614 M * A U X. 
were under great obligation* during the different periods 
of the revolutionary mania. Over one of the entrance- 
gates to the college remain Hill the arms of the founder 
John Rofe, being Argent, three rofes gules. To this 
college belonged a fmall chapel, about fixty or leventy feet 
long, and thirty feet broad. It exhibited nothing worthy 
of attention, except fome very large and well-executed old 
ftained-glafs windows, the glow of which was curioufly 
refiefted upon the pavement of the choir and nave. The 
principal one represented the RefurreCtion of Chrift ; and 
upon the fkirt of the garments of the fleeping watchmen 
at the tomb were inlcribed Re/pice jincm ; “ Look to the 
end.” 
" Meaux was the firft city in France where the protef- 
tants preached againlt the errors of the church of Rome, 
for which many of them were martyred.” (Brice’s Gazet¬ 
teer.) The fuburb of St. Nicholas, which is very confi- 
derable, and feveral villages on the fouth of the town, as 
Nanteuil, Quincy, &c. are principally inhabited by pro- 
teftants. A wool-carder was the firft who afcended the 
reformatory tribune ; and, tradition fays, the firft alfo who 
was burnt alive in the market-place, where executions 
generally take place. 
Thefe are tales of other times; but that fuch tranfac- 
tions fhould occur in the year 1S15 will give concern to 
every liberal mind. The maffacres at Nilines, from July 
quite up to November, are faid, by thofe who wifh to 
fpeak as favourably as poffible of the Bourbon govern¬ 
ment, to have originated in political, not religious, mo¬ 
tives. They accul'e the proteltants of Nifmes with being 
favourers and well-wiftiers to the ex-emperor. Very pro¬ 
bably they were: he tolerated and protefted them—-they 
repaid him with their allegiance. They were not, how¬ 
ever, the laft to fubmit to the new order of things, and 
to transfer their allegiance to the king. They were as 
forward as the catholics in rallying round the duke of 
Angouleme; but the zeal of the catholics would not permit 
the proteftants to mingle in the ranks with them. Shall 
Louis NVIII. the legitimate monarch, begin (the aid 
year of) his reign by dividing his fubje&s, fo as to gain 
a fmaller (hare of willing allegiance than was paid to him 
they call an ufurper. But the king does not countenance 
thefe enormities. We hope, therefore, that conciliation 
will foon be the order of the day; and that all French¬ 
men will be of one heart and one mind in loyalty and al¬ 
legiance before we reach the article NIsmes, where the 
fubjecl will naturally come to be fpoken of in detail. 
The town of Meaux is fituated on the river Marne, at 
the bottom of a fort of promontory, advancing, with the 
Stream at its foot, towards a large meadow furrounded by 
a range of hills, clad with vineyards, and in the fhape of 
a horle-fhore. On the north-weft fide of this continued 
ridge is a fmall village, called “ Cregy,” where the Mei- 
triean folks repair on Sundays to enjoy an afternoon’s gyp- 
lying on the fteep flank of the hills. There they bring 
their bread and fauflage, cold chickens and fallads, which 
they fpread upon lily-white napkins on the green turf, 
•svhdft the bottles of champaigne and burgundy cool qui- 
«tly below, half immerfed in the icy ftream s for the wa¬ 
ters that flow from feveral parts of the Cregian Rock, are 
mot only extremely cold, but poffefs alfo the curious qua¬ 
lity of petrifying any thing thrown into them. Several 
fpecimens of wood, ltraw, lteel, and other matters, which 
have been impregnated with the petrifying liquid, are 
fhown here. 
