Curves with the curving beach away
To where the lighthouse beacons bright,
Far in the bay."

[Montpellier]

That stanza of Matthew Arnold's, which I happened to remember, gave a
certain importance to the half-hour I spent in the buffet of the station
at Cette while I waited for the train to Montpellier. I had left
Narbonne in the afternoon, and by the time I reached Cette the darkness
had descended. I therefore missed the sight of the glistening houses,
and had to console myself with that of the beacon in the bay, as well as
with a _bouillon_ of which I partook at the buffet aforesaid; for, since
the morning, I had not ventured to return to the table d'hote at
Narbonne. The Hotel Nevet at Montpellier, which I reached an hour later,
has an ancient renown all over the south of France--advertises itself, I
believe, as _le plus vastedu midi_. It seemed to me the model of a good
provincial inn; a big rambling, creaking establishment, with brown,
labyrinthine corridors, a queer old open-air vestibule, into which the
diligence, in the _bon temps_, used to penetrate, and an hospitality
more expressive than that of the new caravansaries. It dates from the
days when Montpellier was still accounted a fine winter residence for
people with weak lungs; and this rather melancholy tradition, together
with the former celebrity of the school of medicine still existing
there, but from which the glory has departed, helps to account for its
combination of high antiquity and vast proportions. The old hotels were
usually more concentrated; but the school of medicine passed for one of
the attractions of Montpellier. Long before Mentone was discovered or
Colorado invented, British invalids travelled down through France in the
post-chaise or the public coach, to spend their winters in the wonderful
place which boasted both a climate and a faculty. The air is mild, no
doubt, but there are refinements of mildness which were not then
suspected, and which in a more analytic age have carried the annual wave
far beyond Montpellier. The place is charming, all the same; and it
served the purpose of John Locke, who made a long stay there, between
1675 and 1679, and became acquainted with a noble fellow-visitor, Lord
Pembroke, to whom he dedicated the famous Essay. There are places that
please without your being able to say wherefore, and Montpellier is one
of the number. It has some charming views, from the great promenade of
the Pey