Dieppe

Dieppe, a French town in the department Seine-Inferieure. at the mouth of the river Arques, 93 miles N.N.W. of Paris. The name is possibly connected with the English deep, and once the town was the chief port of France. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 did much to damage it, and the claims of the rival port of Havre gained the upper hand. Of its buildings, the thirteenth-century church of St. Jacques, built with stones brought from England; that of St. Remi, built in 1522; and the old fifteenth-century castle, now barracks, are notable. On the west is the suburb La Barre, and on the opposite side of the harbour is the fishing quarter La Follet. The port admits vessels of 1,200 tons, but not at low water; and it is well known to English travellers as the point of communication with Paris by way of the Brighton and South Coast Railway and Newhaven. The town is well frequented as a watering-place and bathing-place; and the ivory manufactures of Dieppe have a great reputation. There are also saw-mills, horn and bone works, lace manufacture, and sugar-refineries, and much shipbuilding. There is also considerable fishing, and a good foreign trade. Quebec, in Canada, was founded by Dieppois.