Hérault

“ A garrison was placed in the castle. It was attacked by the Camisards in vain. Roland entered the faubourgs on January 14th, 1704, burnt a church, and slaughtered three girls and five men.
Ganges lies in a valley at the junction of the Sumène with the Hérault, and near where the Vis emerges from its gorge to shed its waters into the Hérault. It is a bright town, with good inns, and is an admirable centre for several interesting excursions. The station is at a height at some distance from the town, and near it is a huge modern convent, very conspicuous, planted on a rock. ”

“ They do not invite to try their internal comforts.
The Hérault breaks out into the plain through a gorge of calcareous rocks, and it has sawn for itself a deep cleft in the bed below the roadway. The strata therein are strangely contorted. From Aniane a bridge is crossed, Le Pont du Diable, not very alarming, in spite of its name, and above is an aqueduct that conveys the water of the Hérault by a channel into the plain to Gignac and beyond that to S. André, carrying fertility with it. ”

“ Valleraugue lies at the bottom of a cirque of mountains at the confluence of the rivers of the Mallet and the Clareau, and it is after their marriage that the united streams assume the name of Hérault. The descent from the Aigoual to Valleraugue occupies two hours, the ascent by the carriage road takes seven. Valleraugue is a busy factory town; the population is mainly engaged in silk spinning and weaving. The place is almost wholly Protestant. This valley of the Hérault as far as Ganges is one of the most active in silk industry in the Cévennes. The vegetation is wholly southern ”

“ The Canal du Midi, or Languedoc canal, uniting the Garonne with the Mediterranean, passes under the walls of the town, and the mouth of the Hérault forms a harbour which is protected by a fort. The maritime commerce of the town has declined, owing partly to the neighbourhood of Cette, partly to the shallowness of the Hérault . The fishing industry is, however, still active. The chief public institutions are the tribunal of commerce and the communal college.
Agde is a place of great antiquity and is said to have been founded under the name of ἀγαθὴ πόλις (Good City) by the Phocaeans. ”

“ We will draw the line between the department of Gironde and that of Hérault. On the one side are the thirty-two departments from Cher to Gironde inclusive. On the other side are the forty-six departments from Hérault to Nord inclusive. In all the departments of the former set, the population is under 132 on the square mile. ”

“ Espousing the principles of the Revolution in 1789, he was commissioned by the noblesse of the province to draw up the cahier (statement of principles and grievances) ; and the sénéchaussée of Montpellier elected him deputy to the states-general of Versailles; but the election was annulled on a technical point. Nevertheless in 1792 the new department of Hérault, in which Montpellier is situated, sent him as one of its deputies to the Convention which assembled and proclaimed the Republic in September 1792. ”

“ Montpellier (66) , capital of Hérault, France, on the Lez, 6 m. from the Gulf of Lyons, 30 m. SW. of Nîmes, is a picturesque town, containing a cathedral, a university, picture-gallery, libraries, and other institutions, and has been a centre of culture and learning since the 16th century; it also manufactures chemicals, corks, and textiles, and does a large trade in brandy and wine. ”

“ Hérault (462) , a maritime dep. of S. France fronting the Gulf of Lyons; in the N. are the Cévennes Mountains, but wide plains fringed on the sea border with large lagoons occupy the S.; the climate, except on the marshy coast, is dry and healthy; its former importance as a wine-growing district has greatly diminished, but olives and almonds are cultivated, sheep and silkworms bred; coal is the most important mineral; salt is obtained in large quantities from the salt marshes, and fishing is an important industry.
Herbart, German philosopher, born at Oldenburg ”

“ Saviour, Jersey, was son of Thomas Herault and Mabel Nicolle, his wife. He entered All Souls's College, Oxford, in October 1597, but never proceeded to a degree. In 1607 he was especially named in a patent addressed to the royal commissioners for examining and expediting the proceedings of the royal courts of the Channel islands, ‘in regard of his experience in the languages and customs of those isles.' In 1611 he obtained from the crown the reversion of the office of bailiff of Jersey, then held by George Paulet, and was sworn on 16 Sept. ”

