Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
In such an old courtyard as this of the "Bons Enfants," with its
overhanging balcony, and queerly managed stables, or in other old inns
like No. 19 Rue des Matelas, or No. 4 Rue Etoupee with its charming
"signboard," men sat and talked of their various trades, the cobbler,
for instance, who is carved on the Cathedral stalls, with the
clog-maker, and the wool-comber, and the carpenter, all met and
gossiped of their latest piece of profitable business, while the
lawyers discussed the never-ending question of the Privilege de St.
Romain with some learned clerk over their "vin blanc d'Anjou." By the
fourteenth century the list of the prisoners released by the Cathedral
Chapter begins to be very full and detailed, and we can quite imagine
what was talked about in every tavern of the town as Ascension-tide
drew near.
In 1360, for example, the King's Mint was already established in the
Rue St. Eloi, and you may still see it at No. 30 in that street as you
go up on the right hand from the river to the Place St. Eloi. The
"Hotel des Monnaies" has been all whitewashed over, but there is a
strong and ancient look about the windows on the street facade that
warns you to go through the little passage-way, to find the soldiers
of the Douane lounging about the courtyard inside. On the back of the
houses that look out upon the street you will see the arms and cipher
of Francois Premier, which show that in his days the Mint still
remained in a house that was far older. And in 1360 the "Officer of
the Mint of the parish of St. Eloi," who quarrelled about the price of
his chicken in the Parvis, "voulait avoir de la poulaille a son pris."
He must have done his bargaining in very strong language, for one of
the three brothers Sautel who kept the shop, smote him that he died,
and it was to these brothers that the privilege of raising the Fierte
St. Romain with pardon for this crime, was in that year granted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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