horror that a young and beautiful child of little more than a year old had been found with its limbs tied together, evidently drugged with opium, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather on the borders of the lake, and had been picked up by one of the gardeners at early morning. The maternal heart had evidently revolted at the last moment from the crime about to be committed, and, like the young Moses, the babe had been left in the hope that some happy turn of fortune might possibly save his little life. The child was brought to this, the nearest asylum, till measures could be adopted for its protection; but the mistress of the house, the mother of several children, touched with its innocence and helplessness, immediately offered, if the consent of her husband could be obtained, to adopt the infant and bring it up as her own. To this arrangement the worthy host had immediately consented, and we (the gentlemen) having expressed a wish to see the child, he was brought in for our inspection. He has not the appearance of being the offspring of common people, and his delicate features and complexion partake more of the Swiss or English than of the French type. Our hearts very pardonably warmed as the babe was handed about from one strong arm to another; and I having set on foot a subscription on his behalf, the amount collected soon realised a sum of upwards of 500 francs. This I have placed in the savings bank for him; but before doing so it was necessary to give him a name. "We must not forget the proprietor, M. Grand," I observed, "who has so generously taken the initiative in this act of benevolence, and as Grand harmonises with Conseil, let us call him Grand Conseil; and by this designation accordingly he is known. And now I have told my story you shall see him yourselves, with your own eyes, and judge whether he has any appearance of being a peasant's child.” The boy, evidently a great favourite, was playing on the grass in front of the house, surrounded by the servants of the establishment proper measures have been taken to secure him to the parents who adopted him; yet it would seem that they entertain fears that he may some day be taken away from them. His somewhat pensive features lighted with a smile of intelligence at the sight of his patron, who took him in his arms with the greatest tenderness, and begged us to notice the traits to which he had previously called our attention. Sad and solemn were our thoughts about that great sin which must still lie upon the conscience most probably of some wretched mother; yet we thanked God in our hearts that He had not suffered His little one to perish,-that sorrow is thus occasionally tempered with joy; and that "evil is overcome by good." Late dinner, at which the members of the various married branches of the family usually assembled, was served on our return; and at its close, as is usual on the Continent, ladies and gentlemen leave the table together. Then follow the pleasant evenings spent in the air; where, sitting beneath a roomy verandah, the family receive visits from the neighbouring gentry: a general hilarity prevails. Coffee and iced syrups are the only refreshments provided. A handsome little Shetland pony, a present to the children, who ride it quite fearlessly, usually makes its appearance at this hour. Purchased in London, it has now been some months in France, and is reconciled to the change of domicile of which at first it seemed sensible. It now comes with pleasure to be noticed, or to be fed with bread or sugar, and is evidently well acquainted with its juvenile riders. The town of Lyons shows everywhere signs of great activity and extensive commercial relations; while it has very much increased in size, it has been greatly improved and embellished within the last twenty years, and the country houses, which are for the most part beautifully situated on the surrounding eminences, stretch out in all directions for many miles. The rate of wages has very much risen of late, and mechanics and artizans now earn from two and a half to five francs a day. Women also are paid more than formerly for labour or machine-work, the rate varying from two to two and a half francs per diem. The highly paid artizans partake of meat daily; the poorer people usually once a week, their common diet consisting of coffee, bread, butter, cheese, and vegetables the latter occasionally seasoned with bacon. Extreme destitution happily appears to be unknown. The ancient Roman station, now occupied by the Church of Notre Dame de la Fourvière, abounds in antiquities, and there, as well as in the bed of the Rhone, numerous specimens now in the Museum of the town have been found. Among the more recent treasures brought to light here is the head of a female in bronze, which was originally plated with silver. It is of exquisite workmanship, and the trustees were so fortunate as to purchase it from the finders, who were not aware of its merits, for the very moderate sum of four hundred francs. Gold and jewelled ornaments of considerable value are also displayed in locked cases, and among the more recent discoveries is a large and well-executed mosaic pavement, which covered the floor of an apartment. Like many Italian towns, the Roman station stood on a lofty eminence, overlooking the Saone, which flowed through the valley beneath; it was supplied with water by an aqueduct, bringing the possibly purer waters of some mountain stream from a considerable distance. The remains of this gigantic work can be traced, spanning the valley now occupied by the village of Oullins, and thence climbing the