ujourd'hui ce depot, honorant les
mains qui le possedent, parvenir integre jusqu'aux tems properes ou le
genie de l'histoire pourra utiliser sa possession."--_Essais sur la
Seine Inferieure_, II. p. 21.

[35] I do not know if it be wholly destroyed; for the author of the
Description of Upper Normandy and Goube both speak of the existence of a
square tower within the precincts of the abbey, part of the old palace,
and known by the name of the _Tower of Babel_.

[36] _Noel, Essais sur la Seine Inferieure_, II. p. 11.

[37] Vol. I. p. 389.

[38] This name, in Latin, is _Monasterium Villare_; in old French
records it is called _Monstier Vieil_.

[39] _Origines de Caen, 2nd edit._ p. 300.

[40] Vol. II. p. 78.

LETTER VI.

HAVRE--TRADE AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN--EMINENT MEN--BOLBEC--YVETOT--RIDE
TO ROUEN--FRENCH BEGGARS.

(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

To Fecamp and the other places noticed in my last letter, a more
striking contrast could not easily be found than Havre. It equally wants
the interest derived from ancient history, and the appearance of misery
inseparable from present decay. And yet even Havre is now suffering and
depressed. A town which depends altogether upon foreign commerce, could
not fail to feel the effects of a long maritime war; and we accordingly
find the number of its inhabitants, which twenty years ago was estimated
at twenty-five thousand, now reduced to little more than sixteen
thousand.

The blow, which Havre will with most difficulty recover is the loss of
St. Domingo; for, before the revolution, it almost enjoyed a monopoly of
the trade of this important colony, in which upwards of eighty ships,
each of above three hundred tons burthen, were constantly employed. With
Martinique and Guadaloupe it had a similar, though less extensive,
intercourse. As the natural outlet for the manufactures of Rouen and
Paris, it supplied the French islands in the West Indies with the
principal part of their plantation stores; and the situation of the port
was equally advantageous for the importation of their produce. Guinea
and the coast of Africa afforded a second and important branch of
commerce; and this also is little likely entirely to recover. We may
add that, happily it is not so; for it depended principally upon the
slave-trade, the profits of which were such, that it was calculated a
vessel might clear upon an average nearly eight thousand pounds by each
voyage[41]. Its whale-fishery has, f