Route 39.] HAND-BOOK TO FENE ground, where urns, amphora, pottery, and Les Out of ten Roman Gates in the ancient walls Several Protestant martyrs were burnt, 161, in Place de la Salmandre (the crest of Frautis 1 and on Place de Boucaire, Roland and other Camirant is ders were burnt, 1705. Besides the College, there are s large priests' Seminary, and schools of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine; also Protestant schools attached to an orphan home and a Normal school & P testant Cemetery is on the Alais mad, vi la mort, le jugement" (after death, the judgment over the gate; beyond it are the stone quartes e Garriques hills. Tertiary fosis as found on Pay d'Autel, a hill to the south-west, towns. Cesare where the telegraph stands. The manufactures are thank go souti Of the three railway stations, or enfara Alais, Beaucaire, and Montpellier, that for the is the best, and is 328 feet long. The people and independent in their manners, and divoted two distinct religions and hostile paris, Jumenty styled Grand and Petit Croix. Though the me is better than that of Marseilles, it is still to st and exposed to the mistral and vent-le- for sons in weak health Lee's Companion to the Continent Wheat is thrashed in the open ar by homes af the plough, or charme, still keeps its dast days The dry and parchel distt sound extending to Aigues-Mortes is to be reclaimed by means of the Rhine, by a cup of which Lord Ward is president me and ad Among its natives are it, who route into France (called Niestus, after him) auf Seite the statesman; Reboul, the lakeret inside Cavalier, the Camisard leader, was at a he died a pensioner at Chelsea Hoyittall even B testant pastors are stationed her. The Ber? Gouthier, whose life has been wan jum the Villemins, laboured here for nine years kment beruc springs, on with the liqueurs, eaux-de-vie, fruit, grain, &c., and standing among vineyards and oliveyards, with a spire church. It had a famous synagogue in the 16th cent., and walls, which Richelieu razed, 1632, to punish the Huguenots. Hotels.-Du Palais National; du Grand Soleil (Sun). {At 12 kil. north, is SOMMIÈRES, a thriving place of 3,600 pop., up the Vidourle, under an old castle, and having large manfactures of flannel, cloth, &c. Not far off is Ville Vieille (i. e. Old Town), where a Roman bridge and other antiquities have been discovered by M. E. Dumas, an eminent geologist here. Hotel.-Du Soleil d'Or (Golden Sun). To the south of Lunel, at 3 kil. distance, is MARSILLARGUES, in a dull spot, on the Vidourle, noted for its wines and alcohol, and having a castle, built 1623, with Diana of Poictier's cypher upon it, and many portraits of the Calvisson family, to whom it belongs. The annual errades, or meetings for baiting and marking the wild bulls from the Camargues, offer great sport here. At 12 kil. further south, on the salt marshes near the sea, is Baillargues (1 mile), is near Colombières, a pleasing spot among the rocks of the Carroux, not far from Pont-du-Verdier, a bridge of one arch from rock to rock. St. Aunes (2) miles). Les Mazes (1 mile). From this it is 3 miles to Montpellier stat., a handsome pile approached by a tunnel. MONTPELLIER. 61 miles from Avignon, 520 miles from Paris. Cheval Blanc; De la Rochelle; Du Tapis; Vert HOTELS.-Nevet; Du Midi; De Londres; Du Brun; Cafes de France; De la Comedié; Du Commerce; Du Palais; Du Musée; Du Pavillon. Population, 45,800. OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-Citadel-Triumphal Arch-Cathedral-École de Medicine-Botanic Gar dens. Capital of department Hérault (part of the province of Languedoc), seat of a military division, of a bishopric, &c., on a rocky hill, near the Mosson, about 4 kil. from the Mediterranean. It was founded in the 8th century, when Charles Martel destroyed Maguelonne (then a town of the Saracens), and, under the name of Mons Possulanus, became noted for its commerce and School of Medicine. The latter appears to have gained for it the reputation of being a peculiarly healthy spot for invalids, though other places along this shore are as healthy and more beautiful. Matthews, in