...
What nobler ornament can there be than the Roman baths at the foot of Mont
Cavalier, and the delightful old garden that surrounds them? All that
quarter of Nimes has every reason to be proud of itself; it has been
revealed to the world at large by copious photography. A clear, abundant
stream gushes from the foot of a high hill (covered with trees and laid
out in paths), and is distributed into basins which sufficiently refer
themselves to the period that gave them birth--the period that has left
its stamp on that pompous Peyrou which we admired at Montpellier. Here are
the same terraces and steps and balustrades, and a system of water-works
less impressive, perhaps, but very ingenious and charming.
The whole place is a mixture of old Rome and of the French eighteenth
century; for the remains of the antique baths are in a measure
incorporated in the modern fountains. In a corner of this umbrageous
precinct stands a small Roman ruin, which is known as a temple of Diana,
but was more apparently a nymphaeum, and appears to have had a graceful
connection with the adjacent baths.
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