The approach to ROUEN is indeed magnificent.  I speak of the immediate approach; after you reach the top of a considerable rise, and are stopped by the barriers.  You then look down a strait, broad, and strongly paved road, lined with a double row of trees on each side.  As the foliage was not thickly set, we could discern, through the delicately-clothed branches, the tapering spire of the CATHEDRAL, and the more picturesque tower of the ABBAYE ST. OUEN—­with hanging gardens, and white houses, to the left—­covering a richly cultivated ridge of hills, which sink as it were into the Boulevards, and which is called the Faubourg Cauchoise.  To the right, through the trees, you see the river SEINE (here of no despicable depth or breadth) covered with boats and vessels in motion:  the voice of commerce, and the stir of industry, cheering and animating you as you approach the town.  I was told that almost every vessel which I saw (some of them of two hundred, and even of three hundred tons burthen) was filled with brandy and wine.  The lamps are suspended from the centre of long ropes, across the road; and the whole scene is of a truly novel and imposing character.  But how shall I convey to you an idea of what I experienced, as, turning to the left, and leaving the broader streets which flank the quay, I began to enter the penetralia of this truly antiquated town?  What narrow streets, what overhanging houses, what bizarre, capricious ornaments!  What a mixture of modern with ancient art!  What fragments, or rather ruins, of old delicately-built Gothic churches!  What signs of former and of modern devastation!  What fountains, gutters, groups of never-ceasing men, women, and children, all gay, all occupied, and all apparently happy!  The Rue de la Grosse Horloge (so called from a huge, clumsy, antiquated clock which goes across it) struck me as being not among the least singular streets of Rouen.  In five minutes I was within the court-yard of the Hotel Vatel, the favourite residence of the English.

It was evening when I arrived, in company with three Englishmen.  We were soon saluted by the laquais de place—­the leech-like hangers-on of every hotel—­who begged to know if we would walk upon the Boulevards.  We consented; turned to the right; and, gradually rising, gained a considerable eminence.  Again we turned to the right, walking upon a raised promenade; while the blossoms of the pear and apple trees, within a hundred walled gardens, perfumed the air with a delicious fragrance.  As we continued our route along the Boulevard Beauvoisine, we gained one of the most interesting and commanding views imaginable of the city of Rouen—­just at that moment lighted up by the golden rays of a glorious sun-set—­which gave a breadth and a mellower tone to the shadows upon the Cathedral and the Abbey of St. Ouen.  The situation of Rouen renders it necessarily picturesque, view it from what spot you will.