the
+huge boulders are tapestried with box and bilberry. One rare lovely
+flower I must especially mention--the exquisite, large-leaved blue flax
+(the Linum perenne), that shone like a star amid the rest.
+
+It is Sunday, and as we pass the village of Arre in its charming
+valley, we meet streams of country folks dressed in their best,
+enjoying a walk. No one was afield. Here, as in most other parts of
+rural France, Sunday is regarded strictly as a day of rest.
+
+After a long climb upwards, our road cut through the rock being a grand
+piece of engineering, we come upon the works of a handsome railway
+viaduct now in construction. This line, which, when finished, will
+connect Le Vigan with Millau and Albi, will be an immense boon to the
+inhabitants--one of the numerous iron roads laid by the Republican
+Government in what had hitherto been forgotten parts of France. Close
+to these works a magnificent cascade is seen, a sheet of glistening
+white spray pouring down the dark, precipitous escarpment.
+
+Hereabouts the barren, stony, wilderness-like country betokens the
+region of the Causses. We are all this time winding round the rampart
+like walls of the great Causse de Larzac, which stretches from Le Vigan
+to Millau, rising to a height of 2,624 feet above the sea-level, and
+covering an area of nearly a hundred square miles. This Causse affords
+some interesting facts for evolutionists. The aridity, the absolutely
+waterless condition of the Larzac, has evolved a race of non-drinking
+animals. The sheep browsing the fragrant herbs of these plateaux have
+altogether unlearned the habit of drinking, whilst the cows drink very
+little. The much-esteemed Roquefort cheese is made from ewes' milk, the
+non-drinking ewes of the Larzac. Is the peculiar flavour of the cheese
+due to this non-drinking habit?
+
+The desert-like tracts below this 'Table de pierre,' as M. Reclus calls
+it, are alternated with very fairly cultivated farms. We see rye, oats,
+clover, and hay in abundance, with corn ready for garnering.
+
+Passing St. Jean de Bruel, where all the inhabitants have turned out to
+attend a neighbour's funeral, we wind down amid chestnut woods and
+pastures into a lovely little valley, with the river Dourbie, bluest of
+the blue, gliding through the midst. Beyond stream and meadows rise
+hills crested with Scotch fir, their slopes luxuriant with buck-wheat,
+maize, and other crops--here and there the rich brown loam already
+ploughed up for autumn sowing. Well-dressed people, well-kept roads,
+neat houses, suggested peace and frugal plenty.
+
+What a contrast did the little village of Nant present to Le Vigan! It
+was like the apparition of an exquisitely-dressed, pretty girl, after
+that of a slatternly beauty. Nant, 'proprette,' airy, well cared for,
+wholesome; Le Vigan, dirty, draggle-tailed, neglected, yet in itself
+possessed of quite as many natural attractions. We had been led to
+expect a mere country auberge, decent shelter, no more--perhaps even
+two-curtained, alcoved beds in a common sleeping-room! What was our
+astonishment to find quite ideal rustic accommodation--quarters,
+indeed, inviting on their own account a lengthy stay!
+
+A winding stone staircase led from the street to the travellers'
+quarters. Kitchen, salle-a-manger and bedrooms were all spick and span,
+cool and quiet; our rooms newly furnished with beds as luxurious as
+those of the Grand Hotel in Paris. Marble-topped washstands and newly-
+tiled floors opened on to an outer corridor, the low walls of which
+were set with roses and geraniums as in Italy. Below was a poultry-
+yard. No other noise could disturb us but the cackling of hens and the
+quacking of ducks. On the same floor was a dining-room and the kitchen,
+but so far removed from us that we were as private as in a suite of
+rooms at the celebrated Hotel Bristol.
+
+Nant is a quite delightful townling; we only wished we could stay there
+for weeks. It is a very ancient place, but so far modernized as to be
+clean and pleasant. The quaint, stone-covered arcades and bits of
+mediaeval architecture invite the artist; none, however, comes!
+
+The sky-blue Dourbie runs amid green banks below the gray peak, rising
+sheer above the town; around the congeries of old-world houses are
+farms, gardens and meadows, little fields being at right angles with
+the streets. In the large, open market-place, where fairs are held,
+just outside the town, is a curious sight. The corn is gathered in, and
+hither all the farmers round about have brought their wheat to be
+threshed out by water-power.
+
+Next morning, by half-past eight, our landlady fetched me to see some
+farms. She was a delicate, even sickly-looking little woman, although
+the mother of fine, healthful children, and very intelligent and well-
+mannered. Without showing any inquisitiveness as to my object, she at
+once readily acceded to my request that she should accompany me on a
+round of inspection. First of all, however, and as, it seemed, a matter
+of course, she carried me off to see the Bonnes Soeurs--in other words,
+the nuns, often such important personages in rural places.
+
+I had already seen so much of nuns, nunneries and the like, that I
+sorely begrudged the time thus spent. Good manners forbade a demur.
+There was nothing to do but to feign some slight interest in the
+schoolrooms, dormitories, playground, chapel--facsimiles, as were the
+nuns themselves, of what I had seen dozens of times before.
+
+But one thing these nuns had to show I had never seen before. I allude
+to their herbarium. The mother superior, so it seems, was a capital
+herbalist and doctor, consulted in case of sickness by all the country-
+folks for miles round, and, in order to supply her pharmacopoeia, had
+yearly collections made of all the medicinal plants in which the
+neighbourhood abounds. Here in a drying chamber, exposed to air and
+sun, were stores of wild lavender for sweetening the linen presses;
+mallows, elder flowers, gentian, leaves of the red vine, poppies, and
+many others used in medicine. What I was most interested in was the
+vast stores of the so-called the des Alpes, a little plant of the sage
+tribe, of which I had heard at Gap, in the Hautes Alpes. The country-
+people in that part of France, as in the Aveyron, use this little plant
+largely as a febrifugal infusion; they also drink it as tea. My
+landlady showed me great bundles of it that she had dried for household
+use. The thought struck me, as I surveyed the mother superior's
+herbarium--here is an excellent hint for the projectors of home
+colonies. Surely, if poor people are to be made self-supporting in one
+sense, they should be made so in all.
+
+Why should not every home colony--for the matter of that, every
+isolated village--have its medicine-chest of simple field remedies? The
+originators of home colonies have only to translate that excellent
+little sixpenny work, 'Les Remedes de Campagne,' written by Dr.
+Saffray, and published by Hachette, and put it into the hands of these
+backwoodsmen of the old country. The least intelligent would soon learn
+to cure common ailments by the use of remedies ever at their doors, and
+not costing a penny. Having taken leave of the nuns, madame la patrone
+next conducted me to the country on the other side of the town,
+stopping to chat with this acquaintance and that. I suppose lady
+tourists are wholly unknown in these parts, for these good people,
+having glanced at me, said to madame:
+
+'A relation, I suppose, and you are showing her about?'
+
+All seemed pleased to learn that I was an Englishwoman come to see
+their corner of the world.
+
+We then paid a visit to some elderly farming-folks, friends of hers,
+just outside the town. We found the farmer and his wife at home, and
+both received us very cordially. The old man had a shrewd, pleasant
+face, and, without any ado or ceremony, bade me sit down beside him
+whilst he finished his morning soup. I chatted to him of my numerous
+travels in various parts of France, and after listening attentively
+for some time, he said:
+
+'You must be finely rich' (joliment riche) 'to travel as you do.'
+
+'Not at all,' said I; 'my fortune is my pen. I see all that I can, and,
+on my return to England, write a book for the amusement and instruction
+of others, which more than covers the expense of my journey.'
+
+The old man's eyes twinkled; he touched his forehead, and then said
+something to his wife in patois. I laughingly begged him to translate
+the remark, which he did with a smile.
+
+'I said to my wife that you must have a good head' (une bien forte
+tete) 'to do that.'
+
+'Le bon Dieu has given me eyes to see and a memory to retain,' said I.
+'I have only to look well about me and take note.'
+
+He paused, and added after a little reflection:
+
+'Above all, you must talk with learned people.'
+
+'That is not always necessary,' I replied. 'On the contrary, what
+serves my purpose best is to talk with country-folk like yourself, who
+can tell me about the details of farming in these parts--prices, crops,
+and so on--not with fine ladies and gentlemen, who do not know a turnip
+when they see it growing.'
+
+This observation seemed to gratify him exceedingly. We then talked of
+land tenure in France and in England. When I made him understand that
+the law of entail still existed in my country, he shook his head
+gravely. When I added that the English peasant did not possess an acre
+of land, a garden, not even a house or a cow, he looked graver still.
+
+'Il faut que tout cela change' (All that will have to be changed), he
+remarked; and I told him that I fully concurred in the sentiment, and
+that a great change of opinion on this subject was taking place in
+England.
+
+His wife, who had meantime listened attentively to our conversation,
+now joined in. The fact that we had no conscription seemed to strike
+her more than any other piece of information I had as yet given.
+
+'You English people are very fortunate,' she said. 'Think of what it is
+to be a mother, and rear your son to the age of twenty, then to see him
+torn from your arms and shot down by a mitrailleuse. War, indeed! Grand
+Dieu! the world has seen enough of it.'
+
+We then had a long talk on farming matters, the old man quite ready to
+devote half an hour even at this time of the day to a stranger. Like
+many another French peasant of the poorer class, he was the owner of a
+house and garden only, his occupation being that of bailiff on the
+estate of a large owner. Here, as everywhere else throughout France, a
+great diversity may be seen in the matter of land tenure--peasant
+properties from five acres upwards, large holdings either let on lease,
+as in England, cultivated by their owners, or lastly, as in the present
+instance, managed by farm stewards. The system of metayage, or half-
+profits, is not in force.
+
+On five acres, my informant told me, a man with thrift and intelligence
+may rear and maintain a family. The crops are very varied, corn, maize,
+oats, rye, buckwheat, hay, being the principal. Butter is not made on
+any considerable scale, but sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry are reared
+in abundance.
+
+I have mentioned that this old man possessed a house and garden. Rare,
+indeed, is it to find a deserving peasant without them in France! But
+he let these, meantime occupying the large, rambling old farmhouse,
+formerly an abbey, belonging to his employer. When too old to work, he
+would, with his little savings, retire to the cottage, from which none
+could eject him.
+
+As will be seen, the agriculture in this part of the Aveyron presents
+no special features. What strikes the stranger, as he rambles about the
+well-cultivated belt of country immediately around Nant, is the
+sobriety, contentment, and independence of the people. All are suitably
+and tidily dressed. Of beggary there is not a trace, and if life is
+laborious, the sense of independence lightens every burden.
+
+At present the entire education of girls and that of little boys is in
+the hands of the nuns. In spite of every attempt to render popular
+education unsectarian throughout France, how long it will be ere the
+same mental training is accorded both sexes--ere, to use Gambetta's
+noble words, 'our girls and boys are made one by the understanding
+before they are made one by the heart'! Is it any wonder that
+Boulangism, miracle-seeking, or any other mental aberration, gets the
+upper hand in France, so long as young girls are reared by convent-bred
+women, and their brothers and lovers-to-be in the school of Littre,
+Herbert Spencer, and Darwin?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+MILLAU (AVEYRON).
+
+
+It is a charming drive from Nant to Millau. Our road winds round the
+delicious little valley of the Dourbie, the river ever cerulean blue,
+bordered with hay-fields, in which lies the fragrant crop of autumn hay
+ready for carting. By the wayside are tall acacias, their green
+branches tasselled with dark purple pods, or apple trees, the ripening
+fruit within reach of our hands. Little Italian-like towns, surrounded
+by ochre-coloured walls, are terraced here and there on the rich burnt-
+amber walls, the limestone ridges above and around taking the form of a
+long line of rampart or lofty fortress, built and fashioned by human
+hands. In contrast to this savagery, we have ever and anon before our
+eyes the sweet little river, no sooner lost to sight amid willow-
+bordered banks than found again.
+
+Nervous people should avoid these drives, on account of the steep
+precipices, often within a few inches of the horses' heels. Wherever on
+the shelves of rock a few square yards of soil are found or can be
+laid, are tiny crops of buckwheat, potatoes, and beetroot. The weather
+has a southern warmth and brilliance, and in and out the burning-hot
+mountain wall on our left large beautiful brown lizards disport
+themselves. The road is very solitary. Till within the precincts of
+Millau, we meet only a few peasants and two Franciscan brothers.
+
+The approach to Millau is very pretty. Almond and peach orchards,
+vineyards and gardens, form a bright suburban belt. Two rivers, the
+Tarn and the Dourbie, water its pleasant valley, whilst over the town
+tower lofty rocks in the form of an amphitheatre. Nant may be described
+as a little idyll. After it Millau comes disenchantingly by comparison.
+
+Never was I in such a noisy, roystering, singing, lounging place. There
+was no special cause for hilarity; nothing was going on; the business
+of daily life seemed to be the making a noise.
+
+In spite of its pretty entourage, too, the town is not engaging. Its
+hot, ill-kept, malodorous streets do not call forth an exploring frame
+of mind. The public garden is, however, a delightful promenade, and.
+the well-known photographer of these regions has his atelier in one of
+the most curious old houses to be seen anywhere.
+
+Climbing a narrow, winding stone stair, we come upon an open court,
+with balconies running round each story, carved stone pillars
+supporting these; oleanders and pomegranates in pots make the ledges
+bright, whilst above the gleaming white walls shines a sky of Oriental
+brilliance. The whole interior is animated. Here women sit at their
+glove-making, the principal industry of the place, children play, pet
+dogs and cats sun themselves; all is sunny, careless, southern life--a
+page out of 'Graziella.'
+
+There are several mediaeval facades, and some curious old carved arcades
+also; much, indeed, that is sketch worthy, if our artists could be
+brought to deem anything worth sketching in France, out of Brittany and
+Normandy.
+
+Millau, once one of the stanchest Protestant communities of the
+Cevennes, was quite ruined by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
+
+May not French history up to the date of the Revolution be summed up in
+a single sentence--one woman created France; another ruined it? The
+glorious work of Jeanne d'Arc was for a time wholly undone by the
+machinations of that arch enemy of mankind, Madame de Maintenon. We
+must travel in the Cevennes, and learn by heart the vicissitudes of
+these once-flourishing little Protestant centres to realize the
+bloodstained page in French history played by the bigoted adventuress
+whose sole ambition was to become Queen of France.
+
+And how worthy of such a career the last little episode of her court
+life! When the old king, a shadow of his former self, lay on his dying
+bed, and whispered that his chief consolation in dying was the thought
+that she would rejoin him in heaven, Madame de Maintenon made no reply.
+She was, indeed, wearied of the task that had been, in her eyes, so
+inadequately rewarded--amusing for thirty and odd years a dull,
+resourceless, ennuye and ennuyant husband; and had no desire to see any
+more of him, either in this world or the next.
+
+At present there is but a sprinkling of Protestants in Millau.
+
+We took train to Mende. It is one of those delightfully slow trains
+which enable you to see the scenery in detail, after the leisurely
+fashion of Arthur Young, trotting through France on his Suffolk mare.
+
+Part of the way lies through a romantic bit of country: chateau-crowned
+hills follow each other in succession, every dark crag having its
+feudal shell, whilst patchwork crops cover the lower slopes.
+
+Everywhere vineyards predominate, so persistent the faith of the French
+cultivator in the vine, so touching the efforts made to entice it to
+grow on French soil. Few and far between are little wall-encompassed
+villages perched on the hilltops.
+
+At Severac-le-Chateau romance culminates in the stern, yellowish-gray
+ruin cresting the green heights. A most picturesque little place is
+this, seen from the railway. We now leave behind us cornlands and the
+vine, and reach the region of pine and fir woods.
