d'Everault, in the court, is the eight-sided Gothic kitchen of the abbey, with a chimney rising over the middle.

LOUDUN (20 kil. further), is a sous-préfecture in department Vienne (population, 4,500), and an old town on a hill among woods and vineyards. It is noted for its delicate wines. The Protestants held Loudun till Richelieu razed the castle, and till the revocation of the Edict of Nantes which followed. The excellent but unfortunate Urban Grandier, a monk here, was burnt on pretence of sorcery, 1634. Coarse woollens, jewellery, &c., are made, and there is a trade in corn, wine, oil, walnuts, &c.

Hotels.-De France; Du Lion d'Or (Golden Lion). MONCONTOUR (16 kil. south-south-west of this), on the Dive, is celebrated for the defeat of the Huguenots under Coligny, 1569. "Oh, weep for Montcontour! oh, weep for the hour!"] Varennes (5 miles) in department Maine-etLoire, lies opposite several river islands, and Dam. pierre, where our Henry VI.'s queen, Margaret of Anjou, died broken-hearted, 1476.

Saumur (5 miles), in a fine situation across the Loire, on a hill side, is a sous-préfecture of 14,100 souls, in department Maine-et-Loire, with a college, military riding-school, chamber of commerce, &c., and was the capital of Saumurais, taken from the Counts of Blois by Foulques Nera in the 9th century. Its name is said to be a corruption of Sous-le-Mur, the first houses having had the appearance of being built beneath a wall of rock. Under Henry IV.'s Secretary, Du Plessis-Mornay, the "Pope of the Huguenots," as the Catholics styled him, it became a flourishing Protestant town, having a good trade, and a famous Academy or Temple; but it was ruined by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Here are Rue du Temple and Rue du Plessis-Mornay.

From La Croix Verte, on the railway side, a stone bridge resting on Ile des Ponts (where King René, Margaret's father, had a seat), runs over to the quay, the half nearest of which is on 12 arches, and 900 feet long. Another bridge leads out of the town, by Porte Fouchard, over the Thouet, which joins the Loire a little below. The houses in the new quarters are well built of white stone; but they are irregular and steep in the older part,

called Haute Ville, or Upper town, above which stands the irregular donjon of the old château, built about the 13th century (on the site of one of Pepin's, called château du Tronc), once a state prison, and then an arsenal.

Most of the churches deserve attention, though somewhat mixed in their styles. St. Pierre is early Gothic, and cross-shaped, with a bold, square tower, and spire. That of Nantilly is imperfect, and as old as the 12th century in some parts-with stout Romanesque pillars and arches, six windows on the north side, and a good west door. That pious sovereign, Louis the XI., gave it a silver Virgin. The church of St. Jean, near the Hôtel de Ville, is still older, being of the 8th century. Nôtre Dame des Ardilliers, under the cliff, on the river side, was begun in 1558, and added to by Richelieu and others; the Marquis de Sable gave the painting, by Philippe de Champagne, of Simeon at the Temple Gate; and A. Servier built the dome, 64 feet diameter. It contains the tomb of the Duchesse de Meilleraye, and makes part of the convent and hospice of Providence.

The caserne or Barrack of the Cavalry School, one of the largest in France, is H-shaped, of four stories, and comprises riding-schools, stables, &c., and an esplanade. It was founded as a school of equitation for the carabineers, in 1763.

At the Gothic Hôtel de Ville, with its high pitched roof and pinnacles, is a musée of antiquities; there is also a public library of 12,000 volumes; a theatre, on arches, over the market-place; two hospitals, besides that of la Providence; good baths, and many windmills. Madame Dacier, the Greek scholar, was a native. The Loire has more than once broken through the levées on the town, especially in 1615, called the "Deluge de Saumur," and again in 1841.

Glass and other beads, articles in enamel, copper goods, linen, saltpetre, leather, &c., are made; trade also in white wine, eaux-de-vie, fruit, &c.

