Abbeville

France (Wikipedia)

Lister did not mention Abbeville in his memoirs or pocketbook, but his traveling companion Philip Skippon noted:

We went five leagues . . ., and after dinner rode four leagues more to Abbeville, a large town built with wooden houses.  Good guns and pistols made in this city.  Three or four large piazza here.  S. Ulfranc is the chief church, a tall stone building not yet finished.  The river Somme crosses the city in three places; little vessels of 80 tuns come up hither, the sea being but three leagues off.

Skippon, Journey, 4 April 1666

In the middle ages, Abbeville was at the lowest crossing point of the Somme, and it was a frequent crossing place for invading forces; the town is 12 miles from the English Channel. ‘S. Ulfranc’ or St Vulfran’s is a Collegiate Church, famous for its Flamboyant Gothic facade.  Abbeville was not only known for weaponry, but the royal cloth manufactory was founded in the town in 1665 on Colbert’s initiative by Dutchman Josse Van Robais; cloth manufacture continued there until 1804 1

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  1. Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. II: The Wheels of Commerce (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 335.

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