Chapter II: Introduction

Although the history of Burgundy is intimately connected with that of England--the policy of the Valois Dukes, for example, affected profoundly our national destinies during the hundred years' war--the average English reader's knowledge of the subject is contained within the four corners of a wine list. He knows Beaune--knows the name well, as that of a drinkable brand, may have blessed it in his heart, when a ray from the shaded lamp shot through its ruby depths. If by any chance he loves Meredith, he may, even, under its kindly influence, have whispered to his fair partner, Dr. Middleton's phrase: "Burgundy has great genius; Burgundy sings the inspired ode." But should his lady slip in a question concerning this ruddy heartener of man, he could not answer; he would stumble between the Côte d'Azur and the Côte d'Or.

Not another town of Burgundy could he name. Dijon he knows, and remembers; because there he scalded his throat with hot coffee, gulped down, at three in the morning, on the way home from the Riviera; or, bound for Switzerland, he may have passed through the town. But he does not know Dijon as a Burgundian Capital, nor as a proud city of royal palaces and unrivalled sculpture. At most, when he hears the duchy named, there floats through his mind a shadowy memory of Henry V., or of King Lear.[1]

Yet Burgundy was the scene of events vital in the making of Europe. It was one of the strongholds of Roman civilization. It saw the genesis of a religious movement that was the greatest feature of eleventh and twelfth century history. Cluny was a nursery of popes; Citeaux became a breeding ground of saints; their abbots lorded it over mighty kings; they dictated to potentates and princes; they bent all western Europe beneath their sway. Bernard's eloquence fired three nations with enthusiasm for the second crusade.

That Power, when it had passed from the great monastic houses, fell later, in a modified form, to the Valois Dukes. Safely housed in Dijon, or in Bruges, ruling a people sheltered, to some extent, from the appalling disasters that were transforming the fair kingdom of France into a howling wilderness, they kept a more than royal state. Gathering about their persons a great company of distinguished artists and valiant knights, they established a school of sculpture unmatched in their time; they held pageants and tournaments the most brilliant that chivalry had ever seen.

Headstrong and ambitious, they challenged the crown of France, and defied it; they dreamed dreams of a Burgundian empire extending eastward beyond the Alps and northward to the Channel.

'Tis true that these ambitions were never sated. The house of Valois had not the constructive mind of which empire is begotten: moreover, Destiny, and Louis XI., were too strong for them. But the glorious tale of ducal efforts towards that goal outshines all other sunset splendours of dying mediævalism.

When I think of what might be made of such a theme, I could tear these pages, because my best is not better.

Yet history does not end the attractions of Burgundy. It only begins them. Nature, too, has her pageant "in this best garden of the world," she will hold you here, whether you choose the delicious, poplar-fringed plains of the Saône, the "waterish" Burgundy that the French king sneers at in "Lear"--he would have gloried in the land had it been his own--or the stern and silent hills of the Jura and the Morvan; or the vine-clad slopes of sunny Côte d'Or.

But, best of all, this land and its people have a character wholly their own. You will not feel here the twilight melancholy of Celtic Brittany; the quivering, electric atmosphere of romantic Provence; nor the passionate intensity of dark Languedoc; but you will find a country well typified by its wines, its sculpture, its architecture--a solid, ample, full-bodied, full-blooded land; a people strong and vivacious, concealing, beneath a somewhat harsh and stern exterior, a cheerful heart and an abundant generosity; comfortable, courageous, eloquent, sonorous folk, that love a good dinner, and a good story to follow, that have produced a Bernard, a Bossuet, and a Lamartine.

The key to this Burgundian character, with its blend of Gallic, Latin, and German elements, the key to Burgundian history, too, is the geographical position of the country. Its great water-ways flow northward, by the Yonne, to the English Channel, and southward, by the Saône, to the Mediterranean and the traffic of the East; along its valleys run the great trading roads and railways connecting northern and southern, eastern and western Europe. With the exception of the Jura, no natural barriers exist between Burgundy and the adjoining lands. It was open at all quarters; from every point of the compass it borrowed, and it lent. Michelet's visionary thought has summed up, in a splendid phrase, the secret of Burgundy. He says, speaking of the country round Dijon: "La France n'a pas d'élément plus liant, plus capable de réconcilier le nord et le midi."