Hotels.-Budan, best and well situated; D'Anjou, a comfortable hotel.

Coaches to Bressiure (see Route 41). Chollet, Montreuil-Bellay, Mont Soreau, Mortagne, Doué, Vihiers, Vernantes. Steamer to Nantes, Tours, &c., in the summer.

[At VERNANTS (14 kil. north-north-east) are parts of the fortress-looking church (the e

tower, painted choir windows, &c.) of the Cistercian abbey of Lourroux, founded 1121, by Foulques or Fulke V., Count of Anjou. Brain (14 kil. north-east) contains fragments of Coutancière château, which belonged to Bussy d'Amboise, the tyrannical governor of Anjou, who was killed by the Seigneur of Mont Soreau castle, the ruins of which are seen above the Loire.

At BAGNEUX (3 kil. south of Saumur), up the Thouet, is the large Pontigné cromlech, of fourteen stones, one 24 feet long. Montreuil-Bellay and its old castle are 11 kil. further, and beyond it is

THOUARS (28 kil. from Saumur), in a fine part of the Thouet, above which rise its old turreted walls, begun by Pepin, and finished by the English, from whom Duguesclin took it, 1312. The Vendéans captured it, 1793. On a granite rock, 108 feet high, stands the old high-walled Château, built 1635, by Marie de la Tremouille, forming a centre and wings, 393 feet long, which, with its garden and terraces, is now the Mairie.

Close to it is St. Medard's ancient church, made up, in fact, by three or four chapels, one over the other. St. Laon has a fine square tower. One turret on the walls, called Tour du Prince de Galles (Wales), is a prison. Population, 2,300. There are also a college and two hospices.

Doué (17 kil. south-west), a very old place, having remains of a palace of Dagobert, also several caves, and an amphitheatre, dug out of the rocks. Its fountain is handsome and abundant. VIHIERS, 17 kil. beyond it, near a lake, has remains of one of the most ancient castles in Anjou, near which is a cairn or mort-hill, 300 mètres round, 18 high].

ST. MARTIN (5 miles), opposite Treves castle, in the Forest de Milly, and the village of Chenehutte, which is cut off from Tufeaux and its gypsum quarries by a ravine. Above the cliffs are remains of a large Roman camp, where coins, pottery, tombs, &c., have been found. Admiral DupetitThouars, who fell at Aboukir, resided here.

is the curious old church of Nôtre Dame, founded by Dagobert. It consists of three naves, rounded off at the east end, and is 226 feet long by 65 to 75 broad. Coaches to Gennes and Longué.

La Menitré (34 miles). Population, 2,410. Coaches to Beaufort and Beaugé.

[BEAUGE, or Baugé (20 kil. north-north-east), a sous-préfecture of 3,600 souls, on the Couesnon (here crossed by a bridge), where the English, under the Duke of Clarence, were defeated, 1421, by Lafayette. It has an old castle of Foulques Nera, built in the eleventh century, and an excellent hospital. Paper, coarse linens, and woollens, are made.]

St. Mathurin (1 mile), at the long suspension bridge of St. Maur, so called after St. Benedict's disciple. It was one of the seats of the learned Congregation of St. Maur, among whom were Mabillon and Montfaucon. Population, 2,930. La Bohalle (5 miles), where the great Levées or embankments of the Loire end.

Trelaze (2 miles), close to large slate quarries.
La Paperie (3 miles).

At 2 miles further is

ANGERS.

A buffet, 214 miles from Paris, 54 from Nantes. HOTELS.-Cheval Blanc; Le Roy; D'Anjou.

OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-Cathedral-CastleSt. Serge's Church-Hôtel d'Anjou-MuseumHôtel Dieu.

Population, 54,800.

The capital of department Maine-et-Loire, and once of the province of Angers, which belonged to our Henry II., as Duke of Anjou. It is the seat of a cour impériale, tribunal, university, college, bishopric, &c., and was, in Roman times, the chief town of the Andecavi, whence the name is derived.

