Boulogne-sur-Mer

“ The country round Boulogne is steeply undulating pasture-land, hedged and timbered like a typical English countryside. From the Camp St Martin the lighthouse of Etaples can be seen, a white splash where the coast-line disappears over the horizon; and on such a day as this, when the haze of the sun's heat makes all distant objects indistinct, even the most powerful lens will not show more of the English coast than just a shadow that mixes with the blur of sea and sky.
The streets of Boulogne were busy all that day with marching troops. ”

“ Patrick sailed back from Killala Bay, the nearest port to the woods of Foclut. It may readily be surmised that if the saintly youth, so full of holy zeal, had to remain for a few weeks, or even a few days, whilst the ship was completing its cargo, he would have time to make friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants near the woods, who doubtless received the friendless stranger with kind hospitality. ”

“ The entrance to the harbour of Boulogne, which is tidal, is formed by two long piers running out from the mouth of the river, and serving during fine weather as excellent promenades. On the western side is the basin excavated by Napoleon for his flotilla of flat-bottomed boats in 1804. A large wet dock, con structed at a cost of upwards of 250,000, was opened in 1872, and adds greatly to the facilities of the port, its area being 17 acres and the length of its quay- wall 1150 yards. The depth of water in the harbour is 23 feet at spring-tide and nearly 20 at neap-tide ”

“ Boulogne is very agreeably situated, and the views from the high grounds on each side are delightful. The landscape from the ramparts is not to be exceeded, but is not seen to advantage except when there is high water in the river. There is an evident mixture of strangers and natives amongst the inhabitants. There are many resident English, who have been nationalized by express edict, or the construction of the law. I heard it casually mentioned, that these were not the most respectable class of inhabitants, though many of them are rich, and all of them are active. ”

“ An air of slow respectability pervades the place; the bulk of the colonists are people well-to-do, who can afford the expense of a winter away from home and of a villa at £150 the season. The bankrupt element of Boulogne, the half-pay element of Dinan or Avranches, is as rare on the Riviera as the loungers who rejoice in the many-changing toilets of Arcachon or Biarritz. The quiet humdrum tone of the parson best harmonises with that of the winter resort, and parsons of all sorts abound there. ”

“ The most interesting people in Boulogne were the poissardes, or fisherwomen; they are of Spanish and Flemish extraction, and are a clan apart to themselves. They are so interesting that I wonder that no one has written a little book about them. They look down on the Boulognais; they are a fine race, tall, dark, handsome, and have an air of good breeding. Their dress is most picturesque. The women wear a short red petticoat, dark jacket, and snowy handkerchief or scarf, and a white veil tied round the head and hanging a little behind. On fête days they add a gorgeous satin apron. ”

“ The arrangements for leaving Boulogne were no better than those at London. But after the delay of another hour we were again in motion.
It was a beautiful country through which we passed from Boulogne to Amiens. Straggling cottages which bespeak neatness and comfort abound on every side. The eye wanders over the diversified views with unabated pleasure, and rests in calm repose upon its superlative beauty. Indeed, the eye cannot but be gratified at viewing the entire country from the coast to the metropolis. ”

“ There is no nation like the French. A French milliner will make a hat out of a piece of felt and nothing; and a French official will make a diplomatic episode out of nothing at all, putting into five minutes of futility all the Gallic civilization of centuries.
Boulogne Harbor is a very bustling spot, and as its area is narrowly limited, and its entrance difficult, the amount of signaling that goes on is extraordinary. A single ship will fill the entrance ”

“ They were built in different harbours, and brought together by crawling along the French shore, and keeping under the protection of the batteries, which were now established on every cape, almost as if the sea-coast of the channel on the French side had been the lines of a besieged city, no one point of which could with prudence be left undefended by cannon. Boulogne was pitched upon as the centre port, from which the expedition was to sail. By incredible exertions, Bonaparte had rendered its harbour and roads capable of containing two thousand vessels of various descriptions. ”

“ But it was no use, for the boat was quickly lost from sight among the waves and disappeared entirely. There was some sea on at the time, so no one among the Revenue men envied the Iris's crew their task of rowing across to Boulogne, a distance of somewhere about twenty-seven miles, in that weather and athwart very strong tides, with the certainty of having a worse time as the Ridens and the neighbourhood of Boulogne was approached. ”

“ These travelled by the steamers of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway company. The liners of the Dutch-American, Hamburg-American and other companies also call at the port. In the extent and value of its fisheries Boulogne is exceeded by no seaport in France. The most important branch is the herring-fishery; next in value is the mackerel. Large quantities of fresh fish are transmitted to Paris by railway, but an abundant supply is reserved to the town itself. The fishermen live for the most part in a separate quarter called La Beurrière, situated in the upper part of the town. ”

“ To put a stop to these evils, if a favourable fortune should afford an opportunity, the new and energetic general repaired to that island situated at the extreme corner of the earth; and when he had reached the coast of Boulogne, which is separated from the opposite coast by a very narrow strait of the sea, which there rises and falls in a strange manner, being raised by violent tides, and then again sinking to a perfect level like a plain, without doing any injury to the sailors. ”

“ The depth of water in the river-harbour is 33 ft. at spring-tide and 24 ft. at neap-tide; in the sluice of the dock the numbers are 291/2 and 231/2 respectively. The commerce of Boulogne consists chiefly in the importation of jute, wool, woven goods of silk and wool skins, threads, coal, timber, and iron and steel, and the exportation of wine, woven goods, table fruit, potatoes and other vegetables, skins, motor-cars, forage and cement. ”

“ Boulogne has all the marks of rapidly increasing material prosperity which may be seen now in every French town, one of the many fruits of which is a wonderful improvement in the condition of the streets and thoroughfares. ”

