Montesquieu formed the habit when thinking alone of leaning back in his chair before the hearth and resting his feet against one of the jambs of the chimney-piece. The stone was much worn away by his feet; but the marks would pass unobserved if the knowledge of their cause had not been preserved in the family. A bust of Montesquieu made in his life-time shows him with closely-cropped hair, and without a wig. It is a remarkably Caesar-like head, every feature indicating the decision and positivism of the Roman character—such a one, indeed, as ideally became the author of the 'Considerations.' But how the face is altered when we look at it in another portrait—a painted one, representing the writer in a great wig as President of the Parliament of Guyenne! A head becomes another head if the coiffure be but changed.

A little room adjoining this one was where Montesquieu's secretary worked. He was the drudge of a literary man, who was probably not exempt from the constitutional irritability of those who carry a whirling grindstone within their brains for the sharpening and polishing of thought. The unremembered scribe may have done good service to literature while undergoing his purgatory in this world.

Distributed throughout this suite of apartments on the ground-floor is much furniture of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, most of which was here when Montesquieu was chtelain.

A spiral staircase leads to the great hall of the old castle. It has been very carefully preserved, and although the walls are now lined with book-shelves, it keeps the air of baronial grandeur and simplicity. Montesquieu made it his library, and had reading-desks set up all down the middle. His books remain, as well as some of his manuscripts, including that of 'Les Lettres Persanes.' This long hall is covered by a plain barrel-vault, and at the far end is an immense chimney-place, the chimney built out at the base several feet from the line of the wall, and sloping back towards the ceiling. On the plain (not conical) surface of this mediaeval chimney are painted figures, said to be of the thirteenth century, but probably later. One can distinguish a king, a cardinal, and a page on horseback. The mediaeval fireplates are still in their old place at the back of the vast hearth.

I have little more to add to this story of my wanderings. From La Brde I went to Bordeaux, where I found much to admire that I had not noticed before. The architecture of this city is incomparably richer than that of Paris by the diversity of style and the good fortune that has protected so many of the buildings from the destructive influences of war, fanaticism, and the presumption of those who in all ages would abolish the past if they could, and refashion the world according to their own ideas. The Roman period is only represented by a fragment of the amphitheatre, now called the Palais Gallien. But what a picturesque fragment this is, and how well it introduces the visitor to the study of the Romanesque, the Gothic, and the Renaissance buildings, of which he will find such characteristic examples here! The interest of the Englishman will be increased by the knowledge that some of the most notable of the Gothic edifices were raised when to his countrymen Bordeaux was a continental London, and a well-known tendency of his will probably lead him to attribute much of their grave stateliness to the influence of the Anglo-Saxon character.



The people of Bordeaux are supposed to have derived not a little of their keen commercial spirit from the English. If this be so, they may take credit for having in some respects surpassed their teachers. By the gift of persuasiveness and the abundance of words, by aplomb, combined with astuteness, they are fitted by nature to be the most successful traffickers on earth. But in return for a little work they expect a great deal of enjoyment, and more than most industrious cities is Bordeaux given up to the worship of pleasure.



From Bordeaux I continued down the river until I saw the Dordogne join the Garonne, where both are lost in the Gironde. Here the two beautiful and noble streams, one flowing from the Auvergne mountains, and the other from the Pyrenees, no sooner embrace than they die on the breast of the salt wave. They and their tributaries caused one of the sternest, and yet one of the most smiling, of regions—a country where Nature seems to have the passion of contrast, and where she brings forth all the best fruits of the earth—to be named by the Celts the Land of Waters, and by the Romans Aquitania. A little reflection explains why the English of the Middle Ages, having once possessed it, should have clung to it with such tenacity. Less easy is it to understand why so few of their descendants of to-day feel the peculiar spell that almost every rood of this broad land should cast upon them, apart from the charm of old story and of the picturesque that appeals to all.



INDEX.