Les Rosiers (3 miles) is opposite Gennes, where another Roman camp is traced, besides a

are now managed (and for the better) by a company of capitalists.

The new town is regularly built; the boulevards are well planted; and there is a suspension and other bridge, one of which replaces an iron bridge which fell, 1850, while a regiment was passing over it. Old walls of brown stone, defended by turrets, go round the town. One of the promenades, called Bout du Monde (World's End), overlooks it and the surrounding country.

At the top of a hill stands St. Maurice's Cathedral, seen for many leagues round. It is a cross, 298 feet long, with one of the widest naves (of the 11th and 12th centuries) in France. The front is comparatively plain. Its great door and window are flanked by two spire towers, 244 feet high; and above them is a gallery of 8 statues of Counts of Anjou; over which rises the middle tower, of the 16th century. In the interior are some excellent carvings; stained, rose, and other windows; old tapestry; the high altar, of different coloured marbles; a famous organ, by Danville (from which you may take the round of the walls, by a gallery near the roof); and a benitier (holy water basin), given by le bon Roi René, whose tomb, in which his daughter Margaret (wife of our Henry VI) was buried, was destroyed at the Revolution. The old évêché, close to the cathedral, is on the site of the Roman capitol.

René's great moated Castle, on a steep rock over the river, now used as an arsenal, was begun as early as the time of Philippe Auguste, as a palace of the Counts of Anjou. Its walls are high and thick, and strengthened by eighteen towers of dark slaty stone; the terrace has a good view of the river. It was dismantled by Henry III.

St. Serge's curious old Gothic church has a nave of the 15th century, with an earlier choir of the 13th, supported by elegant light pillars, the work of Vulgrin, a monk, who became bishop of Mans. Trinité church, in the Doutre suburb, is a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic, 11th to 13th century. St. Joseph's is a new church, modelled after the cathedral. The great hall of the Hôtel Dieu, or St. John's hospital, in the Doutre, was built by our Henry II. In faubourg St. Jacques, is the large front of the abbey of St. Nicholas, a Romanesque building (now a wood store) founded in the 8th

century by Hermengarde, wife of Louis le Debonnaire. At the corner of Rue (street) du Figuier, is a fine Gothic house called Hôtel d'Anjou.

The Préfecture is on the site of St. Aubin's abbey, and contains traces of the cloisters. Hôtel de Ville, a modern building on the Champ de Mars. An old house called Logis Barrault, contains the public library of 30,000 volumes with many rare MSS., and the Musée, or picture gallery, a collection of Flemish and French masters, many contributed by Laréveillière-Lessaux, an Angevin, and member of the Directory. Here also is a special gallery of copies of all the works of P. J. David, or David d'Anger, the sculptor, another Angevin, of whom his countrymen are justly proud.

Notice, also, the riding academy; the botanic gardens, with many exotics; deaf and dumb school, baths, theatre, race-course; and the school of trades (arts et métiers), one of three established in France. A modern imperial lyceum succeeds the University, which flourished from the 12th century down to the Revolution.

King René, Bernier, the traveller, and Ménage, were natives. The Duke of Wellington spent two years of his early life here, for military training.

There are manufactures of sailcloth, camlets, handkerchiefs, thread stockings, refined sugar, &c.; and a good trade in these and oil, hemp, grain, wine, dried fruits (fru ts cuits), honey, vinegar, slate, marbles.

Conveyances: Coaches to Rennes (Route 40), Segré, Laval (Route 15), Château-Gontier, Chollet, La Flèche (Route 39). Also, to Ponts de Cé (4 kil.), so called after the wood and stone bridge, which skips, by about 100 arches, across the islands of the Loire-and from a Cæsar's Camp here. On one of these islands, Béhuard, rests a pilgrim's chapel, with a portrait of Louis XI. There was a desperate fight on the bridge in 1793, when the Vendéans overpowered the republicans. Across the Loire (1 kil. from Angers), is the deserted Château of the Ducs de Cossé-Brissac, the last of whom was killed at Versailles, 1792. It well deserves a visit, as a complete specimen of the old château. The present owner, a branch of the family, lives near it.

