en a centre of the woollen trade, supplied that commodity to
the greater part of Europe, and manufactured on a large scale blankets,
hats, and the excellent Chevreautin gloves. Under Louis XIV., Issoudun,
the birthplace of Baron and Bourdaloue, was always cited as a city of
elegance and good society, where the language was correctly spoken. The
curate Poupard, in his History of Sancerre, mentions the inhabitants
of Issoudun as remarkable among the other Berrichons for subtlety and
natural wit. To-day, the wit and the splendor have alike disappeared.
Issoudun, whose great extent of ground bears witness to its ancient
importance, has now barely twelve thousand inhabitants, including
the vine-dressers of four enormous suburbs,--those of Saint-Paterne,
Vilatte, Rome, and Alouette, which are really small towns. The
bourgeoisie, like that of Versailles, are spread over the length and
breadth of the streets. Issoudun still holds the market for the fleeces
of Berry; a commerce now threatened by improvements in the stock which
are being introduced everywhere except in Berry.

The vineyards of Issoudun produce a wine which is drunk throughout the
two departments, and which, if manufactured as Burgundy and Gascony
manufacture theirs, would be one of the best wines in France. Alas, "to
do as our fathers did," with no innovations, is the law of the land.
Accordingly, the vine-growers continue to leave the refuse of the grape
in the juice during its fermentation, which makes the wine detestable,
when it might be a source of ever-springing wealth, and an industry for
the community. Thanks to the bitterness which the refuse infuses into
the wine, and which, they say, lessens with age, a vintage will keep
a century. This reason, given by the vine-grower in excuse for his
obstinacy, is of sufficient importance to oenology to be made public
here; Guillaume le Breton has also proclaimed it in some lines of his
"Phillippide."

The decline of Issoudun is explained by this spirit of sluggishness,
sunken to actual torpor, which a single fact will illustrate. When the
authorities were talking of a highroad between Paris and Toulouse, it
was natural to think of taking it from Vierzon to Chateauroux by way of
Issoudun. The distance was shorter than to make it, as the road now is,
through Vatan, but the leading people of the neighborhood and the
city council of Issoudun (whose discussion of the matter is said to be
recorded), demanded that it sho