AGRICULTURE in the Corrze, in Prigord, Albigenses, The, Ales, Angelus, The, Angling, Architecture: Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Roman, Romanesque, Argentat, Arnaud (Arnaud Daniel, troubadour), Artaud, The (River), Aspic, The, Aubeterre, Aulaye, St., Auvergnats, Descent of the,

Barthlemy, St., Bastides, Bazas, Bazile, St., Beaulieu, Bene, Valley of the, Beynac, Botie, Etienne de la, Boleti, Bordeaux, Bordelaises, Born, Bertrand de, Bort, Bourdeilles, Brantme, Abbey of, Pierre de Bourdeilles, Brde (La), Buckwheat, Buisson (Le), Bureau, Jean,

Cacolets, Cadouin, Abbey of, Cadurci, The, Caesar at Uxeliodunum, Carthusians of Vauclair, Castillon, Battle of, Castres (Gironde), Cazouls, Cemeteries, Rural, Cou, The (River), Cpes, Chandos, Chteau d'Aubeterre, de Beynac, de Biron, de Bourdeilles, des Eyzies de Fges, de Fnelon, de Grignols (Talleyrand), de Gurons, de Hautefort, de Marouette, de Montaigne, de Montesquieu, de Nabinaud, de Villandraut, Chavannon, Gorge of the, Christy, Mr., Clement V., Pope, Coiffure at Mont-Dore, in the Bordelais, in the Corrze, in Prigord, Coligny, Cond, Madame de, Court-Mantel, Henry, Coutras, Coux, Crayfish, Cyprien, St.,

Denis, St., Domme, Dordogne, Valley of the, Double, The, Dovecots, Droit Seigneurial, Dronne, Valley of the,

chourgnac, glisottes, Les, Eleanor of Aquitaine, milion, St., English, The, at Bordeaux, at Castillon, at Domme, at Les Eyzies, at Libourne, at Martel, at Montpont, at St. milion, at St. Cyprien, at Sarlat, at Tayac, Eyquem. See Montaigne Eyzies, Les,

Fge, La, Fnelon, Frogs, Fronsac, Front, St., Cathedral of, Funeral Customs,

Gallien, Le Palais, Garonne, Valley of the, Gipsies, Gironde, The (River), Girondins, The, Gorge of Hell, The, Goth, Bertrand de, Grand-Brassac, Groljac, Guyenne, English rule in,

Hautefort, Huguenots,

Ilex, The, Implements, Flint, Isle, Valley of the,

Jongleur, The modern,

Knolles, Robert,

Landes (of the Gironde), Langon, Laplau, Leaguers, The, Leopard, The English (Heraldic), Libourne, Limeuil, Lisle, The Lord, Luxge, The (River),

Macaire, St., Madeleine, La, Malaria, Man, Prehistoric, Marcillac, Martel, Charles, Master and servant, Mr, Poltrot de, Messeix, Mtayage, Michel-Bonnefare, St., Miremont, Cavern of, Modires, Mondane, St., Montaigne, Michel, Montesquieu, Montpont, Mothe-Montravel, La, Moustier, Le, Nabinaud, Neuvic, Normans, The, in Prigord,

Orgues de Bort, Oriel, The golden, Owls,

Pantalon, St, Peasant-proprietor, The, Prigord Noir, Prigueux, Plantagenet, Henry, Plateau, Great Central, of France, Plough, Ancient form of, Poaching, Politics, Local, Port-Dieu, Puy d'Issolu,

Raymond II., Viscount of Turenne, Religious Customs, Riberac, Roche Canillac, La, Chalais, La, Romance Language, The, Roque-Gageac, La, Rue, The (River),

Salignac, Franois de. See Fnelon, Sarlat, Saut de la Saule, Le, Sauterne, The vintage at, Sauve, St., Savennes, Sbastien, Dom, Secondat, Charles de. See Montesquieu, Servires, Shroud, The Holy, Siorac, Snail-eaters, Songs of Prigord, Souillac, Spinning-wheels, Superstition,

Taillefer, Talbot, Tarde, Jean, Tayac, La Roque de, Church of, Tocane St. Apre, Tocsin, The, Tour de Mareuil, de Vsone, Trappists, Troglodytes, Truffles, Turenne, Tursac,

Uxellodunum, Vauclaire, La Chartreuse de, Vayrac, Verdelais, Vrre, Valley of the, Victor, St., Villandraut, Villefranche de Longchapt, Villeinage, Vin de plaine, Vins du pays, Vintage, The, In the Bordelais, Viper, The Red,

Wages, Wolves,

THE END.