Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/18

2 lies, and the painted cellar also, having myself drunk there many a glass of cool wine; neither do I doubt but that Chinon is an ancient town—witness its blazon. I own it is said twice or thrice — "Chinon, Little town, Great renown, On old stone Long has stood; There's the Vienna, if you look down; If you look up, there's the wood." But how,' continued he, 'can you make out that it is the oldest city in the world? Where did you find this written?'—'I have found it in the Sacred Writ,' said I, 'that Cain was the first that built a town; we may then reasonably conjecture that he the first from his own name named it Cainon; as, following his example, all other founders of cities have named them after themselves. An etymology as clear as Swift's tracing of bees and cobblers to the Hivites and the Shuites. The father kept an hotel called the "Lamprey," in which was the painted cellar (or cellar of pints, in one reading) so lovingly referred to, and had also a vineyard famous for its white wine; so that the jolliest of men was born amidst congenial surroundings. Being the youngest of several sons, he was destined for the Church, and his education was begun in the Benedictine abbey of Sevillé or Seuillé, close at hand. He was afterwards removed to the convent of La Basmette at Angers, where he rapidly progressed in learning, and made friends who were to stand him in good stead throughout his life, including Andre Tiraqueau, afterwards lieutenant-