﻿J77 



IN^DRE-ETLOIRE. 



INDRE-ET-LOIKE. 



278 



cattle, wood, timber, iron of superior quality, ko. Vatan, which 

 standa 13 miles N.W. from Issoudun, has an ancient church dedicated 

 to St.-Laurian, and rebuilt in 1005 : population, 2973. Reuilly, 

 9 miles N. by railway from Issoudun, standa near the Thiols and 

 has 2241 inhabitants. In the town there is a remarkable structure in 

 the Renaissance style, which is called La-Qrande-Maison ; and in the 

 environs is the splendid residence of Fert^Reuilly, built by Mansard 

 in 1659 for Jacques de la Fond. An ancient i;othio church stands 

 half a mile south of the town, on the hill of Vergy, the summit of 

 which was formerly crowned by a stroni; fortress. 



4. In the fourth arrondissement the chief town is La-Chdtre, which 

 stands in the most fertile and picturesque part of Berri, on a hill that 

 skirts the Indre on one side and overlooks on the other a deep narrow 

 valley laid oat in gardens and orchards. It is situated in 46" 34' 53" 

 N. lat, 1° 59' 4" E. long., 19 miles S.E. from ChAteauroux, and has a 

 tribunal of first instance, a college, and 4839 inhabitants. The streets 

 are well but not regularly built, yet the town makes an agreeable 

 impression from the charming scenery which is presented to view 

 from almost every point. The moat remarkable structures are the 

 church and two ancient wooden houses. Woollen-cloth and leather 

 are manufactured ; there is also a considerable trade in wool, goat- 

 skins, feathers, cattle, and chestnuts (of which large quantities are 

 grown in the neighbourhood). Aiyurande, S. of La-Chfttre, has a 

 population of 2006. Neuvy-St.-S^pulchre, said to occupy the cite of 

 the ancient Noviodimum, is 8 miles W. from La-Ch4tre, and has a 

 population of 2003. Sainte-Sirire, formerly a strong fortress, now a 

 Tillage of about 1000 inhabitants, stamls near the Indre, 6 miles 

 S.S.E. from La-Ch&tre. Of its formidable defences, which were with 

 great difficulty mastered by Dugucsclin, only a sinzle tower remains. 



The department forms, together with that of Cher, the see of the 

 Archbishop of Bourges ; it is comprised in the jurisdiction of the 

 High Court and University Academy of Bourges, and belongs to the 

 19th Military Division, of which Bourges is headquarters. It returns 

 four members to the Legislative Body of the French Empire. 



(Dietumnaire de la Prance ; Slati*liijue de la France ; Richard, Ouide 

 Cliutique rf» Voyageur en France; Ofieial Papert ; Annnairt four 

 tAn 1853 ) 



INDRE-ET-LOIRE, a department in the taterior of France, is 

 bounded N. and N.E. by the departments of Sarthe and Loir-el-Cher, 

 E. and 8.E. by thnse of Loir-et-Cher and Indre, 3. by those of Indre 

 and Vienne, and W. by those of Vienne and Maine-et-Loire. It lies 

 between 46° 43' and 47° 42' N. lat, 0" 5' and 1' 18' E. long. ; its 

 greatest length from north to south is 68 miles, from east to west 

 65 milea The area is 2360-6 square miles; the population in 1846 

 was 812,400, in 1851 it amounted to 315,641, which gives 13371 to 

 the square mile, being 4087 below the average per square mile for 

 all France. 



Rirert and Roadi. — The department, which b formed out of the 

 old province of Touraine, is named from the rivers I.tDRE and Loire, 

 which unite their watera within its limits. The other rivers which 

 uUimat<-ly or directly enter the Loire on the left bank are the Cher, 

 which throws off several arms to the Loire, forming islands before 

 its main stream enters that river : the Claiie, which crosses the 

 southern angle of the department [Indre] : the Cbedsb, which forms 

 part of the south-western boundary : and the Vienne, which enters 

 this department at the point where it is joined by the Creuse, and, 

 flowing in a north-western course past Chinon, enters the Loire at the 

 extreme western angle of the department. On the right bank the 

 feeders of the Loire in this department are the Brenne and the Doit. 

 The Doit rises in a pond west of Savign^ ; 6owing south past 

 Bourgueil, it then turns west, and, under the name of Authion, runs 

 for the distance of 40 miles parallel to the Loire, which it enters in the 

 centre of the department of Maine-et-Loire at St.-AubiQ-de»-Pont8- 

 de-C^, south of Angers. Except the Brenne, the Doit, and the CUise, 

 all the rivers mentioned are navigable. The department is traversed 

 by 6 imperial and 28 departmental roads ; and by the railways that 

 connect Paris by way of Orleans with Nantes and Bordeaux; the 

 Nantes line running down the valley of the Loire through Tours, 

 whence the railway to Bordeaux branches off nearly in a southern 

 direction, crossing the Creuse on the southern border at a little 

 distance from the Sainte-Huure station. 



Surface and Soil. — The Loire and its principal feeders are subject 

 to inundations, which frequently do incalculable damage to pro- 

 perty on their banks. The most disastrous overflow of this kind 

 on record occurred in October 1846, when in one night the Loire 

 rose^O feet, and continued to rise for two days, sweeping away bridges 

 and via^lucts, destroying many lives, and property to the amount of 

 about 2,000,000/. sterling. On ordinary occasions such dinnsters are 

 prevented by the enormous dykes that line both banks of this great 

 river from the neighbourhood of Bl .is to the mouth of the Authion 

 before mentioned, a distance of 93 miles. The dykes are 22 feet 

 wiile on the top, and so high as to iutercept the view of the low 

 grounds from passengers by the steamers that ply on the river; the 

 parts most exposed to the flood are faced with uncemeuteil masonry. 

