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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12538 ***
+ACCOUNT OF A TOUR IN NORMANDY Volume II by Dawson Turner
+
+LETTERS FROM NORMANDY,
+
+ADDRESSED
+TO THE REV. JAMES LAYTON, B.A.
+OF
+CATFIELD, NORFOLK.
+
+UNDERTAKEN CHIEFLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATING THE ARCHITECTURAL
+ANTIQUITIES OF THE DUCHY, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS HISTORY, ON THE
+COUNTRY, AND ON ITS INHABITANTS.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+LETTER XIV.
+
+Ducler--St. Georges de Bocherville--M. Langlois
+
+LETTER XV.
+
+Abbey of Jumieges--Its History--Architectural Details--Tombs of Agnes
+Sorel and of the Enervez
+
+LETTER XVI.
+
+Gournay--Castle of Neufmarché--Castle and Church of Gisors
+
+LETTER XVII.
+
+Andelys--Fountain of Saint Clotilda--La Grande Maison--Château
+Gaillard--Ecouis
+
+LETTER XVIII.
+
+Evreux--Cathedral--Abbey of St. Taurinus--Ancient History
+
+LETTER XIX.
+
+Vicinity of Evreux--Château de Navarre--Cocherel--Pont-Audemer--
+Montfort-sur-Risle--Harfleur--Bourg-Achard--French Wedding
+
+
+LETTER XX.
+
+Moulineaux--Castle of Robert the Devil--Bourg-Theroude--Abbey of
+Bec--Brionne
+
+LETTER XXI.
+
+Bernay--Broglie--Orbec--Lisieux--Cathedral--Ecclesiastical History
+
+LETTER XXII.
+
+Site and Ruins of the Capital of the Lexovii--History of
+Lisieux--Monasteries of the Diocese--Ordericus Vitalis--M.
+Dubois--Letter from the Princess Borghese
+
+LETTER XXIII.
+
+French Police--Ride from Lisieux to Caen--Cider--General Appearance
+and Trade of Caen--English resident there
+
+LETTER XXIV.
+
+Historians of Caen--Towers and Fortifications--Château de la
+Gendarmerie--Castle--Churches of St. Stephen, St. Nicholas, St.
+Peter, St. John, and St. Michel de Vaucelles
+
+LETTER XXV.
+
+Royal Abbeys of the Holy Trinity and St. Stephen--Funeral of the
+Conqueror, Exhumation of his Remains, and Destruction of his Monument
+
+LETTER XXVI.
+
+Palace of the Conqueror--Heraldic Tiles--Portraits of William and
+Matilda--Museum--Public Library--University--Academy--Eminent
+Men--History of Caen
+
+LETTER XXVII.
+
+Vieux--La Maladerie--Chesnut Timber--Caen Stone--History of
+Bayeux--Tapestry
+
+LETTER XXVIII.
+
+Cathedral of Bayeux--Canon of Cambremer--Cope of St. Regnobert--Odo
+
+LETTER XXIX.
+
+Church and Castle of Creully--Falaise--Castle--Churches--Fair of
+Guibray
+
+LETTER XXX.
+
+Rock and Chapel of St. Adrien--Pont-de-l'Arche--Priory of the two
+Lovers--Abbey of Bonport--Louviers--Gaillon--Vernon
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES.
+
+Plate 26 Sculpture upon a capital in the Chapter-House at St. Georges
+
+Plate 27 M. Langlois
+
+Plate 28 Musicians, from the Chapter-House at St. Georges
+
+Plate 29 Distant View of the Abbey of St. Jumieges
+
+Plate 30 Ancient trefoil-headed Arches in ditto
+
+Plate 31 Distant of the Castle of Gisors
+
+Plate 32 Banded Pillar in the Church of ditto
+
+Plate 33 Distant View of Château Gaillard
+
+Plate 34 Gothic Puteal, at Evreux
+
+Plate 35 Leaden Font at Bourg-Achard
+
+Plate 36 Ancient Tomb in the Cathedral at Lisieux
+
+Plate 37 Head-Dress of Females, as Caen
+
+Plate 38 Tower in the _Château de Calix_, at ditto
+
+Plate 39 Tower and Spire of St. Peter's Church, at ditto
+
+Plate 40 Sculpture upon a Capital in ditto
+
+Plate 41 Tower of St. John's Church, at Caen
+
+Plate 42 Monastery of St. Stephen, at ditto
+
+Plate 43 Fireplace in the Conqueror's Palace, at Ditto
+
+Plate 44 Profile of M. Lamouroux
+
+Plate 45 Figure from the Bayeux Tapestry
+
+Plate 46 Sculpture at Bayeux
+
+Plate 47 Ornaments in the Spandrils of the Arches in Bayeux Cathedral
+
+Plate 48 Castle of Falaise
+
+Plate 49 Elevation of the West Front of _La Délivrande_
+
+Plate 50 Font at Magneville
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS FROM NORMANDY.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIV.
+
+DUCLER--ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE--M. LANGLOIS.
+
+
+(_Ducler, July_, 1818.)
+
+You will look in vain for Ducler in the _livre des postes_; yet this
+little town, which is out of the common road of the traveller, becomes
+an interesting station to the antiquary, it being situated nearly
+mid-way between two of the most important remains of ancient
+ecclesiastical architecture in Normandy--the abbeys of St. Georges de
+Bocherville and of Jumieges.--The accommodation afforded by the inns at
+Bocherville and Jumieges, is but a poor substitute for the hospitality
+of the suppressed abbeys; and, as even the antiquary must eat and
+perhaps sleep, he who visits either St. George or the holy Virgin, will
+do well to take his _fricandeau_ and his bed, at the place whence I am
+writing.
+
+At a period when the right bank of the Seine from Harfleur to Rouen
+displayed an almost uninterrupted line or monastic buildings, Ducler
+also boasted of a convent[1], which must have been of some importance,
+as early as the middle of the seventh century.--King Childeric IInd,
+granted the forest of Jumieges to the convent of the same name and that
+of St. Vandrille; and St. Ouen was directed by the monarch to divide the
+endowment between the two foundations. His award did not give
+satisfaction to St. Philibert, the abbot of Jumieges, who maintained
+that his house had not received a fair allotment. The proposition was
+stoutly resisted by St. Lambert, abbot of St. Vandrille; and the dispute
+was at length settled by the saints withdrawing their claims, and ceding
+the surplus land to the abbey of Ducler. St. Denys was the patron of
+this abbey; and to him also the present parochial church is dedicated:
+it is of Norman architecture; the tower is surrounded by a row of
+fantastic corbels; and a considerable quantity of painted glass yet
+remains in the windows. The village itself (for it is nothing more than
+a village, though honored by French geographers with the name of a
+_bourg_), consists of a single row of houses, placed immediately under
+the steep chalk cliff which borders the Seine. The face of the cliff is
+also indented by excavations, in which the poorer inhabitants dwell,
+almost like the Troglodytes of old. The situation of Ducler, and that of
+the two neighboring abbeys, is delightful in summer and in fine weather.
+In winter it must be cold and cheerless; for, besides being close to a
+river of so great breadth, it looks upon a flat marshy shore, whence
+exhalations copiously arise. The view from our chamber window this
+morning presented volumes of mist rolling on with the stream. The tide
+was setting in fast downwards; and the water glided along in silent
+rapidity, involved in clouds.
+
+The village of Bocherville, or, as it is more commonly called, of St.
+Georges, the place borrowing its name from the patron saint of the
+abbey, lies, at the distance of about two leagues from Rouen. The road
+is exceedingly pleasing. Every turning presents a fresh view of the
+river; while, on looking back, the city itself is added to the
+landscape; and, as we approach, the abbey-church is seen towering upon
+the eminence which it commands.
+
+The church of St. Georges de Bocherville, called in old charters _de
+Baucherville_, and in Latin _de Balcheri_ or _Baucheri villa_, was built
+by Ralph de Tancarville, the preceptor of the Conqueror in his youth,
+and his chamberlain in his maturer age. The descendants of the founder
+were long the patrons and advocates of the monastery. The Tancarvilles,
+names illustrious in Norman, no less than in English, story, continued
+during many centuries to regard it as under their particular protection:
+they enriched it with their donations whilst alive, and they selected it
+as the spot to contain their remains when they should be no more.
+
+The following portion of the charter, which puts us in possession of the
+indisputable æra of the erection of the church, is preserved by
+Mabillon[2]. It is the Conqueror who speaks.--"Radulfus, meus magister,
+aulæque et cameræ princeps, instinctu divino tactus, ecclesiam
+supradicti martyris Georgii, quæ erat parva, re-edificare a fundamentis
+inchoavit, et ex proprio in modum crucis consummavit."
+
+The Monarch and his Queen condescended to gratify a faithful and
+favorite servant, by endowing his establishment. The corpse of the
+sovereign himself was also brought hither from St. Gervais, by the monks
+and clergy, in solemn procession, before it was carried to Caen[3] for
+interment.
+
+Ralph de Tancarville, however, was not fortunate in the selection of
+the inmates whom he planted in his monastery. His son, in the reign of
+Henry Ist, dismissed the canons for whom it was first founded, and
+replaced them by a colony of monks from St. Evroul. Ordericus Vitalis,
+himself of the fraternity of St. Evroul, commemorates and of course
+praises the fact. Such changes are of frequent occurrence in
+ecclesiastical history; and the apprehension of being rejected from an
+opulent and well-endowed establishment, may occasionally have
+contributed, by the warning example, to correct the irregularities of
+other communities. A century later, the abbot of St. Georges was
+compelled to appeal to the pope, in consequence of an attempt on the
+part of his brethren at St. Evroul, to degrade his convent into a mere
+cell, dependent upon theirs.--The chronicle of the abbey is barren of
+events of general interest; nor do its thirty-one abbots appear to have
+been men of whom there was much more to be said, than that they arrived
+at their dignity on such a year, and quitted it on such another. Of the
+monks, we are told that, in the fifteenth century, though their number
+was only eight, the dignitaries included, the daily task allotted them
+was greater than would in any of the most rigid establishments, in
+latter days, have been imposed upon forty brethren in a week!
+
+Inconsiderable as is the abbey, in an historical point of view, the
+church of St. Georges de Bocherville is of singular importance, inasmuch
+as it is one of the land-marks of Norman architecture. William, in his
+charter, simply styles himself _Dux Normannorum_; it therefore was
+granted a few years before the conquest. The building has suffered
+little, either from the hands of the destroyers, or of those who do
+still more mischief, the repairers; and it is certainly at once the most
+genuine and the most magnificent specimen of the circular style, now
+existing in Upper Normandy.--The west front is wholly of the time of the
+founder, with the exception of the upper portion of the towers that
+flank it on either side. In these are windows of nearly the earliest
+pointed style; and they are probably of the same date as the
+chapter-house, which was built in the latter part of the twelfth
+century. The effect of the front is imposing: its general simplicity
+contrasts well with the rich ornaments of the arched door-way, which is
+divided into five systems of mouldings, all highly wrought, and
+presenting almost every pattern commonly found in Norman buildings. A
+label encircles the whole, the inner edge of which is indented into
+obtuse pyramids, erroneously called lozenges. The capitals of the
+columns supporting the arch are curiously sculptured: upon the second to
+the left, on entering, are Adam and Eve, in the act of eating the
+forbidden fruit; upon the opposite one, is represented the Flight into
+Egypt. Normandy does not contain, I believe, a richer arch; but very
+many indeed are to be seen in England, even in our village churches,
+superior in decoration, though not, perhaps, in size; for this at St.
+Georges is on a very large scale: on each side of it is a smaller blank
+arch, with a single moulding and a single pillar. Two tiers of
+circular-headed windows of equal size fill up the front.--The rest of
+the exterior may be said to be precisely as it was left by the original
+builders, excepting only the insertion of a pointed window near the
+central tower.
+
+The inside is at least equally free from modern alterations or
+improvements. No other change whatever is to be traced in it than such
+as were required to repair the injuries done it during the religious
+wars; and these were wholly confined to a portion of the roof, and of
+the upper part of the wall on the south side of the nave. The groined
+roof, though posterior to the original date of the building, is perhaps
+of the thirteenth century. The nave itself terminates towards the east
+in a semi-circular apsis, according to the custom of the times; and
+there, as well as at the opposite extremity of the building, it has a
+double tier of windows, and has columns more massy than those in the
+body of the church. The aisles end in straight lines; but, within, a
+recess is made in the thickness of the wall, for the purpose of
+admitting an altar. Both the transepts are divided within the church, at
+a short distance from their extremities, into two stories, by a vaulted
+roof of the same height as the triforium.--M. Le Prevost, who has very
+kindly communicated to me the principal part of these details, has
+observed the same to be the case in some other contemporary buildings in
+Normandy. On the eastern side of each transept is a small chapel,
+ending, like the choir, in a semi-circular apsis, which rises no higher
+than the top of the basement story. A cable moulding runs round the
+walls of the whole church within.--You and I, in our own country, have
+often joined in admiring the massy grandeur of Norman architecture,
+exemplified in the nave of Norwich cathedral: at St. Georges I was still
+more impressed by the noble effect of semi-circular arcades, seen as
+they are here on a still larger scale, and in their primitive state,
+uninterrupted and undebased by subsequent additions.
+
+On closer examination, the barbarous style of the sculpture forces
+itself upon the eye. Towards the western end of the building the
+capitals are comparatively plain: they become more elaborate on
+approaching the choir. Some of them are imitations or modifications (and
+it may even be said beautiful ones) of the Grecian model; but in general
+they are strangely grotesque. Many represent quadrupeds, or dragons, or
+birds, and commonly with two bodies, and a single head attached to any
+part rather than the neck. On others is seen "the human form divine,"
+here praying, there fighting; here devouring, there in the act of being
+devoured; not uncommonly too the men, if men they must be called, are
+disfigured by enormous heads with great flapping ears, or loll out an
+endless length of tongue.--One is almost led to conceive that Schedel,
+the compiler of the _Nuremberg Chronicle_, had a set of Norman capitals
+before his eyes, when he published his inimitable series of monsters.
+His "homines cynocephali," and others with "aures tam magnas ut totum
+corpus contegant," and those again whose under lips serve them as
+coverlids, may all find their prototypes, or nearly so, in the carvings
+of St. Georges.
+
+The most curious sculptures, however, in the church, are two square
+bas-reliefs, opposite to one another, upon the spandrils of the arches,
+in the walls that divide the extremities of the transepts into different
+stories[4]. They are cut out of the solid stone, in the same manner as
+the subjects on the block of a wood-engraving: one of these tablets
+represents a prelate holding a crosier in his left hand, while the two
+fore-fingers of the right are elevated in the act of giving the
+blessing; the other contains two knights on horseback, jousting at a
+tournament. They are armed with lance and buckler, and each of them has
+his head covered with a pointed helmet, which terminates below in a
+nasal, like the figures upon the Bayeux tapestry.--This coincidence is
+interesting, as deciding a point of some moment towards establishing the
+antiquity of that celebrated relic, by setting it beyond a doubt that
+such helmets were used anterior to the conquest; for it is certain that
+these basso-relievos are coeval with the building which contains them.
+
+This church affords admirable subjects for the pencil. It should be
+drawn in every part: all is entire; all original; the corbel-stones that
+support the cornice on the exterior are perfect, as well along the choir
+and nave, as upon the square central steeple: each of the sides of this
+latter is ornamented with a double tier of circular arches. The
+buttresses to the church are, like those of the chapel of St. Julien,
+shallow and unbroken; and they are ranged, as there, between the
+windows. At the east end alone they take the shape of small
+semi-cylindrical columns of disproportionate length.
+
+[Illustration: Sculpture upon a capital in the Chapter-House at St.
+Georges]
+
+The monastic buildings, which were probably erected about the year
+1700, now serve as a manufactory. Between them and the church is
+situated the chapter-house, which was built towards the end of the
+twelfth century, at a period when the pointed architecture had already
+begun to take place of the circular style. Its date is supplied in the
+_Gallia Christiana_, where we read, that Victor, the second abbot,
+"obiit longævus dierum, idibus Martii, seu XVIII calendas Aprilis, ante
+annum 1211; sepultusque est sub tabulâ marmoreâ in capitulo quod
+erexerat."
+
+We found it in a most ruinous and dilapidated state, yet extremely
+curious; indeed not less so than the church. Its front to the west
+exhibits a row of three semi-circular arches, with an ornament on the
+archivolt altogether different from what I recollect to have seen
+elsewhere[5]. The inside corresponds in profuse decoration with this
+entrance; but the arches in it are all pointed. An entablature of
+beautiful workmanship is carried round the whole building, which is now
+used as a mill: it was crowded with dirty children belonging to the
+manufactory; and the confusion which prevailed, was far from being
+favorable to the quiet lucubrations of an antiquary. In no part of the
+church is the sculpture equally curious; and it is very interesting to
+observe the progress which this branch of the art had made in so short a
+time. Two or three of the capitals to the arches in front, seem to
+include one continued action, taken apparently from the history of
+Joshua. Another capital, of which I send you a sketch from the pencil of
+M. Le Prevost, is a great curiosity. The group which it contains, is
+nearly a duplicate of the supposed statue of William the Conqueror at
+Caen. In all probability it represents some legendary story, though the
+subject is not satisfactorily ascertained. Against the pillars that
+support these arches, were affixed whole-length figures, or cariatides,
+in alto-relievo. Three of them still remain, though much mutilated; two
+women and a man. They hold in their hands labels, with inscriptions that
+fall down to their feet in front. One of the females has her hair
+disposed in long braided tresses, which reach on either side to her
+girdle. In this respect, as well as in the style of the sculpture and
+costume, there is a resemblance between these statues and those on the
+portals at St. Denys and at Chartres, as well as those formerly on that
+of St. Germain des Prés, at Paris, all which are figured by Montfaucon
+in his _Monumens de la Monarchie Française_, and are supposed by him to
+be of the times of the Merovingian or Carlovingian dynasty; but
+subsequent writers have referred them to the eleventh or twelfth
+century.
+
+[Illustration: M. Langlois]
+
+It was in this chapter-house that M. Langlois[6] found, among a heap of
+stones, a most interesting capital, that had formerly been attached to a
+double column. By his kindness, I inclose you two drawings of it. One of
+them shews it in its entire form as a capital; the other exhibits the
+bas-relief carved upon it[7].
+
+[Illustration: Bas-relief on capital]
+
+The various injuries sustained by the building, render it impossible to
+ascertain the spot which this capital originally occupied; but M. Le
+Prevost supposes that it belonged to some gate of the cloister, which is
+now destroyed. A more curious series of musical instruments is, perhaps,
+no where to be found; and it is a subject upon which authors in general
+are peculiarly unsatisfactory. I am told that, in an old French romance,
+the names of upwards of twenty are enumerated, whose forms and nature
+are quite unknown at the present day; while, on the other hand, we are
+all of us aware that painting and sculpture supply figures of many, for
+which it would be extremely difficult or impossible to find names[8].
+
+[Illustration: Musicians, from the Chapter-House at St. Georges]
+
+The chapter-house, previously to the revolution, contained a
+tomb-stone[9], uninscribed and exhibiting only a sculptured sword, under
+which it was supposed that either Ralph de Tancarville himself, the
+founder of the abbey, or his grandson, William, lay interred. It is of
+the latter that the records of the monastery tell, how, on the fifth day
+after he girded himself with the military belt, he came to the church,
+and deposited his sword upon the altar, and subsequently redeemed it by
+various donations, and by confirming to the monks their right to the
+several benefices in his domain, which had been ceded to them by his
+grandfather.--Here then, I quit you: in a few days I shall have paid my
+devotions at the shrine of Jumieges:--meanwhile, in the language of the
+writers of the elder day, I close this sheet with.
+
+  EXPLICIT FELICITER Stus. GEORGIUS DE BOCHERVILLA;
+  DEO GRATIAS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 266. VOL. II.]
+
+[Footnote 2: _Ann. Benedict._ III. p. 674, 675.--This charter was not
+among the archives of the monastery; but I am informed by M. Le Prevost,
+that several are still in existence, most of them granted by the family
+of the founder, but some by Kings of England. One of the latter is by
+Richard Coeur de Lion, and his seal of red wax still remains appended to
+it, in fine preservation. The seal, on one side, represents the king
+seated upon his throne, with a pointed beard, having his crown on his
+head, and a sword in one hand, and sceptre in the other: on the other
+side, he is on horseback, with his head covered with a cylindrical
+helmet, surmounted with a very remarkable crest, in the form of a fan:
+on his shield are plainly distinguishable the three lions of
+England.--From among the charters granted by the Tancarville family, M.
+Le Prevost has sent me copies of two which have never yet been printed;
+but which appear to deserve insertion here. One is from Lucy, daughter
+of William de Tancarville, and grand-daughter of Ralph, the
+chamberlain.--"Notum sit Ricardo de Vernon and Willelmo Camerario de
+Tancarvilla, et veteribus et juvenibus, quòd Lucia, filia Willelmi,
+Camerarii de Tancarvilla, pro animâ suâ et pro animabus antecessorum
+suorum, ad ecclesiam Sti. Georgii de Bauchervilla dedit molendinum de
+Waldinivilla, quod est subter aliud molendinum et molendinum de
+Waldinval, liberè et quietè, et insupèr ecclesiam de Seonvilla, salvâ
+elemosinâ Roberti sacerdotis in vitâ suâ, si dignus est habendi eam. Et
+post mortem Willelmi capellani sui de Sancto Flocello, ad ecclesiam
+suprà dictam dedit decimam de vavassoribus de Seolvilla, quam dedit in
+elemosinâ habendam Willelmo capellano totâ vitâ bene et in pace et
+securè, et decimas de custodiis totius terre sue que est in
+Constantino.--Ego Lucia do hanc elemosinam pro animâ meâ et pro
+antecessoribus ad ecclesiam Sanctii Georgii; et qui auferet ab eâ et
+auferetur ab eo regnum Dei. Amen.--Testibus, Ricardo de Haia et Matille
+uxore suâ et Nigello de Chetilivilla et hominibus de Sancto
+Flocello."--To this is added, in a smaller hand-writing, probably the
+lady's own autograph, the following sentence:--"Et precor vos quòd
+ecclesia Sancti Georgii non decrescatur in tempore vestro pro Dei amore
+et meo de elemosinis patris mei neque de meis."--There is still farther
+subjoined, in a different hand-writing, and in a much paler ink:--"Hæc
+omnia Ricardus de Vernon libenter concessit."--The other charter was
+granted by William the Younger, and details a curious custom
+occasionally observed in the middle ages, in making donations:--
+
+"Universis sancte ecclesie fidelibus. Willelmus junior camerarius in
+domino salutem. Notum sit presentibus et futuris, quod ego Willelmus
+junior camerarius quinto die post susceptum militie cingulum veni apud
+Sanctum Georgium, ibique cum honorificâ processione suscepérunt me Abbas
+Ludovicus et monachi cum magno gaudio letantes; et ibi obtuli gladium
+meum super altare Sti. Georgii, et tunc consilio et admonitione sociorum
+meorum nobilium virorum qui mecum venerant, scilicet Roberti des Is,
+dapiferi mei, et Rogerii de Calli, et Johannis de Lunda, et aliorum
+plurium, redemi gladium meum per dona et confirmationem plurium
+ecclesiarum, quas ipso die concessi eisdem meo dono, et, sicut avus
+meus, fundator illius monasterii dederat, confirmavi; scilicet ecclesiam
+de Abetot et ecclesiam de Espretot cum decimâ, et ecclesiam Sancti
+Romani cum duabus partibus decime, et similitèr ecclesiam de
+Tibermaisnil: confirmavi etiam dona militum meorum et amicorum quæ
+dederunt ipso die abbatie in perpetuam elemosynam, Rogerius de Calli
+dedit XX Sot. annuatìm; Robertus de Mortùomari X Sot.; Robertus des Is X
+solidos; Johannes de Lunda, cognatus meus X Sot.; Andreas de Bosemuneel
+X solidos, vel decimam de una carrucatura terre ... Humfridus de
+Willerio X solid.; Willelmus de Bodevilla X acras terre; Garinus de Mois
+V solid.; Adam de Mirevilla X solid.; Robert. de Fuschennis X solid.;
+Lesra de Drumara I acram terre."]
+
+[Footnote 3: The following are the words of Ordericus Vitalis, upon the
+subject:
+
+"Religiosi tandem viri, Clerici et Monachi, collectis viribus et intimis
+sensibus, processionem ordinaverunt: honestè induti, crucibus et
+thuribus, ad Sanctum Georgium processerunt, et animam Regis, secundum
+morem sanctæ Christianitatis Deo commendaverunt."--_Duchesne, Scriptores
+Normanni_, p. 661.]
+
+[Footnote 4: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
+10. f. A. and B.]
+
+[Footnote 5: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
+11. last figure.]
+
+[Footnote 6: My readers will join with me, I trust, in thanks to M.
+Langlois, for his drawings; and will not be sorry to see, accompanying
+his sketch of the bas-relief, a spirited one of himself. Normandy does
+not contain a more ardent admirer of her antiquities, or one to whom she
+is more indebted for investigating, drawing, and publishing them. But,
+to the disgrace of Rouen, his labors are not rewarded. All the
+obstacles, however opposed by the "durum, pauperies, opprobium," have
+not been able to check his independent mind: he holds on his course in
+the illustration of the true Norman remains; and to any antiquary who
+visits this country, I can promise a great pleasure in the examination
+of his port-folio.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Its size at top is fourteen inches and a half, by six
+inches and two-thirds.]
+
+[Footnote 8: This difficulty, in the present instance, has yielded to
+the extensive researches of Mr. Douce, who has afforded assistance to
+me, which, perhaps, no other antiquary could have bestowed. He has
+unravelled all the mysteries of minstrelsy with his usual ability; and I
+give the information in his own words, only observing that the numbers
+begin from the left.--"No. 1 was called the _violl_, corresponding with
+our _Viol de Gamba_. As this was a larger violin, though the sculptor
+has not duly expressed its comparative bulk, I conceive it was either
+used as a tenor or base, being perfectly satisfied, in spite of certain
+doubts on the subject, that counterpoint was known in the middle
+ages.--No. 2 is the largest instrument of the kind that I have ever
+seen, and it seems correctly given, from one part of it resting on the
+figure, No. 3, to support it. Twiss mentions one that he saw sculptured
+on the cathedral, at Toro, five feet long. The proper name of it is the
+_rote_, so called from the internal wheel or cylinder, turned by a
+winch, which caused the _bourdon_, whilst the performer stopped the
+notes on the strings with his fingers. This instrument has been very
+ignorantly termed a _vielle_, and yet continues to be so called in
+France. It is the modern Savoyard _hurdy-gurdy_, as we still more
+improperly term it; for the hurdy-gurdy is quite a different instrument.
+In later times, the _rote_ appears to have lost its rank in concert, and
+was called the _beggar's lyre_.--No. 4 is evidently the _syrinx_, or
+_Pan's pipe_, which has been revived with so much success in the streets
+of London.--Twiss shewed me one forty years ago, that he got in the
+south of France, where they were then very common.--No. 5 is an
+instrument for which I can find no name, nor can I immediately call to
+memory any other representation of it. It has some resemblance to the
+old Welsh fiddle or _crowth_; but, as a bow is wanting, it must have
+been played with the fingers; and I think the performer's left hand in
+the sculpture does seem to be stopping the strings on the upper part, or
+neck, a portion of which has been probably broken off.--I suspect it to
+be the old _mandore_, whence the more modern _mandolin_. The rotundity
+of the sounding-board may warrant this conjecture.--No. 6 was called the
+_psalterion_, and is of very great antiquity, (I mean as to the middle
+ages).--Its form was very diversified, and frequently triangular. It was
+played with a _plectrum_, which the performer holds in his right
+hand.--No. 7 is the _dulcimer_, which is very common in sculpture. This
+instrument appears, as in the present case, to have been sometimes
+played with the fingers only, and sometimes with a _plectrum_.--No. 8 is
+the real _vielle_, or _violin_, of very common occurrence, and very
+ancient.--No. 9 is a female tumbler, or _tomllesterre_, as Chaucer calls
+them. This profession, so far as we can depend on ancient
+representation, appears to have exclusively belonged to women.--No. 10.
+A _harp_ played with a _plectrum_, and, perhaps, also with the left hand
+occasionally.--No. 11. The figure before the suspended _bells_ has had a
+hammer in each hand with which to strike them, and the opposite, and
+last, person, who plays in concert with him, has probably had a harp, as
+is the case in an ancient manuscript psalter illumination that I have,
+prefixed to the psalm _Exaltate Deo_.--I have seen these bells suspended
+(in illumination to the above psalm) to a very elegant Gothic frame,
+ascending like the upper part of a modern harp."]
+
+[Footnote 9: _Gallia Christiana_, XI. p. 270.]
+
+[Illustration: Distant View of the Abbey of St. Jumieges]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.
+
+ABBEY OF JUMIEGES--ITS HISTORY--ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS--TOMBS OF AGNES
+SOREL AND OF THE ENERVEZ.
+
+
+(_Ducler, July_, 1818)
+
+The country between Ducler and Jumieges is of much the same character
+with that through which we had already travelled from Rouen; the road
+sometimes coasting the Seine, and sometimes passing through a
+well-wooded country, pleasantly intermingled with corn-fields. In its
+general appearance, this district bears a near resemblance to an English
+landscape; more so, indeed, than in any other part of Normandy, where
+the features of the scenery are upon a larger scale.
+
+The lofty towers of the abbey of Jumieges are conspicuous from afar: the
+stone of which they are built is peculiarly white; and at a distance
+scarcely any signs of decay or dilapidation are visible. On a nearer
+approach, however, the Vandalism of the modern French appears in full
+activity. For the pitiful value of the materials, this noble edifice is
+doomed to destruction. The arched roof is beaten in; and the choir is
+nearly levelled with the ground. Two cart-loads of wrought stones were
+carried away, while we were there; and the workmen were busily employed
+in its demolition. The greater part, too, of the mischief, appears
+recent: the fractures of the walls are fresh and sharp; and the
+fresco-paintings are unchanged.--Had the proud, abbatial structure but
+been allowed to have existed as the parochial church of the village,
+the edifice might have stood for ages; but the French are miserably
+deficient in proper feeling; and neither the historical recollections
+connected with Jumieges, nor its importance as a monument of
+architectural antiquity, could redeem it from their tasteless
+selfishness. In a few years, its very ruins will have perished; and not
+a wreck will remain of this ancient sanctuary of religion and of
+learning.
+
+It was in the year 654 or 655, that St. Philibert, second abbot of
+Rebais, in the diocese of Meaux, founded this monastery. He selected the
+site upon which the present building stands, a delightful situation, in
+a peninsula on the right bank of the Seine. This peninsula, and the
+territory extending from Ducler to Caudebec, had been granted to him for
+this purpose by Clovis IInd, or, more properly speaking, by Bathilda,
+his queen; for the whole administration of affairs was in reality under
+her guidance, though the reins of state were nominally held by her
+feeble husband. The territory[10] had previously borne the name of
+Jumieges, or, in Latin, Gemeticum, a term whose origin has puzzled
+etymologists. Those who hold it disgraceful to be ever at a loss on
+points of this nature, and who prefer displaying a learned to an
+unlearned ignorance, derive Gemeticum, either from _gemitus_, because,
+"pro suis offensis illìc gemunt, qui in flammis ultricibus non erunt
+gemituri;" or from _gemma_, conformably to the following distich,--
+
+
+   "Gemmeticum siquidem a gemmâ dixere priores;
+    Quòd reliquis gemmæ, præcelleret instar Eoæ."
+
+
+The ground upon which the abbey was erected was previously occupied by
+an ancient encampment. The author of the Life of St. Philibert, who
+mentions this circumstance, has also preserved a description of the
+original church. These authentic accounts of edifices of remote date,
+which frequently occur in hagiology, are of great value in the history
+of the arts[11].--The bounty of the queen was well employed by the
+saint; and the cruciform church, with chapels, and altars, and shrines,
+and oratories, on either side, and with its high altar hallowed by
+relics, and decked out with gold and silver and precious stones, shews
+how faithfully the catholics, in their religious edifices of the present
+day, have adhered to the models of the early, if not the primitive, ages
+of the church.
+
+Writers of the same period record two facts in relation to Jumieges,
+which are of some interest as points of natural history.--Vines were
+then commonly cultivated in this place and neighborhood;--and fishes of
+so great a size, that we cannot but suppose they must have been whales,
+frequently came up the Seine, and were caught under the walls of the
+monastery.--The growth of the vine is abundantly proved: it is not only
+related by various monkish historians, one of whom, an anonymous writer,
+quoted by Mabillon, in the _Acta Sanctorum ordinis Sancti Benedicti_,
+says, speaking of Jumieges, "hinc vinearum abundant botryones, qui in
+turgentibus gemmis lucentes rutilant in Falernis;" but even a charter
+of so late a date as the year 1472, expressly terms a large tract of
+land belonging to the convent, the vineyard[12].--The existence of the
+English monastic vineyards has been much controverted, but not
+conclusively. Whether these instances of the northern growth of the
+vine, as a wine-making plant, do or do not bear upon the question of the
+supposed refrigeration of our climate by the increase of the Polar ice,
+must be left to the determination of others.--The whale-fishery of
+Jumieges rests upon the single authority of the _Gesta Sancti
+Philiberti_: the author admits, indeed, that it is a strange thing, "et
+a sæculo inauditum;" but still he speaks of it as a fact that has fallen
+under his own knowledge, that the monks, by means of hooks, nets, and
+boats, catch sea-fish[13], fifty feet in length, which at once supply
+their table with food, and their lamps with oil.
+
+The number of holy men who originally accompanied St. Philibert to his
+new abbey, was only seventy; but they increased with surprising
+rapidity; insomuch, that his successor, St. Aicadras, who received the
+pastoral staff, after a lapse of little more than thirty years from the
+foundation of Jumieges, found himself at the head of nine hundred monks,
+besides fifteen hundred attendants and dependants of various
+denominations.
+
+During all these early ages, the monastery of Jumieges continued to be
+accounted one of the most celebrated religious houses in France. Its
+abbots are repeatedly mentioned in history, as enjoying the confidence
+of sovereigns, and as charged with important missions. In their number,
+was Hugh, grandson of Pépin le Bref, or, according to other writers, of
+Charlemagne. Here also, Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, and his son, Theodo,
+were compelled to immure themselves, after the emperor had deposed them;
+whilst Anstruda, daughter of Tassilo, was doomed to share his imperial
+bed.
+
+An æra of misfortune began with the arrival of the Normans. It was in
+May, in the year 841, that these dreadful invaders first penetrated as
+far as Rouen, marking their track by devastation. On their retreat,
+which almost immediately succeeded, they set fire to Jumieges, as well
+as to the capital. In their second invasion, under Ironside and
+Hastings, the "fury of the Normans" was poured out upon Neustria; and,
+during their inroad, they levelled Jumieges with the ground[14]. But the
+monks saved themselves: they dispersed: one fled as far as St. Gall;
+others found shelter in the royal abbey of St. Denis; the greater part
+re-assembled in a domain of their own, called Haspres, in Flanders,
+whither they carried with them the bodies of St. Aicadrus and St. Hugh:
+there too they resided till the conversion of their enemies to
+Christianity.
+
+The victorious fleet of Rollo first sailed in triumph up the Seine, in
+the year 876. According to three monkish historians, Dudo of St.
+Quintin, William of Jumieges, and Matthew of Westminster, the chieftain
+venerated the sanctity of Jumieges, and deposited in the chapel of St.
+Vast, the corpse of the holy virgin, Hameltruda, whom he had brought
+from Britain. They also tell us that, on the sixth day after his
+baptism, he made a donation of some lands to this monastery.--The
+details, however, of the circumstances connected with the first,
+diminish its credibility; and Jumieges, then desolate, could scarcely
+contain a community capable of accepting the donation. But under the
+reign of the son and successor of Rollo, the abbey of Jumieges once more
+rose from its ashes. Baldwin and Gundwin, two of the monks who had fled
+to Haspres, returned to explore the ruins of the abbey: they determined
+to seclude themselves amidst its fire-scathed walls, and to devote their
+lives to piety and toil.--In pursuing the deer, the Duke chanced to
+wander to Jumieges, and he there beheld the monks employed in clearing
+the ground. He listened with patience to their narration; but when they
+invited him to partake of their humble fare, barley-bread and water, he
+turned from them with disdain. It chanced, however, that immediately
+afterwards, he encountered in the forest a boar of enormous size. The
+beast unhorsed him, and he was in danger of death. The peril he regarded
+as a judgment from heaven; and, as an expiation for his folly, he
+rebuilt the monastery. So thoroughly, however, had the Normans
+_demonachised_ Neustria, that William Longa Spatha was compelled to
+people the abbey with a colony from Poitou; and thence came twelve
+monks, headed by Abbot Martin, whom the duke installed in his office in
+the year 930. William himself also desired to take refuge from the
+fatigues of government in the retirement of the monastery; and though
+dissuaded by Abbot Martin, who reminded him that Richard, his infant,
+son still needed his care, he did not renounce his intention:--but his
+life and his reign were soon ended by treachery.
+
+This second æra of the prosperity of Jumieges was extremely short; for
+the prefect, whom Louis d'Outremer, King of France, placed in command at
+Rouen, when he seized upon the young Duke Richard, pulled down the
+walls of this and of all the other monasteries on the banks of the
+Seine, to assist towards the reparation and embellishment of the seat of
+his government. But from that time forward the tide of monastic affairs
+flowed in one even course of prosperity; though the present abbatial
+church was not begun till the time of Abbot Robert, the second of that
+name, who was elected in 1037. By him the first stone of the foundation
+was laid, three years after his advancement to the dignity; but he held
+his office only till 1043, when Edward the Confessor invited him to
+England, and immediately afterwards promoted him to the Bishopric of
+London.--Godfrey, his successor at Jumieges, was a man conversant with
+architecture, and earnest in the promotion of learning. In purchasing
+books and in causing them to be transcribed, he spared neither pains nor
+expence. The records of the monastery contain a curious precept, in
+which he directs that prayers should be offered up annually upon a
+certain day, "pro illis qui dederunt et fecerunt libros."--The inmates
+of Jumieges continued, however, to increase in number; and the revenues
+of the abbey would not have been adequate to defray the expences of the
+new building, had not Abbot Robert, who, in 1050, had been translated to
+the see of Canterbury, supplied the deficiency by his munificence, and,
+as long as he continued to be an English prelate, remitted the surplus
+of his revenues to the Norman abbey. He held his archiepiscopal dignity
+only one year, at the expiration of which he was banished from England:
+he then retired to Jumieges, where he died the following spring, and was
+buried in the choir of the church which he had begun to raise. At his
+death, the church had neither nave nor windows; and the whole edifice
+was not completed till November, in the year 1066. In the following July
+the dedication took place. Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen, officiated,
+in great pomp, assisted by all the prelates of the duchy; and William,
+then just returned from the conquest of England, honored the ceremony
+with his presence.
+
+I have dwelt upon the early history of this monastery, because Normandy
+scarcely furnishes another of greater interest. In the _Neustria Pia_,
+Jumieges fills nearly seventy closely-printed folio pages of that
+curious and entertaining, though credulous, work.--What remains to be
+told of its annals is little more than a series of dates touching the
+erection of different parts of the building: these, however, are worth
+preserving, so long as any portion of the noble church is permitted to
+have existence, and so long as drawings and engravings continue to
+perpetuate the remembrance of its details.
+
+The choir and extremities of the transept, all of pointed architecture,
+are supposed to have been rebuilt in 1278.--The Lady-Chapel was an
+addition of the year 1326.--The abbey suffered materially during the
+wars between England and France, in the reigns of our Henry IVth and
+Henry Vth: its situation exposed it to be repeatedly pillaged by the
+contending parties; and, were it not that the massy Norman architecture
+sufficiently indicates the true date, and that we know our neighbors'
+habit of applying large words to small matters, we might even infer that
+it was then destroyed as effectually as it had been by Ironside: the
+expression, "lamentabilitèr desolata, diffracta et annihilata," could
+scarcely convey any meaning short of utter ruin, except to the ears of
+one who had been told that a religious edifice was actually _abimé_
+during the revolution, though he saw it at the same moment standing
+before him, and apparently uninjured.--The arched roof of the choir
+received a complete repair in 1535: that of the nave, which was also in
+a very bad state, underwent the same process in 1688; at the same time,
+the slender columns that support the cornice were replaced with new
+ones, and the symbols of the Evangelists were inserted in the upper part
+of the walls. These reparations are managed with a singular perception
+of propriety; and though the manner of the sculpture in the symbolic
+figures, is not that of a Gothic artist, yet they are most appropriate,
+and harmonize admirably with the building.
+
+[Illustration: Symbols of the Evangelists]
+
+You must excuse me that, now I am upon this subject, I venture to
+"travel somewhat out of the record," for the sake of proposing to you a
+difficulty which has long puzzled me:--the connection which Catholic
+divines find between St. Luke's Bull and the word Zecharias;--for it
+appears, by the following distich from the Rhenish Testament, that some
+such cause leads them to regard this symbol as peculiarly appropriate to
+the third Evangelist:--
+
+
+    "Effigies vituli, Luca, tibi convenit; extat
+    Zacariæ in scriptis mentio prima tuis."--
+
+
+[Illustration: Figures of effigies]
+
+An antiquary might be perplexed by these figures, the drawings whereof I
+now send you. He would find it impossible to suppose the
+exquisitely-sculptured images and the slender shafts with richly-wrought
+capitals, of the same date as the solid simple piers and arches all
+around; and yet the stone is so entirely the same, and the workmanship
+is so well united, that it would require an experienced eye to trace the
+junction. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the central tower was
+also found to need reparation; and the church, upon this occasion,
+sustained a lasting injury, in the loss of its original spire, which was
+of lead, and of great height and beauty. It was taken down, under
+pretence of its insecurity; but in reality the monks only wished to get
+the metal. This happened in 1557, under Gabriel le Veneur, Bishop of
+Evreux, the then abbot. Five years afterwards the ravages of the
+Huguenots succeeded: the injury done to Jumieges by these sectaries, was
+estimated at eighty thousand francs; and the library and records of the
+convent perished in the devastation.
+
+The western front of the church still remains almost perfect; and it is
+most singular. It consists, of three distinct parts; the central
+division being nearly of equal width to the other two conjointly, and
+projecting considerably beyond them. The character of the whole is
+simplicity: the circular door-way is comparatively small, and entirely
+without ornament, except a pillar on each side; the six circular-headed
+windows over the entrance, disposed in a double row, are equally plain.
+Immediately above the upper tier of windows, is a projecting chequered
+cornice; and, still higher, where the gable assumes a triangular form,
+are three lancet-shaped apertures, so extremely narrow, that they
+resemble the loop-holes of a dungeon rather than the windows of a
+church. In each of the lateral compartments was likewise originally a
+door-way, and above it a single window, all of the same Norman style,
+but all now blocked up. These compartments are surmounted with short
+towers, capped with conical spires. The towers appear from their style
+and masonry to be nearly coeval with the lower part of the building,
+though not altogether so: the southern is somewhat the most modern. They
+are, however, so entirely dissimilar in plan from the rest of the front,
+that we cannot readily admit that they are a portion of the original
+design. Nor are they even like to each other. Both of them are square at
+their bases, and preserve this form to a sufficient height to admit of
+two tiers of narrow windows, separated from each other by little more
+than a simple string-course. Above these windows both become octagon,
+and continue so to the top; but in a very different manner. The northern
+one has obtuse angles, imperfectly defined; the southern has four
+projecting buttresses and four windows, alternating with each other. The
+form of the windows and their arrangement, afford farther marks of
+distinction. The octagon part is in both turrets longer than the square,
+but, like it, divided into two stories.
+
+The central tower of the church, which was large and square, is now
+reduced to a fragment: three of its sides are gone; the western remains
+sufficiently perfect to shew what the whole was when entire. It
+contained a double tier of arches, the lower consisting of two, which
+were large and simple, the upper of three, divided by central shafts and
+masonry, so that each formed a double window. All of them were
+circular-headed, but so far differed from the architecture of the nave,
+that they had side-pillars with capitals.
+
+The church[15] was entered by a long narrow porch.--The nave is a fine
+specimen of Norman architecture, but is remarkable in that style for one
+striking peculiarity, that the eight wide circular arches on either
+side, which separate it from the aisles, are alternately supported by
+round pillars and square piers; the latter having semi-cylindrical
+columns applied to each of their sides. The capitals are ornamented with
+rude volutes. The arches in the triforium are of nearly the same width
+as those below, but considerably less in height. There is no archivolt
+or moulding or ornament. Above these there is only one row of windows,
+which, like all the rest, are semi-circular headed; but they have
+neither angular pillars, nor mouldings, nor mullions. These windows are
+rather narrow externally, but within the opening enlarges considerably.
+The windows in the upper and lower tiers stand singly: in the
+intermediate row they are disposed by threes, the central one separated
+from the other two by a single column.--The inside of the nave is
+striking from its simplicity: it is wholly of the eleventh century,
+except the reparations already mentioned, which were made in 1688.--The
+choir and Lady-Chapel are nearly demolished; and only some fragments of
+them are now standing: they were of pointed architecture, and posterior
+to the nave by at least two centuries.
+
+A smaller church, dedicated to St. Peter, stood near the principal one,
+with which it was connected by means of a corridor of pointed arches.
+There are other instances of two churches being erected within the
+precincts of one abbey, as at Bury St. Edmund's. St. Peter's was a
+building at least of equal antiquity with the great church. But it had
+undergone such alterations in the year 1334, during the prelacy of the
+twenty-seventh abbot, William Gemblet, that little of the original
+structure remained. He demolished nearly the whole of the nave, for the
+sake of adding uniformity to the cloisters of the monastery.--M. Le
+Prevost, however, is of opinion, that the ruins of Jumieges contain
+nothing more interesting to an antiquary than the west end of the
+portion of building, which subsequently served as the nave. It is a mass
+of flint-work; and he considers it as having belonged to the church that
+existed before the incursion of the Normans.
+
+The cloisters, which stood to the south-west of St. Peter's, are now
+almost wholly destroyed.--To the west of them is a large hall or
+gallery, known by the name of _la Salle des Chevaliers_. It is entered
+by two porches, one towards the north-west, the other towards the
+south-west[16], both full of architectural beauty and curiosity. I know
+of no authority for their date; but, from the great variety and richness
+of their ornaments, and the elegant taste displayed in the arrangement
+of these, I should suppose them to have been erected during the latter
+half of the twelfth century: one of the arches is unquestionably
+pointed, though the cusp of the arch is very obtuse. The slight sketch
+which accompanies this letter, represents a fragment of the inner
+door-way of the south-west porch, and may enable you to form your own
+judgment upon the subject.
+
+[Illustration: Sketch of fragment of inner door-way]
+
+The stones immediately over the entrance are joggled into each other,
+the key-stone having a joggle on either side.--I have not observed this
+peculiarity in any other specimen of Norman masonry.--Between these
+porches apartments, along the interior of which runs a cornice,
+supported by grotesque corbels, and under it a row of windows, now
+principally blocked up, disposed in triplets, a trefoil-headed window
+being placed between two that are semi-circular, as seen in the
+accompanying drawing. The date of the origin of the trefoil-headed arch
+has been much disputed: these perhaps are some of the earliest, and they
+are unquestionably coeval with the building.
+
+[Illustration: Ancient trefoil-headed Arches in Abbey of Jumieges]
+
+The stupid and disgraceful barbarism, which is now employing itself in
+the ruins of Jumieges, has long since annihilated the invaluable
+monuments which it contained.--In the Lady-Chapel of the conventual
+church was buried the heart of the celebrated Agnes Sorel, mistress of
+Charles VIIth, who died at Mesnil, about a league from this abbey,
+during the time when her royal lover was residing here.--Her death was
+generally attributed to poison; nor did the people hesitate in
+whispering that the fatal potion was administered by order of the Queen.
+Her son, the profligate tyrant Louis XIth, detested his father's
+concubine; and once, forgetting his dignity and his manhood, he struck
+the _Dame de Beauté_.--The statue placed upon the mausoleum represented
+Agnes kneeling and offering her heart to the virgin; but this effigy had
+been removed before the late troubles: a heart of white marble, which
+was at the foot of the tomb, had also disappeared. According to the
+annals of the abbey, they were destroyed by the Huguenots. The tomb
+itself, with various brasses inlaid upon it, remained undisturbed till
+the period of the revolution, when the whole memorial was removed, and
+even her remains were not suffered to rest in peace. The slab of black
+marble which covered them, and which bore upon its edges the French
+inscription to her memory, is still in existence; though it has changed
+its place and destination. The barbarians who pillaged the convent sold
+it with the rest of the plunder; and it now serves as a threshold to a
+house near the Mont aux Malades, at Rouen[17]. The inscription, which is
+cut in very elegant Gothic characters, is as follows: a part of it is,
+however, at present hidden by its position:--"Cy gist Agnes Surelle,
+noble damoiselle, en son vivant Dame de Roqueferriere, de Beaulté,
+d'Yssouldun, et de Vernon sur Seine, piteuse entre toutes gens, qui de
+ses biens donnoit largement aux gens d'église et aux pauvres; qui
+trespassa le neuvieme jour de Fevrier, l'an de grace 1449.--Priez Dieu
+pour elle."--It is justly to be regretted, that some pains are not taken
+for the preservation of this relic, which even now would be an ornament
+to the cathedral.--The manor-house at Mesnil, where the fair lady died,
+still retains its chimneys of the fifteenth century; and ancient
+paintings are discernible on the walls.
+
+The monument in the church of St. Peter, generally known by the name of
+_le tombeau des énervez_, was of still greater singularity. It was an
+altar-tomb, raised about two feet above the pavement; and on the slabs
+were carved whole-length figures, in alto-relievo, of two boys, each
+about sixteen years of age, in rich attire, and ornamented with diadems,
+broaches, and girdles, all copiously studded with precious stones.
+Various traditions concerning this monument are recorded by authors, and
+particularly at great length by Father du Plessis[18].--The nameless
+princes, for such the splendor of their garb denotes them to have been,
+were considered, according to a tradition which prevailed from very
+early times, as the sons of Clovis and Bathilda, who, in the absence of
+their father, were guilty of revolt, and were punished by being
+hamstrung; for this is the meaning of the word _énervez_.--According to
+this tradition, the monks, in the thirteenth century, caused the
+monument to be ornamented with golden fleurs-de-lys, and added the
+following epitaph:--
+
+
+    "Hic in honore Dei requiescit stirps Clodovei,
+        Patris bellica gens, bella salutis agens.
+     Ad votum matris Bathildis poenituere,
+        Scelere pro proprio, proque labore patris."--
+
+
+Three other lines, preserved by Yepez, in his chronicle, refer to the
+same tale, but accuse the princes of a crime of deeper die than mere
+rebellion against parental authority:--
+
+
+    "Conjugis est ultus probrum; nam in vincula tradit
+     Crudeles natos, pius impietate, simulque
+     Et duras pater, o Clodovee, piusque maritus."
+
+
+Mabillon supposed the tomb to have been erected for Tassilo and his son;
+but I do not know how this conjecture is to be reconciled to the
+appearance of the statues, both representing persons of equal age. An
+examination of the grave at the time of the destruction of the abbey,
+might have afforded some interesting results; though, had any discovery
+been made, it would have been but a poor reward for the desolation which
+facilitated the research.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 10: Immediately on the opposite side of the Seine, are
+extensive turf-bogs, which are of rare occurrence in this part of
+France; and in them grows the _Andromeda polifolia_, a plant that seems
+hitherto to have been discovered no where else in the kingdom.]
+
+[Footnote 11: The following particulars relative to the territory of
+Jumieges, as well as the church, are curious: they are copied from an
+extract from the Life of St. Philibert, as given in the _Neustria Pia_,
+p. 262.--"Congruè sanè locus ille _Gemmeticus_ est dictus, quippe qui
+instar gemmarum multivario sit decore conspicuus. Videas illic arborum
+comas sylvestrium, multigenos arborum fructus, solum fertile, prata
+virentia, hortorum flores suaveolentes, bortis gravidas vîtes, humum
+undique cinctam aquis, pascua pecorum uberrima, loca venationi apta,
+avium cantu circumsonantia. Sequana fluvius illic cernitur late ambiens:
+et deindè suo pergeus cursu, uno duntaxat commeantibus aditu relicto.
+Ibi mare increscens nunc eructat: nunc in sinum suum revolutum, navium
+fert compendia, commercia plurimorum. Nihil illic deest; quicquid
+vehiculis pedestribus, et equestribus plaustris, et ratibus
+subministratur, abunde suppetit. Illic castrum condidere antiqui; ibi
+stant, in acie, illustria castra Dei: ibi præ desiderio paradisi
+suspirantes gemunt, quibus postea opus non erit, in flammis ultricibus,
+nihil profuturos edere gemitus. Ibi denique almus sacerdos, Philibertus,
+multiplici est laude et prædicatione efferendus: qui instar Patriarchæ
+Jacob, in animabus septuaginta, demigravit in hanc eremum, addito grege
+septemplici, propter septiformem gratiam spiritus sancti. Ibi enim eius
+prudentia construxit mÅ"nia quadrata, turrita mole surgentia; claustra
+excipiendis adventantibus mirè opportuna. In his domus alma fulget;
+habitatoribus digna. Ab Euro surgit Ecclesia, crucis effigie, cujus
+verticem obtinet Beatissima Virgo Maria; Altare est ante faciem lectuli,
+cum Dente sanctiss, patris _Philiberti_, pictum gemmarum luminibus, auro
+argentoque comptum: ab utroque latere, _Joannis_ et _Columbani_ Aræ dant
+gloriam Deo; adherent verò a Boreâ, _Dyonisii_ Martyris, et _Germani_
+Confessoris, ædiculæ; in dextrâ domus parte, sacellum nobile extat _S.
