﻿733 



MATEWCE. 



MAYENNE. 



734 



the town stands the ancient seat of the CassiUis family. A portion of 

 a collegiate church, founded iu the 15th ceutury, still remains, a» well 

 as the house, now the KeU Lion luii, wherein John Knox aud Qointin 

 Kenned V, abbot of Crossraguel, held their disputation. 

 MAYENCE. piiisz.] 



MAYENXE, a department m the west of France, is bounded N. 

 by the departments of Manche and Ome, E. by the department of 

 Sarthe, S. by Maine^etrLoire, and W. by lUe-et-Vilaine. IU form 

 approximates to thnt of a parallelogram, 54 miles long from north to 

 south, and 40 miles broad from east to west. Its area is 1993 square 

 miles It lies between 47° 45' and 48* 35' N. lat., 0" and 1" 15' 

 W. lonir. The popul ition in 1S41 was 361,892 ; in 1S51 it amounted 

 to 374,566, giving 1S7-94 inhabitants to a square mile, or 13-36 above 

 the average per square mile fi.r the whole of France. The depait- 

 ment is formed out of the western part of the old province of Mame 

 and the northern part of Anjou ; aud is named from its principal 

 river the Mayenne. 



The surface of the department is uneven, strewed with hills, and 

 in some places cut up by valleys and ravines. The Armoric Hills run 

 acTOfe the department in the north, and send out a branch south wani, 

 which forms the watershed between the Vilnine and the llayenne. 

 From a distance the country has the appearance of a vast forest, such 

 is the number of trees planted in the hedge-rows that inclose each 

 field. The population of Lower Maine does not, as is the case in 

 most parts of France, live in hamlets or villages, but is scattered 

 among isolated farmhouses, each of which stands among thick hedges, 

 and contains a family that is supplied with eveiTr necessary of life, 

 both of food and clothing, from the land and their own industry. 

 This isolated and independent existence has left its impress on the 

 people in a certain rudeness of address, an honest liut obstinate 

 adherence to old usages, and a consoqoeut aversion to things called 

 improvements. The soil in the arroudisnement of Chiteau-Qontier, 

 and in part of that of Laval, is productive ia bread-stuflS* of all Itinds ; 

 in the rest of the department the land is poor, aud does not yield 

 enough for the consumption of the inhabitants. Meadow land is 

 scanty, nevertheless a gre,it number of beasts are fed, which form a 

 source of considerable profit to the fanner. Flax, hemp, and fruit- 

 tree* are extensively cultivated. Other products are chestDuts, nuts, 

 soma bad wine, and cider fruits yielding 6,833,288 gallons of cider. 

 Well-wooUed sheep, pigs, and fowls are numerous. Bees are kept in 

 great numbers. » v t • 



The department Ixdongs almost entirely to the basin of the Loire, 

 and is drained chiefly by the Mayenne (the ancient ifedwina), which 

 rises in the south of the department of Ome, and ninuing neariy south 

 past the towns of Mayenne, Laval, and ChAteau-Gontier, divides the 

 department of Mayenne into two pretty equal parte. A few miles 

 below Chateau-Gontier, it enters Maine-et-Loire, where it receives the 

 Oudon on the right bank, and the Sarthe, swelled by the Loire, on the 

 left ; from its junction with the Sarthe to its entrance into the Loire 

 at Ponta-de-Cd, about 5 miles south of Angers, this river takes the 

 name of Maine. Small steamers ply up to Anger*, and barges up to 

 Laval. The principal feeders of the Mayenne in this department are 

 the Varenne, the Calmont, and the Em^e, on the right bank, and the 

 Jouanne, and the Ouette, on the left bank. A small portion of the 

 west of the department ia included in the basin of the Vilaine. [Ille- 

 BT-ViLAiMK.] A narrow band along the east of the department is 

 drained by feeders of the Sarthe. The sonth-westem districts are 

 drained by the Oudon. 



The department is crossed by 5 state, 11 departmental, and a great 

 number of bad cross roods. It is also traversed by the railway from 

 Paris to Brest, which passes through Laval. 



In geological structure the department belongs nearly altogether to 

 the primitive formations. Iron-mines are worked for the supply of 

 eight smelting furnaces and ten forges. Coal-mines are worked near 

 LavaL Marble, granite, flint, building- and lime-stone, and slate are 

 quarried. White sand, used in the manufacture uf glass, is raised. 

 Sailcloth and linen are the chief manufactures; cotton-stufis, hair- 

 cloth, linen thread, and paper are made. About 215 fairs and markets 

 are held in the year. 

 The climate ia healthy, and resembles that of the south of England. 

 The department was comprehended in ancient times in the territory 

 of tht Diablintes, the Arvii, and the Andes, or Andecavi, three Celtic 

 tribes Included in Lugdunensis Tertia. Noeoduoum an<l Vagoritum, 

 the respective chief towns of the Diablintes and the Arvii were within 

 the limits of the department. Of the first there are important remains 

 about 6 mil^s south-east from Mayenne, at the village of Jublains, 

 which in sound preserves the name of the Diablintes almost without 

 alteration. There are the walls of a Roman station farming nearly a 

 square of 600 or 700 feet each way, with towers on the sides and at 

 the comers. The walls are scarcely more than 7 or 8 feet high, and 

 about feet thick, composed of layers of square stone, alternating 

 with three tiers of brick, and the whole united by a very bard cement. 

