artists are familiar to us in England, and we need not allude to them
further; but there is an exhibition of water-colour drawings at Rouen,
about which we must say a word.[51]

These sketches of towns in Normandy, and of pastoral scenes, have a
curious family likeness, and a mannerism which the French may call
'_chic_,' but which we are inclined to attribute to want of power and
patient study. There is an old-fashioned formality in the composition of
their landscapes, which does not seem to our eyes to belong to the world
of to-day, and a decidedly amateurish treatment which is surprising.
They repeat themselves and each other, without end, and evidently are
thinking more about _Beranger_ than the places of which he sang; they
would seek (as some one expresses it) to 'reconcile literal facts with
rapturous harmonies,' in short they attempt too much, and accomplish too
little. In form and feature, these pictures remind us (like Rouen
itself) of a bygone time, when travelling on the Continent was difficult
and expensive, and views of foreign towns were not easy to obtain; when
some distinguished amateur (distinguished, perhaps, more for his courage
and industry than for his art) visited the Continent at rare intervals,
and brought home in triumph a few hazy sketches of a people that we had
scarce heard of, and hardly believed in; and had them engraved and
multiplied, for the art-loving amongst us, as the best treasures of the
time.

The modernised aspect of Rouen is one that we (as lookers-on merely)
shall never cease to regret, because it is the town of all others which
should tell us most of the past; and it is, moreover, the one town in
Normandy which most English people find time to see.

But if most of its individuality and character have vanished, its