614 A Day at the Camp of St. Omer. [Dec. 



but iho endless green mounds forming the fortifications, and on the second 

 fosse, which divides one set from the other. 



Not to lengthen out a description which can scarcely convey any very 

 distinct notions of the scene described, the above is followed by a third, and 

 sometimes by a fourth gateway, bridge, fosse, mounds, &c. &c. and the 

 whole, when seen from above, presents an appearance, and produces an 

 effect to the eye of the uninitiated, that may perhaps best be compared 

 with that of a set of Arabic characters, every one of which has we know, 

 some hujden meaning, but which no unassisted study or reflection, can 

 possibly enable us to comprehend or expound. 



Quitting the gates of St. Omer, (which, however, at this early hour, we 

 can only do by virtue of a silver passe partout,) we enter upon a very 

 agreeable country, interspersed with villages, very pretty looking (at a 

 distance,) and intersected by good roads, flanked by noble lines of trees. 

 Mounting the first ascending road that we reach, and after a little descend- 

 ing, on the other side of the first range of hills mentioned above, we turn 

 on the right, into a green lane, and presently reach* the foot of the rude and 

 romantic looking defile, which must be mounted to gain the Camp. 



Nothing can offer a more appropriate preparative to the extraordinary 

 scene we are about to visit, than this extraordinary approach to it which 

 presents as determined a contrast to all about it, as the most unbroken bar- 

 renness, to the most luxuriant cultivation. The range of hills is of great 

 height ; rising almost perpendicularly on the plain, and as far as the eye 

 can reach, of endless extent, and the whole seems to be composed of solid 

 chalk, bearing a short, dusky, green turf. On labouring up the above- 

 named defile, and reaching the summit of the hill, it needs no connoisseur- 

 ship in Camps, to perceive that the situation is most admirably adapted to 

 its present purpose, whether as a place of parade, &c. to play at soldiers 

 upon, or as an actual gathering place for the large body of troops that now 

 occupy it. The top of the hill is a sort of table land of immense extent, 

 such as scarcely ever occurs at an equal height above the ordinary level of 

 the surrounding country. It overlooks and commands all the approaches 

 to it, and is on its south side, fringed by a fine wood, reaching at some 

 points to the plain below. 



There are several other approaches to the Camp, besides that which we 

 have chosen ; but there is no other so well adapted to our purpose of gain- 

 ing a precise and picturesque notion of the scene we are about to examine. 

 On reaching the summit of the hill, we find ourselves in about the centre of 

 the front of the Camp- at a. bowshot distance from the first line of tents, 

 and in full view of the whole scene. Let us look at it in detail, now that 

 it lies still, and as it were dead before us, in the fresh air of the early morn- 

 ing, and before even the sun has reached it, to rouse its earth-pillowed 

 inhabitants from their not very luxurious slumbers. On the right of us, 

 far in front of the tents, and nearly on the brow of the hill, rises a spacious, 

 circular pavillion of blue cloth, ornamented with silver, which joins by a 

 covered coriidor to an oblong erection, forming an inner tent, &c. The 

 whole of this, is the tent of the commandant, and serves for the reception 

 of the king when he visits the Camp. On the left, at about an equal dis- 

 tance from us, rises an altar, which is reached by several steps of turf, and 

 ^covered by a canopy. Before this, the whole camp is assembled every 

 Sunday morning, to perform mass. Beside each of these erections centiriels 

 are pacing, even at this early hour. Passing forward a little from the spot 

 we have hitherto occupied, we see before us the whole general C,mp; each 



