TtiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE^, 



109 



little about — have wandered into all sorts of bye-patbs, 

 odd country villages, quaint towns and splendid cities, 

 and, save an occasional examination ata bureau cV octroi, 

 or a duatie, we might have been wandering about along 

 the dear old lanes of Merrie England, so far as any in- 

 terference of gendarme or big- coated, peg-topped trou- 

 sered authority was concerned. All the so-called an- 

 noyances of continental travelling are mere trifles, and 

 vanish into thin air at even the faintest show of resolu- 

 tion and a determination to take things easy. A little 

 patience and forbearance is all that is required — little, 

 indeed, of the latter, for, in truth, the forbearance is all 

 the other way; for trying it must be to foreigners, whose 

 country ice invade, to come into contact with a people 

 whose manner and modes of thinking they do not under- 

 stand, and whose behaviour, brusque and John Bullish 

 as it too often is, must be a sore trial of patience on 

 many an occasion. Certain it is that none of our 

 readers desirous of personally examining this region full 

 of agricultural interest needs allow any fear of his not 

 " getting on," as the phrase goes, to come between him 

 and a trip here. A short sail, the expenditure of a little 

 time and not much money, will enable him to see much 

 that is altogether new to him — to witness many pro- 

 cesses of interest, and to take away, we make bold to 

 think, not a few hints most serviceable to him in the 

 daily avocations on his own land. 



Without further preamble we pro]iose jotting down 

 for the amusement and, we hope, the instruction of 

 many of our readers, such " notes " as wanderings in 

 the neighbourhood and the results of various inquiries 

 have enabled us to moke. 



Dunkirk, or Dunkerke in the French language, is a 

 seaport town, in the North Sea, at the mouth of the 

 Manche. Its situation gives considerable importance, 

 or rather it has done so, for a variety of circumstances 

 have tended very considerably to reduce its trade. It 

 derives its name from two Flemish words — the Dunes 

 and Kerke, the church of the Dunes. Ths dunes — 

 downs, the English equivalent — are sand heaps formed 

 by the dejections of the sea blown into mounds of vari- 

 ous forms and size by the wind. Of these, however, 

 more hereafter, when we come to talk about their agri- 

 cultural interest. The church of the dunes here referred 

 to as giving its name to the town was founded by Saint 

 Eloi, Bishop of Noyen. This was at a very early date, 

 for at the commencement of the tenth century the first 

 fortifications were begun to be erected near the church. 

 Remarkable as many of the towns in the northern part 

 of France are for the changes of masters which they 

 have come through, none excels in this respect the town 

 of Dunkirk ; wars, marriages, successions made it to 

 pass through a never-ending series of changes. It once 

 belonged to the Counts of Flanders, to the Austrians, 

 the French, the Spanish, and the English. Placed by 

 the fortune of war in the hands of ihe Spanish, the har- 

 bour served as the place of rendezvous for the Spanish 

 Armada — a fact which necessarily imparts a great in- 

 terest to the town in the eyes of the English visitor. 

 Turrenne, by the celebrated battle of the Dunes, in which 

 an united army of French and English defeated the 

 Spanish, gained possession of the town. As, however, 

 Louis XIV. had engaged to cede to the English the first 

 town which was taken by the allied armies, it fell into 

 their hands, so that Dunkirk was held by three powers 

 in one day — in the morning by the Spanish, by the 

 French in the middle of the day, and by the English in 

 the evening. Charles II., however, becoming " hard 

 up," to use an expressive of somewhat vulgar phrase, 

 sold the town to Louis XIV. for 5,000,000 livres. This 

 " monarque grande " laid out vast sums in repairing 

 and improving the fortifications, which, however, were, 

 by the etipulatioos of the treaty of Utrecht, razed to the 



ground, much to the delight — according to a French 

 authority — of the English and Dutch, who had suffered 

 much from the onsets of the gallant privateers of the 

 town. Of these same privateers — or, to speak more 

 truly perhaps, pirates — Dunkirk boasts of a long line of 

 worthies, who were famous for deeds of wondrous valour 

 and of heroic actions. A statue of one of these — to wit, 

 Jean XV. Burt — adorns a large square or place ; it is 

 thoroughly French in style, and in its aft'ected pose and 

 theatrical accessories gives little notion of the rude and 

 the energetic pirate or privateer whose deeds it is de- 

 signed to commemorate. 



1 he town is at present fortified. The harbour is 

 gradually becoming filled, admitting, and that with 

 increasing difficulty, vessels of comparatively small 

 burden. 



The town possesses a few objects of interest. The 

 Belfry is interesting ; it is a square tower, about 35 feet 

 at the base, and 22 feet in the side at the top ; its height 

 is about 160 feet. It is terminated by eight little tur- 

 rets, which give an elegant finish to the structure. The 

 top is reached by a flight of steps 265 in number. The 

 trouble incurred in the ascent will be well repaid by the 

 magnificent view obtained. The agriculturist will, if 

 the day is fine; be able to gain a fair idea of the general 

 outlines of the country, and of the mode of lajing out 

 the fi.elds. 



We have, however, so long detained our readers from 

 the consideration of matters more befitting our pages, 

 that we shall withdraw our further notes on matters 

 connected with the town and its rights : and proceed at 

 once to notice those connected with the agriculture of 

 the district which surrounds it. 



A walk over the dunes of which we have already 

 spoken will bring out some points of interest. Their 

 general appearance is that of a long range of low hills; 

 these are composed of sand driven up by the winds, and 

 they assume in many places a wave-like form. In some 

 parts the height to which they attain is considerable, 

 and in picturesqueness of outline is thus frequently ob- 

 tained. Towards the sea few signs of vegetation are 

 met with, but to consolidate the sand-heaps and to 

 form by them a sort of barrier between the sea and the 

 cultivated land, the growth of couch and rushes is en- 

 couraged. .In some parts of the dunes at Dunkirk, 

 the rushes are set out in lines, at distances of some nine 

 inches apart. It is curious to note how closely the 

 habitations of men come up to these barren sand-heaps, 

 and still more curious to see the bold attempts made by 

 the peasantry to grow plants upon them. Thus in the 

 course of our rambles we saw two women engaged in 

 setting out potatoes in a place affording — as an English- 

 man would have thought — as much chance of yielding 

 a crop as the sand of the sea shore. Indeed, the soil — 

 if soil it could be called — averages little better than 

 this. Nothing indeed, but the most lavish use of liquid 

 manure, composed chiefly of human excretie, could 

 enable any crops to be raised from such an ungrateful 

 soil. It is interesting to trace upon the line of the dunes 

 the gradual increase of vegetation as one proceeds in- 

 land. First you toil wearily along over heaps of sand, 

 £0 light that you kick it into tiny clouds as you go 

 along, the.i patches of conchy grass, at intervals few 

 and far between, then larger and more refreshing oasis 

 on which a sheep or two, or a donkey, or a goat may be 

 seen precariously picking a livelihood ; still further, 

 flowers begin to appear, gladdening the eye with their 

 sweet colours, and leading the mindforward to the con- 

 templation of smiling meadows which are seen afar off 

 in their gladdening greenness. Next tiny trees and 

 under-growth of bushes are met with, these increasing 

 in size and profusion, till at last the confines of culti- 

 ratioQ are ftrrived at, and the triumph of oosn over ntt^ 