the "Diary of an Invalid," says, "It is true there is almost always a clear blue sky, but the air is sharp and biting, and you are continually assailed by the bise (north wind) or the marin. The one brings cold, the other damp." One of its counts married a daughter of a king of Arragon, whose descendants sold it to Philip de Valois. It was taken by Louis XIII. as a stronghold of the Huguenots, to keep whom in check he built the Citadel, at one end of the hill, 167 feet above the sea, whence there is a fine view of the cultivated AIGUES-MORTES, on the Grand Roubine and other canals. At first there was a Benedictine abbey called Psalmodi, here (restored 788 by Charlemagne), of which the gate tower is left. In 1248, St. Louis built a castle and the Tour de Constance, which is 94 feet high, besides a turret of 35 feet on top; walls were added by his son Philip, and the place now offers a complete specimen of a fortified town of that age, with its towers, battlements, machicolations, ditches, &c. Louis XIV. confined some unhappy Protestants in the Constance Tower for 35 years; another is called Tour des Bourgignons, from a massacre made by the Dauphin's troops, 1421, when the fort was held by the Burgundians, whose bodies were thrown here. The clock-gardens, vineyards, woods, and country around,—the tower is of the thirteenth century. A canal led down to the Grau-Louis, or harbour, on the Mediterranean, whence St. Louis (Louis IX.) embarked for the crusades, 1270, and where Charles V. landed to hold his interview with Francis I., in 1538. At Peccais, about 2,000 men are employed in the government salt works. Fevers and mosquitoes are the torment of this part of the coast.] Lunel-Viel (2 miles), is the best seat for muscat above-mentioned. Fossil remains are abundant in the limestone. Valergues (2 miles). St, Bres (2 miles). sea, Mont Canigou in the Pyrennes, and the Cevennes being visible. At the other end of the hill is Place de Peyrou, a large, regular, well-planted square, built by Daviler. Here stand Dorbay's triumphal arch to Louis XIV. in one corner, his bronze statue in the centre, and a six-sided domed château d'eau, faced with Corinthian pillars. To this water is brought from St. Clements by an aqueduct, eight miles long, built 1753-9, by H. Pitot, and distributed to 29 fountains in the town-one of which, in Place de la Comédie, has a group of the Graces. This aqueduct is mostly under ground, but near the city, it runs on an imposing double row of arches (183 arches in one row, 53 in the other), and at one point is 92 feet high. At a house in Place de Peyrou is the Musée Fabre, a bequest of Baron Fabre (pupil of David, died, 1837) to his native town. It includes prints, sketches, medals, statues, paintings, (about 490) of the French, Italian, and Dutch Schools, and 25,000 books, of which 15,000 belonged to his friend Alfieri; and is open thrice a week. Many of the paintings are worth notice, one among them is Sir J. Reynolds's "Young Samuel," a beautiful specimen. A School of Design is connected with it. triumphal arch, composed of a centre ten-column portico, with wings. The public bibliothèque has 10,000 vols.; the theatre, on the citadel esplanade, built 1786, is generally used as a bourse or exchange; the chamber of commerce is at the Hôtel St. Côme: the Tour de l'Observance serves as a telegraph. Up the little stream of the Verdanson, you come to the fountain of Jacques Coeur, Charles VII.'s goldsmith, who was a great benefactor to Montpellier. Among a long list of natives are, James, King of Arragon; Bourdon, the painter; Count Daru; and Cambacères. Rev. MM. Michel, Rognon, Corbière, are Protestant pastors here. St. Pierre's Cathedral is the largest and ugliest of all the churches, of which there are four or five. It is 180 feet long, and has three towers, near one of which is the porch, curiously resting on two cylin drical pillars or turrets, with conical tops, ten side chapels, Santarme's statue of the Virgin, and paint-trade in these, with wine, fruit, olive oil, &c. ings by Bourdon ("Simon Magus"), Jean de Troy ("Healing of the