+
+On the railway embankment we see the yellow-horned poppy and the golden
+thistle growing in abundance; many another flower, too, as brilliant
+brightens the way-a large, handsome broom, several kinds of mullein,
+with fern and heather.
+
+Bright and strongly contrasted are the hues of the landscape--purply-
+black the far-off mountains, emerald-green the fields of rye and clover
+at their feet. A large portion of the land hereabouts is mere
+wilderness; yet the indomitable peasant wrenches up the boulders,
+cleans the ground of stones, and turns, inch by inch, the waste into
+productive soil. At every turn we are reminded of the dictum of 'that
+wise and honest traveller,' Arthur Young: 'The magic of property turns
+sands to gold.'
+
+We are now in the region of the Causses; around us rise the spurs of
+Sauveterre and Severac. The scenery between Marvejols and Mende is
+grand; sombre, deep-green valleys, shut in by wide stretches of
+stupendous rocky wall, dark pinewoods, and brown wastes.
+
+Then evening closes in, and the rest is lost to us. As on my first
+visit to Mende, a year ago, I lose the romantic approach to this
+wonderfully placed little city.
+
+The Hotel Manse, whither we now betake ourselves, is a great
+improvement on the other mentioned in my first chapter in matters of
+situation, sanitation, and comfort; the people are very civil and
+obliging in both.
+
+Here, however, we are not in the very heart of the stuffy, dirty, ill-
+kept town, but on the outskirts, looking on to suburban gardens and
+pleasant hills, with plenty of air to breathe.
+
+Our rooms are so spacious, well-furnished, and clean that once more we
+regret we cannot stay for weeks. Such quarters might indeed tempt many
+a tourist to idle away a month here. The people are well-mannered,
+affable, and strikingly handsome; and if the town requires an advanced
+aedileship, no one need see much of it. Abundance of excursions are to
+be made from Mende, and the prices of hotels are very moderate.
+
+At Millau we saw a drunken man, and in the streets of Mende one old
+woman came up to us begging an alms. I note these facts as we have so
+rarely encountered either drunkards or mendicants on our way.
+
+Strangers might naturally expect a somewhat low standard of morality in
+a department so isolated from the great French highways and social
+centres as that of the Lozere. The railway to Mende, as I have before
+mentioned, dates from a few years only; up till that time the little
+bishopric in the mountains would often be completely shut off from the
+outer world by the snow, the only link being the telegraphic wire.
+Nevertheless, an exceptional freedom from crime distinguishes the
+country, as may be gathered from the following statement in a French
+newspaper, dated August 29th, 1888.
+
+'The opening of the assizes of the Lozere, which should have taken
+place on the 3rd of September, will now be unnecessary, the list of
+cases being _nil_.' What are called 'white sessions' (assises
+blanches), for the matter of that, are of no infrequent occurrence in
+the department of the Lozere, eminently an honest one. This is the
+second time that 'white sessions' have distinguished it during the
+present year.
+
+As the Lozere is essentially a region of peasant owners, far from the
+richest of their class, I commend the fact to the opponents of peasant
+property--albeit, I know too well, to small purpose. The people have no
+right to the soil in the eyes of these political economists. Whether
+the possession of the soil makes them better or happier is wholly
+beside the question. Just as the great autocrat Louis XIV, after very
+serious reflection on the matter, came to the solemn conclusion that
+his subjects had no right to any property whatever, and that the
+sovereign was the divinely-ordained owner of everything supposed to
+belong to them, so certain writers believe that, according to some
+direct Providential arrangement--a second choosing of a special people
+--not a Canaan alone, but every inch of Mother Earth, is the heaven-sent
+heritage of the superior few.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+FROM MENDE TO ST. ENIMIE.
+
+
+So, just upon twelve months later, I once more found myself climbing to
+the summit of the lofty plateau between Mende and St. Enimie.
+
+It was a fortnight earlier in the year, and the weather was perfect;
+light clouds that had threatened rain cleared off, mild sunshine
+brightened the scene, and the air, although brisk and invigorating, was
+by no means cold. Still more enticing now looked the billowy swell of
+gold and purple mountains, and the dark cliffs frowning over green
+valleys. To-day, too, the exhilarating conviction of fulfilment was
+added to that of looking forward. A second time I had reached the
+threshold of the long-dreamed-of region of marvels, at last really to
+cross it and enter in.
+
+I was on my way to the Causses at last! More striking and beautiful
+than when first seen now seemed the upward drive from Mende--the
+beautiful gray cathedral cushioned against the soft green hills, the
+cheerful little town in its fertile valley, its wild entourage of far-
+stretching waste and barren peak. More musical still sounded in my ears
+the purling of the Lot, as unseen it ran between sunny pastures over
+its stony bed far below.
+
+Little I thought, indeed, although of firm intention, when making the
+journey so far twelve months all but two weeks ago, that on this 5th of
+September, 1888, I should be gazing on the same scene--a scene
+reminding me now, as then, of the vast reedy plateau gazed on at Saida,
+dividing the Algerian traveller from the Sahara.
+
+This time I did not stop to make tea gipsy-wise on the turf in front of
+the farmhouse; nor, to my disappointment, did the children run out to
+share the contents of my bonbon-box. Not a soul was abroad; an eldritch
+solitude reigned everywhere.
+
+The Causse of Sauveterre is not reached till we have left the farmhouse
+and ruined chateau far behind. From that point the roads diverge, and
+we see our own leading to St. Enimie wind like a ribbon till lost to
+view in the gray, stony wilderness.
+
+A considerable portion of the land hereabouts is cultivated. We see
+little patches of rye, oats, Indian corn, clover, potatoes, and here
+and there a peasant ploughing up the soil with oxen.
+
+As we proceed, the enormous horizon ever widens; long shadows fleck the
+purply-brown and orange-coloured undulations; scattered sparsely are
+little flocks of sheep, of a rich burnt-umber-brown, but herbage is
+scant and little cattle can be nourished here. The swelling hills now
+show new and more grandiose outlines; at last we come in sight of the
+dark mass of the Causse de Sauveterre, and soon we enter upon the true
+'Caussien' landscape in all its weird and sombre grandeur. Just as when
+fairly out on the open sea we realize to the full its beauty and sense
+of infinity, so it is here. The farther we go the wider, more
+bewilderingly vast becomes the horizon: wave upon wave, billow upon
+billow, now violet-hued, with a tinge of gold; now deep brown, partly
+veiled with green, or roseate with sunlit clouds--the gray monotony of
+stone and waste is thus varied by the way.
+
+By the roadside slender trees of the hornbeam tribe are planted at
+intervals, and where these are wanting, tall flagstaffs take their
+place, to guide the wayfarer when six feet of snow cover the ground.
+Wild-flowers in plenty brighten the edges of the road--stonecrops,
+cornflowers, purple 'lady's fingers,' and many others; but wedged as we
+are in our not too comfortable caleche, to get out and pluck them is
+impossible.
+
+The road from Mende to the summit of the plateau can only be described
+as a vertical ascent; before beginning to descend, we have a few
+kilometres of level, that is all. As we approach the village of
+Sauveterre, we see one or two wild figures--shepherds, uncouth in
+appearance as Greek herdsmen; poorly dressed, but robust-looking, well-
+made girls and women, short-skirted, bare-headed, footing it bravely
+under the now hot sun.
+
+Portions of the land on either side consist of waste, quite recently
+laid under cultivation; the huge blocks of stone have been wrenched up,
+heaven knows how, and conspicuously piled up in the midst of the newly-
+created field, a veritable trophy. How much more commendable than that
+commemorative of blood-stained victory! The rich red earth amply repays
+these Herculean labours. With regard to the tenure of land, I should
+suppose the state of things here must be very much what it was in the
+age of primitive man. I fancy that any native of these parts, any true
+Caussenard, has only to clear a bit of waste and plant a crop to make
+it his own; a stranger would doubtless have his right to do so
+contested, or, maybe, some patriarchal system is still in force, and
+the village community is not yet extinct in France.
+
+'Voila la capitale de Sauveterre!' soon cries our driver, pointing to a
+cluster of bare brown, apparently windowless, houses, and a tiny
+church, all grouped picturesquely together.
+
+A poor-looking place it was enough when we obtained a nearer view,
+reminding me of a Kabyle village more than anything else; not, however,
+brightened with olive or fig tree! Nothing in the shape of a garden is
+to be seen, only dull walls of close-set dwellings, with narrow paths
+between. Windows, however, our driver assured us, were there; but the
+village is built with its back to the road.
+
+The great privation of these poor people is that of a regular water-
+supply--one large, by no means pellucid, pond, with cisterns, are all
+the sources they can rely upon from one end of the year to the other;
+not a fountain issues from the limestone for miles round, not a stream
+waters the entire Causse, a region extensive as Dartmoor or Salisbury
+Plain. When we consider that this plateau has a height above the sea-
+level equal to that of Skiddaw, we can easily imagine what the long
+eight months' winter here is like. For the greater part of the time the
+country is under several feet of snow, and the Caussenard warms his
+poor tenement as best he can with peat.
+
+It was curious to hear our conductor, himself evidently accustomed to a
+hard, laborious life, speak of the inhabitants of Sauveterre. He
+described their condition much as a well-to-do English artisan might
+speak of the half-starved foreign victims of the sweater--so wide is
+the gulf dividing the Caussenard from the French peasant proper.
+
+'Just think of it,' he said; 'they don't even dress the rye for their
+bread, but eat it made of husks and all. Rye-bread, bacon, potatoes,
+that is their fare, and water: if it were only good water one would
+have nothing to say--bad water they drink. But they are contented,
+pardie.'
+
+'What do they do for a doctor?' I asked.
+
+He made a curious grimace.
+
+'They doctor themselves till they are at the point of death, and then
+send for a doctor. But it is not often. They are healthy enough,
+pardie!'
+
+With regard to the ministrations of religion, they are in the position
+of dalesfolk in some parts of Dauphine. A cure from St. Enimie, he told
+us, performed Mass once a fortnight in summer, and came over as
+occasion required for baptisms, marriages, and burials. In winter alike
+ordinary Mass and these celebrations were stopped by the snow. The
+services of the priest had then to be dispensed with for weeks, even
+months, at a time.
+
+I next tried to gain some information as to schools, but here my
+informant was not very clear. Yes, he said, there was schooling in
+summer; whether lay or clerical, whether the children were taught the
+Catechism in their mother-tongue--in other words, the patois of the
+Causse--or in French, I could not learn.
+
+Do these wild-looking mountaineers exercise the electoral privilege? Do
+they go to the poll, and what are their political views? Are their sons
+drafted off, as the rest of French youth, into military service? Does a
+newspaper, even the ubiquitous _Petit Journal_, penetrate into
+these solitudes? It was difficult to get a satisfactory answer to all
+my questions, and quite useless to make a tour of inquiry in the
+village. One must speak the patois of the Caussenard to obtain his
+confidence, and though the population is inoffensive, even French
+tourists are advised on no account to adventure themselves in these
+parts without being accompanied by a native of the country.
+
+One thing is quite certain: The four thousand and odd wild, sheepskin-
+wearing inhabitants of the entire region of the Causses must erelong be
+nationalized--like the Breton and the Morvandial, undergo a gradual and
+complete transformation. Travellers of another generation on this road
+will not be stared at by the fierce-looking, picturesque figures we now
+pass in the precincts of Sauveterre. Brigands they might be, judging
+from their shaggy beards, unkempt locks, and Robinson Crusoe-like
+dress; also their fixed, almost dazed, look inspires anything but
+confidence. Still, we must remember that Sauveterre is in the Lozere,
+and that the Lozere enjoys the enviable pre-eminence of 'white
+assizes'--a clean bill of moral health.
+
+After quitting the village, which has a deserted look as of a plague-
+stricken place, the road descends. We now follow the rim of a far-
+stretching, tremendous ravine, its wooded sides running perpendicularly
+down. For miles we drive along this giddy road, the only protection
+being a stone wall not two feet high. The road, however, is excellent,
+our little horses steady and sure-footed, and our driver very careful.
+We are, indeed, too much interested in the scenery to heed the
+frightful precipices within a few inches of our carriage-wheels. But
+the retrospection makes one giddy. The least accident or mishap,
+contingencies not dwelt upon whilst jogging on delightfully under a
+bright sky, might, or rather must, here end in a tragedy. Tourists
+should be quite sure of both driver and horses before undertaking this
+drive.
+
+By-and-by the prospect becomes inexpressibly grand, till the impression
+of magnificence culminates as our road begins literally to drop down
+upon St. Enimie, as yet invisible. Our journey must now be compared to
+the descent from cloud-land in a balloon. Meantime, the stupendous
+panorama of dark, superbly-outlined mountain-wall closes in. We seem to
+have reached the limit of the world. Before us, a Titanic rampart,
+rises the grand Causse Mejean, now seen for the first time; around,
+fold upon fold, are the curved heights of Sauveterre, the nearer slopes
+bright green with sunny patches, the remoter purply black.
+
+It is a wondrous spectacle--wall upon wall of lofty limestone, making
+what seems an impenetrable barrier, closing around us, threatening to
+shut out the very heavens; at our feet an ever-narrowing mountain pass
+or valley, the shelves of the rock running vertically down.
+
+When at last from our dizzy height our driver bids us look down, we
+discern the gray roofs of St. Enimie wedged between the congregated
+escarpments far below, the little town lying immediately under our
+feet, as the streets around St. Paul's when viewed from the dome. We
+say to ourselves we can never get there. The feat of descending those
+perpendicular cliffs seems impossible. It does not do to contemplate
+the road we have to take, winding like a ribbon round the upright
+shafts of the Causse. Follow it we must. We are high above the
+inhabited world, up in cloudland; there is nothing to do but descend as
+best we can; so we trust to our good driver and steady horses, obliged
+to follow the sharply-winding road at walking pace. And bit by bit--how
+we don't know--the horizontal zigzag is accomplished. We are down at
+last!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+ST. ENIMIE.
+
+
+How can I describe the unimaginable picturesqueness of this little town
+wedged in between the crowding hills, dropped like a pebble to the
+bottom of a mountain-girt gulf?
+
+St. Enimie has grown terrace-wise, zigzagging the steep sides of the
+Causse, its quaint spire rising in the midst of rows of whitewashed
+houses, with steel-gray overhanging roofs, vine-trellised balconies,
+and little hanging gardens perched aloft. On all sides just outside the
+town are vineyards, now golden in hue, peach-trees and almond groves,
+whilst above and far around the gray walls of the Causse shut out all
+but the meridian rays of the sun.
+
+As I write this, at six o'clock on the evening of the 5th of September,
+the last crimson flush of the setting sun lingers on the sombre,
+grandiose Causse Mejean. All the rest of the scene, the lower ranges
+around, are in a cool gray shadow: silvery the spire and roofs just
+opposite my window, silvery the atmosphere of the entire picture.
+Nothing can be more poetic in colour, form, and combination.
+
+Close under my room are vegetable gardens and orchards, whilst in
+harmony with the little town, and adding a still greater look of old-
+worldness, are the arched walls of the old chateau-fort. As evening
+closes in, the fascination of the scene deepens; spire and roofs,
+shadowy hill and stern mountain fastness, are all outlined in pale,
+silvery tones against a pure pink and opaline sky, the greenery of near
+vine and peach-tree all standing out in bold relief, blotches of
+greenish gold upon a dark ground. I must describe our inn, the most
+rustic we had as yet met with, nevertheless to be warmly recommended on
+account of the integrity and bonhomie of the people.
