an ancient, large, handsome, and rich town in France, in the department of Gironde, is the capital of Guienne, and an archbishop's see; has an university and an academy of arts and sciences. It is built in the form of a bow, of which the river Garonne is the string. This river is bordered by a large quay, and the water rises four yards at full tide, for which reason the largest vessels can come up to it very readily. The castle called the Trumpet is seated at the entrance of the quay, and the river runs round its walls. Most of the great streets lead to the quay. The town has 12 gates; and near another castle are fine walks under several rows of trees. The ancient city of Bordeaux, though considerable in point of size, was ill built, badly paved, dangerous, without police or any of those municipal regulations indispensably requisite to render a city splendid or elegant. It has entirely changed its appearance within these last thirty years. The public edifices are very noble, and all the streets newly built are regular and handsome. The quays are Bourdeaux, four miles in length, and the river itself is considerably broader than the Thames at London bridge. On the opposite side, a range of hills covered with woods, vineyards, churches, and villas, extends beyond the view. Almost in the centre of the town is a fine equestrian statue in bronze erected to Louis XV. in 1743, with the following inscription:

*Ludovico quindecimo, Siue victori, semper pacificatoris; Suos omnes, quam latè regnum patet, Paterno pectori gerenti; Suorum in animis penitus habitanti.*

The beauty of the river Garonne, and the fertility of the adjoining country, were probably the causes which induced the Romans to lay the foundations of this city. The ruins of a very large amphitheatre yet remain, constructed under the emperor Gallienus; it is of brick, as are most of the edifices of that period, when the empire was verging to its fall, and the arts began rapidly to decline. During the irruptions of the barbarous nations, and particularly in those which the Normans repeatedly made, Bourdeaux was ravaged, burnt, and almost entirely destroyed. It only began to recover again under Henry II. of England, who having united it to the crown by his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, rebuilt it, and made it a principal object of his policy to restore the city again to the lustre from which it had fallen. The Black Prince received all Guienne, Gascony, and many inferior provinces, in full sovereignty from his father Edward III. He brought his royal captive, John king of France, to this city, after the battle of Poictiers in 1356; and held his court and residence here during eleven years. His exalted character, his uninterrupted series of good fortune, his victories, his modesty, his affability, and his munificence, drew strangers to Bourdeaux from every part of Europe; but all this splendour soon disappeared. He lived to experience the ingratitude of Peter the Cruel, to whom he had restored the kingdom of Castile; he became a prey to distempers in the vigour of life; he saw his dominions reunited again in many of their branches to the crown of France, by Charles V.; he lost his eldest son Edward, a prince of the highest expectations; and at length, overcome with sorrow at this last affliction, he quitted Bourdeaux, and re-embarked for England, there to expire a memorable example of the hasty revolution of human greatness! In 1453, Charles VII., king of France, re-entered the city, and subjected the whole province of Guienne, which had been near three centuries under the English government. Conscious of the importance of such a conquest, he ordered the Chateau Trompette to be built to defend the passage of the river; and Louis XIV. afterwards employed the celebrated Vauban to erect a new fortress in the modern style of military architecture, on the same spot.—Madame de Maintenon, whom fortune seemed to have chosen as the object of her extremest rigour and extremest bounty, was removed from the prisons of Niort in Poictou, where she was born, with her father the Baron d'Aubigne, to this castle, where she used to play with the daughter of the turnkey, in the greatest indigence. Bourdeaux presents few remains of antiquity. The cathedral appears to be very old, and has suffered considerably from the effects of time. The unfortunate duke of Guienne, brother to Louis XI. who was poisoned in 1473, lies buried before the high altar. The adjacent country is exceedingly pleasant, and at the season of the vintage forms one of the most delicious landscapes in the world. The population in 1815 was 92,374. W. Long. o. 39. N. Lat. 44. 50.