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NANTUA AND ITS ENVIRONS.
P E R T E D U R H O N E . — C H A T E A U O F F E R N E Y .
A R R I V A L A T G E N E V A .
THE town of Nantua, though of no considerable extent, is the capital of what was
called a mandement, or district, which includes eleven parishes, and forms part of the
province of Bugey, or Pagus Busiaais, as noticed in the preceding chapter. It likewise
appears to have been the Nantuaam of the Romans; and at that time a city of much
greater consequence than at present, if we may judge by some medals and fragments of
inscriptions which have been dug up, at different periods, by the inhabitants, in the
searches which chance has led them to make.
There were still, before the French revolution, two convents existing in Nantua;
one for women, if I mistake not, of the order of Ste. Claire; and the other for men, of
that of St. Benoit.
These monks were then considered as the seignmrs of the district, and enjoyed an
exclusive right of fishing, hunting, levying Utiles, imposing or enacting the caniie'.
and other taxes nearly similar to those on the other inhabitants of that part of the
country.
This city, consideruig it as a small provincial one, is tolerably well built i the streets
not so narrow as in most of the French towns i the houses, in general, convenient, and
many of them handsome. The manner in which they construct their roofs may at first
appear singular, as they are composed of a kind of small wooden tiles or shingles,
mostly of larch, about nine inches long, and five wide, placed lapping over each other,
in the manner of slating. These, from being previously laid in water, and then
exposed to the sun, give the roof that greyish hue, which has by no means an unpleasant
effect, and resembles a kind of schistus.
^^ Graluitous labour, appropriated or due from tlie vassal (o Ms lord, or lei^ifur.
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