[About 12 kil. north-east of Angers is the fine old castle of Plessis-Macé, with its towers, moat square donjon, machicolations, &c.

Further on, 30 miles from Angers, on the line to Le Mans, is

Sablé (see Route 15).

At 4 kil. up the river, near the quarries, is the old abbey of

SOLESMES, founded 993-1095, and mostly rebuilt in the time of Louis XV. The church contains a remarkable collection of fifty bas-reliefs, statues, &c., by Geoffrey Pilon, in the 15th century, some the size of life, called the Saints de Solesmes. Among them are the sepulchre of the Virgin (a group of fourteen figures), Christ in the grave (by Pilon's father), Christ with the doctors, &c.]

From Angers, along the Nantes railway, you pass, going down the right side of the Loire,

Bouchemaine (3 miles).
La Pointe (1 mile).

Les Forges (2 miles).

La Poissonnière (14 miles), near which, on the river side, are the fine park and château of Serrant, with its orangery and chapel. It is a seat of the Walsh family, who left Ireland with the Stuarts. Both Louis XIV. and Napoleon have paid visits to it.

Chalonnes (33 miles), near the beautiful island of Lombardière. Population, 4,970. There are important coal mines here.

Champtocé (5 miles), or Champtoceau, with its ruined castle of Gilles de Retz, who was Marshal of France, and was strangled in 1440, for sorcery, child-murder, and other crimes.

Ingrandes (33 miles) is next passed, then Varades (5 miles), in department Loire-Inférieure, part of Brittany. Population, 3,400. Across the river, in Vendée, on a hill, is the church of St. Florent, where the royalist leader, Bonchamps, killed in the Vendéan war, is buried. His monument, one of the best works of David d'Angers, represents him in his last moments, crying out to spare the republican prisoners whom they had taken in their first rising here. Coach to Beaupréau.

[BEAUPRÉAU (20 kil. south), a sous-préfecture (in Maine-et-Loire), and old walled town, on the Eure, above which are the towers of its ancient château. The Lyceum is a large building. Population, 2,100.

Hotel.-De la Boule d'Or.]

Ancenis (7 miles), a sous-préfecture, in department Loire-Inférieure, in a charming spot, with a Gothic château above it, which belonged to the Bethunes. Ancenis was fortified by Henry II. of England, and dismantled by Charles VIII., in 1488. A suspension bridge on six rests crosses the river. Population, 5,680. Coaches to Châteaubriant (Route 40), St. Mars-la-Juille, La ChapelleGlain, St. Jullien. A Druid stone, called Couvreclair, is near.

Oudon (54 miles), with an eight-sided tower of its old castle, built about 1240. Opposite it are remains of Champtoceaux or Chantoceau castle, which was destroyed in 1420, when Margaret de Clisson, widow of John of Brittany, took his successor, John V., a prisoner by stratagem, and kept him here for five months.

Clermont (2 miles), Mauves (3 miles), Thouare (33 miles), St. Luce (1 miles). Nantes is 4 miles further.

NANTES (268 miles from Paris). HOTELS.-De France; Du Commerce; Des Colonies; De Nantes; De Paris; De l'Europe.

RESTAURANTS.-Grand Restaurant Rocher de Cancale, Martin.

English Consul.-Capt. Clipperton, Rue de l' Herronière, No. 6.

American Consul.

Post Office, in Rue Boileau.

English service, at the Consulate, Rev. W. James. Protestant church, Rue des Carmelites, in the old chapel of the convent.

Omnibuses run through the town.

OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-Cathedral-Préfecture -Duchesse de Berri's house-Castle.

