by Henry James

“ But for these fine Roman remains and for its name, Orange is a perfectly featureless little town; without the Rhone which, as I have mentioned, is several miles distant to help it to a physiognomy. It seems one of the oddest things that this obscure French borough obscure, I mean, in our modern era, for the Gallo-Roman Arausio must have been, judging it by its arches and theatre, a place of some importance should have given its name to the heirs apparent of the throne of Holland,and been borne by a king of England who had sovereign rights over it. ”

“ It has not the sweetness, the softness of melancholy, of the theatre at Arles; but it is more extraordinary, and one can imagine only tremendous tragedies being enacted there, "Presenting Thebes' or Pelops' line."
At either end of the stage, coming forward, is an immense wing, - immense in height, I mean, as it reaches to the top of the scenic wall; the other dimensions are not remarkable. The division to the right, as you face the stage, is pointed out as the greenroom ”

“ The compartment on the left is exactly similar, save that it opens into the traces of other chambers, said to be those of a hippodrome adjacent to the theatre. Various fragments are visible which refer themselves plausibly to such an establishment; the greater axis of the hippodrome would appear to have been on a line with the triumphal arch. This is all I saw, and all there was to see, of Orange, which had a very rustic, bucolic aspect, and where I was not even called upon to demand breakfast at the hotel. The entrance of this resort might have been that of a stable of the Roman days. ”