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portant factory of St. Gobain, 10 miles S.E., first established by Louvois. Pop., 6,390. The canal opens a way between the Oise and Somme.

In winter the meadows along the Oise are inundated by the rain, and swarm with ducks, plovers, cranes, herons, and other wild fowl.

[The forest of St. Gobain, above mentioned contains many striking spots, such as the remains of a vast Premonstratensian Abbey, now used as a glass works; le Tortoir, a house which belonged to the Knights Templars; the runs of St. Nicholasaux-Bois, a Bernardine house; and the Croix Coesiné, an ancient expiatory monument, erected by St. Louis. South of St. Gobain, and about 7 miles from Chauny, are the magnificent ruins

of

Coucy Castle, or Coucy-le-Château, a great object of attraction to visitors, and among the finest of the kind in France or western Europe. The most conspicuous remains are one entire wing, with great corner towers, and, rising above all, the massive circular Keep, a solid machicolated pile, 190 feet high, and 30 to 32 feet thick. This castle belonged to the De Coucys, or Courcys, a turbulent and warlike race, who gave continual trouble to their neighbours and sovereigns until they died out, and their seat was at last destroyed

by Mazarin. They bore the proud device-
"Je ne suis Roy, ni Duc, Prince, ni Comte aussi ;
Je suis le Sire de Coucy."

(I am neither King, Duke, Prince, nor Count;
I am the Lord of Coucy.)

Twelve of this warlike house died in Palestine, fighting against the infidels: John de Coucy became a favourite of King John, and the first Earl of Ulster; and a daughter of Ingelram de Coucy (who is buried near Sursee, in Switzerland, where he fell in battle, 1376) became the queen of Alexander II. of Scotland. There are remains of another Château in the village, where Clothaire IV. died in 719, and where La Belle Gabrielle gave birth to the Duc de Vendôme, Henry IV.'s son.

Half way between this and Chauny, is another seat of the Coucys, Folembrai (now a bottle factory), which, like their original castle, was forfeited to the French kings. At times it has been the residence of Diane de Poictiers and Gabrielle d'Estrées.

Near Chauny is Quiéray, where Charles Martel died, also remarkable as the spot where the treaty was made between Pepin and Stephen II., in 743, which confirmed to the Papacy its possessions in Italy.]

Tergnier-la-Fere (43 miles), where the branch line, via Laon, turns off to Rheims and Epernay, as in Routes 6 and 55.

Montescourt (5) miles), whence Ham (as above) may be visited. At 8 miles further, over a marshy tract, which cost the engineers some trouble to consolidate, you come to

ST. QUENTIN, 1062 miles from Paris.

HOTEL.-Du Cygne.

This place, seated on a hill between the Somme and St. Quentin canal, is a sous-préfecture (in department Aisne), of 24,400 souls, who carry on here, as the centre of a wide district, thriving manufactures of cotton, thread, table linens, silk, tulle, muslin, shawls, steamengines, oil, soap, &c. It was the Roman AugustaVivamanduorum, but was called St. Quentin from 884, after the martyr of that name. It suffered from the Vandals, 401; Attila and his Huns, 451; the Normans, in the 8th and 9th cents.; and was made the head of the Vermandois country by Louis I., for his nephew Pepin. Louis XI., and his rival, Charles of Burgundy, frequently contested it. 1557, it was defended by Coligny against 50,000 Spaniards under Philip II. (King of England) and Emanuel of Savoy, but taken, after a long siege. A battle fought close to it, 10th August, the same year, in which Philip was again victorious, led to his building the Escurial, in fulfilment of a vow he had made.

In

The houses are modern; three faubourgs stretch beyond the site of its old ramparts. Overlooking the town, on the hill-top, is the fine Church, a large and imposing Gothic specimen, about 420 feet long from the large Fulrad porch to the Virgin chapel, and 127 feet high in the nave (which is 212 feet long); it has 110 windows, some stained, and 42 feet high, with 23 side chapels, and 78 pillars. A tall spire used to rise above the square tower. It was a cathedral till the bishop removed to Noyon.

