Meuse

“ This Meuse River highway is a lovely drive to take in the daytime, for it passes through a fertile and picturesque country. The little city of Dun-sur- Meuse stands out on a small cliff which juts into a bend of the river, making a most charming picture of what a medieval town should look like. ”

“ Crossing the valley of the Meuse we come into a similar region of hills and woods, but this region is, on the whole, much wilder, the hills higher, and the forests more extensive and dense. The hills here, too, form a nearly continuous ridge, running north-north-west. The highlands east of the Meuse sink, as we go north, into the undulating country of Lorraine, but the ridge on the west side of the Meuse extends a good many miles farther. This ridge, with the Meuse flowing along the east side of it and the river Aire flowing along its west side, is the Argonne. ”

“ We passed the Meuse on the 12th, and during the 13th and 14th we marched along the wretched roads, bordered with grain fields, barley, oats, and hemp, without end. The heat was extraordinary, the sweat ran down to our hips from under our knapsacks and cartridge-boxes. What a misfortune to be poor, and unable to buy a man to march and take the musket-shots in our place! After having gone through the rain, wind, and snow, and mud, in Germany, the turn of the sun and dust had come. ”

“ Beyond the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, feudalism flourished. Lofty fortresses, surrounded with a triple moat, everywhere cast their shadows athwart the land, though the towns enjoyed a full share of municipal liberty, and were not unfrequently the disinterested spectators of the terrible struggles that the feudal nobility carried on between themselves. ”

“ To be sure it is not thrilling, but sweet and soothing, like the view you get at Intervale, above North Conway in New Hampshire. This fair picture brought to our memory the scenery among the hills and valleys of the Meuse, as seen from Fort Regret. Here the view discloses vast stretches of upland meadows, orchards of cherry and plum trees, old stone highways that lose themselves in the valleys to appear again like slender paths where they cross some distant hill. ”

“ The route lay for some distance along the banks of the Meuse, and the whole region was one of exquisite landscape beauties. An intensely dark verdure—a road that meandered through the valley, occasionally shifting from bank to bank—hill-sides covered with fruit-trees and fragrant with flowers—country-houses—hamlets—cottages—with every appearance of abundance and comfort, and back-grounds of swelling land, that promised equal beauty and equal affluence, were the principal features of the scene. ”

“ With half-closed throttles, and tyres sufficiently soft to absorb most of the shocks, the young tourists bumped over the pavé, swung round, and soon settled down to a modest fifteen miles an hour along the Namur road.
For the best part of the journey the Meuse, with its limestone crags and dense foliage, was within a few yards on their right, while trees on either side of the road afforded a pleasant shade from the fierce rays of the sun. ”

“ This town is built on the declivity of a mountain, at the foot of which runs the river Meuse. As we were about to land, there fell a torrent of rain, which, coming down the steep sides of the mountain, swelled the river instantly to such a degree that we had only time to leap out of the boat and run to the top, the flood reaching the very highest street, next to where I was to lodge. ”

“ The scenery on the banks of the Meuse all the way from Liége to Maastricht is highly diversified and extremely romantic; but here at Maastricht this ceases and the dull uniformity of the Dutch landscape begins. When on the ramparts of the city to the North and West an immense plain as far as the eye can reach presents itself to view; a few trees and sandhills form the only relief to the picture. The town itself is neat, clean and dull, like all Dutch towns. The fortifications are strong and well worth inspection. ”

“ Meuse is a fortress. It has a citadel or at least such fragments of a citadel as the bombardment had left, and the quaint old town is surrounded with bastions which are linked by curtains and flanked by lunettes, the whole being girdled by a ditch, beyond the counterscarp of which spreads a sloping glacis which makes a very pleasant promenade. The defensive strength of the place is reduced to zero in these days of far-reaching rifled siege artillery, for it lies in a cup and is surrounded on all sides by hills the summits of which easily command the fortifications. ”

