At the foot
of Montmartre an ocean of slate roofs lies in motionless blue billows;
at Ingouville the sea is like the same roofs stirred by the wind. This
eminence, or line of hills, which coasts the Seine from Rouen to the
seashore, leaving a margin of valley land more or less narrow between
itself and the river, and containing in its cities, its ravines, its
vales, its meadows, veritable treasures of the picturesque, became of
enormous value in and about Ingouville, after the year 1816, the
period at which the prosperity of Havre began. This township has
become since that time the Auteuil, the Ville-d'Avray, the
Montmorency, in short, the suburban residence of the merchants of
Havre. Here they build their houses on terraces around its ampitheatre
of hills, and breathe the sea air laden with the fragrance of their
splendid gardens. Here these bold speculators cast off the burden of
their counting-rooms and the atmosphere of their city houses, which
are built closely together without open spaces, often without
court-yards,--a vice of construction with the increasing population of
Havre, the inflexible line of the fortifications, and the enlargement
of the docks has forced upon them.
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