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“Cimiez, a Greek were presented by the famous strengthened with Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Grand Roman blood, rich in monu- Master of the Order of St John ments, pagan and Christian, of Jerusalem, who had resided the civic and religious capital at Nice since the capture of of the Maritime Alps, had Rhodes, to the Franciscans for Saint Barnabas for its Apostle, their monastery of the Holy and gave to Spain two martyrs, Cross at Nice in 1529. Fourwho became its immortal pro- teen years later, Barbarossa, tectors. Alboin burnt it, at the head of a fleet of 300 Charlemagne raised it from its Turkish vessels, attacked the ruins, and erected it into a town, and destroyed the county." "This church was Franciscan monastery. The built on the ruins of the Temple three pictures were saved, and of Diana about the ninth cen- the Benedictines having handed tury; the first sanctuary of over to the Franciscans the the Virgin Mary in the Mari- church at Cimiez, the altartime Alps. In the sixteenth pieces were brought there. century it was handed over by the monks of St Benedict to the Franciscan Fathers. Enlarged since then, and embellished with a façade and frescoes: witness of the piety of the departed, a promise and an inspiration to those who shall come after. 1858."

On a side wall of the portico is a fresco of an early incident in the life of St Francis, commemorating the dream of Pope Innocent the Third, which induced him to grant his sanction to a rule confirming the formation of the Franciscan Order. The interior of the church has much that is beautiful. It has three altar-pieces painted by the most famous of Niçois artists, Ludovic Bréa, one of which is of remarkable interest, showing in the background the Château or Castle of Nice as it stood in the year 1475. The reredos and the high altar of inlaid marble are of fine workmanship. The three pictures have a stirring history. They

Passing through the church, Queen Victoria was permitted to enter the inner cloister, forbidden ground to all women, the only exceptions made in the nineteenth century being in her favour and that of the Empress Eugénie. From the south-east corner of the monastic garden there is an unrivalled view, finer even than that from the Queen's own windows, for it includes the valley of the Paillon, the Esterels, and some peaks of the snow-clad Alps.

Now, under recent French laws, the Franciscan monks are dispersed and banished. The brown robe, the knotted rope, and the sandalled feet are no longer to be seen without or within the cloister. The monastery buildings are deserted; the carefully tended garden is a tangled wilderness; and on certain feast days the secluded precincts are open to holiday-making mob. The place in front of the

the

church has a singular fascination. Shaded by grand old ilex - trees, under which are placed stone benches, stands the famous Cross of Cimiez, a white marble cross of great intrinsic beauty, raised on a graceful marble pillar. It is remarkable as being one of the few existing representations of the Crucified Seraph of the Vision of Saint Francis of Assisi. Of fifteenth century workmanship, it stood in front of the Franciscan monastery in the old town of Nice until the French Revolution, when it was thrown to the ground and broken. A man, by name Sardina-all honour to him!rescued and concealed the fragments. After the Concordat, in 1804, the restored Cross was borne in solemn procession to Cimiez, and set up by loving hands on its present site.

It was in pursuit of State policy that the Franciscan the Franciscan monks were banished, and their tender guardianship of the church and its surroundings abolished: it is to be regretted that the present custodians do not more carefully preserve this singularly beautiful and peaceful spot full of historic interest and old-world charm.

The visitor who can obtain permission to do so should pass through the iron gate in the western wall of the place facing the church, and follow the path leading to the left through the olive grove till he comes to the cottage which is built on to the ruin of the old Temple of Apollo, in

the grounds of the Villa Garin. Amid these grounds he will find peace and silence. There is here no modern show, no striving for effect, but a sad sense of bygone grandeur, for this is the possession of one of the old proud Niçois families. If the friendly aid of the gardener who lives in the cottage is invoked, the visitor will be taken to see the remains of the pavement of the old Roman baths, of which but little, alas! is left. And then through the western gate of the Villa he will pass out to the Arènes.

Queen Victoria was a regular attendant at the Festin des Cougourdons - the Feast of Gourds-which takes place in Lent and centres round the Place du Monastère. Long before daylight on the appointed day the road is alive with people from Nice on their way to attend the first early mass at the church. Then come the processions of the various Orders of Penitents, White, Black, Blue, and Red, in dominoes of the respective colours of their confraternities, preceded by their crosses, with lamps swinging. These confraternities were all founded in the Middle Ages. Their members come not only from Nice itself but from the surrounding rock villages; and they assemble round the cross of the crucified seraph. Tables are laid under the ilex-trees, and after mass the people in crowds feast there upon "pan bagnat"

blessed bread-and the wine of the country. Along the whole length of the road from

the Arènes to the monastery, and in the Arènes and on the place of the monastery, are stalls with gourds for sale. The gourds vary from the size of a hazel-nut to that of a giant's head: they are of all shapes, and are curiously painted and varnished. Among these stalls the Queen moved in her pony-carriage, making numerous purchases.

