ans: the fare by which to
Tours is but twelve francs, though the distance thus performed is
upwards of one hundred and forty miles. The land journey which is about
one hundred and thirty miles, is extremely diversified and pleasing, but
that by water is of surpassing beauty; the delighted voyager wends his
way where many a verdant isle smiles amid the stream, through an endless
variety of lake-like scenery, enriched on either hand in the highest
degree by rocky escarpments, and gently rising grounds clad with
vineyards, and numerous other choice productions of the vegetable
kingdom, now receding so as to form an expansive plain of verdant
pastures, and anon abruptly projecting with their lovely sylvan burdens
into the very centre of the broad and glittering stream.

In closing these few descriptive remarks on the character of the most
prominent routes to Tours, from northern France, we must not omit to
remind the invalided especially, that the one from Dover to Calais, or
to Boulogne, and thence to Paris, Orleans, and Blois, is perhaps in many
cases, to be preferred on account of the _shortness_ of the sea passage;
and although one of a circuitous character, it necessarily presents many
natural and artificial features of stirring interest and beauty.

TOURS.

The city of Tours, may be divided into two compartments, the _ancient_
and the modern.

The modern portion is no less distinguished for its neatness and
elegance, than is the ancient for its antique character, and the number
of monuments it contains, illustrative of the histories of remote ages.

Tours, now head quarters of the department of Indre-et-Loire, was before
the revolution, the capital of Touraine, and the seat of the governors;
it is one of the most ancient archbishoprics of France, and the station
of the fourth military division.

Chroniclers have never been able to give a precise date and name to the
foundation and the founder of Tours.

When _Caesar_ made his expedition into Gaul, it was the _Civitas Turonum_
so often mentioned in the commentaries of the conquering historian.
Conquest, however, gave the city another name, and the Romans called it
Cessarodunum. It fell alternately into the power of the Goths and the
Francs. In 732 Charles-Martel gained under its walls a celebrated
victory over the Saracens, who attracted by the _mildness of the
climate_ tried to fix their wandering tents in its smiling plains: but
it was only in 1202 af