This old town, together with the port, divides Mentone into two parts—the West and the East Bays. The inhabitants also are divided into two sections—the Westbayers and the Eastbayers, and these two can never agree as to which side of the town is the more agreeable. They have fought over this question ever since houses have appeared in the two disputed districts and they are fighting on the matter still. The Westbayer wonders that the residents on the East can find any delight in living, while the Eastbayer is surprised that his acquaintance in the other bay is still unnumbered with the dead. I had formed the opinion that the Western Bay was the more pleasant and the more healthy but Augustus Hare crushes me to the ground for he writes, “English doctors—seldom acquainted with the place—are apt to recommend the Western Bay as more bracing7; but it is exposed to mistral and dust, and its shabby suburbs have none of the beauty of the Eastern Bay.” So I stand corrected, but hold to my opinion still.
Hare is a little hard on Mentone by reason of its being so painfully modern. “Up to 1860,” he says, “it was a picturesque8 fishing town, with a few scattered9 villas let to strangers in the neighbouring olive groves10, and all its surroundings were most beautiful and attractive; now much of its two lovely bays is filled with hideous11 and stuccoed villas in the worst taste. The curious old walls are destroyed, and pretentious12 paved promenades13 have taken the place of the beautiful walks under tamarisk groves by the sea-shore. Artistically14, Mentone is vulgarised and ruined, but its dry, sunny climate is delicious, its flowers exquisite15 and its excursions—for good walkers—are inexhaustible and full of interest.”[52]
There can be few who will not admit that the modern town of Mentone is commonplace and rather characterless, but, at the same time, it must be insisted that a large proportion of the Mentone villas are—from every point of view—charming and free from the charge of being vulgar.
Some indeed, with their glorious gardens, are serenely16 beautiful. With one observation by Mr. Hare every visitor will agree—that in which he speaks of the country with which Mentone is surrounded. It is magnificent and so full of interest and variety that it can claim, I think, to have no parallel in any part of the French Riviera.
MENTONE: THE OLD TOWN.
Mentone is a quiet place that appears to take its pleasure demurely17, if not sadly. It is marked too by a respectability which is commendable18, but at the same time almost awe-inspiring. Perhaps its nearness to Monte Carlo makes this characteristic more prominent. If Monte Carlo be a town of scarlet19 silks, short skirts and high-heeled shoes Mentone is a town of alpaca and cotton gloves and of skirts so long that they almost hide the elastic-side boots.
There is a class of English lady—elderly, dour20 and unattached—that is comprised under the not unkindly term of “aunt.” They are propriety21 personified. They are spoken of as “worthy.” Although not personally attractive they are eminent22 by reason of their intimate knowledge of the economics of life abroad. To them those human mysteries, the keeper of the pension, the petty trader and the laundress are as an open book. They fill the frivolous23 bachelor with reverential alarm, but their acquaintance with the rate of exchange, the price of butter and the cheap shop is supreme24 in its intricacy. These “aunts” are to be found in larger numbers in Mentone than in any other resort of the English in France.
The old town of Mentone is small and circumscribed25. It stands in the centre of the place as a low hillock or promontory26. In relation to the rest of Mentone it is like the brown body of a butterfly whose gaudy27 wings are spread over the West Bay on the one side and the East Bay on the other.
The history of Mentone is meagre and of little interest. Compared with neighbouring towns it is of no great antiquity. The Romans passed by the site on which it stands without a halt. The Lombards and the Saracens left the spot alone for it offered no attractions to the neediest robber. According to Dr. Müller, whose work on Mentone is above praise, there is no mention of the town in the old chronicles until the commencement of the thirteenth century. It was a small place but poorly fortified28 and therefore little able to protect itself. It became in consequence the victim of any tyrant29 in the country round and its experience of tyranny must have been long-enduring and acute.
It seems to have belonged first to Ventimiglia and then to have been the property of the Vento family of Genoa. Later it came under the rule of the Counts of Provence and in 1346 was purchased by Carlo Grimaldi of Monaco for sixteen thousand gold florins. It remained a part of the principality of Monaco for some hundreds of years. It was but slightly disturbed by the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, because it was so little worth fighting about. In 1848 the whole population of Mentone, under the leadership of the Chevalier Trenca, rose against the oppression of the Grimaldi and the town became, with Roquebrune, a republic. Finally it was sold by Monaco to France in 1861 for the sum of four million francs and there its story ends.
MENTONE: THE EAST BAY.
The best general view of Mentone is to be obtained from the pier30. Between the East Bay and the West stands the old town, a heap of drab houses and red roofs, piled up in the form of a mound31 on the summit of which are St. Michael’s Church and the plume-like cypresses32 of the old cemetery33. Behind this drab town are two green hills, round and low—St. Vincent and Les Chappes; and beyond again—shutting out the world—are the ash-grey slopes of the Maritime34 Alps. To the west is the massif of Mont Agel and the crag of St. Agnes; while to the east is the towering height of the Berceau.