hill, where, on the summit, a long line of ivy-clad arches are to be seen in tolerable preservation, and the ruins are traceable for a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles. Under the guidance of our good friends, we visited the remains, both of the valley and also of the hill. Au un facturing and mercantile city bids fair to surpass any and every similar display in the world. Under the same roof are placed, in a handsome modern structure, the Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Council of Prudhommes; in this last, nineteen twentieths of the disputes between masters and workmen are amicably settled. The Court consists of an equal number of elected masters and workmen, having for their president a manufacturer. All this and much more had we visited, and, above all, we had seen genuine French country lifeseen it under the happiest circumstances, in the midst of a charming family circle, who did not allow our presence to interfere with their usual mode of life. Our host, a self-made man, at my request, gave me a brief account of his life, and of the events which had led to his present position. His father, an officer of the old French army in the time of the Republic, found himself, like others of the same standing, an object of dislike to the rising men of the army of the First Consul. To avoid jealousies, it was the policy of Napoleon Bonaparte to place officers of this class to defend the garrisons, and thus the earliest recollections of our friend went back to a time when his father commanded a fortress in Piedmont. A child The laundresses seem to have almost undisputed possession of the stream, and the walls of their dwellings, constructed frequently of hammered clay, rest against the brickwork of former days. A very difficult road leads to the higher aqueduct, but the strong and handsome Norman horses which conveyed us worked their upward way courageously, while each turn of the steep ascent revealed new beauties in the landscape. From the sunmit the mountains of the Côte d'Or, the Lyonese of the army, he was educated at the expense of chain, the Jura, and even Mont Blanc and the Alps, are seen in fine weather. disturbed solitude enabled us to enjoy the full beauty of the prospect, and to meditate awhile on the fate of that great nation which once ruled the destinies of the then known world, and whose works will certainly survive most of our modern structures. Brambles and tangled herbage, interblended with the most brilliantly tinted wild flowers, creep round the feet of the gigantic ruins, and through each opening a varied landscape is to be seen. A fine picture of this portion of the aqueduct was some years since made by Harding, while the guest of our hospitable entertainers. But we had visited the principal objects of interest, both in the town and country; passing quays and bridges, we had admired the handsome modern streets, and enjoyed the grateful shade of those narrower ways where the sun's rays scarcely penetrate between the lofty houses; we had specially noticed the refreshing influence diffused around by sparkling fountains rising to a considerable height from the midst of parterres of flowers and verdure; we had spent some time amidst the varied collection of art manufactures, which in this manu the State at the military college of St. Omer, "where," he said, "I was so ill-disciplined that I invariably took part in the revolts of the pupils, which at that time were not unfrequent." At sixteen he received a cadetship and entered the army; but that did not last, and his mother, a widow, the two almost wanting bread, he was glad to enter a house in Paris connected with the shawl manufactory, and to receive in payment for his services his board and lodging. The male population of the country exhausted by the drains of the army, the youth, half-clerk, half-warehouseman, had to work hard early and late, and on the reconstruction of the army he immediately threw up his situation. The slender pittance of the mother was expended to refit him for the profession which all the circumstances of his life, as well as his military education, appeared to point out as his proper vocation, and he returned to it with all the ardour and hopefulness of inexperience. "But God," he said, "had not so ordained it, and in His goodness He again led me back from the warlike career." Thrown adrift once more by the battle of Waterloo, he again returned to the capital, and was present when the Allied Sovereigns entered Paris. An illness of some months, aggravated doubtless by anxiety of mind and the want of proper nourishment, now intervened; and describing their situation in his own touching words, he observed, "At that time we were indeed very miserable-my poor mother and I-we had only potage (thin soup) to eat, and, my hopes of advancement shattered, I knew not what to do." Driven to seek employment, he at length became connected with a commercial house, and in its service went as travelling clerk to Germany, in which country he met with the lady his present partner, whom he married after waiting two years. Once launched in the commercial world, good fortune attended his steps, and from these small beginnings he has become one of the most distinguished merchants of France. Universally honoured in the city which he has made the chief seat of his commercial transactions, his name is well known and respected everywhere in his country, and in Europe generally, in many of whose principal cities he has branch establishments. And in this instance success has attended the enterprise of one well worthy of the smiles of fortune. Of