+Petri_; a latere habens _S. Martini_ oratorium. Ad Austrum est S. Viri
+cellula, et petris habens margines; saxis cinguntur claustra camerata:
+is decor cunctorum animos oblectans, eum inundantibus aquis, geminus
+vergit ad Austrum. Habet autem ipsa domus in longum pedes ducentos
+nonaginta, in latum quinquaginta: singulis legere volentibus lucem
+transmittunt fenestræ vitreæ: subtus habet geminas ædes, alteras
+condendis vinis, alteras cibis apparandis accommodatas."]
+
+[Footnote 12: Allusions to the cultivation of the vine at Jumieges, as
+then commonly practised, may be found in many other public documents of
+the fifteenth century: but we may come yet nearer our own time; for we
+know that, in the year 1500, there was still a vineyard in the hamlet of
+Conihoult, a dependence upon Jumieges, and that the wine called _vin de
+Conihoult_, is expressly mentioned among the articles of which the
+charitable donations of the monastery consisted.--We are told, too, that
+at least eighteen or twenty acres, belonging to the grounds of the abbey
+itself, were used as a vineyard as late as 1561.--At present, I believe,
+vines are scarcely any where to be seen in Normandy, much north of
+Gaillon.]
+
+[Footnote 13: In a charter belonging to the monastery, granted by Henry
+IInd, in 1159, (see _Neustria Pia_, p. 323) he gives the convent,
+"integritatem aquæ ex parte terræ Monachorum, et _Graspais_, si fortè
+capiatur."--The word _Graspais_ is explained by Ducange to be a
+corruption of _crassus piscis_. Noel (in his _Essais sur le Département
+de la Seine Inférieure_, II, p. 168) supposes that it refers
+particularly to porpoises, which he says are still found in such
+abundance in the Seine, nearer its mouth, that the river sometimes
+appears quite black with them.]
+
+[Footnote 14: The following account of the destruction of the monastery
+is extracted from William of Jumieges. (See _Duchesne's Scriptores
+Normanni_, p. 219)--"Dehinc Sequanica ora aggrediuntur, et apud
+_Gemmeticum_ classica statione obsidionein componunt.... In quo
+quamplurima multitudo Episcoporum, seu Clericorum, vel nobilium
+laïcorum, spretis secularibus pompis, collecta, Christo Regi militatura,
+propria colla saluberrimo iugo subegit. Cuius loci Monachi, sive incolæ,
+Paganorum adventum comperientes, fugâ lapsi quædam suarum rerum sub
+terra occulentes, quædam secum asportantes, Deo juvante evaserunt.
+Pagani locum vacuum reperientes, Monasterium sanctæ Mariæ sanctíque
+Petri, et cuncta ædificia igne iniecto adurunt, in solitudinem omnia
+redigentes. Hac itaque patrata eversione, locus, qui tauto honoris
+splendore diu viguerat, exturbatis omnibus ac subuersis domibus, cÅ"pit
+esse cubile ferarum et volucrum: maceriis in sua soliditate in sublime
+porrectis, arbustisque densissimis; et arborum virgultis per triginta
+fermè annorum curricula ubique a terra productis."]
+
+[Footnote 15: The following are the proportions of the building, in
+French feet:--
+
+  Length of the church..................265
+  Ditto of the nave.....................134
+  Width of ditto.........................62
+  Length of choir........................43-1/2
+  Width of ditto.........................31
+  Length of Lady-Chapel..................63
+  Width of ditto.........................27
+  Height of central tower...............124
+  Ditto of western towers...............150
+
+]
+
+[Footnote 16: Mr. Cotman has figured this porch, (_Architectural
+Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 4) but has, by mistake, called it "_An Arch
+on the West Front of the Abbey Church_."]
+
+[Footnote 17: See a paper by M. Le Prevost in the _Précis Analitique des
+Travaux de l'Académie de Rouen_, 1815, p. 131.]
+
+[Footnote 18: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II, p. 260.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.
+
+GOURNAY--CASTLE OF NEUFMARCHÉ--CASTLE AND CHURCH OF GISORS.
+
+
+(_Gisors, July_, 1818)
+
+We are now approaching the western frontiers.--Gournay, Gisors, and
+Andelys, the objects of our present excursion, are disposed nearly in a
+line between the capitals of France and Normandy; and whenever war broke
+out between the two states, they experienced all the glory, and all the
+afflictions of warfare. This district was in fact a kind of debatable
+land; and hence arose the numerous strong holds, by which the country
+was once defended, and whose ruins now adorn the landscape.
+
+The tract known by modern topographers, under the names of the
+_arrondissemens_ of Gournay and of Andelys, constituted one of the
+general divisions of ancient Normandy, the _Pays de Bray_. It was a
+tract celebrated beyond every other in France, and, from time
+immemorial, for the excellence of the products of its dairies. The
+butter of Bray is an indispensable requisite at every fashionable table
+at Paris; and the _fromage de Neufchâtel_ is one of the only two French
+cheeses which are honored with a place in the bill of fare at Véry's at
+Grignon's, or at Beauvilliers'.
+
+The females of the district frequently passed us on the road, carrying
+their milk and eggs to the provincial metropolis. Accustomed as we are
+to the Norman costume, we still thought that the many-colored attire
+and long lappetted cap, of the good wife, of Bray, in conjunction with
+her steed and its trappings, was a most picturesque addition to the
+surrounding scenery. The large pannier on either side of the saddle
+leaves little room for the lady, except on the hinder parts of the poor
+beast; and there she sits, perfectly free and _dégagée_, without either
+pillion or stirrup, showing no small portion of her leg, and
+occasionally waving a little whip, ornamented in the handle with tufts
+of red worsted.--We had scarcely quitted the suburbs of Rouen before we
+found ourselves in Darnétal, a place that has risen considerably in
+importance, since the revolution, from the activity of its numerous
+manufacturers. Its population is composed entirely of individuals of
+this description, to whose pursuits its situation upon the banks of the
+Robec and Aubette is peculiarly favorable: the greater part of the goods
+manufactured here are coarse cloths and flannels. Before the revolution,
+the town belonged to the family of Montmorenci.--The rest of the ride
+offered no object of interest. The road, like all the main post-roads,
+is certainly wide and straight; but the French seem to think that, if
+these two points are but obtained, all the rest may be regarded as
+matter of supererogation. Hence, very little attention is paid to the
+surface of the highways: even on those that are most frequented, it is
+thought enough to keep the centre, which is paved, in decent repair: the
+ruts by the side are frequently so deep as to be dangerous; and in most
+cases the cross roads are absolutely impassable to carriages of every
+description, except the common carts of the country.--There is nothing
+in which England has a more decided superiority over France than in the
+facility of communication between its different towns; and there is also
+nothing which more decidedly marks a superiority of civilization.
+English travellers, who usually roll on the beaten track to and from the
+capital, return home full of praises of the French roads; but were they
+to attempt excursions among the country-towns and villages, their
+opinion would be wofully altered.--The forest of Feuillée extends about
+four leagues on each side of the road, between Rouen and Gournay. It
+adds little to the pleasantness of the ride: the trees are planted with
+regularity, and the side-branches are trimmed away almost to the very
+tops. Those therefore who expect overhanging branches, or the green-wood
+shade, in a French forest, will be sadly disappointed. On the contrary,
+when the wind blows across the road, and the sun shines down it, such a
+forest only adds to the heat and closeness of the way.
+
+The country around Gournay is characterized by fertility and abundance;
+yet, in early times, the rich valley in which it is situated, was a
+dreary morass, which separated the Caletes from the Bellovacences. A
+causeway crossed the marshes, and formed the only road of communication
+between these tribes; and Gournay arose as an intermediate station.
+Therefore, even prior to the Norman æra, the town was, from its
+situation, a strong hold of note; and under the Norman dukes, Gournay
+necessarily became of still greater consequence, as the principal
+fortress on the French frontier; but the annexation of the duchy to the
+crown of France, destroyed this unlucky pre-eminence; and, at present,
+it is only known as a great staple mart for cheese and butter. Nor is
+it advantageously situated for trade; as there is no navigable river or
+means of water-carriage in its vicinity. The inhabitants therefore look
+forward with some anxiety to the completion of the projected canal from
+Dieppe.
+
+Gournay is a small, clean, and airy place. The last two circumstances
+are no trifling recommendation to those who have just escaped from the
+dirt and closeness of Rouen. Its streets are completely those of a
+country town: the intermixture of wood and clay in the houses gives them
+a mean aspect, and there are scarcely two to be found alike, either in
+size, shape, color, or materials.--The records of Gournay begin in the
+reign of Rollo. That prince gave the town, together with the Norman
+portion of the Pays de Bray, to Eudes[19], a nobleman of his own nation,
+to be held as a fief of the duchy, under the usual military tenure. In
+one of the earliest rolls of Norman chieftains[20], the Lord of Gournay
+is bound, in case of war, to supply the duke with twelve soldiers from
+among his vassals, and to arm his dependants for the defence of his
+portion of the marches. Hugh, the son of Eudes de Gournay, erected a
+castle in the vicinity of the church of St. Hildebert, and the whole
+town was surrounded with a triple wall and double fosse. The place was
+inaccessible to an invading enemy, when these fosses were filled with
+the waters of the Epte; but Philip Augustus caused the protecting
+element to become his most powerful auxiliary. Willelmus Brito
+relates his siege with minuteness in his _Philippiad_, an heroic poem,
+devoted to the acts and deeds of the French monarch.--After advancing
+through Lions and Mortemer, Philip encamped before Gournay, thus
+described by the historical bard;--
+
+
+   "Non procul hinc vicum populosâ genta superbum,
+    Divitiis plenum variis, famâque celebrem,
+    Rure situm piano, munitum triplice muro,
+    Deliciosa nimis speciosaque vallis habebat.
+    Nomine GORNACUM, situ inexpugnabilis ipso,
+    Etsi nullus ei defensor ab intus adesset;
+    Cui multisque aliis præerat Gornacius HUGO.
+    Fossæ cujus erant amplæ nimis atque profundae
+    Quas sic Epta suo repleret flumine, posset
+    Nullus ut ad muros per eas accessus haberi.
+    Arte tamen sibi REX tali pessundedit ipsum.
+    Haud procul a muris stagnum pergrande tumebat,
+    Cujus aquam, pelagi stagnantis more, refusam
+    Urget stare lacu sinuoso terreus agger,
+    Quadris compactus saxis et cespite multo.
+    Hunc REX obrumpi medium facit, effluit inde
+    Diluvium immensum, subitâque voragine tota
+    Vallis abit maris in speciem, ruit impete vasto
+    Eluvies damnosa satis, damnosa colonis.
+          *       *       *       *       *
+    Municipes fugiunt ne submergantur, et omnis
+    Se populus villâ viduat, vacuamque relinquit.
+          *       *       *       *       *
+    Armis villa potens, muris munita virisque,
+    Arte capi nullâ metuens aut viribus ullis,
+    Diluvio capitur inopino...............
+          *       *       *       *       *
+    REX ubi GORNACUM sic in sua jura redegit,
+    Indigenas omnes revocans ad propria, pacem
+    Indicit populis libertatemque priorem;
+    Deinde re-ædificat muros.............
+
+
+In 1350, after the death of Philip of Valois, Gournay was again
+separated from France, and given as a dower to Blanche of Navarre, the
+widow of that prince, who held it forty-eight years, when, after her
+death, it reverted to the crown. At the commencement of the following
+century, the town fell, with the rest of the kingdom, into the
+possession of the English; and once more, upon the demise of our
+sovereign, Henry Vth, formed part of the dower of the widowed queen. On
+her decease, it devolved upon her son; but a period of eleven years had
+scarcely elapsed, when the laws of conquest united it for a third time
+to the crown of France, in 1449.--From that period to the revolution, it
+was constantly in the possession of different noble families of the
+kingdom.
+
+The name of Hugo de Gournay is enrolled amongst those who followed the
+conqueror into England, and who held lands _in capite_ from him in this
+country[21]. Hugo was a man of eminent valor, and his services were
+requited by the grant of many large possessions; but, after all his
+military actions, he sought repose in the abbey of Bec, which had been
+enriched by his piety. His son, Girald, who married the sister of
+William, Earl Warren, accompanied Robert, Duke of Normandy, into the
+Holy Land; and the grandson of Girald was in the number of those who
+followed Richard Coeur-de-Lion in a similar expedition, and was
+appointed his commissioner, to receive the English share of the spoil,
+after the capture of Acre. He was also among the barons who rose against
+King John. Their descendants settled in very early times in our own
+county, where their possessions were extensive and valuable.
+
+It was in Gournay that the unfortunate Arthur, heir to the throne of
+England, received the order of knighthood, together with the earldoms of
+Brittany, Poitou, and Angers, from Philip Augustus, immediately
+previously to entering upon the expedition, which ultimately ended with
+his death; and, according to tradition, it was on this occasion that the
+town adopted for its arms the sable shield, charged with a knight in
+armor, argent[22].
+
+Gournay has now no other remains of antiquity, except the collegiate
+church of St. Hildebert[23], which was founded towards the conclusion of
+the eleventh century, though it was scarcely completed at the end of the
+thirteenth. Hence the discrepancy of style observable in the
+architecture of its different parts. The west front, in which the
+windows are all pointed, was probably one of the last portions
+completed. The interior is principally of semi-circular architecture,
+with piers unusually massy, and capitals no less fanciful and
+extraordinary than those already noticed at St. Georges. Here, however,
+we have fewer monsters. The ornaments consist chiefly of foliage, and
+wreaths, and knots, and chequered work, and imitations of members of the
+antique capital. Some of the pillars, instead of ending in regular
+capitals, are surmounted by a narrow projecting rim, carved with
+undulating lines. It has been supposed that this ornament, which is
+quite peculiar to the church of St. Hildebert, is a kind of
+hieroglyphical representation of water.--Perhaps, it is the chamber of
+Sagittarius; or, perhaps, it is a _fess wavy_, to which the same
+signification has been assigned by heralds.--If this interpretation be
+correct, the symbol is allusive to the ancient situation of the town,
+built in the midst of a marsh, intersected by two streams, the Epte and
+the St. Aubin.
+
+While we were on the point of setting out from Gournay, we had the
+pleasure of meeting Mr. Cotman, who landed a few days since at Dieppe,
+and purposes remaining in Normandy, to complete a series of drawings
+which he began last year, towards the illustration of the architectural
+antiquities of the duchy. He has joined our party, and we are likely to
+have the advantage of his society for some little time.
+
+The village of Neufmarché, about a league from Gournay, on the right
+bank of the Epte, still retains a small part of its castle, built by
+Henry Ist, to command the passage of the river, and to serve as a
+barrier against the incursions of the French. Its situation is good,
+upon an artificial hill, surrounded by a fosse; and the principal
+entrance is still tolerably entire. But the rest is merely a shapeless
+heap of ruins: the interior is wholly under the plough; and the
+fragments of denudated walls preserve small remains of the coating of
+large square stones, which formerly embellished and protected them.
+Neufmarché, in the days of Norman sovereignty, was one of the strong
+holds of the duchy. The chroniclers[24] speak of the village as being
+defended by a fortress, in the reign of William the Conqueror. The
+church, too, with its semi-circular architecture, attests the antiquity
+of the station.
+
+Long before we reached Gisors, we had a view of the keep of the castle,
+rising majestically above the town, which is indeed at present "une
+assez maussade petite ville, qui n'a guère qu'une rue." From its
+position and general outline, the castle, at first view, resembles the
+remains of Launceston, in Cornwall. It recalled to my mind the
+impressions of surprise, mixed with something approaching to awe, which
+seized me, when the first object that met my eyes in the morning (for it
+was late and dark when I reached Launceston) was the noble keep,
+towering immediately above my chamber windows, and so near, that it
+appeared as if I had only to open them and step into it. I do not mean
+to draw a parallel between the castles of Launceston and Gisors, and
+still less am I about to inquire into the relationship between the
+Norman and the Cornish fortresses. The lapse of twenty years has
+materially weakened my recollection of the latter, nor would this be a
+seasonable opportunity for such a disquisition: but the subject deserves
+investigation, the result of which may tend to establish the common
+origin of both, and to dissipate the day-dreams of Borlase, who longed
+to dignify the castellated ruins of the Cornish peninsula, by ascribing
+them to the Roman conquerors of Britain.
+
+Gisors itself existed before the tenth century; but its chief celebrity
+was due to William Rufus, who, anxious to strengthen his frontiers
+against the power of the kings of France, caused Robert of Bellême to
+erect this castle, in 1097. Thus then we have a certain date; and there
+is no reason to believe, but that the whole of what is left us is really
+of the same æra, or of the following reign, in which it is known that
+the works were greatly augmented; for Henry Ist was completely a
+castle-builder. He was a prince who spared no pains in strengthening and
+defending the natural frontiers of his province, as the fortresses of
+Verneuil, Tillières, Nonancourt, Anet, Ivry, Château-sur-Epte, Gisors,
+and many others, abundantly testify. All these were either actually
+built, or materially strengthened by him.--This at Gisors, important
+from its strength and from its situation, was the source of frequent
+dissentions between the sovereigns of England and France, as well as the
+frequent witness of their plighted faith, and the scene of their
+festivities.--In 1119, a well-known interview took place here, between
+Henry Ist and Pope Calixtus IInd, who had travelled to France for the
+purpose of healing the schisms in the church, and who, after having
+accomplished that task, was desirous not to quit the kingdom till he had
+completed the work of pacification, by reconciling Henry to Louis le
+Gros, and to his brother, Robert. The speech of our sovereign upon this
+occasion, as recorded by Ordericus Vitalis[25], is a valuable document
+to the English historian: it sets forth, at considerable length, his
+various causes of grievance, whether real, imaginary, or invented,
+against the legal heir to our throne.--After a lapse of thirty-nine
+years, Louis le Jeune succeeded in annexing Gisors to the crown of
+France; but he resigned it to our Henry IInd, only three years
+subsequently, as a part of the marriage portion of his daughter,
+Margaret. It then remained with our countrymen till the conquest of the
+duchy by Philip Augustus; previously to which event, that sovereign and
+Henry met, in the year 1188, under an elm near Gisors, on the road to
+Trie, upon receiving the news of the capture of Jerusalem by the Sultan
+Saladin[26]. The monarchs, actuated by religious zeal, took up the
+cross, and mutually pledged themselves to suspend for a while their
+respective differences, and direct their united efforts against the
+common foe of the christian faith, Legends also tell that, during the
+conference, a miraculous cross appeared in the air, as if in
+ratification of the compact; and hence the inhabitants derive the
+armoria bearing of the town; _gules_, a cross engrailed _or_[27]. In
+1197, Philip embellished Gisors with new buildings; and he retired
+hither the following year, after the battle of Courcelles, a conflict,
+which began by his endeavor to surprise Richard Coeur-de-Lion, but which
+ended with his total defeat. He had well nigh lost his life during the
+flight, by his horse plunging with him, all armed as he was, into the
+Epte.--He took refuge in Gisors; and the _golden gate_ of the town
+commemorated his gratitude. With eastern magnificence, he caused the
+entire portal to be covered with gold; and the statue of the Virgin,
+which surmounted it, received the same splendor.
+
+During the wars between France and England, in the fifteenth century,
+Gisors was repeatedly won and lost by the contending parties. In later
+and more peaceable times, it has been only known as the provincial
+capital of the bailiwick of Gisors, and of the Norman portion of the
+Vexin.
+
+The castle consists of a double ballium, the inner occupying the top of
+a high artificial mound, in whose centre stands the keep. The whole of
+the fortress is of the most solid masonry. Previously to the discovery
+of cannon, it could scarcely be regarded otherwise than as impregnable,
+for the site which it occupies is admirably adapted for defence; and the
+walls were as strong as art could make them.--The outer walls were of
+great extent: they were defended by two covered ways, and flanked by
+several towers, of various shapes.--In the inclosed sketch, you will
+observe a circular tower, which is perhaps more perfect than any of the
+rest. The two entrances which led to the inner wards, were defended by
+more massy towers, strengthened with portcullises and draw-bridges.
+
+[Illustration: Distant of the Castle of Gisors]
+
+The conical mound is almost inaccessible, on account of its steepness.
+The summit is inclosed by a circular wall of considerable height,
+pierced with loop-holes, and strengthened at regular intervals with
+buttresses, most of which are small and shallow, and resemble such as
+are found in the Norman churches. Those, however, which flank the
+entrance of the keep, are of a different character: they project so
+boldly, that they may rather be considered as bastions or solid
+turrets.--The dungeon rises high above all the rest, a lofty octagon
+tower, with a turret on one side of the same shape, intended to receive
+the winding staircase, which still remains, but in so shattered a state,
+that we could not venture to ascend it. The shell of the keep itself is
+nearly perfect, and is also varied in its outline with projecting
+piers.--Within the inner ballium, we discovered the remains of the
+castle-chapel. More than half, indeed, of the building is destroyed, but
+the east end is standing, and is tolerably entire. The roof is vaulted
+and groined: the groins spring from short pillars, whose capitals are
+beautifully sculptured with foliage; The architecture of the whole is
+semi-circular; but I should apprehend it to be posterior to any part of
+the fortress.--The inside of the castle serves at this time for a
+market-hall: the fosse, now dry and planted with trees, forms a
+delightful walk round the whole.
+
+[Illustration: Banded Pillar in the Church of Gisors]
+
+We were much disappointed by the church of Gisors; in the illustration
+of the details of which, Millin is very diffuse. The building is of
+considerable magnitude; its proportions are not unpleasing, and it
+contains much elaborate sculpture; but the labor has been ill bestowed,
+having been lavished without any attention to consistency. It is
+throughout a jumble of Roman and Gothic, except that the exterior of the
+north transept is wholly Gothic. Some of the little figures which
+decorate it are very gracefully carved, especially in the drapery. A
+pillar in the south aisle, entwined by spiral fillets, is of great
+singularity and beauty. The dolphin is introduced in each pannel, and
+the heraldic form of this fish harmonizes with the gentle curve of the
+field upon which it is sculptured. A crown of fleurs-de-lys surrounds
+the columns at mid-height. These symbols, as I believe I observed on a
+former occasion, are often employed as ornaments by the French
+architects. The church, which is dedicated to the twin saints, St.
+Gervais and St. Protais, is the work of different æras, but principally
+of the latter half of the sixteenth century, a time when, as a Frenchman
+told me, "l'on commença à bâtir dans le beau style Romain."--The man who
+made the observation was of the lower order of society, one of the
+_swinish multitude_, who, in England, never dream about styles in
+architecture. I mention the circumstance, for the sake of pointing out
+the difference that exists in these matters between the two countries.
+
+Here, every man, gentle or simple, educated or uneducated, thinks
+himself qualified and bound to deliver his opinion on objects connected
+with the fine arts; and though such opinions are of necessity commonly
+crude, and sometimes absurd, they, on the other hand, frequently display
+a degree of feeling, and occasionally of knowledge, that surprises you.
+It may be true indeed, as Dr. Johnson said, with some illiberality, of
+our brethren across the Tweed, that though "every man may have a
+mouthful, no one has a belly full;" but it still marks a degree of
+national refinement, that any attention whatever is bestowed upon such
+subjects. This smattering of knowledge, accompanied with the constant
+readiness to communicate it, is also agreeable to a stranger. Except in
+a few instances at Rouen, I never failed to find civility and attention
+among the French. To the ladies of our nation they are uniformly polite
+though occasionally their compliments may appear of somewhat a
+questionable complexion; as it happened to a female friend of mine to be
+told, while drawing the church of St, Ouen, "qu'elle avait de l'esprit
+comme quatre diables."
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 19: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, I, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 20: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 1046.]
+
+[Footnote 21: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 1129.]
+
+[Footnote 22: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 23: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy,
+plates_ 38-41.]
+
+[Footnote 24: _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni_,
+p. 490, 491, 606.]
+
+[Footnote 25: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 865.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Some writers say that the real cause of their meeting was
+to settle a difference of long standing.--Hoveden, as quoted in the
+_Concilia Normannica_, I. p. 92, tells us, that Henry was upon the point
+of sailing for England, when tidings were brought him that Philip had
+collected a great force, with which he threatened to lay Normandy waste,
+unless the British monarch surrendered to him Gisors with its
+dependencies, or caused his son Richard, Count of Poitou, to marry
+Alice, sister of the French king;--"Quod cùm regi Angliæ constaret,
+reversus est in Normanniam; et, accepte colloquio inter ipsum et Regem
+Franciæ inter Gisortium et Trie, XII. Kalendas Februarii, die S. Agnetis
+V. et Martyris, convenerunt illuc cum Archiepiscopis, et Episcopis et
+Comitibus, et Baronibus regnoram suorum. Cui colloquio interfuit
+Archiepiscopus Tyri, qui repletus spiritu sapientiæ et intellectus, miro
+modo prædicavit verbum Domini coram regibus et principibus. Et convertit
+corda eorum ad crucem capiendam; et qui priùs hostes erant, illo
+prædicante, et Deo co-operante, facti sunt amici in illa die, et de manu
+ejus crucem receperunt: et in eadem hora apparuit super eos signum
+crucis in cÅ"lo. Quo viso miraculo, plures catervatim ruebant ad
+susceptionem crucis. Prædicti verò reges in susceptionem crucis, ad
+cognoscendum gentem suam, signum sibi et suis providerunt. Rex namque
+Franciæ et gens sua receperunt cruces rubeas et Rex Angliæ cum gente sua
+suscepit cruces virides: et sic unusqnisque ad providendum sibi et
+itineri suo necessaria, reversus est in regionem suam."]
+
+[Footnote 27: In 1555, an addition was made to this coat of a chief
+_azure_, charged with three fleurs-de-lys, _or_, by the command of Henry
+IInd of France, to commemorate his public entry into Gisors.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII.
+
+ANDELYS--FOUNTAIN OF SAINT CLOTILDA--LA GRANDE MAISON--CHÂTEAU
+GAILLARD--ECOUIS.
+
+
+(_Ecouis, July_, 1818)
+
+Our evening journey from Gisors to Andelys, was not without its
+inconveniences.--The road, if road it may be called, was sometimes
+merely a narrow ravine or trench, so closely bordered by trees and
+underwood, that our vehicle could scarcely force its way; and sometimes
+our jaded horses labored along a waggon-way which wound amidst an
+expanse of corn-fields. Our postilion had earnestly requested us to
+postpone our departure till the following morning; and he swore and
+cursed most valiantly during the whole of his ride. On our arrival,
+however, at Andelys, a few kind words from my companions served to
+mitigate his ire; and as their eloquence may have been assisted by a few
+extra sous, presented to him at the same time, his nut-brown countenance
+brightened up, and all was tranquillity.
+
+Andelys is a town, whose antiquity is not to be questioned: it had
+existence in the time of the venerable Bede, by whom it is expressly
+mentioned, under its Latin appellation, _Andilegum_[28]. The derivation
+of this name has afforded employment to etymologists. The syllable _and_
+enters, as it is said, into the composition of the names of sundry
+places, reported to be founded by Franks, and Saxons, and Germans; and
+therefore it is agreed that a Teutonic origin must be assigned to
+Andelys. But, as to the import of this same syllable, they are all of
+them wholly at a loss.--The history of Andelys is brief and unimportant,
+considering its antiquity and situation. It was captured by Louis le
+Gros in the war which he undertook against Henry Ist, in favour of
+Clito, heir of the unfortunate Duke Robert; and his son, Louis le Jeune,
+in 1166, burned Andelys to the ground, thus revenging the outrages
+committed by the Anglo-Normans in France: in 1197, it was the subject of
+the exchange which I have already mentioned, between Richard
+Coeur-de-Lion and Walter, Archbishop of Rouen; and only a few years
+afterwards it passed by capitulation into the possession of Philip
+Augustus, when the murder of Arthur of Brittany afforded the French
+sovereign a plausible pretext for dispossessing our worthless monarch of
+his Norman territory.
+
+What Andelys wants, however, in secular interest, it makes up in
+sanctity. Saint Clotilda founded a very celebrated monastery here, which
+was afterwards destroyed by the Normans.--If we now send our ripening
+daughters to France, to be schooled and accomplished, the practice
+prevailed equally amongst our Anglo-Saxon ancestors; and we learn from
+Bede, that Andelys was then one of the most fashionable
+establishments[29]. However, we must not forget that the fair Elfleda,
+and the rosy Ælfgiva, were so taught in the convent, as to be fitted
+only for the embraces of a celestial husband--a mode of matrimony which
+has most fortunately become obsolete in our days of increasing
+knowledge and civilization.
+
+After the destruction of the monastery by the Normans, it was never
+rebuilt; yet its sanctity is not wholly lost. At the behest of Clotilda,
+the waters of the fountain of Andelys were changed into wine for the
+relief of the weary labourer, and the tutelary saint is still worshipped
+by the faithful.
+
+It was our good fortune to arrive at Andelys on the vigil of the
+festival of Saint Clotilda. The following morning, at early dawn, the
+tolling bell announced the returning holiday; and then we saw the
+procession advance, priests and acolytes bearing crosses and consecrated
+banners and burning tapers, followed by a joyous crowd of votaries and
+pilgrims. We had wished to approach the holy well; but the throng
+thickened around it, and we were forced to desist. We could not witness
+the rites, whatever they were, which were performed at the fountain; and
+long after they had concluded, it was still surrounded by groups of
+women, some idling and staring, some asking charity and whining, and
+some conducting their little ones to the salutary-fountain. Many are the
+infirmities and ailments which are relieved through the intercession of
+Saint Clotilda, after the patient has been plunged in the gelid spring.
+A Parisian sceptic might incline to ascribe a portion of their cures to
+cold-bathing and ablution; but, at Andelys, no one ever thought of
+diminishing the veneration, inspired by the Christian queen of the
+founder of the monarchy. Several children were pointed out to us,
+heretical strangers, as living proofs of the continuance of miracles in
+the Catholic church. They had been cured on the preceding anniversary;
+for it is only on Saint Clotilda's day that her benign influence is shed
+upon the spring.
+
+Andelys possesses a valuable specimen of ancient domestic architecture.
+The _Great House_[30] is a most sumptuous mansion, evidently of the age
+of Francis Ist; but I could gain no account of its former occupants or
+history. I must again borrow from my friend's vocabulary, and say, that
+it is built in the "Burgundian style." In its general outline and
+character, it resembles the house in the _Place de la Pucelle_, at
+Rouen. Its walls, indeed, are not covered with the same profusion of
+sculpture; yet, perhaps, its simplicity is accompanied by greater
+elegance.--The windows are disposed in three divisions, formed by
+slender buttresses, which run up to the roof. They are square-headed,
+and divided by a mullion and transom.--The portal is in the centre: it
+is formed by a Tudor arch, enriched with deep mouldings, and surmounted
+by a lofty ogee, ending with a crocketed pinnacle, which transfixes the
+cornice immediately above, as well as the sill of the window, and then
+unites with the mullion of the latter.--The roof takes a very high
+pitch.--A figured cornice, upon which it rests, is boldly sculptured
+with foliage.--The chimneys are ornamented by angular buttresses.--All
+these portions of the building assimilate more or less to our Gothic
+architecture of the sixteenth century; but a most magnificent oriel
+window, which fills the whole of the space between the centre and
+left-hand divisions, is a specimen of pointed architecture in its best
+and purest style. The arches are lofty and acute. Each angle is formed
+by a double buttress, and the tabernacles affixed to these are filled
+with statues. The basement of the oriel, which projects from the flat
+wall of the house, after the fashion of a bartizan, is divided into
+compartments, studded with medallions, and intermixed with tracery of
+great variety and beauty. On either side of the bay, there are flying
+buttresses of elaborate sculpture, spreading along the wall.--As,
+comparatively speaking, good models of ancient domestic architecture are
+very rare, I would particularly recommend this at Andelys to the notice
+of every architect, whom chance may conduct to Normandy.--This building,
+like too many others of the same class in our own counties of Norfolk
+and Suffolk, is degraded from its station. The _great house_ is used
+merely as a granary, though, by a very small expence, it might be put
+into habitable repair. The stone retains its clear and polished surface;
+and the massy timbers are undecayed.--The inside corresponds with the
+exterior, in decorations and grandeur: the chimney-pieces are large and
+elaborate, and there is abundance of sculpture on the ceilings and other
+parts which admit of ornament.
+
+The French, in speaking of Andelys, commonly use the plural number, and
+say, _les Andelys_, there being a smaller town of the same name, within
+the distance of a mile: hence, the larger, all inconsiderable as it is,
+and though it scarcely contains two thousand inhabitants, is dignified
+by the appellation of _le Grand Andelys_.
+
+As the French seldom neglect the memory of their eminent men, I was
+rather disappointed at not finding any tribute to the glory of Poussin,
+nor any object which could recal his name.--The great master of the
+French school was born at Andelys, in 1594, of poor but noble parents.
+The talents of the painter of the _Deluge_ overcame all obstacles. Young
+Poussin, with barely a sufficiency to buy his daily bread, found means
+of making his abilities known in the metropolis to such advantage, as
+enabled him to proceed to Rome, where the patronage of the Cavaliere
+Marino smoothed his way to that splendid career, which terminated only
+with his life.--And yet I doubt if the example of Poussin has, on the
+whole, been favorable to the progress of French art. Horace Walpole, in
+his summary of the excellencies and defects of great painters, observed
+with much justice, that "Titian wanted to have seen the antique; Poussin
+to have seen Titian." The observation referred principally to the
+defective coloring, which is admitted to exist in the greater part of
+the works of the painter of Andelys. But Poussin, considered as a model
+for imitation, and especially as a model for the student, is liable to a
+more serious objection.--He was a total stranger to real
+nature:--classical taste, indeed, and knowledge, and grace, and beauty,
+pervade all his works; but it is a taste, and a knowledge, and a grace,
+and a beauty, formed solely upon the contemplation of the antique.
+Horace's adage, that "decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile," has been
+remarkably verified in the case of Poussin; and I am mistaken, if the
+example set by him, which has been rigorously followed in the French
+school, even down to the present day, has not contributed more than any
+thing else to that statuary style in forms, and that coldness in
+coloring, which every one, who is not born in France, regrets to see in
+the works of the best of their artists.--The learned Adrian Turnebus was
+also a native of Andelys; and the church is distinguished as the
+burial-place of Corneille.
+
+[Illustration: Distant View of Château Gaillard]
+
+I doubt, however, whether we should have travelled hither, had we not
+been attracted by the celebrity of the castle, called _Château
+Gaillard_, erected by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, in the immediate vicinity
+of Le Petit Andelys.--Our guide, a sturdy old dame, remonstrated
+strongly against our walking so far to look at a mere heap of stones,
+nothing comparable to the fine statue of Clotilda, of which, if we would
+but have a little patience, we might still procure a sight.--Our
+expectations respecting the castle were more than answered. Considered
+as to its dimensions and its situation, it is by far the finest
+castellated ruin I ever saw. Conway, indeed, has more beauty; but
+Château Gaillard is infinitely superior in dignity. Its ruins crown the
+summit of a lofty rock, abruptly rising from the very edge of the Seine,
+whose sinuous course here shapes the adjoining land into a narrow
+peninsula. The chalky cliffs on each side of the castle, are broken into
+hills of romantic shape, which add to the impressive wildness of the
+scene. The inclosed sketch will give you an idea, though a very faint
+one, of the general appearance of the castle at a distance. Towards the
+river, the steepness of the cliff renders the fortress unassailable: a
+double fosse of great depth, defended by a strong wall, originally
+afforded almost equal protection on the opposite side.
+
+The circular keep is of extraordinary strength; and in its construction
+it differs wholly from any of our English dungeon-towers.--It may be
+described as a cylinder, placed upon a truncated cone. The massy
+perpendicular buttresses, which are ranged round the upper wall, from
+which they project considerably, lose themselves at their bases in the
+cone from which they arise. The building, therefore, appears to be
+divided into two stories. The wall of the second story is upwards of
+twelve feet in thickness. The base of the conical portion is perhaps
+twice as thick.--It seldom happens that the military buildings of the
+middle ages have such a _talus_ or slope, on the exterior face, agreeing
+with the principles of modern fortification, and it is difficult to
+guess why the architect of Château Gaillard thought fit to vary from the
+established model of his age. The masonry is regular and good. The
+pointed windows are evidently insertions of a period long subsequent to
+the original erection.
+
+The inner, ballium is surrounded by a high circular wall, which consists
+of an uninterrupted line of bastions, some semi-circular and others
+square.--The whole of this part of the castle remains nearly perfect.
+There are also traces of extensive foundations in various, directions,
+and of great out-works. Château Gaillard was in fact a citadel,
+supported by numerous smaller fortresses, all of them communicating with
+the strong central hold, and disposed so as to secure every defensible
+post in the neighborhood. The wall of the outer ballium, which was built
+of a compact white and grey stone, is in most places standing, though in
+ruins. The original facing only remains in those parts which are too
+elevated to admit of its being removed with ease.--Beneath the castle,
+the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, not
+intended for mere passages or vaults, as at Arques and in most other
+places, but forming spacious crypts, supported by pillars roughly hewn
+out of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman's
+chisel.
+
+It will afford some satisfaction to the antiquary to find, that the
+present appearance of the castle corresponds in every important
+particular with the description given by Willelmus Brito, who beheld it
+within a few years after its erection, and in all its pride. Every
+feature which he enumerates yet exists, unaltered and unobliterated:--
+
+
+    "Huic natura loco satis insuperabile per se
+     Munimeu dederat, tamen insuperabiliorem
+     Arte quidem multa Richardus fecerat illum.
+     Duplicibus muris extrema clausit, et altas
+     Circuitum docuit per totum surgere turres,
+     A se distantes spatiis altrinsecus æquis;
+     Eruderans utrumque latus, ne scandere quisquam
+     Ad muros possit, vel ab ima repere valle.
+     Hinc ex transverso medium per planitiei
+     Erigitur murus, multoque labore cavari
+     Cogitur ipse silex, fossaque patere profunda,
+     Faucibus et latis aperiri vallis ad instar;
+     Sic ut quam subito fiat munitio duplex
+     Quæ fuit una modo muro geminata sequestro.
+     Ut si forte pati partem contingeret istam
+     Altera municipes, queat, et se tuta tueri.
+     Inde rotundavit rupem, quæ celsior omni
+     Planitie summum se tollit in aera sursum;
+     Et muris sepsit, extremas desuper oras
+     Castigansque jugi scrupulosa cacumina, totum
+     Complanat medium, multæque capacia turbæ
+     Plurima cum domibus habitacula fabricat intus.
+     Umboni parcens soli, quo condidit arcem.
+     Hic situs iste decor, munitio talis honorem
+     Gaillardæ rupis per totum prædicat orbem."
+
+
+The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty. We ventured to scale
+it; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which we
+gained. The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rock
+in large lazy windings: the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and well
+wooded: on the opposite shores, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly,
+crowned with dark forests.
+
+I have already once had occasion to allude to the memorable strife
+occasioned by the erection of Château Gaillard, which its royal founder
+is reported to have so named by way of mockery. In possession of this
+fortress, it seemed that he might laugh to scorn the attacks of his
+feudal liege lord.--The date of the commencement of the building is
+supposed to have been about the year 1196, immediately subsequent to the
+treaty of Louviers, by which, Richard ceded to Philip Augustus the
+military line of the Epte, and nearly the whole of the Norman Vexin. By
+an express article of the treaty, neither party was allowed to repair
+the fortifications of Andelys; and Philip was in possession of Gisors,
+as well as of every other post that might have afforded security to the
+Normans. Thus the frontiers of the duchy became defenceless; but
+Richard, like other politicians, determined to evade the spirit of the
+treaty, adhering nevertheless to its letter, by the erection of this
+mighty bulwark.--The building arose with the activity of fear. Richard
+died in 1199, yet the castle must have been completely habitable in his
+life-time, for not a few of his charters are dated from Château
+Gaillard, which he terms "his beautiful castle of the rock."--Three
+years only had elapsed from the decease of this monarch, when Philip
+Augustus, after having reduced another castle, erected at the same time
+upon an island opposite the lesser Andelys, encamped before Château
+Gaillard, and commenced a siege, which from its length, its horrors, and
+the valor shewn on either side, has ever since been memorable in
+history.--Its details are given at great length by Father Daniel; and Du
+Moulin briefly enumerates a few of the stratagems to which the French
+King was obliged to have recourse; for, as the reverend author observes,
+"to have attempted to carry the place by force, would have been to have
+exposed the army to certain destruction; while to have tried to scale
+the walls, would have required the aid of Dædalus, with the certainty of
+a fall, as fatal as that of Icarus;" and without the poor consolation of
+
+
+   ".... vitreo daturus
+    Nomina ponto."--
+
+
+The castle, commanded by Roger de Lacy, defied the utmost efforts of
+Philip for six successive months.--So great was its size; that more than
+two thousand two hundred persons, who did not form a part of the
+garrison, were known to quit the fortress in the course of the siege,
+compelled to throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers. But they
+found none; and the greater part of these unfortunate wretches,
+alternately suppliants to either host, perished from hunger, or from the
+weapons of the contending parties. At length the fortress yielded to a
+sudden assault. Of the warriors, to whose valor it had been entrusted,
+only thirty-six remained alive. John, ill requiting their fidelity, had
+already abandoned them to their fate.
+
+Margaret of Burgundy, the queen of Louis Xth, and Blanche, the consort
+of his brother, Charles le Bel, were both immured in Château Gaillard,
+in 1314. The scandalous chronicle of those times will explain the causes
+of their imprisonment. Margaret was strangled by order of her husband.
+Blanche, after seven years' captivity, was transferred to the convent of
+Maubuisson, near Pontoise, where she continued a recluse till her
+death--In 1331, David Bruce, compelled to flee from the superior power
+of the third Edward, found an asylum in Château Gaillard; and here, for
+a time, maintained the pageantry of a court.--Twenty-four years
+subsequently, when Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, was sent as a
+captive from Rouen to Paris, he was confined here, during one night, by
+order of the dauphin, who had made him his prisoner by treachery, whilst
+partaking of a banquet.--In the following century Château Gaillard
+braved the victorious arms of Henry Vth; nor was it taken till after a
+siege of sixteen months. The garrison only consisted of one hundred and
+twenty men; yet this scanty troop would not have yielded, had not the
+ropes, by which they drew up their water-buckets[31], been worn out and
+destroyed.--During the same reign, it was again taken and lost by the
+French, into whose hands it finally fell in 1449, when Charles VIIth
+commanded the siege in person. Even then, however it stood a long siege;
+and it was almost the last of the strong-holds of Normandy, which held
+out for the successors of the ancient dukes. After the re-union of the
+duchy, it was not destroyed, or suffered to fall into decay, like the
+greater number of the Norman fortresses: during the religious wars, it
+still continued to be a formidable military post, as well as a royal
+palace; and it was honored by the residence of Henry IVth, whose father,
+Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562.--Its importance ceased in the
+following reign.--The inhabitants of the adjacent country requested the
+king to order that the castle should be dismantled. They dreaded, lest
+its towers should serve as an asylum to some of the numerous bands of
+marauders, by whom France was then infested. It was consequently
+undermined and reduced to its present state of ruin.
+
+We did not again attempt to pay our devotions at the shrine of Saint
+Clotilda, and we found no interesting object in the church of Andelys
+which could detain us. We therefore proceeded without delay to Ecouis,
+where we were assured that the church would gratify our curiosity.--This
+building has an air of grandeur as it is seen rising above the flat
+country; and it is of a singular shape, the ground-plan being that of a
+Greek cross. The exterior is plain and offers nothing remarkable: the
+interior retains statues of various saints, which, though not very
+ancient or in very good taste, are still far from being inelegant. Saint
+Mary, the Egyptian, who is among them, covered with her tresses, which
+may easily be mistaken for a long plaited robe, is a saint of unfrequent
+occurrence in this part of France. In the choir are several tomb-stones,
+with figures engraved upon them, their faces and hands being inlaid with
+white marble.--In this part of the building also remains the tomb of
+John Marigni, archbishop of Rouen, with his effigy of fine white marble,
+in perfect preservation. The face is marked with a strong expression of
+that determined character, which he unquestionably possessed. When he
+was sent as an ambassador to Edward IIIrd, in 1342, he made his
+appearance at the English court in the guise of a military man, and not
+as a minister of peace; and we may doubt whether his virtues qualified
+him for the mitre. If even a Pope, however, in latter days, commanded a
+sculptor to pourtray him with a sword in his hand, the martial tendency
+of an archbishop may well be pardoned in more turbulent times. The
+following distich, from his epitaph, alludes to his achievements:--
+
+
+   "Armis præcinctus, mentisque charactere cinctus,
+    Dux fuit in bellis, Anglis virtute rebellis."
+
+
+The unfortunate Enguerrand de Marigni, brother of the archbishop, and
+lord treasurer under Philip the Fair, was the founder of this church. At
+the instigation of the king's uncle, Enguerrand was hanged without
+trial, and his family experienced the most bitter persecution. His body,
+which had at first been interred in the convent of the Chartreux, at
+Paris, was removed hither in 1324; and his descendants obtained
+permission, in 1475, to erect a mausoleum to his memory. But the king,
+at the same time that he acceded to their petition, added the express
+condition[32], that no allusion should be made to Marigni's tragical
+end. The monument was destroyed in the revolution; but the murder of the
+treasurer is one of those "damned spots," which will never be washed out
+of the history of France.--Charles de Valois soon felt the sting of
+remorse; and within a year from the wreaking of his vengeance, he caused
+alms to be publicly distributed in the streets of Paris, with an
+injunction to every one that received them, "to pray to God for the
+souls of Enguerrand de Marigni, and Charles de Valois, taking care to
+put the subject first[33]."--In the church at Ecouis, was formerly the
+following epitaph, whose obscurity has given rise to a variety of
+traditions:--
+
+
+   "Ci gist le fils, ci gist la mere,
+    Ci gist la soeur, ci gist le frère,
+    Ci gist la femme, et le mari;
+    Et ci ne sont que deux ici[34]."
+
+
+Other inscriptions of the same nature are said to have existed in
+England. Goube[35] supposes that this one is the record of an incestuous
+connection; but we may doubt whether a less sinful solution may not be
+given to the enigma.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 28: Andelys is also called in old deeds _Andeleium_ and
+_Andeliacum_.]
+
+[Footnote 29: "Seculo septimo, cum pauca essent in regione Anglorum
+monasteria, hunc morem in illâ gente fuisse, ut multi ex Britanniâ,
+monastiae conversationis gratiâ, Francorum monasteria adirent, sed et
+filias suas eisdem erudiendas ac sponso coelesti copulandas mitterent,
+maximè in Brigensi seu S. Farae monasterio, et in Calensi et in
+_Andilegum_ monasterio."--_Bede, Hist_. lib. III. cap. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 30: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, plate
+15.--In a future portion of his work, Mr. Cotman designs devoting a
+second plate exclusively to the oriel in the east front of this
+building.]
+
+[Footnote 31: _Monstrelet, Johnes' Translation_, II. p. 242.]
+
+[Footnote 32: The letter of this stipulation appears to have been
+attended to much more than its spirit for at the top of the monument
+were five figures:--Our Savior seated in the centre, as if in the act of
+pronouncing sentence; on either side of him, an angel; and below,
+Charles de Valois and Enguerrand de Marigni; the former on the right of
+Christ, crowned with the ducal coronet; the other, on the opposite side,
+in the guise and posture of a suppliant, imploring the divine vengeance
+for his unjust fate.--_Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 338.]
+
+[Footnote 33: _Montfaucon, Monumens de la Monarchie Française_, II. p.
+220.]
+
+[Footnote 34: In a collection of epitaphs printed at Cologne, 1623,
+under the title of _Epitaphia Joco-seria_, I find the same monumental
+inscription, with the observation, that it is at Tournay, and with the
+following explanation.--"De pari conjugum, posteà ad religionem
+transeuntium et in eâ præfectorum. Alter fuit Franciscanus; altera verò
+Clarissa."]
+
+[Footnote 35: _Histoire du Duché de Normandie_, III. p. 15.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.
+
+EVREUX--CATHEDRAL--ABBEY OF ST. TAURINUS--ANCIENT HISTORY.
+
+
+(_Evreux, July_, 1818.)
+
+Our journey to this city has not afforded the gratification which we
+anticipated.--You may recollect Ducarel's eulogium upon the cathedral,
+that it is one of the finest structures of the kind in France.--It is
+our fate to be continually at variance with the doctor, till I am half
+inclined to fear you may be led to suspect that jealousy has something
+to do with the matter, and that I fall under the ban of the old Greek
+proverb,--
+
+
+    "Îsαι ϰεραμεÏ...Ï, ϰεραμει ΦÏ'ονεει ϰαι Ï,,εϰÏ,,ονι Ï,,εϰÏ,,Ï?ν."--
+
+
+[English. Not in Original: The potter is jealous of the potter, as the
+builder is jealous of the builder.]
+
+As for myself, however, I do hope and trust that I am marvellously free
+from antiquarian spite.--And in this instance, our expectations were
+also raised by the antiquity and sanctity of the cathedral, which was
+entirely rebuilt by Henry Ist, who made a considerate bargain with
+Bishop Audinus[36], by which he was allowed to burn the city and its
+rebellious inhabitants, upon condition of bestowing his treasures for
+the re-construction of the monasteries, after the impending
+conflagration. The church, thus raised, is said by William of
+Jumieges[37], to have surpassed every other in Neustria; but it is
+certain that only a very small portion of the original building now
+remains. A second destruction awaited it. Philip Augustus, who desolated
+the county of Evreux with fire and sword, stormed the capital, sparing
+neither age nor sex; and all its buildings, whether sacred or profane,
+were burnt to the ground. Hoveden, his friend, and Brito, his
+enemy, both bear witness to this fact--the latter in the following
+lines:--
+
+
+   "... irarum stimulis agitatus, ad omne
+    Excidium partis adversæ totus inardens,
+    Ebroicas primò sic incineravit, ut omnes
+    Cum domibus simul ecclesias consumpserit ignis."--
+
+
+The church, in its present state, is a medley of many different styles
+and ages: the nave alone retains vestiges of early architecture, in its
+massy piers and semi-circular arches: these are evidently of Norman
+workmanship, and are probably part of the church erected by Henry.--All
+the rest is comparatively modern.--The western front is of a debased
+Palladian style, singularly ill adapted to a Gothic cathedral. It is
+flanked with two towers, one of which ends in a cupola, the other in a
+short cone.--The central tower, which is comparatively plain and
+surmounted by a high spire, was built about the middle of the fifteenth
+century, during the bishopric of the celebrated John de Balue, who was
+in high favor with Louis XIth, and obtained from that monarch great
+assistance towards repairing, enlarging, and beautifying his church. The
+roof, the transept towards the palace, the sacristy, the library, and a
+portion of the cloisters, are all said to have been erected by
+him[38].--The northern transept is the only part that can now lay claim
+to beauty or uniformity in its architecture: it is of late and bastard
+Gothic; yet the portal is not destitute of merit: it is evidently copied
+from the western portal of the cathedral at Rouen, though far inferior
+in every respect, and with a decided tendency towards the Italian style.
+Almost every part of it still appears full of elaborate ornaments,
+though all the saints and bishops have fled from the arched door-way,
+and the bas-relief which was over the entrance has equally disappeared.
+
+Ducarel[39] notices four statues of canons, attached to a couple of
+pillars at the back of the chancel.--We were desirous of seeing
+authentic specimens of sculpture of a period at least as remote as the
+conquest; and, as the garden belonging to the prefect, the Comte de
+Goyon, incloses this portion of the church, we requested to be allowed
+to enter his grounds. Leave was most obligingly granted, and we received
+every attention from the prefect and his lady; but we could find no
+traces of the objects of our search. They were probably destroyed during
+the revolution; at which time, the count told us that the statues at the
+north portal were also broken to pieces. At Evreux, the democrats had
+full scope for the exercise of their iconoclastic fury. Little or no
+previous injury had been done by the Calvinists, who appear to have been
+unable to gain any ascendency in this town or diocese, at the same time
+that they lorded it over the rest of Normandy. Evreux had been fortified
+against heresy, by the piety and good sense of two of her bishops: they
+foresaw the coming storm, and they took steps to redress the grievances
+which were objects of complaint, as well as to reform the
+church-establishment, and to revise the breviary and the
+mass-book.--Conduct like this seldom fails in its effect; and the
+tranquil by-stander may regret that it is not more frequently adopted by
+contending parties.
+
+The interior of the cathedral is handsome, though not peculiar. Some
+good specimens of painted glass remain in the windows; and, in various
+parts of the church, there are elegant tabernacles and detached pieces
+of sculpture, as well in stone as in wood. The pulpit, in particular, is
+deserving of this praise: it is supported on cherubs' heads, and is well
+designed and executed.