+
+Somewhat magniloquently called the Hotel St. Jean, our hostelry is an
+auberge placing two tiny bedchambers and one large and presumably
+general sleeping-room at the disposal of visitors. We had, as usual,
+telegraphed for two of the best rooms to be had. So the two tiny
+chambers were reserved for us, the only approach to them being through
+the large room outside furnished with numerous beds. The tourist,
+therefore, has a choice of evils--a small inner room to himself,
+looking on to the town and gardens, or a bed in the large outer one
+beyond, the latter arrangement offering more liberty, freedom of
+ingress and egress, but less privacy. However, the rooms did well
+enough. A decent bed, a table, a chair, quiet--what does the weary
+traveller want beside?
+
+Here, as at Le Vigan, we were received with a courteous friendliness
+that made up for all shortcomings. The master, a charming old man, a
+member of the town council (conseiller municipale), at once accompanied
+me to the post-office, where the young lady post-mistress produced
+letters and papers, probably the first English newspapers ever stamped
+with the mark of St. Enimie. The townsfolk stared at me in the
+twilight, but without offensive curiosity, I may here give a hint to
+future explorers of my own sex, that it is just as well to buy one's
+travelling-dress and head-gear in France. An outlandish appearance,
+sure to excite observation, is thus avoided. In the meantime the common
+inquiry was put to us, 'What will you have for dinner?' It really
+seemed as if we only needed to ask for any imaginable dish to get it,
+so rich in resources was this little larder at the world's end. The
+exquisite trout of the Tarn, here called the Tar; game in abundance and
+of excellent quality; a variety of fruit and vegetables-such was the
+dainty fare displayed in the tiny back parlour leading out of the
+kitchen. Soup in these parts, it must be confessed, is not very good.
+In other respects we fared as well for our five francs per diem,
+including lights and attendance, as if at some big Paris hotel paying
+our twenty-five!
+
+The fastidious are warned that certain luxuries we have learned to
+regard as necessary to existence are unheard of in the Lozere. A bell,
+for instance--as well expect to find a bell here as in Noah's Ark! A
+very good preparation for this journey would be the perusal of Tieck's
+humorous novelette called 'Life's Superfluities' (Des Lebens
+Uberfluss), wherein he shows that with health, a cheerful disposition,
+and sympathetic companionship, we may do without anything in the way of
+an extra at all. Shelter, covering, bed--beyond these all is mere
+superfluity.
+
+Having dined, we made inquiries as to the morrow's journey on the Tarn,
+and that somewhat portentous shooting of the rapids we longed for, yet
+could hardly help shrinking from.
+
+Our host soon set our minds at rest, and smiled when I suggested
+discomfort and peril.
+
+'Make your minds easy,' he said; 'I will myself answer for your
+safety.'
+
+He then gave me the following printed programme of the day's excursion,
+which I translate below, as it shows into what excellent hands the
+stranger falls at St. Enimie. The most timid lady travellers may safely
+trust themselves to these town councillors and maires of the little
+villages bordering the Tarn. Not only will they be taken he very
+greatest care of; not only are they perfectly secure from any form of
+extortion: they make acquaintance throughout every stage of the way
+with the very best type of French peasant, a class of men, as will be
+shown in these pages, of whom any country might justly be proud. I have
+now a fairly representative experience of the French peasant. The
+dignity, sobriety, and intelligence of the Lozerien I have nowhere
+found surpassed. It was a happy thought of the leading men in these
+parts to organize a kind of tourist agency among themselves, thus
+keeping out strangers and speculators sure to spoil the business by
+overcharges. A village mayor here, a municipal councillor there, in all
+about a score of the inhabitants, have formed what they call 'La
+Compagnie de Batellerie St. Jean,' which ensures the traveller a fixed
+tariff, good boats, and, above all, experienced boatmen, for what is
+during the last stage of the way a somewhat hazardous journey. The
+prospectus runs thus:
+
+
+'NOTICE TO TOURISTS.
+
+'The Hotel St. Jean at St. Enimie places at the disposal of tourists a
+service of boats between that town and Le Rozier.
+
+'The service is divided into four stages, the entire journey without
+halt occupying six hours.
+
+'The corresponding members of the company at the four stations are as
+follows:
+
+'At St. Enimie, St. Jean, hotel proprietor and town councillor.
+
+'At St. Chely, Bernard, town councillor.
+
+'At La Malene, Casimir Montginoux, hotel proprietor.
+
+'At St. Prejet, Alphonse Solanet, mayor.
+
+'The charge for the complete transit, whether the boat numbers one
+passenger or several, is forty-two francs, which may be paid to any of
+the boatmen or at any stage of the journey.'
+
+St. Enimie is what Gibbon calls 'an aged town,' its sponsor and
+foundress being a Merovingian princess. For the pretty legend
+concerning this musically-named maiden, I refer readers to the guide-
+books, liking better to fill my pages with my own experiences than with
+matter to be had for the asking elsewhere.
+
+Had it been somewhat earlier in the year, we might perhaps have decided
+to make a little stay here. But in the height of summer the heat is
+torrid on the Roof of France. In winter the cold is Arctic, and there
+is no autumn in the accepted sense of the word; winter might be at
+hand. We were advised by those in whose interest it was that we should
+remain, to lose no time and hurry on. Having bespoken the four relays
+of boatmen for next day, we betook ourselves to our little rooms,
+somewhat relieved by the fact that we were the only travellers, and
+that the large, general bedroom adjoining our own would be therefore
+untenanted. We had reckoned without our host, the comfortable beds
+therein being evidently occupied by various members of the family when
+the tourist season was slack. We were composing ourselves to sleep,
+each in our own chamber, when we heard the old master and mistress of
+the house, with some little grandchildren, steal upstairs and, quiet as
+mice, betake themselves to bed. Then all was hushed for the night.
+
+Only one sound broke the stillness. Between one and two in the morning
+our driver descended from his attic. A quarter of an hour later there
+was a noise of wheels, pattering hoofs, and harness bells. He had
+started, as he told us was his intention, on his homeward journey,
+traversing the dark, solitary Causse alone, with only his lantern to
+show the way. Soon after five o'clock our old host, evidently
+forgetting that he had such near neighbours, or perhaps imagining that
+nothing could disturb weary travellers, began to chat with his wife,
+and before six, one and all of the family party had gone downstairs. I
+threw open my casement to find the witchery of last night vanished,
+cold gray mist enshrouding the delicious little picture, with its
+grandiose, sombre background. That clinging mist seemed of evil
+bodement for our expedition. Ought we to start on a long day's river
+journey in such weather? Yet could we stay?
+
+I confess that there was something eerie in the isolation and
+remoteness of St. Enimie. Compared to the savagery and desolation of
+the Causses, it was a little modern Babylon--a corner of Paris, a bit
+of boulevard and bustle, but with such narrow accommodation, and with
+such limited means of locomotion at disposal, the prospect of a stay
+here in bad weather was, to say the least of it, disconcerting. I
+prepared in any case for a start, made my tea, performed my toilet, and
+packed my bag as briskly as if a bright sun were shining, which true
+enough it was, although we could not see!
+
+When, soon after seven o'clock, I descended to the kitchen, I found our
+first party of boatmen busily engaged over their breakfast, and all
+things in readiness for departure.
+
+'The sun is already shining on the Causse,' said our old host. 'This
+mist means fine weather. Trust me, ladies, you could not have a better
+day.'
+
+We did our best to put faith in such felicitous augury. Punctually at
+eight o'clock, accompanied by the entire household of the little Hotel
+St. Jean, we descended to the landing-place, two minutes' walk only
+from its doors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+THE CANON OF THE TARN.
+
+
+Amid many cordial adieux we took our seats, the good old town
+councillor having placed a well-packed basket at the bottom of the
+boat. Excellent little restaurants await the traveller at the various
+stations on the way, but all anxious to arrive at their journey's end
+in good time will carry provisions with them.
+
+The heavy gray mist hung about the scene for the first hour or two,
+otherwise it must have been enchanting. Even the cold, monotonous
+atmosphere could not destroy the grace and smilingness of the opening
+stage of our journey--sweet Allegro Gracioso to be followed by stately
+Andante, unimaginably captivating Capricioso to come next--climax of
+the piece--the symphony closing with gentle, tender harmonies. Thus in
+musical phraseology may be described the marvellous canon or gorge of
+the Tarn--like the pen of true genius, enchanting, whatever the theme.
+Quiet as the scenery is at the beginning of the way, without any of the
+sublimer features to awe us farther on, it is yet abounding in various
+kinds of beauty. Above the pellucid, malachite-coloured river, at first
+a mere narrow ribbon ever winding and winding, rise verdant banks, tiny
+vineyards planted on almost vertical slopes, apple orchards, the bright
+red fruit hanging over the water's edge, whilst willows and poplars
+fringe the low-lying reaches, and here and there, a pastoral group,
+some little Fadette keeps watch over her goats.
+
+The mists rise at last by slow degrees. Soon high above we see the sun
+gilding the limestone peaks on either side. Very gradually the heavens
+clear, till at last a blue sky and warm sunshine bring out all the
+enchantment of the scene.
+
+The river winds perpetually between the bright green banks and shining
+white cliffs. Occasionally we almost touch the mossy rocks of the
+shore; the maiden-hair fern, the wild evening primrose, wild Michaelmas
+daisy, blue pimpernel, fringed gentian, are so near we can almost
+gather them, and so crystal-clear the untroubled waters, every object--
+cliff, tree, and mossy stone--shows its double. We might at times fancy
+ourselves but a few feet from the pebbly bottom, each stone showing its
+bright clear outline. The iridescence of the rippling water over the
+rainbow-coloured pebbles is very lovely.
+
+All is intensely still, only the strident cry of the cicada, or the
+tinkle of a cattle-bell, and now and then the hoarse note of some wild
+bird break the stillness.
+
+Before reaching the first stage of our journey the weather had become
+glorious, and exactly suited to such an expedition. The heavens were
+now of deep, warm, southern blue; brilliant sunshine lighted up gold-
+green vineyard, rye-field bright as emerald, apple-orchard and silvery
+parapet on either side.
+
+But these glistening crags, rearing their heads towards the intense
+blue sky, these idyllic scenes below, are only a part of what we see.
+Midway between the verdant reaches of this enchanting river and its
+sheeny cliffs, between which we glide so smoothly, rise stage upon
+stage of beauty: now we see a dazzlingly white cascade tumbling over
+stair after stair of rocky ledge; now we pass islets of greenery
+perched half-way between river and limestone crest, with many a combe
+or close-shut cleft bright with foliage running down to the water's
+edge.
+
+Little paths, laboriously cut about the sides of the Causses on either
+side, lead to the hanging vineyards, fields and orchards, so
+marvellously created on these airy heights, inaccessible fastnesses of
+Nature. And again and again the spectator is reminded of the axiom:
+'The magic of property turns sands to gold.' No other agency could have
+effected such miracles. Below these almost vertical slopes of the
+Causse, raised a few feet only above the water's edge, cabbage and
+potato beds have been cultivated with equal laboriousness, the soil,
+what little of soil there is, being very fertile.
+
+On both sides we see many-tinted foliage in abundance: the shimmering
+white satin-leaved aspen, the dark rich alder, the glossy walnut,
+yellowing chestnut, and many others.
+
+Few and far between are herdsmen's cottages, now perched on the rock,
+now built close to the water's edge. We can see their vine-trellised
+balconies and little gardens, and sometimes the pet cats run down to
+the water's edge to look at us.
+
+And all this time, from the beginning of our journey to the end, the
+river winds amid the great walls of the Causses--to our left the spurs
+of the Causse Mejean; to our right those of Sauveterre. We are
+gradually realizing the strangeness and sublimity of these bare
+limestone promontories--here columns white as alabaster--a group having
+all the grandeur of mountains, yet no mountains at all, their summits
+vast plateaux of steppe and wilderness, their shelving sides dipping
+from cloudland and desolation into fairy-like loveliness and fertility.
+
+St. Chely, our first stage, comes to an end in about an hour and a half
+from the time of leaving St. Enimie. We now change boatmen--punters, I
+should rather call them. The navigation of the Tarn consists in skilful
+punting, every inch of the passage being rendered difficult by rocks
+and shoals, to say nothing of the rapids.
+
+Here our leading punter was a cheery, friendly miller--like the host of
+the hotel at St. Enimie, a municipal councillor. No better specimen of
+the French peasant gradually developing into the gentleman could be
+found. The freedom from coarseness or vulgarity in these amateur
+punters of the Tarn is indeed quite remarkable. Isolated from great
+social centres and influences of the outer world as they have hitherto
+been, there is yet no trace either of subservience, craftiness, or
+familiarity. Their frank, manly bearing is of a piece with the
+integrity and openness of their dealings with strangers.
+
+Shrewd, chatty, kindly, the municipal councillor--Bernard by name--
+showed the greatest interest in us, his easy manners never verging on
+impertinence. He was much pleased to learn that I had come all the way
+from England in order to describe these regions for my country-folks,
+and told us of the rapidly increasing number of French tourists.
+
+'It is astonishing!' he said--'quite astonishing! Two or three years
+ago we had a score or two of gentlemen only; then we had fifty in one
+summer; now we have hundreds--ladies as well; hardly a day passes
+without tourists. I have to leave the management of my mill to my son,
+as I am perpetually wanted on the river at this season of the year.'
+
+'Such an influx of strangers must surely do good in the country?' I
+asked.
+
+'Ca ne fait pas de mal' (It does no harm), was his laconic reply; but
+one could see from his look of satisfaction that he highly appreciated
+the pacific invasion. The plain truth of the matter is, that the Canon
+du Tarn is proving a mine of wealth to these frugal, ingenuous
+peasants.
+
+How pleasant to reflect that the gold thus showered into their laps by
+Nature will not be squandered on vice or folly, but carefully
+husbanded, and put to the best possible uses! What the effect of a
+constantly-increasing prosperity may be on future generations, no one
+can predict. Certain we may be that the hard-earned savings of these
+village mayors and municipal councillors will go to the purchase of
+land. The process of turning sands to gold will proceed actively; more
+and yet more waste will be redeemed, and made fertile.
+
+A charming chateau, most beautifully placed, adorns the banks of the
+river between St. Chely and La Malene; alas! untenanted, its owner
+being insane. Nowhere could be imagined a lovelier holiday resort; no
+savagery in the scenes around, although all is silent and solitary;
+park-like bosquets and shadows around; below, long narrow glades
+leading to the water's edge.
+
+At La Malene, reached about noon, we stop for half an hour, and
+breakfast under the shade. Never before did cold pigeon, hard-boiled
+eggs, and water from the stream have a better flavour. Our municipal
+councillor was much concerned that we had no wine, and offered us his
+own bottle, which we were regretfully obliged to refuse, not being
+claret-drinkers. Then, seeing that our supply of bread was somewhat
+small, he cut off two huge pieces, and brought them to us in his bare
+hands. This offer we gratefully accepted.
+
+'Ah! what weather, what weather!' he said. 'You said your prayers to
+good purpose this morning. This is the day for the Tarn.'
+
+Magnificent was the day, indeed, and sorely did La Malene tempt us to a
+halt. It is a little oasis of verdure and luxuriance between two arid
+chasms--flake of emerald wedged in a cleft of barren rock. The hamlet
+itself, like most villages of the Lozere, has a neglected appearance.
+Very fair accommodation, however, is to be had at the house of the
+brothers Montginoux, our boatmen for the next stage, and all
+travellers, especially good walkers, should make a halt here if they
+can.
