The population of Rouen is supposed to be full one hundred thousand souls.  In truth, there is no end to the succession of human beings.  They swarm like bees, and like bees are busy in bringing home the produce of their industry.  You have all the bustle and agitation of Cheapside and Cornhill; only that the ever-moving scene is carried on within limits one-half as broad.  Conceive Bucklersbury, Cannon-street, and Thames-street,—­and yet you cannot conceive the narrow streets of Rouen:  filled with the flaunting cauchoise, and echoing to the eternal tramp of the sabot.  There they are; men, women, and children—­all abroad in the very centre of the streets:  alternately encountering the splashing of the gutter, and the jostling of their townsmen—­while the swift cabriolet, or the slow-paced cart, or the thundering Diligence, severs them, and scatters them abroad, only that they may seem to be yet more condensely united.  For myself, it is with difficulty I believe that I am not living in the times of our Henry VIII. and of their Francis I.; and am half disposed to inquire after the residence of Guillaume Tailleur the printer—­the associate, or foreign agent of your favourite Pynson.[35]

[34] [Mons. Licquet here observes, “This is the first time I have heard it
    said that our Postilions put on rouge.”  What he adds, shall be given
    in his own pithy expression.—­“Ou la coquetterie va-t-elle se nicher?”
    What, however is above stated, was stated from a conviction of
    its being TRUE]

[35] [The third English Printer.] See the Bibliographical Decameron,
    vol. ii. p. 137, 8.

LETTER V.

ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.  CATHEDRAL.  MONUMENTS.  RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.  THE ABBEY OF ST. OUEN.  THE CHURCHES OF ST. MACLOU, ST. VINCENT, ST. VIVIEN, ST. GERVAIS, AND ST. PAUL.

I have now made myself pretty well acquainted with the geography of Rouen.  How shall I convey to you a summary, and yet a satisfactory, description of it?  It cannot be done.  You love old churches, old books, and relics of ancient art.  These be my themes, therefore:  so fancy yourself either strolling leisurely with me, arm in arm, in the streets—­or sitting at my elbow.  First for THE CATHEDRAL:—­for what traveller of taste does not doff his bonnet to the Mother Church of the town through which he happens to be travelling—­or in which he takes up a temporary abode?  The west-front,[36] always the forte of the architect’s skill, strikes you as you go down, or come up, the principal street—­La Rue des Carmes,—­which seems to bisect the town into equal parts.  A small open space, (which however has been miserably encroached upon by petty shops) called the Flower-garden, is before this western front; so that it has some little breathing room in which to expand its beauties to the wondering eyes of the beholder.  In my poor judgment,