and the very work of his hand in the bold, decisive shadows.

It is pleasant to dwell for a moment on Prout's work, for he has become
identified with Normandy through numerous sketches of buildings now
pulled down; and they have an antiquarian as well as an artistic
interest. They are 'mannered,' as we all know, but they have more
_couleur locale_ than any of the drawings of Pugin; and are valued (we
speak of money value) at the present time, above the works of most
water-colour painters of his time.

But we must not dream about old Rouen, we must rather tell the reader
what it is like to-day, and how modern and prosaic is its aspect; how we
arrive by express train, and are rattled through wide paved streets in
an '_omnibus du Chemin de Fer_,' and are set down at a 'grand' hotel,
where we find an Englishman seated in the doorway reading 'Bell's Life.'

Rouen is busy and thriving, and has a fixed population of not less than
150,000; situated about half-way between Paris and the port of Havre,
there is a constant flow of traffic passing and repassing, and its quays
are lined with goods for exportation. In front of our window at the
Hôtel d'Angleterre, from which we have a view for miles on both sides
of the Seine, the noise and bustle are almost as great as at Lyons or
Marseilles. The Rouen of to-day is given up to commerce, to the swinging
of cranes, and to the screeching of locomotives on the quays; whilst the
fine broad streets and lines of newly erected houses, shut out from our
view the old city of which we have heard so much, and which many of us
have come so far to see. As we approach Rouen by the river, or even by
railway, it is true that we see cathedral towers, but they are
interspersed with smoking factory chimneys and suspension bridges; and
although on our first drive through the town, we pass the magnificent