+
+For ourselves, two motives hastened departure. In the first place, we
+had heard of formidable rivals in the field; in other words,
+competitors for whatever rooms were to be had at our destination, Le
+Rozier. Three distinguished personages, deputies of the Lozere, were
+making the same journey; whether before us or behind us, we could not
+exactly make out. One thing was certain: like ourselves, they were
+bound for Le Rozier. This alarming piece of information, coming as it
+did on the heels of our last night's experience, made us doubly anxious
+to get to our journey's end and insure rooms. What if we arrived to
+find the auberge full--not an available corner anywhere, except,
+perhaps, in the general bedchamber left for belated waifs and strays,
+such as Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson describes in his voyage with a
+donkey?
+
+Again the weather, although most favourable for to-day's excursion,
+betokened change. The light fleecy clouds playing about the summits of
+the Causses, on either side grew heavier in appearance. We must hasten
+on. We heard, too, a pitiful story of two American ladies who had
+lately made this journey in a perpetual downpour, arriving at Le Rozier
+drenched to the skin, and having seen nothing. We had not crossed the
+Atlantic certainly to shoot the rapids of the Tarn, but it would be
+deplorable even to have come from Hastings and meet with such a fiasco.
+
+We now took leave of our worthy miller and his companion, giving a
+liberal pourboire, as I am sure all travellers will do. It must be
+borne in mind that the return journey occupies the punters three or
+four times the duration of the journey downstream. Each stage is an
+entire day's work, therefore, for which the tariff alone is
+insufficient remuneration. Our new boatmen are the brothers Montginoux
+--young men, very pleasant, very intelligent, and exceedingly skilful in
+their business. The elder, who stands with his face towards us, is full
+of enthusiasm for the scenery, and knows the river so well that during
+the greater part of the way he is able to chat to us, pointing out
+every remarkable feature in the shifting scene, and giving us a good
+deal of information.
+
+Both brothers, as is the universal rule in these parts, are exceedingly
+good-looking, and have that frank, dignified manner characteristic of
+the French peasant at his best. Peasant, did I say? These young men
+might have passed for gentlemen anywhere; they are instances of the
+great social transformation taking place throughout France. 'Le paysan,
+c'est l'aristocrat de l'avenir,' French people say; and true enough we
+see every day sons of peasants like the late Paul Bert, enrolled in the
+professional ranks, attaining not only a respectable position, but
+eminence in science, literature, and art. Turn over a dictionary of
+French contemporary biography--how often do these words come after a
+well-known, even distinguished, name: 'Fils d'un paysan'!
+
+The first care of our young punters was to cut willow-branches, and
+spread at the bottom of the boat in order to keep our feet dry. Do what
+they will, the boat is flooded from time to time, and but for this
+precaution renewed at intervals, we should be in sore discomfort.
+
+On quitting La Malene, with its fairy-like dells, hanging woods, and
+lawny spaces, the third and most magnificent stage of our journey is
+entered upon, the first glimpse preparing us for marvels to come.
+Smiling above the narrow dark openings in the rock are vineyards of
+local renown. Here and there a silvery cascade flashes in the distance;
+then a narrow bend of the river brings us in sight of the frowning crag
+of Planiol crowned with massive ruins, the stronghold of the sire of
+Montesquieu, which under Louis XIII. arrested the progress of the
+rebellious Duke de Rohan.
+
+For let it not be supposed that these solitudes have no history. We
+must go much farther back than the seigneurial crusades of the great
+Richelieu, or the wholesale exterminations of Merle, the Protestant
+Alva or Attila, in the religious wars of the Cevennes-farther back even
+than the Roman occupation of Gaul, when we would describe the townlings
+of the Causses and the banks of the Tarn. Their story is of more
+ancient date than any of recorded time. The very Causses, stony, arid
+wildernesses, so unpropitious to human needs, so scantily populated in
+our own day, were evidently inhabited from remote antiquity. Not only
+have dolmens, tumuli, and bronze implements been found hereabouts in
+abundance, but also cave-dwellings and traces of the Age of Stone.
+Prehistoric man was indeed more familiar with the geography of these
+regions than even learned Frenchmen of to-day. When, as I have before
+mentioned, in 1879 a member of the French Alpine Club asked the well-
+known geographer Joanne if he could give him any information as to the
+Causses and the Canon du Tarn, his reply was the laconic:
+
+'None whatever. Go and see.'
+
+It would take weeks, not days, to explore these scenes from the
+archaeological or geological point of view. I will content myself with
+describing what is in store for the tourist.
+
+We now enter the defile or detroit, at which point grace and
+bewitchingness are exchanged for sublimity and grandeur, and the
+scenery of the Causses and the Tarn reach their acme. The river,
+narrowed to a thread, winds in and out, forcing laborious way between
+the lofty escarpments, here all but meeting, yet one might almost fancy
+only yesterday rent asunder.
+
+It is as if two worlds had been violently wrenched apart, the cloven
+masses rising perpendicularly from the water's edge, in some places
+confronting each other, elsewhere receding, always of stupendous
+proportions. What convulsive forces of Nature brought about this
+severance of vast promontories that had evidently been one? By what
+marvellous agency did the river force its way between? Some cataclysmal
+upheaval would seem to account for such disrupture rather than the
+infinitely slow processes suggested by geological history.
+
+Meantime, the little boat glides amid the vertical rocks--walls of
+crystal spar--shutting in the river, touching as it seems the blue
+heavens, peak, parapet, ramparts taking multiform hues under the
+shifting clouds, now of rich amber, now dazzlingly white, now deep
+purple or roseate. And every one of these lofty shafts, so majestic of
+form, so varied of hue, is reflected in the transparent green water,
+the reflections softening the awful grandeur of the reality. Nothing,
+certes, in nature can surpass this scene; no imagination can prefigure,
+no pen or pencil adequately portray it. Nor can the future fortunes of
+the district vulgarize it! The Tarn, by reason of its remoteness, its
+inaccessibility--and, to descend to material considerations, its
+expensiveness as an excursion--can never, fortunately, become one of
+the cheap peep-shows of the world.
+
+The intense silence heightens the impressiveness of the wonderful hour,
+only the gentle ripple of the water, only the shrill note of the cicada
+at intervals, breaks the stillness. We seem to have quitted the
+precincts of the inhabited familiar world, our way lying through the
+portals of another, such as primeval myth or fairy-tale speak of,
+stupendous walls of limestone, not to be scaled by the foot or measured
+by the eye, hemming in our way.
+
+This defile, so fancy pictures, was surely the work of Titans in the
+age of the ancient gods; their play, their warfare, were over hundreds
+of thousands of years ago: only these witnesses left to tell of their
+greatness! The famous Cirque des Baumes may be described as a double
+wall lined with gigantic caves and grottoes. Here it is the fantastic
+and the bizarre that hold the imagination captive. Fairies, but fairies
+of eld, of giant race, have surely been making merry here! One and all
+have vanished; their vast sunlit caverns, opening sheer on to the
+glassy water, remain intact; high above may their dwellings be seen,
+airy open chambers under the edge of the cliffs, deep corridors winding
+right through the wall of rock, vaulted arcades midway between base and
+peak, whence a spring might be made into the cool waves below. All is
+still on a colossal scale, but playful, capricious, phantasmagoric.
+
+Nor when we alight at the Pas de Soucis are these features wanting.
+Here the river, a narrow green ribbon, disappears altogether, its way
+blocked with huge masses of rock, as of some mountain split into
+fragments and hurled by gigantic hands from above.
+
+The spectacle recalls the opening lines of the great Promethean drama
+of the Greek poet. Truly we seem to have reached the limit of the
+world, the rocky Scythia, the uninhabited desert! The bright sunshine
+and balmy air hardly soften the unspeakable savagery and desolation of
+the scene, fitting background for the tragedy of the fallen Fire-giver.
+
+Dominating the whole, as if threatening to fall, adding chaos to chaos,
+and filling up the vast chasm altogether, are two frowning masses of
+rock, the one a monolith, the other a huge block. Confronting each
+other, tottering as it seems on their thrones, we can fancy the
+profound silence broken at any moment by the crashing thunder of their
+fall, only that last catastrophe needed to crown the prevailing gloom
+and grandeur.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+SHOOTING THE RAPIDS.
+
+
+At this point we alight, our water-way being blocked for nearly a mile.
+It is a charming walk to Les Vignes: to the left we have a continuation
+of the rocky chaos just described, to the right a path under the shadow
+of the cliffs, every rift showing maidenhair fern and wild-flowers in
+abundance, the fragrant evening primrose and lavender, the fringed
+gentian. The weather is warm as in July, and of deepest blue the sky
+above the glittering white peaks. Half-way we meet the rural postman,
+whose presence reminds us that we are still on the verge of
+civilization, eerie as is all the solitude and desolation around.
+
+At Les Vignes we lose our pleasant, chatty, well-informed young
+boatmen, the brothers Montginoux, and embark for the fourth and last
+time. We have now to shoot the rapids.
+
+A boat lay in readiness; two chairs placed for us, and willow branches
+in plenty below; our baskets and bundles carefully raised so as to be
+above water. In the least little detail the greatest possible attention
+is thus paid to our comfort. I would suggest that if lady tourists had
+the courage to imitate a certain distinguished Frenchwoman--an
+explorer--and don male attire here, the shooting of the rapids would be
+a more comfortable business. The boatmen cannot prevent their little
+craft from being flooded from time to time, and though they scoop up
+the water, skirts are apt to prove a sore incumbrance. Foot-gear and
+dress should be as near water-proof as possible upon this occasion.
+
+We were somewhat disconcerted at the sight of our first boatman, an
+aged, bent, white-haired man, hardly, one could fancy, vigorous enough,
+to say nothing of his skill, for the hazardous task of shooting the
+rapids. He at once informed us that his name was Gall, to which the
+first place is given in French guide-books. Even such a piece of
+information, however, hardly reassured us.
+
+Our misgivings were set at rest by the first glance at his companion.
+
+'My colleague, brother of Monsieur le Maire,' said the veteran,
+presenting him.
+
+A handsome, well-made man in his early prime, with a look of
+indomitable resolution, and a keen, eagle-like glance, our second
+boatman would have inspired confidence under any circumstances, or in
+any crisis. I could but regret that such a man should have no wider,
+loftier career before him than that of steering idle tourists through
+the rocks and eddies of the Tarn. Enough of character was surely here
+to make up a dozen ordinary individualities. You saw at a look that
+this dignified reserve hid rare qualities and capacities only awaiting
+occasion to shine conspicuously forth.
+
+How Carlyle would have delighted in the manly figure before us, from
+which his simple peasant's dress could take not an iota of nobility!
+
+This French rustic, brother of a village mayor, was endowed by Nature
+beyond most, the spirit within--there could be no doubt of that--
+matching an admirable physique. Of middle stature, with regular
+features and limbs perfectly proportioned, every pose might have served
+for a sculptor's model, whilst his behaviour to-day sufficiently
+indicated his fitness for weightier responsibilities and more complex
+problems. Never shall I forget the study before us during that short
+journey from Les Vignes to Le Rozier. The old man Gall we could not
+see, being behind; his companion stood at the other end of the boat
+facing the rapids, and having his back turned towards us.
+
+With form erect, feet firmly planted, sinews knit, every faculty under
+command, he awaited the currents.
+
+It was a soldier awaiting the enemy, the hunter his prey.
+
+The white crests are no sooner in sight than he seizes his pole and
+stands ready for the encounter.
+
+A moment more and we are in the midst of the eddying, rushing, foaming
+rapids. We seem to have been plunged from a lake of halcyon smoothness
+into a storm-lashed sea. Around us the waves rise with menacing force;
+now our little boat is flooded and tossed like a leaf on the turbulent
+waters; every moment it seems that in spite of our brave boatman we
+must be dashed against the rocks or carried away by the whirlpool!
+
+But swift and sure he strikes out to the right and to the left, never
+missing his aim, never miscalculating distances by an inch, till, like
+an arrow shot by dexterous archer, the little craft reaches the calm.
+Whilst, indeed, it seems tossed like a shuttlecock on the engulphing
+waves, it is in reality being most skilfully piloted. The veteran at
+the stern we could not see, but doubtless his skill was equally
+remarkable. The two, of course, act in concert, both knowing the river
+as other folks their alphabet.
+
+To each series of currents follows a stretch of glassy water for
+awhile, and we glide on deliciously. It was instructive to watch the
+figure at the helm then; he laid down his pole, his limbs relaxed, and
+he indulged in cigarette after cigarette, pausing to point out any
+object of interest on the way.
+
+The swirling, rushing, eddying currents once more in sight, again he
+prepared himself for action, and for a few minutes the task would be
+Herculean--the mental strain equally phenomenal. His keen, swift,
+unerring glance never once at fault, his rapid movements almost
+mechanically sure, he plied his pole, whilst lightly as a feather our
+little boat danced from cascade to cascade, all but touching the huge
+mossy slabs and projecting islets of rock on either side.
+
+There was wonderful exhilaration in this little journey. We felt that
+every element of danger was eliminated by the coolness and dexterity of
+our conductors, yet the sense of hazard and adventuresomeness was
+there! My more stout-hearted companion was a little disappointed, would
+fain have had an experience nearer akin to Niagara. It is as well to
+remind the traveller that these apparently playful rapids are by no
+means without risk. Several are literally cascades between rocks,
+hardly allowing space for the boat to pass. Here the least imprudence
+or want of skill on the part of the boatman might entail the gravest
+consequences. At one of the points, indeed, a party of tourists very
+nearly lost their lives some years since, their boatman being
+unfamiliar with the river.
+
+The scenery changes at every turn. Just as one moment we are in lake-
+like waters, smooth as a mirror, the next apparently in mid-ocean, so
+we pass from sweet idyllic scenes into regions of weird sternness and
+grandeur. Now we glide quietly by shady reaches and sloping hills,
+alive to the very top with the tinkle of sheep-bells; now we pass under
+promontories of frowning aspect, that tower two or three thousand feet
+above the water's edge. The colours of the rock, under the shifting
+clouds, are very beautiful, and golden, bright and velvety the little
+belts and platforms of cultivated land to be counted between base and
+peak. We have to crane our necks in order to catch sight of these truly
+aerial fields and gardens, all artificially created, all yet again
+illustrations of the axiom: 'The magic of property turns sands to
+gold.'
+
+Truly marvellous is the evidence of this love of the soil in a region
+so wild and intractable! High above we obtain a glimpse of some ancient
+village, its scrambling roofs shining amid orchard-trees and firwoods,
+or an isolated chalet of goatherd or shepherd breaks some solitude. One
+ruined chateau crests the jagged cliffs, a real ruin among the
+semblances of so many.
+
+Again and again we fancy we can descry crumbling watch-towers,
+bastions, and donjons on the banks of the Tarn, so fantastic the forms
+of the Causses on either side. What a scene for a Dore!
+
+Soon straight before us, high above the wooded heights that hem us in,
+rises the Causse Noir--dark, formidable, portentous as the rock of
+Istakhar keeping sentinel over the dread Hall of Eblis, or the
+Loadstone Mountain of the third Calender's story, which to behold was
+the mariner's doom. The Causse Noir from the Tarn is a sight not soon
+forgotten. With black ribs set close about its summit, it wears rather
+the appearance of a colossal castellation, an enormous fort of solid
+masonry, than of any natural mass of rock.
+
+What with this spectacle, the excitement of the rapids, the varied
+landscape, the study of that statuesque figure before us, the brother
+of M. le Maire, this stage of the way seemed all too short. We
+regretted--but for the sake of our boatman--that there were not twenty-
+five more rapids still to be passed before we reached our destination.
+We regretted, too--who could help it?--that we were not hardy
+pedestrians, able to clamber amid the rocks overhead, and make that
+wonderful expedition on foot described by the discoverers of this
+region, as the writers I have before alluded to may indeed be called.
+But if the half may not always prove better than the whole in travel,
+at least it is better than nothing, and the day's excursion here
+described had of itself amply repaid the long journey from England.