+
+The building is dedicated to the Virgin: it claims for its first bishop,
+Taurinus, a saint of the third century, memorable in legendary tale for
+a desperate battle which he fought against the devil. Satan was sadly
+drubbed and the bishop wrenched off one of his horns[40]. The trophy was
+deposited in the crypt of his church, where it long remained, to amuse
+the curious, and stand the nurses of Evreux in good stead, as the means
+of quieting noisy children.--The learned Cardinal Du Perron succeeded to
+St. Taurinus, though at an immense distance of time. He was appointed by
+Henry IVth, towards whose conversion he appears to have been greatly
+instrumental, as he was afterwards the principal mediator, by whose
+intercession the Pope was induced to grant absolution to the monarch.
+The task was one of some difficulty: for the court of Spain, then
+powerful at the Vatican, used all their efforts to prevent a
+reconciliation, with a view of fomenting the troubles in France.--Most
+of the bishops of this see appear to have possessed great piety and
+talent.
+
+I have already mentioned to you, that the fraternity of the Conards was
+established at Evreux, as well as at Rouen. Another institution, of
+equal absurdity, was peculiar, I believe, to this cathedral[41]. It bore
+the name of the Feast of St. Vital, as it united with the anniversary of
+that saint, which is celebrated on the first of May: the origin of the
+custom may be derived from the heathen Floralia, a ceremony begun in
+innocence, continued to abomination. At its first institution, the feast
+of St. Vital was a simple and a natural rite: the statues of the saints
+were crowned with garlands of foliage, perhaps as an offering of the
+first-fruits of the opening year. In process of time, branches were
+substituted for leaves, and they were cut from the growing trees, by a
+lengthened train of rabble pilgrims.--The clergy themselves headed the
+mob, who committed such devastation in the neighboring woods, that the
+owners of them were glad to compromise for the safety of their timber,
+by stationing persons to supply the physical, as well as the religious,
+wants of the populace. The excesses consequent upon such a practice may
+easily be imagined: the duration of the feast was gradually extended to
+ten days; and, during this time, licentiousness of all kinds prevailed
+under the plea of religion. To use the words of a manuscript, preserved
+in the archives of the cathedral, they played at skittles on the roof of
+the church, and the bells were kept continually ringing. These orgies,
+at length, were quelled; but not till two prebendaries belonging to the
+chapter, had nearly lost their lives in the attempt.--Hitherto, indeed,
+the clergy had enjoyed the merriment full as well as the laity. One
+jolly canon, appropriately named Jean Bouteille, made a will, in which
+he declared himself the protector of the feast; and he directed that, on
+its anniversary, a pall should be spread in the midst of the church,
+with a gigantic _bottle_ in its centre, and four smaller ones at the
+corners; and he took care to provide funds for the perpetuation of this
+_rebus_.
+
+The cathedral offers few subjects for the pencil.--As a species of
+monument, of which we have no specimens in England, I add a sketch of a
+Gothic _puteal_, which stands near the north portal. It is apparently of
+the same æra as that part of the church.
+
+[Illustration: Gothic Puteal, at Evreux]
+
+From the cathedral we went to the church of St. Taurinus. The proud
+abbey of the apostle and first bishop of the diocese retains few or no
+traces of its former dignity. So long as monachism flourished, a contest
+existed between the chapter of the cathedral and the brethren of this
+monastery, each advocating the precedency of their respective
+establishment.--The monks of St. Taurinus contended, that their abbey
+was expressly mentioned by William of Jumieges[42] among the most
+ancient in Neustria, as well as among those which were destroyed by the
+Normans, and rebuilt by the zeal of good princes. They also alleged the
+dispute that prevailed under the Norman dukes for more than two hundred
+years, between this convent and that of Fécamp, respecting the right of
+nominating one of their own brethren to the head of their community, a
+right which was claimed by Fécamp; and they displayed the series of
+their prelates, continued in an uninterrupted line from the time of
+their founder. Whatever may have been the justice of these claims, the
+antiquity of the monastery is admitted by all parties.--Its monks, like
+those of the abbey of St. Ouen, had the privilege of receiving every new
+bishop of the see, on the first day of his arrival at Evreux; and his
+corpse was deposited in their church, where the funeral obsequies were
+performed. This privilege, originally intended only as a mark of
+distinction to the abbey, was on two occasions perverted to a purpose
+that might scarcely have been expected. Upon the death of Bishop John
+d'Aubergenville in 1256, the monks resented the reformation which he had
+endeavoured to introduce into their order, by refusing to admit his body
+within their precinct; and though fined for their obstinacy, they did
+not learn wisdom by experience, but forty-three years afterwards shewed
+their hostility decidedly towards the remains of Geoffrey of Bar, a
+still more determined reformer of monastic abuses. Extreme was the
+licentiousness which prevailed in those days among the monks of St.
+Taurinus, and unceasing were the endeavors of the bishop to correct
+them. The contest continued during his life, at the close of which they
+not only shut their doors against his corpse, but dragged it from the
+coffin and gave it a public flagellation. So gross an act of indecency
+would in all probability be classed among the many scandalous tales
+invented of ecclesiastics, but that the judicial proceedings which
+ensued leave no doubt of its truth; and it was even recorded in the
+burial register of the cathedral.
+
+The church of St. Taurinus offers some valuable specimens of ancient
+architecture.--The southern transept still preserves a row of Norman
+arches, running along the lower part of its west side, as well as along
+its front; but those above them are pointed. To the south are six
+circular arches, divided into two compartments, in each of which the
+central arch has formerly served for a window. Both the lateral ones are
+filled with coeval stone-work, whose face is carved into lozenges, which
+were alternately coated with blue and red mortar or stucco: distinct
+traces of the coloring are still left in the cavities[43]. To the
+eastern side of this transept is attached, as at St. Georges, a small
+chapel, of semi-circular architecture, now greatly in ruins. The
+interior of the church is all comparatively modern, with the exception
+of some of the lower arches on the north side.--A strange and whimsical
+vessel for holy water attracted our attention. I cannot venture to guess
+at its date, but I do not think it is more recent than the fourteenth
+century.
+
+[Illustration: Vessel for holy water]
+
+The principal curiosity of the church, and indeed of the town, is the
+shrine, which contained, or perhaps, contains, a portion of the bones of
+the patron saint, whose body, after having continued for more than three
+hundred years a hidden treasure, was at last revealed in a miraculous
+manner to the prayers of Landulphus, one of his successors in the
+episcopacy.--The cathedral of Chartres, in early ages, set up a rival
+claim for the possession of this precious relic; but its existence here
+was formally verified at the end of the seventeenth century, by the
+opening of the _châsse_, in which a small quantity of bones was found
+tied up in a leather bag, with a certificate of their authenticity,
+signed by an early bishop.--The shrine is of silver-gilt, about one and
+a half foot in height and two feet in length: it is a fine specimen of
+ancient art. In shape it resembles the nave of a church, with the sides
+richly enchased with figures of saints and bishops. Our curious eyes
+would fain have pried within; but it was closed with the impression of
+the archbishop's signet.--A crypt, the original burial place of St.
+Taurinus, is still shewn in the church, and it continues to be the
+object of great veneration. It is immediately in front of the high
+altar, and is entered by two staircases, one at the head, the other at
+the foot of the coffin. The vault is very small, only admitting of the
+coffin and of a narrow passage by its side. The sarcophagus, which is
+extremely shallow, and neither wide nor long, is partly imbedded in the
+wall, so that the head and foot and one side alone are visible.--A
+portion of the monastic buildings of St. Taurinus now serves as a
+seminary for the catholic priesthood.
+
+The west front of the church of St. Giles is not devoid of interest.
+Many other churches here have been desecrated; and this ancient building
+has been converted into a stable. The door-way is formed by a fine
+semi-circular arch, ornamented with the chevron-moulding, disposed in a
+triple row, and with a line of quatrefoils along the archivolt. Both
+these decorations are singular: I recollect no other instance of the
+quatrefoil being employed in an early Norman building, though
+immediately upon the adoption of the pointed style it became exceedingly
+common; nor can I point out another example of the chevron-moulding thus
+disposed. It produces a better effect than when arranged in detached
+bands. The capitals to the pillars of the arch are sculptured with
+winged dragons and other animals, in bold relief.
+
+These are the only worthy objects of architectural inquiry now existing
+in the city. Many must have been destroyed by the ravages of war, and by
+the excesses of the revolution.--Evreux therefore does not abound with
+memorials of its antiquity. But its existence as a town, during the
+period of the domination of the Romans, rests upon authority that is
+scarcely questionable. It has been doubted whether the present city, or
+a village about three miles distant, known by the name of _Old Evreux_,
+is the _Mediolanum Aulercorum_ of Ptolemy. His description is given with
+sufficient accuracy to exclude the pretensions of any other town, though
+not with such a degree of precision as will enable us, after a lapse of
+sixteen centuries, to decide between the claims of the two sites. Cæsar,
+in his _Commentaries_, speaks in general terms of the _Aulerci
+Eburovices_, who are admitted to have been the ancient inhabitants of
+this district, and whose name, especially as modified to _Ebroici_ and
+_Ebroi_, is clearly to be recognized in that of the county. The
+foundations of ancient buildings are still to be seen at Old Evreux; and
+various coins and medals of the upper empire, have at different times
+been dug up within its precincts. Hence it has been concluded, that the
+_Mediolanum Aulercorum_ was situated there. The supporters of the
+contrary opinion admit that Old Evreux was a Roman station; but they say
+that, considering its size, it can have been no more than an encampment:
+they also maintain, that a castle was subsequently built upon the site
+of this encampment, by Richard, Count of Evreux, and that the
+destruction of this castle, during the Norman wars, gave rise to the
+ruins now visible, which in their turn were the cause of the name of the
+village[44].
+
+It is certain that, in the reign of William the Conqueror, the town
+stood in its present situation: Ordericus Vitalis speaks in terms that
+admit of no hesitation, when he states that, in the year 1080, "fides
+Christi Evanticorum, id est Evroas, urbem, _super Ittonum fluvium sitam_
+possidebat et salubritèr illuminabat[45]."
+
+In the times of Norman sovereignty, Evreux attained an unfortunate
+independence: Duke Richard Ist severed it from the duchy, and erected it
+into a distinct earldom in favor of Robert, his second son. From him the
+inheritance descended to Richard and William, his son and grandson;
+after whose death, it fell into the female line, and passed into the
+house of Montfort d'Amaury, by the marriage of Agnes, sister of Richard
+of Evreux.--Nominally independent, but really held only at the pleasure
+of the Dukes of Normandy, the rank of the earldom occasioned the misery
+of the inhabitants, who were continually involved in warfare, and
+plundered by conflicting parties. The annals of Evreux contain
+the relation of a series of events, full of interest and amusement to us
+who peruse them; but those, who lived at the time when these events were
+really acted, might exclaim, like the frogs in the fable, "that what is
+entertainment to us, was death to them."--At length, the treaty of
+Louviers, in 1195, altered the aspect of affairs. The King of France
+gained the right of placing a garrison in Evreux; and, five years
+afterwards, he obtained a formal cession of the earldom. Philip Augustus
+took possession of the city, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who,
+six years before, had seen their town pillaged, and their houses
+destroyed, by the orders of this monarch. The severity exercised upon
+that occasion had been excessive; but Philip's indignation had been
+roused by one of the basest acts of treachery recorded in
+history.--John, faithless at every period of his life, had entered into
+a treaty with the French monarch, during the captivity of his brother,
+Coeur-de-Lion, to deliver up Normandy; and Philip, conformably with this
+plan, was engaged in reducing the strong holds upon the frontiers,
+whilst his colleague resided at Evreux. The unexpected release of the
+English king disconcerted these intrigues; and John, alarmed at the
+course which he had been pursuing, thought only how to avert the anger
+of his offended sovereign. Under pretence, therefore, of shewing
+hospitality to the French, he invited the principal officers to a feast,
+where he caused them all to be murdered; and he afterwards put the rest
+of the garrison to the sword.--Brito records the transaction in the
+following lines, which I quote, not only as an historical document,
+illustrative of the moral character of one of the worst sovereigns that
+ever swayed the British sceptre, but as an honorable testimony to the
+memory of his unfortunate brother:--
+
+
+   "Attamen Ebroïcam studio majore reformans
+    Armis et rebus et bellatoribus urbem,
+    Pluribus instructam donavit amore Johanni,
+    Ut sibi servet eam: tamen arcem non dedit illi.
+    Ille dolo plenus, qui patrem, qui modo fratrem
+    Prodiderat, ne non et Regis proditor esset,
+    Excedens siculos animi impietate Tyrannos,
+    Francigenas omnes vocat ad convivia quotquot
+    Ebroïcis reperit, equites simul atque clientes,
+    Paucis exceptis quos sors servavit in arce.
+    Quos cum dispositis armis fecisset ut una
+    Discubuisse domo, tanquam prandere putantes,
+    Evocat e latebris armatos protinus Anglos,
+    Interimitque viros sub eadem clade trecentos,
+    Et palis capita ambustis affixit, et urbem
+    Circuit affixis, visu mirabile, tali
+    Regem portento quærens magis angere luctu:
+    Talibus obsequiis, tali mercede rependens
+    Millia marcharum, quas Rex donaverat illi.
+      Tam detestanda pollutus cæde Johannes
+    Ad fratrem properat; sed Rex tam flagitiosus
+    Non placuit fratri: quis enim, nisi dæmone plenus,
+    Omninoque Deo vacuus, virtute redemptus
+    A vitiis nulla, tam dira fraude placere
+    Appetat, aut tanto venetur crimine pacem?
+    Sed quia frater erat, licet illius oderit actus
+    Omnibus odibiles, fraternæ foedera pacis
+    Non negat indigno, nec eum privavit amore,
+    Ipsum qui nuper Regno privare volebat."
+
+
+The vicissitudes to which the county of Evreux was doomed to be subject,
+did not wholly cease upon its annexation to the crown of France. It
+passed, in the fourteenth century, into the hands of the Kings of
+Navarre, so as to form a portion of their foreign territory; and early
+in the fifteenth, it fell by right of conquest under English
+sovereignty.--Philip the Bold conferred it, in 1276, upon Louis, his
+youngest son; and from him descended the line of Counts of Evreux, who,
+originating in the royal family of France, became Kings of Navarre. The
+kingdom was brought into the family by the marriage of Philip Count of
+Evreux with Jane daughter of Louis Hutin, King of France and Navarre, to
+whom she succeeded as heir general. Charles IIIrd, of Navarre, ceded
+Evreux by treaty to his namesake, Charles VIth of France, in 1404; and
+he shortly after bestowed it upon John Stuart, Lord of Aubigni, and
+Constable of Scotland.--Under Henry Vth, our countrymen took the city in
+1417, but we were not long allowed to hold undisturbed possession of it;
+for, in 1424, it was recaptured by the French. Their success, however,
+was only ephemeral: the battle of Verneuil replaced Evreux in the power
+of the English before the expiration of the same year; and we kept it
+till 1441, when the garrison was surprised, and the town lost, though
+not without a vigorous resistance.--Towards the close of the following
+century, the earldom was raised into a _Duché pairie_, by Charles IXth,
+who, having taken the lordship of Gisors from his brother, the Duc
+d'Alençon, better known by his subsequent title of Duc d'Anjou,
+recompenced him by a grant of Evreux. Upon the death of this prince
+without issue, in 1584, Evreux reverted to the crown, and the title lay
+dormant till 1652, when Louis XIVth exchanged the earldom with the Duc
+de Bouillon, in return for the principality of Sedan. In his family it
+remained till the revolution, which, amalgamating the whole of France
+into one common mass of equal rights and laws, put an end to all local
+privileges and other feudal tenures.
+
+Evreux, at present, is a town containing about eight thousand
+inhabitants, a great proportion of whom are persons of independent
+property, or _rentiers_, as the French call them. Hence it has an air of
+elegance, seldom to be found in a commercial, and never in a
+manufacturing town; and to us this appearance was the more striking, as
+being the first instance of the kind we had seen in Normandy. The
+streets are broad and beautifully neat. The city stands in the midst of
+gardens and orchards, in a fertile valley, watered by the Iton, and
+inclosed towards the north and south by ranges of hills. The river
+divides into two branches before it reaches the town, both which flow on
+the outside of the walls. But, besides these, a portion of its waters
+has been conducted through the centre of the city, by means of a canal
+dug by the order of Jane of Navarre. This Iton, like the Mole, in Kent,
+suddenly loses itself in the ground, near the little town of Damville,
+about twenty miles south of Evreux, and holds its subterranean course
+for nearly two miles. A similar phenomenon is observable with a
+neighboring stream, the Risle, between Ferrière and Grammont[46]: in
+both cases it is attributed, I know not with what justice, to an abrupt
+change in the stratification of the soil.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 36: This curious transaction, which took place in the year
+1119, is related with considerable _näiveté_ by Ordericus Vitalis, p.
+852, as follows:--"Henricus Rex rebellibus ultrà parcere nolens, pagum
+Ebroicensem adiit, et Ebroas cum valida manu impugnare coepit. Sed
+oppidanis, qui intrinsecus erant, cum civibus viriliter repugnantibus,
+introire nequivit. Erant cum illo Ricardus filius ejus, et Stephanus
+Comes nepos ejus, Radulfus de Guader, et maxima vis Normannorum. Quibus
+ante Regem convocatis in unnm, Rex dixit ad Audinum Episcopum. "Videsne,
+domine Præsul, quòd repellimur ab hostibus, nec eos nisi per ignem
+subjugare poterimus? Verùm, si ignis immittitur, Ecclesiæ comburentur,
+et insontibus ingens damnum inferetur. Nunc ergo, Pastor Ecclesiæ,
+diligentèr considera, et quod utilius prospexeris providè nobis insinua.
+Si victoria nobis per incendium divinitùs conceditur, opitulante Deo,
+Ecclesiæ detrimenta restaurabuntur: quia de thesauris nostris commodos
+sumptus gratantèr largiemur. Unde domus Dei, ut reor, in melius
+reædificabuntur." Hæsitat in tanto discrimine Præsul auxius, ignorat
+quid jubeat divinæ dispositioni competentius: nescit quid debeat magis
+velle vel eligere salubrius. Tandem prudentum consultu præcepit ignem
+immitti, et civitatem concremari, ut ab anathematizatis proditoribus
+liberaretur, et legitimis habitatoribus restitueretur. Radulfus igitur
+de Guader a parte Aquilonali primus ignem injecit, et effrenis flamma
+per urbem statim volavit, et omnia (tempos enim autumni siccum erat)
+corripuit. Tunc combusta est basilica sancti Salvatoris, quam
+Sanctimoniales incolebant, et celebris aula gloriosæ virginis et matris
+Mariæ, cui Præsul et Clerus serviebant, ubi Pontificalem Curiam
+parochiani frequentabant. Rex, et cuncti Optimales sui Episcopo pro
+Ecclesiarum combustione vadimonium supplicitèr dederunt, et uberes
+impensas de opibus suis ad restaurationem earum palam spoponderunt."]
+
+[Footnote 37: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 309.]
+
+[Footnote 38: _Gallia Christiana_, XI. p. 606.]
+
+[Footnote 39: From the manner in, which Ducarel speaks of these statues,
+(_Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 85.) he leaves it to be understood, that
+they were in existence in his time; but it is far from certain that this
+was the case; for the whole of his account of them is no more than a
+translation from the following passage in Le Brasseur's _Histoire du
+Comté d'Evreux_, p. 11.--"Le Diocèse d'Evreux a été si favorisé des
+grâces de Dieu, qu'on ne voit presqu'aucun temps où l'Hérésie y ait
+pénétré, même lorsque les Protestans inondoient et corrompoient toute la
+France, et particulierement la Normandie. On ne peut pas cependant
+desavoüer qu'il y a eu de temps en temps, quelques personnes qui se sont
+livrées à l'erreur; et l'on peut remarquer quatre Statuës attachées à
+deux piliers au dehors du chancel de l'Eglise Cathédrale du côté du
+Cimetiere, dont trois représentent trois Chanoines, la tête couverte de
+leurs Aumuces selon la coûtume de ce temps-là, et une quatrième qui
+représente un Chanoine à un pilier plus éloigné, la tête nuë, tenant sa
+main sur le coeur comme un signe de son repentir; parce que la tradition
+dit, qu'aïant été atteint et convaincu du crime d'hérésie, le Chapitre
+l'avoit interdit des fonctions de son Bénéfice; mais qu'aïant ensuite
+abjuré son erreur, le même Chapitre le rétablit dans tous ses droits,
+honneurs, et privileges: cependant il fut ordonné qu'en mémoire de
+l'égarement et de la pénitence de ce Chanoine, ces Statuës demeureroient
+attachées aux piliers de leur Eglise, lorsqu'elle fût rébâtie des
+deniers de Henry I. Roy d'Angleterre, par les soins d'Audoenus Evêque
+d'Evreux."]
+
+[Footnote 40: This was not the first, nor the only, contest, which was
+fought by Taurinus with Satan. Their struggles began at the moment of
+the saint's coming to Evreux, and did not even terminate when his life
+was ended. But the devil was, by the power of his adversary, brought to
+such a helpless state, that, though he continued to haunt the city,
+where the people knew him by the name of _Gobelinus_, he was unable to
+injure any one.--All this is seriously related by Ordericus Vitalis, (p.
+555.) from whom I extract the following passage, in illustration of what
+Evreux was supposed to owe to its first bishop.--"Grassante secundâ
+persecutione, quæ sub Domitiano in Christianos furuit, Dionysius
+Parisiensis Episcopus Taurinum filiolum suum jam quadragenarium,
+Præsulem ordinavit; et (vaticinatis pluribus quæ passurus erat)
+Ebroicensibus in nomine Domini direxit. Viro Dei ad portas civitatis
+appropinquanti, dæmon in tribus figmentis se opposuit: scilicet in
+specie ursi, et leonis, et bubali terrere athletam Christi voluit. Sed
+ille fortiter, ut inexpugnabilis murus, in fide perstitit, et coeptum
+iter peregit, hospitiumque in domo Lucii suscepit. Tertia die, dum
+Taurinus ibidem populo prædicaret, et dulcedo fidei novis auditoribus
+multùm placeret, dolens diabolus Eufrasiam Lucii filiam vexare coepit,
+et in ignem jecit. Quæ statim mortua est; sed paulò pòst, orante Taurino
+ac jubente ut resurgeret, in nomine Domini resuscitata est. Nullum in ea
+adustionis signum apparuit. Omnes igitur hoc miraculum videntes subitò
+territi sunt, et obstupescentes in Dominum Jesum Christum crediderunt.
+In illa die cxx. homines baptizati sunt. Octo cæci illuminati, et
+quatuor multi sanati, aliique plures ex diversis infirmitatibus in
+nomine Domini sunt curati."]
+
+[Footnote 41: _Masson de St. Amand, Essais Historiques sur Evreux_, I.
+p. 77.]
+
+[Footnote 42: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 279.]
+
+[Footnote 43: For this observation, as well as for several others
+touching Evreux and Pont-Audemer, I have to express my acknowledgments
+to Mr. Cotman's memoranda.]
+
+[Footnote 44: _Le Brasseur, Histoire du Comté d'Evreux_, p. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 45: _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 555.]
+
+[Footnote 46: _Goube, Histoire du Duché de Normandie_, III. p. 223.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.
+
+VICINITY OF EVREUX--CHÂTEAU DE NAVARRE--COCHEREL--PONT-AUDEMER
+--MONTFORT-SUR-RISLE--HARFLEUR--BOURG-ACHARD--FRENCH WEDDING.
+
+
+(_Bourg-Achard, July_, 1818.)
+
+Evreux is seldom visited by the English; and none of our numerous
+absentees have thought fit to settle here, though the other parts of
+Normandy are filled with families who are suffering under the sentence
+of self-banishment. It is rather surprising, that this town has not
+obtained its share of English settlers: the air is good, provisions are
+cheap, and society is agreeable. Those, too, if such there be, who are
+attracted by historical reminiscences, will find themselves on
+historical ground.
+
+The premier viscount of the British parliament derives his name from
+Evreux; though, owing to a slight alteration in spelling and to our
+peculiar pronunciation, it has now become so completely anglicised, that
+few persons, without reflection, would recognize a descendant of the
+Comtes d'Evreux, in Henry Devereux, Viscount of Hereford. The Norman
+origin of this family is admitted by the genealogists and heralds, both
+of France and of England; and the fate of the Earl of Essex is
+invariably introduced in the works of those authors, who have written
+upon Evreux or its honors.
+
+It would have been unpardonable to have quitted Evreux, without rambling
+to the Château de Navarre, which is not more than a mile and half
+distant from the town.--This Château, whose name recals an interesting
+period in the history of the earldom, was originally a royal residence.
+It was erected in the middle of the fourteenth century by Jane of
+France, who, with a very pardonable vanity, directed her new palace to
+be called Navarre, that her Norman subjects might never forget that she
+was herself a queen, and that she had brought a kingdom as a marriage
+portion to her husband. Her son, Charles the Bad, a prince whose
+turbulent and evil disposition caused so much misfortune to France, was
+born here. Happy too had it been for him, had he here closed his eyes
+before he entered upon the wider theatre of the world! During his early
+days passed at Navarre, he is said to have shewn an ingenuousness of
+disposition and some traits of generosity, which gave rise to hopes that
+were miserably falsified by his future life.--The present edifice,
+however, a modern French Château, retains nothing more than the name of
+the structure which was built by the queen, and which was levelled with
+the ground, in the year 1686, by the Duc de Bouillon, the lord of the
+country, who erected the present mansion. His descendants resided here
+till the revolution, at which time they emigrated, and the estate became
+national property. It remained for a considerable period unoccupied, and
+was at last granted to Joséphine, by her imperial husband. At present,
+the domain belongs to her son, Prince Eugene, by whom the house has
+lately been stripped of its furniture. Many of the fine trees in the
+park have also been cut down, and the whole appears neglected and
+desolate. His mother did not like Navarre: he himself never saw it: the
+queen of Holland alone used occasionally to reside here.--The principal
+beauty of the place lies in its woods; and these we saw to the greatest
+advantage. It was impossible for earth or sky to look more lovely.--The
+house is of stone, with large windows; and an ill-shaped dome rises in
+the centre. The height of the building is somewhat greater than its
+width, which makes it appear top-heavy; and every thing about it is
+formal; but the noble avenue, the terrace-steps, great lanthorns, iron
+gates, and sheets of water on either side of the approach, are upon an
+extensive scale, and in a fine baronial style.--Yet, still they are
+inferior to the accompaniments of the same nature which are found about
+many noblemen's residences in England.--The hall, which is spacious, has
+a striking effect, being open to the dome. Its sides are painted with
+military trophies, and with the warlike instruments of the four quarters
+of the globe. We saw nothing else in the house worthy of notice. It is
+merely a collection of apartments of moderate size; and, empty and dirty
+as they were, they appeared to great disadvantage. In the midst of the
+solitude of desolation, some ordinary portraits of the Bouillon family
+still remain upon the walls, as if in mockery of departed greatness.
+
+We were unable to direct our course to Cocherel, a village about sixteen
+miles distant, on the road to Vernon, celebrated as the spot where a
+battle was fought, in the fourteenth century, between the troops of
+Navarre, and those of France, commanded by Du Guesclin.--I notice this
+place, because it is possible that, if excavations were made there,
+those antiquaries who delight in relics of the remotest age of European
+history, might win many prizes. A tomb of great curiosity was discovered
+in the year 1685; and celts, and stone hatchets, and other implements,
+belonging, as it is presumed, to the original inhabitants of the
+country, have been found beneath the soil. Many of these are described
+and figured by the Abbé de Cocherel, in a paper full of curious
+erudition, subjoined to Le Brasseur's _History of Evreux_. The hatchets
+resembled those frequently dug up in England; but they were more
+perfect, inasmuch as some of them were fastened in deers' horns, and had
+handles attached to them; thus clearly indicating the manner in which
+they were used.--The place of burial differed, I believe, in its
+internal arrangement from any sepulchral monument, whether Cromlech,
+Carnedd, or Barrow, that has been opened in our own country. Three sides
+of it were rudely faced with large stones: within were contained about
+twenty skeletons, lying in a row, close to each other, north and south,
+their arms pressed to their sides. The head of each individual rested on
+a stone, fashioned with care, but to no certain pattern. Some were
+fusiform, others wedge-shaped, and others irregularly oblong. In
+general, the stones did not appear to be the production of the country.
+One was oriental jade, another German agate. In the tomb were also a few
+cinerary urns; whence it appears that the people, by whom it was
+constructed, were of a nation that was at once in the habit of burning,
+and of interring, their dead. From these facts, the Abbé finds room for
+much ingenious conjecture; and, after discussing the relative
+probabilities of the sepulchre having been a burying-place of the Gauls,
+the Jews, the Druids, the Normans, or the Huns, he decides, though with
+some hesitation, in favor of the last of these opinions.
+
+From Evreux we went by Brionne to Pont-Audemer: at first the road is
+directed through an open country, without beauty or interest; but the
+prospect improved upon us when we joined the rapid sparkling _Risle_,
+which waters a valley of great richness, bounded on either side by
+wooded hills.--Of Brionne itself I shall soon have a better opportunity
+of speaking; as we purpose stopping there on our way to Caen.
+
+A few miles before Brionne, we passed Harcourt, the ancient barony of
+the noble family still flourishing in England, and existing in France.
+It is a small country town, remarkable only for some remains of a
+castle[47], built by Robert de Harcourt, fifth in descent from Bernard
+the Dane, chief counsellor, and second in command to Rollo. The blood of
+the Dane is in the present earl of Harcourt: he traces his lineage in a
+direct line from Robert, the builder of the castle, who accompanied the
+Conqueror into England, and fell in battle by his side.
+
+Pont-Audemer is a small, neat, country town, situated upon the Risle,
+which here, within ten miles of its junction with the Seine, is enlarged
+into a river of considerable magnitude. But its channel, in the
+immediate vicinity of the town, divides into several small streams; and
+thus it loses much of its dignity, though the change is highly
+advantageous to picturesque beauty, and to the conveniences of trade.
+Mills stand on some of these streams, but most of them are applied to
+the purposes of tanning; for leather is the staple manufacture of the
+place, and the hides prepared at Pont-Audemer are thought to be the best
+in France.
+
+From Brionne the valley of the Risle preserves a width of about a mile,
+or a mile and half: at Pont-Audemer it becomes somewhat narrower, and
+the town stretches immediately across it, instead of being built along
+the banks of the river.--The inhabitants are thus enabled to avail
+themselves of the different streams which intersect it.
+
+Tradition refers the origin, as well as the name of Pont-Audemer, to a
+chief, called Aldemar or Odomar, who ruled over a portion of Gaul in the
+fifth century, and who built a bridge here.--These legendary heroes
+abound in topography, but it is scarcely worth while to discuss their
+existence. In Norman times Pont-Audemer was a military station. The
+nobility of the province, always turbulent, but never more so than
+during the reign of Henry Ist, had availed themselves of the opportunity
+afforded by the absence of the monarch, and by his domestic misfortunes,
+to take up arms in the cause of the son of Robert. Henry landed at the
+mouth of the Seine, and it was at Pont-Audemer that the first conflict
+took place between him and his rebellious subjects. The latter were
+defeated, and the fortress immediately surrendered; but, in the early
+part of the fourteenth century, it appears to have been of greater
+strength: it had been ceded by King John of France to the Count of
+Evreux, and it resisted all the efforts of its former lord during a
+siege of six weeks, at the end of which time his generals were obliged
+to retire, with the loss of their military engines and artillery. This
+siege is memorable in history, as the first in which it is known that
+cannon were employed in France.--Pont-Audemer, still in possession of
+the kings of Navarre, withstood a second siege, towards the conclusion
+of the same century, but with less good fortune than before. It was
+taken by the constable Du Guesclin, and, according to Froissart[48],
+"the castle was razed to the ground, though it had cost large sums to
+erect; and the walls and towers of the town were destroyed."
+
+St. Ouen, the principal church in the place, is a poor edifice. It
+bears, however, some tokens of remote age: such are the circular arches
+in the choir, and a curious capital, on which are represented two
+figures in combat, of rude sculpture.--A second church, that of Notre
+Dame des Prés, now turned into a tan-house, exhibits an architectural
+feature which is altogether novel. Over the great entrance, it has a
+string-course, apparently intended to represent a corbel-table, though
+it does not support any superior member; and the intermediate spaces
+between the corbels, instead of being left blank, as usual, are filled
+with sculptured stones, which project considerably, though less than the
+corbels with which they alternate. There is something of the same kind,
+but by no means equally remarkable, over the arcades above the west
+door-way of Castle-Acre Priory[49]. Neither Mr. Cotman's memory, nor my
+own, will furnish another example.--The church of Notre Dame des Prés is
+of the period when the pointed style was beginning to be employed. The
+exterior is considerably injured: to the interior we could not obtain
+admission.
+
+The suburbs of Pont-Audemer furnish another church dedicated to St.
+Germain, which would have been an excellent subject for both pen and
+pencil, had it undergone less alteration. The short, thick, square,
+central tower has, on each side, a row of four windows, of nearly the
+earliest pointed style; many of the windows of the body of the church
+have semi-circular heads; the corbels which extend in a line round the
+nave and transepts are strangely grotesque; and, on the north side of
+the eastern extremity, is a semi-circular chapel, as at St.
+Georges.--The inside is dark and gloomy, the floor unpaved, and every
+thing in and about it in a state of utter neglect, except some dozen
+saints, all in the gayest attire, and covered with artificial flowers.
+The capitals of the columns are in the true Norman style. Those at St.
+Georges are scarcely more fantastic, or more monstrous.--Between two of
+the arches of the choir, on the south side of this church, is the effigy
+of a man in his robes, coifed with a close cap, lying on an altar-tomb.
+The figure is much mutilated; but the style of the canopy-work over the
+head indicates that it is not of great antiquity. The feet of the statue
+rest upon a dog, who is busily occupied in gnawing a marrow-bone.--Dogs
+at the base of monumental effigies are common, and they have been
+considered as symbols of fidelity and honor; but surely the same is not
+intended to be typified by a dog thus employed; and it is not likely
+that his being so is a mere caprice of the sculptor's.--There is no
+inscription upon the monument; nor could we learn whom it is intended to
+commemorate.
+
+At but a short distance from Pont-Audemer, higher up the Risle, lies the
+yet smaller town of Montfort, near which are still to be traced, the
+ruins of a castle,[50] memorable for the thirty days' siege, which it
+supported from the army of Henry Ist, in 1122; and dismantled by Charles
+Vth, at the same time that he razed the fortifications of Pont-Audemer.
+The Baron of Montfort yet ranks in our peerage; though I am not aware
+that the nobleman, who at present bears the title, boasts a descent from
+any part of the family of _Hugh with a beard_, the owner of Montfort at
+the time of the conquest, and one of the Conqueror's attendants at the
+battle of Hastings.
+
+From Pont-Audemer we proceeded to Honfleur: it was market-day at the
+place which we had quitted, and the throng of persons who passed us on
+the road, gave great life and variety to the scene. There was scarcely
+an individual from whom we did not receive a friendly smile or nod,
+accompanied by a _bon jour_; for the practice obtains commonly in
+France, among the peasants, of saluting those whom they consider their
+superiors. Almost all that were going to market, whether male or female,
+were mounted on horses or asses; and their fruit, vegetables, butchers'
+meat, live fowls, and live sheep, were indiscriminately carried in the
+same way.
+
+About a league before we arrived at Honfleur, a distant view of the
+eastern banks of the river opened upon us from the summit of a hill, and
+we felt, or fancied that we felt, "the air freshened from the wave." As
+we descended, the ample Seine, here not less than nine miles in width,
+suddenly displayed itself, and we had not gone far before we came in
+sight of Honfleur. The mist occasioned by the intense heat, prevented us
+from seeing distinctly the opposite towns of Havre and Harfleur: we
+could only just discern the spire of the latter, and the long projecting
+line of the piers and fortifications of Havre. The great river rolls
+majestically into the British Channel between these two points, and
+forms the bay of Honfleur. About four miles higher up the stream where
+it narrows, the promontories of Quilleboeuf and of Tancarville close the
+prospect.--Honfleur itself is finely situated: valleys, full of meadows
+of the liveliest green, open to the Seine in the immediate vicinity of
+the town; and the hills with which it is backed are beautifully clothed
+with foliage to the very edge of the water. The trees, far from being
+stunted and leafless, as on the eastern coast of England, appear as if
+they were indebted to their situation for a verdure of unusual
+luxuriancy. A similar line of hills borders the Seine on either side, as
+far as the eye can reach.
+
+It was unfortunate for us, that we entered the town at low water, when
+the empty harbor and slimy river could scarcely fail to prepossess us
+unfavorably. The quays are faced with stone, and the two basins are fine
+works, and well adapted for commerce. This part of Honfleur reminded us
+of Dieppe; but the houses, though equally varied in form and materials,
+are not equally handsome.--Still less so are the churches; and a
+picturesque castle is wholly wanting.--In the principal object of my
+journey to Honfleur, my expectations were completely frustrated. I had
+been told at Rouen, that I should here find a very ancient wooden
+church, and our imagination had pictured to us one equally remarkable
+as that of Greensted, in Essex, and probably constructed in the same
+manner, of massy trunks of trees. With the usual anticipation of an
+antiquary, I imagined that I should discover a parallel to that most
+singular building; which, as every body knows, is one of the greatest
+architectural curiosities in England. But, alas! I was sadly
+disappointed. The wooden church of Honfleur, so old in the report of my
+informant, is merely a thing of yesterday, certainly not above two
+hundred and fifty years of age; and, though it is undeniably of wood,
+within and without, the walls are made, as in most of the houses in the
+town, of a timber frame filled with clay. There is another church in
+Honfleur, but it was equally without interest. Thus baffled, we walked
+to the heights above the town: at the top of the cliff was a crowd of
+people, some of them engaged in devotion near a large wooden crucifix,
+others enjoying themselves at different games, or sitting upon the neat
+stone benches, which are scattered plentifully about the walks in this
+charming situation. The neighboring little chapel of Notre Dame de Grace
+is regarded as a building of great sanctity, and is especially resorted
+to by sailors, a class of people who are superstitious, all the world
+over. It abounds with their votive tablets. From the roof and walls
+
+
+   "Pendono intorno in lungo ordine i voti,
+    Che vi portaro i creduli divoti."
+
+
+Among the pictures, we counted nineteen, commemorative of escape from
+shipwreck, all of them painted after precisely the same pattern: a
+stormy sea, a vessel in distress, and the Virgin holding the infant
+Savior in her arms, appearing through a black cloud in the corner,--In
+the Catholic ritual, the holy Virgin, is termed _Maris Stella_, and she
+is καÏ,,' εξοÏ?ην [English. Not in Original: pre-eminently, especially,
+above all] the protectress of Normandy.
+
+Honfleur is still a fortified town; but it does not appear a place of
+much strength, nor is it important in any point of view. Its trade is
+inconsiderable, and its population does not amount to nine thousand
+inhabitants. But in the year 1450, while in the hands of our countrymen,
+it sustained a siege of a month's duration from the king of France; and,
+in the following century, it had the distinction, attended with but
+little honor, of being the last place in the kingdom that held out for
+the league.
+
+From Honfleur we would fain have returned by Sanson-sur-Risle and
+Foullebec, at both which villages M. Le Prevost had led us to expect
+curious churches; but our postillion assured us that the roads were
+wholly impassable. We were therefore compelled to allow Mr. Cotman to
+visit them alone, while we retraced a portion of our steps through the
+valley of the Risle, and then took an eastern direction to Bourg-Achard
+in our way to Rouen.
+
+Bourg-Achard was the seat of an abbey, built by the monks of Falaise, in
+1143: it was originally dedicated to St. Lô; but St. Eustatius, the
+favorite saint of this part of the country, afterwards became its
+patron. Before the revolution, his skull was preserved in the sacristy
+of the convent, enchased in a bust of silver gilt[51]; and even now,
+when the relic has been consigned to its kindred dust, and the shrine to
+the furnace, and the abbey has been levelled with the ground, there
+remains in the parochial church a fragment of sculpture, which evidently
+represented the miracle that led to Eustatius' conversion.--The knight,
+indeed, is gone, and the cross has disappeared from between the horns of
+the stag; but the horse and the deer, are left, and their position
+indicates the legend.--The church of Bourg-Achard has been materially
+injured. The whole of the building, from the transept westward, has been
+taken down; but it deserves a visit, if only as retaining a _bénitier_
+of ancient form and workmanship, and a leaden font. Of the latter, I
+send you a drawing. Leaden fonts are of very rare occurrence in
+England[52], and I never saw or heard of another such in France: indeed,
+a baptismal font of any kind is seldom to be seen in a French church,
+and the vessels used for containing the holy water, are in most cases
+nothing more than small basins in the form of escalop shells, affixed to
+the wall, or to some pillar near the entrance.--It is possible that
+the fonts were removed and sold during the revolution, as they were in
+our own country, by the ordinance of the houses of parliament, after the
+deposition of Charles Ist; but this is a mere conjecture on my own part.
+It is also possible that they may be kept in the sacristy, where I have
+certainly seen them in some cases. In earlier times, they not only
+existed in every church, but were looked upon with superstitious
+reverence. They are frequently mentioned in the decrees of
+ecclesiastical councils; some of which provide for keeping them clean
+and locked; others for consigning the keys of them to proper officers;
+others direct that they should never be without water; and others that
+nothing profane should be laid upon them[53].
+
+[Illustration: Leaden Font at Bourg-Achard]
+
+As we were at breakfast this morning, a procession, attended by a great
+throng, passed our windows, and we were invited by our landlady to go to
+the church and see the wedding of two of the principal persons of the
+parish, We accepted the proposal; and, though the same ceremony has been
+witnessed by thousands of Englishmen, yet I doubt whether it has been
+described by any one.--The bride was a girl of very interesting
+appearance, dressed wholly in white: even her shoes were white, and a
+bouquet of white roses, jessamine, and orange-flowers, was placed in her
+bosom.--The mayor of the town conducted her to the altar. Previously to
+the commencement of the service, the priest stated aloud that the forms
+required by law, for what is termed the civil marriage, had been
+completed. It was highly necessary that he should do so; for, according
+to the present code, a minister of any persuasion, who proceeds to the
+religious ceremonies of marriage before the parties have been married by
+the magistrate, is subject to very heavy penalties, to imprisonment, and
+to transportation. Indeed, going to church at all for the purpose of
+marriage, is quite a work of supererogation, and may be omitted or not,
+just as the parties please; the law requiring no other proof of a
+marriage, beyond the certificate recorded in the municipal registry.
+After this most important preliminary, the priest exhorted every one
+present, under pain of excommunication, to declare if they knew of any
+impediment: this, however, was merely done for the purpose of keeping up
+the dignity of the church, for the knot was already tied as fast as it
+ever could be. He then read a discourse upon the sanctity of the
+marriage compact, and the excellence of the wedded state among the
+Catholics, compared to what prevailed formerly among the Jews and
+Heathens, who degraded it by frequent divorces and licentiousness. The
+parties now declared their mutual consent, and his reverence enjoined
+each to be to the other "comme un époux fidèle et de lui tenir fidélité
+en toutes choses."--The ring was presented to the minister by one of the
+acolytes, upon a gold plate; and, before he directed the bridegroom to
+place it upon the finger of the lady, he desired him to observe that it
+was a symbol of marriage.--During the whole of the service two other
+acolytes were stationed in front of the bride and bridegroom, each
+holding in his hands a lighted taper; and near the conclusion, while
+they knelt before the altar, a pall of flowered brocade was stretched
+behind them, as emblematic of their union. Holy water was not forgotten;
+for, in almost every rite of the Catholic church, the mystic
+sanctification by water and by fire continually occurs.--The ceremony
+ended by the priest's receiving the sacrament himself, but without
+administering it to any other individual present. Having taken it, he
+kissed the paten which had contained the holy elements, and all the
+party did the same: each, too, in succession, put a piece of money into
+a cup, to which we also were invited to contribute, for the love of the
+Holy Virgin.--They entered by the south door, but the great western
+portal was thrown open as they left the church; and by that they
+departed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 47: _Masson de St. Amand, Essais Historiques sur Evreux_, I.
+p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 48: _Johnes' Translation_, 8vo, IV. p. 292.]
+
+[Footnote 49: See _Britten's Architectural Antiquities_, III. t. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 50: _Goube, Histoire de Normandie_, III. 249.]
+
+[Footnote 51: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 319.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Mr. Gough, (See _Archæologia_, X. p. 187.) whose attention
+had been much directed to this subject, seems to have known only four
+fonts made of lead, in the kingdom;--at Brookland in Kent, Dorchester in
+Oxfordshire, Wareham in Dorsetshire, and Walmsford in Northamptonshire;
+but there are in all probability many more. We have at least four in
+Norfolk. He says, "they are supposed to be of high antiquity; and that
+at Brookland may have relation to the time of Birinus himself. To what
+circumstance the others are to be referred, or from what other church
+brought, does not appear."--The leaden fonts which I have seen, have all
+been raised upon a basis of brick or stone, like this at Bourg-Achard,
+and are all of nearly the same pattern.]
+
+[Footnote 53: See _Concilia Normannica_, II. pp. 56, 117, 403, 491, 508,
+&c]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.
+
+MOULINEAUX--CASTLE OF ROBERT THE DEVIL--BOURG-THEROUDE--ABBEY OF
+BEC--BRIONNE.
+
+
+(_Brionne, July_, 1818.)
+
+Having accomplished the objects which we had proposed to ourselves in
+Rouen and its vicinity, we set out this morning upon our excursion to
+the western parts of the province. Our first stage, to Moulineaux, was
+by the same road by which we returned a few days ago from Bourg-Achard.
+It is a delightful ride, through the valley of the Seine, here of great
+width, stretching to our left in an uninterrupted course of flat open
+country, but, on our right hand, bordered at no great distance by the
+ridge of steep chalky cliffs which line the bank of the river. The road
+appears to have been a work of considerable labor: it is every where
+raised, and in some places as high as fifteen feet above the level of
+the fields on either side.--Agriculture in this district is conducted,
+as about Paris, upon the plan called by the French _la petite culture_:
+the fields are all divided into narrow strips; so that a piece of not
+more than two or three acres, frequently produces eight or ten different
+crops, some of grain, others of culinary vegetables, at the same time
+that many of these portions are planted with apple and cherry trees. The
+land is all open and uninclosed: not a fence is to be seen; nor do there
+even appear to be any balks or head-marks. Strangers therefore who come,
+like us, from a country entirely inclosed, cannot refrain from frequent
+expressions of surprise how it is that every person here is enabled to
+tell the limits of his own property.
+
+Moulineaux is a poor village, a mere assemblage of cottages, with mud
+walls and thatched roofs. But the church is interesting, though
+desecrated and verging to ruin. Even now the outside alone is entire.
+The interior is gutted and in a state of absolute neglect.--The building
+is of the earliest pointed style: its lancet-windows are of the plainest
+kind, being destitute of side pillars: in some of the windows are still
+remains of handsome painted glass.--Either the antiquaries in France are
+more honest than in England, or they want taste, or objects of this kind
+do not find a ready market. We know too well how many an English church,
+albeit well guarded by the churchwardens and the parson, has seen its
+windows despoiled of every shield, and saint, and motto; and we also
+know full well, by whom, and for whom, such ravages are committed. In
+France, on the contrary, where painted glass still fills the windows of
+sacred buildings, now employed for the meanest purposes, or wholly
+deserted, no one will even take the trouble of carrying it away; and the
+storied panes are left, as derelicts utterly without value.--The east
+end of the church at Moulineaux is semi-circular; the roof is of stone,
+handsomely groined, and the groinings spring from fanciful corbels. On
+either side of the nave, near the choir, is a recess in the wall, carved
+with tabernacle-work, and serving for a piscina. Recesses of this kind,
+though of frequent occurrence in English churches, do not often appear
+in France. Still less common are those elaborate screens of carved
+timber, often richly gilt or gorgeously painted, which separate the nave
+from the chancel in the churches of many of our smaller villages at
+home. The only one I ever recollect to have seen in France was at
+Moulineaux.--I also observed a mutilated pillar, which originally
+supported the altar, ornamented with escalop shells and fleurs-de-lys in
+bold relief. It reminded me of one figured in the _Antiquarian
+Repertory_, from Harold's chapel, in Battle Abbey[54].
+
+Immediately after leaving Moulineaux, the road winds along the base of a
+steep chalk hill, whose brow is crowned by the remains of the famous
+castle of Robert the Devil, the father of Richard Fearnought. Robert the
+Devil is a mighty hero of romance; but there is some difficulty in
+discovering his historical prototype. Could we point out his _gestes_ in
+the chronicle, they would hardly outvalue his adventures, as they are
+recorded in the nursery tale. Robert haunts this castle, which appears
+to have been of great extent, though its ruins are very indistinct. The
+walls on the southern side are rents, and covered with brush-wood; and
+no architectural feature is discernible. Wide and deep fosses encircle
+the site, which is undermined by spacious crypts and subterraneous
+caverns.--The fortress is evidently of remote, but uncertain, antiquity:
+it was dismantled by King John when he abandoned the duchy. The
+historians of Normandy say that it was re-fortified during the civil
+wars; and the fact is not destitute of probability, as its position is
+bold and commanding.
+
+Bourg-Theroude, our next stage, is one of those places which are
+indebted to their names alone for the little importance they possess. At
+present, it is a small assemblage of mean houses, most of them inns; but
+its Latin appellation, _Burgus Thuroldi_, commemorates no less a
+personage than one of the preceptors of William the Conqueror, and his
+grand constable at the time when he effected the conquest of
+England.--The name of Turold occurs upon the Bayeux tapestry,
+designating one of the ambassadors dispatched by the Norman Duke to Guy,
+Earl of Ponthieu; and it is supposed that the Turold there represented
+was the grand constable[55].--The church of Bourg-Theroude, which was
+collegiate before the revolution, is at present uninteresting in every
+point of view.
+
+About half way from this place to Brionne, we came in sight of the
+remains of the celebrated abbey of Bec, situated a mile and half or two
+miles distant to our right, at the extremity of a beautiful valley. We
+had been repeatedly assured that scarcely one stone of this formerly
+magnificent building was left upon another; but it would have shewn an
+unpardonable want of curiosity to have passed so near without visiting
+it: even to stand upon the spot which such a monastery originally
+covered is a privilege not lightly to be foregone:--
+
+
+   "The pilgrim who journeys all day,
+      To visit some far distant shrine;
+    If he bear but a relic away,
+      Is happy, nor heard to repine."--
+
+
+And _happiness_ of this kind would on such an occasion infallibly fall
+to your lot and to mine. A love for botany or for antiquities would
+equally furnish _relics_ on a similar _pilgrimage_.
+
+As usual, the accounts which we had received proved incorrect. The
+greater part of the conventual edifice still exists, but it has no kind
+of architectural value. Some detached portions, whose original use it
+would be difficult now to conjecture, appear, from their wide pointed
+windows, to be of the fifteenth century. The other buildings were
+probably erected within the last fifty years.--The part inhabited by the
+monks is at this time principally employed as a cotton-mill; and, were
+it in England, nobody would suspect that it ever had any other
+destination. Of the church, the tower[56] only is in existence. I find
+no account of its date; though authors have been unusually profuse in
+their details of all particulars relating to this monastery. I am
+inclined to refer it to the beginning of the seventeenth century, in
+which case it was built shortly after the destruction of the nave. Its
+character is simple, solid elegance. Its ornaments are few, but they are
+selected and disposed with judgment. Each corner is flanked by two
+buttresses, which unite at top, and there terminate in a crocketed
+pinnacle. The buttresses are also ornamented with tabernacles of saints
+at different heights; and one of the tabernacles upon each buttress,
+about mid-way up the tower, still retains a statue as large as life, of
+apparently good workmanship. They were fortunately too high for the
+democrats to destroy with ease. The height of the tower is one hundred
+and fifty feet, as I found by the staircase of two hundred steps, which
+remains uninjured, in a circular turret attached to the south side. The
+termination of this turret is the most singular part of the structure:
+it is surmounted by a cap, considerably higher than the pinnacles, and
+composed, like a bee-hive, of a number of circles, each smaller than the
+one below it. A few ruined arches of the east end of the church, and of
+one of the side chapels are also existing. The rest is levelled with the
+ground, and has probably been in a great measure destroyed lately; for
+piles of wrought stones are heaped up on all sides.
+
+If historical recollections or architectural beauty could have proved a
+protection in the days of revolution, the church of Bec had undoubtedly
+stood. Ducarel, who saw it in its perfection, says it was one of the
+finest gothic structures in France; and his account of it, though only
+an abridgement of that given by Du Plessis, in his _History of Upper
+Normandy_, is curious and valuable.--Mr. Gough states the annual income
+of the abbey at the period of the revolution, to have exceeded twenty
+thousand crowns. Its patronage was most extensive: the monks presented
+to one hundred and sixty advowsons, two of them in the metropolis; and
+thirty other ecclesiastical benefices, as well priories as chapels, were
+in their gift[57].--Its possessions, as we may collect from the various
+charters and donations, might have led us to expect a larger revenue.
+The estates belonging to the monastery in England, prior to the
+reformation, were both numerous and valuable.
+
+Sammarthanus, author of the _Gallia Christiana_, says, in speaking of
+Bec, that, whether considered as to religion or literature, there was
+not, in the eleventh century, a more celebrated convent throughout the
+whole of Neustria. The founder of the abbey was Hellouin, sometimes
+called Herluin, a nobleman, descended by the mother's side from the
+Counts of Flanders, but he himself was a native of the territory of
+Brionne, and educated in the castle of Gislebert, earl of that district.
