At one time it was used as a church (St. Etienne), then, in the 11th century, as the Hôtel de Ville, then as a stable (by one Brueys), and latterly as part of the Austin convent; but it is now restored with great care, and occupied as a Museum and picture gallery, in which are Delaroche's wellknown "Cromwell," and Sigalon's "Nero."

It stands inside a railing, on a stylobate or basement, 21 feet high, to which fifteen steps lead; is externally 82 feet by 40; and is surrounded on three sides, by fluted Corinthian pillars, having rich capitals, supporting a well-carved cornice and frieze. Of the pillars, ten are in he north portico (six in front); and the ten down each side are (some of them) half let into the wall, but not at equal distances. The door under the portico, 9 feet by 94, leads into the temple itself, which is 52 feet by 36, and 36 feet high, and lit from the roof. Cardinal Alberoni was so charmed with this work that he said it ought to have a gold case; and Colbert and Napoleon thought of transporting it, stone by stone, to Versailles. It is open to the public on Sunday, but may be visited at any time by strangers with passports.

The Arénes (arena) or Amphitheatre, the best preserved one existing, after that at Verona, stands in an open space, and is an oval, lying east and west, 437 feet by 332 outside; 2264 feet by 124 inside; 1,175 feet round; 70 feet high (inside, the ground is 7 feet lower). It is composed of two rows, of sixty equal arches each, in a plain Tuscan or Doric style, with a cornice between the rows, pilasters between the arches in the first row, and pillars between those in the second. These arches communicate with the corridors and passages leading inside. Four principal entrances front the points of the compass, that on the north being distinguished by a pediment and two carved bulls. On the north-east side you may trace bas-reliefs of fighting gladiators, and the story of Romulus and Remus, suckled by the Wolf; and round the top (which is broken towards the east) are holes for the poles, upon which the awning was spread. In the inside are remains of the 32 rows of seats (16 or 17 may be traced), made of enormous stones, and ranged in four divisions, according to the rank of the sitters, who came in and out by the passages or vomitories. It may have held from 18,000 to 20,000 when full; that is some thousands less than the

one at Arles, and only one-fourth of the Colosseum; and was used not only for the inhuman gladiator combats, but for naumachia or sea-fights, water being brought to it by the great Pont du Gard aqueduct. Machicolated towers were at one time anuexed to this classic pile; and it was turned into a castle, to which the church of St. Martin was added (inside) in the 11th century; but this and the houses piled against it have been long removed, and it is now taken proper care of. Some may even think that it has been restored too carefully. Wild bulls from the Camargue are sometimes baited here. A fine moonlight view may be enjoyed from the hills to the north.

At a beautiful spot, near Place de la Boquerie, called Jardin de la Fontaine, after a spring which rises at the Creux de la Fontaine, and supplies the town, are the remains of the

Temple of Diana, built by Augustus, and ruined by Charles Martel, after he had driven out the Saracens. It is used as a bath; the great aqueduct came in here, into a château d'eau or reservoir, lately discovered. M. Crespon has a museum of natural history here Beyond this, on Mont Cava

lier, is the

Tour Magne (Great Tower), a conspicuous mark for the city, and commanding a great sweep of view. It is a ruin, six-sided at bottom, and eightsided above, where it narrows; about 110 feet high (it might have been 130 once), and 65 feet through at bottom-the top being less than half as much; and built of rough stones, with an arched base pierced with windows, and remains of four Ionic pilasters on one side, in the upper storey. There is no staircase or roof. Some think it was a Roman watch tower, others a mausoleum. Behind the cypresses, here, was the burial ground, where urns, amphoræ, pottery, and bones have been found.

Out of ten Roman Gates in the ancient walls, two are left. That called Porte de France, near the hospital, on St. Gilles road, is a single plain arch, ¦ 22 feet high, 13 wide, with round towers at the sides. Porte d'Auguste, on the Domitian way, or ' road to Rome, is more ornamented than the other, and was built in the year 7 B.C., along with the wall, as an inscription to Augustus testifies. It has four arches through it, two large and two small, with an Ionic column between two Corinthian pilasters on the face.