+
+Sorry, then, were we to come in sight of the bridge spanning the Tarn,
+behind the village of Le Rozier. Just eight hours after quitting St.
+Enimie we alighted for the last time, and, following our boatmen, took
+a winding path that led to the village.
+
+It was a scene of quiet, pastoral beauty that now met our eyes. The
+Tarn, its sportive mood over, the portals of its magnificent gorge
+closed, now flows amid sunny hills, quitting the wild Lozere for the
+more placid Aveyron; immediately around us are little farmsteads,
+water-mills, and gardens, whilst opposite, like a black thundercloud
+threatening a summer day, the Causse Noir looms in the distance!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+LE ROZIER.
+
+
+Next morning we woke up to a delightfully wet day, the very best piece
+of good fortune that can occasionally overtake the traveller. We could
+write, sketch, chat with the people of the house--above all, enjoy a
+brief period of entire repose. For my own part, I hail nothing so
+enthusiastically in my travels as a day of unmitigated downpour. Not
+the most astounding landscape, not the most novel experience, can evoke
+a warmer outburst of gratitude and welcome. I suppose there are
+tourists who never feel the need of rest, who, like the Flying
+Dutchman, are impelled to move on perpetually, who do not want to nurse
+their impressions, if I may legitimize the expression. I, for one,
+cannot understand the condition of body and mind implied in such a
+temperament. Were life long enough and did circumstances and seasons
+permit, I should make a six weeks' halt at least between every stage of
+a journey, sipping experiences as we sip exquisitely flavoured
+liqueurs, and making the whole last as long as possible.
+
+To our intense satisfaction, we had not been anticipated by those much-
+dreaded deputies of the Lozere. We had a choice of rooms, although
+later in the day a large contingent of tourists arrived--two or three
+French families travelling in company. The hotel at Le Rozier is a
+primitive, but quite lodgeable, place--open, airy, cheerful. Bells,
+bolts and bars are apparently unheard of. When we remonstrated with the
+patrone on the insecurity of our doors, there being no means whatever
+of fastening them, she gazed at us with the greatest possible
+astonishment. 'Grand Dieu!' her face said, 'is there a country under
+heaven in which folks are such ruffians that no one can sleep safely in
+his bed?'
+
+'N'ayez pas peur' (Have no fear), was the reply; such a question in her
+eyes was evidently the naivest in the world.
+
+The primitive--I am almost tempted to say ideal--condition of things
+here was more strikingly illustrated a little later.
+
+I had begged madame to give me change for a hundred-franc note; she
+immediately accompanied me back to my room, unlocked a drawer, and
+displayed a heap of money--notes, gold and silver.
+
+'Good heavens, madame!' I cried, 'do you keep your money in a room
+given up to strangers?'
+
+'Il n'y a pas de danger' (There is no danger), she replied, with almost
+a contemptuous toss of the head, as she took out what she wanted and
+turned the key in its loosely fastened lock. Anyone with a pocket-knife
+could have wrenched it off.
+
+We begin to understand why there should be 'white assizes' in the
+Lozere!
+
+I exchanged my bedroom containing the drawer full of money, and which
+was the best in the house, for a quieter one, higher up. Nothing could
+be homelier than my present quarters, an attic bare as a barn, and
+almost as spacious. There was a bed in it of excellent quality, a chair
+and one very rickety table furnished with jug and washbasin--no more. I
+believe at night the bats, to say nothing of rats and mice, were
+tolerably familiar with this part of the house. The floor sadly showed
+its unacquaintance with soap and scrubbing-brush, but there were
+compensating advantages. I was far away from the noise and savoury
+smells of the kitchen; my window opened on to a wonderful view, and
+turning the bed into a sofa, I could write or read as cosily as at
+home.
+
+Nor did my companion spend less happy hours below. Her room had a more
+cosmopolitan appearance. The table serving as washstand stood securely
+on its four legs. She had even the luxury of a table and an arm-chair.
+
+The rain was a veritable windfall of good luck to her as well as
+myself, affording leisure to paint the floral treasures culled by the
+way. How those sweet sketches brightened the bare room!
+
+There was the golden thistle, the horned poppy, the fringed gentian,
+the blue pimpernel, the rare orobanche ramosa, the yellow salvia, and
+pinks in profusion.
+
+Blessed, thrice blessed, the traveller with companions whose mind to
+them a kingdom is! What disenchantment to have had the glorious
+experiences of the last few days followed by a spell of boredom!
+Diderot says: 'Ceux qui souffrent, font souffrir les autres' (Those who
+suffer make others suffer); and certainly to be in company of the bored
+is to become bored one's self.
+
+That long wet day passed like an hour. Towards sunset the rain ceased,
+and at last the three deputies of the Lozere made their appearance.
+They looked drier and more cheery than could be expected, although to
+have shot the rapids of the Tarn in such weather was about as
+mortifying a circumstance as could befall any travellers.
+
+They displayed the true verve Gauloise in dealing with a trying
+situation, smoked cigarettes, chatted with the people of the house, and
+made friends with everybody.
+
+Le Rozier is an attractive little place, and its one inn stands airily
+in the village street; on the other side of the way, a little lower
+down, is its rival, the Hotel Dieudonne, which, although within a
+stone's throw, is in another village and another department. Behind us
+lies the Lozere, in front the Aveyron, and perched most picturesquely
+on a pyramidal green hill, crowned with a fine old church tower, rises
+the little Aveyronnais village of Peyreleau. Travellers have therefore
+a choice of inns and of prospects, the twin townlings being both most
+advantageously placed between the three Causses, and accommodation very
+fair in both.
+
+As we sauntered about in the bright sunshine following the storm,
+watching the red light on the dark flanks of the Causse Noir, on which
+we can now discern the feudal tower of Capluc, gathering the fringed
+gentian just outside the town, interchanging friendly talk with the
+cheery peasant-folk, the thought arose: What a paradise for weary brain
+workers! What a perfect summer retreat! Removed from the routine of
+daily life, escaped for a time from the artificiality of ordinary
+travel, how happy were the lover of nature, of pastoral existence, of
+quietude in such a spot! No whistle of railway, no bustle of streets,
+only the placid rippling of the Tarn and the wind gently swaying the
+pine-trees.
+
+Alas! I was soon to undergo the cruellest disillusion.
+
+'There are now three religions in these parts,' said our host to us:
+'the Catholic religion, the Protestant religion, and the religion of
+the Salvation Army.'
+
+He then added, much as if such a piece of news could but give us the
+liveliest satisfaction:
+
+'Not so very long ago Booth was here himself!'
+
+The Salvation Army on the very Roof of France! That solitude of
+solitude invaded by fife and drum; the wastes of Sauveterre echoing the
+hackneyed air, 'Hold the Fort;' Hallelujah lasses in hideous poke-
+bonnets parading the picturesque streets of St. Enimie; the very rapids
+silenced by the stentorian exordiums of these Salvationist orators!
+Could any disenchantment be more complete?
+
+Now, whilst accrediting every member of the Salvation Army with the
+best possible intentions, I quite approve of the severe measures taken
+in so many English towns, and also in some places abroad, against one
+of the most tremendous social nuisances that ever afflicted humanity.
+Doubtless these good people, whether Protestants or Catholics of Le
+Rozier and Peyreleau, follow their religion in all sincerity; for
+Heaven's sake, then, let us leave our neighbours' creeds and spiritual
+concerns alone. In a community in which assizes, not once only, but
+often, are found to be unnecessary, there being no criminals to try,
+General Booth and his noisy followers are surely out of place. In the
+face of such results as these, the religion of the people must be
+pronounced adequate to their needs.
+
+Let the Salvationist chiefs occupy themselves instead with mastering
+the principles of Spinoza's 'Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,' Colenso's
+'Pentateuch,' and, thrown into the bargain, Sir G. B. Airey's essay on
+'The Earlier Hebrew Scriptures.'
+
+One piece of information, however, in no small degree consoled me for
+that terrible nightmare of the Salvation Army on the banks of the Tarn.
+
+'There are three religions in these parts, but one political belief
+only,' added our host. 'Everybody in the department of Lozere is a
+stanch Republican,' and a conclusion, novel to many minds, may be drawn
+from this fact also. The Republic is not the demoralizing force some
+would have it believed. An entire department may show a clean bill of
+moral health when the assizes come round, and yet be ardently devoted
+to a democratic form of government!
+
+Whilst Le Rozier is a prosperous, well-to-do little place, its twin
+village Peyreleau has a woefully forlorn and neglected appearance. If a
+French Chadwick or Richardson would preach the gospel of sanitation
+there, and, by force of precept and example, teach the people how to
+sweeten their streets and make wholesome their dwellings, I for one
+would wish God-speed to the undertaking. Perhaps over-much of devotion
+has made these village-folks neglectful of health and comfort. Let us
+by all means give them instead a dose of positive philosophy. Certain
+amateur political economists would straightway set down the
+unsightliness of this remote spot to peasant property, whereas I shall
+show that the causes are to be sought elsewhere.
+
+The detesters of peasant property, single-minded persons who love the
+land so well that they cannot support the notion of a neighbour
+possessing so much as an inch, remind me of certain French folks,
+determined antagonists, they hardly know why, of the Republic. These
+worthy people--the only thing that can be said against them is that
+they have come into the world a hundred years too late--impute every
+conceivable mishap or calamity, public or private, to the fact of
+having a Republican form of government. They entertain but lukewarm
+feelings for any other; they are adherents of neither the Bonapartist
+nor Orleanist pretenders, nor do they care a straw for the charlatan
+hero of the crutch and blue spectacles: their only political dogma is a
+dislike to the Republic.
+
+So, if a landslip occurs and an express train runs off the line with
+disastrous results, they immediately cry, 'Is M. Carnot out of his
+senses?' If there is an inundation of the Loire and the riverside
+villages are under water, they lift up their hands, exclaiming: 'What
+can be expected under such a Government as ours?' When cholera breaks
+out at Toulon, or the phylloxera makes further inroads in the Cote
+d'Or, or murrain appears among sheep, they protest that nothing in the
+shape of bad news astonishes them. The only wonder is that, under a
+Republic, honest folks keep their heads on their shoulders!
+
+On a par with this is the reasoning of the would-be political
+economists alluded to. If a French peasant is lazy, it is because he
+has no rent to pay; if a French peasant works too hard, it is because
+he owns a bit of land. If a cottage is untidy, it is because its
+occupants are not farm labourers in receipt of ten shillings a week; in
+fact, the possession of land--except in the hands of English squires--
+is the most impoverishing, demoralizing, satanic force imaginable, and
+the only way of turning modern France into a Utopia would be to clap
+every peasant proprietor alive into nice comfortable, well-conducted
+workhouses, after the English model.
+
+Now, in the first place, peasant proprietors in many parts of France,
+as I have shown elsewhere, enjoy not only the comforts, but also the
+luxuries, of their neighbours of the towns; and in the second, the
+untidiness, excessive thrift, and even squalor, occasionally found in
+out-of-the-way places, are to be attributed to quite other causes than
+that of having no rent to pay. Tidiness, seemliness, order, are taught,
+like everything else, by example, and from one cause and another this
+example has not been widely set the French peasant.
+
+The matter is one requiring much more space than can be devoted to it
+here. I would only observe that the life of French country gentlemen is
+often simple to homeliness, and that their poorer neighbours have few
+practical illustrations of the value of comfort and hygiene. I have
+been astonished to find in the houses of rich landed proprietors in
+Anjou and Berri, brick-floored bedrooms, carpetless salons, dejeuner
+served on the bare table, and servants in waiting with their
+unstockinged feet thrust in sabots.
+
+This condition of things is slowly changing, but there is another and
+yet more formidable obstacle to the progress of ideas in isolated rural
+districts. I now allude to the celibate clergy. There are doubtless
+many estimable parish priests in France, but how can these worthy men
+revolutionize the homes of the peasant? Their own is often hardly more
+comfortable or hygienic. If feminine influence presides over a priestly
+household in the country, it is generally of the homeliest kind. The
+mother, sister, housekeeper of a village abbe belongs in all
+probability, like himself, to the peasant class, and, unlike himself,
+gets no glimpse from time to time of a more polished society and
+cosmopolitan ways. Let the clergy marry in France, laicize all schools,
+alike for rich and poor, and what may be called the aesthetic side of
+domestic economy, to say nothing of hygiene, would soon spread to the
+remotest corners of the country. Will it be believed, at Nant, in that
+conventual establishment I have before described, there was absolutely
+no lavatory for the children at all? They were just taken to a fountain
+in the courtyard, there to be washed after the manner of little
+Bedouins.
+
+There is also another cause which in part accounts for the ofttimes
+squalid and unsanitary condition of the peasant's home. Educated
+Frenchwomen as a rule have little love of the country, and convent-bred
+Frenchwomen have still less sympathy with their humbler neighbours in
+rural districts, whose Republican convictions are well known. Thus it
+comes about that, generally speaking, the housekeeping sex of different
+ranks remains apart. And as the well-to-do peasant regards domestic
+service in the light of degradation, his daughters in turn may become
+heads of houses without ever having once been inside a home conducted
+on modern principles. One word more: ill-kept, ofttimes squalid as is
+the house of the French peasant owner, he can say with Touchstone, 'Tis
+a poor thing, but 'tis my own.' The son of the soil in France may want
+carpets, wardrobes, clean swept hearths: he at least owns a home from
+which only imprudence or thriftlessness can eject him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX.
+
+After a day of gloom and downpour the weather became again perfect--no
+burning sun, no cold wind; instead, we had a pearly heaven with
+shifting sunlight and cloud, and the softest air.
+
+The carriage-roads of the Lozere are a good preparation for ascending
+Mont Blanc or the Eiffel Tower.
+
+Here we seem to be perpetually going up or coming down in a balloon;
+and to persons afflicted with giddiness, each day's excursion, however
+delightful, takes the form of a nightmare when one's head rests on the
+pillow. For days, nay, weeks after these drives on the Roof of France,
+my sleep was haunted with giddy climbs and still giddier descents. It
+was the price I had to pay for some of the most glowing experiences of
+my much-travelled life. The journey to Montpellier-le-Vieux formed no
+exception to the rule. Happy, thrice happy, those who can foot it
+merrily all the way!
+
+The pedestrian has by far the easier task. Throughout the two hours'
+drive thither, and the somewhat shorter journey back, the horses have
+to crawl at a snail's pace, their hoofs being within an inch or two of
+the steep incline as the sharp curves of the corkscrew road are turned.
+The way in many places is very rough and encumbered with stones; and
+there is a good deal of clambering to be done at the last. Let none but
+robust travellers therefore undertake this expedition, whether by
+carriage or on foot.
+
+Our landlord drove us, much to our satisfaction; his horses, steadiest
+of the steady, his little dog--a distant cousin to my own pet at home--
+trotting beside us, sniffing the air joyously, as if he too were a
+tourist in search of exhilaration and adventure.
+
+Over against Le Rozier, towering high above Peyreleau, its twin
+village, rises a sharp pyramidal spur of the Causse Noir, its shelving
+sides running vertically down. That mountain wall, impracticable as it
+seems, we have to scale.
+
+The road cut so marvellously round it is excellent, wild lavender
+scenting the way. As we wind slowly upwards we see an old, bent woman
+filling a sack with the flowery spikes for sale. Thus the Causse, not
+in one sense but many, is the bread-winner of the people. We follow
+this zig-zag path westward, leaving behind us sunny slopes covered with
+peach-trees, vineyards, gardens and orchards, till flourishing little
+Le Rozier and its neglected step-sister, Peyreleau, are hidden deep
+below, dropped, as it seems, into the depths of a gulf.