The Hôtel de Ville, in Grande Place, built 1509, in the Gothic style, is worth notice for its handsome front and arcade, quaint carvings, and lantern tower, in which is a good chime of bells. A Latin inscription on the front magnifies the behaviour of the citizens in the siege above mentioned, before and after the battle. It stood eleven assaults, and was given up to plunder when taken. There are also a college, palais de justice, library of 17,000 vols., new theatre, gas works, besides a conseil-de-prud' hommes (who arrange prices, &c., between masters and workmen), schools of design. founded by La Tour (a native portrait painter), botanic garden, hospital, &c.

The St. Quentin canal, which is part of the system called Canal de Picardie, unites the Oise and Somme to the Schelde, near Cambrai; one of its tunnels, near Bellicourt, is 5,677 metres, or 3 miles, long. Charlevoix, the Jesuit historian, was a native: so was Babeuf, the Communist, who died on the scaffold, 1797. Traces of three Roman ways are seen. The old town kept its Latin name for a long time in the form of Aoste.

Within a few miles of St. Quentin are-Caulaincourt (near the Oise), the seat of the Duke de Vicenza, which was rebuilt 1773, after having been destroyed by the Spaniards; St. Simon, once the property of the Duke de St. Simon, (author of Memoirs of Louis XIV. and the Regency; and Moy, which belonged to Cardinal de Brienne, one of the ministers of Louis XVI.

Coaches to Le Catelet, Ribemont, Guise, La Capelle. A line of railway is talked off, from St. Quentin, vid Ham, to Amiens, and thence to Rouen.

[GUISE (26 kil. east-north-east), a small third-class fortress, in a pretty spot on the Oise, is as old as 1050, and was given, 1520, to Claude de Lorraine, first Duke of Guise. Mary, Queen of Scots, was his grand-daughter; and Francis, surnamed le Balafré (from a scar in his face), was his grand

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Busigny (3) miles). Here the junction rail from Somain (in Route 4), via Cambrai, falls in. It has eight stations-BERTRY, CAUDRY, CATTENIÈRES, CAMBRAI, IWUY, BOUCHAIN, LOURCHES, and DENAIN (used for the Anzin and other coal mines only); none of which are of any importance, except Bouchain, a small sous-prefecture of 1,600 souls, and Cambrai, as below. It serves mainly to open a com munication with the coal mines round Valenciennes [Cambrai, 38 kil. north of St. Quentin, on the road to Douai, is a sous-préfecture in depart ment Nord, an ancient and strongly-fortified town of the second class, in the old province of Flanders, and seat of a bishopric; but it was an archdiocese when held by the excellent Fénelon,

whose monument, by David, is in the present cathedral: the old one in which he was buried was razed at the Revolution.

It was the Roman Cameracum, and the head of a district called Cambrésis, held by the bishop as a fief of the German empire. It stands in a fertile pasture land, near the source of the Escaut of Schelde, which runs through it The fortifications are strengthened by a citadel of Vauban's, on a hill, which was occupied by the English, in 1815. Nôtre Dame bridge leads out on one side. The Hôtel de Ville fronts the large Place d'Armes (exercise ground). The Esplanade is also of great extent. It has a military hospital, a college, a public library of 30,000 volumes, mont de piété (loan fund), theatre, and several gablefronted houses and public buildings. An alliance, or league was concluded here in 1508, by France, Spain, and Austria, with Pope Julius II, for spoiling Venice of her continental possessions. Monstrelet, the historian antiquary, and General Dumouriez, were natives.

Fine linen, cambrics (to which this town first gave the name), lace, thread, &c. are made. Pop. 21,400.]

It

Le Cateau (51 miles), or Cateau Cam bresis, on the Selle, a place of 5,946 inhabitants, is best known for the treaty of peace, made 1559, beween Philip of Spain and Henry II. of France. was the head-quarters of the Duke of Wellington Marshal Mortier was born here. It had a castle or château built by Bishop Hallais. [SOLESMES (8 kil. from Le Câteau, along the Velen

in 1815.

ciennes road) on the Selle, has the cloister, &c., of an abbey of old date, with a modern church, having a spire 213 feet high. Pop. 5,000. Linens, muslins, &c., are made, besides soap and leather.] Landrecies (7 miles), a small fortified town. Coaches to Avesnes and Le Quesnoy.

