The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1918-08-22
MEDIEVAL FRANCE.
Interesting Letter Prom Harr, Herf-
wick. Former Hickman Boy.

AMI We reproduce the letter which
follows.
Dear Grandfather
saturday afternoon and nothing 10 /
DO 80 I viii try Co get a few Of ms /
laecumnlated letters IN nv b..rds |
T There Is not great deal Of tiu,. far
writing letters. hut perhaps the folks
back home understand that and went |
De- I-.eved &c they don't get leitrrs reg
ularly from me.
Went on that hike last sunday and
! believe me 90 was some hike. we ,y..r..
on the 90 for twelve solid hours and
were tired when we got IN. but the
things We saw were wen worth going
80 FAR 60 see The first place Of inter
est was O. little church tucked away
in e little village on a big mountain.
I There is no authentic record Of the
age Of this church. but II i definitely
known that one side Of it was built hv
ths Romans and the other side hs the
Eriian. some time between the third
and sixth eeuturies There j. as much
difference between the two sides as
there. j. between day and night. The
Roman side shows great deal 81 dee
orutive and delicate work. while the
other side seems Ia have been built
with only one object la view. to build
"a structure that would last through
centuries The whole structure g.
wonderfully preserved and / caunat
say that the worl. Of the Romans has
wifhstood the centuries Of wear any
better than that Of the Britons. or
vice versa.
Leaving this village we liked two
and one-half hours through a very
beautiful valley and over the top of
another mountain until we finally ar
rived az "a little village az the base of
"a high hill. ON top Of which is situated
very old castle or chateau We
spent very pleasant half hour rest
ing beneath the walls Of an old church
which had seen hundreds OF. years of
life aud worship before Columbus ever
took notion that the world was
round and started out 10 prove H.
Leaving there we started our climb up
10 the chateau and IL is "a pretty stiff
climb too and how the knights Of oil
ever carried the weight Of their armor
up the steep sides l. a mystery to me.
and often too. they had 10 fight for
every inch Of the ground. The en-
trance Il through a door cut through
the solid rock aud imbeddesi IN rns.
stone on one side are the broken ends
Of what were perhaps great iron
hinges. The door has long since been
destroyed and the broken hinges are
an that remain. Inside al i In ruin
where perhaps once WIS all that the
heart Of the old barons OF France
could desire The walls are pierced
hy loop holes from which were thrown
spears aud cross-bOw bolts at the enc
my below. In "A recess under one Of the
walls was hole formed by the roof Of
one Of the underground dungeons Civ
ing way and IL looked very interesting
and / decided that il was. like Lin
coins rat hole. worth looking into SO
after sounding the depth by dropping
stones into IL. | jumped down into IL
ever experienced SO strange a feeling
To be there in the dark In a place
where perhaps all kinds OF crime has
been committed is enough 10 make a
fellow think seriously. Lighting a
match / proceeded to explore the
place. Ia the walls were set iron
rings and 10 some Of them still hung
short pieces Of chain. Just imagine
the tales Of horrible punishment those
chains could tell could they but speak. |
In one wall was what appears 10 have |
been "A doorway. which probably lesI |
to another dungeon. but which had
been sealed up perhaps 10 conceal some
crime that would make Edgar Allen
Poes BLACK Cat seen tame ana /
chiidishiy simple.
climbing out Of there. the otber
two and 1 climbed to the top Of the
battlements and the view from tbera
was wonderfully beautiful Far away
over tie fields we could see the river
a narrow thread OF silver winding lis
way through fields Of emerald ereen /
and finally disappearing between the
shoulders of the mountains many
miles away.
ION top Of and in the center Of one
Of the old towers Is a large stone fully
seven feet across the uncovered mart
Of II and IL the portion under the
ground is in proportion to that which
is visible, the whole thing must weigh
ten tons and how on earth do you sup
pose they ever got such thing sew
enty-five feet above the top Of the
hill: l give IL up.
Directly under this stone Is what
/ was known bv fhs. verx ;rt.-n... =.