Apropos, in spite of their historians, the
French vulgar have a dim notion that it was
they who conquered England under the terrible
William, and not this Norse colony, which used
Normandy to form themselves a little in, before
seizing the Teutonic island near it; one-third or
so of which was peopled by other Norsemen,
brothers and cousins to Hastings and Rou.

To return from the heights of Ingouville.
Rich, busy, and gay, Havre is also stronger
than it used to be. Our admirals have been
there, and left their cards; and Government (as
in most places where I was) are looking to the
general state of the doors. Besides the regular
sea defences which you may contemplate from
the breezy pier, the high lands, the rocky coast
to the northward about Havre, are either
provided, or being provided, with regular defences.
I don't profess to speak critically on this branch
of matters, but the general fact is certain, and is
a matter of self-congratulation to every Frenchman
whom you may happen to talk with on such
questions. "He, for his part, wishes peace.
Why not? The two nations are at the head of
civilisation. Why quarrel? But, after all, Louis
Philippe was too complaisant in the point of
England; and, enfin, the Emperor feels that he
must maintain the position of France." There
can be no doubt that this is good imperial policy
as far as the dynasty is concerned; for it mixes
up the private Frenchman's interest in French
glory, with his interest in the family which has
again got hold of power. And the activity of
the Imperial Government in keeping itself
before the eyes of the people is noticeable the
moment you land. Enter a museum, the most
showy picture is marked, "Donné par l'Empereur"
—given by the Emperor—and a bust of the
Empress stands on a neighbouring table. It is
the same thing in the churches; many of which,
from Notre-Dame at Paris downwards, are
undergoing reparations, to which the Government
contributes something.

From Havre to Cherbourg, you have no great
choice of route. The roundabout way is to
proceed by the Paris line through Rouen, to
Mantes, and there take up the direct line which
goes from Paris to Cherbourg. This is the
course I would recommend to the pleasure-
seeking tourist, and a still pleasanter variation
on it would be to reach Rouen (like the old
Norsemen above mentioned, who hauled their
boats up ashore when necessary) by the water.
But, at present, let us stick to the coast, and
run over to picturesque little Honfleur opposite.
We can do it, just at present, first-class for
three sous, there being a tremendous competition
between the steamers. They lie opposite
each other, defiantly, at the wharves. When
one rings her bell, the rival commences furiously
to ring hers. The crews sing sarcastically
against each other during the transit. The
dearer and larger boat comes in first, no doubt;
but in the three-sou one, you have the proud
satisfaction of knowing that you tread the same
deck as Louis Philippe, who embarked in her
at Honfleur, in the indefinite disguise of Mr.
Smith. What could the ancient trouvères, who
wrote so much about the escape of Duke
Richard-sans-Peur in these regions, have made of
this?

In crossing over from Havre to Honfleur, my
eye lights eagerly on certain lug-rigged boats
bobbing along the waves. These are fishing-
boats; and the fishing-villages on the Norman
coast are important to our present object as
nurseries of the French marine. Such places,
differing in size and importance, are scattered
along the coast-line from St. Valery-sur-Somme
to Brittany. Dieppe, Fécamp, Etretat, Harfleur,
Honfleur, Barfleur, all these furnish fishermen
to industry, and seamen to the navy; not to
mention towns like Caen, which are in connexion
with the sea, though not absolutely situated upon
it. A register is kept by a government official
of all the men employed in maritime pursuits in
each. They are exempted from the "conscription,"
in order to be placed in the "inscription."
They are drafted away, when wanted, to
Cherbourg, or Brest, or Toulon, as the case may be;
kept three or four or five years in service,
according to state requirements; and dismissed
home when no longer needed. But at forty-
five years of age, a French sailor, who has
served, becomes entitled to a small pension,
which advantage—with that of escaping the
army—the fishermen may set against the
impressment system. One naturally expects that
the Normans should be the best French sailors,
which is perhaps on the whole true.
Nevertheless, I may mention here, that the French
naval officers to whom I have explicitly put this
question, though all giving the preference to
the seamen among their countrymen of the
Northern littoral generally, speak as highly of
the Breton as of the Norman seaman. The
Breton is a little man, but "dur" they say; his
hardness getting its edge on rocks where the
Atlantic endlessly breaks. But, indeed, you do
not find in Normandy, anywhere (not even about
Bayeux, and the Bessin, anciently its most
Danish part), very marked traces of Scandinavian
blood in the people. The Norseman was
the noble amongst them, and, while the best of
his blood went to enrich England, what was
left would, in long centuries, get swamped in
the native population. The leaven, however,
still gives Normandy some speciality of type, I
admit, even now, when centralisation rules
everything in France; when you have "Seine
Inférieure," "Calvados," &c., dismembering old
"Normandie," or "Northman's-land;" and
when, except as men of north or south, you find
little provincial variety among Frenchmen.

While all Frenchmen are losing individual
character, more or less, how should the fishermen
retain much of it? I believe, myself, that
seamen of all nations resemble each other more
than other classes of the people—the seafaring
life being a kind of nationality on its own
account. So, you would probably think a Norman
fisherman very like the fishermen on the other
side—good at his business, undoubtedly—a
weather-beaten, tawny-faced, meditative kind of