LETTER III.

VILLAGE AND CASTLE OF ARQUES. SABBATH AMUSEMENTS. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
BOULEVARDS.


As I had received especial injunctions from our friend P--- not to leave
Dieppe without paying a visit to the famous _Chateau d'Arques_[29], in its
neighbourhood, I resolved to seize the opportunity of a tolerably fair, or
rather gray-looking day, to go and pay due homage to those venerable
remains of antiquity. The road thither is completely rural: apple-trees,
just beginning to burst their blossoms; hamlets, small farm-houses: a
profusion of rich herbage of various kinds--delighted and regaled me as I
pursued my tranquil walk. The country is of a gently-undulating character;
but the flats or meadows, between the parallel ranges of hills, are subject
to constant inundation from the sea; and in an agricultural point of view
are consequently of little use, except for summer grazing of the cattle.

It was drawing on to vespers as I approached the _Village of Arques_. The
old castle had frequently peeped out upon me, in my way thither, from its
elevated situation; but being resolved to see "all that could be seen," a
French village, for the first time, was not to be overlooked. For a country
church, I know of few finer ones than that of Arques.[30]

The site of the castle is admirable. My approach was to the western
extremity; which, as you look down, brings the village and church of Arques
in the back ground. If the eye were to be considered as a correct judge,