DOI Heft:
No. 41 (August, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Lenfestey, Giffard H.: Dieppe, Rouen and Chartres as a sketching ground
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0163
Dieppe, Rouen and Chartres
now a beautifully moulded
ceiling covers a rude and
squalid stable, while in
another building where once
" through long drawn aisle
and fretted vault the pealing
anthem " was wont to " swell
the note of praise," the ear
is tortured by the perpetual
rasping of a circular saw.
The Rue des Matelas is
another street of straggling
quaintness, with a gutter
running down the centre of
its winding course, but the
French equivalent for a
county council has com-
menced to improve it off
the face of the earth, and
already a considerable num-
ber of old houses have given
way to modern red-brick
cottages. Rouen, like other
towns in Normandy, is
gradually becoming modern-
ised, owing to the increasing
importance of its manufac-
tures, and many of those
charming old streets
sketched by Prout and
others now no longer exist.
A delightful little corner
inside the court-yard of the
cathedral, which has been
transferred to canvas times
without number, is doomed,
along with other well known
landmarks to be swept away
very shortly. It must be
acknowledged, however, that
many things still remain—the churches, the morning breaks fair, of shaking off dull sloth and
fountains, the Hotel Bourgtheroulde, the Palais de rising with the lark, or if possible before that ener-
Justice, and the Grosse Horloge, which are ever getic fowl, and making the ascent of Bon-Secours,
full of architectural interest and deserving of far which lies to the east of the city. He will be amply
more attention than it is possible to devote to them rewarded for his self-sacrifice, for the panorama un-
in the limited space at my disposal. rolled to his view is unrivalled in any part of
The virtues and advantages of early rising have France. The morning sun, with little enough
been extolled from time immemorial. The advo- power in it, but luminosity enough to satisfy the
cates of lying in bed late have so little chance of soul of any artist, sends slant rays across the dewy
being listened to that they seldom venture to assert foliage. From the eminence one looks down upon
themselves, and must take comfort from the thought the closely-packed city, upon the spire of the
that their habit is more imitated, if less admired, cathedral, the towers of St. Ouen and St. Maclou,
than the other. But I would emphatically impress the many lofty chimneys, from which clouds of
upon a visitor to Rouen the desirability, if the smoke are issuing, while the mists curl up from the
147
STAIRCASE, ROUEN CATHEDRAL FROM A DRAWING BY G. H. LENFESTEV
now a beautifully moulded
ceiling covers a rude and
squalid stable, while in
another building where once
" through long drawn aisle
and fretted vault the pealing
anthem " was wont to " swell
the note of praise," the ear
is tortured by the perpetual
rasping of a circular saw.
The Rue des Matelas is
another street of straggling
quaintness, with a gutter
running down the centre of
its winding course, but the
French equivalent for a
county council has com-
menced to improve it off
the face of the earth, and
already a considerable num-
ber of old houses have given
way to modern red-brick
cottages. Rouen, like other
towns in Normandy, is
gradually becoming modern-
ised, owing to the increasing
importance of its manufac-
tures, and many of those
charming old streets
sketched by Prout and
others now no longer exist.
A delightful little corner
inside the court-yard of the
cathedral, which has been
transferred to canvas times
without number, is doomed,
along with other well known
landmarks to be swept away
very shortly. It must be
acknowledged, however, that
many things still remain—the churches, the morning breaks fair, of shaking off dull sloth and
fountains, the Hotel Bourgtheroulde, the Palais de rising with the lark, or if possible before that ener-
Justice, and the Grosse Horloge, which are ever getic fowl, and making the ascent of Bon-Secours,
full of architectural interest and deserving of far which lies to the east of the city. He will be amply
more attention than it is possible to devote to them rewarded for his self-sacrifice, for the panorama un-
in the limited space at my disposal. rolled to his view is unrivalled in any part of
The virtues and advantages of early rising have France. The morning sun, with little enough
been extolled from time immemorial. The advo- power in it, but luminosity enough to satisfy the
cates of lying in bed late have so little chance of soul of any artist, sends slant rays across the dewy
being listened to that they seldom venture to assert foliage. From the eminence one looks down upon
themselves, and must take comfort from the thought the closely-packed city, upon the spire of the
that their habit is more imitated, if less admired, cathedral, the towers of St. Ouen and St. Maclou,
than the other. But I would emphatically impress the many lofty chimneys, from which clouds of
upon a visitor to Rouen the desirability, if the smoke are issuing, while the mists curl up from the
147
STAIRCASE, ROUEN CATHEDRAL FROM A DRAWING BY G. H. LENFESTEV