+Hellouin determined, at an early age, to withdraw himself from the court
+and from the world: it seems he was displeased or affronted by the
+conduct of the earl; and we may collect from the chroniclers, that it
+was not a very easy task in those times for an individual of rank,
+intent upon monastic seclusion, to carry his purpose into effect, and
+that still greater difficulties were to be encountered if he wished to
+put his property into mortmain. Hellouin was obliged to counterfeit
+madness, and at last to come to a very painful explanation with his
+liege lord; and, when he finally succeeded in obtaining the permission
+he craved, his establishment was so poor, that he was compelled to take
+upon himself the office of abbot, from an inability to find any other
+person who would accept it.--The monkish historians lavish their praises
+upon Hellouin. They assign to him every virtue under heaven; but they
+particularly laud him for his humility and industry: all day long he
+worked as a laborer in the building of his convent, whilst the night was
+passed in committing the psalter to memory. At this period of his life,
+a curious anecdote is recorded of him: curious in itself, as
+illustrative of the character of the man; and particularly curious, in
+being quoted as matter of commendation, and thus serving to illustrate
+the feelings of a great body of the community.--His mother, who shared
+in the pious disposition of her son, had attached herself to the convent
+to assist in the menial offices; and one day, while she was thus
+engaged, the building caught fire, and she perished in the flames; upon
+which, Hellouin, though bathed in tears, lifted up his hands to heaven,
+and gave thanks to God that his parent had been burned to death in the
+midst of an occupation of humility and piety!
+
+During the life of Hellouin, the abbey was twice levelled with the
+ground: on each occasion it rose more splendid from its ruins, and on
+each the site was changed, till at length it was fixed upon the spot
+from which its ruins are now vanishing. The whole of Normandy would
+scarcely furnish a more desirable situation. Under the prelacy of
+Hellouin, Bec increased rapidly in celebrity, and consequently in the
+number of its inmates: it was principally indebted for this increase to
+an accidental circumstance. Lanfranc, a native of Pavia, a lawyer in
+Italy, but a monk in France, after having visited various monasteries,
+and distinguished himself by defending the doctrine of the real
+presence, then impugned by Berengarius, established himself here in the
+year 1042, and immediately opened a school, which, to judge from the
+language of Ordericus Vitalis[58], seems to have been the first ever
+known in Normandy. Scholars from France, from England, and from
+Flanders, hastened to place themselves under his care; his fame,
+according to William of Malmesbury, went forth into the outer parts of
+the earth; and Bec, under his auspices, became a most celebrated resort
+of literature. To borrow the more copious account given by William of
+Jumieges--"report quickly spread the glory of Bec, and of its abbot,
+Hellouin, through every land. The clergy, the sons of dukes, the most
+eminent schoolmasters, the most powerful of the laity, and the nobility,
+all hastened hither. Many, actuated by love for Lanfranc, gave their
+lands to the convent. The abbey was enriched with ornaments, with
+possessions, and with noble inmates. Religion and learning increased;
+property of all kinds abounded; and the monks, who but a few years
+before, could scarcely command sufficient ground for the site of their
+own building, now saw their estates extend for many miles in a
+lengthening line."--Promotion followed the fame of Lanfranc, who soon
+became abbot of the royal monastery of St. Stephen, at Caen, and thence
+was translated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.
+
+It was the rare good fortune of Bec, that the abbey furnished two
+successive metropolitans to the English church, both of them selected
+for their erudition, Lanfranc and Anselm. It is not a little remarkable,
+too, that both were Italians. Lanfranc, whilst archbishop of Canterbury,
+presided in the year 1077, at the dedication of the third church built
+at Bec. We may judge how far the abbey had at that time increased in
+consequence; for five bishops, one of them brother to the Conqueror,
+honored the ceremony with their presence; and the nobles and ladies of
+France, Normandy, and England crowded to the spot, to refresh their
+bodies by the pleasures of the festival, and their souls by endowments
+to the convent.
+
+In the fifteenth century, when our Henry Vth brought his victorious
+armies into France, the monks of Bec were reduced to a painful
+alternative. It was apprehended by the French monarch, that the
+monastery might be converted into a dépôt by the English; and they were
+commanded either to demolish the church, or to fortify it against the
+invaders. They naturally regarded the latter as the lesser evil; and the
+consequence was, that the abbey was scarcely put into a state of
+defence, when it was attacked by the enemy, and, after sustaining a
+siege for a month, was obliged to surrender. A great part of the
+monastic buildings were levelled to the ground; and the fortifications
+which had been so strangely affixed to them were also razed: meanwhile
+the monks suffered grievously from the contending parties: their
+sacristy was plundered; their treasury emptied; and they were themselves
+exposed to a variety of personal hardships. At the same time, also, the
+tomb of the Empress Maud[59], which faced the high altar, was destroyed,
+after having been stripped of its silver ornaments.
+
+Considering the number of illustrious persons who were abbots or
+patrons of Bec, and who had been elected from it to the superintendance
+of other monasteries, the church does not appear to have been rich in
+monuments. We read indeed of many individuals who were interred here
+belonging to the house of Neubourg, a family distinguished among the
+benefactors of the convent; and the records of the abbey speak also of
+the tomb of Richard of St. Leger, Bishop of Evreux; but the Empress was
+the only royal personage who selected this convent as the resting-place
+for her remains; and she likewise appears to have been the only eminent
+one, except Hellouin, the founder, who lay in the chapter-house, under a
+slab of black marble, with various figures of rude workmanship[60]
+carved upon it. His epitaph has more merit than the general class of
+monumental inscriptions:--
+
+
+   "Hunc spectans tumulum, titulo cognosce sepultum;
+      Est via virtutis nôsse quis ipse fuit.
+    Dum quater hic denos ævi venisset ad annos,
+      Quæ fuerant secli sprevit amore Dei.
+    Mutans ergò vices, mundi de milite miles
+      Fit Christi subito, Monachus ex laïco.
+    Hinc sibi, more patrum, socians collegia fratrum,
+      Curâ, quâ decuit, rexit eos, aluit.
+    Quot quantasque vides, hic solus condidit ædes,
+      Non tàm divitiis quàm fidei meritis.
+    Quas puer haud didicit scripturas postea scivit,
+      Doctus ut indoctum vix sequeretur eum.
+    Flentibus hunc nobis tulit inclementia mortis
+      Sextilis quinâ bisque die decimâ.
+    Herluine pater, sic cÅ"lica scandis ovantèr;
+      Credere namque tuis hoc licet ex meritis."
+
+
+In number of inmates, extent of possessions, and possibly, in
+magnificence of buildings, other Norman monasteries may have excelled
+Bec: none equalled it in the prouder honor of being a seminary for
+eminent men and especially for those destined to the highest stations in
+the church. Lanfranc and Anselm were not the only two of its monks who
+were seated on the archiepiscopal throne at Canterbury. Two others,
+Theobald and Hubert obtained the same dignity in the following century;
+and Roger, the seventh abbot of Bec, enjoyed the still more enviable
+distinction of having been unanimously elected to fill the office of
+metropolitan, but of possessing sufficient firmness of mind to resist
+the attractions of wealth, and rank, and power. The sees of Rochester,
+Beauvais, and Evreux were likewise filled by monks from Bec; and it was
+here that many monastic establishments, both Norman and foreign, found
+their pastors. Three of our own most celebrated convents, those of
+Chester, Ely, and St. Edmund's Bury, received at different epochs their
+abbots from Bec; and during the prelacy of Anselm, the supreme pontiff
+himself selected a monk of this house as the prior of the distant
+convent of the holy Savior at Capua.--The village of Bec, which adjoins
+the abbey, is small and unimportant.
+
+I was returning to our carriage, when a soldier invited me to walk to a
+part of the monastic grounds (for they are very extensive) which is
+appropriated to the purpose of keeping up the true breed of Norman
+horses. The French government have several similar establishments: they
+consider the matter as one of national importance; and, as France has
+not yet produced a Duke of Bedford or a Mr. Coke, the state is obliged
+to undertake what would be much better effected by the energy of
+individuals.--A Norman horse is an excellent draft horse: he is strong,
+bony, and well proportioned. But the natives are not content with this
+qualified praise: they contend that he is equally unrivalled as a
+saddle-horse, as a hunter, and as a charger. In this part of the country
+the present average price of a hussar's horse is nineteen pounds; of a
+dragoon's thirty-four pounds; and of an officer's eighty pounds.--These
+prices are considered high, but not extravagant. France abounds at this
+time in fine horses. The losses occasioned by the revolutionary wars,
+and more especially by the disastrous Russian campaign, have been more
+than compensated by five years of peace, and by the horses that were
+left by the allied troops. An annual supply is also drawn from
+Mecklenburg and the adjacent countries. Importations of this kind are
+regarded as indispensable, to prevent a degeneration in the stock. A
+Frenchman can scarcely be brought to believe it possible; that we in
+England can preserve our fine breed of horses without having recourse to
+similar expedients; and if at last, by dint of repeated asseverations,
+you succeed in obtaining a reluctant assent, the conversation is almost
+sure to end in a shrug of the shoulders, accompanied with the
+remark--"Ah, vous autres Anglais, vous voulez toujours voler de vos
+propres ailes."
+
+As we approached Brionne, the face of the country became more uneven;
+and we passed an extensive tract of uncultivated chalk hills, resembling
+the downs of Wiltshire.--Brionne itself lies in a valley watered by the
+Risle: the situation is agreeable, and advantageous for trade. The
+present number of its inhabitants does not amount to two thousand; and
+there is no reason to apprehend that the population has materially
+decreased of late years. But in the times of Norman rule, Brionne was a
+town of more importance: it had then three churches, besides an abbey
+and a lazar-house. At present a single church only remains; and this is
+neither large, nor handsome, nor ancient, nor remarkable in any point of
+view. We found in it a monument of the revolution, which I never saw
+elsewhere, and which I never expected to see at all. The age of reason
+was a sadly irrational age.--The tablet containing the rights and duties
+of man, disposed in two columns, like the tables of the Mosaic law, is
+still suffered to exist in the church, though shorn of all its
+republican dignity, and degraded into the front of a pew.
+
+On the summit of a hill that overhangs the town, stood formerly the
+castle of the Earls of Brionne; and a portion of the building, though it
+be but an insignificant fragment, is still left. The part now standing
+consists of little more than two sides of the square dungeon, The walls,
+which are about fifty feet in height, appear crumbling and ragged, as
+they have lost the greater part of their original facing. Yet their
+thickness, which even now exceeds twelve feet, may enable them to bid
+defiance for many a century, to "the heat of the sun, and the furious
+winter's rages."--Nearly the half of one of the sides, which is seventy
+feet long, is occupied by three flat Norman buttresses, of very small
+projection. No arched door-way, no window remains; nor any thing, except
+these buttresses, to give a distinct character to the architecture: the
+hill is so overgrown with brush-wood, that though traces of foundation
+are discernible in almost every part of it, no clear idea can be formed
+of the dimensions or plan of the building. Its importance is
+sufficiently established by its having been the residence of a son or
+brother of Richard IInd, Duke of Normandy, on whose account, the town of
+Brionne, with the adjacent territory, was raised into an earldom.
+Historians speak unequivocally of its strength. During the reign of
+William the Conqueror, it was regarded as impregnable. This king was
+little accustomed to meet with disappointment or even with resistance;
+but the castle of Brionne defied his utmost efforts for three successive
+years. Under his less energetic successor, it was taken in a day. Its
+possessor, Robert, Earl of Brionne, felt himself so secure within his
+towers, that he ventured, with only six attendants, to oppose the whole
+army of the Norman Duke; but the besiegers observed that the fortress
+was roofed with wood; and a shower of burning missiles compelled the
+garrison to surrender at discretion.--The castle was finally dismantled
+by the orders of Charles Vth.
+
+Brionne is known in ecclesiastical history as the place where the
+council of the church was held, by which the tenets of Berengarius were
+finally condemned. It appears that the archdeacon of Angers, after some
+fruitless attempts to make converts among the Norman monks, took the
+bold resolution of stating his doctrines to the duke in person; and that
+the prince, though scarcely arrived at years of manhood, acted with so
+much prudence on the occasion, as to withhold any decisive answer, till
+he had collected the clergy of the duchy. They assembled at Brionne, as
+a central spot; and here the question was argued at great length, till
+Berengarius himself, and a convert, whom he had brought with him,
+trusting in his eloquence, were so overpowered by the arguments of their
+adversaries, that they were obliged to renounce their errors. The
+doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament, was thus
+incontrovertibly established; and it has from that time remained an
+undisputed article of faith in the Roman Catholic church.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 54: Vol. III. p. 187.--The engraving in the _Antiquarian
+Repertory_ was made from a drawing in the possession of the late Sir
+William Burrell, Bart.]
+
+[Footnote 55: The word _Turold_, in the tapestry, stands immediately
+over the head of a dwarf, who is holding a couple of horses; and it has
+therefore been inferred by Montfaucon, (_Monumens de la Monarchie
+Française_, I. p. 378.) that he is the person thus denominated. But M.
+Lancelot, in the _Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions_, VI. p. 753,
+supposes Turold to be the ambassador who is in the act of speaking; and
+this seems the more probable conjecture. The same opinion is still more
+decidedly maintained by Father Du Plessis, in his _Histoire de la Haute
+Normandie_, II. p. 342.--"Sur une ancienne tapisserie de l'Eglise de
+Baieux, que l'on croit avoir été faite par ordre de la Reine Mathilde
+femme du Conquérant, pour représenter les circonstances principales de
+cette mémorable expédition, on lit distinctement le mot _Turold_ à côté
+d'un des Ambassadeurs, que Guillaume avoit envoiez au Comte de Ponthieu;
+et je ne doute nullement que ce Turold ne soit le même que le
+Connétable. Le sçavant Auteur des Antiquitez de notre Monarchie croit
+cependant que ce mot doit se rapporter à un Nain qui tient deux chevaux
+en bride derriere les Ambassadeurs; et il ajoute que ce Nain devoit être
+fort connu à la Conr du Duc de Normandie. On avoue que si c'est lui en
+effet qui doit s'appeller Turold, il devoit tenir aussi à la Cour de son
+Prince un rang distingué; sans quoi on n'auroit pas pris la peine de le
+désigner par son nom dans la tapisserie. On avoue encore que le nom de
+Turold est placé là de maniere qu'on peut à la rigueur le donner au Nain
+aussi bien qu'à l'un des deux Ambassadeurs; et comme le Nain est
+appliqué à tenir deux chevaux en bride, on pourrait croire enfin que
+c'est le Connétable, dont les titres de l'Abbaïe de Facan nous ont
+appris le nom: _Signum Turoldi Constabularii_. Mais le Nain est très-mal
+habillé, il a son bonnet sur la tête, et tourne le dos au Comte de
+Ponthieu, pendant que les deux Ambassadeurs noblement vêtus regardent ce
+Prince en face, et lui parlent découverts: trois circonstances qui ne
+peuvent convenir, ni au Connétable du Duc, ni à toute autre personne de
+distinction qui auroit tenu compagnie, ou fait cortege aux
+Ambassadeurs."]
+
+[Footnote 56: This tower is figured, but very inaccurately, by Gough, in
+his _Alien Priories_, I. p. 22.--The cupola which then surmounted it is
+now gone; and the cap to the turret, which served as the staircase, has
+strangely changed its shape.]
+
+[Footnote 57: _Alien Priories_, I. p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 58: "Nam antea, sub tempore sex ducum vix ullus Normannorum
+liberalibus studiis adhæsit; nec doctor inveniebatur, donec provisor
+omnium, Deus, Normannicis oris Lanfrancum appulit. Fama peritiæ illius
+in totâ ubertim innotuit Europâ, unde ad magisterium ejus multi
+convenerunt de Franciâ, de Wasconiâ, de Britanniâ, necne
+Flandriâ."--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 519.]
+
+[Footnote 59: A question always existed, whether the Empress was really
+buried here, or at the abbey of Ste Marie des Prés, at Rouen. Hoveden
+expressly says, that she was interred at Rouen: the chronicle of Bec, on
+the other hand, is equally positive in the assertion that her body was
+brought to Bec, and entombed with honor before the altar of the Virgin.
+The same chronicle adds that, in the year 1273, her remains were
+discovered before the high altar, sewed up in an ox's hide.--Still
+farther to substantiate their claim, the monks of Bec maintained that,
+in 1684, upon the occasion of some repairs being done to this altar, the
+bones of the empress were again found immediately under the lamp (which,
+in Catholic churches, is kept constantly burning before the holy
+sacrament,) and that they were deposited once more in the ground in a
+wooden chest, covered with lead.--The Empress was a munificent endower
+of monasteries, and was at all times most liberal towards Bec. William
+of Jumieges says, that it would be tedious to enumerate the presents she
+made to the abbey, but that the sight of them gave pleasure to those
+strangers who have seen the treasures of the most noble churches. His
+remarks on this matter, and his account of her arguments with her
+father, on the subject of her choice of Bec, as a place of her
+interment, deserve to be transcribed.--"Transiret illac hospes Græcus
+aut Arabs, voluptate traheretur eadem. Credimus autem, et credere fas
+est, æquissimum judicem omnium non solùm in futuro, verumetiam in
+præsenti seculo, illi centuplum redditurum, quod seruis suis manu sicut
+larga, ita devota gratantèr impendit. Ad remunerationem verò instantis
+temporis pertinere non dubium est, quòd, miserante Deo, sopita adversa
+valetudine, sanctitatem refouit, et Monachos suos, Monachos Beccenses,
+qui præ omnibus, et super omnes pro ipsius sospitate, jugi labore
+supplicandi decertando pene defecerant, aura prosperæ valetudinis ejus
+afflatos omninò redintegravit.--Nec supprimendum illud est silentio,
+imò, ut ita dicatur, uncialibus literis exaratum, seculo venturo
+transmittendum; quòd antequam convalesceret postulaverat patrem suum, ut
+permitteret eam in CÅ"nobio Beccensi humari. Quod Rex primo abnuerat,
+dicens non esse dignum, ut filia sua, Imperatrix Augusta, quæ semel et
+iterùm in urbe Romulea, quæ caput est mundi, per manus summi Pontificis
+Imperiali diademate processerat insignita, in aliquo Monasterio, licèt
+percelebri et religione et fama, sepeliretur; sed ad civitatem
+Rotomagensium, quæ metropolis est Normannorum, saltem delata, in
+Ecclesia principali, in qua et majores ejus, Rollonem loquor et
+Willelmum Longamspatam filium ipsius, qui Neustriam armis subegerunt,
+positi sunt, ipsa et poneretur. Qua deliberatione Regis percepta, illi
+per nuncium remandavit, animam suam nunquam fore lætam, nisi compos
+voluntatis suæ in hac duntaxat parte efficeretur.--O femina macte
+virtutis et consilii sanioris, paruipendens pompam secularem in corporis
+depositione! Noverat enim salubrius esse animabus defunctorum ibi
+corpora sua tumulari, ubi frequentiùs et devotiùs supplicationes pro
+ipsis Deo offeruntur. Victus itaque pater ipsius Augustæ pietate et
+prudentia filiæ, qui ceteros et virtute et pietate vincere solitus erat,
+cessit, et voluntatem, et petitionem ipsius de se sepelienda Becci fieri
+concessit. Sed volente Deo ut præfixum est, sanitati integerrimæ
+restituta convaluit."--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 305.]
+
+[Footnote 60: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p, 281.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.
+
+BERNAT--BROGLIE--ORBEC--LISIEUX--CATHEDRAL--ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
+
+
+(_Lisieux, July_, 1818.)
+
+Instead of pursuing the straight road from Brionne to this city, we
+deviated somewhat to the south, by the advice of M. Le Prevost; and we
+have not regretted the deviation.
+
+Bernay was once celebrated for its abbey, founded in the beginning of
+the eleventh century, by Judith, wife of Richard IInd, Duke of Normandy.
+Some of the monastic buildings are standing, and are now inhabited: they
+appear to have been erected but a short time before the revolution, and
+to have suffered little injury.--But the abbey church, which belonged to
+the original structure, is all desolate within, and all defaced without.
+The interior is divided into two stories, the lower of which is used as
+a corn market, the upper as a cloth hall. Thus blocked up and
+encumbered, we may yet discern that it is a noble building: its
+dimensions are grand, and in most parts it is a perfect specimen of the
+semi-circular style, except the windows and the apsis, which are of
+later dates. The pillars in the nave and choir are lofty, but massy: the
+capitals of some of them are curiously sculptured. On the lower member
+of the entablature of one capital there are still traces of an
+inscription; but it is so injured by neglect and violence, that we were
+unable to decipher a single word. The capital itself is fanciful and not
+devoid of elegance.
+
+[Illustration: Capital]
+
+The convent was placed under the immediate protection of the sovereign,
+by virtue of an ordinance issued by Philip Augustus[61], in 1280, at
+which time Peter, Count of Alençon, attempted to establish a claim to
+some rights affecting the monastery. He alleged a grant from a former
+monarch to one of his predecessors, by whom he asserted that the convent
+had been founded; and, in support of his claim, he urged its position
+within the limits of his territory. The abbot and monks resisted: they
+gave proof that the abbey of Bernay was really founded by the duchess;
+and therefore the king, after a full and impartial hearing, decided
+against the count, and declared that the advocation of the monastery was
+thenceforth to belong to himself and his successors in the dukedom for
+ever.--Judith died before the convent was entirely built, and the task
+of completing it devolved upon her widowed husband, whose charter,
+confirming the foundation, is still in existence. It begins by a recital
+of the pious motives[62] which urged the duchess to the undertaking; it
+expressly mentions her death while the building was yet unfinished; and,
+after detailing the various lands and grants bestowed on the abbey, it
+concludes by denouncing the anger of God, and a fine of two hundred
+pounds weight of gold upon those who disturb the establishment, "that
+they may learn to their confusion that the good deeds of their
+ancestors, undertaken for the love of God, are not to be undone with
+impunity."
+
+The parochial church at Bernay is uninteresting. The sculptures,
+however, which adorn the high altar, are relics saved from the
+destruction of the abbey of Bec. The Virgin Mary and Joseph are
+represented, contemplating the infant Jesus, who is asleep. The statues
+are all of the natural size. We saw many grave-stones from the same
+abbey, nine or ten feet long, and covered with monumental figures of the
+usual description, indented in the stone. These memorials were standing
+by the side of the church door, not for preservation, but for sale! And
+at a small chapel in the burial-ground near the town, we were shewn
+twelve statues of saints, which likewise came from Bec. They are of
+comparatively modern workmanship, larger than life, and carved in a
+good, though not a fine, style. In the same chapel is kept the common
+coffin for the interment of all the poor at Bernay.
+
+The custom of merely putting the bodies of persons of the lower class
+into coffins, when they are brought to the burial-ground, and then
+depositing them naked in their graves, prevails at present in this part
+of France as it did formerly in England.--In a place which must be the
+receptacle for many that were in easy, and for not a few that were in
+affluent, circumstances, it was remarkable that all lay indiscriminately
+side by side, unmarked by any monumental stone, or any sepulchral
+record.--Republican France proscribed distinctions of every description,
+and those memorials which tended to perpetuate distinctions beyond the
+limits of mortal existence, were naturally most unpardonable in the eyes
+of the apostles of equality. But doctrines of this nature have fallen
+into disrepute for more than twenty years; and yet the country
+church-yard remains as naked as when the guillotine would have been the
+reward of opposition to the tenets of the day. There are few more
+comfortless sights, than such a cemetery: it looks as if those by whom
+it is occupied regarded death as eternal sleep, and thought that the
+memory of man should terminate with the close of his life. However
+unlettered the muse, however hackneyed the rhyme, however misapplied
+the text, it is consolatory to see them employed. Man dwells with a
+melancholy satisfaction upon the tomb-stones of his relations and
+friends, and not of them alone, but of all whom he has known or of whom
+he has heard.--A mere _hic jacet_, with the name and years of him that
+sleeps beneath, frequently recals the most lively impressions; and he
+who would destroy epitaphs would destroy a great incitement to
+virtue.--In other parts of France tomb-stones, or crosses charged with
+monumental inscriptions, have re-appeared: at Bernay we saw only two;
+one of them commemorated a priest of the town; the other was erected at
+the public expence, to the memory of three gendarmes, who were killed at
+the beginning of the revolution, and before religion was proscribed, in
+the suppression of some tumult.
+
+At less than a mile from Bernay, in the opposite direction, is another
+church, called Notre Dame de la Couture, a name borrowed from the
+property on which it stands. We were induced to visit it, by the
+representation of different persons in the town, who had noticed our
+architectural propensities. Some assured us that "C'est une belle
+pièce;" others that "C'est une pièce qui n'est pas vilaine;" and all
+concurred in praising it, though some only for the reason that "les
+processions vont tout autour du choeur."--We found nothing to repay the
+trouble of the walk.
+
+Bernay contains upwards of six thousand inhabitants, the greater part of
+whom are engaged in manufacturing coarse woollen and cotton cloths; and
+the manufactures flourish, the goods made being principally for home
+consumption. It is the chief place of the _arrondissement_, and the
+residence of a sub-prefect.--Most of the houses are like those at Rouen,
+merely wooden frames filled with mortar, which, in several instances, is
+faced with small bricks and flints, disposed in fanciful patterns: here
+and there the beams are carved with a variety of grotesque figures. The
+lower story of all those in the high street retires, leaving room for a
+wooden colonnade, which shelters the passenger, though it is entirely
+destitute of all architectural beauty. The head-dress of the females at
+Bernay is peculiar, and so very archaic, that our chamber-maid at the
+inn appeared to deserve a sketch, full as much as any monumental effigy.
+
+[Illustration: Head-dress of females of Bernay]
+
+On our road between Bernay and Orbec, we stopped at the village of
+Chambrais, more commonly called Broglie. Before the revolution, it
+belonged to the noble family of that name, and it thence derived its
+familiar appellation. The former residence of the Seigneurs of Broglie,
+which is still standing, apparently uninjured, upon an adjoining
+eminence, has lately been restored to the present Maréchal Duc de
+Broglie. It looks like an extensive parish work-house, or like any thing
+rather than a nobleman's seat.--The village church is very ancient and
+still curious, though in parts considerably modernized. Unlike most
+churches of great antiquity, it is not built in the form of a cross, but
+consists only of a nave and choir, with side-aisles and an apsis, all on
+a small scale[63]. Towards the north, the nave is separated from the
+aisle by some of the largest and rudest piers I ever saw. They occupy
+full two-thirds of the width of the intervening arches, which are five
+feet wide, elliptic rather than semi-circular, and altogether without
+ornament of any kind. Above each of these arches is a narrow,
+circular-headed window, banded with a cylindrical pilaster; and, in most
+instances, a row of quatrefoils runs between the pillar and the window.
+The bases of the windows rest upon a string-course that extends round
+the whole building; and on this also, alternating with the windows, rest
+corbels, from which spring very short, clustered columns, intended to
+support the groinings of the roof. On the south side, the massy piers
+have been pared into comparatively slender pillars; and the arches are
+pointed, as are all the lower windows in the church.--The font is of
+stone, and ancient: it consists of a round basin, on a quadrangular
+pedestal, like many in England.--The west front of the church is
+peculiar. It is entered by a very wide, low, semi-circular door-way, of
+rude architecture, and quite unornamented. Above is a window
+corresponding with those in the clerestory; and, still higher, a row of
+interlaced arches, also semi-circular. A pointed arch, the receptacle
+for the statue of a saint, surmounts the whole; but this is, most
+probably, of a later æra, as evidently are the two lateral
+compartments, which terminate in slender spires of slate, and are
+separated from the central division by Norman buttresses.
+
+We stopped to dine at Orbec, a small and insignificant country town,
+formerly an appendage of the houses of Orléans and Navarre, with the
+title of a barony; but, more immediately before the revolution, the
+domain of the family of Chaumont. Its church is a most uncouth edifice:
+the plan is unusual; the entrance is in the north transept, which ends
+in a square high tower.
+
+Bernay, Orbec, and Lisieux, communicate only by cross roads, scarcely
+passable by a carriage, even at this season of the year. From Orbec to
+Lisieux the road runs by the side of the Touques, which, at Orbec, is no
+more than a rivulet. The beautiful green meadows in the valley, appear
+to repay the great care which is taken in the draining and irrigating of
+them. They are every where intersected by small trenches, in which the
+water is confined by means of sluices.--In this part of the country, we
+passed several flocks of sheep, the true _moutons du pays_, a large
+breed, with red legs and red spotted faces. Their coarse wool serves to
+make the ordinary cloth of the country, but is inapplicable to any of a
+finer texture. To remedy this deficiency, and, if possible, improve the
+local manufactures, some large flocks of Merino sheep were imported at
+the time when the French occupied Spain; and they are said to thrive.
+But it is only of late years that any attempts, have been made of the
+kind.--The Norman farmer, however careful about the breed of his horses,
+has altogether neglected his sheep; and this is the more extraordinary,
+considering that the prosperity of the province is inseparably connected
+with that of the manufactures, and that much of the value of the produce
+must of necessity depend upon the excellence of the material. His pigs
+are the very perfection of ugliness: it is no hyperbole to say, that, in
+their form, they partake as much of a greyhound as of an English
+pig.--These animals are sure to attract the gaze of our countrymen; and
+poor Trotter, in his narrative of the journey of Mr. Fox, expressed his
+marvel so often, as to call down upon himself the witty vengeance of one
+of our ablest periodical writers.
+
+Melons are cultivated on a great scale in the country about Lisieux.
+They grow here in the natural soil, occupying whole fields of
+considerable size, and apparently without requiring any extraordinary
+pains.--As we approached the city, the meadows, through which we passed,
+were mostly occupied as extensive bleaching-grounds. Lisieux is an
+industrious manufacturing town. Its ten thousand inhabitants find their
+chief employment in the making of the ordinary woollen cloths, worn by
+the peasantry of Normandy and of Lower Brittany. Linen and flannels are
+also manufactured here, though on a comparatively trifling scale. For
+trade of this description, Lisieux is well situated upon the banks of
+the Touques, a small river, which, almost immediately under the walls of
+the town, receives the waters of a yet smaller stream, the Orbec. A
+project is in agitation, and it is said that it may be carried into
+effect at an inconsiderable expence, of making the Touques navigable to
+Lisieux. At present, it is so no farther than the the little town of the
+same name as the river; and even this derives no great advantage from
+the navigation; for, however near its situation is to the mouth of the
+stream, it is approachable only by vessels of less than one hundred tons
+burthen.--It was at Touques that Henry Vth landed in France, in the
+spring of 1417, when the monarch, flushed with a degree of success as
+extraordinary as it was unexpected, quitted England with the
+determination of returning no more till the whole kingdom of France
+should be subjugated.
+
+The greater part of the houses in Lisieux are built of wood; and many of
+them are old, and most of them are mean; yet, on the whole, it is
+picturesque and handsome. Its streets are spacious, and contain several
+large buildings: it is surrounded with pleasant _boulevards_; and its
+situation, like that of most other Norman towns, is delightful.--In
+consequence of the revolution, the city has lost the privilege of being
+an episcopal see. Even when Napoléon, by virtue of the concordat of
+1801, restored the Gallican church to its obedience to the the supreme
+Pontiff, the see of Lisieux was suppressed. The six suffragan bishops of
+ancient Normandy were at that time reduced to four, conformably to the
+number of the departments of the province; and Lisieux and Avranches
+merged in the more important dioceses of Bayeux and Coutances.
+
+The cathedral, now the parish church of St. Peter, derived, however, one
+advantage from the revolution. Another church, dedicated to St. Germain,
+which had previously stood immediately before it, so as almost to block
+up the approach, was taken down, and the west front of the cathedral was
+made to open upon a spacious square.--Solid, simple grandeur are the
+characters of this front, which, notwithstanding some slight anomalies,
+is, upon the whole, a noble specimen of early pointed architecture.--It
+is divided into three equal compartments, the lateral ones rising into
+short square towers of similar height. The southern tower is surmounted
+by a lofty stone spire, probably of a date posterior to the part below.
+The spire of the opposite tower fell in 1553, at which time much injury
+was done to the building, and particularly to the central door-way,
+which, even to the present day, has never been repaired.--Contrary to
+the usual elevation of French cathedrals, the great window over the
+principal entrance is not circular, but pointed: it is divided into
+three compartments by broad mullions, enriched with many mouldings. The
+compartments end in acute pointed arches.--In the north tower, the whole
+of the space from the basement story is occupied by only two tiers of
+windows. Each tier contains two windows, extremely narrow, considering
+their height; and yet, narrow as they are, each of them is parted by a
+circular mullion or central pillar. You will better understand how high
+they must be, when told that, in the southern tower, the space of the
+upper row is divided into three distinct tiers; and still the windows do
+not appear disproportionately short. They also are double, and the
+interior arches are pointed; but the arches, within which they are
+placed, are circular. In this circumstance lies the principal anomaly in
+the front of the cathedral; but there is no appearance of any disparity
+in point of dates; for the circular arches are supported on the same
+slender mullions, with rude foliaged capitals, of great projection,
+which are the most distinguishing characteristics of this style of
+architecture.
+
+The date of the building establishes the fact of the pointed arch being
+in use, not only as an occasional variation, but in the entire
+construction of churches upon a grand scale, as early as the eleventh
+century.--Sammarthanus tells us that Bishop Herbert, who died in 1049,
+began to build this church, but did not live to see it completed; and
+Ordericus Vitalis expressly adds, that Hugh, the successor to Herbert,
+upon his death-bed, in 1077, while retracing his past life, made use of
+these words:--"Ecclesiam Sancti Petri, principis apostolorum, quam
+venerabilis Herbertus, praedecessor meus, coepit, perfeci, studiosè
+adornavi, honorificè dedicavi, et cultoribus necessariisque divino
+servitio vasis aliisque apparatibus copiosè ditavi."--Language of this
+kind appears too explicit to leave room for ambiguity, but an opinion
+has still prevailed, founded probably upon the style of the
+architecture, that the cathedral was not finished till near the
+expiration of the thirteenth century. Admitting, however, such to be the
+fact, I do not see how it will materially help those who favor the
+opinion; for the building is far from being, as commonly happens in
+great churches, a medley of incongruous parts; but it is upon one fixed
+plan; and, as it was begun, so it was ended.--The exterior of the
+extremity of the south transept is a still more complete example of the
+early pointed style than the west front: this style, which was the most
+chaste, and, if I may be allowed to use the expression, the most severe
+of all, scarcely any where displays itself to greater advantage. The
+central window is composed of five lancet divisions, supported upon
+slender pillars: massy buttresses of several splays bound it on either
+side.
+
+The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of the
+building. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond the
+aisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, and
+plain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is also
+sculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support are
+acute.--The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but the
+capitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obvious
+imitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smaller
+ones. In the clerestory the windows are modern.--The transepts appear
+the oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case;
+whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being less
+used in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objects
+of subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisle
+on the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of the
+nave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender
+and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute.--The Lady-Chapel,
+which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenth
+century, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for his
+steady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see,
+in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fell
+into the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for the
+invidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orléans.
+Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct,
+according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a high
+mass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers, in
+order, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the false
+judgment which he pronounced[64].--The two windows by the side of the
+altar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to the
+effect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, through
+the long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir,
+the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing.--The central tower is open
+within the church to a considerable height: it is supported by four
+arches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, of
+the same character as the rest of the building; and, still higher, on
+each side, are two lancet-windows.--The vaulting of the roof is very
+plain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved.
+
+[Illustration: Ancient Tomb in the Cathedral at Lisieux]
+
+At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus,
+so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated with
+the edifice, at the period when it was raised. The style of the
+medallions which adorn it will be best understood by consulting the
+annexed sketch, which is very faithful, though taken under every
+possible disadvantage. The transept is now used as a school; and the
+little filthy imps, who are there taught to drawl out their catechisms,
+continued swarming round the feverish artist, during the progress of the
+drawing. The character of the heads, the crowns, and the disposition of
+the foliage, may be considered as indicating that it is a production, at
+least of the Carlovingian period, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I
+believe it is traditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint,
+perhaps St. Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate
+in the recollection of the name.--Above are two armed statues, probably
+of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by
+Willemin, in his useful work, _Les Monumens Français_, under the title
+of _Two Armed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral at Lisieux_; and
+both are there figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great
+many details which do not exist, and never could have existed, though at
+the same time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of the
+statues, one of which is yet nearly entire.--This may be reckoned among
+the innumerable proofs of the disregard of accuracy which pervades the
+works of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples to
+sacrifice accuracy to what he considers effect.--Willemin describes the
+monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he has
+availed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this and
+many other instances. It is evident that originally the statues were
+recumbent; but I cannot ascertain when they changed their position.--No
+other tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised to
+Hannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop,
+William d'Estouteville, founder of the _Collège de Lisieux_ at Paris,
+that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, were
+destroyed during the revolution.
+
+The diocese of Lisieux was a more modern establishment than any other in
+Normandy. Even those who are most desirous to honor it by antiquity, do
+not venture to date its foundation higher than the middle of the sixth
+century. Ordericus Vitalis, a monk of the province, suggests with some
+reason that we ought not to be hasty in forming our judgment upon these
+subjects; for that, owing to the destruction caused by the Norman
+pirates and the abominable negligence (_damnabilis negligentia_) of
+those to whom the care of the records of religious houses had
+subsequently been intrusted, many documents had been irretrievably
+lost.--The see of Lisieux was also peculiarly unfortunate, in having
+twice been in a state of anarchy, and on each occasion for a period of
+more than a century. The series of its prelates is interrupted from the
+year 670 to 853, and again from 876 to 990.
+
+It is rather extraordinary, that no one of the Lexovian bishops was ever
+admitted by the church into the catalogue of her saints. Many of them
+were prelates of unquestionable merit. Freculfus, in the ninth century,
+was a patron of literature, and himself an author; Hugh of Eu, grandson
+of Richard, Duke of Normandy, was one of the most illustrious
+ecclesiastics of his day; Gilbert is described by Ordericus Vitalis as
+having been a man of exemplary charity, and deeply versed in all
+sciences, though it is admitted that he was somewhat too much addicted
+to worldly pleasures, and not averse from gambling; and Arnulf, whose
+letters and epigrams are preserved among the manuscripts of the Vatican,
+was a prelate who would have done honor to St. Peter's chair.--All these
+were bishops of Lisieux, during the ages when canonization was not
+altogether so unfrequent as in our days. Arnulf particularly
+distinguished himself by taking a leading part in the principal
+transactions of the times. He accompanied the crusaders to the holy land
+in 1147; five years subsequently he officiated at the marriage of Henry
+Plantagenet with Eleanor of Guyenne, the repudiated wife of Louis le
+Jeune, which was performed in his cathedral; he assisted at the
+coronation of the same king, by whom he was shortly afterwards employed
+in a mission of great importance at Rome; and he interposed to settle
+the differences between that sovereign and Thomas à Becket; and though
+he espoused the part of the prelate, he had the good fortune to retain
+the favor of the monarch. A life thus eventful ended with the conviction
+that all was vanity!--Arnulf, disgusted with sublunary honors, abdicated
+his see and retired to a monastery at Paris, where he died.--One of the
+immediate successors of this prelate, William of Rupierre, was the
+ambassador of Richard Coeur-de-Lion to the Pope; and he pleaded the
+cause of his sovereign against Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, on the
+occasion of the differences that originated from the building of Château
+Gaillard. He also resisted the power usurped by King John within the
+city and liberties of Lisieux, and finally obtained a sentence from the
+Norman court of exchequer, whereby the privileges of the dukes of the
+province were restricted to what was called the _Placitum Spathæ_,
+consisting of the right of billetting soldiers, of coining money, and of
+hearing and determining in cases of appeal. The decision is honorable
+both to the independence of the court, and the vigor of the prelate.--In
+times nearer to our own, a bishop of Lisieux, Jean Hennuyer, obtained a
+very different distinction. Authors are strangely at variance whether
+this prelate is to be regarded as the protector or the persecutor of the
+protestants. All agree that his church suffered materially from the
+excesses of the Huguenots, in 1562, and that, on the following year, he
+received public thanks from the Cardinal of Bourbon, for the firmness
+with which he had opposed them; but the point at issue is, whether,
+after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, ten years subsequently, he
+withstood the sanguinary orders from the court to put the Huguenots to
+the sword, or whether he endeavored, as far as lay in his power, to
+forward the pious labor of extirpating the heretics, but was himself
+effectually resisted by the king's own lieutenant.--Sammarthanus tells
+us that the first of these traditions rests solely upon the authority
+of Anthony Mallet[65] but it obtained general credence till within the
+last three years, when a very well-informed writer, in the _Mercure de
+France_, and subsequently in the article _Hennuyer_ in the
+_Bibliographie Universelle_, espoused, and has apparently established,
+the opposite opinion.
+
+We visited only one other of the churches in Lisieux, that of St.
+Jacques, a large edifice, in a bad style of pointed architecture, and
+full of gaudy altars and ordinary pictures. On the outside of the stalls
+of the choir towards the north is some curious carving; but I should
+scarcely have been induced to have spoken of the building, were it not
+for one of the paintings, which, however uninteresting as a piece of
+art, appears to possess some historical value. It represents how the
+bones of St. Ursinus were miraculously translated to Lisieux, under the
+auspices of Hugh the Bishop, in 1055; and it professes, and apparently
+with truth, to be a copy, made in the seventeenth century, from an
+original of great antiquity. The legend relating to the relics of this
+saint, is noticed by no author with whom I am acquainted, nor do I find
+him mentioned any where in conjunction with the church of Lisieux, or
+with any other Norman diocese.--But the extraordinary privilege granted
+to the canons of the cathedral, of being Earls of Lisieux, and of
+exercising all civil and criminal jurisdiction within the earldom, upon
+the vigil and feast-day of St. Ursinus, in every year, is most probably
+connected with the tradition commemorated by the picture. The actual
+existence of the privilege, in modern times, we learn from Ducarel; who
+also details at length the curious ceremonies with which the claim of it
+was accompanied. The exercise of these rights was confirmed by a compact
+between the canons and the bishop, who, prior to the revolution, united
+the secular coronet of an earl with the episcopal mitre, and bore
+supreme sway in all civil and ecclesiastical polity, during the
+remaining three hundred and sixty-three days in the year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 61: This ordinance is preserved by Du Monstier in the
+_Neustria Pia_, p. 400.]
+
+[Footnote 62: The preamble of the charter is as follows:--"Nulli dubium
+videri debet futuros esse haeredes Regni coelestis, et cohaeredes Dei,
+qui Christum haeredem sui facientes, eorum, quæ in hujus vitae
+peregrinatione, quasi a quadam paterna haereditate possident, locis ea
+Divino cultui deditis mancipare non dubitant. Ad quam rem, nostram
+firmat fidem calix aquæ frigidae, qui, juxta Evangelicum verbum, suo
+pollet munere. Non ergò divini muneris gratia privari credendi sunt, qui
+Ecclesiasticis obsequiis, etsi officio non intersunt, rerum tamen suarum
+admistratione, Divini officii sustentant ministros: ea spe temporalem
+subministrantes alimoniam, ut sic solummodò coelestibus reddant
+intentos, qui coelestis Regis assiduo constituuntur invigilare obsequio,
+participes fiant ejusmodi beneficii omnimodò."--_Neustria Pia_, p. 398.]
+
+[Footnote 63: The following are the dimensions of the building, in
+English feet:--
+
+              LENGTH.     WIDTH.
+  Nave          54          15
+  Choir         45          15
+  North aisle                7
+  South ditto               15
+
+]
+
+[Footnote 64: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47.]
+
+[Footnote 65: "Sed ne quid omittam eorum etiam quæ unum Antonium
+_Mallet_ habent auctorem, anno 1572, cum prorex urbis Lexoviensis
+Livarotus a Carolo rege literas accepisset, quibus qui Lexovii infecti
+erant hæresi occidi omnes jubebantur per eos dies quibus princeps
+civitas cruore ejus insaniæ hominum commaduerat, easque communicasset
+episcopo: Neque sum passurus, inquit præsul, oves meas, et quamquam
+evagatas Christi caula, meas tamen adhuc, necdum desperatas, gladio
+trucidari. Referente contra prorege imperio se mandatoque urgeri
+principis; quod si posthabeatur, omnem esse periculi aleam in caput suum
+moriendique necessitatem redituram: Et polliceor, inquit episcopus, illa
+te eximendum, postulantique cautionem, præsul consignatum manu sua
+scriptum tradidit, fidem datam confirmans. Qua illico publicata
+clementia, et ad errantes oves perlata, sollicitudine præsulis
+vigilantis circa gregis commissi sibi salutem et conservationem, rediere
+sensim in ecclesiæ sinum omnes quotquot Lexovii per ea tempora novum
+istud fataleque delirium dementarat, nec ultra ibidem diu visi qui a
+recta fide aberrarent."--_Gallia Christiana_, p. 802.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.
+
+SITE AND RUINS OF THE CAPITAL OF THE LEXOVII--HISTORY OF
+LISIEUX--MONASTERIES OF THE DIOCESE--ORDERICUS VITALIS--M.
+DUBOIS--LETTER FROM THE PRINCESS BORGHESE.
+
+
+(_Lisieux, July_, 1818.)
+
+Lisieux represents one of the most ancient capitals of the primitive
+tribes of Gaul. The Lexovii, noticed by Julius Cæsar, in his
+_Commentaries_, and by other authors, who were almost contemporary with
+the Roman conqueror, are supposed by modern geographers to have occupied
+a territory nearly co-extensive with the bishopric of Lisieux; and it
+may be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics of France
+were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces and prefectures.
+
+The capital of the Lexovii was called the _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus
+Lexoviorum_; and no doubt ever was entertained but that the present city
+occupied the same site, till an accidental discovery, in the year 1770,
+proved the contrary to be the fact.--About that time a _chaussée_ was
+formed between Lisieux and Caen; and, in the course of some excavations,
+which were made under the direction of M. Hubert, the superintending
+engineer, for the purpose of procuring stone, the laborers opened the
+foundations of some ruined buildings scattered over a field, called _les
+Tourettes_, about three-quarters of a mile from the former town. The
+character of these foundations was of a nature to excite curiosity: they
+were clearly the work of a remote age, and various specimens of ancient
+art were dug up amongst the ruins. The extent of the foundations, which
+spread over a space four times as large as the plot occupied by modern
+Lisieux left no doubt but that Danville, and all other geographers, must
+have been mistaken with respect to the position assigned by them to the
+ancient Neomagus. M. Hubert drew a plan of the ruins, and accompanied it
+with an historical memoir; but unfortunately he was a man little capable
+of prosecuting such researches; and though M. Mongez, in his report to
+the National Institute[66], eulogized the map as exact, and the memoir
+as excellent, they were both of them extremely faulty. It was reserved
+for M. Louis Dubois, of whom I shall have occasion to speak again before
+I close this letter, to repair the omissions and rectify the mistakes of
+M. Hubert, and he has done it with unremitting zeal and extraordinary
+success. The researches of this gentleman, among the remains of Neomagus
+Lexoviorum, have already brought to light a large number of valuable
+medals, both in silver and bronze, as well as a considerable quantity of
+fragments of foreign marble, granite, and porphyry, some of them
+curiously wrought. The most important of his discoveries has been
+recently made: it is that of a Roman amphitheatre, in a state of great
+perfection, the grades being covered only by a thin layer of soil, which
+a trifling expence of time and labor will effectually remove.
+
+Such vestiges prove that Neomagus must have been a place of importance;
+and, like the other Gallo-Roman cities, it would probably have
+maintained its honors under the Franks; but about the middle of the
+fourth century, the Saxons, swarming from the mouths of the Elbe and
+Weser, laid waste the coasts of Belgium and of Neustria, and finally
+established themselves in that portion of northern Gaul called the
+_Secunda Lugdunensis_, which thence obtained, in the _Notitia Imperii_,
+the title of the _Littus Saxonicum_.--In the course of these incursions,
+it is supposed that Neomagus was utterly destroyed by the invaders. None
+of the medals dug up within the precincts of the town, or in its
+neighborhood, bear a later date than the reign of Constantine; and,
+though the city is recorded in the _Itinerary of Antoninus_, no mention
+of it is to be found in the curious chart, known by the name of the
+_Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reign of Theodosius the Great;
+so that it then appears to have been completely swept away and
+forgotten.
+
+The new town of Lisieux and the bishopric most probably arose together,
+towards the close of the sixth century; and the city, like other
+provincial capitals in Gaul, took the name of the tribe by whom the
+district had been peopled. It first appears in history under the
+appellation of _Lexovium_ or _Lexobium_: in the eleventh century, when
+Ordericus Vitalis composed his history, it was called _Luxovium_; and
+soon after it became _Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, which, gallicised,
+naturally passed into _Lyzieulx_, or, as it is now written, _Lisieux_.
+The city was ravaged by the Normans about the year 877, in the course of
+one of their predatory excursions from Bayeux: it again felt their
+vengeance early in the following century, when Rollo, after taking
+Bayeux by storm, sacked Lisieux at the head of his army on his way to
+Rouen. The conqueror was not put in possession of the Lexovian territory
+by Charles the Simple till 923, eleven years after the rest of Neustria
+had been ceded to him.
+
+United to the duchy, Lisieux enjoyed a short respite from the calamities
+of war; nor does it appear to have borne any prominent part in the
+transactions of the times. The name, indeed, of the city occurs as the
+seat of the council held for the purpose of degrading Malgerius from the
+primacy of Normandy; but, except on this occasion, Lisieux is scarcely
+mentioned till the first year of the twelfth century, when it was the
+seat of rebellion. Ralph Flambart, bishop of Durham, a prelate of
+unbounded arrogance, had fled from England, and joined Duke Robert, then
+in arms against his brother. Raising the standard of insurrection, he
+fixed himself at Lisieux, took forcible possession of the town, and
+invested his son, only twelve years old, with the mitre[67], while he
+himself exercised despotic authority over the inhabitants. At length, he
+purchased peace and forgiveness, by opening the gates to his lawful
+sovereign, after the battle of Tinchbray.--In the middle of October, in
+the same year, Henry returned to Lisieux, and there held an assembly of
+the Norman nobility and prelates, who proclaimed peace throughout the
+duchy, enacted sundry strict regulations to prevent any infringement of
+the laws, and decreed that Robert, the captive duke, should be consigned
+to an English prison.--Two years subsequently, another council was also
+assembled at Lisieux, by the same sovereign, and for nearly the same
+objects; and again, in 1119, Henry convened his nobles a third time at
+Lisieux, when this parliament ratified the peace concluded at Gisors,
+six years previously, and witnessed the marriage[68] of the king's son,
+William Adelin, with Matilda, daughter of Fulk, earl of Anjou.
+
+Historical distinction is seldom enviable:--in the wars occasioned by
+the usurpation of Stephen, Lisieux once more obtained an unfortunate
+celebrity. The town was attacked in 1136, by the forces of Anjou, under
+the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband of the Empress Maud, joined
+by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and the garrison, consisting of
+Bretons, seeing no hope of effectual resistance or of rescue, set fire
+to the place to the extreme mortification of the invaders, who, in the
+language of the chronicles of the times, "when they beheld the city and
+all its wealth a prey to the flames, waxed exceedingly wroth, at being
+deprived of the spoil; and grieved sorely for the loss of the booty
+which perished in the conflagration."--The town, however, was not so
+effectually ruined, but that, during the following year, it served King
+Stephen as a rallying point, at which to collect his army to march
+against his antagonist.--In 1169, it was distinguished by being selected
+by Thomas à Becket, as the place of his retirement during his temporary
+disgrace.
+
+History from this time forward relates but little concerning Lisieux.
+Though surrounded with walls during the bishopric of John, who was
+promoted to the see early in the twelfth century, the situation of the
+town, far from the coast or from the frontiers of the province, rendered
+the inhabitants naturally unwarlike, and caused them in general to
+submit quietly to the stronger party.--Brito, in his _Philippiad_, says
+that, when Philip Augustus took Lisieux, in 1213, the Lexovians,
+destitute of fountains, disputed with the toads for the water of the
+muddy ditches. His mentioning such a fact is curious, as shewing that
+public fountains were at that early period of frequent occurrence in
+Normandy.--Our countrymen, in the fifteenth century, acted with great
+rigor, to use the mildest terms, towards Lisieux. Henry, after landing
+at Touques, in 1417, entered the town, in the character of an enraged
+enemy, not as the sovereign of his people: he gave it up to plunder; and
+even the public archives were not spared. The cruelty of our English
+king is strongly contrasted by the conduct of the Count de Danois,
+general of the army of Charles VIIth, to whom the town capitulated in
+1449. Thomas Basin, then bishop, negociated with such ability, that,
+according to Monstrelet, "not the slightest damage was done to any
+individual, but each peaceably enjoyed his property as before the
+surrender."
+
+The most celebrated monasteries within the diocese of Lisieux were the
+Benedictine abbeys of Bernay, St. Evroul, Preaux, and
+Cormeilles.--Cormeilles was founded by William Fitz-Osborne, a relation
+to William the Conqueror, at whose court he held the office of sewer,
+and by whom he was promoted to the earldom of Hereford. Its church and
+monastic buildings had so far gone to ruin, in the last century, as to
+call forth a strong remonstrance from Mabillon[69]: they were afterwards
+repaired by Charles of Orléans, who was appointed abbot in 1726.--The
+abbey of Preaux is said to have existed prior to the invasion of the
+Normans; but its earliest records go no farther back than the middle of
+the eleventh century, when it was restored by Humphrey de Vetulis, who
+built and inclosed the monastery about the year 1035, at which time Duke
+Robert undertook his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This abbey, according
+to the account given by Gough, in his _Alien Priories_, presented to
+thirty benefices, and enjoyed an annual revenue of twenty thousand
+livres.--Among its English lands which were considerable, was the priory
+of Toft-Monks in our own immediate vicinity: the name, as you know,
+remains, though no traces of the building are now in existence.