[LE QUESNOY (about 12 miles east), a fourth class fortress, on a hill, in a wide plain, near Mormal Forest, with an arsenal, a curious church, a nail factory, &c. It was taken by Prince Eugene, 1712, taken and retaken, 1793, and occupied by the Allies, 1815-18. J

Aulnoye (8 miles). Coach to Avesnes. [AVESNES (10 kil. east), the Roman Avesno, a sous

préfecture and fortified town, on the Sambre, near the Belgian frontier, taken by the Prussians, 1815. It has a church, with a tower about 320 feet high, Hôtel de Ville, clock tower, &c., and is noted for prepared boars' heads. Pop. 3,600.] Hautmont (4 miles).

Maubeuge (2 miles), a small frontier fortress

on the Sambre, with a population of 7,400, and manufactures of fire-arms, nails, iron, &c. Coal and marble are got near. The Austrians were defeated here, 1793.

[BAVAY, or Bavai (8 miles north-west), the Roman Bayacum, has, in the Place, a seven-sided pillar, marking on its faces as many Roman ways, and said to replace a Roman milliary stone which stood here within the last two centuries.] JEUMONT (6 miles), a French douane. Across the

Belgian frontier is Erquelines (1 mile), another douane, where luggage is examined. Thence to

Charleroi (18 miles), from which trains run to Waterloo, and

Brussels (45 miles), and to

Cologne (1382 miles). See Bradshaw's HandBook to Belgium.

ROUTE 6.

Paris to Creil, Tergnier, Laon, & Rheims. Distance, from Tergnier 49% miles. Four trains daily.

This line was constructed by the Ardennes Company in 1857. With that from Rheims to Mezières, it fills up the frontier ground (occupied by the departments of Ardennes, &c.,) between the Northern and Eastern systems, and works in connection with both. Tergnier, as on the Paris and St. Quentin line, Route 5; then comes

La Fere (34 miles), on the Oise, where the Serre joins it;-an old fortress, where the Spaniards, in 1592, met the Leaguers, about putting a Spanish prince upon the throne, instead of Henry IV. The Allies took it (1815) after six months' siege. It has the oldest artillery school in France (1719), with a large arsenal and barracks.

Crepy (7) miles), from which the glass works of St. Gobain and the fine castles of Coucy and Anizy may be visited, as in Route 5.

At 6 miles beyond this is

Laon, 110 miles from Paris. Hotels-De l'Ecu (Crown Piece); De la Hure (Boar's Head);

De la Barrière.

Pop., 10,100. Capital of department Aisne (in the old province of La Brie), a fortified town, and formerly seat of a diocess, on a rocky hill, 720 feet above sea level, in a fertile wine country, half way between the Aisne and Oise. It was the ancient Laudunum, and as it stands high, the air is keen, though healthy. The old walls and ramparts command a succession of fine prospects on all sides.

The Cathedral Church of Nôtre Dame, the most remarkable building, is an excellent uniform specimen of the early pointed style in France; it was built 1112-14. It has five towers, portals pierced with deep entrances (three in the west front), stained rose and other windows, and several ornamented side chapels. St. Martin's Church is as old as the 12th cent., and has two good towers. The abbey of that name is now the Hôtel Dieu.

Another abbey (Nôtre Dame, founded 645,) is occupied by the préfecture, where the library of 17,000 volumes is placed. There are also the college, theatre, barracks, the citadel (on the site of a castle built by Louis Outremer, and pulled down, 1831), and the leaning tower of Penchée in the walls, near the Porte St. Martin.

Lothaire I., St. Remi, and Marshal Serrurier, were born here. It was taken by the Allies in 1814-15, Clovis made it the seat of a bishop, who afterwards came to be styled Duke of Laon, &c. The caves in the rock are worth notice.