“ The Meuse flows through the centre of the province, and its valley from Huy down to Herstal is one of the most productive mineral districts in Belgium. Much has been done of late years to develop the agricultural resources of the Condroz district south of the Meuse. ”

“ Other signs of subsequent fluctuations are afforded by gravel containing elephant's bones at slight elevations above the Meuse and several of its tributaries. It may be objected that, according to the present rate of change, no lapse of ages would suffice to bring about such revolutions in physical geography as we are here contemplating. This may be true. It is more than probable that the rate of change was once far more active than it is now in the basin of the Meuse. ”

“ In the lovely meadows of the Meuse; along the historic banks of the scenic Rhine; where the warm waters of the Mediterranean lave the mountainous coast of sunny Italy; in the fertile lowlands of Belgium; or out where the Alps rear their snowy summits, we felt ourselves less alien when we could detect kinship between European and American plants.
But to visit foreign lands is not our real need, for if we fail to see the common beauty everywhere about us how much can we hope to find in a strange land? ”

“ The Meuse River Line Across the western edge of the Ardennes massif runs the Meuse River. This river, throughout history, has been the natural line of resistance against an enemy advancing from east to west over the Belgian highlands. Actually, of course, the river channel changes direction as it passes through Belgium, running south to north between Maastricht and Liège, generally following an east-west line between Liège and Namur, and bending sharply at Namur to assume a south to north orientation. ”

“ The town of Liege is situated in a beautiful valley, at the junction of the river Meuse with the Ourthe, and surrounded by hills and fertile pasture, the latter being watered by three rivers, the Ourthe, the Vestre, and the Meuse.
This city contains a great many very fine built houses, and is much celebrated for its various manufactories, which principally consist of marble, coal, iron, and various other hardware articles. The old palace is a fine antique building of the Ionic order; the different apartments in it were then undergoing a thorough repair. ”

“ The north front, also on a spur of the ridge, is thickly studded with forts, these in some cases being but 200 yds. apart and the left fort overlooking the Meuse. Behind the east front, chiefly designed to close the valley by which the Metz-Verdun railway penetrates the line of heights, are Fort Tavannes with its outworks and a series of batteries on the adjacent spurs. On the left bank of the Meuse there is a complete semicircle of forts. ”

“ The trunk line from Germany into Belgium crosses the Meuse at Liege. For the most part the old city of lofty houses clings to a cliffside on the left bank, crowned by an ancient citadel of no modern defensive value. Whatever picturesqueness Liege may have possessed is effaced by the squalid and dilapidated condition of its poorer quarters. To the north broad fertile plains extend into central Belgium, southward on the opposite bank of the Meuse, the Ardennes present a hilly forest, stream-watered region. ”

“ Ligny-en-Barrois (pop. 4879) manufactures scientific instruments. There are cotton-spinning, wool-weaving, and hemp, flax and jute factories, saw-mills, carriage works, leather manufactures, glassworks, paper-mills, distilleries and flour-mills. The department is served by the Eastern railway, the principal lines being that from Paris to Strassburg through Bar-le-Duc and Commercy, that from Paris to Metz through Verdun, and the branch line of the Meuse valley. The chief waterways are the canal connecting the Marne with the Rhine and the Eastern canal along the Meuse valley ”

“ There it enters a narrow winding valley, thickly wooded, with rocky dells, and banks so precipitous that in some [Pg 274] places there is not even a footpath, and travellers must pass from side to side in boats when making their way along the margin of the stream. Emerging from this defile, it crosses the French frontier, and joins the Meuse near Monthermé. From thence the Meuse flows to the north till it enters Belgium a short distance beyond the town of Givet. ”

“ The smallness of the fields tells amongst how many hands the land is divided, and prepares one for the knowledge that East Flanders is the most thickly peopled corner of Europe. The exception to this general character of the scenery is found in the valley of the Meuse, where the fruitful serenity of fertile meadows and pastoral hamlets is varied by bolder, more irregular, and move striking natural features. ”