+
+An hour's climb and we are on the plateau, where the good road is
+quitted, and we take a mere cart-track between pastures, rye-fields,
+and woods of Scotch fir. So uneven and blocked with stones is the way
+here, that the poorest walker will soon be glad to get down. The
+deliciousness of the air, and the freshness of the scenery, however,
+soon make us insensible to bodily fatigue. Every minute we obtain wider
+and grander horizons, the three Causses being now in view, their
+distant sides shining like gigantic walls of crystal; deep blue shadows
+here and there indicating the verdant clefts and valleys we know of.
+All lightness and glitter are the remoter surfaces; all warm colour and
+depth of tone the nearer undulations. What a wealth of colour! what
+incomparable effects for an artist!
+
+The prospect now increases in wildness, and we seem gradually to leave
+behind the familiar world. We are again in the midst of a stony
+wilderness, but a wilderness transformed into a fairy region of beauty
+and charm.
+
+Nothing can be softer, more harmonious, more delicate than the soft
+gray tints of the limestone against the pure heaven; every bit of rock
+tapestried with the yellowing box-leaf, or made more silvery still with
+the flowers of the wild lavender.
+
+East, west, north, south, the lines of billowy curves in the far
+distance grow vaster, till we come in sight of what seems indeed a
+colossal city towering westward over the horizon; a city well built,
+girt round with battlements, bristling with watch-towers, outlined in
+gold and amethyst upon a faint azure sky.
+
+It is our first glimpse of Montpellier-le-Vieux.
+
+The jolting now becomes excessive; we leave our carriage, conductor and
+little dog to follow a traverse leading to Maubert, the farmhouse and
+auberge where are to be had guides, food, and bedchambers for those who
+want them.
+
+We could not miss the way, our driver said, and woe betide us if we
+did! We seem already to have found the city of rocks, the famous Cite
+du Diable; so labyrinthine these streets, alleys, and _impasses_
+of natural stone, so bewildering the chaos around us. For my own part,
+I could not discern the vestige of a path, but my more keen-eyed
+companion assured me that we were on the right track, and her assertion
+proved to be correct. After a laborious picking of our way amid the
+pele-mele of jumbled stones, we did at last, and to our great joy,
+catch sight of a bit of wall. This was Maubert; a square, straggling
+congeries of buildings approached from behind, and of no inviting
+aspect. A dunghill stood in front of the house, and hens, pigs, and the
+friendliest dogs in the world disported themselves where the flower-
+garden ought to have been. At first the place seemed altogether
+deserted. We knocked, shouted, ran hither and thither in vain. By-and-
+by crawled forth, one after the other, three ancient, hag-like women,
+staring at us and mumbling words we could not understand. On nearer
+inspection they seemed worthy old souls enough, evidently members of
+the household; but as their amount of French was scant, they hurried
+indoors again. A few minutes later a young, handsome, untidy woman
+popped her head from an upper window, and seeing that we were tourists,
+immediately came downstairs to welcome us.
+
+She would send for her husband to act as guide at once, she said; in
+the meantime, would we breakfast?
+
+I am sorry to confess that this young mistress of the house--a bride,
+moreover, of three months--did poor credit to the gifts Nature had
+lavished upon her. Very bright, good-looking, amiable and intelligent
+she was, but sadly neglectful of her personal appearance, with locks
+unkempt and dress slatternly--a strange contrast to the neat, clean,
+tidy peasant-women we had seen elsewhere on our journey.
+
+The farmhouse, turned into a hostelry, only required a little outlay
+and cosmopolitan experience to be transformed into quite a captivating
+health resort. If, indeed, health is not to be recruited on these vast,
+flower-scented heights, nearly three thousand feet above the sea-level,
+swept clean by the pure air of half a dozen mountain chains, where may
+we hope to find invigoration?
+
+Even now non-fastidious tourists may be fairly comfortable. A large,
+perfectly wholesome upper dining-room; bedrooms containing excellent
+beds; a farmhouse ordinary with game in abundance; courteous, honest
+hosts, and one of the marvels of the natural world within a stroll--
+surely scores of worn-out brain-workers would regard Maubert as a
+paradise, in spite of trifling drawbacks.
+
+We found a pleasant young French tourist with his blue-bloused guide
+eating omelettes in the salle-a-manger. Soon the master of the house
+came up--a young man of perhaps twenty-five--as well favoured as his
+wife, and much neater in appearance. This youthful head of the family
+possesses a large tract of Causse land, besides owning in great part
+what may prove in the future--is, indeed, already proving--a mine of
+wealth, an El Dorado, namely, the city of rocks, Montpellier-le-Vieux.
+
+We now set out, our host, whilst quite ready to chat, possessing all
+the dignity and reserve of the Lozerien mountaineer. As we sauntered
+through patches of oats, rye, potatoes, and hay, I obtained a good deal
+of information about rural affairs.
+
+'As near as you can guess, how large is the size of your property?' I
+asked.
+
+I had learned by experience that the precise acreage of these highland
+farms is seldom to be arrived at, the size of a holding in the Lozere
+and the Cantal often being computed by the heads of stock kept.
+
+He informed me that he owned four hundred hectares, that is to say,
+nearly a thousand acres, a considerable portion of which consisted of
+rocky waste or scant pasturage. He employed several labourers,
+possessed a flock of several hundred sheep, six oxen for ploughing,
+besides pigs and poultry.
+
+Here, as elsewhere throughout France, all kinds of land tenure are
+found. Thus we find land let or owned in holdings from two and a half
+to a thousand hectares, some of the tenant farmers hereabouts paying a
+rental of several hundred pounds a year. Roquefort cheese is the most
+important production, and sheep are always housed like other cattle in
+winter. Here is a hint for Welsh farmers!
+
+'Have you any neighbours?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, yes!' he replied, 'farmers here and there. And we have a postal
+delivery every day in summer; when winter comes we get letters as we
+can. I take a newspaper, too. It is not so out of the way a place as it
+seems. But a church! Ah, church-going is impossible; the nearest is too
+far off.' He added: 'This influx of tourists is changing everything. I
+never saw anything like it. My uncle, who acts as guide here, is always
+occupied now, and I am so much in request as guide too during the
+summer season, that I think of letting my farm and giving myself wholly
+up to the business of hotel-keeper. I should keep mules for tourists,
+horses and carriages, improve the roads, and furnish my house better.
+There is to be a model of Montpellier-le-Vieux at the grand exhibition
+in Paris next year; that will make people come here more than ever. I
+have almost decided to do as I say.'
+
+I thought to myself that the model of a house constructed on strictly
+scientific principles should be exhibited also. Nothing were easier
+than the proposed transformation; but it is less money and enterprise
+that are needed than knowledge of the world and its ways. I wished that
+I could invite this intelligent, well-mannered young peasant and his
+handsome, sprightly wife to England, in order to show them how much
+more besides good food and good beds are summed up in our oft-quoted
+'le confort.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX (_continued_).
+
+
+Chatting thus pleasantly, we come nearer and nearer the city, painted
+in violet tints against an azure sky, to find it, as we approach, a
+splendid phantasmagoria. What we deemed citadels, domes and parapets,
+prove to be the silvery dolomite only: limestone rock thrown into every
+conceivable form, the imposing masses blocking the horizon; the shadow
+of a mighty Babylon darkening the heaven; but a Babylon untenanted from
+its earliest beginning--a phantom capital, an eldritch city, whose
+streets now for the first time echo with the sound of human voice and
+tread.
+
+I can think of but one pen that could aptly describe the scene: the pen
+of a Shelley dipped in iridescence and gold; of a poet whose inner eye
+could conjure up visions of loveliness and enchantment invisible to the
+rest of mortal born. I do not know how Montpellier-le-Vieux would look
+on a dull, gray day; doubtless imagination would people it then with
+gnomes, horrid afrits, and shapes of fear. To-day, under an exquisite
+sky, pearly clouds floating across the blue, a soft southern air
+wafting the fragrance of wild pink, thyme and lavender, it was a region
+surely peopled by good genii, sportive elves and beneficent fairies
+only. We were in a spirit, a phantasmal world; but a world of witchery
+and gracious poetic thrall only.
+
+But as yet we are on the threshold, and, like other magic regions, the
+Cite du Diable unfolds its marvels all at once, as soon as the novice
+has entered within its precincts. Before us rose the colossal citadel
+so-called, pyramid upon pyramid of rock, which our guide said we must
+positively climb, the grandest panorama being here obtained; a bit of a
+scramble, he added, but a mere bagatelle--the affair of a few minutes
+only.
+
+I hesitated. We were at the foot of a chaotic wall of enormous blocks,
+piled one upon the other, with deep, ugly fissures between--the height,
+from base to summit, that of St. Paul's Cathedral. In order to reach
+even the lower platform of these superimposed masses it was necessary
+to be hoisted up after the manner of travellers ascending the Pyramids,
+only with this disadvantage--that holding on to the rocks where any
+hold was possible, and planting the feet as firmly as was practicable
+on the almost vertical sides, we had here to bestride chasm after
+chasm.
+
+'Don't be afraid,' cried our guide. 'It is nothing.'
+
+'I would venture if I were you,' urged my friend mildly. So up I went.
+
+The climbing, beyond a somewhat breathless scrambling and painful
+straining of the limbs, was nothing to speak of. For a few moments I
+could revel in the marvellous spectacle before me.
+
+Lying on a little platform, perhaps two yards square, high above the
+bright heavens, I had, far around and beneath, the wide panorama of the
+dolomite city, vista upon vista of tower and monolith, avenues, arches,
+bridges, arcades, all of cool, tender gray, amid fairy-like verdure and
+greenery. Not Lyons itself, seen from the heights of La Fourviere,
+shows a more grandiose aspect than this capital of the waste, unpeopled
+by either the living or the dead!
+
+Hardly had I realized the magic of the prospect when I became conscious
+of frightful giddiness. The flowery shelf of rock on which I lay was
+only a foot or two removed from the edge of the piled mass just climbed
+so laboriously, and, sloping downwards, seemed to invite a fall. From
+this side the incline was almost vertical, and the turf below at a
+distance of over a hundred feet. No descent was practicable except by
+bestriding the same fissures, two feet wide, and clinging to the sides
+of the rocks, as before. I now felt that terrible vertigo which I am
+convinced accounts for so many so-called suicides from lofty heights.
+To throw myself down seemed the only possible relief from the terrible
+nightmare. Had I been longer alone I must, at least, have allowed
+myself to slip off my resting-place, with certain risk to life and
+limb. As it was, I called to my companion, who had scaled another
+story--had, indeed, reached the topmost shelf of the citadel; and she
+tripped down looking so airy and alert that I felt ashamed of my own
+weakness.
+
+Pale and trembling, I pointed to the horrible staircase by which we had
+come.
+
+'Get me down some other way,' I said to the guide, who now followed,
+not slightly embarrassed. Had he possessed the physique of our punter
+of the rapids, or of our conductor, now attending to his horses at the
+farm, he could have shouldered me like a baby. But he was slight of
+build and by no means robust. Not a creature was within call, and those
+dreaded fissures had to be bestridden. There was no other means of
+descent.
+
+'It is of no use to try, I cannot get down,' I repeated, and for a
+moment a sombre vision of broken limbs and a long incarceration at the
+farm passed before my mind's eye.
+
+Reassuring me as best he could, our poor guide now grasped one of my
+hands, with the other got a strong grip of the rock, and the first
+dreaded step was achieved. The second presented greater difficulties
+still. Once more he tried to carry me, but found the task beyond his
+strength. I remembered that he was a bridegroom of a few months only;
+what would be the young wife's feelings if he now came by mishap? So I
+closed my eyes, shutting out the prospect beneath, and allowed myself
+to be dragged down somehow, never more to venture on such giddy
+heights. The incomparable view had been too dearly purchased.
+
+The moral of this incident is, let tourists subject to vertigo carry a
+smelling-bottle with them, or, better still, stay below.
+
+All had ended well, however, and I could once more enjoy the scene.
+When the first bewilderment of wonder and admiration is over; when the
+fantastic city no longer appears a vision, but a reality, pile upon
+pile of natural rock so magically cast in the form of architecture, we
+realize countless beauties unperceived at first. The intense limpidity
+and crystalline clearness of the atmosphere, the brilliance of the
+limestone, the no less dazzling hue of the foliage everywhere adorning
+it, the beautiful lights and shadows of the more distant masses, line
+upon line of far off mountain-chain, mere gold and violet clouds rising
+above the rugged outline of the Causses, the deep, rich tones of the
+nearer--these general effects are not more striking than the details
+close under our feet. About every fragment of rock is a wealth of
+leaves, flowers and berries, the dogwood and bilberry with their
+crimson and purple clusters and tufts, wild lavender and thrift, whilst
+the ground is carpeted with the leaf of the hepatica.
+
+We found also the pretty purple and white toad-flax, [Footnote: Linaria
+versicolor] the handsome gold-flowered spurges, [Footnote: Euphorbia
+sylvatica and E. cyparissea] the elegant orange and crimson-streaked
+salvia, [Footnote: Salvia glutinosa] with others more familiar to us.
+If the adorer of wild flowers is a happy person here in September, what
+enchantment would await him in the spring!
+
+Like the Russian Steppes and the African Metidja, these wastes are a
+mosaic of blossoms. The foot-sure, hardy and leisurely traveller must
+not content himself with the bird's-eye view of this dolomite city just
+described. He should spend hours, nay, days here, if he would
+conscientiously explore the stone avenues, worthy to be compared to
+Stonehenge or Carnac; the amphitheatre, vast as that of Nimes or
+Orange; the fortifications, with bulwarks, towers, and ramparts; the
+necropolis, veritable Cerameicus, or Pere-la-Chaise; the citadel, the
+forum, the suburbs; for the enthusiastic discoverers of Montpellier-le-
+Vieux, or the Cite du Diable, have made out all these.
+
+The most striking rocks have been fancifully named after the celebrated
+structures they resemble. We find the Chateau Gaillard, the Sphinx, the
+Gate of Mycenae, or of the Lions, the Street of Tombs supposed to
+resemble Pompeii, some of colossal dimensions. Thus the citadel
+measures a hundred and fifty feet from the ground, at this point
+Montpellier-le-Vieux attaining an altitude of two thousand five hundred
+feet above the sea-level. When I add that the Cite du Diable measures
+nearly two miles in length and a mile in breadth, and that its city and
+suburbs, so-called, cover a thousand hectares, an area a third less
+than that of Windsor Forest, the enterprising tourist will have some
+feeble notion of the waste before him. The place is indeed altogether
+indescribable--surely one of the most striking testimonies to the force
+of erosion existing on the earth's surface. The explanation of the
+phenomenon is found here. At a remote period of geological history the
+action of mighty torrents let loose sculptured these fantastic and
+grandiose monoliths, bored these arcades and galleries, hollowed these
+fairy-like caves. Erosion has been the architect of the Cite du Diable,
+partly by impetuous floods, partly by slow filtration. Water has
+gradually, and in the slow process of ages, built up the whole, then
+vanished altogether. Nothing strikes the imagination more than the
+absolute aridity of the region now. Not a drop left in the bed of
+ancient lake or river, not a crystal thread trickling down the rock
+channelled by ancient cascades, and nevertheless abundance of greenery
+and luxuriant foliage everywhere! The waterless world of stone is not
+only a garden, but a green forest! Immediately around us flowers,
+ferns, and shrubs adorn every bit of silvery gray rock, whilst wherever
+space admits we see noble trees, pines, oaks, beeches, some of
+marvellous growth, yet perched on heights so remote and lofty as to
+appear mere tufts of grass.
+
+And then the wonderful deliciousness and invigorating quality of the
+air! It is like tasting the waters of the Nile, an experience never to
+be forgotten.
