THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XVII, NO. 477.] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1831. [PRICE 2d.

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[Illustration: MOUNT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY.]




MOUNT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY.


The interest attached to this extraordinary place is of so popular
a character as fully to justify its introduction to our pages. It is
situate at the southern extremity of the ancient province of Normandy,
a district of considerable importance in the early histories of France
and England. The "Mount" is likewise one of the most stupendous of
Nature's _curiosities_, it being _one mass of granite_, and
referred to by geologists as a fine specimen of that primary or
primitive rock; or, to speak untechnically, of that rock "which is most
widely spread over the globe in the lowest relative situation," and
which contains no remains of a former world.[1] St. Michael's therefore
stands pre-eminently in the sublime philosophy of Nature. It figures
also in the page of man's history: its early celebrity is recognised in
the chronicles of olden France and England; and it promises note in the
history of our own times; since to this monastic spot will the political
balance of France, in all probability, exile the person of the ambitious
Polignac, ex-minister of France. The reader will perhaps suspect the