Cripple"), and Ranc ("Power of the Keys"). Nôtre Dame des Tables church, which belonged to the Jesuits, is now the college. Manufactures of linen and cloth, liqueurs, che micals, verdigris, refined sugar, leather, &c.; and a Near the cathedral is, the ancient machicolated Ecole de Médecine, first founded, they say, by the Arabs (or Saracens), and seated in what was the old bishop's palace. Among the objects in it worth notice are, busts and portraits of eminent professors, from the 13th cent. (besides a bronze of Hippocrates brought from Cos); the patched robe in which licentiates are dressed, once worn by Rabelais; the lecturer's seat in the amphitheatre (which holds 2,000); a marble piece of antiquity from Nismes; a library of 35,000 vols., and 600 MSS. in various languages, including Tasso's plan of his "Jerusalem Delivered,' and Queen Christina's papers; and a room of anatomical models in wax, chiefly from Italy, but some by Delpuech. The Botanical Garden, where De Candolle lectured, is in the neighbourhood, and was begun by Richier de Belleval, 1593, in the time of Henry IV.; it contains 8,000 plants, many being rare exotics, and one, a cyprus, called the Tree of Montpellier. In a corner is a tablet to Narcissa, "Nar cissæ placandis manibus," supposed to be Young's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Temple; she died of consump tion, and was buried here, but her body was afterwards moved to Lyons, to escape the bigoted fury of the populace. This town is still reckoned a great Catholic stronghold; and the hatred of both parties is so great, that they use different cafés, and will hardly meet in society.-Trollope's Impressions of a Wanderer.) St. Eloi's Hospital, with 500 to 700 beds in it, was founded as far back as 1183. The general hospital, built 1682, is near an asylum for Insensés (lunatics). There is a prison for 450 on the solitary system, opened 1844; also a new Palais de Justice, near the Conveyances: by coach, to Rodez, Clermont, &c. (see Routes 32, 33). Several decayed ports are along the coast, which is lined with low marshy lagoons or étangs, and sand hills. [At 10 kil. south, on one of these étangs (de Thou), is the old cathedral church of Maguelonne, a mixture of the Arab or Norman, and the Gothic, begun in the 7th cent., and altered 1054, and fortified against the pirates. It is now a barn. The town was ruined in the 8th cent. by Charles Martel. It is a fact that, as late as 1226, money was coined at Malquiel, under the authority of the bishops of Maguelonne, which bore the effigy of Mahomet. This was meant to conciliate his followers, who, as well as the Jews, formed important colonies here.] The next station to Montpellier is Villeneuve (5 miles), so called when the canons of Maguelonne built a church here in the 12th cent. Pop., 1,200. Mireval (33 miles), in a tract of sandy marsh. Away to the west of it is Piguan, with an old castle of the 11th cent., and the ancient half Moorish abbey church of Vignogoul, older than the 12th cent. Frontignan (4 miles), a decayed port, still celebrated for its sweet muscat wine, which is raised in what appears a most uninviting spot. The curious fortified church and tower attract notice. Pop., 2,150. The line runs hence on a slight embankment between the sea and étang (leaving the Balaruc springs, west), to Cette, 41 miles further, at the junction with the Chemin de Fer du Midi (see Route 66). ROUTE 31. Nismes, to Alais, Grand' Combe, Besseges, Florac, Mende, St. Flour, and ClermontFerrand. Boucoiran (1 mile) on the Gardon, which Gothic-looking houses, and an old château, with a sometimes floods it, is a small village, with mills, square tower, on a rock. Pop. 700. Ners (2 miles) on a hill, overlooking the fine Distance, about 322 kil., or 200 miles, through the valley of Beau-rivage, on the Gardon, with the hilly and interesting districts of the Cevennes. By rail from Nismes to Alais and Besseges, 50 miles, in 2h. 20m., twice a-day. To Mende by road. The rail passes several rocky trenches, and has four tunnels (one 1,300 feet long), and some well-constructed bridges and