BOOKS.
MR. HAMERTON'S " SIGNE."
AST experienced reader will expect a pleasant book when be has Mr. Hamerton to tell the story of a boat-voyage on a French river, and two such skilful artists as the story-teller and Mr. Pennell to picture it for him ; and he will certainly not be disappointed. Mr. Hamerton's narrative naturally divides itself into two parts, which may be explained by a brief description of the river. The Saone rises at ViomiSuil, in the Vosges, and, like other rivers, for the first part of its course can be navigated only by canoes, and not always by them. At Corre it is joined by the Coney, and at Verdun by the Doubs. About fifteen miles below Doubs stands the town of Chilon-sur-Stione. It was at Chalon that the first part of Mr. Hamerton's expedition came to an end. So far he had used a berriclion, a long, narrow canal-boat, not unlike the form with which we are, or were, familiar on our own canals. From °Won to Lyons, where the Saone, having already absorbed two rivers larger than itself, is itself lost in the Rhfine, he voyaged in his own sailing-boat, the Auer.' Roughly speaking, the first part is illustrated by Mr. Pennell, with contributions from Mr. Hamerton; in the second, the relation is reversed. The former artist parted com- pany at Chalon; but he made some sketches by himself as far down as Moon, and he has worked in ink twenty-four pencil drawings of the lower river made by Mr. Hamerton. When we add that a few have been copied by the two from sketches by other artists, this, though not an absolutely accurate statement, fairly represents the artistic partnership, a partnership which has certainly had a remarkably successful result, The reader will not find elaborate pictures, but he will get what he really wants, a commentary by the pencil on the work of the pen, and will realise the scenes through which he is being taken. If he has a complaint, it will be that he is not enabled also to realise the travellers. Both artists are very chary of their figures, and we are left to make mental pictures of several people who interest us very much, especially the Patron, the Pilot, and the driving-boy Franki. An exception, indeed, has been made in the case of an important member of the expedition, Zoulon,' the donkey. Zoulou's ' function was to tow the berrichon. It should be stated, in case any one wonders that a donkey should have proved equal to the task of towing so large a boat, that the berrichon was taken up the river by a tug, and was towed down. Zonlon ' had a stable on board, with doors opening on either side ; audit was his custom to push them open at pleasure, and survey the river. The river itself was new to him, but the canals, in which his work commonly lay, he was supposed to know as well as the Patron himself. If we had to choose our favourite among the illustrations, it would be the charming little sketch, " Zonlou's ' Farewell." He is looking out of his apartment with that air of placid content which is so characteristic of his tribe. It may be well, also, to explain who were the Patron and the Pilot. The Patron, then, was the owner of the boat, a fiery and vivacious little Frenchman of some sixty years ; the Pilot was a sailor, skilled in the navigation of the river, whom it was necessary to engage, seeing that the Patron, whose experience was limited to canal navigation, had neither the knowledge nor the strength to manage the boat on the river. But, as might have been expected, the division of rights and duties frequently resulted in collisions which approached the very verge of violence. The Patron could not efface himself, as the captain of a sea-going vessel does as long as she is in the hands of the pilot; while his colleague felt a malicious pleasure in ordering him about. Both had considerable powers of ex- preseion ; but the Pilot was master in this also. As he was also vastly superior in physical strength, he triumphed all along the line. Mr. Hamerton's story of their quarrels, told judiciously in outline rather than in detail, and of his own efforts to keep the peace between them, is always amusing.
The narrative, indeed, told in letters to a friend (who, we may say, is the publisher of the book) is delightful throughout. Mr.
• The Sane a Summer Voyage, By Philip Gilbert Hamerton. One Hundred and Forty-Eight Illustrations by Joseph Pennell and the Author, and Four Mem London: Seeley and Co. 1887.
Hamerton's long residence in France has given him a sympathy with the people and an understanding of them which few travellers can have. An expedition of this kind naturally brings the voyager into nearer contact with the people than most ways of travelling. When the experiences Gm gathered are told by a raconteur like Mr. Hamerton, the result is as instructive as it is entertaining.
One of the incidents of the voyage had for a time an almost historical importance. At Pontaillier, Mr. Hamerton and his companions were arrested. The arrest was not, it is true, of a severe kind, but it might have led to unpleasant consequences. As a matter of fact, the party were allowed to remain in their boat, and even to go into the town ; but it was a question whether they would not be transferred to a prison. Mr. Hamerton'e patience had not a little to do with averting this result. Of course, the charge was that they were spies. They were drawing plans of the country for the information of its enemies. The Chalon newspapers unhesitatingly declared that they were, and the paragraph was copied from them into the journals of Micon and Lyons. The boat was novel in shape ; the voyagers were strangers ; the language that they spoke was German (this was an effort of journalistic imagination). "Tout ports k croire qua ce aunt des espions." Some English newspapers, confounding Pontaillier with Pontarlier, reproached Mr. Hamer- ton with imprudence in making sketches of a fortified town. He did nothing of the kind, but carefully avoided anything that even approached it. It is a really lamentable proof of the state of irri- tation and suspicion to which the French mind is reduced, when we see what the drawings really were that caused all this trouble. There is not one that could, as far as one can see, be of the remotest use to an invader. But still, as is remarked by Mr. Hamerton—who is as reasonable in his review of the incident as he seems to have been patient at the time of its occurrence—if a foreign Power were holding Kent and Surrey, we should pro- bably be touchy about any one making sketches in Sussex.
The account of the sailing-boat voyage on the lower river, if not quite so interesting as that of which we have been speaking, is well worth reading. One observation which we do not remember to have ever seen made so distinctly before, must be quoted — "All the towns and villages we have seen hitherto on the Saone visibly belong to Northern or to Central Prance. Even ChAlon, the last of them, is not at all a Southern city, it is not more distinctively Southern than Dijon ; bat at Tontine you are really in the South, and might easily believe yourself to be in one of the old towns-on the
EhAne Your boat touches ground at Tomas, and you are in another oonntry,—a country as distinct from Central France as Middlesex is from Midlothian Some even declare that the sky at Tottrnus has the Southern azure "
We take leave of Mr. Efamerton with a hearty acknowledgment of our gratitude to him and to his associate,—and perhaps we should include the fellow-voyagers who contribute to our enter- tainment.
Previous page