+
+Those, indeed, who have once breathed the air of the Lozere will have
+only one desire: to breathe it again.
+
+True, Montpellier-le-Vieux, departmentally speaking, is in the Aveyron,
+if so phantom-like a city can be said to have a local habitation and a
+name. But the Lozere chain is still in sight; its breezes are wafted to
+us; we seem still in my favourite department of the eighty-seven, that
+now being the proper number, including the newly-created one of the
+Territoire de Belfort. I note the fact, as so many errors find their
+way into print on the subject of French geography. As we reflect on the
+mine of wealth this newly-discovered marvel may, we should say must,
+inevitably become to its owners and their near neighbours, a terrible
+vision rises before the mind. The gradually-diminishing area of the
+picturesque world, in proportion to the enormously-increasing
+percentage of tourists, can have but one ultimate result. In process of
+time the dolomite city must undergo the fate of other marvels of the
+natural world. Waggonettes drawn by four horses will convey the curious
+from the Grand Hotel and Hotel Splendide at Le Rozier to the Cite du
+Diable. Who can tell? A steam tramway may be placed at the disposal of
+globe-trotters sleeping at Maubert, and a patent lift or captive
+balloon for the ascension of the citadel. But no! We may at least
+console ourselves with the reflexion that such a contingency is far
+off. It will take more than a generation or two to vulgarize the Cite
+du Diable, which in our days may be considered as remote from London as
+Bagdad. The ideas of tourists in general must undergo entire
+transformation ere they will cease to endorse Shelley's opinion: 'There
+is nothing to see in France.'
+
+Perhaps these pages may tempt a stray sketcher or lover of wild flowers
+to follow my route, but the peasant-owner of Montpellier-le-Vieux,
+although reaping a fair harvest from his unique possession, will not
+certainly become a millionaire through the patronage of Messrs. Cook,
+Gaze and Caygill. And, truth to tell, it is not even every ardent lover
+of natural beauty who would be held captive here. It requires a
+peculiar temperament to appreciate this gray, silent, fantastic world
+of stone. When once within its precincts, our mood is not precisely
+that of delight or exhilaration; it is more akin to the eerie and the
+awesome. We are spellbound, not so much by the sublimity or loveliness
+of the place, but by its absolute uniqueness, its total unlikeness to
+any other on the face of the globe, its kinship with the few
+incomparable marvels Nature has given us; creations of her mysterious,
+freakish, daemonic humour. Strange that a neighbourhood so weird should
+have exercised only a wholesome influence on the character of the
+people! As far as we can judge, no franker, cheerier, more
+straightforward folks are to be found in France, to say nothing of that
+little fact of white assizes, so creditable to the department.
+
+Perhaps the fine prospect framing in Montpellier-le-Vieux is best
+appreciated as we walk back to the farm, the mind not then being full
+of expectancy. What a superb coup d'oeil! Distance upon distance, one
+mountain range rising above another, almost in endless succession, the
+various stages showing infinite gradation of colour--subtle,
+distracting, absolutely unpaintable! No wonder the air is unspeakably
+fresh and exhilarating, seeing that it blows north, south, east and
+west from lofty Alps. We have in view the sombre walls of the three
+Causses, the wide outline of the Larzac, in a vast semicircle the
+western spurs of the Cevennes, whilst from east to west stretch the
+Cantal chain, the Lozere, and the Cevennes des Gardons. [Footnote: So
+called from this portion of the Cevennes rising above the valleys of
+the streams and rivers Gardon.]
+
+We are on the Roof of France indeed! Having escaped a broken leg or
+dislocated shoulder, my only regret was that we could not spend at
+least a month within reach of the Cite du Diable. What explorations in
+search of rare flowers! what sunset effects! what impressions to be
+obtained here! How delightful, too, to make friends with the young
+owners of this strange property--the strangest surely out of the
+'Arabian Nights,' 'Vathek,' or 'The Epicurean!'--and get the farmhouse
+turned into quite an ideal hostelry! I saw in my mind's eye the
+dunghill replaced by a pretty flower-garden, a tablecloth spread for
+breakfast, the floors swept and scoured, carpets and armchairs in the
+best bedrooms, and even--my ambition went so far--trays, bells, and
+door-fastenings introduced into these wilds. As the Utopia could not be
+realized this year, I chatted with our hosts upon 'le confort,' whilst
+they brought out one liqueur after another--rum, quince-water, heaven
+knows what!--with which to restore us after our fatigues. Whilst I
+conversed on this instructive topic: 'Yes,' said the handsome,
+slatternly little mistress of the Cite du Diable, turning to her
+husband, 'we must buy some hand-basins, my dear.'
+
+We had not noticed the fact that the six bedchambers at Maubert were
+altogether unprovided with these luxuries, for luxuries they must be
+called in a region where there is absolutely nothing whatever to render
+them necessary. Without smoke, fog, artificial or atmospheric
+impurities of any kind, one might surely remain here in a condition of
+ideal cleanliness from January to December.
+
+Invigorated by the various petits verres of home-made cordials this
+hospitable young couple had pressed upon us, we now set off jauntily
+for Le Rozier. My companion, with a courage and endurance I could but
+envy, mounted the caleche; I followed close behind on foot with the
+little dog.
+
+It was amusing to watch the imperturbability of our conductor as the
+somewhat antiquated vehicle swayed this side and that, at every moment,
+as it seemed, in jeopardy of overthrow. For a mile and a half from the
+farm the road, or, rather, cart-track, may be described as a kind of
+steeplechase on wheels, every step of the way showing either a stone-
+heap or a ditch, the word 'rut' being quite an inadequate definition.
+Now I saw the hood of the carriage nod to the right, now to the left,
+as some stone-heap impeded the way; now it curtseyed forward, almost
+disappearing altogether as some gully was plunged into, horses, driver,
+and vehicle, wonderful to relate, emerging as if nothing unusual had
+happened, my companion sitting bolt upright and coolly enjoying the
+view.
+
+All this time it was instructive to watch the behaviour of the little
+dog. Whenever I lingered behind to gather a flower or gaze around, the
+intelligent little creature stopped too and waited for me, with a look
+that plainly said, 'You must not be left behind, you know.' Nothing
+would induce him to rejoin his master till I had caught him up.
+
+The drive back to Le Rozier is another balloon descent from the clouds.
+Like St. Enimie, the little town lies, figuratively speaking, at the
+bottom of a well, and as we approach we could almost drop a plummet-
+line on to the house-tops. It is a dizzy drive, and many will shut
+their eyes as their horses' hoofs turn the sharp curves of the
+precipitous mountain-sides, only an inch or two between wheel and
+precipice.
+
+And here is a caution to the adventuresome. During our stay a family-
+party set off on mule-back from Maubert to Peyreleau somewhat late in
+the day. Darkness and rain overtaking them, they were obliged to take
+shelter for the night in a peasant's cottage, thankful enough to obtain
+even such rough hospitality.
+
+Let no one undertake an expedition in these regions without proper
+information and the support of accredited guides--men well known and
+well-recommended by residents on the spot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+LE ROZIER TO MILLAU AND RODEZ.
+
+
+The road between Le Rozier and Millau is delightful; the verdure and
+brilliance of the valley in striking contrast with the sombre, dark-
+ribbed Causse Noir frowning above. For two-thirds of the way we follow
+the Tarn as it winds--here a placid stream--amid poplars, willows, and
+smooth green reaches. Gracious and lovely the shifting scenes of the
+landscape around, stern and magnificent of aspect the Causse, its
+ramparts as of iron girding it round, its gloomy escarpments showing
+deep clefts and combes, lines of purply gold and green breaking the
+gray surface.
+
+Close under this mighty shadow--a bit of fairyland by the dwelling of
+evil genii--are sunny little lawns, peach-groves, orchards, and
+terraced gardens overlooking the river; beyond, fertile fields, and
+here and there, perched on the crags, some quaint village or ruined
+chateau. The road is bordered for the most part with walnut-trees,
+affording rich foliage and delicious shadow. The colours of every
+feature in the scene--luxuriant belt of field and garden, blue hills
+and sky--have a southern warmth and brilliance.
+
+Growing close to road and river are apple-trees laden with ruddy fruit.
+In England such crops would be pillaged in a day. Among peasant
+proprietors, each respects the possession of his neighbour. This fact
+and one or two others impressed my companion much. It was her first
+acquaintance with rural France, and she had undertaken the journey
+purely as a lover of nature and art, not at all as a student of
+political economy, agriculture, or statistics. Peasant property was no
+more in her way than the Impressionist school of modern art in mine.
+But being keenly observant, and feeling, as any other member of the
+propertied class must do, aghast at the condition of rural affairs in
+England--vast tracts of cultivated land deteriorating into waste,
+agricultural wages lowered to nine shillings a week, vagrancy on the
+increase in consequence of the general migration to the towns, the sons
+of country squires enlisting in the ranks, or betaking themselves to
+manual labour in the Colonies--aghast, I say, at these signs of the
+times among ourselves, she could but feel some surprise at her French
+experiences. The entire absence of mendicants in the departments we had
+lately traversed--these reputed among the poorest in France--was
+altogether a revelation to her, as indeed it must be to any stranger on
+French soil. Even in a neglected-looking place like Peyreleau, where
+the people are wholly unused to the sight of tourists, and life is
+evidently one of extreme laboriousness, no hand is held out for an
+alms. In our long drives across country, where strangers in a carriage
+and pair are assuredly taken for millionaires, we were never asked by
+man, woman or child for a sou.
+
+Again, the good, neat, suitable clothes of the country-people struck my
+friend no less. The total absence of tawdriness and finery on Sundays,
+the equally total absence of rags and squalor on week-days, afforded a
+striking contrast to what we are accustomed to see at home. It is more
+especially in the matter of foot-gear that the working-classes in
+France show to advantage. My friend noticed with admiration the well-
+stockinged, well-shod children, all having good strong shoes--stockings
+evidently bought or made for them, not the ill-fitting belongings of
+others, gifts of charity or bargains of the pawnshop. The men and
+women, too, are uniformly well shod, with strong, clean, home-knit
+stockings. Again, the implied sense of security in these unprotected
+gardens and wayside orchards is a novelty to the English mind. At
+Hastings, which may also be called the metropolis of vagrancy, it is
+impossible to keep a poor little wallflower or a primrose in one's
+garden. An apple-tree would be pillaged on any public road in England
+before the fruit was half ripe. Not only here, but in Anjou and many
+other regions, I have walked or driven for miles, amid unprotected
+vineyards and fruit-trees, the ripening crops being within reach of
+passers-by. No one pillages his neighbour.
+
+Yes, peasant property is a detestable, nay, an iniquitous, institution,
+only to be compared to the Inquisition itself. No one who does not
+already possess several thousand acres of land ought to be permitted by
+law to purchase a single rood. Nine shillings a week, Christmas doles
+of beef and flannel petticoats from the Hall, the workhouse as a reward
+for fifty years' patient following the plough--these make up the only
+Utopia worth mentioning. Every right-minded person, every true
+Christian, has come to such conclusions long ago. Yet when it is
+possible to spend weeks in a civilized country without encountering a
+beggar; when we see an entire population well-clothed, cheerful, and
+self-supporting in old age; when we see fruit-crops ripening in all
+security by the roadside, and inquire throughout the length and breadth
+of the land for a poor-house in vain; when we find judge and jury
+dismissed at assize after assize because there are no criminals to try,
+we are tempted to exclaim:
+
+'Peasant property or no, they manage these things better in France!'
+
+'There is no want here,' our driver said, and the fact is self-evident.
+
+As we approach Millau we meet streams of country folk disporting
+themselves, some afoot, others in rustic vehicles--the men wearing
+clean blue blouses over the Sunday broadcloth, the women neat black
+gowns, kerchiefs, and spotless white coiffes. The fields are deserted.
+Man and beast are resting from the labours of the week.
+
+The landscape now changes altogether, and we are reminded that we have
+quitted the Lozere for the Aveyron. The air has lost the matchless
+purity and exhilarating briskness of Sauveterre and Montpellier-le-
+Vieux. Alike sky, atmosphere, and vegetation recall the south. Pink and
+white oleanders bloom before every door; the quince, the mulberry, the
+peach, ripen in every garden. We long to get at our boxes and exchange
+woollen travelling-dresses for cottons and muslins.
+
+Pleasant and welcome as is this soft air, this warm heaven, this
+bright, rich-coloured, flowery land, we strain our eyes to get a last
+glimpse of the Causse Noir. To betake ourselves to cosmopolitan hotels,
+cities and railways, after this sojourn in elfdom, was like closing the
+pages of 'Don Quixote' or Lucian to read a debate in the House or
+listen to a sermon.
+
+And now that I am no longer held spellbound by wizardry and genii, good
+or evil, and the first glow of enthusiasm is over, let me jot down a
+few hard facts for the reader's edification--give in a few words the
+geological and general history of the Causses, if nothing more--a bare
+outline to serve the tourist on his way. The origin of the phenomenon
+is thus explained by the great French geographer, Elisee Reclus, in his
+chapter on 'Le Plateau Central de la France.' [Footnote: See his
+'Geographie Universelle,' vol. ii.: 'La France,' 1885.] 'There is no
+doubt,' he writes, 'that at a remote period all these plateaux of
+jurassic rock formed a single Causse, deposed by the sea in the
+southern strait of the granitic group of France. Although the Causse
+Mejean, placed almost in the centre of the series of plateaux, is a
+hundred metres loftier than the rest, its formation accords with
+theirs. All show the same features. From the banks of the Herault to
+those of the Lot and the Aveyron, all show the same development of
+continuous strata. The ancient glaciers spread on the highest summits
+of the Cevennes as they melted, gradually cut into the rock, channelled
+openings--finally, forcing their way through the layers, have formed
+these gigantic defiles, now the marvel of geologists. If the rivers
+flow in an unbroken stream in these deep gorges, on the contrary, water
+is altogether absent from the plateaux above. The ground, riddled
+everywhere into holes and fissures, is hardly moistened by a shower.
+The rain, as if falling through a sieve, immediately disappears. In
+some places the chasms of rock have widened, the intermediate
+projections given way, and huge cavities of rightful depth--avens or
+tindouls, as they are locally called--are formed in the limestone. But
+the surface of the Causse is almost universally uniform, and these
+subterranean wells are only indicated by slight openings. Nowhere a
+foundation springs forth. Alike as to formation, aspect, and climate,
+the Causses are unique in France.'
+
+This entire chapter is a necessary preparation for no matter how hasty
+a journey in the Lozere; equally to be recommended is the study of the
+Causses by M. Onesime Reclus in his work 'La France.' [Footnote:
+'L'orage aux larges gouttes, la pluie fine, les ruisseaux de neige
+fendue, les sources joyeuses ne sont pas pour le Causse, qui est
+fissure, crible, casse, qui ne retient point les eaux, tout ce que lui
+verse la nue, entre dans la rocaille. Et c'est bien, bien bas que
+l'onde engloutie se decide a reparaitre, elle sort d'une grotte, au
+fond des gorges, au pied de ces roches droites, symetriques,
+monumentales, qui porte le terre-plein du Causse. Mais ce que le
+plateau n'a bu qu'en mille gorgees, la bouche de la caverne le rend
+souvent par un seul flot, les gouttes qui tombent du filtre s'unissant
+dans l'ombre en misseaux, puis en rivieres. Aussi, les sources du pied
+du Causse, sont-elles admirables par l'abondance des eaux, par la
+hauteur et la sublimite des rocs, de leur "bouts de mondes." Trop de
+soleil si le Causse est bas, trop de neige s'il est eleve, toujours et
+partout le vent, qui tord les bois chetifs, pour lac, une mare, pour
+riviere un ravin, de rocheuses prairies tondues par des moutons et des
+brebis a laine fine, des champs caillouteux d'orge, d'avoine, de pommes
+de terre, rarement de ble, voila les Causses! Le Caussenard seul peut
+aimer le Causse, mais qui n'admirerait les vallees qui l'entourent?']