Manufactures of stockings, hats, leather, nails, and a trade in corn, wine, excellent artichokes, &c. Conveyances to Soissons, Marle, Vervins, &c. [VERVINS (37 kil.), on the Vilpion, a small place and sous-préfecture of 2,800 pop., was frequently ravaged in the civil wars of France. Henry IV. and Philip II., of Spain, made peace here, 1598. In the chapel to the hospice, founded 1570, by Jacques de Coucy, is a picture by Jouvenet (St. Charles Borromeo during the Plague of Milan), and another, by the same hand, is in the parish church.]

Coucy-Notre Dame de Liesse (6 miles).
Saint Erme (4 miles).

Guignicourt (8 miles), near the Aisne.
Loivre (6 miles).

Rheims is 6 miles further, as in Route 55.

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BEAUVAIS,

22 miles from Creil.

HOTELS.-Du Cygne, good;
Hôtel d'Angleterre.

CHIEF OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-Cathedral-St. Etienne's Church-Hotel de Ville-Bishop's PalaceTapestry Factory-Old Towers, in La Cité.

Pop., 14,200. Chief town of department Oise, and a bishopric, with a tribunale de première instance, college, societies of agriculture and arts, and manu factures, &c., standing in a fertile valley, on the rivers Thérain and Avalon, on the old road to Calais. This very ancient place, was the Roman Casaromagus or Bellovaci, which joined the league against Cæsar, without success. It gave name to the insurrection of the "Jacquerie," in king John's time, so called after one Jacques, a man of Beauvais, who headed the mob against their feudal oppressors. The English besieged it, 1472, but were repulsed by Jean Lignière. It was again attempted by Charles the Bold, with 80,000 men, in 1472, when it was so well

defended, by the valour of Jeanne Laine, or Jeanne le Hachette, and the women of the town, that they have taken precedence of the men, in an annual procession, in October, ever since. This heroine's picture and banner are in the Hotel de Ville.

In La Cité, the oldest part, some round towers of solid construction may be seen, as ancient as the 3rd or 4th cent. The ramparts of the 12th cent. are laid out as promenades. You may notice a great number of timbered houses, curiously carved, with their gables turned to the narrow streets.

St. Pierre Cathedral, in Rue St. Pierre, with its buttresses and pinnacles, is the great object of attraction. It was begun, 1225, but is incomplete, having no nave or steeple. The latter was overturned in a storm, 1574. A fine rose window stands over the entrance, in the south porch, which is full of niches and other ornaments. The magnificent choir, is 51 feet broad, but 145 feet high so that in this respect it exceeds that at Amiens, by 13 feet, and Westminster, by about 57 feet. It is the highest choir, or roof, perhaps, in the world. The transepts were built, 1500-55. The long narrow windows are richly stained.

In the chapel is the kneeling effigy of Cardinal Forbin de Janson, by Coustou, and a piece of tapestry, the "Healing of the Paralytic." One part, called the

Basse (Euvre, on the west side, is of the 9th cent.

St. Etienne's (St. Stephen's) is a transition church, older than the cathedral, with good stained windows of the 16th cent. Formerly this town had three abbeys, seven convents, six collegiate, and thirteen parish churches, with a commandery of St. John, &c., attached to it.

The Bishop's Palace, now the Préfecture, is in the castle style, with towers, &c. The Hôtel de Ville, in the Grande Place, is a fine, regular building, with an Ionic frout, built 1754. There are also, the college, the bibliothèque, or public library of 7,000 vols., the Hôtel Dieu, a salle de spectacle, or theatre, cavalry barracks, and the government tapestry factory, founded by Colbert.

L'Ile Adam, Grand Master at the siege of Rhodes, was a native. Small canals and branches of the Thérain run through the town. Its manufactures linens (called demi-Hollands), felt for hats, cotton are woollens, flannels, good carpets, tapestry, shawls, thread, black lace; and it has a commerce in grain, wine, woollen, and other goods.

Coaches to Songeons, Formerie, Crevecoeur, Grandvilliers, &c.