“ S. Guilhem-le-Désert is one of the strangest and most [Pg 297] picturesque towns in France. It can be reached from Montpellier by taking the train to Aniane and walking or driving thence, or from Clermont in a carriage.
The Hérault escapes from its gorges at S. Jean de Foss, a little walled town, of which one gate remains. The church, crowded about by houses, is very early Romanesque and peculiar in many ways. It underwent alterations in the second Pointed period. There is a west tower, and the chancel is bored out under another. ”

“ Below Sommières it forms the western boundary of the department. The Hérault has its source and part of its course in the west of Gard. The Canal de Beaucaire extends from the Rhone at Beaucaire to Aigues-Mortes, which communicates with the Mediterranean at Grau-du-Roi by means of the Grand-Roubine canal.
The climate is warm in the south-east, colder in the north-west; it is rather changeable, and rain-storms are common. The cold and violent north-west wind known as the mistral is its worst drawback. ”

“ In the frontier districts of the southeast particularly—the whole valley of the Rhone, in fact the whole region from Joigny to Lyons, including several departments, the rural population rose in great strength against the usurpation. There was very hard fighting in the Nievre, in the Herault, and in the frontier districts of the Sardinian and Swiss Alps: and in many places the contest was distinguished by sad atrocities. ”

“ A cloud of police officers hovered in [Pg 222] ambush at each of the barriers, and especially at that which bore the name of the saint who divided his cloak with the poor pilgrim, with directions to seize and bring into the presence of M. Hérault a man habited as an ecclesiastic, and with the papers of the Dean of the Brussels chapter. Towards evening the Lille coach arrived, was surrounded and escorted to the hôtel des Messageries, and at the moment when the passengers descended, the officers pounced upon the personage whose appearance and vestments corresponded with their instructions. ”

“ Hyères is a notable place for the abrupt contrast it exhibits between what is ancient and what is modern. Down the slope of the height, that is crowned by the castle, slides the old town, with narrow streets, mere lanes, to its old walls, in which are gateways, and through these arches we emerge at once into everything that is most up-to-date. At a stride we pass out of the Middle Ages into modern times. ”

“ Settlers have thought they had done all that was required when they came to Hyères, and have built their villas, and extended the town to the north-west, precisely where there is no shelter at all, and there is full exposure to the blasts from the north. One great disadvantage to Hyères is the distance at which it stands from the sea.
Hyères belonged originally to the family de Fos, which had the marquisate of Marseilles, an immense fief containing fifty towns, Marseilles, Solliés, Toulon, Hyères, Le Ciotat, Cassis, Aubagne, etc. But in 1257 it was ceded to Charles of Anjou, Count of Provence. ”

“ Despite its present atmosphere of peace and quietude, Hereford saw strenuous times in the fierce warfare which raged between the English and Welsh, though few relics of those days remain. The streets are unusually wide and with few exceptions the buildings are modern. Surrounding the town is a stretch of green, level meadow, upon which graze herds of the red and white cattle whose fame is wider than that of their native shire. No doubt there are many familiar with the sleek Herefords who have no idea from whence they take their name. ”

“ Here they began with a victory about two miles from Hereford over the Earl of that shire who was a Frenchman, and tried to make his men fight on horseback in the French fashion, which they did not understand,—the English way being for the great men to ride to the field of battle, but there to dismount and fight with their heavy axes on foot. ”

“ Hieres is the only place in France, which may be compared with it. The climates are equal. In favor of this place, are the circumstances of gay and dissipated society, a handsome city, good accommodations, and some commerce. In favor of Hieres, are environs of delicious and extensive plains, a society more contracted, and therefore more capable of esteem, and the neighborhood of Toulon, Marseilles, and other places, to which excursions may be made. ”