viaducts. Nismes, as in Route 30. [At 20 kil. north-north-east, is Uzès, 14 kil. north-west of Pont du Gard, a souspréfecture of 6,200 souls, on the olive-covered rocks above the Auzon. It is the Roman Ucetia, which had a temple to Augustus, and sent a bishop to the council of Arles, 455 A.D. In 1560. bishop and all went over to the reformed faith, for which Louis XIII. garrisoned it, and razed the walls. It was latterly a duchy in the Crussol family (the first peers of France), whose old Château remains, with high walls and corner towers, like the bastille at Paris; the chapel has stained windows, and tombs of the Dukes from 1660. St. Therri's cathedral was burnt, 1611, except the fine circular Romanesque tower of six stages (once eight, they say) to which a modern church is added, with a portrait of Cardinal Pacca. St. Etienne's was the Jesuits' church. An ancient crypt, in another part, has an ill-made figure of Christ, crowned, with the stigmata. The large bishop's palace is now the Hôtel de Ville, with a beautiful park behind. A little beyond is the house where Racine lived, 1661-2, when studying theology here; it commands a fine prospect over the valley of Gisfort, in which is a grotto called Temple des Druides, with a dolmen close by; also the Tournal tower and the Fontaine d'Eure, which supplied the great aqueduct to Nismes. Many Roman inscriptions have been found. A few silk goods are made. Revs. MM. Saussine, Dumergue, and Roux, are Protestant pastors here. Conveyances to Nismes, &c.] St. Genies (3 miles). Nozieres (2) miles). Cevennes in the distance. Vezenobres (1 mile), on a hill side. Pop. 1,030, St. Hilaire (4 miles). Alais (32 miles) a sous-préfecture in department Gard, of 18,900 pop., and a thriving town, among coal and iron mines, under the Cevennes mountains, where the Cèze meets the Gardon d'Alais and Gardon de Mialet. It had a leper's hospital for the crusaders in the time of St. Louis, and was held by the English when given up 1422, to Charles VII. Having become a head-quarters of the French reformed church, (which held a synod here, 1620, under Dumoulin), it was besieged and taken by Louis XIII., who razed its walls. Louis XIV. not only built a citadel but sent a bishop to bring them back again to the faith, though without success. The fort is now a law court. There are a Gothic cathedral church, a library of 3,000 vols., silk mills, &c. In the neighbourhood are the pretty walks on the Gardon, the hermitage, part of a convent, the sulphur mines of St. German de Valgagne; by another way, in the valley of the Callaigon, you pass the Tour de Fare, belonging to General Meynadier, and part of Puech-de-Cendras abbey, burnt by the Camisards, who were hunted down in the religious wars of 1704. Some mineral springs here are useful as tonics and in skin diseases. Revds. MM. Gaillard, Dubois, E. Dhombres, are Protestant pastors here. Hotels.-Du Commerce; Lion d'Or. Two branch rails run up the country from Alais. (a) A railway of 11 miles (1 hour, thrice a day), runs past miles), to Les Tamaris (8 Grand Combe, the centre of this coal and iron La Lavade (2 miles), and La Pise in La district, the mines of which are in the hands of a both anthracite and inflammable, and is worked by company. Pop., 4,730. Coal (houille) is plentiful, means of galleries. The steam-engines were made in England, and brought here by way of Cette; several English workmen are employed in the mines and iron-foundries. Zinc is also produced. The coal-field reaches to St. Ambroix, north-east of Alais, on (b) the branch to Bességes, (19 miles in 1 hour The stations are Sallindres (5 miles). St. Julien (3 miles). Then St. Ambroix (3 miles), on the Gèze, a fine spot. in the midst of rocky scenery, with many silk mills. Pop., 3,700. Molieres (3 miles). Besseges (4 miles), the last stat. on the line. There is a small branch, near Robeac, to Trélys. The road hence to Privas and Valence, is described in Route 29. [At 10 kil. south-west of Alais is ANDUZE, the Roman Andusia, a picturesque town, near the fine Château of Tornac (a key to the Cevennes), where the Camisards began to rise