Moulins

Moulins, the capital of the French department of Allier, on the right bank of the river Allier, here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of thirteen arches, lies 196 miles by rail SSE. of Paris and 124 NW. of Lyons. A clean, well-built town, with pretty promenades, it has a cathedral (1468-1871), the choir old; a square tower of the old castle of the dukes of Bourbon; a 15th-century belfry; and the chapel of a former convent. Marshals Villars and Berwick were natives, and Clarendon wrote here great part of his History. Nor must Sterne's Maria be forgotten. Pop. (1872) 19,774; (1886) 21,213.