+
+I may add that the only traces of volcanic action in the Causses have
+been found at Sauveterre, near the so-called capital. Here basaltic
+rocks exist amid the limestone.
+
+It is not only the geologist and the botanist, in search of an emotion,
+to use a French phrase, who will find a paradise here. The
+palaeontologist is no less happy. Sparsely peopled, isolated from
+civilization as is the 'great jurassic island' in our own day--lost as
+it seems to have been in the pages of French history--it was inhabited
+by our prehistoric forerunners, contemporaries of the great cave-bear.
+The entire department of the Lozere is a rich palaeontological field,
+and the Causse Mejean especially has afforded abundant treasure-trove.
+In the vast caverns and grottoes of its walls, great quantities of
+flint implements and fossils, human and animal, have been discovered. A
+collection of these may be seen in the museum of Mende.
+
+The Causses, owing to their isolated position, may be said to have
+escaped a history. The great wave of religious warfare that devastated
+the Cevennes in the Middle Ages passed them by. Only here and there on
+the skirts of Sauveterre, near Mende, and of the Causse Noir, near
+Millau, as we have seen, are relics of feudal times. Close around,
+under the very shadow of these vast promontories, cresting the borders
+of the Tarn and the green heights between Millau and Mende, ruined
+strongholds and chateaux abound. The Causse itself enjoyed immunity
+alike from ferocious seigneurs and still more ferocious theologian
+bandits, seeking, as they put it, the salvation of their neighbours'
+souls. The merciless Calvinist leader, Merle, who burnt, pillaged, and
+depopulated Mende; the equally merciless quellers of the Camisard
+revolt, emissaries of Louis XII., were tempted by no more prey to
+penetrate these solitudes.
+
+Were they, indeed, peopled at all? Was the so-called capital of
+Sauveterre even in existence? Who can answer the questions? Nor is it
+easy to determine when the entire region first fell under the
+observation of French geographers, and found at last a name and a place
+on the map of France.
+
+Arthur Young, the most curious and accurate traveller of his time,
+brought, moreover, into contact with the best informed Frenchmen of the
+day, had evidently never heard of any portion of the Gevaudan, as the
+Lozere was then called, at all answering to the Causses. But a French
+traveller before alluded to--himself without doubt stimulated by the
+example of our countryman--M. Vaysse de Villiers, author of the
+'Itineraire Descriptif de la France,' did in 1816, or thereabouts,
+accomplish the journey from Mende to Florac by way of Sauveterre.
+'Never,' he wrote, 'have I seen a more complete aridity, so utter a
+desert,' He goes on to describe the beauty of the Tarnon (a small river
+of the Lozere) and its verdant banks. 'All this, added to the
+delightfulness of the autumn day and the horrible Causse of
+Sauveterre,' but just passed, transformed the dreary town and narrow
+valley of Florac into a delicious retreat. In a note he gives the
+accepted derivation of _Causse_ from _calx_, saying that it
+was of general application, and that the word certainly filled a blank
+in French nomenclature.
+
+It is now instructive to turn to French guidebooks and see how
+completely the region here described was ignored till within the last
+few years. I have before me Joanne's invaluable and conscientious
+guides for Auvergne, including the Cevennes, published respectively in
+1874 and 1883. In the former, whilst the Causses figure in the map,
+beyond a brief allusion to the Causse Noir, they are ignored
+altogether. St. Enimie is not once mentioned, and nothing is said about
+the gorges of the Tarn. As to Montpellier-le-Vieux, it could find no
+place in a guide-book of that date, seeing that it was only discovered
+ten years later. We now take the edition of 1883. Here, the route from
+Mende to St. Enimie by way of Sauveterre is described also in the
+fewest possible words, two pages being found sufficient for short
+descriptions of the gorges of the Tarn by way of Florac, St. Enimie and
+the valley of the Joute. Montpellier-le-Vieux, for the very good reason
+mentioned above, is still absent. But just a year later we find the
+guide-book remodelled altogether. Joanne now devotes an entire, volume
+to the Cevennes, and states in his preface that the new issue of the
+'General Itinerary of France' contains an account of a region very
+little known to French tourists, yet well worth visiting, the region
+comprising the Causses, the Canon du Tarn and Montpellier-le-Vieux. The
+distinguished geographer, alas! did not live to see his little purple
+volume, and, I am compelled to add, Baedeker's red rival, in the hands
+of scores and hundreds of his fellow-countrymen and women bound for the
+Lozere.
+
+If the reader now turns to a map of France, and draws a perpendicular
+line from Mende to Lodeve, and a vertical line from Millau to Florac,
+he will have a pretty good notion of the area occupied by the Causses,
+including that of the Larzac in Aveyron.
+
+When it is taken into account that the superficies thus covered in the
+Lozere alone reaches the total of 125,000 hectares, some idea may be
+gathered of the magnitude of the whole. The entire population of these
+highlands was only 6,662 souls in 1876, and there can be little doubt
+that, in the slow process of time, either they will be abandoned
+altogether, or by means of scientific methods utterly transformed. The
+laborious, long-suffering, hitherto ignored Caussenard will not surely
+be long neglected by the patriarchal Government of France. The Republic
+has laid iron roads across the Lozere, thus redeeming the department
+from the isolation and inertia of former times. Another tardigrade act
+of justice will surely ere long complete the work, and the inhabitant
+of the French steppes be made to share in the well-being and happiness
+long enjoyed by his fellow-countrymen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+RODEZ, VIC-SUR-CERE REVISITED.--A BREAKFAST ON THE BANKS OF THE
+SAONE.
+
+
+In future, tourists bound northward will be able to reach Neussargues
+on the Clermont and Nimes railway by a direct line from Mende and St.
+Flour. As this new line is not yet completed, and I had set my heart
+upon revisiting Rodez and Vic-sur-Cere, we took the more circuitous
+route, going over the same ground I had traversed the year before. It
+was once my ambition to visit one by one every noteworthy spot in
+France. The appetite grows by what it feeds on, and now I never see any
+striking place without making up my mind to see it twice.
+
+Great was my delight at Rodez to find a bright, cheerful, spick and
+span hotel, newly opened since last year. The time-honoured house of
+Biney has two credentials worthy of mention--very low charges and good
+food. Its modern rival has greater claims upon the wayfarer's
+gratitude--pleasant, wholesome rooms, neat chambermaids, and the kind
+of modernization so necessary to health and comfort. The Hotel Flouron,
+too, is presided over by a lady, and when we have said this we have
+implied a good deal. A grand old town is the capital of the Aveyron. We
+must see it again and again to realize its superb position and the
+unique splendour of its cathedral, towering over the wide landscape as
+our own Ely Cathedral over the eastern plains. To-day it was not
+flushed with the flaming red and gold of sunset, as when first I saw it
+a year before, but its aspect was perhaps all the more grandiose for
+sombre colouring.
+
+From both extremities of the town we obtain vast panoramas; we look
+down as if from a mountain-top, the plateau or isthmus on which Rodez
+stands being two hundred and fifty feet above the circumjacent plain,
+the river Aveyron almost cutting it off from the mainland. Within a few
+yards of the Hotel Flouron we reach the edge of this escarpment, and
+gaze upon the wide valley of the Aveyron, village-crested hills, and
+the dim blue outline of the far-off Larzac.
+
+From the public promenade at the other end of the city we look westward
+upon a richly-cultivated plain set round with the Cantal mountains,
+gold-green vineyards, wine-red soil, and deep purple distance.
+
+The physical characteristics of some French departments are as nicely
+defined as their political demarcations. Nothing can afford a sharper
+contrast than the Aveyron, with its ruddy soil and red rocks, and the
+green, pastoral Cantal, land of smiling valleys, unbroken pastures, and
+hills that wear a look of perpetual spring. These differences cannot
+fail to strike the traveller who journeys from Rodez to Vic-sur-Cere; a
+charming bit of railway it is, especially in autumn, when the chestnut
+woods begin to show autumn crimson and gold.
+
+And Vic-sur-Cere, too, delights even more on a second visit. The spot
+is indeed a corner of Eden--a happy valley, to be transformed, alas!
+into a miniature Vals. My hostess told me that a casino, hotel, and
+bathing establishment are about to be built, all bringing their
+concomitant evils or advantages, as we may respectively regard
+cosmopolitan comforts, high prices, frivolous distractions, and a
+fashionable crowd.
+
+How kindly the good folks of the homely Hotel du Pont welcomed their
+guest of last year, filling my basket at departure with gifts of
+flowers, fruit, and little cheeses, begging me to return the following
+summer! At Clermont-Ferrand, good fortune for the first time directed
+me to a really comfortable hotel, as on previous visits, alike in
+lodgings and hotels, I had been cheated, bullied, and made
+uncomfortable. Let me signal alike the fact and the name: at the Hotel
+de la Poste I was enabled really to enjoy this interesting old town,
+the views of the Puy de Dome from every opening, the noble, Romanesque
+church of Notre Dame du Port, the magnificent display of the shops-no
+town in all France where you can buy more beautiful jewellery, bronzes
+and porcelain than at Clermont.
+
+My companion quitted me here, proceeding by night express to Paris, and
+I took the long, slow, wearisome parliamentary to Lyons, a ten hours'
+journey, which wiser travellers will not fail to break half-way. The
+only express train between Clermont and Lyons leaves very early in the
+morning, so we have a choice of evils.
+
+I do not know why the Puy de Dome should be my favourite mountain, but
+so it is, and never did it look lovelier than to-day, as, with its
+sister volcanoes, pyramid upon pyramid of warm purple, it towered above
+the green Limagne; gradually the rest receded from view, till at last
+nothing was left but that solitary dome of amethyst under the golden
+heaven. At Lyons--where I awaited a dear French friend--I always make a
+point of seeing the famous town-clock, work of a modern sculptor, a son
+of Lyons.
+
+This clock, or rather the marble facade adorning it, is not only a work
+of genius, but a sermon in stone, perpetually preached to the surging,
+buzzing crowds below. It stands high above the central hall of the
+Exchange, at business hours a scene of extraordinary bustle and
+excitement, which the public can always watch from the gallery above,
+and from which they command an excellent view of the clock.
+
+The noble piece of sculpture forming the facade represents the various
+stages of human life--three female figures composing the group--the
+Hour that is gone, the Hour that is here, the Hour that is coming.
+Simple as is the arrangement of the whole, nevertheless, so skilful is
+the pourtrayal that each figure seems to move before our eyes. We
+almost see the despairing past sink into the abyss, her passive, erect
+sister, the dominant hour, letting go her hand, whilst, radiant and
+impatient for her own reign to begin, the joyous impersonation of the
+future springs upward as if on wings.
+
+This allegory, so powerfully and poetically rendered in marble, might
+have been more appropriately placed. Does it not savour of irony thus
+to idealize the three stages of human existence 'among the money-
+changers of the Temple'?
+
+Next day was Sunday, as glorious a sixteenth of September as could be
+desired. In company with my friend I set off for an al-fresco breakfast
+on the banks of the Saone.
+
+No city in all France boasts of more umbrageous walks than Lyons, and
+for miles we drive along the plane-bordered quays and suburban slopes,
+dotted with villas and chateaux, the modest chalet of the artisan and
+small shopkeeper peeping amid vineyards and orchards, whilst showing a
+splendid front from English-like park we see many a palatial mansion of
+silk merchant or iron-founder.  Between the sunny vine-clad hills and
+belt of suburban dwellings flows the placid Saone, a contrast indeed to
+its swift, impetuous brother--no wonder the Rhone has a masculine name!
+
+An hour of upward climb, and we might fancy ourselves in Switzerland or
+at Keswick, anywhere but within an easy walk of the second Paris--so
+cool the shadow of the over-arching trees, so rustic the ferny rock, so
+quiet the woodland glades. We got lovely glimpses of the clear, blue
+river as, freighted with many a pleasure-boat, it winds its way towards
+Macon.
+
+In a sequestered nook at the foot of these wooded hills is a curious
+monument, none more martial to be found in the world--the tomb of a
+soldier, constructed by soldiers; on a plain marble slab inscribed the
+words: 'Here lies a soldier,' not a syllable more.
+
+On either side, under a small open chapel, portico-shaped, in which the
+stone lies, are two figures, a dragoon and a foot-soldier, who keep
+perpetual watch over their chief.
+
+This is the self-chosen monument of the General Castellane, one of the
+first Napoleon's veterans. Perpetual Masses are celebrated here on his
+behalf.
+
+We drive on to our destination, the Ile Barbe, a narrow wooded islet,
+dividing the Saone into two branches, and forming the favourite
+holiday-ground of the Lyonnais. The rich hire a special pleasure-boat
+or carriage; the happy tourist is, perhaps, like myself, driven thither
+by ever-hospitable, too hospitable, French friends, who, not content
+with affording their guests a day's unmitigated pleasure, invariably
+contrive to eliminate every element of fatigue. Holiday-making is
+indeed cultivated to the point of a fine art in France.
+
+For slender purses there are cheap boats, cheap railways, and the
+omnibus. It does one's heart good to see scores of family parties today
+availing themselves of the superb weather and taking a last picnic.
+In every green, shady nook we see a merry group squatted on the ground,
+relishing their cold patties, fruit and wine, as they can only be
+relished out of doors. The babies, nursemaids, and pet dogs are there.
+Breakfast over, the holiday-makers amuse themselves, grandparents and
+bantlings, with fishing for minnows in the clear waters.
+
+How merry are all! How all too swiftly fleet the bright hours!
+
+In the spacious, terraced garden of the restaurant we find dozens of
+tables spread for richer folk. We prefer the cool, quiet dining-room,
+which we have to ourselves, after all. The food is not of the choicest,
+the wine compels criticism between each course, we have to wait long
+enough for the making of an ordinary meal; but French gaiety and good-
+nature overlook these drawbacks, and the charming view of the river and
+its wooded banks, the freshness of the air, the atmosphere of gala and
+relaxation, make up for everything; the bill is cheerfully paid, and
+all but the separate items of the day's enjoyment forgotten.
+
+Perhaps the charm of a French picnic is enhanced by the fact that it is
+never made too long. Our neighbours do not make what is called 'a day
+of it,' but wisely prefer to take their pleasure as they do their
+champagne--in moderation. We drive home, feeling fresh and alert as
+when we set out.
+
+Everyone is abroad. As we pass through the workman's suburb, the ultra-
+socialist, ultra-revolutionary quarter of the city, in which political
+passions have so often raged hotly, and popular feeling has taken
+incendiary form, we find only peacefulness and calm. The socialist and
+red-revolutionary, in his Sunday's best, sits before his front door,
+reading a newspaper, playing with his baby or chatting with a
+neighbour. Pet dogs and cats sun themselves with a lazy, Sunday air,
+girls and lovers flirt, children play, gossips tell each other the
+news. It is difficult to believe that we are passing the stormiest
+quarter of the stormiest city in France. All is as quiet as the
+riverside scenes we have just left.
+
+With this delightful recollection I close my latest--not, I trust,
+last--French journey.
+
+I took leave of my dear friend at Lyons, both of us hoping to breakfast
+together next time, not on the banks of the Saone, but on the Eiffel
+Tower, there to fete the glorious Revolution, in the words of our great
+Fox: 'How much the greatest event that ever happened in the world, and
+how much the best!'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Roof of France, by Matilda Betham-Edwards
+
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