sign of liberty usurped and profaned by the basest of slaves."--Peter then has a learned _excursus de jure pileorum_, wherein _Tertullian de Spectaculis, Erasmus_ his _Chiliades_, and many other reverent authorities are adduced; also, giving an account of his successful exertions, as to "the licence of putting on our caps at our public meetings, which privilege, time, and the tyranny of the vice-chancellor, had taken from." After which, he still resumes in ire,--"this French sauciness hath drawn me out of the way; an impudent familiarity, which, I confess, did much offend me; and to which I still profess myself an open enemy. Though Jacke speak French, I cannot endure Jacke should be a gentleman." [29] _Géographie de la France_, II. p. 115. [30] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 94. [31] P. 196, 203, 204. [32] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 90.--Some other writers date the foundation A.D. 666. [33] _Gough's Alien Priories_, I. p. 9. [34] This important part of its treasures, we may hope, from the following passage in Noel, has been in a measure preserved. "On m'a assuré que cette dernière partie des richesses littéraires de notre pays étoit heureusement conserveé: puisse aujourd'hui ce dépot, honorant les mains qui le possédent, parvenir intégre jusqu'aux tems propères où le génie de l'histoire pourra utiliser sa possession."--_Essais sur la Seine Inférieure_, II. p. 21. [35] I do not know if it be wholly destroyed; for the author of the Description of Upper Normandy and Goube both speak of the existence of a square tower within the precincts of the abbey, part of the old palace, and known by the name of the _Tower of Babel_. [36] _Noel, Essais sur la Seine Inférieure_, II. p. 11. [37] Vol. I. p. 389. [38] This name, in Latin, is _Monasterium Villare_; in old French records it is called _Monstier Vieil_. [39] _Origines de Caen, 2nd edit._ p. 300. [40] Vol. II. p. 78. LETTER VI. HAVRE--TRADE AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN--EMINENT MEN--BOLBEC--YVETOT--RIDE TO ROUEN--FRENCH BEGGARS. (_Rouen, June_, 1818.) To Fécamp and the other places noticed in my last letter, a more striking contrast could not easily be found than Havre. It equally wants the interest derived from ancient history, and the appearance of misery inseparable from present decay. And yet even Havre is now suffering and depressed. A town which depends altogether upon foreign commerce, could not fail to feel the effects of a long maritime war; and we accordingly find the number of its inhabitants, which twenty years ago was estimated at twenty-five thousand, now reduced to little more than sixteen thousand.