There you have it. To reconcile the bitter antagonisms of north and south, and, in a lesser degree, of east and west, was Burgundy's destiny; the geographical position that enabled her to do so was at once the source of her greatness, and the cause of her fall. While she remained independent, unity was impossible for France; and England's peace was imperilled by irresistible temptations to attack a weakened neighbour.

In writing this book, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to preserve historical continuity. That must be my excuse for geographical flights which, else, might bewilder my readers.

My hope is that these pages may awaken, here and there, lasting interest in a land that, whether for varied scenery, sunny climate, good living, characteristic architecture, or, above all, historical associations of the first importance, can hold its own with any other ancient province of France.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Henry V., Act V., Scene 2; King Lear, Act I., Scene 1.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

BENEATH THE MOUNT
PAGE

The Hiring at St. Léger--Distant Beuvray--Fun of the Fair--A
mad wolf--Legends of the Mount--Gaulish Bibracte--St. Martin at
Beuvray--La Pierre de la Wivre--Legend of the Wivern--The Curé
of Monthelon 1

CHAPTER II

THE ROMAN CITY

A Suffering Cow--Temple of Janus--The Aedui--Druids--Divitiacus
and Dumnorix--Vercingetorix--The Founding of Augustodunum--Pierre
de Couhard--Francis I. at Couhard--The Plan of
Augustodunum--Temple of Janus--Restoration--Origin of the
Name--Roman Gates--Porte d'Arroux--Porte St. André--Date of
Construction--Porte des Marbres--Vagaries of Peasant guides 11

CHAPTER III

THE ROMAN CITY (CONTINUED)

French Passion for Statues--Roman Temple at Autun--Ecoles
Méniennes--The Capitol--The Roman Theatre--Two Ways of
Lunching--Promenade des Marbres--The Amphitheatre 31

CHAPTER IV

THE ROMAN CITY (CONTINUED)

Christian Autun--Relics of Lazarus--Translation of the
Relics--Tomb of Lazarus--Exterior of Cathedral St. Lazare--The
Porch--The Interior--Romanesque and Gothic--The East
End--Imbecile Restorations--The Capital--St. Symphorien by
Ingres--Story of St. Symphorien--Fontaine St. Lazare--Hotel
Rolin--The Museums--Napoleon at the Hotel St. Louis--No charge
for Moonlight 41

CHAPTER V

THE MOTHER ABBEY

Cluny and Citeaux--Cluny still the Abbey--The Birth of
Cluny--Duke William's Anathema--Odon--Legend of the
Crumbs--Legend of the Boar--Growth of Cluny--Birth of Hugues--St.
Odilon--Hildebrand--Glory of Cluny--The Monk's Vision--The new
Abbey--Consecration--Gifts--Description of New Cluny--The
Narthex--The Interior--Conventual Buildings--Ambulatorium
Angelorum--The Rule of Cluny--Monkish life at Cluny--Pierre
Damien--Death of St. Hugues--Luxury and Decadence 59

CHAPTER VI

THE MOTHER ABBEY (CONTINUED)

Cluny of To-day--Palace of Pope Gélase--The remaining
Transept--Chapelle Bourbon--Tour du Moulin--Tour des
Fromages--Gate of the Narthex--The Abbey Gate--Notable Visitors
to Cluny--Palais abbatial--Musée--Hotel de Ville--Romanesque
Houses--Hotel des Monnaies--Eglise St. Marcel--Hotel
Dieu--Bouillon Monument--Prud'hon--Women of Burgundy--Hotel de
Bourgogne--An amusing Evening--A Dream--Berzé-le-Châtel--Castle
of Lourdon--St. Point--A Poet's Garden--Lamartine's Home--Tramaye 86

CHAPTER VII

MORE POPE THAN YOU

Decadent Cluny--Birth of St. Robert--Abbey of Molême--The Founding
of Citeaux--White Robes--Black Scapular--Stephen's Vision--The
Coming of St. Bernard--His Appearance--Legend of His
Birth--Bernard converts his Family--Bernard a Cistercian--His
Austerities--Rise of Citeaux--Daughter Abbeys--Ceremony of
Foundation--Character of Bernard--Cistercian
Ideals--Self-sacrifice--Simplicity--Bernard's Letter to Pierre le
Vénérable--Visitors to Citeaux--Albigensian Crusade--Citeaux's
Crime--A Cistercian Site--Citeaux to-day--The Chapter--My Flemish
Guide 111

