1828.] $t. Omer. 247 



granite rock. In fact, however fine a thing it may be to think of, this 

 immense pile of ruins is less impressive in its effect on the spectator 'than 

 almost any other ; and I attribute the fact to the situation in which it 

 is placed, namely, in the midst of a great living 'and moving city, 

 surrounded by modern erections, and cut off from connexion with 

 that world of external nature to which inanimate things seem to 

 belong, and to which they all naturally revert, when they have ceased 

 to serve the artificial purposes for which man possessed himself of them. 

 But whatever the causes may have been, the consequences are, that the 

 ruins of St. Bertin, though they add a noble feature to the outward and 

 distant face of the town of St. Omer, are visited in detail without any 

 feeling of veneration, and are quitted with more of pleasure than 

 regret. 



Finally, St. Omer possesses, in its ramparts, a public promenade, of 

 a more agreeable and various character than most others of its kind, on 

 account of the irregularity of their scite, and from their being planted 

 throughout with lofty trees. The ramparts of a strong town form one 

 of the very few local and civil advantages that may be set against the 

 many evils arising from the system of fortification. They always form 

 a promenade more or less agreeable, in return for making the town 

 they surround into a great barrack, and depriving it of all other agreeable 

 walks, by cutting it off from all communication with the surrounding 

 country. In open towns all those of England for instance those who 

 choose, or are compelled, to live in them may enjoy all the advantages 

 of the country, merely by fixing their residence towards the outskirts. 

 But a close town, of whatever size, has no outskirts. It is like a solid 

 piece of a great city, taken up, placed in the midst of an uninhabited 

 spot of country, and enclosed by a solid wall. In short, it is neither 

 more nor less than a great detached prison, with the liberty of egress 

 and ingress between certain fixed hours. And as for finding any thing 

 like an agreeable promenade within the ramparts of a French town, that 

 will be quite out of the question, till some genius arises, who is able to 

 teach human feet the art of making themselves easy upon the tops of 

 rough hewn paving stones. The most agreeable portions of the ram- 

 parts of St. Omer are, of course, those which pass over the highest 

 points of its scite ; that is to say, flanking the southern side of the Place 

 Royale, and the back of the cathedral. These portions overlook a varied 

 and agreeable country, lying between themselves and the long range of 

 heights, on which the camp has for some years past been established 

 during the summer season. The lower parts have nothing to distinguish 

 them favourably from similar portions of other towns, and assuredly 

 they have nothing to redeem them from the effects of that unnameable 

 habit which ought, by rights, to make " the politest people in the world," 

 a by- word of barbarism to all the other civilized parts of it. 



I must not conclude without telling you that, notwithstanding all the 

 protestations of its inhabitants to the contrary, St. Omer is not a healthy 

 spot. Its climate, during nine months of the year, is in no respect 

 better than that of England ; and its position, in connexion with a long 

 tract of marshy country, causes it to be seldom without intermittent 

 fever and ague. In short, sulphate of quinine is in considerable request 

 at St. Omer. 