Population, 113,630. Capital of department LoireInférieure, head-quarters of a military division, seat of a diocese, and the fourth port in France, standing on the north side of the Loire (where the Erdre joins), 35 miles from the Bay of Biscay. Many English live here, in great comfort, and even luxury, on £100 a year.

the Protestants, which Louis XIV. revoked, 1685. It was attacked by the Vendéans, 1793; about which time the atrocious Carrier and his terrorist agents held it, and 25,000 persons, young and old, suspected of loyalty, were drowned in leaky barges, or shot, or left to die in prison. These wholesale drownings are the terrible noyades, described in every history of the Revolution: the baptêmes republicaines, as they were pleasantly called by the horrid wretches who perpetrated them.

The old town occupies the corner made by the river; in Faubourg Le Marchýs is the Ville Neuve, or new town, begun by Graslin, the financier, 1784. Other suburbs lie on the islands in the Loire, such as Feydeau, Gloriette, Biesse, &c.; and a chain of six bridges, from island to island, carries a road of 3 kil. length, across the river to Bere, on the south bank, where the Sèvre falls in. There are nine or ten other bridges. La Fosse quay, which is lined with trees and well-built houses, is part of a succession of quays extending from the castle for half a league or more. The Erdre, too, is bordered with quays, and they are also carried round Ile Feydeau. The tide flows up to the town, rising only a fathom, but enough to bring up small vessels under 200 tons. The entrance to the Loire is rather foggy and dangerous. Larger ships stop at Paimbœuf, 25 miles lower.

From 2,000 to 3,000 vessels visit Nantes yearly, with fish from Newfoundland, sugar, and other produce, from the French colonies. Sardines or pilchards are caught in the season, and exported to England and elsewhere. Small corvettes and brigs are built here. Coarse woollens and cottons are made; besides steam-engines, bottles, pottery, rope, canvas, vinegar, refined sugar, provisions for the navy, &c.

Arthur III. (near the castle), with Oliver de Clisson and Duguesclin, two famous soldiers. There are about twenty open places, of which Place Royale and Place Graslin are the best. A theatre, rebuilt 1810, with a Corinthian portico, stands in Place Graslin, ornamented by eight figures of the Muses (one being déportée).

St. Peter's Cathedral was mostly built, 1434-1500, on the site of one founded 555, by St. Felix. It has a massive Norman choir, of the 10th century (the oldest existing part, except the crypt), and a lofty flamboyant nave, 21 feet high. The west front, with its three well-sculptured portals, supports two low unfinished towers, with a watch turret at the top of one. The altar piece is an Italian composition. Its finest Monument is the tomb, in black, white, and red marble, of Francis II. (last Duke of Bretagne) and his wife Margaret. About 23 accessory figures are counted, besides four larger ones at the angles, of Justice, Prudence, &c.-that of Justice being a portrait of Anne of Brittany, for whom the work was done, 1506, by M. Columb, a Breton sculptor.

St. Nicholas is a new church, in the style of the 13th century.

The only existing feudal structure is the Château of the dukes, on the river, a large irregular pile of the 15th century (first founded 938), flanked with round towers, &c. Here Anne of Brittany was born; and the late Duchesse de Berri (Madame, as she was called) was confined, after her capture in the town by General Dermoncourt, in 1832. One Duetz was her betrayer. She and her companions were found hid away in the chimney of a house, which is pointed out close by. Her adventures are related by the General in his entertaining "La Vendée et Madame." The Castle is now used as an arsenal. Its oldest part, called the Bouffay, which served for a belfry, was removed but lately. When Henry IV. saw the castle and fortifications of the town, at his entry in 1598, " Ventre-saint-gris," cried the king, "les Ducs de Bretagne n' etaient pas de petits compagnons (were not small fellows). An explosion took place here in 1800, when a cannon being pro

penetrated through every storey to the ground. The Préfect's Hôtel, one of the most regular buildings in the town, was formerly the Chambre des Compts, built 1753, and has two of its fronts in the