NANTES.

THE château of Chantoceau (in the plate, CHÂTEAU HAMELIN,) was at one time enclosed by double walls, and defended by a ditch. There is now only a heap of ruins to be seen on the spot. The people who crowded towards it for refuge and protection, founded within a short distance a town, containing, as we are told in history, "several churches and handsome buildings." Of these there remains to-day but the priory, converted into a farmhouse; and the inhabitants of a neighbouring village sow their grain upon the site of the vanished colony.

Nearly opposite is the little town of Oudon, with a very remarkable tower, which has given occasion for the speculations of numerous antiquaries. It is of an octagon shape, and rises to a considerable height, presenting a strikingly picturesque appearance when viewed from the river. Some writers ascribe its erection to the middle of the ninth century; but in the now received opinion it dates no farther back than the thirteenth. The fortress sustained a siege, both by John Lackland and Saint Louis: but it is better known as the abode of certain gentlemen-coiners, who, in the reign of Francis I, dissatisfied with the paltriness of the booty obtained by piracies on the river, adopted the expedient of making money-not metaphorically, but literally.

From the moment that taxes ceased to be received, when it so suited the convenience of the taxed, in kind—which in England occurred so early as the reign of Henry I

money became the one thing needful. The kings cheated their subjects by debasing the material; and their subjects cheated the kings, by clipping the good pieces when they found any, and imitating the bad so ingeniously, that people were often betrayed into allowing themselves to be swindled by private rather than royal coiners. The difference was, that the kings could not be prosecuted for the felony, while the people were fully exposed to all the pains and penalties of the law; and thus, in England, hundreds of obscure rascals swung upon the gibbets, while Henry VIII transmuted, with royal impunity, pound of silver, worth one pound seventeen shillings and sixpence, into, seven pounds four shillings; and James II, when in Ireland, issued fourpenny worth of metal to his loving subjects, in pieces representing ten pounds sterling!

A little lower down, on the same side of the river, we pass a very extensive fortress, apparently still more ancient than the tower of Oudon. It is one of those creations which in France and Scotland are termed folies. The term signifies anything odd and useless in architecture; and in the present case is applied to a modern imitation of an ancient edifice. There is, perhaps, no harm in us, creatures of to-day, thus launching forth the anathemas of what we call taste against so paltry a deception; but where, after all, is the real difference between the tower of Oudon and its modern rival? In a little while they will both be a heap of ruins. The former will be traced by the yet unborn antiquary to the Francs or the Romans; and the latter classed with those monuments of antiquity, whose origin is lost in the night of ages. Alas for human pride! Is our noblest edifice anything else than a folly?

The next remarkable object is the