little more to us than a toy and a tradition.




CHAPTER IV.

_CAEN._

'Large, strong, full of draperies, and all sorts of merchandise;
rich citizens, noble dames, damsels, and fine churches.'


The ancient city of Caen, which was thus described by Froissart in the
middle of the fourteenth century, when the English sacked the town and
carried away its riches, might be described in the nineteenth, in almost
the same words; when a goodly company of English people have again taken
possession of it--for its cheapness.

The chief town of the department of Calvados with a population numbering
nearly 50,000--the centre of the commerce of lower Normandy, and of the
district for the production of black lace--Caen has a busy and thriving
aspect; the river Orne, on which it is built, is laden with produce;
with corn, wine, oil, and cider; with timber, and with shiploads of the
celebrated Caen stone. On every side we see the signs of productiveness
and plenty, and consequent cheapness of many of the necessaries of life;
Calvados, like the rest of lower Normandy, has earned for itself the
name of the 'food-producing land' of France, from whence both London and
Paris (and all great centres) are supplied. The variety and cheapness of
the goods for sale, manufactured here and in the neighbourhood, testify