3-021-729 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

View of Mentone from the East, 1869. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Rouch. 'The small town of Mentone, in the diminutive territory of Monaco, which was till lately an independent principality, but has been sold to the French empire by its hereditary Sovereign, is situated about fifteen miles from Nice, on the...Gulf of Genoa. It stands at the head of a beautiful bay of the sea, overlooked by a range of mountains, 3000 ft. or 4000 ft. high, belonging to the Maritime Alps, which form a gigantic amphitheatre, five miles in width, partly filled with lower hills, pine-woods, and olive-groves. The place is thus completely sheltered from the north, the north-west, and the north-east, winds; whilst the limestone rocks keep the warmth of summer all through the winter season. Hence lemon-trees, as well as orange-trees, flourish here wonderfully; the former bearing four crops, and flowering all through the year. It is said, indeed, that the sun is brighter at Mentone in January than in England in July. There are no fogs, no frost, and very little rain. A few hundred visitors, French and English mostly, are commonly found sojourning here in the winter months, for the sake of the climate, which is highly recommended for consumptive patients'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.