[CRÉVECŒUR (20 kil. north), has the fine old brick

château of its seigneurs; and in the church are good fragments of the tomb of Admiral Bonnivet, the favourite of Francis I. GRANDVILLIERS (11 kil. north-west of this), in a wide plain, was founded, 1213, by a bishop of Beauvais, and has near it the castle of Damerancourt, a curious seven-storied building, with battlements and corner towers, 106 feet high, -and the pretty château of Sarcus, built 1522, for one of the mistresses of Francis I. From Beauvais, on the road to Dieppe, you pass Gournay (31 kil.), a small place on the Epte, near the mineral water of Jouvence. Gournay may be noticed as having give name to the ancestors of the Gurney family, in Norfolk. Dieppe is 74 kil, further. (See Route 8.)]

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ROUTES TO THE NORTH-WEST AND WEST,

IN CONNECTION WITH THE CHEMIN DE FER DE L'OUEST, or Western Railway System of France, SUPPLYING MANTES, ROUEN, DIEPPE, HAVRE, EVREUX, CAEN, CHERBOURG, VERSAILLES, DREUX, CHARTRES, LE MANS, ALENÇON, LAVAL, RENNES, AVRANCHES, ST. MALO, BREST, &c.-IN THE OLD PROVINCES OF NORMANDY, MAINE, AND BRITTANY.

ROUTE S.

Dieppe to Rouen and Paris.

By rail, 125 miles, or 201 kil, Four trains daily, in 4 to 7 hours. Each passenger is allowed 30 kil, or about 60lbs. of luggage, free. From Dieppe to Havre is a single line of rail.

DIEPPE,

64 miles from Newhaven,

It stands under the cliffs of the Channel, where the Arques, Bethune, and Aulne fall into the sea. Close to the edge of these cliffs, near the old chapel of Caude-Côte, stands the old Castle, built 1433 (on the site of earlier structures); the conduits for supplying water to Dieppe are in the ditch. It commands a good prospect, and overlooks the baths.

June to September is the bathing season here. There are bathing machines, hot and cold baths, at the Establisement des Bains, a range which includes

HOTELS.-Des Armes de France, Grande Rue, 44 assembly rooms, with a theatre, &c., all under the direction of a Physician Inspector. A ball every and 46, comfortable hotel, highly recommended. Victoria and North, on the quay, clean, and well Saturday. conducted.

The Harbour at the north end of the town has a De la Plage, facing the sea and close to the baths, narrow, sandy mouth, and is entered between two a good house. piers, one of which carries a light or pharos, kept for

Gossel's Hôtel de l'Europe, an old established house, more than a century by the Bouzard family, who are comfortable and reasonable.

Royal, facing the sea, first-rate hotel.

Passports are visé on landing, and a permit must be obtained to embark. The Douane is at the railway station, close to the quay; baggage of travellers, direct to Paris, need not be examined till they get there.

Protestant worship at the Old Carmelite Chapel, twice on Sundays. Rev. M. Reville is French Protestant pastor here.

English Physicians, Drs. Tabois and Moriarty. Bankers, Dufaur and Co., D. Destandes, V. Sanchon, N. Segrial.

celebrated here for the number of drowning persons they have saved. This harbour includes an Avant Port, and floating Basin, and is scoured by means of a bassin de retenue behind. It will hold about 200 craft, up to 500 tons burden.

A large street, Grande Rue, leads from the quay towards the castle at the other end. The houses are of brick chiefly, with high-pitched roofs and balconies, mostly built since the English bombarded it, in 1694. The Barre faubourg is the quietest part. The old walls are left. There are six places or squares, the principal, or Place Nationale, having a statue of

Money Changers, M. M. Segrial, Delapoyt, and Duquesne (a native), erected in 1844; and there are Reville Bremer.

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as many as 68 fountains, supplied by an aqueduct, 3 miles long. The fishermen live in Faubourg Pollet, which is worth visiting; here they remain a race distinct from, and almost hostile to, their neighbours.

Among the buildings are, St. Remi's Gothic church, near the castle, rebuilt 1500-43; St Jacques on the site of an abbey, a Gothic church, with buttresses, some good carvings, and towers, whence you get a fine

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