Agen

Agen, the chief town of the French department of Lot-et-Garonne, is situated in a fertile region on the right bank of the Garonne, 84 miles SE. of Bordeaux. The town is old and gloomy in appearance; it carries on an active trade in woollen and linen fabrics, leather, coloured paper, colours, cordage, and sailcloth; and is an important railway centre. Here Joseph Scaliger and the poet Jasmin were born. It has often suffered the miseries of war at the hands of Goths, Huns, English, and Huguenots. Pop. (1881) 18,743; (1891) 21,316.