+
+The third abbey, that of St. Evrau or St. Evroul, called in Latin,
+_Monasterium Uticense_, was one of the most renowned throughout
+Normandy. The abbey dates its origin from St. Evroul himself, a
+nobleman, who lived in the reign of Childebert, and was attached to the
+palace of that monarch, "from which," to use the words of the
+chronicles, "he made his escape, as from shipwreck, and fled to the
+woods, and entered upon the monastic life."--The legend of St. Ebrulfus
+probably savors of romance, the almost inseparable companion of
+traditional, and particularly of monastic, history: it is safer,
+therefore, to be contented with referring the foundation of the
+monastery to the tenth century, when William Gerouis, after having been
+treacherously deprived of his sight and otherwise maimed, renounced the
+world; and, uniting with his nephews, Hugh and Robert de Grentemaisnil,
+brought considerable possessions to the endowment of this abbey. The
+abbey was at all times protected by the especial favor of the kings of
+France. No payment or service could be demanded from its monks; they
+acknowledged no master without their own walls, besides the sovereign
+himself; they were entitled to exemption from every kind of burthen; and
+they had the privilege of being empowered to castellate the convent, and
+to compel the people of the surrounding district to contribute their
+assistance for the purpose.
+
+St. Evroul, however, principally claims our attention, as the sanctuary
+where Ordericus Vitalis, to use his own expressions, "delighted in
+obedience and poverty."--This most valuable writer was an Englishman;
+his native town being Attingesham, on the Severn, where he was born in
+the year 1075. He was sent to school at Shrewsbury, and there received
+the first rudiments, both of the _humanities_ and of ecclesiastical
+education. In the tenth year of his age, his father, Odelerius,
+delivered the boy to the care of the monk Rainaldus. The weeping father
+parted from the weeping son, and they never saw each other more.
+Ordericus crossed the sea, and arrived in Normandy, an exile, as he
+describes himself, and "hearing, like Joseph in Egypt, a language which
+he understood not." In the eleventh year of his age, he received the
+tonsure from the hands of Mainerius, the abbot of St. Evroul. In the
+thirty-third year of his age, he was ordained a priest; and
+thenceforward his life wore away in study and tranquillity. Aged and
+infirm, he completed his _Ecclesiastical History_, in the sixty-seventh
+year of his age; and this great and valuable work ends with his
+auto-biography, which is written in an affecting strain of simplicity
+and piety.--The Ecclesiastical History of Ordericus is divided into
+parts: the first portion contains an epitome of the sacred and profane
+history of the world, beginning with the incarnation, and ending with
+Pope Innocent IInd. The second, and more important division, contains
+the history of Normandy, from the first invasion of the country, down
+to the year 1141.--Though professedly an ecclesiastical historian, yet
+Ordericus Vitalis is exceedingly copious in his details of secular
+events; and it is from these that his chronicle derives its importance
+and curiosity. It was first published by Duchesne, in his collection of
+Norman historians, a work which is now of rare occurrence, and it has
+never been reprinted.
+
+Valuable materials for a new edition were, however, collected early in
+the eighteenth century, by William Bessin, a monk of St. Ouen; and
+these, before the revolution, were preserved in the library of that
+abbey. Bessin had been assisted in the task by Francis Charles Dujardin,
+prior of St. Evroul, who had collated the text, as published in the
+collection of Norman historians, with the original manuscript in his own
+monastery, to which latter Duchesne unfortunately had not access, but
+had been obliged to content himself with a copy, now in the Royal
+Library at Paris. It is to be hoped, that the joint labors of Bessin and
+Dujardin may still be in existence, and may come to light, when M.
+Liquet shall have completed the task of arranging the manuscripts in the
+public library at Rouen. The manuscript which belonged to St. Evroul,
+and was always supposed to be an autograph from the hands of Ordericus
+Vitalis himself, was discovered during the revolution among a heap of
+parchments, thrown aside as of no account, in some buildings belonging
+to the former district of Laigle. It is now deposited in the public
+library of the department of the Orne, but unfortunately, nearly half
+the leaves of the volume are lost. The earliest part of what remains is
+towards the close of the seventh book, and of this only a fragment,
+consisting of eight pages, is left. The termination of the seventh book,
+and the whole of the eighth are wanting. From the ninth to the
+thirteenth, both of these inclusive, the manuscript is perfect. A page
+or two, however, at the end of the work, which contained the author's
+life, has been torn out.--At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the
+manuscript was complete; for it is known that, at that time, a monk of
+St. Evroul made a transcript of it, which extended through four volumes
+in folio. These volumes were soon dispersed. Two of them found their way
+to Rouen, where they were kept in the library of St. Ouen: the other two
+were in that of the abbey of St. Maur de Glandefeuille, on the Loire. A
+third, though incomplete, copy of the original manuscript was also known
+to exist in France before the revolution. It formerly belonged to
+Coaslin de Camboret, Bishop of Metz, by whom it was presented, together
+with four thousand manuscripts, to the monks of St. Germain des Prés at
+Paris. But the greater part of the literary treasures of this abbey fell
+a prey to the flames in July, 1793, and it is feared that the copy of
+Ordericus perished at that time.
+
+The original code from St. Evroul, was discovered by M. Louis Dubois,
+whom I have already mentioned in connection with the ruins of Neomagus.
+He is an antiquary of extensive knowledge and extraordinary zeal. His
+_History of Lisieux_, which he has long been preparing for the press,
+will be a work of great curiosity and interest. The publication of it is
+for the present suspended, whilst he superintends an edition of the
+_Vaux-de-Vires_, or _Vaux de villes_, of Olivier Basselin, an early
+Norman poet. Meanwhile, M. Dubois still continues his researches among
+the foundations of the ancient city, from which he has collected a
+number of valuable relics. Some of the most pleasant and instructive
+hours of my tour have been spent in his society; and, whilst it was
+under his guidance that I visited the antiquities of Lisieux, his
+learning assisted me in illustrating them. M. Dubois likewise possesses
+a large collection of original autograph letters, which I found much
+pleasure in perusing.
+
+During the reign of Napoléon, he held the office of librarian of
+Alençon, a situation that afforded him the opportunity of meeting with
+many literary curiosities of this nature. Among others, which thus fell
+into his hands, was the following letter, written by the Princess
+Borghese, sister to the Emperor, and addressed to the Empress
+Marie-Louise, by whom it was received, while on a tour through the
+western departments. I annex a transcript of this epistle; for, although
+it has no immediate connection with the main subject of our
+correspondence, it yet is a very singular contribution towards the
+private history of the dynasty of Napoléon.--The odd mixture of
+caudle-cup compliment and courtly flattery, is sufficiently amusing. I
+have copied it, word for word, letter for letter, and point for point;
+for, as we have no other specimen of the epistles of her imperial
+highness, I think it right to preserve all the peculiarities of the
+original; and, by, way of a treat for the collectors of autographs, I
+have added a fac-simile of her signature.
+
+Madame et tres chere SÅ"ur,
+
+je recois par le Prince Aldobrandini la lettre de V.M. et la belle tasse
+dont elle a daigné, le charger pour moi au nom de L'empereur, je
+remercie mille fois votre aimable bonté, et j'ose vous prier ma tres
+chere sÅ"ur d'être aupres de L'empereur l'interprete de ma reconnaissance
+pour cette marque de souvenir.--je fais parler beaucoup le Prince et la
+Princesse Aldobrandini sur votre santé, sur votre belle grossesse, je ne
+me lasse pas de les interroger, et je suis heureuse d'apprendre que vous
+vous portés tres bien, que rien ne vous fatigue, et que vous avés la
+plus belle grossesse qu'il soit possible de desirer, combien je desire
+chere sÅ"ur que tous nos vÅ"ux soient exaucés, ne croyés cependant pas
+que si vous nous donnés une petite Princesse je ne l'aimerais pas. non,
+elle nous serait chere, elle resemblerait a V.M. elle aurait sa douceur,
+son amabilité, et ce joli caractere qui la fait cherir de ceux qui out
+le bonheur de la Conaitre--mais ma chère sÅ"ur j'ai tort de m'apesantir
+sur les qualités dont serait douée cette auguste princesse, vous nous
+donnerés d'abord un prince un petit Roi de Rome, jugés combien je le
+desire nos bons toscans prient pour vous, ils vous aiment et je n'ai pas
+de peine a leur inspirer ce que je sens si vivement.
+
+je vous remercie ma tres chere sÅ"ur de l'interest que vous prenez a mon
+fils, tout le monde dit qu'il ressemble a L'empereur. cela me Charme il
+est bien portant a present, et j'espere qu'il sera digne de servir sous
+les drapeaux de son auguste oncle.--adieu ma chere sÅ"ur soyés assés
+bonne pour Conserver un souvenir a une sÅ"ur qui vous est tendrement
+attachée. Napoléon ne cesse de lire la lettre pleine de bonté que V.M. a
+daigné lui ecrire, cela lui a fait sentir le plaisir qu'il y avait a
+savoir lire, et l'encourage dans ses etudes--je vous embrasse et suis,
+
+Madame et tres chere SÅ"ur
+
+de V.M.
+
+La plus attachée
+
+[Illustration: Autograph of the Princess Borghese]
+
+Pitti le 18 janvier 1811
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 66: See _Magazin Encyclopédique, for_ 1802, III. p. 504.]
+
+[Footnote 67: This transaction appears to have been peculiarly flagrant:
+a long detail of the circumstances, accompanied by several letters, very
+characteristic of the feeling and church-government of the times, is
+preserved in the _Concilia Normannica_, p. 520.--The account concludes
+in the following words:--"Exhorruit ad facinus, non Normannia solum et
+Anglia, quibus maledicta progenies notissima erat, sed et universa
+Gallia, et a singulis ad Apostolicum Paschalem delatum est. Nec tamen
+utrique simul ante quinquienniuin sordes de domo Dei propulsare
+prævaluerunt. Ceteris ferventiùs institit Yvo Carnotensis Antistes,
+conculcatæ disciplinæ ecclesiasticæ zelo succensus; in tantum ut
+Neustriacos Præsules quasi desides ac pusillanimes coarguere veritus non
+sit: sed ea erat Ecclesiæ sub ignavo Principe sors per omnia
+lamentabilis, ut ipsemet postmodum cum laude non invitus agnovit."]
+
+[Footnote 68: Sandford, in his _Genealogical History of the Kings of
+England_, says, that this marriage was solemnized at Luxseul, in the
+county of Burgundy; but he refers for his authority to Ordericus
+Vitalis, by whom it is stated to have been at Luxovium, the name by
+which he always calls Lisieux; and he, in the same page, mentions the
+assembly of the nobles also held there.]
+
+[Footnote 69: _Annal_, IV. p. 599.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.
+
+FRENCH POLICE--RIDE FROM LISIEUX TO CAEN--CIDER--GENERAL APPEARANCE AND
+TRADE OF CAEN--ENGLISH RESIDENT THERE.
+
+
+(_Caen, August_, 1818.)
+
+Our reception at Caen has been somewhat inauspicious: we had scarcely
+made the few necessary arrangements at the hôtel, and seated ourselves
+quietly before the _caffé au lait_, when two gens-d'armes, in military
+costume, stalked without ceremony into the room, and, taking chairs at
+the table, began the conversation rather abruptly, with "Monsieur, vous
+êtes sous arrêt."--My companions were appalled by such a salutation, and
+apprehended some mistake; but the fact turned out to be, that our
+passport did not bear the signature of the mayor of Rouen, and that this
+ignorance of the regulations of the French police had subjected us to so
+unexpected a visit. It was too late in the day for the deficiency to be
+then supplied; and therefore, after a few expostulations, accompanied
+with observations, on their part, that we had the good fortune to have
+fixed ourselves at an _honnête hôtel_, and did not wear the appearance
+of suspicious persons, the soldiers took their leave, first exacting
+from me a promise, that I would present myself the next morning before
+the proper officer, and would in the meanwhile consider myself a
+prisoner upon my parole.
+
+The impression which this occurrence could not fail to make upon our
+minds, was, that the object of the gens-d'armes had been either to
+extort from us money, or to shew their consequence; but I have since
+been led to believe that they did no more than their duty.--We have
+several acquaintance among the English who reside here, and we find from
+the whole of them, that the utmost strictness is practised in all
+matters relating to passports, and not less towards natives than
+foreigners. No Frenchman can quit his _arrondissement_ unprovided with a
+passport; and the route he intends to take, and the distance he designs
+to travel, must also be specified. A week or two ago the prefect of the
+police himself was escorted back to Caen, between a couple of
+gens-d'armes, because he inadvertently paid a visit to a neighboring
+bathing-place without his passport in his pocket. This is a current
+story here: I cannot vouch for its authenticity; however it is certain,
+that since the discovery of the late plot contrived by the ultras, a
+plot whose existence is generally disbelieved, the French police is more
+than usually upon the alert.
+
+When I presented myself at the Hôtel de Ville, to redeem my promise, a
+recent decree was pointed out to me, containing a variety of regulations
+which shew extraordinary uneasiness on the part of the government, and
+which would seem to indicate that they are in possession of intelligence
+respecting projects, that threaten the public tranquillity[70]. To judge
+from all official proceedings, it seems as if we were walking upon a
+smothered volcano, and yet we are told by every body that there is not
+the slightest room for apprehension of any kind.
+
+This interruption has thrown me out of the regular course of my
+narration.--My last letter left me still at Lisieux, from which city to
+Caen the road lies through a tract of country altogether without
+interest, and in most places without beauty. During the first half of
+the ride, we could almost have fancied ourselves at home in
+Norfolk.--About this part of the way, the road descends through a hollow
+or dale, which bore the ominous name of "_Coupe Gorge_." When Napoléon
+was last in Normandy, he inquired into the origin of the
+appellation.--The diligences, he was answered, "had often been stopped
+and robbed in this solitary pass."--Napoléon then said, "If one person
+can be made to settle here, more will follow, for it is conveniently
+situated between two good towns. Let the prefect buy a little plot of
+ground and build a house upon it, and give it to an old soldier, upon
+condition that he shall constantly reside in it with his family." The
+orders of Napoléon were obeyed. The old soldier opened an inn, other
+houses arose round it, and the cut-throat pass is now thoroughly secure.
+The conductor and the post-boy tell the tale with glee whilst they drive
+through the hamlet; and its humble dwellings will perhaps recal the
+memory and fame of Napoléon Buonaparte when the brazen column of the
+grand army, and the marble arch of the Thuilleries, shall have been long
+levelled with the ground.--As to the character of the landscape, I must
+add, that though it makes a bad picture, there are great appearances of
+care in the agriculture, and of comfort in the population. The country,
+too, is sufficiently well wooded; and apple and pear trees every where
+take the place of the pollard oaks and elms of our hedge-rows.
+
+Norman cider is famous throughout France: it is principally, however,
+the western part of the province that produces it. Throughout the whole
+of that district, the lower classes of the inhabitants scarcely use any
+other beverage. Vines, as I have already had occasion to mention, were
+certainly cultivated, in early times, farther to the north than they are
+at present. The same proofs exist of vineyards in the vicinity of Caen
+and Lisieux, as at Jumieges. Indeed, towards the close of the last
+century, there was still a vineyard at Argence, only four miles
+south-east of Caen; and a kind of white wine was made there, which was
+known by the name of _Vin Huet_. But the liquor was meagre; and I
+understand that the vineyard is destroyed.--Upon the subject of the
+early use of beer in Normandy, tradition is somewhat indistinct. The
+ancient name of one of the streets in Caen, _rue de la Cervoisiere_,
+distinctly proves the habit of beer-drinking; and, when Tacitus speaks
+of the beverage of the Germans, in his time, as "humor ex hordeo vel
+frumento in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus," it seems highly
+improbable but that the same liquor should have been in use among the
+cognate tribes of Gaul. Brito, however, expressly says of Flanders, that
+it is a place where,
+
+
+   "Raris sylva locis facit umbram, vinea nusquam:
+    Indigenis potus Thetidi miscetur avena,
+    Ut vice sit vini multo confecta labore."
+
+
+And the same author likewise tells us, that the Normans of his time were
+cider-drinkers--
+
+
+   "... _Siceræque_ potatrix
+    Algia tumentis ...
+    Non tot in autumni rubet Algia tempore _pomis_
+    Unde liquare solet _siceram_ sibi _Neustria_ gratam."
+
+
+Huet is of opinion, that the use of cider was first introduced into
+Neustria by the Normans, who had learned it of the Biscayans, as these
+latter had done from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Africa.
+
+We did not find the Norman cider at all palatable: it is extremely sour,
+hard, and austere. The inhabitants, however, say that this is not its
+natural character, but is attributable to the late unfavorable seasons,
+which have prevented the fruit from ripening properly.--The apple-tree
+and pear-tree in Normandy, far from being ugly, and distorted, and
+stunted in their growth, as is commonly seen in England, are trees of
+great beauty, and of extreme luxuriance, both in foliage and
+ramification. The _Coccus_, too, which has caused so much destruction
+among our orchards at home, is fortunately still unknown here.
+
+The only place at which we stopped between Lisieux and Caen, was
+Croissanville, a poor village, but one that possesses a degree of
+historical interest, as the spot where the battle was fought between
+Aigrold, King of Denmark, and Louis d'Outremer, King of France; a battle
+which seated Richard Fearnought upon the throne of Normandy.--The
+country about Croissanville is an immense tract of meadow-land; and from
+it the Parisian market draws a considerable proportion of its supplies
+of beef. The cattle that graze in these pastures are of a large size,
+and red, and all horned; very unlike those about Caen, which latter are
+of small and delicate proportions, with heads approaching to those of
+deer, and commonly with black faces and legs.
+
+From Croissanville to Caen the road passes through a dead flat, almost
+wholly consisting of uninclosed corn-fields, extending in all
+directions, with unvaried dull monotony, as far as the eye can reach.
+Buck-wheat is cultivated in a large proportion of them: the inhabitants
+prepare a kind of cake from this grain, of which they are very fond, and
+which is said to be wholesome. Tradition, founded principally upon the
+French name of this plant, _sarrazin_, has given rise to a general
+belief, that buck-wheat was introduced into France by the Moors; but
+this opinion has, of late, been ably combated. The plant is not to be
+found in Arabia, Spain, or Sicily; the countries more particularly
+inhabited by Mahometans; and in Brittany, it still passes by the Celtic
+appellation, _had-razin_, signifying _red-corn_, of which words
+_sarrazin_ may fairly be regarded a corruption, as _buck-wheat_, in our
+own tongue, ought unquestionably to be written _beech-wheat_; a term
+synonymous to what it is called in Latin and German. The present name
+may well appear inexplicable, to those who are unacquainted with the
+Anglo-Saxon and its cognate dialects.
+
+In the midst of this level country, in which even apple-trees are
+scarce, stands the ancient capital of Lower Normandy, extending from
+east to west in so long a line, that on our approach it appeared to
+cover as much ground as Rouen, which is in fact double its size.--From a
+distance, the view of Caen is grand; not only from the apparent
+magnitude of the town, but from the numerous spires and towers, that,
+rising from every part of it, give it an air of great importance. Those
+of the abbeys of St. Stephen and the Trinity, at opposite extremities,
+constitute the principal features in the view.--The same favorable
+impressions continue when you enter the town. The streets are wide, and
+the houses of stone; and a stone city is a pleasing sight to eyes long
+accustomed to the wooden buildings of Rouen, Bernay, and
+Lisieux.--Besides, there is a certain degree of regularity in the
+construction of the buildings, and some care is taken in keeping them
+clean.--Lace-making is the principal occupation of females of the lower
+class in Caen and the neighborhood; the streets, as we passed along,
+were lined almost uninterruptedly on either side, with a row of
+lace-makers; and boys were not uncommonly working among the women. It is
+calculated that not fewer than twenty thousand individuals, of all ages,
+from ten or twelve years old and upwards, are thus employed; and the
+annual produce of their labor is estimated at one hundred and seventy
+thousand pounds sterling. Caen lace is in high estimation for its beauty
+and quality, and is exported in considerable quantities.
+
+The present population of Caen amounts to about thirty-one thousand
+individuals. The town, no longer the capital of Lower Normandy, is still
+equally distinguished as the capital of the department of the Calvados.
+The prefect resides here; and the royal court of Caen comprises in its
+jurisdiction, not only the department more especially appertaining to
+it, but also those of the Manche and the Orne.--The situation of the
+town, though at the confluence of the Orne and the Odon, is not such as
+can be regarded favorable to extensive trade. The united rivers form a
+stream, which, though navigable at very high tides for vessels of two
+hundred tons burthen, will, on other occasions, admit only of much
+smaller ones; while the channel, nearer to its mouth, is obstructed by
+rocks that render the navigation difficult and dangerous. Many plans
+have been projected and attempted for the purpose of improving and
+enlarging the harbor, but little or no progress has yet been made.
+Vauban long since pointed out the mouth of the Orne as singularly well
+adapted for a naval station; and Napoléon, in pursuance of this idea,
+actually commenced the excavation of a basin under the walls of the
+town, and intended to deepen the bed of the river, thinking it best to
+make a beginning in this direction. All idea, however, of prosecuting
+such a plan is for the present abandoned.--Other engineers have proposed
+the junction of the Orne with the Loire by means of a canal, which would
+be of the greatest importance to France, not only by facilitating
+internal commerce, but by saving her vessels the necessity of coasting
+Capes Finisterre, and la Hogue, and thus enabling them to avoid a
+navigation, which is at all times dangerous, and in case of war
+peculiarly exposed.
+
+For minor purposes, however, for mills and manufactories of different
+kinds, Caen is certainly well situated; being in almost every direction
+intersected with streams, owing to the repeated ramifications of the
+Odon, some of which are artificial, and of as early a date as the
+eleventh century. The same circumstance contributes materially to the
+pleasantness of the town; for the banks of the river are in many places
+formed into walks, and crowned by avenues of noble trees.
+
+[Illustration: Head-Dress of Females, at Caen]
+
+The _grand cours_ at Caen is almost as fine a promenade as that at
+Rouen. On Sunday evening it was completely crowded. The scene was full
+of life and gaiety, and very varied. All the females of the lower rank,
+and many of the higher orders, were dressed in the costume of the
+country, which commonly consists of a scarlet gown and deep-blue apron,
+or _vice versâ_. Their hair, which is usually powdered, is combed
+entirely back from every part of their faces, and tucked up behind. The
+snow-white cap which covers it is beautifully plaited, and has longer
+lappets than in the Pays de Caux. Mr. Cotman sketched the _coiffure_ of
+the chamber-maid, at the Hôtel d'Espagne, in grand costume, and I send
+his drawing to you.--The men dress like the English; but do not
+therefore fancy that you or I should have any chance of being mistaken
+for natives, even if we did not betray ourselves by our accent. Here, as
+every where else, our countrymen are infallibly known: their careless
+slouching gait is sure to mark them; and the police keep a watchful eye
+upon them. Caen is at present frequented by the English: those indeed,
+who, like the Virgilian steeds, "stare loco nesciunt," seldom shew
+themselves in Lower Normandy; but above thirty British families have
+taken up their residence in this town: they have been induced to do so
+principally by the cheapness of living, and by the advantages held out
+for the education of their children. A friend of mine, who is of the
+number of temporary inhabitants, occupies the best house in the place,
+formerly the residence of the Duc d'Aumale; and for this, with the
+garden, and offices, and furniture of all kinds, except linen and plate,
+he pays only nine pounds a month. For a still larger house in the
+country, including an orchard and garden, containing three acres, well
+stocked with fruit-trees, he is asked sixty pounds from this time to
+Christmas. But, cheap as this appears, the expence of living at
+Coutances, or at Bayeux, or Valognes, is very much less.
+
+Were I obliged to seek myself a residence beyond the limits of our own
+country, I never saw a place which I should prefer to Caen. I should not
+be tempted to look much farther before I said,
+
+
+    "Sis meæ sedes utinam senectæ:"--
+
+
+The historical recollections that are called forth at almost every turn,
+would probably have some influence in determining my choice; the noble
+specimens of ancient architecture which happily remain, unscathed by
+wars and Calvinists and revolutions, might possibly have more; but the
+literary resources which the town affords, the pleasant society with
+which it abounds, and, above all, the amiable character of its
+inhabitants, would be my great attraction.--At present, indeed, we have
+not been here sufficiently long to say much upon the subject of society
+from our own experience; but the testimony we receive from all quarters
+is uniform in this point, and the civilities already shewn us, are of a
+nature to cause the most agreeable prepossessions. It is not our
+intention to be hurried at Caen; and I shall therefore reserve to my
+future letters any remarks upon its history and its antiquities. To a
+traveller who is desirous of information, the town is calculated to
+furnish abundant materials.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 70: The following were among the articles of the decree:--"No
+individual to leave his _arrondissement_ without a passport.--No person
+to receive a stranger in his house, or suffer one to quit it, without
+apprising the police.--The inhabitants to carry their arms of all kinds
+to the Hôtel de Ville.--No plays to be performed, except first approved
+by the officers of the police.--The manager of the theatre to give
+notice every Friday to the mayor, of the pieces intended to be acted the
+following week.--The actors to read nothing, and say nothing, which is
+not in the play.--The performance to begin precisely at six, and close
+at ten.--Only a certain interval to be allowed between the different
+pieces, or between the acts of each.--Every person to be uncovered,
+except the soldiers on duty.--No weapons of any kind, nor even sticks or
+umbrellas, to be taken into the theatre."]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.
+
+HISTORIANS OF CAEN--TOWERS AND FORTIFICATIONS--CHÂTEAU DE LA
+GENDARMERIE--CASTLE--CHURCHES OF ST. STEPHEN, ST. NICHOLAS, ST. PETER,
+ST. JOHN, AND ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES.
+
+
+(_Caen, August,_ 1818.)
+
+France does not abound in topographical writers; but the history and
+antiquities of Caen have been illustrated with singular ability, by men
+to whom the town gave birth, and who have treated their subject with
+equal research and fidelity--these are Charles de Bourgueville, commonly
+called the Seigneur de Bras, and the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches.
+
+De Bourgueville was a magistrate of Caen, where he resided during almost
+the whole of the sixteenth century. The religious wars were then raging;
+and he relates, in a most entertaining and artless manner, the history
+of the events of which he was an eye-witness. His work, as is justly
+observed by Huet, is a treasure, that has preserved the recollection of
+a great variety of the most curious details, which would otherwise have
+been neglected and forgotten. Every page of it is stamped with the
+character of the author--frankness, simplicity, and uprightness. It
+abounds in sound morality, sage maxims, and proofs of excellent
+principles in religion and politics; and, if the writer occasionally
+carries his _naïveté_ to excess, it is to be recollected that the book
+was published when he was in his eighty-fifth year, a period of life
+when indulgence may reasonably be claimed. He died four years
+subsequently, in 1593.--In Huet's work, the materials are selected with
+more skill, and are digested with more talent. The author brought to his
+task a mind well stored with the learning requisite for the purpose, and
+employed it with judgment. But he has confined himself, almost wholly,
+to the description of the town; and the consequence is, that while the
+bishop's is the work most commonly referred to, the magistrate's is that
+which is most generally read. The dedication of the former to the town
+of Caen, does honor to the feelings of the writer: the portrait of the
+latter, prefixed to his volume, and encircled with his quaint motto,
+_"L'heur de grace use l'oubli,"_ itself an anagram upon his name,
+bespeaks and insures the good will of the reader.
+
+The origin of Caen is uncertain.--Its foundation has been alternately
+ascribed to Phoenicians, Romans, Gauls, Saxons, and Normans. The
+earliest historical fact connected with the town, is recorded in an old
+chronicle of Normandy[71], written in 1487, by William de Talleur, of
+Rouen. The author, in speaking of the meeting between Louis d'Outremer,
+King of France, and Richard Ist, Duke of Normandy, about the year 945,
+enumerates Caen among the good towns of the province. Upon this, Huet
+observes that, supposing Caen to have been at that time only recently
+founded, it must have acquired importance with much rapidity; for, in
+the charter, by which Richard IIIrd, Duke of Normandy, granted a dowery
+to Adela, daughter of Robert, King of France, whom he married in 1026,
+Caen is not only stated as one of the portions of the dower, but its
+churches, its market, its custom-house, its quay, and its various
+appurtenances are expressly mentioned; and two hundred years afterwards,
+Brito in his _Philippiad_, puts Caen in competition with Paris,
+
+
+   "Villa potens, opulenta situ, spatiosa, decora,
+    Fluminibus, pratis, et agrorum fertilitate,
+    Merciferasque rates portu capiente marino,
+    Seque tot ecclesiis, domibus et civibus ornans,
+    Ut se Parisio vix annuat esse minorem."--
+
+
+Caen is designated in Duke Richard's charter, by the appellation of "in
+Bajocensi comitatu villa quæ dicitur _Cathim_, super fluvium
+Olnæ."--From _Cathim_, came _Cahem_; and _Cahem_, in process of time,
+was gradually softened into _Caen_. The elision that took place in the
+first instance, is of a similar nature to that by which the Italian
+words _padre_ and _madre_, have been converted into _père_ and _mère_;
+and the alteration in the latter case continued to be indicated by the
+diæresis, which, till lately, separated the two adjoining
+vowels.--Towards the latter part of the eleventh century, Caen is
+frequently mentioned by the monkish historians, in whose Latin, the town
+is styled _Cadomus_ or _Cadomum_.--And here ingenious etymologists have
+found a wide field for conjecture: Cadomus, says one, was undoubtedly
+founded by Cadmus; another, who hesitates at a Phoenician antiquity,
+grasps with greater eagerness at a Roman etymon, and maintains that
+_Cadomus_ is a corruption from _Caii domus_, fully and sufficiently
+proving that the town was built by Julius Cæsar.
+
+Robert Wace states, in his _Roman de Rou_, that, at the time
+immediately previous to the conquest of England, Caen was an open
+town.--
+
+
+   "Encore ert Caen sans Châtel,
+    N'y avoit mur, ny quesnel."--
+
+
+And Wace is a competent witness; for he lived during the reign of Henry
+Ist, to whom he dedicated his poem. Philip de Valois, in 1346, allowed
+the citizens to surround the town with ditches, walls, and gates. This
+permission was granted by the king, on the application of the
+inhabitants, Caen, as they then complained, being still open and
+unfortified. Hence, the fortifications have been considered to be the
+work of the fourteenth century, and, generally speaking, they were
+unquestionably, of that time; but it is equally certain, that a portion
+was erected long before.
+
+A proof of the antiquity of the fortifications may perhaps be found in
+the name of the tower called _la Tour Guillaume le Roi_, which stands
+immediately behind St. Peter's, and was intended to protect the river at
+the extremity of the walls, dividing the town from the suburb of
+Vaugeux. This tower is generally supposed to be the oldest in the
+fortifications. Its masonry is similar to that of the wall with which it
+is connected, and which is known to have been built about the same time
+as the abbey of St. Stephen. The appearance of it is plain, massy, and
+rugged; and it forms a picturesque object. Such also is the _Tour au
+Massacre_, which is situated at the confluence of the Orne and Odon. The
+tower in question is said to have received its gloomy title from a
+massacre, of which our countrymen were guilty, at the time when the town
+was taken in 1346. There is, however, reason to believe that this tale
+is a mere fiction. Huet, at the same time that he does not venture so
+far to oppose popular belief, as altogether to deny the truth of the
+story of the massacre, adds, that the original name of the tower was _la
+Tour Machart_, and suspects its present appellation to be no more than a
+corruption of the former one. Renauld Machart was bailiff of Caen two
+years prior to the capture of the place by Edward IIIrd; and the
+probability is, that the tower was erected by him in those times of
+alarm, and thus took his name. It has been supposed that the figure
+sculptured upon it, may also be intended for a representation of Machart
+himself.
+
+Caen contains another castellated building, which might easily mislead
+the studious antiquarian. The _Château de Calix_, as it is sometimes
+called, is situated at the extremity of the suburb known by that name;
+and the curious inhabitants of Caen usually suppose that it was erected
+for the purpose of commanding the river, whilst it flowed in its
+ancient, but now deserted, bed; or, at least, that it replaces such a
+fortification. According to the learned Abbé de la Rue, however, and he
+is a most competent authority, no real fortification ever existed here;
+but the castle was raised in conformity to the caprice of Girard de
+Nollent, the wealthy owner of the property, who flourished towards the
+beginning of the sixteenth century.--Girard de Nollent's mansion is now
+occupied by a farmer. It has four fronts. The windows are
+square-headed, and surrounded by elegant mouldings; but the mullions
+have been destroyed. One medallion yet remains over the entrance; and it
+is probable that the walls were originally covered with ornaments of
+this kind. Such, at least, is the case with the towers and walls, which,
+surrounding the dwelling, have given it a castellated aspect. The
+circular tower nearest the gate forms the subject of the accompanying
+sketch: it is dotted on all sides with busts in basso-relievo, enclosed
+in medallions, and of great diversity of character. One is a frowning
+warrior, arrayed in the helmet of an emperor of the lower empire;
+another, is a damsel attired in a ruff; a third, is a turbaned turk. The
+borders of the medallions are equally diversified: the _cordelière_,
+well known in French heraldry, the vine-leaf, the oak-leaf, all appear
+as ornaments. The battlements are surmounted with two statues,
+apparently Neptune, or a sea-god, and Hercules. These heathen deities
+not being very familiar to the good people of Caen, they have converted
+them, in imagination, into two gens-d'armes, mounting guard on the
+castle; and hence it is frequently called the _Château de la
+Gendarmerie_. Some of the busts are accompanied by inscriptions--"Vincit
+pudicitiam mors;" "Vincit amor pudicitiam;" "Amor vincit mortem;" and
+all seem to be either historical or allegorical. The battlements of the
+curtain-wall are ornamented in the same manner. The farther tower has
+less decoration, and is verging to decay. I have given these details,
+because the castle of Calix is a specimen of a style of which we have no
+fair parallel in England, and the workmanship is far from being
+contemptible.
+
+[Illustration: Tower in the _Château de Calix_, at Caen]
+
+In the Rue St. Jean is a house with decorations, in the same style, but
+more sumptuous, or, perhaps I ought rather to say, more perfect. Both of
+them are most probably of nearly the same date: for it was principally
+during the reigns of Charles VIIIth and Louis XIIth, that the practice
+prevailed in France, of ornamenting the fronts of houses with
+medallions. The custom died away under Francis Ist.
+
+I must now return to more genuine fortifications.--When the walls of
+Caen were perfect, they afforded an agreeable and convenient promenade
+completely round the town, their width being so great, that three
+persons might with ease walk abreast upon them. De Bourgueville tells us
+that, in his time, they were as much frequented as the streets; and he
+expatiates with great pleasure upon the gay and busy prospect which they
+commanded,
+
+The castle at Caen, degraded as it is in its character by modern
+innovation, is more deserving of notice as an historical, than as an
+architectural, relic. It still claims to be ranked as a place of
+defence, though it retains but few of its original features. The
+spacious, lofty, circular towers, known by the names of the black, the
+white, the red, and the grey horse, which flanked its ramparts, have
+been brought down to the level of the platform. The dungeon tower is
+destroyed. All the grandeur of the Norman castle is lost; though the
+width of its ditches, and the thickness of its walls, still testify its
+ancient strength. I doubt whether any castle in France covers an equal
+extent of ground. Monstrelet and other writers have observed, that this
+single fortress exceeded in size the towns of Corbeil or of Montferrand;
+and, indeed, there are reasons for supposing that Caen, when first
+founded, only occupied the site of the present castle; and that, when it
+became advisable to convert the old town into a fortress, the
+inhabitants migrated into the valley below. Six thousand infantry could
+be drawn up in battle-array within the outer ballium; and so great was
+the number of houses and of inhabitants enclosed within its area, that
+it was thought expedient to build in it a parochial church, dedicated to
+St. George, besides two chapels.
+
+One of the chapels is still in existence, though now converted to a
+store-house; and the Abbé de la Rue considers it as an erection anterior
+to the conquest, and, belonging to the old town of Caen. Its choir is
+turned towards the west, and its front to the east.--The religious
+edifices upon the continent do not preserve the same uniformity as our
+English ones, in having their altars placed in the direction of the
+rising sun; but this at Caen is a very remarkable instance of the
+position of the entrance and the altar being completely reversed[72].
+The door-way is a fine semi-circular arch: the side pillars supporting
+it are very small, but the decorations of the archivolt are rich: they
+consist principally of three rows of the chevron moulding, enclosed
+within a narrow fillet of smaller ornaments, approaching in shape to
+quatrefoils. Collectively, they form a wide band, which springs from
+flat piers level with the wall, and does not immediately unite with the
+head of the inner arch. The intermediate space is covered by a
+reticulated pattern indented in the stone. Above the entrance is a
+window of the same form, its top encircled by a broad chequered band, a
+very unusual accompaniment to this style of architecture. The front of
+the chapel presents in other respects, a flat uniform surface, unvaried,
+except by four Norman buttresses, and a string-course of the simplest
+form, running round the whole building, at somewhat less than
+mid-height. The sides of the chapel are lighted by a row of
+circular-headed windows, with columns in the angles; and between these
+windows are buttresses, as in the chapel of the lazar-house of St.
+Julien, at Rouen.
+
+Huet endeavours to prove that the first fortress which was built at
+Caen, was erected by William the Conqueror, who frequently resided here
+with his Queen Matilda, and who was likely to find some protection of
+this nature desirable, as well to guard his royal residence against the
+mutinous disposition of the lords of the Bessin, as to command the
+navigation of the Orne. The castle was enlarged and strengthened by his
+son Henry; but it is believed that the four towers, just mentioned, and
+the walls surrounding the keep, were added by our countrymen, during
+that short period when the Norman sceptre was again wielded by the
+descendants of the Norman dukes. Under Louis XIIth and Francis Ist, the
+whole of the castle, but particularly the dungeon, underwent great
+repairs, by which the original form of the structure was entirely
+changed.--From that period history is silent respecting the fortress. I
+cannot, however, take leave of it without reminding you, that Sir John
+Fastolf, whilom our neighbour at Castor, was for some time placed in
+command here, as Lieutenant to the Regent Duke of Bedford. You, who are
+acquainted with the true character of the knight, need scarcely be told,
+that even his enemies concur in bearing testimony to his ability, his
+vigilance, and his valor: it is to be regretted that he has not met with
+equal justice at home. Not one individual troubles himself about
+history, whilst a thousand read the drama; and the stains which
+Shakspeare's pen has affixed to the name of Fastolf, are of a nature
+never to be wiped away; thus disproving the distich of the satyrist, who
+indeed, by his own works, has effectually falsified his own maxim,
+that--
+
+
+   "Truth will survive when merry jokes are past;
+    For rising merit must buoy up at last."
+
+
+As usual, the buildings dedicated to religion are far more numerous and
+valuable than the relics of military architecture. Of these, the first
+which salutes the stranger who enters by the great high road, is the
+Hôtel Dieu, which is almost intact and unaltered. The basement story
+contains large and deep pointed arches, ornamented with the chevron
+moulding, disposed in a very peculiar manner.--From the style of the
+building, there is every reason to believe that it is of the beginning
+of the thirteenth century, at which time William, Count of Magneville,
+appropriated to charitable purposes the ground now occupied by this
+hospital, and caused his donation to be confirmed by a bull from Pope
+Innocent IIIrd, dated in April, 1210.
+
+The abbeys, the glories of Caen, will require more leisure: at present
+let us pass on to the parochial churches. Of these, the most ancient
+foundation is _St. Etienne le Vieil_; and tradition relates that this
+church was dedicated by St. Renobert, bishop of Bayeux, in the year
+350.--But, though the present edifice may stand upon the site of an
+ancient one, there would be little risk in affirming, that not one stone
+of it was laid upon another till after the year 1400. The building is
+spacious, and its tower is not devoid of beauty. The architecture is a
+medley of debased gothic and corrupted Roman; but the large pointed
+windows, decorated by fanciful mouldings and scroll-work, have an air of
+richness, though the component parts are so inharmonious.
+
+Attached to the wall of the choir of this church is still to be seen an
+equestrian statue[73], part of the celebrated group supposed to
+represent William the Conqueror making his triumphal entry into Caen. A
+headless horse, mounted by a headless rider, and a figure, which has
+lost all shape and form, beneath the feet of the steed, are all that now
+remain; but De Bourgueville, who knew the group when perfect, says, that
+there likewise belonged to it a man and woman upon their knees, as if
+seeking some explanation for the death of their child, or
+rather, perhaps, in the act of imploring mercy.--I have already pointed
+out the resemblance between these statues and the bas-relief, of which I
+have sent you a sketch from St. Georges. One of the most learned
+antiquaries of the present time has found a prototype for the supposed
+figure of the Duke, among the sculptures of the Trajan column. But this,
+with all due deference, is far from a decisive proof that the statue in
+question was not intended for William. Similar adaptations of the
+antique model, "mutato nomine," frequently occur among the works of the
+artists of the middle ages; and there is at least a possibility that,
+had the face been left us, we might have traced some attempt at a
+portrait of the Norman Duke. Upon the date of the sculpture, or the
+style of the workmanship, I dare not venture an opinion. There are
+antiquaries, I know, (and men well qualified to judge,) who believe it
+Roman: I have heard it pronounced from high authority, that it is of the
+eleventh century, others suspect that it is Italian, of the thirteenth
+or fourteenth centuries; whilst M. Le Prevost and M. De Gerville
+maintain most strenuously that it is not anterior to the fifteenth. De
+Bourgueville certainly calls it "une antiquité de grand remarque;" but
+we all know that any object which is above an hundred years old, becomes
+a piece of antiquity in the eye of an uncritical observer; and such was
+the good magistrate.
+
+The church of St. Nicholas, now used as a stable, was built by William
+the Conqueror, in the year 1060, or thereabouts. Desecrated as it is, it
+remains entire; and its interior is remarkable for the uniformity of the
+plan, the symmetry of the proportions. All the capitals of the pillars
+attached to the walls are alike; and those of the arches, which very
+nearly resemble the others, are also all of one pattern. In the
+side-aisles there is no groining, but only cross vaulting. The vaulting
+of the nave is pointed, and of late introduction. Round the choir and
+transepts runs a row of small arches, as in the triforium.--The west end
+was formerly flanked by two towers, the southern of which only remains.
+This is square, and well proportioned: each side contains two lancet
+windows. The lower part is quite plain, excepting two Norman buttresses.
+The whole of the width of the central compartment, which is more than
+quadruple that of either of the others, is occupied below by three
+circular portals, now blocked up.--Above them are five windows, disposed
+in three tiers. In the lowest are two not wider than loop-holes: over
+these two others, larger; another small one is at the top. All these
+windows are of the simplest construction, without side pillars or
+mouldings.--The choir of the church ends in a semi-circular apsis,
+divided into compartments by a row of pillars, rising as high as the
+cornice: in the intercolumniation are windows, and under the windows
+small arches, each of which has its head hewn out of a single
+stone.--The roof of the choir is of stone, and the pitch of it is very
+high.
+
+Here, then, we have the exact counterpart of the Irish stone-roofed
+chapels, the most celebrated of which, that of Cormac, in Cashel
+Cathedral, appears, from all the drawings and descriptions I have seen
+of it, to be altogether a Norman building. Ledwich asserts that "this
+chapel is truly Saxon, and was erected prior to the introduction of the
+Norman, and gothic styles[74]." If, we agree with him, we only obtain a
+proof that there is no essential difference between Norman and Saxon
+architecture; and this proposition, I believe, will soon be universally
+admitted. We now know what is really Norman; and a little attention to
+the buildings in the north of Germany, may terminate the long-debated
+questions, relative to Saxon architecture and the origin of the
+stone-roofed chapels in the sister isle.
+
+In the burial-ground that surrounds the church of St. Nicholas, are
+several monumental inscriptions, all of them posterior to the
+commencement of the reign of Napoléon, and all, with one single
+exception, commemorative of females. The epitaphs are much in the same
+tone as would be found in an English church-yard. The greater part,
+however, of the tomb-stones, are uninscribed. They are stone coffins
+above-ground, sculptured with plain crosses, or, where they have been
+raised to ecclesiastics, with an addition of some portion of the
+sacerdotal dress.
+
+[Illustration: Tower and Spire of St. Peter's Church, at Caen]
+
+Among the churches of comparatively modern erection, St. Peter deserves
+most attention. From every part of the town and neighborhood, its lofty
+spire, towering above the surrounding buildings, forces itself upon your
+view. It is not easy to carry accurate ideas of height in the memory;
+but, as far as recollection will serve me, I should say that its
+elevation is hardly inferior to that of the spire of Salisbury
+cathedral. I have no hesitation in adding, that the proportions of the
+tower and spire of the church at Caen, are more pleasing. Elegance,
+lightness, and symmetry, are the general characters of the whole, though
+the spire has peculiar characters of its own.--The tower, though built a
+century later than that of Salisbury, is so much less ornamented, that
+it might be mistaken for an earlier example of the pointed style. The
+lowest story is occupied wholly by a portal: the second division is
+surrounded by pointed arches, beneath crocketed gables: the third is
+filled by four lancet arches, supported by reeded pillars, so lofty,
+that they occupy nearly two-thirds of the entire height of the tower.
+The flanking arches are blanks: the two middle ones are pierced into
+windows, divided by a central mullion. The balustrade at the top of the
+tower is of a varied pattern, each side exhibiting a different tracery.
+Eight crocketed pinnacles are added to the spire, which is octangular,
+and has a row of crockets at each angle. From the base to the summit it
+is encircled, at regular distances, with broad bands of stone-work,
+disposed like scales; and, alternating with the bands, are perforations
+in the form of cinquefoils, quatrefoils, and trefoils, diminishing as
+the spire rises, but so disposed, that the light is seen distinctly
+through them. The effect of these perforations was novel and very
+pleasing.
+
+[Illustration: Sculpture upon a Capital in St. Peter's Church at Caen]
+
+This tower and spire were built in the year 1308, under the directions
+of Nicolle L'Anglois, a burgher of Caen, and treasurer of the
+church.--How far we are at liberty to infer from his name, as Ducarel
+does, that he was an Englishman, may admit of some doubt. He was buried
+here; and De Bourgueville has preserved his epitaph, which recounts
+among his other merits, that
+
+
+   "Et par luy, et par sa devise
+    Fut la tour en sa voye mise
+    D'estre faicte si noblement."--
+
+
+But the name of the architect who was employed is unrecorded.--The rest
+of the church was erected at different periods: the northern aisle in
+1410; the opposite one some time afterwards; and the eastern extremity,
+with the vaulted roof of the choir and aisles, in 1021.--With this
+knowledge, it is not difficult to account for the diversity of styles
+that prevails in the building.--The western front contains much good
+tracery, and well disposed, apparently as old as the tower.--The
+exterior of the east end, with its side-chapels, is rather Italian than
+gothic.--The interior is of a purer style: the five arches forming the
+apsis are perhaps amongst the finest specimens of the luxuriant French
+gothic: roses are introduced with great effect amongst the tracery and
+friezes, with which the walls are covered. The decorations of the
+chapels round the choir, although they display a tendency towards
+Italian architecture, are of the most elaborate arabesque. The niches
+are formed by escalop shells, swelling cylinders of foliage, and
+scrolls: some of the pendants from the roofs are of wonderfully varied
+and beautiful workmanship.--The nave has nothing remarkable, saving the
+capital of one of the side pillars. Its sculptures, with the exception
+of one mutilated group, have been drawn by Mr. Cotman.--The subjects are
+strangely inappropriate, as the ornaments of a sacred edifice. All are
+borrowed from romance.--Aristotle bridled and saddled by the mistress
+of Alexander. Virgilius, or, as some say, Hippocrates, hanging in the
+basket. Lancelot crossing the raging flood.--The fourth, which is not
+shewn in the sketch, is much defaced, but seems to have been taken from
+the _Chevalier et la Charette_. According to the usual fate of ancient
+sculpture, the _marguilliers_ of the parish have so sadly encumbered it
+with white-wash, that it is not easy to make out the details; and a
+friend of mine was not quite certain whether the bearded figure riding
+on the lion, was not a youthful Cupid. No other of the capitals has at
+present any basso-relievo of this kind; but I suspect they have been
+chopped off. The church suffered much from the Calvinists; and
+afterwards, during the revolution, when most of the bas-reliefs of the
+portal were destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: Tower of St. John's Church, at Caen]
+
+The neighboring church of St. John appears likewise to be the work of
+the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This building and St. Peter's
+agree in general character: their towers are nearly the counterparts of
+each other. But, in St. John's, the great tower is placed at the west
+end of the edifice, the principal portal being beneath it. This is not
+very usual in the Norman-gothic churches, though common in England. The
+tower wants a spire; and, at present, it leans considerably out of the
+perpendicular line, so that some apprehensions are entertained for its
+safety. It was originally intended that the church should also be
+surmounted by a central tower; and, as De Bourgueville says, the
+beginning was made in his time; but it remains to the present day
+incomplete, and has not been raised sufficiently high to enable us to
+form a clear idea of the design of the architect, though enough remains
+to shew that it would have been built in the Romanizing-gothic
+style.--The inside is comparatively plain, excepting only the arches in
+the lower open part of the tower. These are richly ornamented; and a
+highly-wrought balustrade runs round the triforium, uniform in its
+pattern in the nave and choir, but varying in the transepts.--In the
+other ecclesiastical buildings at Caen, we saw nothing to interest
+us.--The chapel of St. Thomas l'Abattu, which, according to Huet, "had
+existed from time immemorial," and which, to judge from Ducarel's
+description and figure, must have been curious, has now entirely
+disappeared.
+
+In the suburb of Vaucelles, the church of St. Michael contains some
+architectural features of great curiosity[75]. The circular-headed
+arches in the short square tower, and in a small round turret that is
+attached to it, are unquestionably early Norman, and are remarkable for
+their proportions, being as long and as narrow as the lancet windows of
+the following æra. It would not be equally safe to pronounce upon the
+date of the stone-roofed pyramid which covers this tower. The north
+porch is entered by a pointed arch, which, though much less ornamented,
+approaches in style to the southern porch of St. Ouen, and, like that,
+has its inner archivolt fringed with pendant trefoils. The wall above
+the arch rises into a triangular gable, entirely covered with waving
+tracery, the only instance of the kind which I have seen at Caen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 71: _Huet, Origines de Caen_, p. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Upon this subject, Huet has an extraordinary observation,
+(_Origines de Caen_, p. 186.) "that, in the early times of Christianity,
+it was customary for all churches to front the east or north, or some
+intermediate point of the compass."--So learned and careful a writer
+would scarcely have made such a remark without some plausible grounds;
+but I am at a loss where to find them. Bingham, in his _Origines
+Eccleslasticæ_, I. p. 288, says, "that churches were so placed, that
+the front, or chief entrances, were towards the west, and the sanctuary
+or altar placed towards the east;" and though he adduces instances of a
+different position, as in the church of Antioch, which faced the east,
+and that of St. Patrick, at Sabul, near Down in Ulster, which stood from
+north to south, he cites them only as deviations from an established
+practice.]
+
+[Footnote 73: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 74: _Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 151.]
+
+[Footnote 75: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
+18, 19.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.
+
+ROYAL ABBEYS OF THE HOLY TRINITY AND ST. STEPHEN--FUNERAL OF THE
+CONQUEROR, EXHUMATION OF HIS REMAINS, AND DESTRUCTION OF HIS MONUMENT.
+
+
+(_Caen, August_, 1818.)
+
+The two royal abbeys of Caen have fortunately escaped the storms of the
+revolution. These buildings are still standing, an ornament to the town,
+and an honor to the sovereign who caused them to be erected, as well as
+to the artist who planned, and to the age which produced them. As models
+of architecture they are the same land-marks to the history of the art
+in Lower Normandy, as the church of St. Georges is in the upper division
+of the province. Their dates are equally authenticated; and the
+characteristic features in each are equally perfect.
+
+Both these noble edifices rose at the same time, and from the same
+motive. William the Conqueror, by his marriage with Matilda, daughter of
+Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, had contracted an alliance proscribed by the
+degrees of consanguinity. The clergy inveighed against the union; and
+they were supported in their complaints by Lanfranc, then resident at
+Bec, whose remonstrances were so uncourtly and strenuous, that the duke
+banished him from the province. It chanced that the churchman, while in
+the act of obedience to this command, met the sovereign. Their interview
+began with recriminations: it ended with reconciliation; and Lanfranc
+finally engaged to undertake a mission to the supreme Pontiff, who,
+considering the turbulent disposition of the Normans, and that a better
+end was likely to be answered by peaceable than by hostile measures,
+consented to grant the necessary dispensation. At the same time, by way
+of penance, he issued an injunction that the royal pair should erect two
+monasteries, the one for monks, the other for nuns. And in obedience to
+this command, William founded the abbey of St. Stephen, and Matilda, the
+abbey of the Holy Trinity; or, as they are usually called at Caen,
+_l'abbaye aux hommes_, and _l'abbaye aux dames_.