CHAPTER VIII

CLUNY'S DAUGHTER

Monkish Paray--"Une Simple Formalité"--Burgundian
Manners--Clothes and the Woman--Hotel de Ville--Church of
Paray--Splendid Example of Clunisian
School--"Diorama-Musée"--Burgundian English--North
Door--Porch--Interior--Blasphemy and kindred Matters--A very
young Mule--A Snake-charmer 127

CHAPTER IX

HER THREE CROWNS

Chalon-Sur-Saône--River Pageants--Gontran--Abbey of St.
Marcel--The Story of Bertille 136

CHAPTER X

ABELARD AND HELOISE

Church of St. Marcel--Story of Abélard and Héloise--Olivier de
la Marche--Tournament of la Dame des Pleurs--Tournament of
1273--Modern Chalon-Sur-Saône--Eglise St. Vincent 145

CHAPTER XI

TOURNUS BY THE SAONE

Abbey of St. Philibert--Oldest Clunisian Porch--Interior of St.
Philibert--A Change of Author--The Record of Raoul
Glaber--Raoul's Visions--Famine in Burgundy--Human Vampires--In
a Tournusian Café--"Au Point du Jour"--Greuze--Morning and
Evening on the Saône--Mâcon 160

CHAPTER XII

THE VALLEY OF THE OUCHE

A Page of Dialogue--Castle of Marigny--Legend of
Tebsima--Albéric--Labussière--Albéric's Dream--Aid from
Citeaux--The new Church--Modern Labussière--A magnificent
Mansion--Antigny-le-Chatel--A Vigneron's
Wedding--Arnay-le-Duc--Study in Roofs and Colours--A charming
Town--The Goats--The Poor Man--The Hotel Chrétien--Around Arnay 173

CHAPTER XIII

THE CITY OF THE DUKES

Unknown Dijon--The City in 1364--Philip le Hardi--His jewelled
Coats--The Madness of the Period--Costume of that Day--Madness of
King Charles--Philip's Patronage of Art--Chartreuse de
Champmol--Puits de Moise--Portal of the Chapel--Claus Slater and
his Nephew--Tombs of Philip le Hardi and Jean sans Peur--The
Pleurants--Character of Jean sans Peur--Murder of Duke of
Orleans--Whitewashing--Armagnacs and Burgundians Revenge 184

CHAPTER XIV

CITY OF THE DUKES (CONTINUED)

Salle des Gardes--Dijon Castle--A new Post-Office--Final Struggle
between Charles le Téméraire and Louis XI--Characters of both
Men--Defeats and Death of Charles--Discovery of the
Body--Victorious René--Louis' Joy--New Castles--Entry into
Dijon--End of Burgundian Dreams--Modern Dijon--St.
Bénigne--St. Michel--Notre Dame Jacquemart--Ducal Palace and
Kitchen--Sketching--Palais de
Justice--Plombières--Talant--Fontaine-lez-Dijon--Memories of
Bernard--Tournament of Tree of Charlemagne 203

CHAPTER XV

THE DEVIL'S PIT

Easter Morning--Lux--The Devil's Pit--Dialogue--The
Legend--Serve him right! 221

CHAPTER XVI

BEAUNE AND THE COTE D'OR

"Bits" in Beaune--Notre Dame--Hotel Dieu--An Earthly
Paradise--Exterior--Courtyard--Chapel--Devices--Roger Van der
Weyden's "Last Judgment"--Nicholas Rolin--Guigonne 230

CHAPTER XVII

SAINT MARTIN'S WELL AND THE LEGEND OF SAINT MARGUERITE

Bouilland--Abbey of Sainte Marguerite--The Legend--Vineyards
of the Côte d'Or--Meursault--Rochepot--Story of Philippe
Pot--Crusader's Return--His Marriage at Dijon--Tant L
Vaut--A Talk at Auxey-le-Grand--Through Côte d'Or by
Train--Cussy-la-Colonne--Bewitched--The Column--A Democratic
Journey--St. Martin's Well--Legend of St. Martin's Well 237

CHAPTER XVIII

IN RURAL BURGUNDY

The Road to Verdun--Burgundian Folk-song, "Eho!"--Its
Story--Verdun sur le Doubs--The First of March--Burgundian
Folk-Lore--Teillage--Winter Scene--An old-time Burgundian
Wedding--The Patois--François Fertiault 258

CHAPTER XIX

A LAKE IN THE JURA

Swiss Burgundy--Scenes in the Jura--Nantua from the Hills--Real
Burgundy--A capable Woman--Church of Nantua 272