opposite the mosaic, is the Sarrot, belonging to countess de Reyneval, widow of the French ambassador at Rome.

At four miles from Pau you come to an eminence which the new road avoids, and considered by geologists as the terminal moraine of one of those huge glaciers which covered the whole length of the Valley d'Ossau (Miocene glacial period).*

Here is the village of Gan (5 miles, and just on a level with the Place Royale of Pau). Birth-place of De Marca (1594), historian of Béarn, and Archbishop of Toulouse, then of Paris; a great theologian, much praised by Racine and Bossuet.

A mile beyond Gan, look at M. Guillemin's pretty villa and park (right, on the hill). Limestone formations and quarries now appear; the Néez valley becomes narrow, the torrent leaps and boils over the rocks, and the road winds round and round under fine old trees or cliffs, to Rébénacq (10 miles from Pau). Hôtel du Périgord. See (right) the seat of the Bitaubé family, exiled after the Revocation of the Édit de Nantes. A Bitaubé gave a good translation of Homer. After Rébénacq, you skirt the right side of its sharp limestone peak, and begin to rise in earnest. In the steep ascent to Sévignac you observe right and left large erratic boulders of granite and ophite, rocks only to be found now 20 miles higher up in the Pyrenees, and no doubt carried down here by the long glaciers already alluded to. The climate here is already quite different from the one of Pau; the air is bracing; the scenery almost mountainous; and at the village of Sévignac (14 miles from Pau) you stand at 1,800 feet above the sea level.

A magnificent view bursts upon you most suddenly to the south, over the Ossau valley, with its great pine forests above Louvie, and its cold, snowy summits beyond towards Spain, where the Pic du Midi towers alone in sad grandeur,

*See Guide de Pau aux Eaux-Bonnes, by Jam.

Westward, see the rich and green Oloron country, with its Gave, glittering and winding in the sun, as if it regretted the Pyrenees.

Beyond Sévignac, as you descend, Jam mentions the Geranium phæum, left of the road; and lower down, even in March, and on the same side, the Gentiana verna.

After a long descent of two miles, a straight avenue of poplars takes you to Louvie (17 miles), on the left bank of the Gave d'Ossau. (The Pau Gave comes from Gavarnie.) Hôtel des Pyrénées, between which and the river there is a nice field with a kiosque, for open-air dinners. Good trout. All the rocks about here are limestone, mostly striated by ancient glaciers. There is a splendid cave (at a mile and a half), of which the owner and guide is always to be found at the hotel. Give him 10 frs.; no matter how many you may be; this will include everything. It is called 'Espalunque' (spelunca), and is about a third of a mile long -50 feet high in some parts. You can drive to within ten minutes' walk of it (short cut for pedestrians). At the end of the cavern the wall of rock is so thin that a human voice outside can be heard through. It is cold and damp. Ten thousand Sarrasins, repulsed by the Béarnais, are said to have taken refuge in it.

The grotto is in a north-westerly direction from Louvie, not far from the two villages of Izeste and Arudy, in the former of which the famous Dr. Bordeu was born (1722). His birth-place has now passed into as worthy hands, having been bought by Dr. Daran, of Pau. It is here that part of the Gave mysteriously disappears, and is supposed to come out at the sources of the Néez, near Rébénacq, after travelling about six miles underground.

The scenery about Louvie begins to be quite Pyrenæan, as it is just at the foot of the mountains. Fifteen miles' drive to Bétharram.

SECT. 8. TOUT-Y-CROÎT.

It is a pretty château, situated four miles and a half south of Pau, at the end of a green and fertile dell, called 'Happy Valley,' not very unlike the one so called at Hong-Kong. You can drive to it by the lower road (right of Gélos), and return either by the upper one along the top of the hills east of the Gan valley, or by Gan itself, after crossing over to the western side of those hills (see Map). In all, it is about 12 miles. The proprietor, M. du Breuille, is very hospitable, and opens his grounds to any one who asks his leave. He has quite lately discovered near his woods a very dilapidated, but graceful and imposing, statue, probably of Roman origin, and representing a nymph with an urn under her foot. There are crypts under the château, which served as places of refuge during the Wars of Religion. The vines. here produce excellent wines. But what will most interest a stranger is probably the beautiful site, and the view from above.

