Note 684 — Chapter VI · (continued 3)

The work of destruction which has been done in modern times at Paris and Rouen seems a trifle compared to the merciless havoc wrought at Le Mans. It amounts almost to a physical destruction of the city. The hill has been cut through to make a road from the modern part of the town to the river. This has involved breaking through the Roman walls, cutting through the Vielle Rome and the other ancient streets, sweeping away the finest of the Romanesque houses, dividing in short the hill and the ancient city into two parts severed by a yawning gap. The mediæval wall has further been broken down and made into a picturesque ruin. When I was first at Le Mans in 1868, the city was still untouched; in 1876 the havoc was doing; by 1879 it was done. Some conceited mayor or prefect doubtless looks on all this brutal destruction as a noble exploit.