+
+The approach to the monastery of the Trinity is through a spacious
+gate-tower, part of the original structure. Over the rent and shapeless
+door-way are three semi-circular arches, upon the capitals of which is
+distinctly observable the cable-moulding, and along the top of the tower
+runs a line of the same toothed ornament, remarked by Ducarel at
+Bourg-Achard, and stated by him to have been considered peculiar to
+Saxon architecture[76]. The park that formerly environed the abbey
+retains its character, though abandoned to utter neglect. It is of great
+extent, and is well wooded. The monastic buildings, which are, as usual,
+modern, are mostly perfect.--A ruined wall nearly in front of the
+church, with a chimney-piece, perhaps of Norman workmanship, belonged to
+the old structure. Such part of the chimney wall as was exposed to the
+flame is built of large tiles, placed diagonally. All other vestiges of
+the ancient apartments have been removed.
+
+The noble church[77] is now used as a work-house for the department. At
+the revolution it became national property, and it remained
+unappropriated, till, upon the institution of the Legion of Honor,
+Napoléon applied it to some purpose connected with that body, by whom it
+was lately ceded for it present object. But, if common report may be
+credited, it is likely soon to revert to its original destination. The
+restoration may be easily effected, as the building has sustained but
+little injury. A floor has been thrown across the nave and transept,
+dividing them into two stories; but in other respects they are
+unaltered, and divine service is still performed in the choir.
+
+A finer specimen of the solid grandeur of Norman architecture is
+scarcely to be found any where than in the west front of this church.
+The corresponding part of the rival abbey of St. Stephen is poor when
+compared to it; and Jumieges and St. Georges equally fail in the
+comparison. In all of these, there is some architectural anomaly: in the
+Trinity none, excepting, indeed, the balustrade at the top of the
+towers; and this is so obviously an addition of modern times, that no
+one can be misled by it. This balustrade was erected towards the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, when the oval apertures and
+scrolls seen in Ducarel's print were introduced. Anciently the towers
+were ornamented with very lofty spires. According to some accounts,
+these were demolished, because they served as land-marks to the English
+cruizers, being seen far out at sea; but other accounts state, that the
+spires were pulled down by Charles, King of Navarre, who was at war with
+his namesake, Charles Vth, then Dauphin and Regent. The abbey at that
+time bore the two-fold character of nunnery and fortress.--Strangely
+inconsistent as this union may appear, the fact is undoubted. Even now a
+portion of the fosses remains; and the gate-way indicates an approach
+to a fortified place. Ancient charters likewise expressly recognize the
+building in both capacities: they endow the abbey for the service of
+God; and they enjoin the inhabitants of the adjacent parishes to keep
+the fortifications in repair against any assaults of men. Nay, letters
+patent, granted by Charles Vth, which fix the salary of the captain of
+the _Fort of the Trinity, at Caen_, at one hundred francs per annum, are
+yet extant.
+
+I shall attempt no description of the west front of this monastery, few
+continental buildings being better known in England. The whole remains
+as it was in the time of Ducarel, except that the arches of entrance are
+blocked up, and modern windows have been inserted in the door-ways.--The
+north side of the church is quite concealed by the cloisters and
+conventual buildings. The southern aisle has been plastered and patched,
+and converted into a range of work-shops, so that its original elevation
+is wholly obliterated. But the nave, which rises above, is untouched by
+innovation. The clerestory range is filled by a row of semi-circular
+headed windows, separated by intervening flat buttresses, which reach to
+the cornice. Each buttress is edged with two slender cylindrical
+pilasters; and each window flanked by two smaller arches, whose surfaces
+are covered with chequer-work. The arch of every window has a key-stone,
+formed by a grotesque head.--Above the whole is a corbel-table that
+displays monsters of all kinds, in the form of beasts, and men scarcely
+less monstrous.--The semi-circular east end is divided in its elevation
+into three compartments. The lower contains a row of small blank arches:
+in each of the other two is a window, of a size unusually large for a
+Norman building, but still without mullions or tracery; its sides
+ornamented with columns, and its top encircled with a broad band of
+various mouldings. The windows are separated by cylindrical pillars,
+instead of buttresses.--In the upper part of the low central tower are
+some pointed arches, the only deviations of style that are to be found
+in the building. To the extremity of the southern transept has been
+attached a Grecian portico, which masks the ancient portal. Above is a
+row of round arches, some of which are pierced into windows.
+
+Of the effect of the nave and transept within, it is difficult now to
+obtain a correct idea, the floor intervening to obstruct a general
+view.--High arches, encircled with the embattled moulding below; above
+these, a wide billeted string-course, forming a basis for a row of
+smaller arches, without side-pillars or decoration of any kind; then
+another string-course of different and richer patterns; and over this,
+the triforium, consisting also of a row of small arches, supported by
+thick pillars;--such is the elevation of the sides of the nave; and the
+same system is continued with but small variation in the transepts. But,
+notwithstanding the general uniformity of the whole, no two compartments
+are precisely alike; and the capitals are infinitely varied. It is
+singular to see such a playfulness of ornament in a building, whose
+architect appears, at first view, to have contemplated only grandeur and
+solidity.--The four arches which support the central tower are on a
+magnificent scale. The archivolts are encircled by two rows of lozenged
+squares, indented in the stone. The rams, or rams' heads, upon the
+capitals of these piers, are peculiar. The eastern arch rises higher
+than the rest, and is obtusely pointed; yet it seems to be of the same
+date with its circular companions.--So exquisite, however, is the
+quality of the Caen stone, that no opinion drawn from the appearance of
+the material, ought to be hazarded with confidence. Seven centuries have
+elapsed since this church was erected, and there is yet no difference to
+be discovered in the color of the stone, or the sharpness of the work;
+the whole is as clean and sharp as if it were but yesterday fresh from
+the chisel. The interior of the choir has not been divided by the
+flooring; and the eastern extremity, which remains perfect, shews the
+original design. It consists of large arches, disposed in a double tier,
+so as to correspond with the windows of the apsis, and placed at a short
+distance from the wall; but without any Lady-Chapel beyond. The pillars
+that support these arches are well proportioned: the sculptures on their
+capitals are scarcely less grotesque than those at St. Georges; but,
+barbarous as they are, the corners of almost every capital are finished
+with imitations, more or less obvious, of the classical Ionic
+volute.--Among the sculptures is a head resting upon two lions, which
+has been fancied to be a representation of the Conqueror himself; whilst
+a faded painting of a female, attired as a nun, on the north side of the
+altar, is also commonly entitled a portrait of the foundress.--Were any
+plausible reason alleged for regarding the picture as intended to bear
+even an imaginary resemblance to Matilda, I would have sent you a copy
+of it; but there appear no grounds to consider it as
+authentic.--Willing, however, to contribute a mark of respect to a
+female, styled by William of Malmesbury, "fæminam prudentiæ speculum,
+pudoris culmen," and, by way of a companion to the rough sketch of her
+illustrious consort, in the initial letter in the library at Rouen, I
+add the fac-simile of a seal, which, by the kindness of a friend has
+fallen into my hands. It has been engraved before, but only for private
+distribution; and, if a suspicion should cross your mind, that it may
+have belonged to the Empress Maud, or to Matilda, wife to Stephen, I can
+only bespeak your thanks to me, for furnishing you with a likeness of
+any one of these ladies.
+
+[Illustration: Fac-simile of seal]
+
+Matilda was interred in the middle of this choir; and, according to
+Ordericus Vitalis, a monument of exquisite workmanship, richly
+ornamented with gold and precious stones, and bearing a long inscription
+in letters of gold, was raised to her memory. Her effigy was afterwards
+added to the monument; the whole of which was destroyed in 1652, by the
+Calvinists, who tore open the Queen's coffin, and dispersed her remains.
+After a lapse of an hundred and forty years, the royal bones were again
+collected, and deposited in this church. At the same time, the splendid
+monument was replaced by a plain altar-tomb, which existed till the
+revolution, when all was once more swept away. The marble slab,
+inscribed with the original epitaph, alone remained entire, and was
+carried to the abbey church of St. Stephen's, where it still forms a
+part of the pavement in a chapel. The letters are finely sculptured and
+perfectly sharp. However, it is not likely to continue there long; for
+Count de Montlivault, the prefect of the department, has already caused
+a search to be made for Matilda's remains, and he intends to erect a
+third monument to her memory. The excavations for this purpose have
+hitherto been unsuccessful: the Count met with many monumental stones,
+and many coffins of various kinds, but none that could be mistaken for
+the desired object; for one of the inscriptions on the late monument
+expressly states, that the Queen's bones had been wrapped in a linen
+cloth, and enclosed in a leaden box.
+
+The inquiry, however, will not be discontinued[78]: there are still
+hopes of success, especially in the crypt, which corresponds in its
+architecture with the church above. It is filled with columns placed in
+four ranges, each standing only four feet from the other, all of elegant
+proportions, with diversified capitals, as those in the choir.--Round
+it runs a stone bench, as in the subterraneous chapel in St. Gervais, at
+Rouen.
+
+Founded by a queen, the abbey of the Trinity preserved at all times a
+constitution thoroughly aristocratical. No individual, except of noble
+birth, was allowed to take the veil here, or could be received into the
+community. You will see in the series of the abbesses the names of
+Bourbon, Valois, Albret, Montmorenci, and others of the most illustrious
+families in France. Cecily, the Conqueror's eldest daughter, stands at
+the head of the list. According to the _Gallia Christiana_, she was
+devoted by her parents to this holy office, upon the very day of the
+dedication of the convent, in July 1066.
+
+The black marble slab which covered her remains, was lately discovered
+in the chapter-house. A crozier is sculptured upon it. It is delineated
+in a very curious volume now in the possession of the Abbé de la Rue,
+which contains drawings of all the tombs and inscriptions that formerly
+existed in the abbey.
+
+The annual income of the monastery of the Trinity is stated by Gough, in
+his _Alien Priories_, at thirty thousand livres, and that of the
+monastery of St. Stephen, at sixty thousand; but Ducarel estimates the
+revenue of the former at seventy thousand, and of the latter at two
+hundred thousand; and I should not doubt but that the larger sums are
+nearest the truth; indeed, the grants and charters still in existence,
+or noticed by historians, would rather lead to the supposition that the
+revenues must have been even greater. Parsimony in the endowment of
+religious buildings, was not a prevailing vice in the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries. Least of all was it likely that it should be
+practised in the case of establishments, thus founded in expiation of
+the transgressions of wealthy and powerful sinners. Page after page, in
+the charters, is filled with the list of those, who, with
+
+
+   "Lands and livings, many a rood,
+    Had gifted the shrine for their soul's repose."
+
+
+The privileges and immunities enjoyed by these abbeys were very
+extensive. Both of them were from their origin exempted by Pope
+Alexander IInd, with the consent of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, from all
+episcopal jurisdiction; and both had full power, as well spiritual as
+ecclesiastical, over the members of their own communities, and over the
+parishes dependent upon them; with no other appeal than to the
+archbishop of Rouen, or to the Pope. Express permission was likewise
+given to the abbot of St. Stephen's, by virtue of a bull from Pope
+Clement VIIth, to wear a gold mitre studded with precious stones, and a
+ring and sandals, and other episcopal ornaments.
+
+Many of the monuments and deeds of the greater abbey are now in the
+prefecture of the department. The original chartulary or register was
+saved by the Abbé de la Rue, and is at this time preserved in his
+valuable collection. The charters of the Trinity were hid, during the
+revolution, by the nuns, who secreted them beneath the tiling of a barn.
+They were discovered there not long since; but damp and vermin had
+rendered them wholly illegible.
+
+Lanfranc, whose services at Rome well deserved every distinction that
+his sovereign could bestow, was the first abbot of St. Stephen's. Upon
+his translation to the see of Canterbury, he was succeeded by William,
+who was likewise subsequently honored with an archiepiscopal mitre. The
+third abbot, Gislebert, was bishop of Evreux; and, though the series was
+not continued through an uninterrupted line of equal dignity, the office
+of abbot of this convent was seldom conferred, except upon an individual
+of exalted birth. Eight cardinals, two of them of the noble houses of
+Medici and Farnese, and three others, still more illustrious, the
+cardinals Richelieu, Mazarine, and Fleury, are included in the list,
+though in later times the abbacy was held _in commendam_ by these
+powerful prelates, whilst all the internal management of the house
+devolved upon a prior. Amongst the abbots will also be found Hugh de
+Coilly, grandson of King Stephen, Anthony of Bourbon, a natural son of
+Henry IVth of France, and Charles of Orléans, who was likewise of royal
+extraction.--St. Stephen was selected as the patron of the abbey, in
+consequence of the founder having bestowed upon it the head of the
+protomartyr, together with one of his arms, and a phial of his blood,
+and the stone with which he was killed.
+
+[Illustration: Monastery of St. Stephen, at Caen]
+
+The monastic buildings now serve for what, in the language of
+revolutionary and imperial France, was called a _Lycée_, but which has
+since assumed the less heathen appellation of a college. They constitute
+a fine edifice, and, seen from a short distance, in conjunction with the
+east end of the church, they form a grand _tout-ensemble_. The abbey
+church, from this point of view, has somewhat of an oriental character:
+the wide sweep of the semi-circular apsis, and the slender turrets and
+pyramids that rise from every part of the building, recal the idea of
+a Mahometan mosque. But the west end is still more striking than the
+east; and if, in the interior of the church of the Trinity, we had
+occasion to admire the beautiful quality of the Caen stone, our
+admiration of it was more forcibly excited here: notwithstanding the
+continual exposure to wind and weather, no part appears corroded, or
+discolored, or injured. A character of magnificence, arising in a great
+measure from the grand scale upon which it is built, pervades this
+front. But, to be regarded with advantage, it must be viewed as a whole:
+the parts, taken separately, are unequal and ill assorted. The
+simplicity of the main division approaches to meanness. Its three
+door-ways and double tier of windows appear disproportionally small,
+when contrasted with the expanse of blank wall; and their returns are
+remarkably shallow. The windows have no mouldings whatever, and the
+pillars and archivolts of the doors are very meagre. The front consists
+of three compartments, separated by flat buttresses; the lateral
+divisions rising into lofty towers, capped with octagon spires. The
+towers are much ornamented: three tiers of semi-circular arches surround
+the upper divisions; the arches of the first tier have no mouldings or
+pillars; the upper vary in pattern, and are enriched with pillars and
+bands, and some are pierced into windows.--Twelve pinnacles equally full
+of arches, some pointed, others semi-circular, surround each spire.
+Similar pinnacles rise from the ends of the transepts and the
+choir.--The central tower, which is short and terminates in a conical
+roof, was ruined by the Huguenots, who undermined it, thinking that its
+fall would destroy the whole building. Fortunately, however, it only
+damaged a portion of the eastern end; the reparations done to which have
+occasioned a discrepancy of style, that is injurious to the general
+effect. But the choir and apsis were previously of a different æra from
+the rest of the edifice. They were raised by the Abbot Simon de
+Trevieres, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.--I am greatly
+mistaken, if a real Norman church ever extended farther eastward than
+the choir.
+
+The building is now undergoing a thorough repair, at the expence of the
+town. No other revenues, at present, belong to it, except the _sous_
+which are paid for chairs during mass.
+
+A friend, who is travelling through Normandy, describes the interior in
+the following manner; and, as I agree with him in his ideas, I shall
+borrow his description:--"Without doubt, the architect was conversant
+with Roman buildings, though he has Normanized their features, and
+adopted the lines of the basilica to a _barbaric_ temple. The Coliseum
+furnished the elevation of the nave;--semi-circular arches surmounted by
+another tier of equal span, and springing at nearly an equal height from
+the basis of the supporting pillars. The architraves connecting the
+lower rows of pillars are distinctly enounced. The arches which rise
+from them have plain bold mouldings. The piers between each arch are of
+considerable width. In the centre of each pier is a column, which
+ascends as usual to the vault. These columns are alternately simple and
+compound. The latter are square pilasters, each fronted by a
+cylindrical column, which of course projects farther into the nave than
+the simple columns; and thus the nave is divided into bays. This system
+is imitated in the gothic cathedral, at Sens. The square pilaster ceases
+at about four-fifths of its height: then two cylindrical pillars rise
+from it, so that, from that point, the column becomes clustered. Angular
+brackets, sculptured with knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are
+affixed to the base of these derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted
+moulding is continued below the clerestory, whose windows adapt
+themselves to the binary arrangement of the bays. A taller arch is
+flanked by a smaller one on the right or the left side, as its situation
+requires. These are supported by short massy pillars: an embattled
+moulding runs round the windows.
+
+"In the choir the arches become pointed, but with Norman mouldings: the
+apsis is a re-construction. In that portion of the choir, which seems
+original, there are pointed windows formed by the interlacing of
+circular arches: these light the gallery.
+
+"The effect produced by the perspective of the interior is lofty and
+palatial. The ancient masonry of the exterior is worthy of notice. The
+stones are all small, perhaps not exceeding nine or twelve inches: the
+joints are about three-quarters of an inch."
+
+At the north-west angle of the nave has been built a large chapel,
+comparatively a modern erection; and in the centre of this lies
+Matilda's gravestone.--There is no other chapel to the nave, and, as
+usual, no monument in any portion of the church; but in front of the
+high altar is still to be seen the flat stone, placed there in 1742, in
+memory of the Conqueror, and bearing the epitaph--
+
+[Illustration: Epitaph in memory of the Conqueror]
+
+
+    QUI REXIT RIGIDOS NORMANNOS ATQUE BRITANNOS
+    AVDACTER VICIT FORTITER OBTINVIT
+    ET CENOMANENSES VIRTVTE COERCVIT ENSES
+    IMPERIIQVE SVI LEGIBUS APPLICVIT
+    REX MAGNVS PARVA JACET HIC VILLELMVS IN VRNA
+    SVFFICIT HÆC MAGNO PARVA DOMVS DOMINO
+    TER SEPTEM GRADIBVS SE VOLVERAT ATQUE DVOBVS
+    VIRGINIS IN GREMIO PHOEBVS ET HIC OBIIT
+    ANNO MLXXXVII
+    REQVIESCEBAT IN SPE CORPVS BENEFICIENTISSIMI
+    FVNDATORIS QVVM A CALVINIANIS ANNO MDLXII
+    DISSIPATA SVNT EIVS OSSA VNVM EX EIS A VIRO NOBILI
+    QVI TVM ADERAT RESERVATVM ET A POSTERIS ILLIVS
+    ANNO MDCXLII RESTITVTVM IN MEDIO CHORO DEPOSITVM
+    FVERAT MOLE SEPVLCHRALI DESVPER EXTRVCTA HANC
+    CEREMONIARVM SOLEMNITATE MINVS ACCOMMODAM
+    AMOVERVNT MONACHI ANNO MDCCXLII REGIO
+    FVLTI DIPLOMATE ET OS QVOD VNVM SVPERERAT
+    REPOSVERVNT IN CRYPTA PROPE ALTARE
+    IN QVO IVGITER DE BENEDICTIONIBVS METET
+    QVI SEMINAVIT IN BENEDICTIONIBVS
+    FIAT FIAT
+
+
+The poetical part of this epitaph was composed by Thomas, archbishop of
+York, and was engraved upon the original monument, as well as upon a
+plate of gilt copper, which was found within the sepulchre when it was
+first opened. Many other poets, we are told by Ordericus Vitalis,
+exercised their talents upon the occasion; but none of their productions
+were deemed worthy to be inscribed upon the tomb. The account of the
+opening of the vault is related by De Bourgueville, from whom it has
+been already copied by Ducarel; but the circumstances are so curious,
+that I shall offer no apology for telling a twice-told tale. From
+Ordericus Vitalis also we may borrow some details respecting the funeral
+of the Conqueror, which, though strictly appertaining to English
+history, have never yet, I believe, appeared in an English dress.
+
+In speaking of the church of St. Gervais at Rouen, I have already
+briefly alluded to the melancholy circumstances by which the death of
+this monarch was attended. The sequel of the story is not less
+memorable.
+
+The king's decease was the signal for general consternation throughout
+the metropolis of Normandy. The citizens, panic struck, ran to and fro,
+as if intoxicated, or as if the town were upon the point of being taken
+by assault. Each asked counsel of his neighbor, and each anxiously
+turned his thoughts to the concealing of his property. When the alarm
+had in some measure subsided the monks and clergy made a solemn
+procession to the abbey of St. Georges, where they offered their prayers
+for the repose of the soul of the departed Duke; and archbishop William
+commanded that the body should be carried to Caen, to be interred in the
+church of St. Stephen, which William had founded. But the lifeless king
+was now deserted by all who had participated in his munificence and
+bounty. Every one of his brethren and relations had left him; nor was
+there even a servant to be found to perform the last offices to his
+departed lord. The care of the obsequies was finally undertaken by
+Herluin, a knight of that district, who, moved by the love of God and
+the honor of his nation, provided at his own expence, embalmers, and
+bearers, and a hearse, and conveyed the corpse to the Seine, whence it
+was carried by land and water to the place of its destination.
+
+Upon the arrival of the funeral train at Caen, it was met by Gislebert,
+bishop of Evreux, then abbot of St. Stephen's, at the head of his monks,
+attended with a numerous throng of clergy and laity; but scarcely had
+the bier been brought within the gates, when the report was spread that
+a dreadful fire had broken out in another part of the town, and the
+Duke's remains were a second time deserted. The monks alone remained;
+and, fearful and irresolute, they bore their founder "with candle, with
+book, and with knell," to his last home. Ordericus Vitalis enumerates
+the principal prelates and barons assembled upon this occasion; but he
+makes no mention of the Conqueror's son, Henry, who, according to
+William of Jumieges, was the only one of the family that attended, and
+was also the only one worthy of succeeding to such a father.--Mass had
+now been performed, and the body was about to be committed to the
+ground, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," when, previously to this closing
+part of the ceremony, Gislebert mounted the pulpit, and delivered an
+oration in honor of the deceased.--He praised his valor, which had so
+widely extended the limits of the Norman dominion; his ability, which
+had elevated the nation to the highest pitch of glory; his equity in
+the administration of justice; his firmness in correcting abuses; and
+his liberality towards the monks and clergy; then, finally, addressing
+the people, he besought them to intercede with the Almighty for the soul
+of their prince, and to pardon whatsoever transgression he might have
+been guilty of towards any of them.--At this moment, one Asselin, an
+obscure individual, starting from the crowd, exclaimed with a loud
+voice, "the ground upon which you are standing, was the site of my
+father's dwelling. This man, for whom you ask our prayers, took it by
+force from my parent; by violence he seized, by violence he retained it;
+and, contrary to all law and justice, he built upon it this church,
+where we are assembled. Publicly, therefore, in the sight of God and
+man, do I claim my inheritance, and protest against the body of the
+plunderer being covered with my turf."--The appeal was attended with
+instant effect; bishops and nobles united in their entreaties to
+Asselin; they admitted the justice of his claim; they pacified him; they
+paid him sixty shillings on the spot by way of recompence for the place
+of sepulture; and, finally, they satisfied him for the rest of the land.
+
+But the remarkable incidents doomed to attend upon this burial, were not
+yet at an end; for at the time when they were laying the corpse in the
+sarcophagus, and were bending it with some force, which they were
+compelled to do, in consequence of the coffin having been made too
+short, the body, which was extremely corpulent, burst, and so
+intolerable a stench issued from the grave, that all the perfumes which
+arose from all the censers of the priests and acolytes were of no avail;
+and the rites were concluded in haste, and the assembly, struck with
+horror, returned to their homes.
+
+The latter part of this story accords but ill with what De Bourgueville
+relates. We learn from this author, that four hundred and thirty years
+subsequent to the death of the Conqueror, a Roman cardinal, attended by
+an archbishop and bishop, visited the town of Caen, and that his
+eminence having expressed a wish to see the body of the duke, the monks
+yielded to his curiosity, and the tomb was opened, and the corpse
+discovered in so perfect a state, that the cardinal caused a portrait to
+be taken from the lifeless features.--It is not worth while now to
+inquire into the truth of this story, or the fidelity of the
+resemblance. The painting has disappeared in the course of time: it hung
+for a while against the walls of the church, opposite to the monument;
+but it was stolen during the tumults caused by the Huguenots, and was
+broken into two pieces, in which state De Bourgueville saw it a few
+years afterwards, in the hands of a Calvinist, one Peter Hodé, the
+gaoler at Caen, who used it in the double capacity of a table and a
+door.--The worthy magistrate states, that he kept the picture, "because
+the abbey-church was demolished."
+
+He was himself present at the second violation of the royal tomb, in
+1572; and he gives a piteous account of the transaction. The monument
+raised to the memory of the Conqueror, by his son, William Rufus, under
+the superintendance of Lanfranc, was a production of much costly and
+elaborate workmanship: the shrine, which was placed upon the mausoleum,
+glittered with gold and silver and precious stones. To complete the
+whole, the effigy of the king had been added to the tomb, at some
+period subsequent to its original erection.--A monument like this
+naturally excited the rapacity of a lawless banditti, unrestrained by
+civil or military force, and inveterate against every thing that might
+be regarded as connected with the Catholic worship.--The Calvinists were
+masters of Caen, and, incited by the information of what had taken place
+at Rouen, they resolved to repeat the same outrages. Under the specious
+pretext of abolishing idolatrous worship, they pillaged and ransacked
+every church and monastery: they broke the painted windows and organs,
+destroyed the images, stole the ecclesiastical ornaments, sold the
+shrines, committed pulpits, chests, books, and whatever was combustible,
+to the fire; and finally, after having wreaked their vengeance upon
+eyery thing that could be made the object of it, they went boldly to the
+town-hall to demand the wages for their labors.--In the course of these
+outrages the tomb of the Conqueror at one abbey, and that of Matilda at
+the other, were demolished. And this was not enough; but a few days
+afterwards, the same band returned, allured by the hopes of farther
+plunder. It was customary in ancient times to deposit treasures of
+various kinds in the tombs of sovereigns, as if the feelings of the
+living passed into the next stage of existence;--
+
+
+   "... quæ gratia currûm
+    Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes
+    Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos."
+
+
+The bees that adorned the imperial mantle of Napoléon were found in the
+tomb of Childeric. A similar expectation excited the Huguenots, at Caen.
+They dug up the coffin: the hollow stone rung to the strokes of their
+daggers: the vibration proved that it was not filled by the corpse; and
+nothing more was wanted to seal its destruction.
+
+De Bourgueville, who went to the spot and exerted his eloquence to check
+this last act of violence, witnessed the opening of the coffin. It
+contained the bones of the king, wrapped up in red taffety, and still in
+tolerable preservation; but nothing else. He collected them, with care,
+and consigned them to one of the monks of the abbeys who kept them in
+his chamber, till the Admiral de Châtillon entered Caen at the head of
+his mercenaries, on which occasion the whole abbey was plundered, and
+the monks put to flight, and the bones lost. "Sad doings, these," says
+De Bourgueville, "_et bien peu réformez!_"--He adds, that one of the
+thigh-bones was preserved by the Viscount of Falaise, who was there with
+him, and begged it from the rioters, and that this bone was longer by
+four fingers' breadth than that of a tall man. The bone thus preserved,
+was re-interred, after the cessation of the troubles: it is the same
+that is alluded to in the inscription, which also informs us that a
+monument was raised over it in 1642, but was removed in 1742, it being
+then considered as an incumbrance in the choir.
+
+With this detail I close my letter. The melancholy end of the Conqueror,
+the strange occurrences at his interment, the violation of his grave,
+the dispersion of his remains, and the demolition and final removal of
+his monument, are circumstances calculated to excite melancholy emotions
+in the mind of every one, whatever his condition in life. In all these
+events, the religious man traces the hand of retributive justice; the
+philosopher regards the nullity of sublunary grandeur; the historian
+finds matter for serious reflection; the poet for affecting narrative;
+the moralist for his tale; and the school-boy for his theme.--Ordericus
+Vitalis sums the whole up admirably. I should spoil his language were I
+to attempt to translate it; I give it you, therefore, in his own
+words:--"Non fictilem tragoediam venundo, non loquaci comoedia
+cachinnantibus parasitis faveo: sed studiosis lectoribus varios eventus
+veraciter intimo. Inter prospera patuerunt adversa, ut terrerentur
+terrigenarum corda. Rex quondam potens et bellicosus, multisque populis
+per plures Provincias metuendus, in area jacuit nudus, et a suis, quos
+genuerat vel aluerat, destitutus. Aere alieno in funebri cultu indiguit,
+ope gregarii pro sandapila et vespilionibus conducendis eguit, qui tot
+hactenus et superfluis opibus nimis abundavit. Secus incendium a
+formidolosis vectus est ad Basilicam, liberoque solo, qui tot urbibus et
+oppidis et vicis principatus est, caruit ad sepulturam. Arvina ventris
+ejus tot delectamentis enutrita cum dedecore patuit, et prudentes ac
+infrunitos, qualis sit gloria carnis, edocuit[79]."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 76: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 45.]
+
+[Footnote 77: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
+24-33.]
+
+[Footnote 78: A detailed account of the proceedings on this occasion, is
+given in the _Journal Politique du Département du Calvados_, for March
+21, and May 6, 1819.--The first attempt at the discovery of Matilda's
+coffin, was made in March, 1818, and was confined to the chapter-house:
+the matter then slept till the following March, when Count de
+Montlivault, attended by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mr. Spencer Smythe, and
+other gentlemen, prosecuted his inquiries within the church itself, and,
+immediately under the spot where her monument stood, discovered a stone
+coffin, five feet four inches long, by eleven inches deep, and varying
+in width from twenty inches to eleven. Within this coffin was a leaden
+box, soldered down; and, in addition to the box, the head of an effigy
+of a monk, in stone, and a portion of a skull-bone filled with aromatic
+herbs, and covered with a yellowish-white membrane, which proved, upon
+examination, to be the remains of a linen cloth. The box contained
+various bones, that had belonged to a person of nearly the same height
+as Matilda is described to have been. No doubt seemed to remain but that
+the desideratum was discovered. The whole was therefore carefully
+replaced; and the prefect ordered that a new tomb should be raised,
+similar to that which was destroyed at the revolution; and that the
+slab, with the original epitaph, should be laid on the top; that copies
+of the former inscription, stating how the queen's remains had been
+re-interred by the abbess, in 1707, should be added to two of the sides;
+that to the third should be affixed the ducal arms of Normandy; and that
+the fourth should bear the following inscription:--
+
+
+   "Ce tombeau renfermant les dépouilles mortelles
+    de l'illustre Fondatrice de cette Abbaye,
+    renversé pendant les discordes civiles,
+    et déplacé depuis une longue série d'années,
+    a été restauré, conformément au voeu des
+    amis de la religion, de l'antiquité et des arts,
+        1819.
+    Casimir, comte de Montlivault, conseiller d'état, préfet.
+    Léchaudé d'Anisy, directeur de l'Hospice."
+
+
+The ceremony of the re-interment was performed with great pomp on the
+fifth of May; and the Bishop of Bayeux pronounced a speech on the
+occasion, that does him credit for its good sense and affecting
+eloquence.]
+
+[Footnote 79: _Hist. Normannorum Scriptores_, p. 662.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.
+
+PALACE OF THE CONQUEROR--HERALDIC TILES--PORTRAITS OF WILLIAM AND
+MATILDA--MUSEUM--PUBLIC LIBRARY--UNIVERSITY--ACADEMY--EMINENT
+MEN--HISTORY OF CAEN.
+
+
+(_Caen, August_, 1818.)
+
+Within the precincts of the abbey of St. Stephen are some buildings,
+which do not appear to have been used for monastic purposes. It is
+supposed that they were erected by William the Conqueror, and they are
+yet called his palace. Only sixty years ago, when Ducarel visited Caen,
+these remains still preserved their original character.
+
+He describes the great guard-chamber and the barons' hall, as making a
+noble appearance, and as being perhaps equally worth the notice of an
+English antiquary as any object within the province of Normandy. The
+walls of these rooms are standing, but dilapidated and degraded; and
+they have lost their architectural character, which, supposing Ducarel's
+plate to be a faithful representation, must have been very decisive. It
+is scarcely possible to conceive how any man, with such a specimen of
+the palace before his eyes, could dream of its being coeval with the
+Norman conquest: every portion is of the pointed style, and even of a
+period when that style was no longer in its purity. Possibly, indeed,
+other parts of the edifice may have been more ancient; such certainly
+was the "Conqueror's kitchen," a singular octagon building, with four
+tall slender chimneys capped with perforated cones. This was destroyed
+many years ago; but Ducarel obtained an original drawing of it, which he
+has engraved. Amongst the ruins there is a chimney which perhaps
+belonged to this building.--The guard-chamber and barons' hall are noble
+rooms: the former is one hundred and ninety feet in length and ninety in
+breadth. You remember how admirably the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ opens
+with a description of such a hall, filled with knights, and squires, and
+pages, and all the accompaniments of feudal state. I tried, while
+standing by these walls, to conjure up the same pictures to my
+imagination, but it was impossible; so desolate and altered was every
+thing around, and so effectually was the place of baronial assemblage
+converted into a granary. The ample fire-place still remains; but, cold
+and cheerless, it looks as if had been left in mockery of departed
+splendor and hospitality. I annex a sketch of it, in which you will also
+see a few scattered tiles, relics of the magnificent pavement that once
+covered the floor.
+
+[Illustration: Fireplace in the Conqueror's Palace, at Caen]
+
+This pavement has been the subject of much learned discussion; because,
+if the antiquity of the emblazoned tiles could be established, (which it
+certainly cannot) we should then have a decisive proof of the use of
+armorial bearings in the eleventh century. Nearly the whole of these
+tiles are now removed. After the abbey was sold, the workmen entirely
+destroyed the tiles, breaking them with their pick-axes. The Abbé de la
+Rue, however, collected an entire set of them; and others have been
+preserved by M. Lair, an antiquary of Caen.--Ducarel thus describes the
+pavement when perfect: "The floor is laid with tiles, each near five
+inches square, baked almost to vitrification. Eight rows of these
+tiles, running from east to west, are charged with different coats of
+arms, said to be those of the families who attended Duke William in his
+invasion of England. The intervals between each of these rows are filled
+up with a kind of tessellated pavement, the middle whereof represents a
+maze or labyrinth, about ten feet in diameter, and so artfully contrived
+that were we to suppose a man following all the intricate meanders of
+its volutes, he could not travel less than a mile before he got from one
+end to the other. The remainder of the floor is inlaid with small
+squares of different colors, placed alternately, and formed into draught
+or chess-boards, for the amusement of the soldiers while on guard."
+
+Such is the general description of the floors of this apartment: with
+regard to the date of the tiles, Ducarel proceeds to state that "it is
+most probable the pavement was laid down in the latter part of the reign
+of King John, when he was loitering away his life at Caen, with the
+beautiful Isabel of Angoulême, his queen; during which period, the
+custom of wearing coats of arms was introduced."--Common tradition
+assigns the tiles to higher date, making them coeval with the conquest;
+and this opinion has not been without supporters. It was strenuously
+defended by Mr. Henniker Major, who, in the year 1794, printed for
+private distribution, two letters upon the subject, addressed to Lord
+Leicester, in which he maintained this opinion with zeal and laborious
+research. To the letters were annexed engravings of twenty coats of
+arms, the whole, as he observes, that were represented on the pavement;
+for though the number of emblazoned tiles was considerable, the rest
+were all repetitions[80]. The same observation was found in the
+inscription attached to a number of the tiles, which the monks kept
+framed for public inspection, in a conspicuous part of the monastery;
+and yet some of the armorial bearings in this very selection, differ
+from any of those figured by Mr. Henniker Major. The Abbé de la Rue has
+also many which are not included in Mr. Henniker Major's engravings. In
+one of the coats the arms are quartered, a practice that was not
+introduced till the reign of Edward IIIrd. The same quarterings are also
+found upon an escutcheon, placed over the door that leads to the
+apartment. This door is a flattened arch, with an ogee canopy, the
+workmanship probably of the fourteenth century.
+
+To the same date I should also refer the tiles; and possibly the whole
+palace was built at that period. There are no records of its erection;
+no document connects its existence with the history of the duchy; no
+author relates its having been suffered to fall into decay. So striking
+an absence of all proof, and this upon a point where evidence of
+different kinds might naturally have been expected, may warrant a
+suspicion how far the building was ever a royal palace, according to the
+strict import of the town. A friend of mine supposes that these
+buildings may have been the king's lodgings. During the middle ages it
+was usual for monarchs in their progresses, to put up at the great
+abbeys; and this portion of the convent of St. Stephen may have been
+intended for the accommodation of the royal guests.
+
+The assigning of a comparatively modern date to the pavement, does not
+necessarily interfere with the question as to the antiquity of heraldic
+bearings. The coats of arms which are painted upon the tiles may have
+been designed to represent those of the nobility who attended Duke
+William on his expedition to England: it is equally possible that they
+embraced a more general object, and were those of the principal families
+of the duchy--De Thou gives his suffrage in favor of the former opinion,
+but Huet of the latter; and the testimony of the bishop must be allowed,
+in this case, to outweigh that of the president.--Huet also says, that
+it is matter of notoriety that the tiles were laid down towards the
+close of the fourteenth century. He mentions, however, no authority for
+the assertion; and less credit perhaps will be given to it than it
+deserves, from his having stated just before, that the abbey and palace
+were contemporary structures.
+
+Upon the outside wall of a chapel that is supposed to have belonged to
+the same palace, were ancient fresco paintings of William and Matilda,
+and of their sons, Robert and William Rufus. They are engraved by
+Montfaucon[81], and are supposed by him, probably with reason, to be
+coeval with the personages they represent. The figures are standing upon
+animals, the distribution of which is the most remarkable circumstance
+connected with the portraits. To the king is assigned a dog; to the
+queen a lion: the eldest son has the same symbol as his father; the
+younger rests upon a two-bodied beast, half swine, half bird, the bodies
+uniting in a female head.--Upon the same plate, Montfaucon has given a
+second whole-length picture of the conqueror, which represents him with
+the crown upon his head, and the sceptre in his hand. Considering the
+costume, he observes with justice that it cannot have been painted
+earlier than the latter part of the fourteenth century. Ducarel, who, as
+usual, has copied the Benedictine's engravings, says that, in his time,
+the same portrait existed in fresco over a chimney-piece in the porter's
+lodge.--We saw two copies of it; the one in the sacristy of the abbey
+church, the other in the museum, an establishment which may, without
+injustice to the honors of Caen, be dismissed with the brief
+observation, that, though three rooms are appropriated to the purpose,
+there is a very scanty assortment of pictures, and their quality is
+altogether ordinary.
+
+The public library is a handsome apartment, one hundred and thirty feet
+in length, and it contains about twenty thousand volumes, mostly in good
+condition; but a great proportion of the books are of a description
+little read, being old divinity. To the students of the university, this
+establishment is of essential service; and on this account it is to be
+regretted, that the very scanty revenue with which it is endowed,
+amounting only to twelve hundred francs per annum, prevents the
+possibility of any material increase to the collection, except in the
+case of such books as the liberality of the state contributes. And these
+are principally works of luxury and great expence, which might
+advantageously be exchanged for the less costly productions of more
+extensive utility. We inquired in vain after manuscripts and specimens
+of early typography. None were to be found; and yet they might surely
+have been expected here; for a public library has existed in Caen from
+an early part of the last century, and, previous to the revolution, it
+was enriched with various donations. M. de Colleville presented to it
+the whole of the collection of the celebrated Bochart; Cavelier, printer
+to the university, a man known by several treatises on Roman
+antiquities, added a donation of two thousand volumes; and Cardinal de
+Fleury, who considered it under his especial protection, gave various
+sums of money for the purchase of books, and likewise provided a salary
+for the librarian. I suspect that no small proportion of the more
+valuable volumes, have been dispersed or stolen. Round the apartment
+hang portraits of the most eminent men of Caen: tablets are also
+suspended, for the purpose of commemorating those who have been
+benefactors to the library; but the tablets at present are blank.
+
+For its university Caen is indebted to Henry VIth, who, anxious to give
+éclat and popularity to British rule, founded a college by letters
+patent, dated from Rouen, in January, 1431. The original charter
+restricted the objects of the university to education in the canon and
+civil law; but, five years subsequently, the same king issued a fresh
+patent, adding the faculties of theology and the arts; and, in the
+following year, he still farther added the faculty of medicine.--To
+give permanency to the work thus happily begun, the states of Normandy
+preferred their petition to Pope Eugene IVth, who issued two bulls,
+dated the thirtieth of May, 1437, and the nineteenth of May, 1439, by
+which the new university received the sanction of the holy see, and was
+placed upon the same footing as the other universities of the kingdom.
+The Bishop of Bayeux was at the same time appointed chancellor; and
+sundry apostolical privileges were conceded, which have been confirmed
+by subsequent pontiffs.--Thus Normandy, as is admitted by De
+Bourgueville, owed good as well as evil to her English sovereigns; but
+Charles VIIth had no sooner succeeded in expelling our countrymen from
+the province, than jealousy arose in his breast, at finding them in
+possession of such a title to the gratitude of the people, and he
+resolved to run the risk of destroying what had been done, rather than
+lose the opportunity of gratifying his personal feeling. The university
+was therefore dissolved in 1450, that a new one might hereafter be
+founded by the new sovereign. The king thought it necessary to vary in
+some degree from the example of his predecessor; and for this purpose he
+had recourse to the extraordinary expedient of abolishing the faculty of
+law. A petition, however, from the states, induced him to replace the
+whole upon its original footing in 1452, and it continued till the time
+of the revolution to have all the five faculties, and to be the only one
+in France that retained them. Two years only intervened between the
+dates of the patents issued by Charles VIIth, upon the subject of this
+university; yet there is a remarkable difference in their language. The
+first of them, which is obviously intended to disparage Caen, styles it
+a large town, scantily inhabited, without manufactures or commerce, and
+destitute of any great river to afford facilities towards the transport
+of the produce of the country. The second was designed to have an
+opposite tendency; and in this, the people of Caen are praised for their
+acuteness, and the town for its excellent harbor and great rivers. The
+patent also adds, that the nearest university, that of Paris, is fifty
+leagues distant.
+
+In the estimation, at least, of the inhabitants, the university of Caen
+ranks at present the third in France; Paris and Strasbourg being alone
+entitled to stand before it. The faculty of law retains its old
+reputation, and the legal students are quite the pride of the
+university. Since the peace, many young jurisprudents from Jersey and
+Guernsey have resorted to it. Medical students generally complete their
+education at Paris, where it is commonly considered in France, that,
+both in theory and practice, the various branches of this faculty have
+nearly attained the acmè of perfection. The students, who amount to just
+five hundred, are under the care of twenty-six professors, many of them
+men of distinguished talents. The Abbé de la Rue fills the chair of
+history; M. Lamouroux, that of the natural sciences. They receive their
+salaries wholly from the government; their emoluments continue the same,
+whether the students crowd to hear their courses, or whether they
+lecture to empty benches. It is strictly forbidden to a student to
+attempt to make any remuneration to a professor, or even to offer him a
+present of any kind. The whole of the dues paid by the scholars go to
+the state; and the state in its turn, defrays the expences of the
+establishment.
+
+There is likewise at Caen an Academy of Sciences, Arts and Belles
+Lettres, which has published two volumes; not, strictly speaking, of its
+Transactions, but exhibiting a brief outline of the principal papers
+that have been read at the meetings. The antiquarian dissertations of
+the Abbé de la Rue, which they contain, are of great merit; and it is
+much to be regretted, that they have not appeared in a more extended
+form. A chartered academy was first founded here in the year 1705; and
+it continued to exist, till it was suppressed, like all others
+throughout France, at the revolution. The present establishment arose in
+1800, under the auspices of General Dugua, then prefect of the
+department, who had been urged to the task by the celebrated Chaptal,
+Minister of the Interior.--Some interesting, letters are annexed to the
+second part of the poems of Mosant de Brieux, in which, among much
+curious information relative to Caen, he describes the literary meetings
+that led to the foundation of the first academy. The town at that time
+could boast an unusual proportion of men of talents. Bochart, author of
+_Sacred Geography_; Graindorge, who had published _De Principiis
+Generationîs_; Huet, a man seldom mentioned, without the epithet
+_learned_ being attached to his name; and Halley and Ménage, authors
+almost equally distinguished, were amongst those who were associated for
+the purposes of acquiring and communicating information.
+
+Indeed, Caen appears at all times to have been fruitful in literary
+characters. Huet enumerates no fewer than one hundred and thirty-seven,
+whom he considers worthy of being recorded among the eminent men of
+France. The greater part of them are necessarily unknown to us in
+England; and allowance must be made for a man who is writing upon a
+subject, in which self-love may be considered as in some degree
+involved; the glory of our townsmen shining by reflection upon
+ourselves. A portion, however, of the number, are men whose claims to
+celebrity will not be denied.--Such, in the fifteenth century, were the
+poets John and Clement Marot; such was the celebrated physician,
+Dalechamps, to whom naturalists are indebted for the _Historia
+Plantarum_; such the laborious lexicographer, Constantin; and, not to
+extend the catalogue needlessly, such above all was Malherbe. The medal
+that has been struck at Caen in honor of this great man, at the expence
+of Monsieur de Lair, bears for its epigraph, the three first words of
+Boileau's eulogium--"Enfin Malherbe vint."--The same inscription is also
+to be seen upon the walls of the library. So expressive a beginning
+prepares the reader for a corresponding sequel; and I should be guilty
+of injustice towards this eminent writer, were I not to quote to you the
+passage at length.--
+
+
+   "Enfin, Malherbe vint, et le premier en France
+    Fit sentir dans les vers une juste cadence:
+    D'un mot mis en sa place enseigna le pouvoir,
+    Et reduisit la muse aux règles du devoir.
+    Par ce sage écrivain, la langue repareé,
+    N'offrit plus rien de rude à l'oreille épureé.
+    Les stances avec grâce apprirent à tomber,
+    Et le Vers sur le Vers n'osa plus enjamber."
+
+
+Wace and Baudius, though not born at Caen, have contributed to its
+honor, by their residence here. Baudius was appointed to the
+professorship of law in the university, by the President de Thou; but he
+disagreed with his colleagues, and soon removed to Leyden, where he
+filled the chair of history till his death. Some of his earlier letters,
+in the collection published by Elzevir, are dated from Caen. His Iambi,
+directed against his brethren of this university, are scarcely to be
+exceeded for severity, by the bitterest specimens of a style
+proverbially bitter. Their excessive virulence defeated the writer's
+aim; but there is an elegance in the Latinity of Baudius, and a degree
+of feeling in his sentiments, which will ensure a permanent existence to
+his compositions, and especially to his poems.--He it was who called
+forth the severe saying of Bayle, that "many men of learning render
+themselves contemptible in the places where they live, while they are
+admired where they are known only by their writings."--Wace was a native
+of Jersey, but an author only at Caen. The most celebrated of his works
+is _Le Roman de Rou et des Normans_, written in French verse. He
+dedicated this romance to our Henry IInd, who rewarded him with a stall
+in the cathedral at Bayeux.
+
+[Illustration: Profile of M. Lamouroux]
+
+Quitting the departed for the living, I send you a profile of M.
+Lamouroux, the professor of natural history at this university, to whom
+we have been personally indebted for the kindest attention. His name is
+well known to you, as that of a man who has, perhaps, deserved more than
+any other individual at the hands of every student of marine Botany. His
+treatises upon the _Classification of the Submersed Algæ_, have been
+honored with admission in the _Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle_,
+and have procured him the distinction of being elected into the National
+Institute: his subsequent publication on the _Corallines_, is an
+admirable manual, in a very difficult branch of natural history; and he
+is now preparing for the press, a work of still greater labor and more
+extensive utility, an arrangement of the organized fossils found in the
+vicinity of Caen.
+
+The whole of this neighborhood abounds in remains of the antediluvian
+world: they are found not only in considerable quantity, but in great
+perfection. In the course of last year; a fossil crocodile was dug up at
+Allemagne, a village about a mile distant, imbedded in blue lias. Other
+specimens of the same genus, comprising, as it appears, two species,
+both of them distinct from any that are known in a living state, had
+previously been discovered in a bed of similar hard blue limestone, near
+Havre and Honfleur, as well as upon the opposite shores of England. But
+the Caen specimen is the most interesting of any, as the first that has
+been seen with its scales perfect; and the naturalists here have availed
+themselves of the opportunity thus afforded them, to determine it by a
+specific character, and give it the name of _Crocodilus Cadomensis_.
+
+The civil and ecclesiastical history of Caen will be amply illustrated
+in the forthcoming volumes of the Abbé de la Rue, as he is preparing a
+work on the subject, _à l'instar_ of the Essays of St. Foix. In the
+leading events of the duchy, we find the town of Caen had but little
+share. It is only upon the occasion of two sieges from our countrymen,
+the one in 1346, the other in 1417, that it appears to have acted a
+prominent part. The details of the first siege are given at some length
+by Froissart.--Edward IIIrd, accompanied by the Black Prince, had landed
+at La Hogue; and, meeting with no effectual resistance, had pillaged the
+towns of Barfleur, Cherbourg, Carentan, and St. Lô, after which he led
+his army hither. Caen, as Froissait tells us, was at that time "large,
+strong, and full of drapery and all other sorts of merchandize, rich
+citizens, noble dames and damsels, and fine churches." In its defence
+were assembled the Constable of France, with the Counts of Eu, Guignes,
+and Tancarville. But the wisdom of the generals was defeated by the
+impetuosity of the citizens. They saw themselves equal in number to the
+invaders, and, without reflecting how little numerical superiority
+avails in war against experience and tactics, they required to be led
+against the foe. They were so, and were defeated. The conquerors and
+conquered entered the city pell-mell; and Edward, enraged at the
+citizens for shooting upon his troops from the windows, issued orders
+that the inhabitants should be put to the sword, and the town burned.
+The mandate, however, was not executed: Sir Godfrey de Harcourt, with
+wise remonstrances, assuaged the anger of the sovereign, and diverted
+him from his purpose.--Immense were the riches taken on the occasion.
+The English fleet returned home loaded with cloth, and jewels, and gold,
+and silver plate, together with sixty knights, and upwards of three
+hundred able men, prisoners. This gallant exploit was shortly afterwards
+followed by the decisive battle of Crécy.
+
+Caen suffered still more severely upon the occasion of its second
+capture; when Henry IVth marched upon the town immediately after landing
+at Touques. The siege was longer, and the place, taken by assault, was
+given up to indiscriminate plunder. Even the churches were not spared:
+that of the Holy Sepulchre was demolished, and, among its other
+treasures, a crucifix was carried away, containing a portion of the real
+cross, which, as we are told, testified by so many miracles its
+displeasure at being taken to England, that the conquerors were glad to
+restore it to its original destination.
+
+From this time to the year 1450, our countrymen kept undisturbed
+possession of Caen. In the latter year they capitulated to the Count de
+Dunois, after a gallant resistance. But though the town has
+thenceforward remained, without interruption, subject to the crown of
+France, it has not therefore been always free from the miseries of
+warfare. A dreadful riot took place here in 1512, occasioned by the
+disorderly conduct of a body of six thousand German mercenaries, whom
+Louis XIIth introduced, by way of garrison, to guard against any sudden
+attack from Henry VIIIth. The character given by De Bourgueville of
+these _Lansquenets_ is, that they were "drunkards who guzzle wine,
+cider, and beer, out of earthen pots, and then fall asleep upon the
+table." Three hundred lives were lost upon this occasion, on the part of
+the Germans alone.--In the middle of the same century, happened the
+civil wars, originating in the reformation: and in the course of these,
+Caen suffered dreadfully from the contending parties. Friend and foe
+conspired alike to its ruin: what was saved from the violence of the
+Huguenots, was taken by the treachery of the Catholics, under the
+plausible pretext of its being placed in security. Thus, after the
+Calvinists had already seized on every thing precious that fell in their
+way, the Duke de Bouillon, the governor of the town, commanded all the
+reliquaries, shrines, church-plate, and ecclesiastical ornaments, to be
+carried to him at the castle; and he had no sooner got them into his
+possession, than "all holy, rich, and precious, as they were, he caused
+them to be melted down, and converted into coin to pay his soldiers; and
+he scattered the relics, so that they have never been seen
+more."--Loosen but the bands of society, and you will find that, in all
+ages of the world, the case has been nearly the same; and, as upon the
+banks of the Simoeis, so upon the plains of Normandy,--
+
+
+   "Seditione, dolis, scelere, atque libidine, et irâ,
+    _Iliacos_ extra muros peccatur et intra."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 80: Engravings of the same tiles, and of some others, chiefly
+with fanciful patterns, are to be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
+for March 1789, LIX. p. 211, plates 2, 3. The subjects of the latter
+plate are those tiles which were hung in a gilt frame, on the walls of
+the cloister of the abbey, with an inscription, denoting whence they
+were taken.]
+
+[Footnote 81: _Monumens de la Monarchie Française_, I. p. 402, t. 55.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.
+
+VIEUX--LA MALADERIE--CHESNUT TIMBER--CAEN STONE--HISTORY OF
+BAYEUX--TAPESTRY.
+
+
+(_Bayeux, August_, 1818.)
+
+Letters just received from England oblige us to change our course
+entirely: their contents are of such a nature, that we could not prolong
+our journey with comfort or satisfaction. We must return to England;
+and, instead of regretting the objects which we have lost, we must
+rejoice that we have seen so much, and especially that we have been able
+to visit the cathedral and tapestry of Bayeux.