 The high road runs along the summit of the dyke on the right bank, 

 and presents one of the finest drives in the world, curtained with 

 poplars and diversified by the views of villas, towns, populous 

 villages, and those curious dwellings hollowed out in the sides of the 



rocky hills that now and then approach the right shore. The Loire 

 below Tours incloses several large islands. 



To the north of the Loire the surface of the department is hilly, 

 and presents some extensive forests and several vast barren and arid 

 wastes. The cultivation here is rude in the extreme, and the popu- 

 lation scanty. Along the banks of the Loire however a very diiierent 

 aspect presents itself; well-cultivated fields, luxuriant pastures and 

 meadows, vineyards and orchards, attesting equally the fertility of 

 the deep alluvial soil and the industry of the iubabitants. Between 

 the Indre and the Vienne there is a remarkable table-land, which 

 contains an immense deposit of fossil shells. The great forests south 

 of the Loire are those of Amboiae, Lciches, and Chinon. On the 

 slopes surrounding the lorest of Amboise are the vneyards that 

 yield the rich Cher wines. In general the surface in this portion of 

 the department presents strong deep wheat soils, rich pastures, 

 vineyanis, and orchards. There are however gome barren wastes 

 here as well as north of the Loire, but they are comparatively of 

 small extent. The inundations of the rivers add greatly to the 

 fertility of the soil. 



Produce, Agricultural and Mineral. — The department contains 

 1,510,783 acres, of which 827,610 acres are arable laud ; 329,806 acres 

 consist of grass land : 86,499 acres ai-e imder vine culture ;_ 222,402 

 acres are covered with woods and forests ; 1 55,630 acres consist of 

 heath and moorland ; 13,423 acres are under orchards, nurseries, 

 plantations, &c. ; 45.075 acres under various cultivation ; 20,424 acres 

 are covered with rivers and watera ; and 50.631 acres are occupied by 

 roads, streets, buildings, &c. The valleys of the Loire and the other 

 principal rivers in this department contain some of the most fet tile 

 and best cultivated land in France. AH kinds of bread-stuffs are 

 produced in quantity more than enough for the consumption. One 

 of the most important products is wine, of which 13,816,000 gallons are 

 made in ordinary years. Among the other i>roduct8 are hemp, waluuts 

 for making oil, plums, beans, leguminous plants, liquorice, anise and 

 coriander, citrons, melons, almonds, apples, pears, truffles, &o. Bees 

 and silkworms are carefully tended ; game and fish are abundant. 



Oeologically speaking the department Iwlongsto the chalk formation 

 of the Paris basin ; the chalk is covered over a large area with deep 

 alluvial deposits. Iron mines are worked; stone, especially a tufaceous 

 sandstone, of which most of the houses are huilt, is quarried out of 

 the hills near the Loire, and excavations thus formed are occupied as 

 dwelling-places by the poorer inhabitants. Millstone-grit, marl, 

 potters'-clay, pipe-clay, and brick-earth are found. Copper ora is met 

 with, but no mines are worked. 



Indu$trial Product*. — The chief industrial products aT« bar iron, 

 powder, and files ; woollen-cloth, of which manufacture Tours is the 

 centre ; silk, leather, paper, and pottery are also made, but the 

 manufacture of these articles is not so important as formerly. The 

 exports consist mostly of agricultural products, the imports of colonial 

 produce, glass, cotton stuffs, fine linen and woolleu-cluth, furniture, 

 haberdashery, &a. About 90 fairs for the sale of cattle and agricul- 

 tural produce are held. In the department are 726 wind- and water- 

 mills, 46 iron-forges and smelting-furnnces, and 199 factories of 

 different sorts. Druidical or Celtic remains are numerous in this part 

 of France. 



Divitiont and Tovnu. — The department is divided into three arron- 

 dissements, which, with their subdi visions and population, are as 

 follows : — 



Arrondiasements. 



Cantons. 



Communes. 



Population in 18S1. 



1. Tours . . . . 



2. Chinon 



3. Leches. . . . 



Jl 

 7 

 6 



130 



B7 

 68 



160,874 

 90,137 

 64,629 



Total . 



34 



281 



815,841 



1. In the first arrondissement the chief town, Toun, which is also 

 the capital of the department, stands on the left bunk of the Loire, 

 in a plain that lies between that river and the Cher, in 47° 23' 46" 

 N. Ut., 0° 41' 24" E. long., 65 miles by railway S.W. from Orl<<anB, 

 and has 30,189 inhabitants in the commune. Tours, as well as 

 Touraine (of which it was the capital), takes its name from the 

 Turones, a Celtic tribe, of whose capital Catarodunum, or Caaaro- 

 magua, it occupies the site. The entrance to the city from the Paris 

 road is striking; a magnificent stone bridge of 15 arches, 475 yards 

 in length and 16 yards wide, leads across the Loire into a spacious 

 square, inclosed by the wide river on the northern side, and by the fine 

 buildings of the town-hall and the museum on the south, while the 

 east and west sides are formed by two terraces planted with trees. 

 Passing through the square, a straight wide street (Rue Itoyale) is 

 entered, consisting of hou.'tes built in good taste and on a uniform 

 plan ; this street, which is furnished with foot pavements, runs right 

 across the town in its widest part, and terminatea in the avenue of 

 Orammout, at the end of which a bridge crosses the Cher into the 

 Poitiers road. The other streets are, with few exceptions, ill-built, 

 narrow, and crooked. There are several suburbs, but these can 

 scarcely be distinguished from the town itself, as it has no rampai-ts 

 except on the side next the Cher, and these are laid out so as to form 