“ Boulogne is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. There are also communal colleges, a national school of music, and schools of hydrography, commerce and industry. Boulogne has for a long time been one of the most anglicized of French cities; and in the tourist season a continuous stream of English travellers reach the continent at this point.
The harbour is formed by the mouth of the Liane. ”

“ The French themselves laughed at these little cockle-shells of boats, teste Madame Junot:—
‘Boulogne was designated from the year 1801, as the chief station of the enterprise against England. The greatest activity suddenly prevailed in all ports of the Channel; camps were formed on the coast, divisions of light vessels were organised, and multitudes were built. The Flotilla, as it was called, created apparently with the greatest exertion, and all the apparatus of preparation, spread, as was intended, alarm on the opposite shore. ”

“ Every few minutes the carrier with the bag took an ugly swing to one side.—We never began to enjoy a coast, we never got fairly started on an up-grade, that it did not force us to stop and push it straight. And then the lamp in its turn loosened, and every few kilometres had to be hammered into place.
The other incidents of that long afternoon I remember merely because of their association with [35] hills. It was at the top of one, where I arrived breathless, we had our first view of the dome and monument of Boulogne; it was at the bottom of another that we came to the pavé of Wimille ”

“ To the north, at eight miles’ distance from the Portus Itius, existed another port, where the cavalry embarked. Boulogne is the only port on this coast at eight miles from which, towards the north, we meet with another, that of Ambleteuse. The distance of eight miles is exact, not as a bird flies, but following the course of the hills. To the north of Wissant, on the contrary, there is only Sangatte or Calais. Now Sangatte is six Roman miles from Wissant, and Calais eleven. ”

“ In the dusk of the evening of October 2d, 1804, several catamarans, led by the flag-ship Monarch with Admiral Keith in command, stole quietly into the harbor of Boulogne. Seamen, in black jerseys, waistcoats and trousers, with black caps pulled over their faces, managed to paddle each raft into position, attach the torpedoes and get away in safety. ”

“ Dunkirk, Gravelines, Boulogne and Paimpol send considerable fleets to the Icelandic cod-fisheries, and St Malo, Fécamp, Granville and Cancale to those of Newfoundland. The Dogger Bank is frequented by numbers of French fishing-boats. 786 Besides the above, Boulogne, the most important fishing port in the country, Calais, Dieppe, Concarneau, Douarnenez, Les Sables d’Olonne, La Rochelle, Marennes and Arcachon are leading ports for the herring, sardine, mackerel and other coast-fisheries of the ocean, while Cette, Agde and other Mediterranean ports are engaged in the tunny and anchovy fisheries. ”

“ I pulled out a sovereign and a half-sovereign from my pocket, and said:
"Here is the money. I have leisure, and I would as soon go to Boulogne as to Sutherlandshire."
He did not thank me effusively, as might one of the more excitable and less efficient races; but he grasped my hand and blessed me silently. I then left him.
* * * * * * * * * * In the steamer to Boulogne, as I was musing over this strange adventure, a sturdy Anglo-Saxon man, a true son of Drake or Raleigh, came up and asked me for my ticket. As I gave it him my eye fell idly upon the price of the ticket. ”

“ Among the lower class of people at Boulogne, those who take the lead, are the sea-faring men, who live in one quarter, divided into classes, and registered for the service of the king. They are hardy and raw-boned, exercise the trade of fishermen and boatmen, and propagate like rabbits. They have put themselves under the protection of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, which is kept in one of their churches, and every year carried in procession. ”

“ He is never completely awake, but he is never entirely asleep.
Boulogne is a much more agreeable place to reside at than one might suppose from merely passing through it. Once I spent a month there, and found plenty to see and to do. Good walks, hotels, churches, and swimming-baths; the river to row in, the reading-room to sit in, the cliffs to climb, and the sands to see.
At Dover the dock-people had generously charged me “nil” for dues. I had letters for France from the highest authorities to pass the Rob Roy as an article entered for the Paris “Exhibition;” ”

“ Folkestone had made me think of the mouth of a great funnel, into which all broad Britain had been pouring men and guns and all the manifold supplies and stores of modern war. And the trip across the narrow, well guarded lane in the Channel had been like the pouring of water through the neck of that same funnel. Here in Boulogne was the opening. Here the stream of men and sup-plies spread out to begin its orderly, irresistible flow to the front. All of northern France and Belgium lay before that stream; it had to cover all the great length of the British front. ”

“ Nothing was more common at Boulogne than duelling; and the mania had extended even to the dull and peaceable Netherlanders of the flotilla, under the orders of admiral Werhwel. There was not far from the camp on the left, at the foot of a hill, a small wood, which could be passed at no hour without observing on the turf a dozen individuals engaged in what they called an affair of honour. ”

“ France was known to be straining every nerve to bring her old rival on her knees. Men, ships, and money were collected with unheard-of profusion; and the French themselves were so confident of success, that other nations shared inevitably, to some extent, the same expectations. The siege of Boulogne had not been pressed. The intention was to collect a fleet so large as absolutely to command the Channel. The occupation of the Isle of Wight—a more feasible enterprise than the march on London—would be the prelude of an attack on Portsmouth and the destruction of the fleet ”

“ He went to his hotel, had his luggage brought down, and caught the train without having had time to change his clothes.
The Boulogne fishing smacks leaving the harbour before dawn, their sails filled by the gentle breeze that precedes sunrise and with big fires on their bridges which threw huge shadows of the fishermen on to the sails, saw, not without some surprise, a passenger in dress clothes leaning over the prow of the steamer and towering above the spray with his silk hat. ”