CHALONS, sun Svoxr., the Cabillonum of the an ccints, is a town in the department of the Saone and the Loire, is situated in a beautiful and fertile valley, on the right bank of the Saone. It is surrounded by walls, and defended by a citadel, and consists of the old town, the new town, and the suburbs of St Lawrence. The chief public buildings and curiosities ale the principal church, the court-house, and the library or ancient college, the hospitals of Charity and St Lawrence, the dispensary, an orphan school, the public baths, and the hydraulic machine. The saloon, which contains the library, is very handsome, and the books, though in great confu sion, are still numerous and valuable. It was originally composed of books left by the Jesuits, and since the revolution it has been augmented by the magnificent collection belonging to the suppressed Abbey of La Fert6. There arc here two globes made of tin plate five feet in diameter, and executed by Father Legrand in 1732. The theatre, which is constructed in the late church of the Jesuits, has a wretched appearance, but the internal decorations are good. In the middle of the
market place is a fountain adorned with a statue of Nep tune, and there is a handsome coffee-house called the Rondcau, which is decorated chiefly with beautiful Eng lish engravings. T, c promenades arc upon the quay and on the ramparts or Santa Alaria, St Lawrence, and Cloriette. This town carries on a considerable trade in the wines, grain, and iron of the surrounding- county, and is also the entrepot of all the merchandise which is sent from the north to the south, and from the south to the north of France. The essence of the east, which gives the peculiar colour and brilliancy to artificial pearls, is manufactured here from the scales of the bleak, (eypritzus atburnus) which are caught in great abundance. Toe canal du centre, which joins the Saone and the Loire, begins at Chalons and terminates at Digoin.
The remains of a Roman amphitheatre and several inscriptions attest the antiquity of this town, which is situated on the great Roman way from Lyons to Boulogne. Population 12,000. (w)