The old town is small, but it has the merit—rare in these parts—of being clean and free from “the evil smell” of which Mr. Hare has complained. It is Italian in character and, owing to its place on a hill, is made up of steep lanes and many stairs, of headlong passages and vaulted35 ways. The numerous arches that cross the streets are the outcome of an experience of earthquakes painfully acquired in years gone by. At the foot of the town is the Place du Cap out of which certain undecided old lanes ramble36 to the sea, with the rolling gait of unsteady mariners37. Among these the Ruelle Giapetta and the Rue38 du Bastion are notable by their picturesqueness39.
The way up to the old town is by the steps of the Rue des Logettes. The first street encountered is the Rue de Bréa. It is a mean street, but it is occupied by houses which have been, at one time, among the most pretentious in Mentone. At No. 3 Napoleon lodged40 during the Italian campaign. It is a large building of four stories with a fine doorway41 in white stone. It is now given up to poor tenants42 who hang their washing out of the windows. At No. 2, a private house in comfortable state, General Bréa was born in 1790. He was one of Napoleon’s generals, was at Leipzig and Waterloo and was assassinated43 in Paris on June 24th, 1848. On the wall of a garden in the Rue Bréa is a marble tablet to commemorate44 the visit of Pius VII in 1814. The Pope was returning to Rome after his long exile in France and it was from the terrace of this garden that he blessed the people crowding in the street. While dealing45 with famous people it may be noted46 that in the Rue St. Michel (No. 19) is the house in which the Chevalier Carlo Trenca was born, the president of the short-lived Republic of Mentone.
The most important and most interesting street of old Mentone is the Rue Longue. It runs athwart the east side of the hill, mounting very easily to the St. Julien Gate which is just below the old cemetery. The street is paved, is some twelve feet in width and is entered from the Logettes by a dim passage. The street is a little dark, because the houses on both sides of it are tall. This Rue Longue follows the route of the old Roman road. Until 1810 it was the only carriageable street between the East and the West Bays and the only coast road between Italy and Provence.
It was the Park Lane of Mentone, the fashionable street in which were the palaces of the nobles and the houses of the rich. The humbler dweller48 in Mentone would hardly dare put foot in it, because it was so grand and so exclusive. Here “before the great Revolution, the ladies of Mentone used to sit out and work in the open air, just as the peasants do now, before the doors of the houses or (one is expected to say) palaces. A letter of the last century describes the animated49 appearance which this gave to the place in those days, the gentlemen stopping to chat with each group as they passed . . . while the nights were enlivened by frequent serenades, which were given under the windows of pretty girls by their admirers.”[53]
This picture is very difficult to realise for the Rue Longue is now a humble47 street that the fastidious would probably call a slum. There are one or two little shops in it, but the houses are, for the most part turned into tenements50 for a very densely51 packed population. The buildings are of stone covered unhappily with plaster; but they nearly all show traces of an exalted52 past. There are many fine entries of stone with either a pointed53 or a rounded arch and a few windows which recall better days. The typical house has an arched doorway from which ascends54 a stone stair whose summit is lost in darkness. It leads obviously to the door of the dwelling55, the ground floor being devoted56, in old days, to stables or offices. There is in the Rue Longue a shop of the medi?val type, such as has been described in the account of St. Paul du Var (page 101). Over the portal of one house is the date 1542 and over another that of 1543. The house No. 123 was the palace of the princes of Monaco. It bears the initials of Honorius II and the date 1650. Within is a fine stone stair with a vaulted ceiling. Among the more picturesque streets of the town may be mentioned the Rue du Vieux Chateau57, the Rue de la C?te and the Rue Lampedouze.
The Rue Longue ends at the main gate of the town—the Porte St. Julien. The gate itself has been modernised and is represented only by an archway of a quite unassuming type. Leading up from this portal to the old cemetery is a wall in which are traces of the enceinte of the old fortress58. The stronghold, built (Dr. Müller states) between 1492 and 1505, occupied the summit of the hill on which the old cemetery now stands. Here can be seen portions of the castle wall which have become incorporated with the structure of this strangely placed burial ground.
A flight of steps from the Rue Longue leads to St. Michael’s Church. The original church was built in 1619, but was almost entirely59 destroyed by the great earthquake of 1887, after which date the present church was constructed. It is an ambitious building in an indefinite “classic” style and presents no features of interest. The same may be said of the two other churches in the old town—those of the Pénitents Blancs and of the Pénitents Noirs.
The gallant60 old fort that, in the seventeenth century, guarded Mentone on the side of the sea has been almost engulfed61 in the building of the new pier. It is now merely a grey, patched-up ruin, standing on the rocks by the water’s edge and ignominiously62 held up behind by the officious pier. Its little barred windows are curious, while on its summit can still be seen some traces of its sentry63 towers.
[52]
“The Rivieras,” London, 1897, p. 82.
[53]
“A Winter at Mentone.”
MENTONE: RUE LONGUE.
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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promenades
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| n.人行道( promenade的名词复数 )；散步场所；闲逛v.兜风( promenade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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dour
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| adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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cypresses
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| n.柏属植物，柏树( cypress的名词复数 ) | |
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cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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ramble
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| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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picturesqueness
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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commemorate
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| vt.纪念，庆祝 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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dweller
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| n.居住者，住客 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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tenements
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| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
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densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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54
ascends
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的第三人称单数 ) | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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61
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ignominiously
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| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
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sentry
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| n.哨兵，警卫 | |
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