“ Brand was old and weak, and looked at Herluin.
“I know,” said Hereward, “that the French look on us English monk-made knights as spurious and adulterine, unworthy of the name of knight. But, I hold—and what churchman will gainsay me?—that it is nobler to receive sword and belt from a man of God than from a man of blood like one’s self; the fittest to consecrate the soldier of an earthly king, is the soldier of Christ, the King of kings.” [Footnote: Almost word for word from the “Life of Hereward.”]
“He speaks well,” said Herluin. “Abbot, grant him his boon.” ”

“ Hyères is the first reached in travelling eastwards of the great health resorts of the Riviera. It stands on the southern slope of a hill facing the sea, which is visible at a distance of about three miles off. The rocky summit of the hill is crowned with the ruins of an ancient castle, from which the steep and narrow streets of the old town radiate downwards. The town was formerly surrounded with walls, which have now been removed, and the space converted into a wide promenade, on which flourish the palms, oranges, and other tropical plants for which Hyères is famous. ”

“ The Heruli came from the Scandinavian district, overran Europe, and became famous for their valour, savagery, and value as light-armed troops. If the Heathobeardan are identical with the Heruli, and if what we are told of the customs of the Heruli is true, Freawaru was certainly to be pitied. ”

“ The exiles of the Camp of Refuge found new blood in their organization when Hereward became their leader. Their feeble forays were quickly replaced by bold and daring ones. Issuing like hornets from their nests, Hereward and his valiant followers sharply stung the Norman invaders, hesitating not to attack them wherever found, cutting off armed bands, wresting from them the spoils of which they had robbed the Saxons, and flying back to their reedy shelter before their foes could gather in force. ”

“ Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more heavily upon him than did the Parthians, and created him troubles perpetually, and this ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs from the city; these sometimes brought it to a sort of a regular battle. Now in the place where Herod beat them, and killed a great number of them, there he afterward built a citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned it with the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications, and called it, from his own name, Herodium. ”

“ I well remember one occasion while we were at Hereford, a very pompous and extremely proper town, as all cathedral cities are; my lord and I were robed for the reception of the High Sheriff (as he is called) and his chaplain, who were presently coming with the great carriage to take us to be churched before we charged the grand jury.
Hereford is a very stately place, and enjoys a very high opinion of its own importance in the world. It is almost too respectable to admit of the least frivolity in any circumstances. ”

“ The northeastern part of Herod the Great's territory, from the foot of Mount Hermon to the upper waters of the Yarmuk, and from the Jordan to the desert, was given to Philip, who ruled under the title of tetrarch. He was by far the best of Herod's sons and he devoted himself to developing the resources of the barren territory over which he ruled. The ancient Paneion, on the southern side of Mount Hermon, was rebuilt and transformed into a Græco-Roman city and made the capital of Philip's possessions. ”

“ HEROUVILLE (Duc d') , son of the preceding; born in 1796, at Vienna, Austria, during the emigration, "fruit of the matrimonial autumn of the last governor of Normandy"; descendant of a Comte d'Herouville, a Norman free-lance who lived under Henri IV. and Louis XIII. He was Marquis de Saint-Sever, Duc de Nivron, Comte de Bayeux, Vicomte d'Essigny, grand equerry and peer of France, chevalier of the Order of the Spur and of the Golden Fleece, and grandee of Spain. ”

“ All these fortifications Deioces caused to be raised for himself and his own palace. The people were required to build their dwellings outside the circuit of the walls. When the town was finished, he proceeded to arrange the ceremonial. He allowed no one to have direct access to the person of the king, but made all communication pass through the hands of messengers, and forbade the king to be seen by his subjects. ”

“ The count de St Pol, on the surrender of the castle, appointed sir Gerard de Herbannes 342 governor, with a sufficient garrison. There were with him on this expedition his nephew John of Luxembourg, the vidame of Amiens, the lord de Houcourt, and many other nobles and esquires from Picardy, especially such as were his vassals. Having finished this business so successfully, he returned to the king at Paris, who, in consideration of his good qualities, and as a remuneration for his services, nominated him constable of France. ”