+
+At the same time, I will not deny that we certainly could have wished to
+have explored the vicinity of Caen, where an ample harvest of subjects,
+both for the pen and pencil, is to be gathered; but the circumstances
+that control us would not even allow of a pilgrimage to the shrine of
+our Lady of la Délivrande, on the border of the English Channel, or of
+an excursion to the village of Vieux, in the opposite
+direction.--Antiquaries have been divided in opinion, concerning the
+nature and character of the buildings which anciently occupied the site
+of this village.--The remains of a Roman aqueduct are still to be seen
+there, and the foundations of ancient edifices are distinctly to be
+traced. In the course of the last century, a gymnasium was likewise
+discovered, of great size, constructed according to the rules laid down
+by Vitruvius, and a hypocaust, connected with a fine stone basin, twelve
+feet in diameter, surrounded by three rows of seats. Abundance of
+medals of the upper empire, among others, of Crispina, wife to Commodus,
+and Latin inscriptions and sarcophagi, are frequently dug up among its
+ruins[82]. Hence, a belief has commonly prevailed that during the Roman
+dominion in Gaul, Vieux was a city, and that Caen, which is only six
+miles distant, arose from its ruins. This opinion was strenuously
+combated by Huet; yet it subsequently found a new advocate in the Abbé
+Le Beuf[83]. The bishop contends that the extent of the buildings rather
+denotes the ruins of a fortified camp, than of a city; and he therefore
+considers it most probable, that Vieux was the site of an encampment,
+raised near the Orne, for the purpose of defending the passage of the
+river, at the point where it was crossed by the military road that led
+from the district of the Bessin, to that of the Hiesmois.--Portions of
+the causeway, may still be traced, constructed of the same kind of brick
+as the aqueduct; and the name of the village so far tends to corroborate
+the conjecture, that _Vieux_ originally denoted a ford; and the word
+_Vé_, which is most probably a corruption from it, retains this
+signification in Norman French.--The Abbé, at the same time that he does
+not pretend to contradict the argument deduced from etymology, maintains
+that a careful comparison of the position of Vieux, with the distances
+marked on the _Tabula Peutingeriana_, and with what Ptolemy relates of
+certain towns adjoining the Viducassian territory, will support him in
+the assertion, that Vieux was the ancient _Augustodurum_ the Viducassian
+capital; and that Bayeux was probably the site of _Arigenus_ another of
+the towns of that tribe.--The red, veined marble of Vieux is much
+esteemed in France; as are also the other marbles of this department,
+which vary in color from a dull white, through grey, to blue. The
+quarries, as is generally believed, were first opened and worked by the
+Romans. Vieux marble is to be seen at Paris, where it was employed by
+Cardinal Richelieu, in the construction of the chapel of the Sorbonne.
+
+At about a mile from Caen, on the road to Bayeux, stands the village of
+St. Germain de Blancherbe, more commonly called in the neighborhood _la
+Maladerie_, a name derived from the lazar-house in it, the _Léproserie
+de Beaulieu_, founded by Henry IInd, in 1161.--Robert Du Mont terms the
+building a wonderful work. It was a princely establishment, designed for
+the reception of lepers from all the parishes of Caen, except four,
+whose patients had an especial right to be admitted into a smaller
+hospital in the same place. The great hospital is now used as a house of
+correction. Seen from the road, it appears to be principally of modern
+architecture though still retaining a portion of the ancient structure;
+the same, probably, as is mentioned by Ducarel, who says, that "part of
+the magnificent chapel, which was considered as the parish church for
+the lepers, and ruined by the English, is turned into a large common
+hall for the prisoners, and separated from the other part, which is made
+into a chapel, by means of an iron gate, through which they may have an
+opportunity of hearing mass celebrated every morning."--Within the
+village street stands a desecrated church of the earliest Norman style,
+with a very perfect door-way. The present parish church, though chiefly
+modern, deserves attention on account of the west front, which is wholly
+of the semi-circular style, and is somewhat curious, from having two
+Norman buttresses, that rise from a string-course at the top of the
+basement story, (in which the arched door-way is contained,) and are
+thence continued upwards till they unite with the roof. The decorations
+round its southern entrance are also remarkable: they principally
+consist of a very sharp chevron moulding, interspersed with foliage and
+various figures.
+
+The quarries in this village, and in that of Allemagne, on the opposite
+side of the Orne, supply most of the free-stone, for which Caen has,
+during many centuries, been celebrated. Stone of the finest quality is
+found in strata of different thickness, at the depth of about sixty feet
+below the surface of the ground. If worked much lower, it ceases to be
+good. It is brought up in square blocks, about nine feet wide, and two
+feet thick, by means of vertical wheels, placed at the mouths of the
+pits. When first dug from the quarry, its color is a pure and glossy
+white, and its texture very soft; but as it hardens it takes a browner
+hue, and loses its lustre.
+
+In former days this stone was exported in great quantity to our own
+country. Stow, in his _Survey of London_, states that London Bridge,
+Westminster Abbey, and several others of our public edifices were built
+with it. Extracts from sundry charters relative to the quarries are
+quoted by Ducarel, who adds that, in his time, though many cargoes of
+the stone were annually conveyed by water to the different provinces of
+the kingdom, the exportation of it out of France was strictly
+prohibited, insomuch that, when it was to be sent by sea, the owner of
+the stone, as well as the master of the vessel on board of which it was
+shipped, was obliged to give security that it should not be sold to
+foreigners.--We omitted to inquire how far the same prohibitions still
+continue in force.
+
+At but a short distance from St. Germain de Blancherbe, stands the
+ruined abbey of Ardennes, now the residence of a farmer; but still
+preserving the features of a monastic building. The convent was founded
+in 1138, for canons of the Præmonstratensian order. Its Celtic name
+denotes its antiquity, as it also tends to prove that this part of the
+country was covered with timber. The word, _arden_, signified a forest,
+and was thence applied, with a slight variation in orthography, to the
+largest forest in England, and to the more celebrated forest in the
+vicinity of Liege. According to tradition, the Norman ardennes
+consisted: of chesnut-trees. De Bourgueville tells us that timber of
+this description is the principal material of most of the houses in the
+town. John Evelyn relates the same of those in London; and in our own
+counties wherever a village church has been so fortunate as to preserve
+its ancient timber cieling, the clerk is almost sure to state that the
+wood is chesnut. Either this tree therefore must formerly have abounded
+in places where it has now almost ceased to exist, or oak timber must
+have been commonly mistaken for it: and we may equally adopt both these
+conjectures. The yew and the service, as well as the chesnut, are
+occasionally mentioned in old charters, and are admitted by botanists to
+be indigenous in England. I should doubt, however, if any one of them
+could now be found in a wild state; and there is a fashion in planting
+as well as in every thing else, which renders peculiar trees more or
+less abundant at different times.
+
+About half way between Caen and Bayeux, is the village of Bretteville
+l'Orgueilleuse, the lofty tower of whose church, perforated with long
+lancet windows, and surmounted by a high spire, excites curiosity.
+Churches are numerous in this neighborhood, and there is no other part
+of Normandy, in which, architecturally considered, they are equally
+deserving of notice. Scarcely one is to be seen that is not marked by
+some peculiarity. I know not why Bretteville acquired the epithet
+attached to its name; and I am equally at a loss for the derivation of
+the word _Bretteville_ itself; but the term must have some
+signification in Normandy, at least eleven villages in the duchy being
+so called.
+
+The first part of the road to Bayeux passes through a flat and open
+district, resembling that on the other side of Caen; in the remaining
+half, the country is enclosed, with a more varied surface. Apple-trees
+again abound; and the old custom of suspending a bush over the door of
+an inn is commonly practised here. For this purpose misletoe is almost
+always selected. Throughout the whole of this district and the
+neighboring province of Brittany, the ancient attachment of the Druids
+to misletoe continues to a certain degree to prevail. The commencement
+of the new year is hailed by shouts of "au gui; l'an neuf;" and the
+gathering of the misletoe for the occasion is still the pretext for a
+merry-making, if not for a religious ceremony.
+
+Bayeux was the seat of an academy of the Druids. Ausonius expressly
+addresses Attius Patera Pather, one of the professors at Bordeaux, as
+being of the family of the priesthood of this district:--
+
+
+      "Doctor potentum rhetorum,
+    Tu Bajocassis stirpe Druidarum satus;"
+
+
+And tradition to this hour preserves the remembrance of the spot that
+was hallowed by the celebration of their mystic rites. This spot, an
+eminence adjoining the city, has subsequently served for the site of a
+priory dedicated to St. Nicholas _de la chesnaye_, thus commemorating by
+the epithet, the oaks that formed the holy grove. Near it stood the
+famous temple of Mount Phaunus, which was flourishing in the beginning
+of the fourth century, and, according to Rivet, was considered one of
+the three most celebrated in Gaul. Belenus was the divinity principally
+worshipped in it; but, according to popular superstition, adoration was
+also paid to a golden calf, which was buried in the hill, and still
+remains entombed there. Even within the last fifty years, two laborers
+have lost their lives in a fruitless attempt to find this hidden
+treasure. Tombs, and urns, and human bones, are constantly discovered;
+yet neither Druidic temples, nor pillars of stone, nor cromlechs or
+Celtic remains of any description exist, at least, at present, in the
+neighborhood of Bayeux.
+
+Roman relics, however, abound. The vases and statues dug up near this
+city, have afforded employment to the pen and the pencil of Count
+Caylus, who, judging from the style of art, refers the greater part of
+them to the times of Julius and Augustus Cæsar. Medals of the earliest
+emperors have likewise frequently been detected among the foundations of
+the houses of the city; and even so recently as in the beginning of the
+present century, mutilated cippi, covered with Latin inscriptions, have
+been brought to light. These discoveries all tend to shew the Roman
+origin of Bayeux, and two Roman causeways also join here; so that,
+notwithstanding the arguments of the Abbé le Beuf, most antiquaries
+still believe that Bayeux was the city called by Ptolemy the _Næomagus
+Viducassium_.--The term _Viducasses_ or _Biducasses_ was in early ages
+changed to _Bajocasses_; and the city, following the custom that
+prevailed in Gaul, took the appellation of _Bajocæ_, or, as it was
+occasionally written, of _Baiæ_ or _Bagicæ_. Its name in French has
+likewise been subject to alterations.--During the twelfth and thirteenth
+centuries, it was _Baex_ and _Bajeves_; in the fourteenth _Bajex_; in
+the sixteenth _Baieux_; and soon afterwards it settled info the present
+orthography.
+
+Pursuing the history of Bayeux somewhat farther, we find this city in
+the _Notitia Galileæ_ holding the first rank among the towns of the
+_Secunda Lugdunensis_. During the Merovingian and Carlovingian
+dynasties, its importance is proved by the mint which was established
+here. Golden coins, struck under the first race of French sovereigns,
+inscribed _HBAJOCAS_, and silver pieces, coined by Charles the Bald,
+with the legend _HBAJOCAS-CIVITAS_, are mentioned by Le Blanc. Bayeux
+was also in those times, one of the head-quarters of the high
+functionaries, entitled _Missi Dominici_, who were annually deputed by
+the monarchy for the promulgation of their decrees and the
+administration of justice. Two other cities only in Neustria, Rouen and
+Lisieux, were distinguished with the same privilege.--Nor did Bayeux
+suffer any diminution of its honors, under the Norman Dukes: they
+regarded it as the second town of the duchy, and had a palace here, and
+frequently made it the seat of their _Aula Regio_.
+
+The destruction of the Roman Bayeux is commonly ascribed, like that of
+the Roman Lisieux, to the Saxon invasion. No traces of the Viducassian
+capital are to be found in history, subsequently to the reign of
+Constantine; no medals, no inscriptions of a later period, have been dug
+up within its precincts. During the earliest incursions of the Saxons
+in Gaul, they seem to have made this immediate neighborhood the seat of
+a permanent settlement. The Abbé Le Beuf places the district, known by
+the name of the _Otlingua Saxonia_, between Bayeux and Isigny; and
+Gregory of Tours, in his relation of the events that occurred towards
+the close of the sixth century, makes repeated mention of the _Saxones
+Bajocassini_, whom the early Norman historians style _Saisnes de
+Bayeux_. Under the reign of Charlemagne, a fresh establishment of Saxons
+took place here. That emperor, after the bloody defeat of this valiant
+people, about the year 804, caused ten thousand men, with their wives
+and children, to be delivered up to him as prisoners, and dispersed them
+in different parts of France. Some of the captives were colonized in
+Neustria; and, among the rest, Witikind, son of the brave chief of the
+same name, who had fought so nobly in defence of the liberty of his
+country, had lands assigned to him in the Bessin. Hence, names of Saxon
+origin commonly occur throughout the diocese of Bayeux; sometimes alone
+and undisguised, but more frequently in composition. Thus, in _Estelan_,
+you will have little difficulty in recognizing _East-land: Cape la
+Hogue_ will readily suggest the idea of a lofty promontory; its
+appellation being derived from the German adjective, _hoch_, still
+written _hoog_, in Flemish: the Saxon word for the Almighty enters into
+the family names of _Argot_, _Turgot_, _Bagot_, _Bigot_, &c.; and, not
+to multiply examples, the quaking sands upon the sea-shore are to the
+present hour called _bougues_, an evident corruption of our own word
+_bogs_.
+
+When, towards the middle of the same century, the Saxons were succeeded
+by the Normans, the country about Bayeux was one of the districts that
+suffered most from the new invaders. Two bishops of the see, Sulpitius
+and Baltfridus, were murdered by the barbarians; and Bayeux itself was
+pillaged and burned, notwithstanding the valiant resistance made by the
+governor, Berenger. This nobleman, who was count of the Bessin, was
+personally obnoxious to Rollo, for having refused him his daughter, the
+beautiful Poppea, in marriage. But, on the capture of the town, Poppea
+was taken prisoner, and compelled to share the conqueror's bed. Bayeux
+arose from its ruins under the auspices of Botho, a Norman chieftain, to
+whom Rollo was greatly attached, and who succeeded to the honors of
+Berenger. By him the town was rebuilt, and filled with a Norman
+population, the consequence of which was, according to Dudo of St.
+Quintin, that William Longa-Spatha, the successor of Rollo, who hated
+the French language, sent his son, Duke Richard, to be educated at
+Bayeux, where Danish alone was spoken. And the example of the Duke
+continued for some time to be imitated by his successors upon the
+throne; so that Bayeux became the academy for the children of the royal
+family, till they arrived at a sufficient age to be removed to the
+metropolis, there to be instructed in the art of government.
+
+The dignity of Count of the Bessin ceased in the reign of William the
+Conqueror, in consequence of a rebellion on the part of the barons,
+which had well nigh cost that sovereign his life. From that time, till
+the conquest of Normandy by the French, the nobleman, who presided over
+the Bessin, bore the title of the king's viscount; and, under this
+name, you will find him the first cited among the four viscounts of
+Lower Normandy, in the famous parliament of all the barons of this part
+of the duchy, convened at Caen by Henry IInd, in 1152.--When Philip
+Augustus gained possession of Normandy, all similar appointments were
+re-modelled, and viscounts placed in every town; but their power was
+restricted to the mere administration of justice, the rest of their
+privileges being transferred to a new description of officers, who were
+then created, with the name of bailiffs. The bailiwicks assigned to
+these bore no reference to the ancient divisions of the duchy; but the
+territorial partition made at that time, has ever since been preserved,
+and Caen, which was honored by Philip with a preference over Bayeux,
+continues to the present day to retain the pre-eminence.
+
+After these troubles, Bayeux enjoyed a temporary tranquillity; and,
+according to the celebrated historical tapestry and to the _Roman de
+Rou_, this city was selected for the place at which William the
+Conqueror, upon being nominated by Edward, as his successor to the crown
+of England, caused Harold to attend, and to do homage to him in the name
+of the nation. The oath was taken upon a missal covered with cloth of
+gold, in the presence of the prelates and grandees of the duchy; and the
+reliques of the saints were collected from all quarters to bear witness
+to the ceremony. Bayeux was also the spot in which Henry Ist was
+detained prisoner by his eldest brother, and it suffered for this
+unfortunate distinction; for Henry had scarcely ascended the English
+throne, when, upon a shallow pretext, he advanced against the city, laid
+siege to it, and burned it to the ground; whether moved to this act of
+vengeance from hatred towards the seat of his sufferings, or to satisfy
+the foreigners in his pay, whom the length of the siege had much
+irritated. He had promised these men the pillage of the city, and he
+kept his word; but the soldiers were not content with the plunder: they
+set fire to the town, and what had escaped their ravages, perished in
+the flames.[84] In 1356, under the reign of Edward IIIrd, Bayeux
+experienced nearly the same fate from our countrymen; and in the
+following century it again suffered severely from their arms, till the
+decisive battle of Formigny, fought within ten miles of the city,
+compelled Henry VIth to withdraw from Normandy, carrying with him
+scarcely any other trophies of his former conquests, than a great
+collection of Norman charters, and, among the rest, those of Bayeux,
+which are to this hour preserved in the tower of London.
+
+During the subsequent wars occasioned by the reformation, this town bore
+its share in the common sufferings of the north of France. The horrors
+experienced by other places on the occasion were even surpassed by the
+outrages that were committed at Bayeux; but it is impossible to enter
+into details which are equally revolting to decency and to humanity.
+
+Of late years, Bayeux has been altogether an open town. The old castle,
+the last relic of its military character, a spacious fortress flanked by
+ten square towers, was demolished in 1773; and, as the poet of Bayeux
+has sung[85],--
+
+
+   "... Gaulois, Romains, Saxons,
+    Oppresseurs, opprimés, colliers, faisceaux, blasons,
+    Tout dort. Du vieux château la taciturne enceinte
+    Expire. Par degrés j'ai vu sa gloire éteinte.
+    J'ai marché sur ses tours, erré dans ses fossés:
+    Tels qu'un songe bientôt ils vont être effacés."
+
+
+And in truth, they are so effectually _effaced_, that not a single
+vestige of the walls and towers can now be discovered.
+
+Bayeux is situated in the midst of a fertile country, particularly rich
+in pasturage. The Aure, which washes its walls, is a small and
+insignificant streamlet, and though the city is within five miles of the
+sea, yet the river is quite useless for the purposes of commerce, as not
+a vessel can float in it. The present population of the town consists of
+about ten thousand inhabitants, and these have little other employment
+than lace-making.--Bayeux wears the appearance of decay: most of the
+houses are ordinary; and, though some of them are built of stone, by far
+the greater part are only of wood and plaster. In the midst, however, of
+these, rises the noble cathedral; but this I shall reserve for the
+subject of my next letter, concluding the present with a few remarks
+upon that matchless relic, which,
+
+
+   "... des siècles respecté,
+    En peignant des héros honore la beauté."
+
+
+The very curious piece of historical needle-work, now generally known by
+the name of the _Bayeux tapestry_, was first brought into public notice
+in the early part of the last century, by Father Montfaucon and M.
+Lancelot, both of whom, in their respective publications, the _Monumens
+de la Monarchie Française_[86], and a paper inserted in the _Mémoires de
+l'Académie des Inscriptions_[87], have figured and described this
+celebrated specimen of ancient art. Montfaucon's plates were afterwards
+republished by Ducarel[88], with the addition of a short dissertation
+and explanation, by an able antiquary of our own country, Smart
+Lethieuilier.
+
+These plates, however, in the original, and still more in the copies,
+were miserably incorrect, and calculated not to inform, but to mislead
+the inquirer. When therefore the late war was concluded and France
+became again accessible to an Englishman, our Society of Antiquaries,
+justly considering the tapestry as being at least equally connected with
+English as with French history, and regarding it as a matter of national
+importance, that so curious a document should be made known by the most
+faithful representation, employed an artist, fitted above all others for
+the purpose, by his knowledge of history and his abilities as a
+draughtsman, to prepare an exact fac-simile of the whole. Under the
+auspices of the Society, Mr. C.A. Stothard undertook the task; and he
+has executed it in the course of two successive visits with the greatest
+accuracy and skill. The engravings from his drawings we may hope shortly
+to see: meanwhile, to give you some idea of the original, I
+enclose a sketch, which has no other merit than that of being a faithful
+transcript. It is reduced one half from a tracing made from the tapestry
+itself. By referring to Montfaucon, you will find the figure it
+represents under the fifty-ninth inscription in the original, where "a
+knight, with a _private_ banner, issues to mount a led horse." His
+beardless countenance denotes him a Norman; and the mail covering to his
+legs equally proves him to be one of the most distinguished characters.
+
+[Illustration: Figure from the Bayeux Tapestry]
+
+Within the few last years this tapestry has been the subject of three
+interesting papers, read before the Society of Antiquaries. The first
+and most important, from the pen of the Abbé de la Rue[89], has for its
+object the refutation of the opinions of Montfaucon and Lancelot, who,
+following the commonly received tradition, refer the tapestry to the
+time of the conquest, and represent it as the work of Queen Matilda and
+her attendant damsels. The Abbé's principal arguments are derived from
+the silence of contemporary authors, and especially of Wace, who was
+himself a canon of Bayeux;--from its being unnoticed in any charters or
+deeds of gift connected with the cathedral;--from the improbability that
+so large a roll of such perishable materials would have escaped
+destruction when the cathedral was burned in 1106;--from the unfinished
+state of the story;--from its containing some Saxon names unknown to the
+Normans;--and from representations taken from the fables of Æsop being
+worked on the borders, whereas the northern parts of Europe were not
+made acquainted with these fables, till the translation of a portion of
+them by Henry Ist, who thence obtained his surname of
+_Beauclerk_.--These and other considerations, have led the learned Abbé
+to coincide in opinion with Lord Littleton and Mr. Hume, that the
+tapestry is the production of the Empress Maud, and that it was in
+reality wrought by natives of our own island, whose inhabitants were at
+that time so famous for labors of this description, that the common mode
+of expressing a piece of embroidery, was by calling it _an English
+work_.
+
+The Abbé shortly afterwards found an opponent in another member of the
+society, Mr. Hudson Gurney, who, without following his predecessor
+through the line of his arguments, contented himself with briefly
+stating the three following reasons for ascribing the tapestry to
+Matilda, wife to the Conqueror[90].--_First_, that in the many buildings
+therein pourtrayed, there is not the least appearance of a pointed arch,
+though much pointed work is found in the ornaments of the running
+border; whilst, on the contrary, the features of Norman architecture,
+the square buttress, flat to the walls, and the square tower surmounted
+by, or rather ending in, a low pinnacle, are therein frequently
+repeated.--_Secondly_, that all the knights are in ring armour, many of
+their shields charged with a species of cross and five dots, and some
+with dragons, but none with any thing of the nature of armorial
+bearings, which, in a lower age, there would have been; and that all
+wear a triangular sort of conical helmet, with a nasal, when represented
+armed.--And, _Thirdly_, that the Norman banner is, invariably, _Argent_,
+a Cross, _Or_, in a Bordure _Azure_; and that this is repeated over and
+over again, as it is in the war against Conan, as well as at Pevensey
+and at Hastings; but there is neither hint nor trace of the later
+invention of the Norman leopards.--Mr. Gurney's arguments are ingenious,
+but they are not, I fear, likely to be considered conclusive: he
+however, has been particularly successful in another observation, that
+all writers, who had previously treated of the Bayeux tapestry, had
+called it a _Monument of the Conquest of England_; following, therein,
+M. Lancelot, and speaking of it as an unfinished work, whereas, it is in
+fact an _apologetical history of the claims of William to the crown of
+England, and of the breach of faith and fall of Harold_, in a perfect
+and finished action.--With this explanation before us, aided by the
+short indication that is given of the subjects of the seventy-two
+compartments of the tapestry, a new light is thrown upon the story.
+
+The third memoir is from the pen of Mr. Amyot, and concludes with an
+able metrical translation from Wace. It is confined almost exclusively
+to the discussion of the single historical fact, how far Harold was
+really sent by the Confessor to offer the succession to William; but
+this point, however interesting, in itself, is unconnected with my
+present object: it is sufficient for me to shew you the various sources
+from which you may derive information upon the subject.
+
+Supposing the Bayeux tapestry to be really from the hands of the Queen,
+or the Empress, (and that it was so appears to me proved by internal
+evidence,) it is rather extraordinary that the earliest notice which is
+to be found of a piece of workmanship, so interesting from its author
+and its subjects, should be contained in an inventory of the precious
+effects deposited in the treasury of the church, dated 1476. It is also
+remarkable that this inventory, in mentioning such an article, should
+call it simply _a very long piece of cloth, embroidered with figures and
+writing, representing the conquest of England_, without any reference to
+the royal artist or the donor.
+
+Observations of this nature will suggest themselves to every one, and
+the arguments urged by the Abbé de la Rue are very strong; and yet I
+confess that my own feelings always inclined to the side of those who
+assign the highest antiquity to the tapestry. I think so the more since
+I have seen it. No one appears so likely to have undertaken such a task
+as the female most nearly connected with the principal personage
+concerned in it, and especially if we consider what the character of
+this female was: the details which it contains are so minute, that they
+could scarcely have been known, except at the time when they took place:
+the letters agree in form with those upon Matilda's tomb; and the
+manners and customs of the age are also preserved.--Mr. Stothard, who is
+of the same opinion as to the date of the tapestry, very justly
+observes, that the last of these circumstances can scarcely be
+sufficiently insisted upon; for that "it was the invariable practice
+with artists in every country, excepting Italy, during the middle ages,
+whatever subject they took in hand, to represent it according to the
+costume of their own times."
+
+Till the revolution, the tapestry was always kept in the cathedral, in a
+chapel on the south side, dedicated to Thomas à Becket, and was only
+exposed to public view once a year, during the octave of the feast of
+St. John on which occasion it was hung up in the nave of the church,
+which it completely surrounded. From the time thus selected for the
+display of it, the tapestry acquired the name of _le toile de Saint
+Jean_; and it is to the present day commonly so called in the city.
+During the most stormy part of the revolution, it was secreted; but it
+was brought to Paris when the fury of vandalism had subsided. And, when
+the first Consul was preparing for the invasion of England, this ancient
+trophy of the subjugation of the British nation was proudly exhibited to
+the gaze of the Parisians, who saw another _Conqueror_ in Napoléon
+Bonaparté; and many well-sounding effusions, in prose and verse,
+appeared, in which the laurels of Duke William were transferred, by
+anticipation, to the brows of the child and champion of jacobinism.
+After this display, Bonaparté returned the tapestry to the municipality,
+accompanied by a letter, in which he thanked them for the care they had
+taken of so precious a relic. From that period to the present, it has
+remained in the residence appropriated to the mayor, the former
+episcopal palace; and here we saw it.
+
+It is a piece of brownish linen cloth, about two hundred and twelve feet
+long, and eighteen inches wide, French measure. The figures are worked
+with worsted of different colors, but principally light red, blue, and
+yellow. The historical series is included between borders composed of
+animals, &c. The colors are faded, but not so much so as might have been
+expected. The figures exhibit a regular line of events, commencing with
+Edward the Confessor seated upon his throne, in the act of dispatching
+Harold to the court of the Norman Duke, and continued through Harold's
+journey, his capture by the Comte de Ponthieu, his interview with
+William, the death of Edward, the usurpation of the British throne by
+Harold, the Norman invasion, the battle of Hastings, and Harold's death.
+These various events are distributed into seventy-two compartments, each
+of them designated by an inscription in Latin. Ducarel justly compares
+the style of the execution to that of a girl's sampler. The figures are
+covered with work, except on their faces, which are merely in outline.
+In point of drawing, they are superior to the contemporary sculpture at
+St. Georges and elsewhere; and the performance is not deficient in
+energy. The colors are distributed rather fancifully: thus the fore and
+off legs of the horses are varied. It is hardly necessary to observe
+that perspective is wholly disregarded, and that no attempt is made to
+express light and shadow.
+
+Great attention, however, is paid to costume; and more individuality of
+character has been preserved than could have been expected, considering
+the rude style of the workmanship. The Saxons are represented with long
+mustachios: the Normans have their upper lip shaven, and retain little
+more hair upon their heads than a single lock in front.--Historians
+relate how the English spies reported the invading army to be wholly
+composed of ecclesiastics; and this tapestry affords a graphical
+illustration of the chroniclers' text. Not the least remarkable feature
+of the tapestry, in point of costume, lies in the armor, which, in some
+instances, is formed of interlaced rings; in others, of square
+compartments; and in others, of lozenges. Those who contend for the
+antiquity of Duke William's equestrian statue at Caen, may find a
+confirmation of their opinions in the shape of the saddles assigned to
+the figures of the Bayeux tapestry; and equally so in their cloaks, and
+their pendant braided tresses.
+
+The tapestry is coiled round a cylinder, which is turned by a winch and
+wheel; and it is rolled and unrolled with so little attention, that if
+it continues under such management as the present, it will be wholly
+ruined in the course of half a century. It is injured at the beginning:
+towards the end it becomes very ragged, and several of the figures have
+completely disappeared. The worsted is unravelling too in many of the
+intermediate portions. As yet, however, it is still in good
+preservation, considering its great age, though, as I have just
+observed, it will not long continue so. The bishop and chapter have
+lately applied to government, requesting that the tapestry may be
+restored to the church. I hope their application will be successful.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 82: The most interesting relic of Roman times yet found at
+Vieux, is a cippus of variegated marble, about five feet high by two
+feet wide, and bearing inscriptions upon three of its sides. It
+generally passes in France by the name of the _Torigny marble_, being
+preserved at the small town of the latter name, whither it was carried
+in 1580, the very year when it was dug up. The Abbé Le Beuf has made it
+the subject of a distinct paper in the _Mémoires de l'Académie des
+Inscriptions_. This cippus supported a statue raised in honor of Titus
+Sennius Sollemnis, a Viducassian by birth, and one of the high priests
+of the town. The statue was erected to him after his death, in the
+Viducassian capital, upon a piece of ground granted by the senate for
+the purpose, in pursuance of a general decree passed by the province of
+Gaul. The inscriptions set forth the motives that induced the nation to
+bestow so marked a distinction upon a simple individual; and, in the
+foremost rank of his merits, they place the games which he had given to
+his fellow-citizens, during four successive days.]
+
+[Footnote 83: _Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions_, XXI. p. 489.]
+
+[Footnote 84: _Archæologia_, XVII. p. 911.]
+
+[Footnote 85: _Bayeux et ses Environs, par M. Delauney_, p. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 86: I. p. 371-379; pl. 35-49, and II. p. 1-29; pl. 1-9.]
+
+[Footnote 87: VI. p. 739, and VIII. p. 602.]
+
+[Footnote 88: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, Appendix, No. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 89: _Archæologia_, XVII. p. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 90: _Archæologia_, XVIII. p. 359.]
+
+[Illustration: Sculpture at Bayeux]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.
+
+CATHEDRAL OF BAYEUX--CANON OF CAMBREMER--COPE OF ST. REGNOBERT--ODO.
+
+
+(_Bayeux, August_, 1818.)
+
+Excepting the tapestry and the cathedral, Bayeux, at this time, offers
+no objects of interest to the curious traveller. Its convents are either
+demolished, or so dilapidated or altered, that they have lost their
+characteristic features; and its eighteen parish churches are now
+reduced to four. We wandered awhile about the town, vainly looking after
+some relic of ancient art, to send you by way of a memento of Bayeux. At
+length, two presented themselves--the entrance of the corn-market,
+formerly the chapel of St. Margaret, a Norman arch, remarkable for the
+lamb and banner, an emblem of the saint, sculptured on the transom
+stone; and a small stone tablet, attached to an old house near the
+cathedral. The whimsical singularity of the latter, induced us to give
+it the preference. It may possibly be of the workmanship of the
+fourteenth century, and possibly much later. In all probability, it owes
+its existence merely to a caprice on the part of the owner of the
+residence, whose crest may be indicated by the tortoises which surmount
+the columns by way of capitals. Still there is merit in the performance,
+though perhaps for nothing so much as for the accurate resemblance of
+peeled wood; and this I never saw imitated with equal fidelity in stone.
+
+But, however unattractive Bayeux may be in other respects, so long as
+the cathedral is suffered to stand, the city will never want interest.
+It is supposed that the first church erected here was built by St.
+Exuperius otherwise called St. Suspirius, or St. Spirius, who, according
+to the distich subjoined to his portrait, formerly painted on one of the
+windows of the nave, was not only the earliest bishop of the diocese,
+but claimed the merit of having introduced the Christian faith into
+Normandy,--
+
+
+   "Primitùs hic pastor templi fuit hujus et auctor,
+    Catholicamque fidem Normannis attulit idem."
+
+
+St. Exuperius lived in the third century, and his efforts towards the
+propagation of the gospel were attended with so great success, that his
+successor, St. Regnobert, was obliged to take down the edifice thus
+recently raised, and to re-construct it on a more enlarged scale, for
+the purpose of accommodating the increasing congregation. Regnobert is
+likewise reported to have built the celebrated chapel on the sea-coast,
+dedicated to our Lady de la Délivrande; and the people believe that a
+portion at least, of both the one and the other of these original
+edifices, exists to the present day. The Abbé Béziers, however, in his
+_History of Bayeux_, maintains, and with truth, that St. Regnobert's
+cathedral was destroyed by the Normans; and he adds that, immediately
+after the conversion of Rollo, another was raised in its stead on the
+same spot, and that this latter was one of those which the chieftain
+most enriched by his endowments at the period of his baptism.
+
+A dreadful fire, in the year 1046, reduced the Norman cathedral to
+ashes; but the episcopal throne was then filled by a prelate who wanted
+neither disposition nor abilities to repair the damage. Hugh, the third
+bishop of that name, son to Ralph, Count of the Bessin, who, by the
+mother's side, was brother to Duke Richard Ist, presided at that time
+over the see of Bayeux. Jealous for the honor of his diocese, the
+prelate instantly applied himself to rebuild the cathedral; but he lived
+to see only a small progress made in his work. It was finished by a
+prelate of still greater, though evil celebrity, the unruly Odo, brother
+to the Conqueror, who, for more than fifty years, continued bishop of
+this see, and by his unbounded liberality and munificence in the
+discharge of his high office, proved himself worthy of his princely
+descent. The Conqueror and his queen, attended by their sons, Robert and
+William, and by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, as well as by
+the various bishops and barons of the province, were present at the
+dedication of the church, which was performed in 1077, by John,
+Archbishop of Rouen. Odo, on the occasion, enriched his church with
+various gifts, one of which has been particularly recorded. It was a
+crown of wood and copper, sixteen feet high and thirty-eight feet in
+diameter, covered with silver plates, and diversified with other crowns
+in the shape of towers; the whole made to support an immense number of
+tapers, that were lighted on high festivals. This crown was suspended in
+the nave, opposite the great crucifix; and it continued to hang there
+till it was destroyed by the Huguenots, in 1562.
+
+It is doubtful how much, or indeed if any portion, of the church erected
+by Odo be now in existence. Thirty years had scarcely elapsed from the
+date of its dedication, when, as I have already mentioned to you, the
+troops of Henry Ist destroyed Bayeux with fire. The ruin was so
+complete, that for more than fifty years, no attempt was made to
+re-construct the cathedral; but it remained in ashes until the year
+1157, when bishop, Philip of Harcourt, determined to restore it. A
+question has arisen whether the oldest part of what is now standing, be
+the work of Philip or of Odo. The lapse of eighty years in those early
+times, would perhaps occasion no very sensible difference in style; and
+chroniclers do not afford the means of determining, if, at the time when
+Bayeux suffered so dreadfully in 1106, the church was actually burned to
+the ground, or only materially damaged. In the _History of the Diocese_
+we are merely told that Philip, having, by means of papal bulls, happily
+succeeded in regaining possession of all the privileges, honors, and
+property of the see, began to rebuild his cathedral in 1159, and
+completed it with great glory and expence.--From that time forward, we
+hear no more of demolition or of re-edification; but the injuries done by
+the silent lapse of ages, and the continued desire on the part of the
+prelates to beautify and to enlarge their church, have produced nearly
+the same effect as fire or warfare. The building, as it now stands, is a
+medley of various ages; and, in the absence of historical record, it
+would be extremely difficult to define the several portions that are to
+be assigned to each.
+
+The west front is flanked by two Norman towers, bold and massy, with
+semi-circular arches in the highest stories. The spires likewise appear
+ancient, though these and the surrounding pinnacles are all gothic. The
+northern one, according to tradition, was built with the church; the
+southern, in 1424. They both greatly resemble those of the abbey-church
+of St. Stephen at Caen. But the whole centre of this front, and indeed
+both the sides also, as high as the roof, is faced by a screen divided
+into five compartments. In the middle is a large, wide, pointed arch,
+with a square-headed entrance beneath. North and south of this are deep
+arches, evidently older, but likewise pointed, having their sides above
+the pillars, and the flat arched part of the door-way, filled with small
+figures. The door-ways themselves are arches that occupy only one half
+of the width of those which enclose them. In the two exterior
+compartments the arches are unpierced, and are flanked by a profusion of
+clustered pillars. Over each of the four lateral arches, rises a
+crocketed pyramid: the central one is surmounted by a flat balustrade,
+above which, behind the screen, is a large pointed window, and over it a
+row of saints, standing under trefoil-headed arches, arranged in pairs,
+the pediment terminating above each pair of arches in a pyramidal
+canopy.
+
+The outside of the nave is of florid gothic, but it is not of a pure
+style; nor is the southern portal, which, nevertheless, considered as a
+whole, is bold and appropriate. On each side of the door-way were
+originally three statues, whose tabernacles remain, though the saints
+have been torn out of the niches. Over the door is a bas-relief,
+containing numerous figures disposed in three compartments, and
+representing some legendary tale, which our knowledge of that kind of
+lore would not enable us to decipher.--The exterior of the choir is
+likewise of pointed architecture: it is considerably more simple, and
+excels, in this respect, the rest of the church. But even here there is
+a great want of uniformity: some of the windows are deeply imbedded in
+the walls; others are nearly on a level with their surface.--The cupola,
+which caps the low central tower, is wretchedly at variance with the
+other parts of the building. It was erected in the year 1714, at the
+expence of the bishop, Francis de Nesmond; and it is, as might be
+expected from a performance of that period, rather Grecian than gothic.
+Whichever style it may be termed, it is a bad specimen of either. And
+yet, such as it is, we are assured by Béziers, that it was built after
+the designs of a celebrated architect of the name of Moussard, and that
+it excited particular attention, and called forth loud praises, on the
+part of the Maréchal de Vauban, who was, probably, a better judge of a
+modern fortification, than of a gothic cathedral.
+
+The interior of the church consists of a wide nave, with side-aisles,
+and chapels beyond them. The first six piers of the nave are very massy,
+and faced with semi-circular pillars supporting an entablature. The
+arches above them are Norman, encircled with rich bands, composed
+chiefly of the chevron moulding and diamonds. On one of them is a
+curious border of heads, as upon the celebrated door-way at Oxford; but
+the heads at Bayeux are of much more regular workmanship and more
+distinctly defined. Had circumstances allowed, I would have sent you an
+accurate drawing of them; but our time did not permit such a one to be
+made, and I must beg of you to be contented with the annexed slight
+sketch.
+
+[Illustration: Border of heads]
+
+The wall above the arches is incrusted with a species of tessellated
+work of free-stone, of varied patterns, some interwoven, others
+reticulated, as seen in the sketches: the lines indented in the stones,
+as well as the joints which form the patterns, are filled with a black
+cement or mastich, so as to form a kind of _niello_.
+
+[Illustration: Tessellated work of free stone]
+
+With the sixth arch of the nave begins the pointed style. The capitals
+of the pillars are complicated, and the carving upon them is an evident
+attempt at an imitation of the Grecian orders. In this part of the
+church there is no triforium; but a row of small quartrefoils runs
+immediately above the ornaments of the spandrils; and above the
+quatrefoils is a cornice of an antique pattern, which is surmounted by a
+light gallery in front of the windows of the clerestory, the largest
+windows I remember to have seen in a similar situation. They extend
+almost from the roof to the line of the old Norman basement. Their
+magnitude is rendered still more remarkable by their being arranged in
+pairs, each separate pair inclosed within a pointed arch, and its
+windows parted only by a clustered pillar. The very lofty arches that
+support the central tower, are likewise pointed; as are those of the
+transepts, the choir, the side-aisles, and the chapels. In short,
+excepting the arches immediately beneath the northern and southern
+towers, which are most probably relics of Odo's cathedral, the part of
+the nave, which I first described, is all that is left above-ground of
+the semi-circular style; and this is of a very different character from
+whatever else I have seen of Norman architecture. The circular ornaments
+inserted in the spandrils of the arches of the choir, possess, as a
+friend of mine observes, somewhat of the Moorish, or, perhaps, Tartarian
+character; being nearly in the style of the ornaments which are found in
+the same situation in the Mogul mosques and tombs, though here they have
+much more flow and harmony in the curves. Some are merely in bas-relief:
+in others the central circles are deeply perforated, whilst the ribs are
+composed of delicate tracery.--There are so many peculiarities both in
+the arrangement and in the details of this cathedral[91], that it is
+quite impossible to convey an adequate idea of them by a verbal
+description; and I can only hope that they will be hereafter made
+familiar to the English antiquarian by the pencil of Mr. Cotman or Mr.
+Stothard.
+
+[Illustration: Ornaments in the Spandrils of the Arches in Bayeux
+Cathedral]
+
+The screen that separates the nave from the choir is Grecian, and is as
+much at variance with the inside of such a church, as the cupola, which
+is nearly over it, is with the exterior.--Upon the roof of the choir,
+are still to be seen the portraits of the first twenty-one bishops of
+Bayeux, each with his name inscribed by his side. The execution of the
+portraits is very rude, particularly that of the twelve earliest, whose
+busts are represented. The artist has contented himself with exhibiting
+the heads only, of the remaining nine. Common tradition refers the whole
+of these portraits to the time of Odo; but it is hardly necessary to
+observe, that the groined and pointed vaulting is subsequent to his
+date.--Bayeux cathedral abounded in works of this description of art:
+the walls of the chapels of the choir were covered with large
+fresco-paintings, now nearly obliterated.--It is believed, and with
+every appearance of probability, that the Lady-Chapel was erected at a
+time posterior to the rest of the building; but there is no certain
+account of its date. Before the revolution, it served as a burial-place
+for some of the bishops of the see, and for a duke of the noble family
+of Montemart. Their tombs ornamented the chapel, which now appears
+desolate and naked, retaining no other of its original decorations, than
+a series of small paintings, which represent the life of the Holy
+Virgin, and are deserving of some attention from the character of
+expression in the faces, though the drawing in general is bad. Over the
+altar is a picture, in which an angel is pointing out our Savior and the
+Virgin to a dying man, whose countenance is admirable.--The stalls of
+the choir display a profusion of beautiful oak carving; and beneath them
+are sculptured _misereres_, the first which we have observed in
+Normandy.--Very little painted glass is to be found in any part of the
+church; but the glazing of the windows is composed of complicated
+patterns. This species of ornament was introduced about the time of
+Louis XIVth; and Felibien, who has given several pattern plates in his
+treatise on architecture, observes, that it was intended to supply the
+place of painted glass, which, as it was then thought, excluded the
+light.
+
+Beneath the choir is a subterraneous chapel dedicated to St. Maimertus,
+otherwise called St. Manvieu. Its character is so similar to that of the
+crypt at the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Caen, that there would be
+little risk in pronouncing it to be part of Odo's church. It is
+supported on twelve pillars, disposed in two rows, the last pillar of
+each row being imbedded in the wall. The capitals of the pillars are
+carved, each with a different design from the rest. Their sculpture
+bears a strong resemblance to some of what is seen in similar situations
+in the Egyptian temples; indeed, so strong, that a very able judge tells
+me he has been led to suspect that the model might have been introduced
+by an anchorite from the desert. Take the following as a specimen.
+
+[Illustration: Capital of pillar]
+
+The walls of the crypt are covered with paintings, probably of the
+fifteenth century; but those upon the springing of the arches above the
+pillars, appear considerably older. Each spandril contains an angel,
+holding a trumpet or other musical instrument. The outlines of these
+figures are strongly drawn in black.--Upon the right-hand side, on
+entering the chapel, is the altar-tomb of John de Boissy, who was bishop
+at the beginning of the fifteenth century; and, on the opposite side,
+stands that of his immediate predecessor, Nicolas de Bosc. Their
+monuments were originally ornamented with bas-reliefs and paintings, all
+which were mutilated and effaced during the religious wars. De Boissy's
+effigy, however, remains, though greatly injured; and the following
+epitaph to his memory is preserved in a perfect state, over the only
+window that gives light to this crypt. The inscription is curious, as
+recording the discovery of the chapel, which had been forgotten and
+unknown for centuries.
+
+
+   "En l'an mil quatre cens et douze
+    Tiers jour d'Avril que pluye arrouse
+    Les biens de la terre, la journée
+    Que la Pasques fut célébrée
+    Noble homme et révérend père
+    Jehan de Boissy, de la mère
+    Eglise de Bayeux Pasteur
+    Rendi l'âme à Son Créateur
+    Et lors en foillant la place
+    Devant le grant autel de grâce
+    Trova l'on la basse chapelle
+    Dont il n'avoit esté nouvelle
+    Ou il est mis en sépulture
+    Dieu veuille avoir son âme en cure,--Amen."
+
+
+This inscription is engraved as prose: verse is very frequently written
+in this manner in ancient manuscripts, which custom, as Joseph Ritson
+conjectured, arose "from a desire of promoting the salvation of
+parchment." I must also add, that the initial letters are colored red
+and blue, so that the whole bears a near resemblance to a manuscript
+page.
+
+There is another epitaph, engraved in large letters, upon the exterior
+of the southern tower, which is an odd specimen of the spirit of the
+middle ages. It is supposed to have been placed there in the twelfth
+century.
+
+
+   "Quarta dies Pasche fuerat cum Clerus ad hujus
+      Que jacet hic vetule venimus exequias:
+    Letitieque diem magis amisisse dolemus
+      Quam centum tales si caderent vetule."
+
+
+Some authors contend, that the old lady alluded to was the mistress of
+one of the Dukes of Normandy: others believe her to have been the _chère
+amie_ of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, illegitimate son to Henry Ist.
+
+Till lately, there was an epitaph within the church, which, without
+containing in itself any thing remarkable, strange, or mysterious, had a
+legend connected: with it, that supplied the verger with an
+inexhaustible fund of entertainment for the curious and the credulous.
+The epitaph simply commemorated John Patye, canon of the prebend of
+Cambremer, who died in 1540; but upon the same plate of copper with the
+inscription, was also engraved the Virgin, with John Patye at her feet,
+kneeling, and apparently in the act of reading from a book placed on a
+fald-stool. Behind the priest stood St. John the Baptist, the patron
+saint of the prebend, having one hand upon his votary's neck, while with
+the other he pointed to a lamb.--In all this, there was still nothing
+remarkable: unfortunately, however, the artist, wishing perhaps to add
+importance to the saint, had represented him of gigantic stature; and
+hence originated the story, which continues to the present day, to
+frighten the old women, and to amuse the children of Bayeux.--
+
+   Once upon a time, the wicked canons of the cathedral murdered their
+   bishop; in consequence of which foul deed, they and their successors
+   for ever, were enjoined, by way of penance, annually to send one of
+   their number to Rome, there to chaunt the epistle at the midnight
+   mass. In the course of revolving centuries, this vexatious duty fell
+   to the turn of the canon of Cambremer, who, to the surprise of the
+   community, testified neither anxiety nor haste on the
+   occasion.--Christmas-eve arrived, and the canon was still in his
+   cell: Christmas-night came, and still he did not stir. At length,
+   when the mass was actually begun, his brethren, more uneasy than
+   himself, reproached him with his delay; upon which he muttered his
+   spell, called up a spirit, mounted him, reached Rome in the twinkling
+   of an eye, performed his task, and, the service being ended, he
+   stormed the archives of the Vatican, where he burned the compulsory
+   act, and then returned by the same conveyance to Bayeux, which he
+   reached before the mass was completed, and, to the unspeakable joy of
+   the chapter, announced the happy tidings of their deliverance.
+
+So idle and unmeaning is the tale, that I should scarcely have thought
+it worth while to have repeated it, but for the Latin distich, which, as
+the story goes, was extemporized by the demon, at the moment when they
+were flying over the Tuscan sea, and by which he sought to mislead his
+rider, and to cause him to end his journey beneath the deep.--The sense
+of the verses is not very perspicuous, but they are remarkable for
+reading forwards and backwards the same; and though to you they may
+appear a childish waste of intellect, you will, I am sure, admit them to
+be ingenious, and they may amuse some of the younger members of your
+family:--
+
+
+   "Signa te, signa, temerè me tangis et angis;
+    Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor."--
+
+
+I must dismiss the canon of Cambremer, by stating, that I am informed by
+a friend, that the same story is also found in the lives of sundry other
+wizards and sorcerers of the good old times.
+
+Bayeux cathedral, like the other Neustrian churches, has been deprived
+of its sainted relics, and its most precious treasures, in consequence
+of the successive spoliations which have been inflicted upon it by
+heathen Normans, heretical Calvinists, and philosophical jacobins. The
+body of St. Exuperius was carried, in the ninth century, for safety to
+Corbeil, and the chapter have never been able to recover it: that of St.
+Regnobert was in after times stolen by the Huguenots. Many are the
+attempts that have been made to regain the relics of the first bishop of
+the see; but the town of Corbeil retained possession, whilst the
+Bajocessians attempted to console themselves by antithetical
+piety.--"Referamus Deo gratias, nec inde aliquid nos minus habere
+credamus, quòd Corbeliensis civitas pignus sacri corporis vindicavit.
+Teneant illi tabernaculum beatæ animæ in cineribus suis; nos ipsam
+teneamus animam in virtutibus suis: teneant illi ossa, nos merita: apud
+illos videatur remansisse quod terræ est, nos studeamus habere quod
+coeli est: amplectantur illi quod sepulchre, nos quod Paradiso
+continetur. Meminerit et beatior ille vir, utrique quidem loco, sed huic
+speciali se jure deberi."--St. Regnobert's _chasuble_ is however, left
+to the church, together with his maniple and his stole, all of them
+articles of costly and elaborate workmanship. They were found in his
+coffin, when it was opened by the Calvinists; and they are now worn by
+the bishop, on the anniversary of the saint, as well as on five other
+high festivals, during the year; at which times, the faithful press with
+great devotion to kiss them. When not in use, they are kept in an ivory
+chest, magnificently embossed with solid silver, and bearing an
+inscription in the Cufic character, purporting that whatever honor men
+may have given to God, they cannot honor him so much as He deserves.
+Father Tournemine, the Jesuit, is of opinion, that this box was taken by
+the French troops, under Charles Martel, in their pillage of the Saracen
+camp, at the time of the memorable defeat of the infidels; and that it
+was afterwards presented to Charles the Bald, whose queen, Hermentrude,
+devoted it to the pious purpose of holding the relics of Regnobert, in
+gratitude for a cure which the monarch had received through the
+intercession of the saint. But this is merely a conjecture, and it is
+not improbable but that the chest may have been brought from Sicily,
+which abounded with Arabic artificers, at the time when it was occupied
+by the Normans.
+
+St. Regnobert, who was one of the most illustrious bishops of Bayeux, is
+placed second on the list, in the _History of the Diocese_; but in the
+_Gallia Christiana_ he stands twelfth in order. It was customary before
+the revolution, and it possibly may be so at present, for the
+inhabitants of the city, upon the twenty-fourth of October, the
+anniversary of his feast, to bring their domestic animals in solemn
+procession to the church, there to receive the episcopal benediction, in
+the same manner as is practised by the Romans with their horses, on the
+feast of St. Anthony.--St. Lupus, the fourth bishop, and St. Lascivus,
+the tenth, are remarkable for their names. St. Lupus is said to have
+been so called from his having destroyed the wolves in the vicinity of
+Bayeux[92]; and the other is reported to have been descended from the
+same person, whom Ausonius addresses in the following stanza, which has
+likewise been applied to this bishop.
+
+
+   "Iste _Lascivus_ patiens vocari,
+    Nomen indignum probitate vitae
+    Abnuit nunquam; quia gratum ad aures
+                        Esset amicas."--
+
+
+But neither among her ancient nor her modern prelates can Bayeux boast
+of a name equally distinguished as that of Odo. Many were unquestionably
+the misdeeds of this great man, and many were probably his crimes, but
+no one who wore the episcopal mitre, ever deserved better of the see. As
+a statesman, Odo bore a leading part in all the principal transactions of
+the times: as a soldier, he accompanied the Conqueror to England,
+fought by his side at Hastings, and by his eloquence and his valor,
+contributed greatly to the success of that memorable day. Nor was
+William tardy in acknowledging the merits of his brother; for no sooner
+did he find himself seated firmly on the throne, than he rewarded Odo
+with the earldom of Kent, and appointed him his viceroy in England,
+whilst he himself crossed the channel, to superintend his affairs in
+Normandy. But the mind which was proof against difficulties, yielded, as
+too commonly happens, to prosperity. Nothing less than the papacy could
+satisfy the ambition of Odo: he abused the power with which he was
+invested in a flagrant manner; and William, finally, disgusted with his
+proceedings, arrested him with his own hand, and committed him prisoner
+to the old palace at Rouen, where he continued till the death of the
+monarch.--The sequel of the story is of the same complexion: more plots,
+attended now with success, and now with disgrace; till at length the
+prelate resolved to expiate his sins by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
+and died on his journey, at Palermo.--Such was Odo in his secular
+character: as a churchman, historians unanimously agree that he was most
+zealous for the honor of his diocese, indefatigable in re-building the
+churches which time or war had destroyed, liberal in endowments,
+munificent in presents, and ever anxiously intent upon procuring a
+supply of able ministers, establishing regular discipline, and reforming
+the morals of the flock committed to his charge.