Several Protestant martyrs were burnt, 1551, in Place de la Salmandre (the crest of Francis I.); and on Place de Boucaire, Roland and other Camisard leaders were burnt, 1705. Besides the College, there are a large priests' Seminary, and schools of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine; also Protestant schools attached to an Orphan home and a Normal school. A Protestant Cemetery is on the Alais road, with "Après la mort,le, jugement" (after death, the judgment) over the gate; beyond it are the stone quarries in the Gar riques hills. Tertiary fossils are found on Puy d'Autel, a hill to the south-west, towards St. Cassaire, where the telegraph stands.

Of the three railway stations, or embarcadères, for Alais, Beaucaire, and Montpellier, that for the last is the best, and is 328 feet long. The people are rough and ndependent in their manners, and divided into two distinct religious and hostile parties, formerly styled Grand and Petit Croix. Though the climate is better than that of Marseilles, it is still too cold and exposed to the mistral and vent-de-bise, for persons in weak health. (Lee's Companion to the Continent.)

Wheat is thrashed in the open air by horses; and the plough, or charrue, still keeps its classic shape. The dry and parched district round Nismes, and extending to Aigues-Mortes, is to be irrigated and reclaimed by means of the Rhône, by a company, of which Lord Ward is president.

Among its natives are Nicot, who brought tobacco into France (called Nicotina, after him), and Guizot, the statesman; Reboul, the baker-poet, is a resident; Cavalier, the Camisard leader, was also a baker. He died a pensioner at Chelsea Hospital. Eleven Protestant pastors are stationed here. The Rev. F. Gouthier, whose life has been written by his nephews, the Villemins, laboured here for nine years.

The manufactures are shawls, gloves, silk goods, cotton, carpets (at Flessier's factory), pianos, steam

Conveyances by rail to Alais (2 hours), by rail to Alais, Besseges, Grand Combe, Clermont, &c. (see Route 31). Carriages to Pont du Gard, 12 francs there and back (see Route 20).

[At 4 kil. south is Caissargues, which has good fishing in the Vistre, and had a castle, pulled down 1574. Names ending in argues, so common hereabouts, are derived from ager, a field, as in this name-Cassil ager, i. e., Cassius' field, or farm.-About 15 kil. further on is Gilles-les-Boucheries, in a vine country, on a rock near the Canal de Beaucaire, and so called after St. Gilles abbey, of which the highly carved Romanesque church of the 12th century remains, having behind it St. Gilles' screw, or spiral staircase. The Knights-Templars had a priory here. Distilling, &c., are carried on Raymond, Count of Toulouse, was absolved here by the pope's legate, after being scourged, 1209, and here Clement IV. was born.-Nearly 30 kil. further south, among the sand hills at the mouth of the Petit Rhône, is Les Saintes Maries, and its ancient fortified church, with towers and battlements, and curious carvings, and four paintings on wood by King René.] Leaving Nimes, the next station is St. Césaire (1 mile), with little to arrest attention, any more than those which follow. Milhaud (2 miles) is approached in a cutting. Population, 1,650.

Bernis (1 mile).

Uchaud (1 mile), or Uchaux, in the midst of vineyards.

[12 kil. south of it is Vauvert, i. e. Valée-vert (or Green Valley), the centre of the wine district in this quarter, and once the site of a château, visited by St. Louis, and pulled down, 1628. An old castle (Beauvoison) of the Templars is near.]

The road is crossed by a Roman brige over the Vidourle, where we enter department Hérault.

Vergeze (3 miles). Here are some old mineral springs, useful in rheumatism, &c.

