THE fascination of this ancient city of Normandy consists not only in its historical associations and its splendid cathedral, but in the fine setting, colour, and aspect of the place. Rouen should be approached, if possible, by boat on the Seine. The steamboat journey from the mouth of the river is very delightful, and there is no better way of gaining an impression of one of the most beautiful of the provinces of France. Hills, with frowning rocks, begirt the Seine in its tortuous course. Woods and tilled fields alternate with primitive, untamed ravines, watered by rivulets, and old sombre-hued houses and churches peer among woods. Parts of the valley recall Wales or Scotland in their ruggedness; while here and there we are reminded of the softer scenes of southern England.

The Rouen of obscure days of antiquity was probably a colony of the tribe of the Roths-magi. Many place-names in Normandy suggest that the Danes held this district, and they, rather than Norwegians, were the early conquerors. From Rouen we derive our word “roan” for a horse of a reddish colour, for the first imported Norman horses were known as “Rouens.”

In the eighth century this was a city of ecclesiastics, who erected many churches and convents. A long line of celebrated bishops ruled here, and the first church of St Ouen was probably built at this period. The Normans harried the country in 912, under the valiant Rollo, and Rouen was then made the capital of Normandy.

In the days of Duke William of Normandy, our gallant conqueror, Caen was of greater importance than Rouen, and at the first city the sovereigns built their palaces. William the Conqueror died in Rouen, but his body was taken to Caen for burial. Rufus invaded the territory in 1091, and obtained possession of all the chief forts on the Seine, up to Rouen.

The attempt to recover Normandy, under Henry of England, is a stirring chronicle of battle. The city of Rouen was at this time stoutly fortified, while it was famed for its wealth and power. Led by the brave Alan Blanchard, the people of Rouen made a fierce defence. But Henry had cut off approach from the sea; he held, too, the roads to Paris. He encompassed the walls of Rouen with his army; he brought boats up the river, constructed a floating bridge, and dug trenches for his troops.

The soldiers and citizens within the city resisted for six terrible months. Many were the victims of famine, and those who strove to escape were at once struck down by the besiegers. “Fire, blood and famine” were Henry’s handmaids of war, and he declared that he had chosen “the meekest maid of the three” to subdue Rouen.

At length the starving and desperate citizens resolved to burn the city, and to fling themselves on the English. This threat caused Henry to offer terms of pacification. Blanchard, the valorous defender of Rouen, was, however, killed by order of the English monarch.

The immortal Joan of Arc appears later on the scene. We cannot follow the strange and inspiring page of her career. Betrayed at length, and given into the hands of the English, she was imprisoned in Rouen, where a charge of heresy was made against her. To escape from the military to the ecclesiastic prison Joan pleaded guilty to the accusation of heresy. The story of her martyrdom is not a theme upon which one cares to dwell. The English cause was lost, though Joan of Arc was burned. “Oh, Rouen, Rouen, I have great fear lest you suffer for my death. Yes! my voices were of God; they have never deceived me.” And as the maid dropped in the writhing flames, the soldiers cried: “We are lost! We have burned a saint!”

The French recaptured Rouen in 1499. There is now no trace of the proud castle built by Henry V. of England. The prophetic cry of the soldiers had been fulfilled.

Before the end of the thirteenth century a cathedral was built in the city, and by the sixteenth century the stupendous edifice was finished. Notre Dame has a splendid west front, and very ornamental entrances to the transepts. The decorated rose windows are exceedingly fine. The choir has thirteenth-century stained windows, which must be seen in the sunlight. Here, too, are the monuments of Henry II. and Richard I. Unfortunately, much of the external decoration of Notre Dame has been disfigured by weathering, and some of the images have disappeared. But the rose windows are very celebrated, and the tower of the sixteenth century is richly ornamented.

The Lady Chapel contains the tomb of two cardinals, with beautifully sculptured figures, and carvings of exquisite craftsmanship. The tomb of the Duke of BrÉzÉ is attributed to Jean Goujon, and the images are true works of genius.

