At the western extremity of the town, is an ancient castle, where the princes of Bearn resided, and where King Henry IV.

was born." The intendant Lebret said of Pau, in 1700:-- "The town of Pau consists of two streets, tolerably long, but very ill-constructed; it possesses nothing considerable.

The _palais_ is one of the worst kept possible--the most incommodious, and the most dirty; the _maison de ville_ is still worse.

The parish church cannot contain a quarter of the inhabitants, and is, besides, as ill-supported and as bare of ornament as one would see in the smallest village." Something between these two accounts might serve to give an idea of what the town is now: the public buildings are totally unworthy of mention, indeed, the only one at all remarkable is the new market-place, which is very large, and solidly built.

The churches are more in number, but quite as insignificant as when Lebret wrote; the protestant _"temple"_ has not more claim on observation as a piece of architecture, and, being built over the bed of a water-course, is supposed to be in some danger, and is extremely chill in winter.