 It is one of the most firmly-built and best preserved Roman forts in 

 France. Witliin the inclosure are the traces of buildings probably 

 occupird by the garrison of the fort. A subterraneous apartment, which 

 probably /ormed part of a Roman villa, was discovered near the fort, 

 with a mosaic floor and painted walli. An ancient well has also been 

 diaooTered, and medals and rings have been dug up. There is near 



Jublains a granitic rock presenting a resemblance to a chair, supposed 

 to be a Druidio monument. There are some remains of Vagoritum at 

 a place called Arve, or Erve, on the river Eive, a feeder of the Sarthe, 

 which drains the east of the department. From these names (Jublains 

 aud Erve) it is inferred with great probability that tlie towns took at 

 a later period the names of the people to whom they belonged. In 

 the couutry between Jubkins and the Erve there are some Driudical 

 stone circles and other Celtic monuments. 



The department contains l,'/75,607 acres. Of this surface 875,521 

 acres are arable ; 171,344 acres are grass land ; 65,186 acres are covered 

 with woods and forests ; 27,351 acres are laid out in uurseries, planta- 

 tions, gardens, &o. ; 50,367 acres consist of heaths aud moors ; and 995 1 

 acres are covered with rivers, pond^, brooks, Ac. 



The department is divided into 3 arrondissements, which, with their 

 subdivisions aud population, are as follows : — 



ArrondlMements. 



cantons. 



Commnnes. Population in 1S51. 



1 1. Laval . . 



1 2. Majrenne . . . 



i 3. Cbiteau-Gonlier 



9 



12 

 6 



D2 130,523 



110 165,181 



71 78,862 



1 Total 



27 



274 



374,960 



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

 the capital of the department. It is situated in 48° 4' 7'' N. lat., 

 0° 46' 16" W. long., 247 feet above the level of the sea, 152 miles VV, 

 by S. from Paris, aud has 17,638 inhabitants in the commune. The 

 principal part of the town stands on the slope of a hill, on the right 

 bank of the Mayenne, and cousists of irregularly-built, narrow, steep, 

 and crooked streets of timber-framed houses, each story of which 

 overhangs the one below it, so that a considerable part of the buildings 

 overhang and darken the dreary streets. From the midst of these 

 dismal buildings, and close to the river, rises the extensive old castle 

 of the lords of La-TremouiUe, surmounted by a lofty round tower, 

 which formed the keep ; this castle i^ now used as a prison. Near the 

 castle an old bridge thrown across the river loads to a new suburb, 

 regularly built with wide straight streets, oh the left bank of tha river. 

 Another suburb called Aveniftres is interesting on account of its 

 elegant church, which dates from 1040. The principal buildings ia 

 the old town are — the churches of La-Trinitd, Des Corddliers, aud 

 St-Vdn^raiid ; two hospitals, founded about the year 800 ; the publio 

 library ; and a large and handsome linen-market. The town has a 

 tribunal of first in^itance, a tribun:d and chamber of commerce, and a 

 college. It is the centre of a large manufacture of table and household 

 linen and luien-yam, for the fale of which there are weekly markets ; 

 calico, flannel, cotton-handkerchiefs, serge, soap, leather, &c., are also 

 made ; and there is a good business done in flax, wine, brandy, clover- 

 seed, timber, iron, marble, Ac. The town grew up round a castle 

 built by the counts of Maine to check the inroads of the Bretons. The 

 castle was burnt by the Northmen, but rebuilt iu 840, and surrounded, 

 together with the houses grouped about it, with a turreted wall In 

 the 12th century Laval gave a title to a barony whose possessors 

 were all sumamed Uuy in honour of Ouy IV., who had distinguished 

 himself in the Crusades under Godfrey de Bouillon. The barony waa 

 raised to a county by Charles VII., and into a duchy by Louis XI. 

 in 1481. Laval was taken by the English under the great Talbot in 

 1466, but the French recovered it the following year: tho town still 

 retains its walls. It was taken in 1793 by the Veudean.s, who iu 

 October of that year, under the comman<l of Larochejacqueliu, defeated 

 with terrible slaughter a large army of republican.-!, commanded by 

 General Ldchelle, near the town. The railway from Paris to Brest 

 passes through LavaL ArgenM, 6 miles E. from Laval, stands on the 

 slope of a hill near the Jouanne, and has marble quarries, tanyarda^ 

 and about 2000 inhabitants. C'AoiWand, 12 miles from Laval, near 

 the Erode, has coal-mines, iron-forges, smelting-furnaces, aud a popu- 

 lation of 2600. Evron, situated in a remote but fertile district, 16 

 miles N.E. from Laval, has a population of 4130. The town originated 

 in a Benedictine abbey founded here in the 7th century by Hadouin, 

 count of Maine. The abbey-buildings, which are extensive and still 

 entire, are now occupied by nunii, who devote their labours to tho 

 instruction of female teachers for the education of the female poor. 

 The abbey-church is one of tho finest in all the department. The 

 ancient chapel of St.-Cre.ipil, near the abbey-church, and the market- 

 bouse, are notable buildings. This town has a good weekly corn- 

 market, linen-manufactures, and some trade in wine, wool, and bniudy. 

 The country about Evron is extremely retentive of wet and boggy in 

 winter, so that the roads are almost impassable. This kind of soil 

 covers the watershed between the Sarthe and Mayenne, to which rivers 

 and small streams run from it in various directions. 



2. In the second arrondissement the chief town, Mayenne, stands 

 on the steep slopes of two hills united by a bridge across the river 

 Mayenne, 18 miles N. by E. from Laval, in 48° 18' 17" N. lat., 0° 36' 55" 

 W. long., 333 feet above the level of the sea; and has tribunals of first 

 instance and of commerce, a college, a council of prud'homtncs, and 

 9.'>88 inhabitants in the commune. Mayenne wns formerly defended 

 by strong fortifications which withstood the English under the Earl 

 of Salisbury for three months in 1424, when it capitulated. It gave 



