These half-deserted slopes of
Ingouville form a striking contrast to the terraces of fine villas
which overlook the valley of the Seine. Is the wind on this side too
strong for vegetation? Do the merchants shrink from the cost of
terracing it? However this may be, the traveller approaching Havre on
a steamer is surprised to find a barren coast and tangled gorges to
the west of Ingouville, like a beggar in rags beside a perfumed and
sumptuously apparelled rich man.
In 1829 one of the last houses looking toward the sea, and which in
all probability stands about the centre of the Ingouville to-day, was
called, and perhaps is still called, "the Chalet." Originally it was a
porter's lodge with a trim little garden in front of it. The owner of
the villa to which it belonged,--a mansion with park, gardens,
aviaries, hot-houses, and lawns--took a fancy to put the little
dwelling more in keeping with the splendor of his own abode, and he
reconstructed it on the model of an ornamental cottage. He divided
this cottage from his own lawn, which was bordered and set with
flower-beds and formed the terrace of his villa, by a low wall along
which he planted a concealing hedge.
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