a generous and unprejudiced nature, this noble man with his enlarged sympathies can see good in other nationalities beyond his own, and is ready to adopt improvements from whatever quarter they may come. An ardent lover of his country, he also loves England, her institutions, and her language, which he understands idiomatically. It will be supposed that such a one rejoices in the removal of those impediments which have until recently fettered the development of the commercial relations between the two great nations of Europe, towards which he has mainly contributed. In the mutual interchange of commodities and manufactures, and in the friendly union and brotherhood, he sees the highest security for the peace of the European world, and for their own internal prosperity. Not without regret on either side came the parting word, Adieu! For me, the novelty of the life had its attractions, which the added charms of courtesy and hospitality rendered the more seductive. But Switzerland was before us, and we had formed extensive plans for travel, to be accomplished within a limited period; and we resisted the solicitations of our friends to tarry longer on our way. Railways, even in Switzerland, now facilitate the movements of the tourist ; AN AUTUMN DAY AT WINCHILSEA. WHILST staying, a few weeks since, in the neighbourhood of Hastings, an antiquarian friend suggested to me by chance that I should find a great treat, and some occupation for a pleasant autumu day, in an excursion to the ancient city of Winchilsea, distant some eight miles by road or by rail. Accordingly, I made my way by rail to that famous place,-nearly, that is, but not quite; for the Winchilsea station is in the salt marshes which lie between the town and Udimore; and I found the serpentine road, which led me to the foot of the hill on which Winchilsea is built, a walk not much short of a quarter of an hour's duration. I should here remark that, although I have called Winchilsea an "ancient" city, a great distinction must be drawn between the present town and what an antiquary would recognise as "old" Winchilsea. The site of the latter place was a low flat island, some three miles south-east of the high hill on which the present town stands, at what was then the mouth of the river Rother. But here, as at Yarmouth * and Shoreham, the action of the sea has so changed the outline of the coast during the last ten or twenty centuries, that it is almost impossible to identify the site with precision. This much, however, is certain, that "the old town was separated from most of the adjoining localities by a wide waste of waters," and that "the path to it on every side except the west, was over a large estuary."+ 66 Geographers are no less puzzled as to the exact site of old Winchilsea than etymologists are to account for its name. According to Mr. Cooper, it is a matter of doubt whether the town existed at all at the me of the Roman Conquest. Camden," he writes, "does not lay it down in his maps of Roman or even of Saxon Britain: in his map of Sussex he gives it under the Roman name of Vindelis, with the addition Old Winchilsea drowned,' but that name would be more correctly given to the isle of Portland. Jeake tells us that it was reported by Johnson in his Atlas, to have been a city in the time of the Romans.' In Gough's edition of Camden, and in the Map of Ancient Britain, published by the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge, the harbour is given as Portus Novus. The spot, however, on which the old town stood is marked in the map given by Dugdale in his *See Vol. IX., p. 276, and Vol. XI., p. 254. "The History of Winchilsea," by W. D. Cooper, F.S.A., p. 1. Butler, in his "Atlas of Ancient Britain," also gives this as the site of Vindelis. 6 History of Embanking.' The bearings indicate a place immediately on the east side of the east pier-head of Rye harbour, constituting the Camber farm estate, which lies in the parish of St. Thomas, Winchilsea, and was probably either the site, or adjoining the site, of the original town. Norden, in his Preface to the History of Cornwall,' published in Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that in the Saxon era of our history Winchilsea became a place of great importance, as one of the chief ports on the south-eastern coast. We shall leave it to etymologists to decide the precise meaning of its name, and especially to settle the point as to how far the words "Friget mare ventus," are or are not an exact Latin equivalent for Wind-chils-sea. Chill, we all know, without Mr. Jeake's assistance, is a term "yet in use for cold ;" and "well" (he writes) "might the old town deserve that name, standing, as it did, in a low place open to both the winds and the sea." It is quite possible, as a local antiquary, Mr. Holloway, suggests, that the name originally meant "Wind-cold-island," or "Cold-windisland;" but after all, it is to be feared that our present knowledge of etymology is such that we must leave the knotty question for another generation to solve. It is curious that Winchilsea is not mentioned by name in either the Saxon Chronicle or in Domesday; but it is matter of history that King Edgar had a mint here in A.D. 959, and that the town was of sufficient importance in the time of Edward the Confessor to be granted to the monks of Féchamp in France and the monks were not usually the men to take anything of inferior quality under their special protection. At the time of the Conquest, before Dover had risen into note, Winchilsea was one of the most convenient ports for passengers to embark at en route to and from France. |