“ Hitherto from Brussels, or for that matter from Bruges and Ostend, the country, though studded at frequent intervals with cities and big towns, has been curiously and intensely rural in the tracts that lie between; but now, as we descend the steep incline into the valley of the Meuse, we enter on a scene of industrial activity which, if never quite as bad as our own Black Country at home, is sufficiently spoilt and irritating to all who love rustic grace. ”

“ Farther north, and on the other bank of the Meuse, lies another large village which has been turned into a colony of eclopes. Fifteen hundred sick or exhausted men are housed there—and there are no hot douches or chintz curtains to cheer them! We were taken first to the church, a large featureless building at the head of the street. In the doorway our passage was obstructed by a mountain of damp straw which a gang of hostler-soldiers were pitch-forking out of the aisles. ”

“ Fragments of this plateau, separated from the main mass by the action of watercourses, are scattered in long ridges over the space included between the line of bluffs and the Meuse: the two hills of Le Mont Homme (295 metres) , the Côte de l'Oie, and, farther to the South, the ridge of Bois Bourrus and Marre. To the east of the river, the country is still more rugged. ”

“ The churches are splendid, and there is an appearance of opulence in the shops. The inhabitants, from its being a frontier town, are of course much alarmed at the approaching contest, for they will probably suffer from both parties. We heard at the inn and in the shops which we visited the same complaints against the Prussians. The country in the environs of this place is exceedingly diversified, and it presents the first mountain scenery we have yet met with. The banks of the Meuse hereabouts present either an abrupt precipice or coteaux covered with vines gently sloping to the water's edge. ”

“ The great river of the country is the Meuse, which enters from France and passes out into Holland, being navigable all through Belgium. Its tributary, the Sambre, from France, which joins it on the left near the center of the country, is also a navigable stream; and the Ourthe, from the frontier of Luxemburg, which joins it lower down on the right, is navigable for half its course. The Escaut or Scheldt is the main river of the lowland in the west, and with its chief tributaries, the Lys on the left and the Rupel on the right, forms the waterway of the plain. ”

“ The woods were irregular blocks, dun-colored, with patches of dark green where evergreen trees grew; the roads could be traced running this way and that in white lines, often crossing. Fields were in geometric squares, and at another season of the year might have looked green.
Over beyond lay the Meuse, sparkling in the sunlight. Far below hung a double line of the irregular sausage-shaped observation balloons, each secured by rope to a giant windlass by means of which they were raised and lowered readily.
Verdun lay just beyond, with its many red-tiled houses ”

“ Having tasted the delights of a mild vagabondage, we now turned our thoughts to other villages, modestly supposing that by degrees we could "do" the Meuse. (Had we but known it the whole of France lay before us, refugees everywhere, and every refugee in need) . Having requisitioned a motor-car we planned tours, but first we investigated Behonne on foot. It lies on the hill above the aviation ground, so let no man ask why it came first in our affections. ”

“ The Medway, perhaps because it is the relic of some 232 much greater river now drowned by the sinking of the land, perhaps because its tidal estuary lends it twice a day an artificial breadth, gives one the impression of those continental streams, the Seine or the Meuse, which are sufficient to animate a whole country-side, and which run in so wide a basin that a whole province attaches to their name. ”

“ COMMERCY, a town of France in the department of Meuse, at the head of an arrondissement, on the left bank of the Meuse, twenty miles east of Bar-le Due. It possesses n castle built in 1708 and now used as cavalry barracks, a Benedictine convent occupied by the prefecture, a hospital rebuilt in the 18th century, and a cloth-market. Its public walks are very fine, and lead out in various directions to pleasant suburban villages. The industrial establish ments include foundries, lime-kilns, and a cotton factory ; and the trade runs mainly on cattle, grain, wood, and basket-work. ”