Saint-Owen is perhaps more interesting than the cathedral. It is an immense building, and though so huge, finely proportioned. The south portal is rich and exquisite in its decoration.

For an example of Goujon’s work, you must inspect the remarkably decorated door of the Church of St Madou. There are other notable churches in Rouen; and the fine stained-glass windows of St Godard must not be overlooked.

Among other buildings of interest is the Palace of Justice, with a stately frontage.

In Rouen was born Corneille, and upon a bridge over the Seine you will find his statue. Fontenelle was also one of the illustrious natives of the city.

Readers of Gustave Flaubert will remember his pictures of the country around Rouen, in “Madame Bovary.” Charles Bovary was sent to school in the city. “His mother selected a room for him, on a fourth floor, overlooking the Eau-de-Robec, in the house of a dyer she was acquainted with.” It was in Yonville-L’Abbage, “a large village about twenty miles from Rouen,” that Charles and Emma Bovary settled after their marriage.

“The river which runs through it,” writes Flaubert, “seems to have imparted to it two distinct characters. On the right bank it is all grass-land, whilst on the left it is all arable. The meadow-land spreads at the foot of some high-lying ground until it meets the pastures of Bray on the other side; on the east the gently rising ground loses itself in the distance in fields of golden wheat. The water running through the grass-land divides the colours of the meadows and of the furrows by a white streak, and so the landscape looks like a great unfolded cloak, with a green velvet collar bordered with silver.”

Such is the country that the genius of Flaubert has peopled with his types of provincial character.

Municipal enterprise has “improved and beautified” Rouen in modern times. The new, broad thoroughfares are undoubtedly admirable, according to the standard of to-day; but the reconstruction of many streets has meant the destruction of a large number of those old gabled houses that delighted the travellers of sixty years ago. Fortunately, a few charming ancient corners remain, and the authorities of the city have preserved some of these weather-worn buildings as monuments of mediÆval Rouen.

Jean Goujon, the most notable sculptor of his period, is associated with Rouen, but it has not been proved that he was a native of the city. Mystery surrounds the life of this genius. We do not even know the date of his birth. His sculpture is imaginative and powerful art, and he is very successful in presenting nude figures. It is supposed that Goujon was one of the victims of the Massacre of St Bartholomew.

A picture of the monastic life of Normandy, in the thirteenth century, has been drawn in the remarkable Regestrum Visitationum of Eude Rigaud, Archbishop of Rouen. This wonderful diary has over five hundred pages, and covers a period of about twenty years. In 1248, Rigaud was appointed Archbishop of Rouen by Innocent IV. He proved a zealot for reforms in the Church; he undertook periodic inspection of the monasteries and nunneries, and his journals contain much “sensational” reading. The archbishop records that the rule in many of the convents was exceedingly lax, and that fasts and penances were not duly observed. He found that a number of the clergy were addicted to tippling, and he made clerical drunkenness an offence punishable by the deprivation of a living. Incontinence was very common among the monks. In the convents, Rigaud discovered “great disorders.” But the archbishop relates that the offenders were so numerous that had he expelled them all, no priests would have been left in the diocese.

When wandering in the streets of Rouen, we remember that Saint-Amant was born here in 1594. The life of this wine-loving poet is full of rare adventure and colour. He was a scholar, wit, soldier, statesman, and man of business by turn. Saint-Amant visited England, went to Rome with the fleet, and afterwards to Spain. He also started a glass factory, and was for a period a diplomat in Poland. His career is a long romance.

Saint-Amant’s name in full was Marc Antoine de GÉrard, Sieur de Saint Amant. The name by which he is best known was taken from the abbey of Saint-Amant. He was one of the greatest of good livers, with an unquenchable thirst, and an infinite capacity for absorbing liquor. It is said that he and his boon companions often sat for twenty-four hours over their bottles. In those days of tavern revelry, the poet was respected as a master of deep-drinking and a model for the bibulous.

ThÉophile Gautier wrote of the poet of Rouen: “Saint-Amant is assuredly a very great and very original poet, worthy to be named among the best of whom France can boast.” This exquisite singer and devoted worshipper of Bacchus died in Paris in 1661.