Here is a translation of some interesting manuscripts concerning Tout-y-croît, kindly lent to me by the present owner, M. du Breuille :

In the year 1563, Arnaud de Cazaux, ordinary physician to Queen Jeanne d'Albret, purchased from one named Moyen, of the town of Gan, octante jornades of land in the territory of Gélos (80 acres ?). This place was called Tout-y-croît, by antiphrasis, and almost nothing grew there, save heath. Arnaud de Cazaux began to clear the land he had bought; but he soon remonstrated, and told the Queen of Navarre that he could not continue the works if he was not freed from taxations.

'On the 4th of September, 1563, Jeanne d'Albret ennobled the house of Tout-y-croît, "as a reward for the services rendered by A. de Cazaux to the defunct kings, my honoured and most illustrious father and spouse, to myself, and to my

dearest and most illustrious son and daughter, Henri I. of Navarre, and Catherine."

'In lieu of all taxations, Arnaud de Cazaux was bound to bring every year two birds called linnets to the Queen, in her castle of Pau.*

'When Henri II. d'Albret and Marguerite de Valois arrived in Béarn, it presented a most lamentable sight. . . The two princes undertook the regeneration of the Béarnais ... and with this view, being as wise as generous, they endeavoured to create in this people the love of labour. They sent, at great expense, for husbandmen to Saintonge, Berri, the Sologne, and Brittany. . . . They also had their own fields, which were cultivated after their own manner, and with the greatest success: the demesne of Tout-y-croît was an immediate demonstration. . . . Pau had its castle and magnificent gardens, then looked upon as the finest in Europe. The Plante of Pau was not less famous in those times than the Tuileries gardens at the present day.'

To go to Tout-y-croît, you cross the bridge, and follow the Piétat road (see Sect. 2) as far as the foot of the hills. (one mile and a half from Pau), where, instead of ascending to the left, towards the Stéphanie (Montebello) and Vignal (D'Angosse) villas, you go on straight, by the level road. winding along the left side of the Happy Valley. Whenever it divides, take the main branch (left). You soon pass (right) the Muxica family's château, standing on a square mound of the greenest possible grass, amid trees and truly English scenery. At about 3 miles from Pau the road turns sharply to the right, crossing over to the other side of the valley, and then a zig-zag ascent begins, of nearly 2 miles, always through woods. It is a little under 5 miles, altogether, from Pau to Tout-y-croît.

To return on the Gan side, you must describe a long semi-circle through the vineyards south and south-west of the villa, then go north for a short mile, after which you will

* Abbadie, conseiller à la Cour impériale de Pau.

descend to the left if you mean to go to Gan (one mile and a half), or continue north, always on the ridges east of the Gan valley, leaving on the left General d'Antist's château, and finally descending at the Pont du Capitaine (near Gélos), which you passed in coming (see Map).

N.B. South of Tout-y-croît, a track, going over the hill, joins the Gan and Piétat road. It is about a mile, but you must ride or walk. The view is magnificent.

SECT. 9. EAUX-BONNES (28 miles from Pau).

Go to Louvie (17 miles. See Sect. 7).

After this you enter the Pyrenees, travelling south, and the valley d'Ossau opens before you (Ursi Saltus).

Less than a mile beyond Louvie, you see to the left two hillocks, one with a modern and pretty church and churchyard, and the other carrying the poetical ruins of an old castle (Castel-Gélos), once the residence of the hereditary Viscounts of Ossau. Henri II. slept there on his way to Eaux-Bonnes.

There are some vestiges of the Romans in this valley, but very few, as they were destroyed by the descendants of the Cantabrians, their bitter enemies. However, at Bielle (two miles beyond Louvie), you can visit a Roman Mosaic (probably a bathing establishment), discovered in 1842 by M. A. Moreau, and also a marble sarcophagus containing a skeleton. There are moreover at Bielle ruins of an abbey of Benedictines. And in the cultivated valley sloping down from the right, near the hamlet of Bilhéres, druidical stones have been visited in 1868 by Lord Talbot de Malahide and the eminent archæologist, M. de la Villemarqué.

On the grey and brown mountains to the east, there is an iron forge yielding about 600 tons annually.

The scenery of the valley d'Ossau is always much admired.