In Troubador-Land

In Troubador-Land

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Title: In Troubador-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc
Author: S. Baring-Gould
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8819] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 10,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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TROUBADOR-LAND ***

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[Frontispiece: Tower of St. Trophimus, Arles.]

IN TROUBADOUR-LAND.
A Ramble in
Provence and Languedoc.
by
S. Baring-Gould, M.A.,
AUTHOR OF "MEHALAU," "JOHN HERRING," "OLD COUNTRY
LIFE," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY J. E. ROGERS.

"What is this life, if it be not mixed with some delight? And what
delight is more pleasing than to see the fashions and manners of
unknown places? You know I am no common gadder, nor have oft
troubled you with travell."--Tom of Reading, 1600.
1891.

PREFACE.
With Murray, Bædeker, Guide Joanne, and half-a-dozen others--all
describing, and describing with exactness, the antiquities and
scenery--the writer of a little account of Provence and Languedoc is
driven to give much of personal incident. When he attempts to describe
what objects he has seen, he is pulled up by finding all the information
he intended to give in Murray or in Bædeker or Joanne. If he was in
exuberant spirits at the time, and enjoyed himself vastly, he is unable,
or unwilling, to withhold from his readers some of the overflow of his

good spirits. That is my apology to the reader. If he reads my little book
when his liver is out of order, or in winter fogs and colds--he will call
me an ass, and I must bear it. If he is in a cheerful mood himself, then
we shall agree very well together.
S. BARING-GOULD.
LEW TRENCHARD, DEVON,
_October 28, 1890._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The Tiber in Flood--Typhoid fever in Rome--Florence--A Jew
acquaintance--Drinking in Provence--Buying _bric-à-brac_ with the
Jew--the carro on Easter Eve--Its real Origin--My Jew friend's
letters--Italian dolce far niente
CHAPTER II.
THE RIVIERA.
No ill without a counterbalancing advantage--An industry peculiar to
Italy--Italian honesty--Buffalo Bill at Naples--The Prince and the
straw-coloured gloves--The Riviera--A tapestry--Nice--Its
flowers--Notre Dame--The château--My gardener--A pension of ugly
women--Horses and their hats--Antibes--Meeting of Honoré IV. and
Napoleon--The Grimaldis--Lérins, an Isle of Saints--A family
jar--Healed

CHAPTER III.
FRÉJUS.

The freedman of Pliny--Forum Julii--The Port of Agay--The Port of
Fréjus--Roman castle--Aqueduct--The lantern of Augustus--The
cathedral--Cloisters--Boy and dolphin--Story told by Pliny--The
_Chains des Maures_--Désaugiers--Dines with the porkbutchers of
Paris--Siéyès--_Sans phrase_--Agricola--His discoveries

CHAPTER IV.
MARSEILLES.
The three islands Phoenice, Phila, Iturium--Marseilles first a
Phoenician colony--The tariff of fees exacted by the priests of
Baal--The arrival of the Ionians--The legend of Protis and
Gyptis--Second colony of Ionians--The voyages of Pytheas and
Euthymenes--Capture of Marseilles by Trebonius--Position of the
Greek city--The Acropolis--Greek inscriptions--The lady who never
"jawed" her husband--The tomb of the sailor-boy--Hôtel des
Négociants--Ménu--Entry of the President of the Republic--Entry of
Francis I.--The church of S. Vincent--The cathedral--Notre Dame de la
Garde--The abbey of S. Victor--Catacombs--The fable of S. Lazarus

CHAPTER V.
THE CRAU.
The Basin of Berre--A neglected harbour--The diluvium--Formation of
the Crau--The two Craus--Canal of Craponne--Climate of the
Crau--The bise and _mistral_--Force of the wind--Cypresses--A vision
of kobolds

CHAPTER VI.

LES ALYSCAMPS.
Difficulty of finding one's way about in Arles--The two inns--The
_mistral_--The charm of Arles is in the past--A dead city--Situation of
Arles on a nodule of limestone--The Elysian Fields--A burial-place for
the submerged neighbourhood--The Alyscamp now in process of
destruction--Expropriation of ancient tombs--Avenue of tombs--Old
church of S. Honoré--S. Trophimus--S. Virgilius--Augustine, apostle of
the English, consecrated by him--The flying Dutchman--Tomb of
Ælia--Of Julia Tyranna--Her musical instruments--Monument of
Calpurnia--Her probable story--Mathematical versus classic
studies--Tombs of _utriculares_--Christian sarcophagi--Probably older
than the date usually attributed to them--A French author on the
wreckage of the Elysian Fields

CHAPTER VII.
PAGAN ARLES.
The Arles race a mixture of