--Pont-de-l'Arche claims the merit of having been the first town
in France, which acknowledged Henry IVth as its lawful sovereign, after
the assassination of his predecessor, in 1589.
On leaving this place, we passed through the forest of the same name, an
extensive tract covered with young trees, principally beech, oak, and
birch. The soil, a mixture of chalk and gravel, is poor, and offers but
little encouragement to the labors of the plough. All around us, the
distant prospect was pleasantly varied with gentle hills, upon one of
which, nearly in front, we soon saw Louviers, a busy manufacturing town,
of about seven thousand inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in making
the fine cloth of the district, which is considered superior in quality
to any other in France. Spanish wool is almost exclusively used for
the purpose.
Throughout the vicinity of Louviers, are the most undoubted symptoms of
commercial prosperity; new houses every where erecting, and old ones
undergoing improvement. But the streets of the town itself are, as
usual, dirty and narrow, and the people of the lower orders more than
commonly ragged and beggarly. It was impossible to mistake the nature of
their occupations; so many of them had their faces and hands, and every
part of their limbs and bodies that was visible, died of a bright
blue.
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