portal of the cathedral and the old clock-tower in the '_rue de la
Grosse Horloge_,' we observe that the cathedral has a cast-iron spire,
and that the frescoes and carving round the clock-tower are built up
against and pasted over with bills of concerts and theatres.

The streets are full of busy merchants, trim shopkeepers, and the usual
crowd of blouses that we see in every city in France. There are wide
boulevards and trees round Rouen; and if we look down upon the city from
the heights of Mont St. Catherine (perhaps the best view that we can
obtain anywhere) it may remind us, with its broad river laden with ships
and its cathedral towers, of the superb view of Lyons that we obtain
from the heights near the cemetery: the view so well known to visitors
to that city. The people of Rouen who have spread out into the enormous
suburb of St. Sever, on the left bank of the Seine,[42] are busy by
thousands in the manufactories,--the sound of the loom and the anvil
comes up to us even here; and down by the banks of the river, away
westward, as far as the eye can see, up spring clean bright houses of
the wealthy manufacturers and traders of Rouen,--rich, sleek, and portly
gentlemen with the thinnest boots, who never even pass down the old
streets if they can help it, but whom we shall find very pleasant and
hospitable; and with whom we may sit down at a café under the trees and
play at dominoes in the open street, in the middle of the day, without
creating a scandal.

But if Rouen will not compare with Lyons in size, or commercial
importance, it surpasses it in antiquarian interest; and we have chosen
our illustrations to depict it rather as it was, than as it is. We give
a drawing of Joan of Arc's house rather than of a building in the 'rue
Imperiale;' and a view of the old market-place in front of the cathedral
rather than of the trim toy-garden at the west end of the church of St.