Aigues-Vives (1 mile) manufactures "living *See "Tableaux pittoresque, &c., de Nismes, et de ses Environs," by Rev. E. Frossard.

waters," (the signification of its name), in the form of eaux-de-vie. Population, 1,700.

Gallargues (1 inile). Population, 2,100. Lunel (3 miles), a town of 6,740 souls, in department Hérault, trading in muscat or sweet wines, liqueurs, eaux-de-vie, fruit, grain, &c., and standing among vineyards and oliveyards, with a spirc church. It had a famous synagogue in the 16th century, and walls, which Richelieu razed, 1632, to punish the Huguenots.

Hotels.-Du Palais National; Du Grand Soleil (Sun).

Here the line from Arles (28 miles) comes in. (See Route 20.)

[At 12 kil. north, is SOMMIERES, a thriving place of 3,600 population, up the Vidourle, under an old castle, and having large manufactures 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).

At 15 kil. south, on the salt marshes near the sea, is 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 clocktower is of the 13th 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 múscat above-mentioned. Fossil remains are abundant in the limestone.

Valergues (2 miles). St. Bres (2 miles).

Baillargues (1 mile), is near Colombières, å 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 station, a handsome pile approached by a tunnel.

MONTPELLIER,

61 miles from Avignon, 520 miles from Paris. HOTELS.-Nevet; Du Midi; De Londres; Du Cheval Blanc; De la Rochelle; Du Tapis; Vert Brun; Cafés de France; De la Comedié; Du Commerce; Du Palais; Du Musée; Du Pavillon. Population, 57,727.

OBJECTS OF NOTICE.-Citadel-Triumphal Arch-Cathedral-École de Medicine-Botanic

Gardens.

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 gardens, vineyards, woods, and country around-the sea, Mont Canigou in the Pyrenées,

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 o. Maguelonne built a church here in the 12th century. Population, 1,200.

Mireval (3 miles), in a track of sandy marsh. Away to the west of it is Piguan, with an old castle of the 11th century, and the ancient half Moorish abbey church of Vignogoul, older than the 12th century.

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. Population, 2,150.

The line runs hence on a slight embankment between the sea and étang (leaving the Balaruc springs, west), to

Cette, 44 miles further, at the junction with the Chemin de Fer du Midi (see Route 66).

ROUTE 31.

Nismes, to Alais, Grand' Combe, Bességes, Florac, Mende, Clermont-Ferrand, St. Germains des Fossés, and Vichy.

Distance, 370 miles, through the hilly and interesting districts of the Cevennes.

By rail from Nismes to Alais and Bességes, 50 miles, in 2 hours 20 minutes, twice a-day. Το Mende by road. The rail passes several rocky trenches, and many tunnels (there are 101 between Alais and Langeacy-one 1,300 feet long), and some well-constructed bridges and viaducts. This way from Marseilles to Paris, via Nismes, &c., is more direct and interesting, as far as scenery goes, than the line via Lyons and Dijon. Nismes, as in Route 30.

[At 20 kil. north-north-east, is Uzès, 14 kil. north-west of Pont du Gard, a sous-préfecture of 6,200 souls, on the olivecovered 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 Расса St. Etienne's was the Jesuits' church. An ancient crypt, in another part, has an illmade 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 Templ, 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. Conveyances to Nismes, &c.] Mas-de-Ponge (62 miles). Fons (5 miles).

St. Genies (3 miles). Nozières (2 miles).

Boucoiran (14 mile), on the Gardon, which sometimes floods it, is a small village, with mills, Gothic-looking houses, and an old château, with a square tower, on a rock. Population, 700.

Ners (2 miles) on a hill, overlooking the fine valley of Beau-rivage, on the Gardon, with the Cevennes in the distance.

Vezenobres (14 mile), on a hill side. Population, 1,030.

St. Hilaire (4 miles).

Alais (3 miles), a sous-préfecture in department Gard, of 20,300 population, the ancient Alesia, 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