A convent of Carmelites, now turned iuto'a gentleman’s 
villa, hands on the brow of the rock; and the terrace, 
which is extenfive, affords a moll beautiful profpett. 0 
ubi campi! At bottom, the large expanfe of the green mea¬ 
dow called Prairie de St. Faron, nowand then interfered 
with final 1 kitchen-gardens, and hemmed around with 
tall poplar-trees, each having a pollard willow for its ba¬ 
ils ; on the right, the town, with its cathedral rifing in 
great majefty from the centre ; farther on, the windings 
•f the river Marne, that have left the foot of the hills to 
* 
approach the town, and now divide it from the place 
called the market. Facing the terrace, at the diltance of 
about feven miles, once rofe, in full pride, the Chateau 
de Mouceaux, built by Henry IV. for his adored Gabriel 
d’Eftrees, and from whence fhe ufed, by means of a torch 
lighted in the lantern or little dome above the main en¬ 
trance, to telegraph her “good night” to him when he 
■was at St. Germain-en-laye, about forty Englifh miles 
diltance from the fpot. Credat jfudaus. Such is the tradi¬ 
tion ; but we mull recoiled: that Frenchmen will believe 
any thing that relates to their beloved Henry IV. How¬ 
ever, it was a delightful fpot, and a fine chace. The cha¬ 
teau flood on the brow of a hill, and was furrounded by 
extenfive forefts, where the prince de Conti, who held it 
of the king, ufed often to hunt. 
Returning now towards Cregy, you would have fqund 
in the plain, amidft a clump of trees, a fimple but pic- 
turefque (tone crofs, dedicated to St. Faron, the firft biftiop 
of Meaux, who, hammer in hand, knocked down, on that 
very place, the itatue of Mercury, which tradition fay3 
had been erefted there before the Meldes were converted 
to the Chriftian faith. It is curious, however, that the 
citizens (hould have preferved fome memorial of this in, 
their ancient arms, as fhown in the corner of our Plate, 
for the blazon of it is—Party per pale vert and gules, two 
ferpents newed in the fliape of the letter (29 proper; a 
chief azure feme of fleur-de-lys or. The Meldes were 
and are to this moment fo attached to thefe arms, that 
the beadles, porters, and door-keepers, of the cathedral, 
and of the conftituted tribunals, are all habited in red 
and green, which has obtained for them the denomination 
of parrots, the plumage of thefe birds being mod com¬ 
monly of thofe colours. 
In the church of St. Faron’s abbey, now levelled with 
the ground, was a tomb which contained the bones of 
two of the famous knights, or preux chevaliers , of Charle¬ 
magne, who became monks, and died in that convent; 
their (hin-bones were fhown as a curiofity, on account of 
their uncommon fize; they appeared to belong to men of 
feven or eight feet high. 
The trade of this town confifts chiefly in cheefe and 
flax : the former is reckoned of the beft kind in France, 
and is fent to all parts of the continent under the name 
of “ fromage de Brie,” the name of the county or pro¬ 
vince of which Meaux before the revolution was the ca¬ 
pital. This cheefe is made in the vales where the Marne, 
and the inferior ftream called the Morin, wander among 
cottages, and under the cool (hades of flowery bowers and 
lofty beech-trees. This lufeious production has deferved 
a place for this town in the “ Cours Gaftronomique,” a 
very curious book printed at Paris a few years fince, 
and in which every point of modern epicurifm is very 
pleafantly and intereitingly difeufied. We recoiled a 
triad of Latin lines, in the monkifh ftyle, in which the 
reafons for drinking are enumerated as follows s 
Si bent commemini , caufa funt quinqite bibendi: 
Ho/pitis adventus ; preeftns Jitis, atque futura ; 
Et vini bonitas , el. queehbet altera cavja. 
To drink again five reafons give command : 
A new guelt; prefent thirlt; or thirft at hand ; 
The goodnefs of the wine; or what you pleafe. 
As the fifth reafon is left undecided, a Meldean wag has 
fupplied it in the following manner: 
Qua. Matrona jluit viridanles lenta per agros , 
ilunc Meldaea Pales prejjit , Jub vatle reduda, 
CaJeurn., ut augejeat Jitis, iniperiumque Ly<zi 
Quintaque convivis addatur cauja bibendi. 
Where flows the Marne through wide and flow’ry meads. 
This cheefe the Meldan Pales gently kneads. 
In Bacchus’ realms, the (park of thirft to trim. 
As a fifth caufe to crown the cheerful brim. 
Meaux contains 644.7 inhabitants, the canton 14,484* 
is 
