town. They are the Pont Rousseau, De Permil, D'Aiguillon, Feydeau, De
la Belle Croix, Brisebois, and Toussaint. The houses are regular and
handsome, having in some places a very singular appearance, from the
ground having sunk, and the foundations given way, causing them to
lean in various directions from the perpendicular line. In point of
commerce, at one period antecedent to the Revolution, Nantes was the
most considerable sea-port in France: since the loss of its West India
trade, especially with Saint Domingo, it has been greatly reduced.
The rich plains which surround it on three sides, in the form of an
amphitheatre, and the river covered with vessels and boats, give it
a most lively appearance. It has a large Theatre, a Royal College
(lately the Lyceum), a Commercial Tribunal, a handsome Exchange, a
Bishop's Palace, Hall of the Préfecture, Public Library, Anatomical
and Surgical Academies, Botanical Garden, Museum of Natural History,
and a foundry for cannon.

The latter is in the old and decaying Château on the bank of the
river, called Goulemme. One of its bastions was blown up a few years
since by accident, which has shaken and destroyed the whole fabric;
but it is still capable of holding a garrison, and is a fine monument
of ancient fortification. It was once the residence of Henry IV. of
France, at the time he signed the celebrated edict, (1598,) in favour
of the reformed religion, afterwards revoked by Louis XIV. in 1685,
and which occasioned such deplorable consequences to the French
nation.

M. de Sainte Foix, in his historical Essays upon Paris, vol. i.
p. 113, speaking of the Rue de Grenelle, in the quarter of Saint
Eustache, gives the following curious account of the birth of this
great King, whose memory is revered in France, beyond that of all the