against their oppressors, in the time of Louis XIV., and where also Marshal Villars made proposals of peace to their chief leader, Jean Cavalier. They were eventually subdued by the Duke of Berwick, 1705. On the west, is the fine valley of St. Jean de Gardonnenque. The rugged rocks of granite, grauwacke, limestone, gypsum, &c., are worth notice; quercus coccifera, an oak yielding a beautiful dye, abounds here. To the south-west is the castle where Florian, the French novelist, was born; also Sauve, on the Vidourle, where fourches, or wooden pitchforks, are made, and lead mines worked; La Salle (pop., 2,120) which has silk mills on the Gardon, and gypsum quarries; and ST. HIPPOLYTE (pop. 5,200), near the head of the Vidourle, with a Protestant temple, built out of the fort erected to overawe the professors of that faith, which fort was formerly the château of the seigneurs. For Le Vigan (see below). Revs. MM. Boissière and Dussaut, are Protestant pastors at St. Hippolyte.] Starting from Alais, by road to Florac, &c., we come to MIALET, 10 kil. west of Alais, which is noted for its mountain caves, in which bones have been found; and also as the birth-place of Roland, the Camisard leader, in the religious wars, who used to hide here, and who, being captured by Villars, was burnt alive, at Nismes. At 5 kil. further is ST. JEAN DU GARD, on the coach road to Nismes, in a fine part of the Gardon d'Anduzes, where silk, goods, millinery, &c., are made. LE VIGAN (25 kil. to the south-west) is another charming place (and sous-préfecture, of 5,000 souls), on the Arre, near Mont l'Éperon in the Cevennes, surrounded by country houses of the Nismes and Montpellier gentry. A Gothic bridge crosses the river. There are Catholic and Protestant churches, cotton and silk thread I mills; and, on the principal Place, a bronze statue of d'Assas, a young captain of an Auvergne regiment, who fell at Clostercamp in Flanders, 1760. Making a reconnaissance at night, he suddenly came upon the enemy, who were advancing to surprise the French, and who threatened to shoot him if he spoke. Without hesitation, he rushed on them, shouting, "A moi Auvergne, ce sont les ennemis " (after me, soldiers, these are the enemy !) and fell, pierced by scores of balls. These last words are cut on his statue. Revs. MM. Dhombres, Colombier, and Bonquier, are Protestant pastors. A hill near château Marave offers a fine point of view. There are mineral waters at Cauvalot; and, up the Arre, you come to the coal mines, which Mr. Hammond, an Englishman, is working. The road from Le Vigan to Montpellier, is described in Route 32.] LE POMPIDOU (30 kil.), on the Gardon, under the ridge of the Cevennes, which divides the departments of Lozère and Gard. [Cassagnas, about 10 kil. north-east, with its caves, was one of the head quarters of the Camisard leaders.] Lozère, of 2,300 souls, in the valley of the Tarn, FLORAC (23 kil.), a sous-préfecture in department where the Tarnon and Minente join it, among the Hautes Cevennes. It began in a castle, of which a part of two low battlemented towers are left; and has but one main street, with a church, a Protestant chapel (Rev. M. Alberic, pastor), palais de justice, The sides of the rock are covered with vines, chesnuts, and oaks. &c. About 12 kil. up the Tarn, is Pont Montvert, under Mont Lozère, where the Camisards murdered the priest Chayla, 1702, a cruel persecutor of the Protestants, for which their leader was burnt alive. Pope Urban V. was born at Grizac near this. ISPAGNAC (9 kil.) or HISPAGNAC, on the Tarn, in a pretty valley, near the high, cold, and dreary plain, called the Causse de Sauveterre, 2,870 feet above the sea. [QUEZAC, nearly opposite it, is noted for its mineral water, and a Gothic bridge and chapel, built by Pope Urban. ST. ENIMIE, 11 kil. further down the Tarn, in the midst of wild and rugged peaks, grew out of a monastery to St. Bennet, founded in the 7th cent., by a daughter of Clotaire II. ST. PREJET, 20 kil. still further down the Tarn, is at the bottom of a defile 1,900 feet deep at the Pas de Souci, where it is so narrow that a bridge |