Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
History
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
France -- Description and travel; Netherlands -- Description and travel
In every chapel, moreover, there was a confessional--a little oaken
structure, about as big as a sentry-box, with a closed part for the
priest to sit in, and an open one for the penitent to kneel at, and
speak through the open-work of the priest's closet. Monuments, mural
and others, to long-departed worthies, and images of the Savior, the
Virgin, and saints, were numerous everywhere about the church; and in
the chancel there was a great deal of quaint and curious sculpture,
fencing in the Holy of Holies, where the high altar stands. There is
not much painted glass; one or two very rich and beautiful
rose-windows, however, that looked antique; and the great eastern
window, which, I think, is modern. The pavement has, probably, never
been renewed, as one piece of work, since the structure was erected,
and is foot-worn by the successive generations, tho still in excellent
repair. I saw one of the small, square stones in it, bearing the date
of 1597, and no doubt there are a thousand older ones.
Rouen
By Thomas Frognall Dibdin
[Footnote: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."]
The approach to Rouen is indeed magnificent. I speak of the immediate
approach, after you reach the top of a considerable rise, and are stopt
by the barriers. You then look down a straight, broad, and strongly
paved road, lined with a double row of trees on each side. As the
foliage was not thickly set, we could discern, through the delicately
clothed branches, the tapering spire of the cathedral, and the more
picturesque tower of the Abbaye St. Ouen--with hanging gardens, and
white houses, to the left--covering a richly cultivated ridge of hills,
which sink, as it were, into the Boulevards, and which is called the
Faubourg Cauchoise. To the right, through the trees, you see the River
Seine (here of no despicable depth or breadth), covered with boats and
vessels in motion, the voice of commerce, and the stir of industry,
cheering and animating you as you approach the town. I was told that
almost every vessel which I saw (some of them of two hundred, and even
of three hundred tons burden) was filled with brandy and wine....
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