In Troubadour-Land: A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc

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A Ramble in
Provence and Languedoc.
S. Baring-Gould, M.A.,
What is this life, if it be not mixed with some delight? And what delight is more pleasing than to see the fashions and manners of unknown places? You know I am no common gadder, nor have oft troubled you with travell. — Tom of Reading , 1600.
1891.
With Murray, Bædeker, Guide Joanne, and half-a-dozen others—all describing, and describing with exactness, the antiquities and scenery—the writer of a little account of Provence and Languedoc is driven to give much of personal incident. When he attempts to describe what objects he has seen, he is pulled up by finding all the information he intended to give in Murray or in Bædeker or Joanne. If he was in exuberant spirits at the time, and enjoyed himself vastly, he is unable, or unwilling, to withhold from his readers some of the overflow of his good spirits. That is my apology to the reader. If he reads my little book when his liver is out of order, or in winter fogs and colds—he will call me an ass, and I must bear it. If he is in a cheerful mood himself, then we shall agree very well together.
October 28, 1890.
The Tiber in Flood—Typhoid fever in Rome—Florence—A Jew acquaintance—Drinking in Provence—Buying bric-à-brac with the Jew—the carro on Easter Eve—Its real Origin—My Jew friend's letters—Italian dolce far niente
No ill without a counterbalancing advantage—An industry peculiar to Italy—Italian honesty—Buffalo Bill at Naples—The Prince and the straw-coloured gloves—The Riviera—A tapestry—Nice—Its flowers—Notre Dame—The château—My gardener—A pension of ugly women—Horses and their hats—Antibes—Meeting of Honoré IV. and Napoleon—The Grimaldis—Lérins, an Isle of Saints—A family jar—Healed
The freedman of Pliny—Forum Julii—The Port of Agay—The Port of Fréjus—Roman castle—Aqueduct—The lantern of Augustus—The cathedral—Cloisters—Boy and dolphin—Story told by Pliny—The Chains des Maures —Désaugiers—Dines with the porkbutchers of Paris—Siéyès— Sans phrase —Agricola—His discoveries