They make a halt in the square and
sing the 'Angelus,' and then enter the cathedral, where the priest
offers up a prayer--a prayer which we would interpret--not for rain, if
drought be best, but rather for help and strength to fight the battle of
life in the noblest way.
Such scenes may still be witnessed in Normandy (although, of course,
becoming less primitive and characteristic every year) by those who are
not compelled to hurry through the land.
In the country districts the habits of the peasant class are the only
ones that a traveller has any opportunity of observing; of the upper
classes he will see nothing, and of their domestic life obtain no idea
whatever. It is not to be accomplished, _en passant_, in Normandy, any
more than in Vienna. In the inns, the company at the public table
consists almost invariably of French commercial travellers, and the two
English ladies whom we meet with everywhere, travelling together. There
is hardly an hotel in Normandy, excepting, of course, at the
watering-places (of which we shall speak in the last chapter), that
would be considered well appointed, according to modern notions of
comfort and convenience. Ladies travelling alone would certainly find
themselves better accommodated in Switzerland or in the Pyrenees;
excepting in the matter of expense, for Normandy is still one of the
cheapest parts of Europe to travel in--the Russians and Americans not
having yet come.
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