A supposedly liberal and tolerant maker of guide-books (in English) has given inhabitants of Orange a hard reputation by classing them as a "ferocious people." This rather unfair method of estimating their latter-day characteristics is based upon the fact that over three hundred perished here by the guillotine during the first three months of the Revolution. It were better had he told us something of the architectural treasures of this _ville de l'art célèbre_. He does mention the chief, also that "the town has many mosquitoes," but, as for churches, he says not a word. The first bishop was St. Luce, who was settled here in the fourth century, at the same time that St. Ruff came to Avignon. As a bishopric, Orange was under the control of St. Trophime's successors at Arles. Notre Dame d'Orange is a work of little architectural pretence, though its antiquity is great as to certain portions of its walls. The oldest portion dates from 1085, though there is little to distinguish it from the more modern additions and reparations, and is in no way suggestive of the splendour with which the ancient Roman theatre and arch were endowed. The chief attribute to be remarked is the extreme width of nave, which dates from 1085 to 1126. The cathedral itself, however, is not an architectural example of any appealing interest whatever, and pales utterly before the magnificent and splendid preservations of secular Roman times. Since, however, Orange is a city reminiscent of so early a period of Christianity as the fourth century, it is to be presumed that other Christian edifices of note may have at one time existed: if so, no very vivid history of them appears to have been left behind, and certainly no such tangible expressions of the art of church-building as are seen in the neighbouring cities of the Rhône valley. [Illustration] IX ST. VÉRAN DE CAVAILLON "It is the plain of Cavaillon which is the market-garden of Avignon; from whence come the panniers of vegetables and fruits, the _buissons d'artichauts_, and the melons of 'high reputation.'" Such is the rather free paraphrase of a most charmingly expressed observation on this Provençal land of plenty, written by an eighteenth-century Frenchman. If it was true in those days, it is no less true to-day, and, though this book is more concerned with churches than with _potagerie_, the observation is made that this fact may have had not a little to do with the early foundation of the church, here in a plenteous region, where it was more likely to prosper than in an impoverished land. The bishopric was founded in the fifth century by St. Genialis, and it endured constantly until the suppression in 1790. All interest in Cavaillon, in spite of its other not inconsiderable claims, will be centred around its ancient cathedral of St. Véran, immediately one comes into contact therewith.