A Sketch. BY BEATA ELIZABETH MACAULAY. "Le Nimois est à demi-Romain; Sa Ville fut aussi la Ville aux sept collines, Reboul. LONDON: JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, AND NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCLV. 249. u. 516. PREFACE. THE following pages have but little claim to originality. To a slender narrative I have joined on anecdotes of places and persons, for which I am, in many instances, indebted to various French writers, from whose works I have translated, and adapted, sentences and paragraphs, where it suited my fancy to weave them into my tale. Among these local authorities are the names of M. Vigne-Malbois, Mayor of Aiguesmortes in 1834; of M. E. Frossard, now of Montaubon, whose work on Nismes, and the country for sixty miles round, (published a few years ago at Nismes, in Livraisons,) contains a quantity of amusing, miscellaneous information about the South of France; of M. de Bellevalle of Montpellier; of M. Hugues of Grand-Gallargues, and of many others; besides those of Ménard, and Count Gasparin, old and well-known authorities upon the topography of Provence and Languedoc. This little Sketch of Nismes, written for the most part, long ago, is now, at the suggestion of some friends, published; though I scarcely venture to look for readers of it beyond the narrow circle of private acquaintances. EAST COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT, 19th March, 1855. B. E. M. |