An earlier fête which is held and has been held for centuries at the same church on the first Sunday in Lent was not, so far as we know, attended by the Queen. This is the Festin des Reproches, when lovers visit the church and reproach each other for their real or fancied infidelities during carnival, and then agree to make up their differences, and go home to a good meal.

Generally the Queen went farther afield. There was no one of the lovely drives in the environs with which she did not become familiar. Falicon, perched on its lofty rock; Aspremont, that village which has taken the place of the Roman Castrum Aspermontis, and of a still earlier Greek settlement, knew her well. Happily for the Queen, her visits to Cimiez were before the days of automobiles, which have destroyed the quiet of the neighbourhood, and introduced a modern terror that would have turned these peaceful drives into a penance.

Great changes have taken place in Cimiez since the days when Queen Victoria resided here. From Carabacel along

the whole way gigantic hotels have been erected or palaces of flats; numerous streets, bordered by villas, traverse the main road, so that Cimiez and Nice are now connected by a continuous chain of buildings. And the hand of the builder has not spared the rural beauties of Cimiez itself. Everywhere along the road behind the Hotel Regina villas large and small have been erected, and one must walk for a mile before reaching what can really be described as the country. The old Zoological Gardens have gone and houses have risen on their site; but, once this zone of buildings left behind, there are many beautiful paths available for those who are good walkers,mountain climbs presenting glorious views of snowy alp and azure sea. For those to whom such walks are debarred there remain the same lovely drives that were enjoyed by the Queen, and it will be well for them if they have the good fortune to possess the friendship of the owners of the surrounding pleasaunces,-the olive-groves of the Villa Garin, the well-trimmed lawns of the Villa Liserb, the wild beauties of La Selva, where in this glorious season of peach blossom, of roses, of peonies, and Italian may, they can realise the truth of the lines

"A kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth, One is nearer God's heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth."

And we love to think that

here, on the road trodden on their way to conquest by the legions of Napoleon and the legions of Cæsar, the mind of our beloved Queen was not filled with dreams of imperial grandeur, but rather, in the shade of the palm trees of Liserb, or amid the roses in the sunny Franciscan garden, with "the peace of God which passeth all understanding."

And so we will end with this passage from Mr Loveland's 'Romance of Nice,' the truth of which is confirmed by the utterances of all the local papers to-day: "It is not the great Queen of England who lives in the hearts of the Niçois; it is the memory of a

pathetic little figure in black, with an old-fashioned mushroom hat and a small black silk sunshade, who was daily seen driving about the countryside, taking her tea at a halt on the high road; ordering her carriage to fall in among the mourners at the funeral procession of some poor peasant, or following quietly in the wake of some religious procession which she accidentally met,that is the picture which the people remember, and that is why they have set the Queen's statue near the hotel where she dwelt, that her memory may be preserved to future generations."

CIMIEZ, 13th April 1912.

THE QUESTION OF ARMY HORSES.

BY COLONEL C. E. CALLWELL, C.B.

THE general public are only dimly aware of the gravity of the problem which is arising in the country in connection with horsing the army for war; and the majority of military men even, not having been directly concerned with the provision of remounts or with the registration of animals which ought to be available on mobilisation, hardly recognise how important the question is. Nor is it understood in most quarters to what an extent the failure of the responsible authorities to cope determinedly with the subject is tending to aggravate the situation. People know, of course, that the peace establishment of horses in the regular army is somehow kept upas a matter of fact, that peace establishment has been slightly augmented within the last two or three years, but soldiers do not always quite realise that (except in the case of the cavalry) the peace establishment only represents a fraction of the total number of animals with which the army is supposed to take the field; nor do they fully appreciate the difficulty of securing great quantities of suitable horses at very short notice, and of placing them in the ranks in a condition fit to undergo the rigours of campaign.

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The actual position of affairs up to a certain point can be

shown easily enough by statistics. The strength of horses in the ranks at home on the 1st October 1911, for instance, was 23,412. In that aggregate were comprised not only those temporarily incapacitated for service by sickness or injuries, but also a proportion which, owing to age or to other causes, would in any case be unfit for the field; the aggregate, moreover, included a contingent which, apart from these reasons, would not be available for the Expeditionary Force. Colonel Seely recently stated in the House that 44,000 horses would be needed to mobilise that force. Therefore, as not more than about 18,000 of the animals actually in the ranks would be taken, these 18,000 will have to be more than trebled to bring our army for oversea warfare up to its campaigning establishment. When there are known to be hundreds of thousands of horses in the country, it may seem a simple thing to buy up so small a percentage of them as the figure 44,000 represents. But the events of last summer and autumn have taught us that we must be able to mobilise our regular troops very rapidly indeed, and although there no doubt are great quantities of horses in the United Kingdom, the proportion of animals suitable for military purposes is by no means unlimited and it is decreasing. It has always to

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