Friday, June 22, 1838

1838

June

Friday 22

7 35/..

11 20/..

Half hour with Ann quietly before getting up.  

Fine morning at 8 40/.. – Breakfast about 9 1/4.  Wrote a little before and after –

Out at 12 – To the cathedral – Modern Gothic begun in the time of Henry IV, finished by Louis XVI –

Don’t like the exterior – Grecian cornice all round above the 1st tier of large high gothic arched windows – This looks incongruous ? Little square topped pedimented (quite ungothic) doors – These look pitiful? – Flying buttresses consisting of 6 or 7 small pointed arches set upon one arch, and there seems to be a staircase from the minaret along the top of the small arches up to the roof of the church – A forest of these singular overdone buttresses all round the church – It seems as if one could hardly see the church for them, particularly round  the Croisée or apsis  – The west towers square at bottom as high as the Grecian cornice all round the exterior and large marigold windows at the top of the square part of the towers (on the 3 sides (I presume) of each tower one side up to that height inveigled in the roof of the church ? – The sun so powerful, difficult to see anything – Our best view therefore from under the shade of the Halle de St. Louis (Halle au bled)) – Then above the  square part of the towers one story with corners rounded off by clustered columns, within which columns a staircase is seen spiralling up – Then another story corner concave – Then top stop round like Pantheon at Paris with a couronnement, and 4 figures standing on the top of the couronnement at the 4 cardinal points, and frightening one with thoughts of tumbling down? – Droll effect – I cannot like the exterior of this cathedral –

Neat, plain interior – Too plain for the florid gothic outside – Very plain – the clustered columns quite plain from bottom to top –Not the least bit of cornice or break of any kind in the whole length – Singularly plain – 6 arcades of nave – then transept – then 6 arcades of choir – The organ set at the west end of nave taking up the whole breadth of nave and the depth or length of one arcade – and the organ-loft finished towards the nave (to the east) in 3 pointed gothic  arches which form a mesquin terminus shewing 3 bronze doors underneath opening into the church – the 2 side-aisles on each side the nave also each terminated by a bronze, to all appearance exactly filling the breadth of its respective aisle, so that on standing in the transept or choir aisles, the eye is every where offended by these bronze doors –

The halle de St. Louis seems on a good useful halle au bled surrounded by a quadrangular court of arcaded buildings, probably little store houses or granaries for the corn merchants – The principal or middle part of the hall seemed to be about 24 X by 14 yards, arcaded on each side with side aisles about 4 1/2 yards wide –

the six beams or six dots 

opposite to the two spurs a b were 2 others on the opposite sides up to the ridge piece – somehow this roof did not seem to me on very scientific principles

 Ann anxious to see the eglise souterraine of the old church of St. Aignan – Went there – Saw the Sacristan’s wife – Her husband had got the key – Out – Would not be back till 3 – Must wait till then –

The souterraine cave 12 feet deep – Only under about 1/4 of the church – Old – Not large – Returned (a little detour) through long narrow old ill built streets, but picturesque – Bought strawberries in a sort of Place or marché, and the girl who carried the strawberries led us through the old wooden fish market and little passages into the rue Royle and through the Place Martroy, almost close to which is our hotel –

Ordered the horses – Returned to the place Martroy to look at the bronze statue of Jeanne of Arc (good but too small) and back to our hotel – and off from Orleans at 3 12/.. –

Just out of the ville, peep at the Loire.  St. Ay, good little village – Notre Dame de Clery church and village and chateau pretty – 2 or 3 villages and nice drive to Beaugency with fine remain of large old gothic square tower. Beaugency (of chateau fort) – The town prettily situated on the side of the hill – Steepish ascent up to La poste at the farther extremity of the town – Then nice enough little town of Mer, descend into it and then ascend to the post on the top of the hill at the other extremity of the town – Nice old church steeple – Then in 35 minutes, 1 1/2 poste to the nice little town of Menars – Very little sight of river from Orleans to Blois, but nice drive through vineyards and pretty villages.

At Blois at 7 50/.. Hotel d’Angleterre – The mistress very civil – Had only had the hotel a fortnight – The rooms so distant, should not have staid but for her civility – Ann had the salon and little room adjoining, opening on to an outside gallery (balcony) communicated with the outdoor, leading into the passage to my 4 bedded room which looked on to the gallery and into the court – Hardly possible to stir with being subject to be seen – All our windows look to the river and on to the fine stone bridge – The hotel joins to the hotel de ville –

Ann and I out at 8 10/.. and walked about – To the cathedral – Good church – Nothing particular – Then into the terraced gardens of the prefecture (çi devant evêché), just in time for the fine view before the shades of evening closed it in –

Dinner at 9 to 10 1/4, and then left Ann and came to my room – Delighted to be so at ease and rid of her –

Blois an old narrow-streeted, interesting picturesque town –

Fine day – Cloudy but no rain.  Fahrenheit 66° at 10 1/2 p.m. –

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/21/0126 and SH:7/ML/E/21/0127