+
+The Bishop of Bayeux has at all times claimed the distinction of being
+regarded the first among the suffragan bishops of the Norman church. In
+the absence of the archbishop, he presides at, the ecclesiastical
+assemblies and councils. His revenue, before the revolution, was
+estimated at one hundred thousand livres: per annum. The see, in point
+of antiquity, even contests for the priority with Rouen. From time
+immemorial, the chapter has enjoyed the right of mintage; and they
+appear to have used it till the year 1577, at which time their coin was
+so much counterfeited, that they were induced to recal it by public
+proclamation. Their money, which was of the size of a piece of two sous,
+was stamped, on one side, with a two-headed eagle, and the legend
+_moneta capituli_; and on the obverse, with the letter V, surrounded by
+the word _Bajocensis_. The eagle was probably adopted, in allusion to
+the arms of the see, which were, _gules_; an eagle displayed with two
+heads, _or_[93].--Another privilege of the chapter was, that no person
+of illegitimate birth could be allowed to hold place in it, under any
+pretext or dispensation whatever.--Among their peculiar customs, they
+imitated that of the see of Rouen, in the annual election of a
+boy-bishop upon Innocents'-day; a practice prevalent in many churches in
+Spain and Germany, and notoriously in England at Salisbury. The
+young chorister took the crozier in his hands, during the first vespers,
+at the verse in the _Magnificat_, "He has put down the mighty from their
+seats, and has exalted the humble and meek;" and he resigned his dignity
+at the same verse in the second vespers.--The ceremony was abolished in
+1482.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 91: The following are the dimensions of the church, in French
+measure, according to Béziers.
+
+                                        FEET.
+  Height of the central tower            224
+  Ditto of the two western ditto         230
+  Length of the interior of the church   296
+  Width of ditto                          76
+  Height of ditto                         76
+  Length of the nave                     140
+  Width of ditto                          38
+  Ditto of side-aisles                    17
+  Ditto of chapels                        15
+  Length of the transepts                113
+  Width of ditto                          33
+  Length of the choir                    118
+  Width of ditto                          36
+
+]
+
+[Footnote 92: A new St. Lupus is now wanted for the see; for wolves are
+by no means extinct in the neighborhood of Bayeux. We saw a tame one,
+kept near the cathedral, which had been taken in the woods, about a year
+ago, when it was quite young. Wild boars are likewise found in
+considerable numbers, and the breed is encouraged for the purposes of
+hunting.]
+
+[Footnote 93: In its origin, the _Baiocco_ of Naples seems to have been
+the two-penny piece of Bayeux, its denomination being abbreviated from
+the last word in the legend. It has been supposed that the coin was
+struck and named by lusty Joan, as a token of her affection towards a
+Frisick warrier, who, in his own country, was called the _Boynke_, or
+the Squire; but we think that our etymology is the most natural one.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.  CHURCH AND CASTLE OF
+CREULLY--FALAISE--CASTLE--CHURCHES-FAIR OF GUIBRAY.
+
+
+(_Falaise, August_, 1818.)
+
+Previously to quitting Bayeux, we paid our respects to M. Pluquet, a
+diligent antiquary, who has been for some time past engaged in writing a
+history of the city. His collections for this purpose are extensive, and
+the number of curious books which he possesses is very considerable.
+Amongst those which he shewed to us, the works relating to Normandy
+constituted an important portion. His manuscript missals are numerous
+and valuable. I was also much pleased by the inspection of an old copy
+of Aristophanes, which had formerly belonged to Rabelais, and bore upon
+its title-page the mark of his ownership, in the hand-writing of the
+witty, though profligate, satirist himself. M. Pluquet's kindness
+allowed me to make the tracing of the signature, which I send you.--
+
+[Illustration: Rabelais hand-writing]
+
+Such an addition as we here find to Rabelais' name, denoting that the
+owner of a book considered it as being the property of his friends
+conjointly with himself, is not of uncommon occurrence. Our friend, Mr.
+Dibdin, who had been here shortly before us, and had carried off, as we
+were told, some works of great rarity from this collection, has
+enumerated more than one instance of the kind in his _Bibliographical
+Decameron_; and the valuable library of my excellent friend, Mr.
+Sparrow, of Worlingham, contains an Erasmus, which was the property of
+Sir Thomas Wotton, and bears, stamped upon its covers, _Thomae Wotton et
+amicorum_.
+
+From Bayeux we returned to Caen, by way of Creully, passing along bad
+roads, through an open, uninteresting country, almost wholly cropped
+with buck-wheat.--The barony of Creully was erected by Henry Ist, in
+favor of his natural son, the Earl of Gloucester: it was afterwards held
+by different noble families, and continued to be so till the time of the
+revolution. At that period, it gave a title to a branch of the line of
+Montmorenci, whose emigration caused the domain to be confiscated, and
+sold as national property; but the baronial castle is still standing,
+and displays, in two of its towers and in a chimney of unusual form, a
+portion of its ancient character: the rest of the building is modernized
+into a spruce, comfortable residence, and is at this time occupied by a
+countryman of our own, General Hodgson.
+
+The church at Creully is one of the most curious we have seen. The nave,
+side-aisles, and choir, are all purely Norman, except at the
+extremities. The piers are very massy; the arches wide and low; the
+capitals covered with rude, but most remarkable sculpture, which is
+varied on every pillar. Round the arches of the nave runs a band of the
+chevron ornament; and over them is a row of lancet windows, devoid of
+ornament, and sunk in a wall of extraordinary thickness. Externally, all
+is modernized.
+
+The view of Caen, on entering from this direction, is still more
+advantageous than that on the approach from Lisieux. Time would not
+allow of our making any stop at the town on our return: we therefore
+proceeded immediately to Falaise, passing again through an open and
+monotonous country, which, thoughtfully cultivated, has a most dreary
+aspect from the scantiness of its population. We saw, indeed, as we went
+along, distant villages, thinly scattered, in the landscape, but no
+other traces of habitations; and we proceeded upwards of five leagues on
+our way, before we arrived at a single house by the road-side.
+
+[Illustration: Castle of Falaise]
+
+Falaise appeared but the more beautiful, from the impression which the
+desolate scenery of the previous country had left upon our minds. The
+contrast was almost equally pleasing and equally striking, as when, in
+travelling through Derbyshire, after having passed a tract of dreary
+moors, that seems to lengthen as you go, you suddenly descend into the
+lovely vallies of Matlock or of Dovedale. Not that the vale of Falaise
+may compete with those of Derbyshire, for picturesque beauty or bold
+romantic character; but it has features exclusively its own; and its
+deficiency in natural advantages is in some measure compensated, by the
+accessories bestowed by art. The valley is fertile and well wooded: the
+town itself, embosomed within rows of lofty elms, stretches along the
+top of a steep rocky ridge, which rises abrupt from the vale below,
+presenting an extensive line of buildings, mixed with trees, flanked
+towards the east by the venerable remains of the castle of the Norman
+Dukes, and at the opposite extremity, by the church of the suburb of
+Guibray, planted upon an eminence. Near the centre stands the principal
+church of Falaise, that of St. Gervais; and in front of the whole
+extends the long line of the town walls, varied with towers, and
+approached by a mound across the valley, which, as at Edinburgh, holds
+the place of a bridge.
+
+The name _Falaise_, denotes the position of the town: it is said to be a
+word of Celtic origin; but I should rather suppose it to be derived from
+the Saxon, and to be a modification of the German word, _fels_, a rock,
+in which conjecture I find I am borne out by Adelung: _falesia_, in
+modern Latinity, and _falaise_, in French, signify a rocky shore. Hence,
+Brito, at the commencement of his relation of the siege by Philip
+Augustus, says,
+
+
+   "Vicus erat scabrâ circumdatus undique rupe,
+    Ipsius asperitate loci Falæsa vocatus,
+    Normannæ in medio regionis, cujus in altâ
+    Turres rupe sedent et mÅ"nia; sic ut ad illam
+    Jactus nemo putet aliquos contingere posse."--
+
+
+The dungeon of Falaise, one of the proudest relics of Norman antiquity,
+is situated on a very bold and lofty rock, broken into fantastic and
+singular masses, and covered with luxuriant vegetation. The keep which
+towers above it is of excellent masonry: the stones are accurately
+squared, and put together with great neatness, and the joints are small;
+and the arches are turned clearly and distinctly, with the key-stone or
+wedge accurately placed in all of them. Some parts of the wall, towards
+the interior ballium, are not built of squared free-stone; but of the
+dark stone of the country, disposed in a zigzag, or as it is more
+commonly called, in a herring-bone direction, with a great deal of
+mortar in the interstices: the buttresses, or rather piers, are of small
+projection, but great width. The upper story, destroyed about forty
+years since, was of a different style of architecture. According to an
+old print, it terminated with a large battlement, and bartizan towers at
+the angles. This dungeon was formerly divided into several apartments;
+in one of the lower of which was found, about half a century ago, a very
+ancient tomb, of good workmanship, ornamented with a sphynx at each end,
+but bearing no inscription whatever. Common report ascribed the coffin
+to Talbot, who was for many years governor of the castle; and at length
+an individual engraved upon it an epitaph to his honor; but the fraud
+was discovered, and the sarcophagus put aside, as of no account. The
+second, or principal, story of the keep, now forms a single square room,
+about fifty feet wide, lighted by circular-headed windows, each divided
+into two by a short and massy central pillar, whose capital is
+altogether Norman. On one of the capitals is sculptured a child leading
+a lamb, a representation, as it is foolishly said, of the Conqueror,
+whom tradition alleges to have been born in the apartment to which this
+window belonged: another pillar has an elegant capital, composed of
+interlaced bands.
+
+Connected with the dungeon by a stone staircase is a small apartment,
+very much dilapidated, but still retaining a portion of its original
+facing of Caen stone. It was from the window of this apartment, as the
+story commonly goes, that Duke Robert first saw the beautiful Arlette,
+drawing water from the streamlet below, and was enamoured of her charms,
+and took her to his bed.--According to another version of the tale, the
+earliest interview between the prince and his fair mistress, took place
+as Robert was returning from the chace, with his mind full of anger
+against the inhabitants of Falaise, for having presumed to kill the deer
+which he had commanded should be preserved for his royal pastime. In
+this offence the curriers of the town had borne the principal share, and
+they were therefore principally marked out for punishment. But,
+fortunately for them, Arlette, the daughter of one Verpray, the most
+culpable of the number, met the offended Duke while riding through the
+street, and with her beauty so fascinated him, that she not only
+obtained the pardon of her father and his associates, but became his
+mistress, and continued so as long as he lived. From her, if we may give
+credence to the old chroniclers, is derived our English word, _harlot_.
+The fruit of their union was William the Conqueror, whose illegitimate
+birth, and the low extraction of his mother, served on more than one
+occasion as a pretext for conspiracies against his throne, and were
+frequently the subject of personal mortification to himself.--The walls
+in this part of the castle are from eight to nine feet thick. A portion
+of them has been hollowed out, so as to form a couple of small rooms.
+The old door-way of the keep is at the angle; the returns are reeded,
+ending in a square impost; the arch above is destroyed.
+
+Talbot's tower, thus called for having been built by that general, in
+1430 and the two subsequent years, is connected with the keep by means,
+of a long passage with lancet windows, that widen greatly inwards. It is
+more than one hundred feet high, and is a beautiful piece of masonry,
+as perfect, apparently, as on the day when it was erected, and as firm
+as the rock on which it stands. This tower is ascended by a staircase
+concealed within the substance of the walls, whose thickness is full
+fifteen feet towards the base, and does not decrease more than three
+feet near the summit. Another aperture in them serves for a well, which
+thus communicates with every apartment in the tower. Most of the arches
+in this tower have circular heads: the windows are square.--The walls
+and towers which encircle the keep are of much later date; the principal
+gate-way is pointed. Immediately on entering, is seen the very ancient
+chapel, dedicated to St. Priscus or, as he is called in French, St.
+Prix. The east end with three circular-headed windows retains its
+original lines: the masonry is firm and good. Fantastic corbels surround
+the summit of the lateral walls. Within, a semi-circular arch resting
+upon short pillars with sculptured capitals, divides the choir from the
+nave. In other respects the building has been much altered.--Henry Vth
+repaired it in 1418, and it has been since dilapidated and restored.--A
+pile of buildings beyond, wholly modern in the exterior, is now
+inhabited as a seminary or college. There are some circular arches
+within, which shew that these buildings belonged to the original
+structure.
+
+Altogether the castle is a noble ruin. Though the keep is destitute of
+the enrichments of Norwich or Castle Rising, it possesses an impressive
+character of strength, which is much increased by the extraordinary
+freshness of the masonry. The fosses of the castle; are planted with
+lofty trees, which shade and intermingle with the towers and ramparts,
+and on every side they groupe themselves with picturesque beauty. It is
+said that the municipality intend to _restore_ Talbot's tower and the
+keep, by replacing the demolished battlements; but I should hope that no
+other repairs may take place, except such as may be necessary for the
+preservation of the edifice; and I do not think it needs any, except the
+insertion of clamps in the central columns of two of the windows which
+are much shattered[94].
+
+From the summit we enjoyed a delightful prospect: at our feet lay the
+town of Falaise, so full of trees, that it seemed almost to deserve the
+character, given by old Fuller to Norwich, of _rus in urbe_: the distant
+country presented an undulating outline, agreeably diversified with
+woods and corn-fields, and spotted with gentlemen's seats; while within
+a very short distance to the west, rose another ridgy mass of bare brown
+rock, known by the name of Mont Mirat, and still retaining a portion of
+the intrenchments, raised by our countrymen when they besieged Falaise,
+in 1417.--By this eminence the castle is completely commanded, and it is
+not easy to understand how the fortress could be a tenable position; as
+the garrison who manned the battlements of the dungeon and Talbot's
+tower, must have been exposed to the missiles discharged from the
+catapults and balistas planted on Mont Mirat.
+
+The history of the castle is inseparably connected with that of the
+town: its origin may safely be referred to remote antiquity, the time,
+most probably, of the earliest Norman Dukes. If, however, we could agree
+with the fanciful author just quoted, it would claim a much earlier
+date. The very fact of its having a dungeon-tower, he maintains to be a
+proof of its having been erected by Julius Cæsar inasmuch as the word,
+_dungeon_, or, as it is written in French, _donjon_, is nothing but a
+corruption of _Domus Julii_! More than once in the course of this
+correspondence, I have called your attention to the fancies, or, to
+speak in plain terms, the absurdities, of theoretical antiquaries. The
+worthy priest, to whom we are indebted for the _Recherches Historiques
+sur Falaise_, "out-herods Herod." Writers of this description are
+curious and amusing, let their theories but rest upon the basis of fair
+probability. Even when we reject their reasonings, we are pleased with
+their ingenuity; and they serve, to borrow an expression from Horace,
+"the purpose of a whetstone." But M. Langevin has nothing farther to
+offer, than gratuitous assertion or vague conjecture; and yet, upon the
+faith of these, he insists upon our believing, that the foundation of
+Falaise took place very shortly after the deluge; that its name is
+derived from _Felé_, the cat of Diana, or from the less pure source of
+_Phaloi-Isis_; that the present site of the castle was that of a temple,
+dedicated to Belenus and Abraxas; and that every stone of remarkable
+form in the neighborhood, was either so shapened by the Druids,
+(notwithstanding it is the character of rocks, like those at Falaise, to
+assume fantastic figures,) or was at least appropriated by the Celtic
+priesthood to typify the sun, or moon, or stars.
+
+Various tombs, stone-hatchets, &c., have been dug up at Tassilly, a
+village within six miles of Falaise, and fragments of mosaic pavements
+have been discovered in the immediate vicinity of the castle[95]; but
+history and tradition are alike silent as to the origin of these
+remains.--The first historical mention of Falaise is in the year 1027;
+during the reign of the fifth Norman Duke, Richard IIIrd, at which
+period this town was one of the strong holds of the duchy, and afforded
+shelter to Robert, the father of the Conqueror, when he rebelled against
+his elder brother. Falaise on that occasion sustained the first of the
+nine sieges, by which it has procured celebrity in history.--Fourteen
+years only elapsed before it was exposed to a second, through the
+perfidy of Toustain de Goz, Count of Hiesmes, who had been intrusted
+with the charge of the castle, and who, upon finding that his own
+district was ravaged by the forces of the King of France, voluntarily
+offered to surrender to that monarch the fortress under his command, on
+condition that his territory, the Hiesmois, should be spared. But Duke
+William succeeded in retaking the place of his birth before the traitor
+had an opportunity of introducing the troops of his new ally.--In the
+years 1106 and 1139, Falaise opposed a successful resistance to the
+armies of Henry Ist, and of Geoffrey Plantagenet. Upon the first of
+these occasions, the Count of Maine, the general of the English forces,
+retired with shame from before the walls; and Henry was foiled in all his
+attempts to gain possession of the castle, till the battle of Tinchbray
+had invested him with the ducal mantle, and had induced Robert himself
+to deliver up the fortress in person to his more fortunate brother. On
+the second occasion, Robert Marmion, lord of the neighboring barony of
+Marmion le Fontenay, a name equally illustrious in Norman and in English
+story, held Falaise for Eustace of Boulogne, son to Stephen, and twice
+repelled the attacks of the husband of the Empress Maud.--The fourth
+siege was conducted with different success, by Philip Augustus: for
+seven days the citizens quietly witnessed the preparations of the French
+monarch; and then, either alarmed by the impending conflict, or
+disgusted by the conduct of their own sovereign, who had utterly
+deserted them, they opened their gates to the enemy.--In 1417 the case
+was far otherwise, though the result was the same. Henry Vth attacked
+Falaise upon the fourth of November, and continued to cannonade it till
+the middle of the following February; and, even then, the surrender was
+attributed principally to famine. Great injuries were sustained by the
+town in the course of this long siege; but, to the credit of our
+countrymen, the efforts made towards the reparation of them were at
+least proportionate. The fortifications were carefully restored; the
+chapel was rebuilt and endowed afresh; Talbot's tower was added to the
+keep; and a suite of apartments, also named after that great captain,
+was erected in the castle.--The resistance made by the English garrison
+of Falaise in 1450, at the time when we were finally expelled from the
+duchy, was far from equal to that which the French, had previously
+shewn. Vigour was indeed displayed in repeated sallies, but six days
+sufficed to put the French general in possession of the place.
+Disheartened troops, cooped up in a fortress without hope of succour,
+offer but faint opposition; and Falaise was then the last place which
+held out in Normandy, excepting, only Domfront and Cherbourg, both which
+were taken almost immediately afterwards.--Falaise, from this time
+forwards, suffered no more from foreign enemies: the future miseries of
+the town were inflicted by the hands of its own countrymen. In common
+with many other places in France, it was doomed to learn from hard
+experience, that "alta sedent civilis vulnera dextræ."--Instigated by
+the Count de Brissac, governor of the town, and one of the most able
+generals of the league, the inhabitants were immoveable in their
+determination to resist the introduction of tenets which they regarded
+as a fatal variance from the Catholic faith. The troops of Henry IIIrd,
+in alliance with those of his more illustrious successor, were vainly
+brought against Falaise in 1589, by the Duc de Montpensier; a party of
+enthusiastic peasants, called _Gautiers_, from the name of a neighboring
+village, where their association originated, harassed the assailants
+unremittingly, and rendered such effectual assistance to the garrison,
+that the siege was obliged to be raised.--But it was only raised to be
+renewed at the conclusion of the same year, by Henry of Bourbon, in
+person, whom the tragical end of his late ally had placed upon the
+throne of France. Brissac had now a different enemy to deal with: he
+answered the king's summons to surrender, by pleading his oath taken
+upon the holy sacrament to the contrary; and he added that, if it should
+ultimately prove necessary for him to enter into any negotiation, he
+would at least delay it for six months to come. "Then, by heavens!"
+replied Henry, "I will change his months into days, and grant him
+absolution;" and; so saying, he commenced a furious cannonade, which
+soon caused a breach, and, in seven days, he carried the town by
+assault. Brissac, who, on the capture of the fortress, had retired into
+the keep, found himself shortly afterwards obliged to capitulate; and I
+am sorry to add, that the terms which he proposed and obtained, were not
+of a nature to be honorable to his character. The security of his own
+life and of that of seven of his party, was the principal stipulation in
+the articles. The rest of the garrison were abandoned to the mercy of
+the conqueror, who contented himself with hanging seven of them in
+memorial of the seven days of the siege; but, if we may believe the
+French historians, always zealous for the honor of their monarchs, and
+especially of this monarch, Henry selected the sufferers from among
+those, who, for their crimes, had, subjected themselves to the pain of
+death.
+
+From these various attacks, but principally from those of 1417 and 1589,
+the fortifications of Falaise have suffered materially; and since the
+last no care has been taken to repair them. The injuries sustained at
+that period, and the more fatal, though less obvious ones, wrought by
+the silent operation of two centuries of neglect, have brought the walls
+and towers to their present state of dilapidation.
+
+The people of Falaise are commonly supposed to be Normans καÏ,, εξοÏ?ην
+[English. Not in Original: pre-eminently, especially, above all]; and
+when a Norman is introduced upon the French stage, he calls himself a
+Falesian, just as any Irishman, in an English farce, is presumed to come
+from Tipperary. The town in the French royal calendar is stated to
+contain about fourteen thousand inhabitants; but we are assured that the
+real number does not exceed nine thousand. Its staple trade is the
+manufacture of stockings, coarse caps, and lace. The streets are wide;
+and the public fountains, which are continually playing, impart a
+freshness, which, at the present burning season, is particularly
+agreeable.--The town now retains only four churches, two within its
+precincts, and two in the suburbs. The revolution has deprived it of
+eight others. Of those which are now standing, the most ancient is that
+situated near the castle, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Langevin
+assures us that it was built upon the ruins of the temple of Felé, Isis,
+Belenus, and the heavenly host of constellations, and that in the fifth
+century it changed its heathen for its Christian patrons. The oldest
+part (a very small one it is) of the present structure, appertains to a
+building which was consecrated in 1126, by the Archbishop of Rouen, in
+the presence of Henry Ist, but which was almost entirely destroyed by
+the cannonade in the fifteenth century. An inscription in gothic
+letters, near the entrance, relates, that after this desolation, a
+beginning was made towards the re-building of the church, "in 1438, a
+year of war, and death, and plague, and famine;" but it is certain that
+not much of the part now standing can be referred even to that period.
+The choir was not completed till the middle of the sixteenth century,
+nor the Lady-Chapel till the beginning of the following one.
+Architecturally considered, therefore, the church is a medley of various
+styles and ages.
+
+The larger church, that of St. Gervais and St. Protais, is said to have
+been originally the ducal chapel, and to stand in the immediate vicinity
+of the site of the Conqueror's palace, now utterly destroyed. According
+to an ancient manuscript, this church was consecrated at the same time
+as that of the Trinity. The intersecting circular-headed arches of its
+tower are curious. The Norman corbel-table and clerestory windows still
+remain; and the exterior of the whole edifice promises a gratification
+to a lover of architectural antiquity, which the inside is little
+calculated to realize.--An invading army ruined the church of the
+Trinity; civil discord did the same for that of St. Gervais. The
+Huguenots, not content with plundering the treasure, actually set fire
+to the building, and well nigh consumed it: hence, the choir is the work
+of the year 1580, and the southern wall of the nave is a more recent
+construction.
+
+We see Falaise to a great advantage: every inn is crowded; every shop is
+decked out; and the streets are full of life and activity; all in
+preparation for the fair, which commences in three days, on the
+fifteenth of this month, the anniversary of the Assumption of the Holy
+Virgin. This fair, which is considered second to no other in France,
+excepting that of Beaucaire, is held in the suburbs of Guibray, and
+takes its name from the place where it is held. For the institution,
+Falaise is indebted to William the Conqueror; and from it the place
+derives the greatest share of its prosperity and importance. During the
+fourteen days that the fair continues, the town is filled with the
+neighboring gentry, as well as with merchants and tradesmen of every
+description, not only from the cities of Normandy, but from Paris and
+the distant provinces, and even from foreign countries. The revolution
+itself respected the immunities granted to the fair of Guibray, without,
+at the same time, having the slightest regard, either to its royal
+founder, or its religious origin.--An image of the Virgin, discovered
+under-ground by the scratching and bleating of a lamb, first gave the
+stamp of sanctity to Guibray. Miraculous means had been employed for the
+discovery of this statue; miraculous powers were sure to be seated in
+the image. Pilgrims crowded from all places to witness and to adore; and
+hawkers, and pedlars, and, as I have seen inscribed upon a hand-bill at
+Paris, "the makers of he-saints and of she-saints," found Guibray a
+place of lucrative resort. Their numbers annually increased, and thus
+the fair originated.--We are compelled to hasten, or we would have
+stopped to have witnessed the ceremonies, and joined the festivities on
+the occasion. Already more than one field is covered with temporary
+buildings, each distinguished by a flag, bearing the name and trade of
+the occupant; already, too, the mountebanks and showmen have taken their
+stand for the amusement of the company, and the relaxation of the
+traders; and, what is a necessary consequence of such assemblages, you
+cannot stir without being pestered with crowds of boys, proffering their
+services to transport your wares.
+
+The church of Guibray, like the others of Falaise, offers specimens of
+Norman architecture, strangely altered and half concealed by modern
+innovations. In the first syllable of the name of the place, you will
+observe the French word for misletoe, and may thence infer, and probably
+not without reason, the antiquity of the station; the latter syllable,
+albeit in England sheep are not wont to _bray_, is supposed by the pious
+to have reference to the bleating of the lamb, which led to the
+discovery of the miraculous image.--Etymology is a wide district in a
+pleasant country, strangely intersected by many and deceitful paths. He
+that ventures upon the exploring of it, requires the utmost caution, and
+the constant control of sober reason: woe will be sure to betide the
+unfortunate wight, who, in such a situation, gives the reins to fancy,
+and suffers imagination to usurp the place of judgment, without
+reflecting, as has been observed by the poet on a somewhat similar
+occasion, that
+
+
+   "Tis more to curb than urge the generous steed,
+    Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 94: The outline of the castle is egg-shaped; and the following
+are its dimensions, in French measure, according to M.
+Langevin.--Length, 720 feet; mean width, 420; quantity of ground
+contained within the walls, two acres and a perch.]
+
+[Footnote 95: _Recherches Historiques sur Falaise_, p. XIX. and XXIX.]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.  ROCK AND CHAPEL OF ST. ADRIEN--PONT-DE-L'ARCHE--PRIORY OF
+THE TWO LOVERS--ABBEY OF BONPORT--LOUVIERS--GAILLON--VERNON.
+
+
+(_Mantes, August_, 1818)
+
+The last letter which I wrote to you, was dated from Falaise. Look in
+the map and you will see that you now receive one from a point
+completely opposite. In four days we have passed from one of the most
+western towns of the province, to a place situated beyond its eastern
+frontier; and in four more, we may almost hope to be with you again. In
+this hasty journey we travelled through a district which has not yet
+become the subject of description to you; and though we travelled with
+less comfort of mind, than in the early part of our tour, I am yet
+enabled to send you a few details respecting it.
+
+From Falaise we went in a direct line to Croissanville: the road, which
+we intended to take by St. Pierre sur Dive to Lisieux, was utterly
+impracticable for carriages. From Croissanville to Rouen we almost
+retraced our former steps: we did not indeed again make a _détour_ by
+Bernay; but the straight road from Lisieux to Brionne is altogether
+without interest.
+
+There are two ways from Rouen to Paris: the upper, through Ecouis,
+Magny, and Pontoise; the lower, by the banks of the Seine. Having
+travelled by both of them before, we could appreciate their respective
+advantages; and we knew that the only recommendation of the former was,
+that it saved some few miles in distance; while the latter is one of
+the most beautiful rides in France, and the towns, through which it
+passes, are far from being among the least interesting in Normandy. In
+such an alternative, there was no difficulty in fixing our choice, and
+we proceeded straight for Pont-de-l'Arche. The chalk cliffs, which
+bounded the road on our left, for some distance from Rouen, break near
+the small village of Port St. Ouen, into wild forms, and in one spot
+project boldly, assuming the shape of distinct towers. These projections
+are known by the name of the rock of St. Adrien; thus called from the
+patron saint of a romantic chapel, a place of great sanctity, and of
+frequent resort with pilgrims, situated nearly mid-way up the
+cliff.--The chapel is indeed little more than an excavation, and is
+altogether so rude, that its workmanship affords no clue to discover the
+date of the building. Its south side and roof are merely formed of the
+bare rock. To the north it is screened by an erection, which, were it
+not for the windows and short square steeple, might easily be mistaken
+for a pent-house. The western end appears to display some traces of
+Norman architecture. The hill, which leads to this chapel, commands a
+view of Rouen, the most picturesque, I think, of all that we have seen
+of this city, so picturesque from various points. You can scarcely
+conceive the eagerness with which we endeavored to catch the last
+glimpse, as the prospect gradually vanished from our sight, or the
+pleasure with which we still dwell, and shall long continue so to do,
+upon the recollection. All round the chapel, the bare chalk is at this
+time tinged with a beautiful glow, from the blue flowers of the _Viola
+Rothomagensis_: the _Isatis Tinctoria_, the _true Woad_, is also common
+on the steep sides of the cliff. This plant, which is here indigenous,
+became, during the reign of Napoléon, an object of attention with the
+government, as a succedaneum for indigo, at the same time that beet-root
+was destined to supply the continent with sugar, and salsafy, or parched
+wheat, to hold the place of coffee. The restoration of peace has caused
+the Isatis to be again neglected; but the _Reseda luteola_, or, _Dyer's
+woad_, is much cultivated in the neighborhood, as is the _Teasel_ for
+the use of the cloth manufactory.
+
+Pont-de-l'Arche, though now a small mean town, may boast of high
+antiquity, if it be rightly believed to be the ancient _Pistae_, the
+seat of the palace erected by Charles the Bald, in which that sovereign
+convened councils in the years 861 and 869, and held assemblies of his
+nobles in 862 and 864; and from which, his edicts promulgated in those
+years, are dated. The same monarch also built here a magnificent bridge,
+defended at one extremity by a citadel upon a small island.--From this
+there seems every reason to believe that the town has derived its name;
+for, in a diploma issued by our Henry IInd, he calls the place _Pontem
+Arcis_; and its present appellation is nothing but its Latin name
+translated into French. The fortress at the head of the bridge was
+demolished about thirty years ago, at the time when Millin published
+his[96] account of the town. The plate attached to that account,
+represents one of the towers as still standing.--Though deprived of its
+citadel, Pont-de-l'Arche retains to the present day its walls, flanked
+by circular towers; and its bridge, which is the lowest stone bridge
+down the Seine, is a noble one of twenty-two arches, through which the
+river at a considerable depth below, rolls with extraordinary rapidity.
+In the length of this bridge are some mills, which are turned by the
+stream; and the current is moderated under one of the arches, by a lock
+placed on the down-stream side, into which barges pass, and so proceed
+with security; The bridge, with its mills, forms a very picturesque
+object.
+
+At a short distance from the bridge, to the left, looking towards Paris,
+is the _Colline des deux amans_, formerly surmounted by the priory of
+the same name. Of the history of the monastery nothing is known with
+certainty, nor is even the date of its foundation ascertained, though it
+is stated by Millin to be one of the most ancient in Normandy[97]. But
+the traditionary tale connected with this convent, forms the subject of
+one of the lays of _Mary of France_; and it has been elegantly
+translated by the late Mr. Ellis, in the introduction to his _History of
+our Ancient Metrical Romances_;--Du Plessis[98] is, however, of opinion,
+that the name of the priory is nothing more than a corruption from the
+words, _deux monts_, in allusion to the twin hills, on one of which it
+stands; or, if _lovers_ must have any thing to do with the appellation,
+he piously suggests that divine love may have been intended, and that
+the parties were no other than our Savior and the Virgin, whose images
+were placed over the door of the conventual church.
+
+On the opposite side of the bridge of Pont-de-l'Arche, stand the
+remains of a far richer abbey, that of Bonport, of the Cistertian order,
+founded by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, in 1190, as an _ex voto_. The monarch,
+then just in possession of his crown, was indulging with his courtiers
+in the pleasures of the chace, and, carried away by the natural
+impetuosity of his temper, had plunged in pursuit of the deer into the
+Seine, whose rapid current brought his life into imminent danger; and he
+accordingly vowed, if he escaped with safety, to erect a monastery upon
+the spot where he should reach the shore. Hence, according to Le
+Brasseur[99], the foundation, and hence the name. I ought, however, to
+add, that no record of the kind is preserved in the _Neustrta Pia_, nor
+even by Millin, who has described and figured such of the monastic
+buildings and monuments as had been spared at the early part of the
+revolution[100]. Another view of the ruins has since been published by
+Langlois, in the first number of a work which was intended to have
+comprised a long series of Norman antiquities, but was discontinued for
+want of encouragement. The author, whose portrait I have sent you in the
+course of this correspondence, is himself a native of Pont-de-l'Arche,
+and has subjoined to his fas-ciculus a couple of plates, illustrative of
+the costume and customs of the neighborhood.--In one of these plates, an
+itinerant male fortune-teller is satisfying a young peasant as to the
+probability of her speedy marriage, by means of a pack of cards, from
+which he has turned up the king and queen and ace of hearts. In the
+other, _a cunning woman_ is solving a question by a book and key. The
+poor girl's sweetheart is an absent soldier, and fears and doubts are
+naturally entertained for his safety. To unlock the mysteries of fate,
+the key is attached to the mass-book, and suspended from the tip of the
+finger of the sybil, who reads the first chapter of the gospel of St.
+John; and the invocation is answered by the key turning of _its own
+accord_, when she arrives at the verse beginning, "and the word was made
+flesh[101]."--A fine rose-window in the church of the abbey of Bonport,
+and two specimens of painted glass from its windows, the one
+representing angels holding musical instruments, supposed to be of the
+thirteenth century, the other containing a set of male and female heads
+of extraordinarily rich color, probably executed about a century later,
+are given by _Willemin_ in his very beautiful _Monumens Français
+inédits_. In the same work, you will likewise find two still more
+interesting painted windows from Pont-de-l'Arche; some boatmen and their
+wives in the Norman costume of the end of the sixteenth century, and a
+citizen of the town with his lady, praying before a fald-stool, bearing
+the date, 1621.
+
+The church of Pont-de-l'Arche, though greatly dilapidated, is a building
+worth notice, in a fine style of the decorated gothic. The nave is very
+lofty; the high altar richly carved and gilt; the oak pulpit embossed
+with saints; and the font covered with curious, though not ancient,
+sculpture. Rich tracery abounds in the windows, which are also filled
+with painted glass, some of it of very good quality. Scripture history
+and personages occupy, as usual, the principal part; but in one of the
+windows we noticed a representation of the Seine full of islands, and
+the town of Pont-de-l'Arche, with a number of persons quitting it with
+their horses, baggage, &c. in apparent confusion. So shattered, however,
+is the window, that the story is no longer intelligible in its details;
+and fragments, quite illegible, are all that remain of the inscriptions
+formerly beneath it. It is probable, that the intention of the artist
+was to give a picture of the miseries experienced by the inhabitants at
+the burning of the town by our troops under Edward IIIrd.--On the south
+side of the church the buttresses are enriched with canopies and other
+sculpture; and there was originally a highly-wrought balustrade,
+ornamented with figures of children, a part of which
+remains.--Pont-de-l'Arche claims the merit of having been the first town
+in France, which acknowledged Henry IVth as its lawful sovereign, after
+the assassination of his predecessor, in 1589.
+
+On leaving this place, we passed through the forest of the same name, an
+extensive tract covered with young trees, principally beech, oak, and
+birch. The soil, a mixture of chalk and gravel, is poor, and offers but
+little encouragement to the labors of the plough. All around us, the
+distant prospect was pleasantly varied with gentle hills, upon one of
+which, nearly in front, we soon saw Louviers, a busy manufacturing town,
+of about seven thousand inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in making
+the fine cloth of the district, which is considered superior in quality
+to any other in France. Spanish wool is almost exclusively used for
+the purpose.
+
+Throughout the vicinity of Louviers, are the most undoubted symptoms of
+commercial prosperity; new houses every where erecting, and old ones
+undergoing improvement. But the streets of the town itself are, as
+usual, dirty and narrow, and the people of the lower orders more than
+commonly ragged and beggarly. It was impossible to mistake the nature of
+their occupations; so many of them had their faces and hands, and every
+part of their limbs and bodies that was visible, died of a bright
+blue.--The church at Louviers is very much injured, but very handsome;
+and though reduced to a nave with its four aisles it is still a spacious
+edifice. The south porch, which projects boldly in the form of a
+galilee, is scarcely to be excelled as a specimen of pointed
+architecture at its highest pitch of luxuriant beauty. Yet, even in
+this, the saints have been torn from their pedestals by the wanton
+violence of the Calvinists or democrats. The central tower is square and
+short: it is, however, handsome. Two windows, very similar to those of
+the tower of St. Romain, in Rouen cathedral, light it on either side;
+and saints, placed under canopies, ornament the angles behind the
+buttresses.--The great western door is closed, and the front defaced:
+the eastern end, likewise, is altogether modern.--Within, the same kind
+of architecture prevails as in the exterior, but the whole is so
+concealed, and degraded by ornaments in the worst of taste, and by
+painted saints in the most tawdry dresses, that the effect is
+disgusting. I never saw so great an array of wretched representations of
+the heavenly host: the stone images collected round the holy sepulchre,
+are even worse than those at Dieppe. Near the chapel of the sepulchre,
+however, are four bas-reliefs, attached to the wall, exhibiting
+different events in our Savior's life of good execution, and not in had
+taste: an open gallery of fillagree stone-work, under the central tower
+on the south side, is an object really deserving of admiration.
+
+M. Langlois has engraved the gable end of an old house at Louviers, said
+to have belonged to the Knights Templars. We found it used as an
+engine-maker's shop; and neither within nor without, could we discover
+any thing to justify his opinion, that it is a building of the twelfth
+or thirteenth century. On the contrary, the windows, which are double,
+under a flatly-pointed arch, and are all of them trefoil-headed, would
+rather cause it to be considered as erected two centuries later.
+
+The town of Louviers, though never fortified, is noticed on several
+occasions in history. It was the seat of the conferences between Richard
+Coeur-de-Lion and Philip Augustus, which ended in the treaty of 1195,
+defining new limits to Normandy.--It was, as I have already mentioned,
+one of the items of the compensation made by the same Duke to the
+Archbishop of Rouen, for the injury done to the church, by the erection
+of Château Gaillard.--During the wars of Edward IIIrd, "Louviers," to
+use the language of old Froissart, "after the battle of Caen, was soon
+entered by the Englishmen, as it was not closed; and they over-ran, and
+spoiled, and robbed it without mercy, and won great riches; for it was
+the chief place in all Normandy for drapery, and was full of
+merchandize."--And, in the subsequent warfare of the fifteenth century,
+this town, like the others in the duchy, was taken by our countrymen,
+under Henry Vth, and lost by them under his successor.--Hither the
+Norman parliament retired when the Huguenots were in possession of
+Rouen; and here they remained till the recapture of the capital.--It was
+probably owing in a great measure to this circumstance, that Louviers
+was induced to distinguish itself by a devoted attachment to the party
+of the league, for which it suffered severely in 1591, when it was
+captured and pillaged by the royalists shortly after their victory at
+Ivry. The town was then taken through the treachery of a priest of the
+name of Jean de la Tour, who received, as a recompence, a stall in the
+cathedral at Evreux, but was so much an object of abhorrence with his
+brethren, that he scarcely ever ventured to appear in his place. During
+the holy week, however, he attended; and it once happened, that while he
+was so officiating, all the canons contrived to leave the church towards
+the close of the psalm, which immediately precedes the _Benedictus_ at
+_Laudes_, so that the anthem, _Traditor autem_, which is sung with that
+hymn, necessarily fell to the part of de la Tour, who found himself
+compelled to chaunt it, to his own extreme confusion, and the infinite
+amusement of the congregation. Irritated and mortified, the poor priest
+preferred his complaints to the king; but it was one thing to love the
+treason, and another to love the traitor; and his appeal obtained no
+redress.
+
+From Louviers our next stage was Gaillon, on our road to which we passed
+some vineyards, the most northern, I believe, in Normandy. The vines
+cultivated in them are all of the small black cluster grape; and the
+wine they produce, I am told, is of very inferior quality,--No place
+can appear at present more poverty-stricken than Gaillon; but the case
+was far otherwise before the glories of royal and ecclesiastical France
+were shorn by the revolution. Ducarel, who visited this town about the
+year 1760, dwells with great pleasure upon the magnificence of its
+palace and its Carthusian convent and church. Of the palace the remains
+are still considerable; and, after having been suffered to lie in a
+state of ruin and neglect from an early period in the revolution, they
+are now fitting up as a prison. The long inscription formerly over the
+gate might with great propriety be replaced by the hacknied phrase, "Sic
+transit gloria mundi;" for the vicissitudes of the fortune of noble
+buildings are strikingly illustrated by the changes experienced by this
+sumptuous edifice, long proverbial throughput France for its splendor.
+
+Philip Augustus conferred the lordship of Gaillon upon one of his
+captains of the name of Cadoc, as a reward for his activity in the
+conquest of Normandy. Louis IXth afterwards, early in the thirteenth
+century, ceded the town in perpetuity to the Archbishop of Rouen. St.
+Louis here received by way of exchange the Château of Pinterville, which
+he bestowed upon William d'Aubergenville, whose uncle, the Bishop of
+Evreux, had, while chancellor of France, done much service to him and to
+Queen Blanche, his mother. From that time to the revolution the
+archbishops had their country seat at Gaillon, and enjoyed the sole
+right of trying civil and criminal causes within the town and its
+liberties. Their palace, which was destroyed during the wars of Henry
+Vth, in 1423, was rebuilt about a century afterwards by the munificence
+of the first cardinal Georges d'Amboise, one of whose successors in the
+prelacy, Colbert, expended, as it is said, more than one hundred
+thousand livres towards the embellishment of it.--Another archbishop,
+the Cardinal of Bourbon, founded the neighboring monastery, in the year
+1571. The conventual church was destroyed by fire, through the
+carelessness of some plumbers, shortly after Ducarel visited it; and
+with it perished the celebrated monument of one of the counts of Bourbon
+Soissons, said to have been a master-piece of sculpture.
+
+The limits assigned to Normandy by the treaty of Louviers, made Gaillon
+a frontier town of the duchy; and here therefore I should take my leave
+of you, but that, in the prouder days of its history, Vernon was
+likewise swayed by the ducal sceptre. Vernon also seems peculiarly
+connected with England, from the noble family of the same name still
+flourishing, agreeably to their well-known punning motto, on your side
+of the water. This motto is in the highest degree inapplicable to the
+present state of the town, whose old and ruinous appearance looks as if
+it had known neither improvement nor repair for centuries. Better things
+might have been expected from the situation of Vernon, on the banks of
+the Seine, in a singularly beautiful valley, and from its climate, which
+is reported to be so extraordinarily healthy, that instances of
+individuals attaining in it the age of one hundred are not unfrequent.
+
+The royal palace, formerly here, is now wholly swept away; and of the
+ancient fortifications there remains little more than a tower,
+remarkable for the height and thickness of its walls, a part of the
+castle, which, in the reign of Henry IInd, was held by the service of
+sixteen knights for its defence[102].--Prior to the revolution, Vernon
+contained five religious houses, three of them founded by St. Louis, who
+is said to have regarded this town with peculiar favor, and probably on
+that account assigned it as a jointure to his queen, an honor which it
+has received upon more than one other occasion.
+
+The present parish church of Vernon was collegiate. It was founded about
+the year 1052, by William of Vernon, and was endowed by him, at the time
+of its dedication, with the property called, _La Couture du Pré de
+Giverny_, and with a fourth part of the forest of Vernon, all which the
+dean and canons continued to enjoy till the revolution. This William
+appears to have been the first of the family who adopted the surname of
+Vernon. His son, Richard, by whom the foundation was formally confirmed,
+attended the Conqueror to England, and obtained there considerable
+grants. One of their descendants ceded the town in 1190 to the King of
+France, accepting in return other lands, according to a treaty still
+preserved in the royal library at Paris. The tombs of the founder, and
+of his namesake, Sir William de Vernon, constable of England, who died
+in 1467, and of many others of the family, among the rest the stately
+mausoleum of the Maréchal de Belle Isle, were destroyed during the reign
+of jacobinism and terror. The portraits, however, of the Marshal and of
+the Duc de Penthièvre, both of them very indifferent performances, were
+saved, and are now kept in the sacristy. The only monument left to the
+church is that of Marie Maignard, whose husband, Charles Maignard, was
+Lord of Bernières and president of the parliament of Normandy. She died
+in 1610. Her effigy in white marble, praying before a fald-stool, has
+also been spared.
+
+[Illustration: Elevation of the West Front of _La Délivrande_]
+
+The church itself is a spacious building, consisting of a nave and two
+aisles, with chapels beyond, separated by lofty pointed arches,
+supported on clustered pillars, to each of which is still attached a
+tabernacle; but the statues have been destroyed. The choir is altogether
+in a different style of architecture: that portion of it which
+immediately surrounds the altar, is early Norman, and most probably
+belonged to the original structure. Its arches vary remarkably in width.
+The most narrow among them are more decidedly horseshoe-shaped, than any
+others which I recollect to have seen.--The west front, though much
+mutilated, is still handsome. It is flanked by two small, very short
+turrets, richly ornamented.--The square central tower, capped by a
+conical roof, does not even equal the height of the nave, which is
+greatly superior to that of the choir.--Upon an eminence in the
+immediate vicinity of Vernon, are the remains of a Roman encampment.
+
+With Vernon we quitted ancient Normandy: our ride thence to Mantes has
+been delightful; and this town, for the excellence of its buildings, for
+neatness, and for a general air of comfort, far excels any other which
+we have seen in the north of France. The name of Mantes also recals the
+memory of the Duc de Sully, and recals that of the Conqueror, whose
+life fell a sacrifice to the barbarous outrage of which he was here
+guilty.--But, I now lay down my pen, and take my leave of Normandy,
+happy, if by my correspondence during this short tour, I have been able
+to impart to you a portion of the gratification which I have myself
+experienced, while tracing the ancient history, and surveying the
+monuments of that wonderful nation, who, issuing from the frozen regions
+of the north, here fixed the seat of their permanent government, became
+powerful rivals of the sovereigns of France, saw Sicily and the fairest
+portion of Italy subject to their sway, and, at the same time that they
+possessed themselves of our own island, by right of conquest, imported
+amongst us their customs, their arts, and their institutions, and laid
+the basis of that happy constitution, under which, by the blessing of
+God, Britain is at this moment the pride and envy of the world!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 96: _Antiquités Nationales_, IV. No. 48.]
+
+[Footnote 97: _Antiquités Nationales_, II. No. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 98: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 99: _Histoire d'Evreux_, p. 161.]
+
+[Footnote 100: _Antiquités Nationales_, IV. No. 40.]
+
+[Footnote 101: This mode of divination by the Bible and key, is also to
+be found among the superstitions of our own country.--See _Ellis'
+edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities_, II. p. 641.]
+
+[Footnote 102: _Ducarel's Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 93.--Respecting
+Vernon, see also _Millin, Antiquités Nationales_, III. No. 26, in which
+four plates, and near fifty pages of letter-press, are devoted to this
+town.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The printing of this work was just concluded, when the author was
+   favored with drawings, accompanied with short descriptions, of the
+   chapel of our _Lady of the Délivrande_, near Caen, and of an ancient
+   font at Magneville, near Valognes. For the former he is indebted to
+   Mr. Cohen, to whom he has so often in the course of the work, had
+   occasion to express his obligations; for the latter, to M. de
+   Gerville, an able antiquary at Valognes. Both these subjects are of
+   such a nature, that he is peculiarly happy to be able to add them to
+   his imperfect account of the Antiquities of Normandy: the whole duchy
+   does not contain a religious building more celebrated for its
+   sanctity than the chapel; and while ancient fonts of any description
+   are rare in the province, he doubts if another is to be found like
+   that of Magneville, ornamented with sculpture and an inscription.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some historians suppose, that the country situated between Caen and the
+sea, formed at least, a part of the Saxon shore of Neustria. Amongst the
+other ancient buildings which are found in this district, the chapel of
+Notre Dame de la Délivrande, to which the Normans have resorted in
+pilgrimage during the last eight hundred years, is, perhaps, the most
+remarkable.
+
+When the philosophers of the revolution envied the religious enjoyments
+of the common man, all pilgrimages were forbidden, and the road leading
+to our Lady's Chapel, and which, indeed, is the only high road in this
+part of the country, became almost impassable. Under the Emperor it was
+thoroughly repaired, and, as they say, by his especial order; and since
+the accession of the present French king, the fathers of the mission,
+who lose no favorable opportunity of fostering the spirit of devotion,
+have erected roods and tabernacles, at due distances, all along the way
+side.
+
+After leaving Caen, the traveller will not fail to linger on the little
+hill which he ascends just after passing by the first crucifix. Hence he
+enjoys a lovely prospect, such as delighted the old masters. In the
+foreground is the lofty cross, standing on a quadrangular pyramid of
+steps. The broken hollow path bending upwards round the base, is always
+occupied by a grotesque group of cripples and beldames, in rags and
+tatters, laughing and whining and praying. The horizon is bounded by
+long lines of grey and purple hills, nearer are fields and pastures,
+whilst the river glitters and winds amidst their vivid tints. Nearer
+still, the city of Caen extends itself from side to side, terminated at
+each extremity by the venerable abbeys of William and Matilda. There are
+no traces of work-shops and manufactories, or of their pollution; but
+the churches with their towers and spires rise above the houses in bold
+architectural masses, and the city assumes a character of quiet monastic
+opulence, comforting the eye and the mind.
+
+About four miles farther on from Caen, we reached Cambre, one of the
+many seignories which belonged to the very noble family of Mathan. There
+was a Serlo de Mathan, who appears as a witness to one of the
+Conqueror's charters, and the family is now represented by the present
+Marquis, who has recovered his château, and a fragment of his domain.
+Cambre is also the residence of the Abbé de la Rue, by whom the Marquis
+was educated. When they both took refuge in England, the Abbé was the
+only protector of his pupil, who now returns the honorable obligation.
+It is well known that the Abbé has devoted his life to the investigation
+of the antiquities both of Normandy and of the Anglo-Normans. Possessing
+in a high degree the acute and critical spirit of research which
+distinguished the French archaiologists of the Benedictine school, we
+have only to regret, that the greater part of his works yet remain in
+manuscript. His _History of Anglo-Norman Poetry_, which is quite ready
+for the press, would be an invaluable accession to our literature; but
+books of this nature are so little suited to the taste of the French
+public, that, as yet, he has not ventured upon its publication. The
+collections of the Abbé, as may be anticipated, are of great value; they
+relate almost wholly to the history of the duchy. The château escaped
+spoliation. The portraits of the whole line of the Mathans, from the
+first founder of the race, in his hauberk, down to the last Marquis, in
+his _frisure_, are in good preservation; and they are ancient specimens
+of the sign-post painting usually found in old galleries. The Marquis
+has also a finely-illuminated missal, which belonged to a Dame de
+Mathan, in the fourteenth century, and which has been carefully handed
+down in the family, from generation to generation.
+
+The church of Douvre, the next village, is rather a picturesque
+building. The upper story of the tower has two pointed windows of the
+earliest date. A pediment between them rests on the archivolt on either
+side. This is frequently seen in buildings in the circular style. The
+other stories of the tower, and the west front of the church are Norman;
+the east end is in ruins. The British name of the village may afford
+ground for much ethnigraphical and etymological speculation.
+
+Saint Exuperius is said to have founded the Chapel of La Délivrande,
+some time in the first century. The tradition adds, that the chapel was
+ruined by the Northmen,--and the statue of the Virgin, which now
+commands the veneration of the faithful, remained buried until the
+appointed time of resuscitation, in the reign of Henry Ist, when it was
+discovered, in conformity to established usage and precedent in most
+cases of miraculous images, by a lamb. Baldwin, Count of the Bessin and
+Baron of Douvre, was owner of the flock to which the lamb belonged. The
+Virgin would not remain in the parish church of Douvre, in which she was
+lodged by the Baron, but she returned every night to the spot where she
+was disinterred. Baldwin therefore understood that it was his duty to
+erect a chapel for her reception, and he accordingly built that which is
+now standing, and made a donation of the edifice to the Bishop of
+Bayeux, whose successor receives the mass-pennies and oblations at this
+very day. Some idea of the architecture of the building may be formed
+from the inclosed sketch of the western front. During the morning mass,
+the chapel was crowded with women, young and old, who were singing the
+litany of the Virgin in a low and plantive tone. A hymn of praise was
+also chaunted. It was composed by the learned Bishop Huet, and it is
+inscribed upon a black marble tablet, which was placed in the chapel by
+his direction. The country women of the Saxon shore possess a very
+peculiar physiognomy, denoting that the race is unmixed. The
+Norman-Saxon damsel is full and well made, her complexion is very fair,
+she has light hair, long eyelashes, and tranquil placid features; her
+countenance has an air of sullen pouting tenderness, such as we often
+find in the women represented in the sculptures and paintings of the
+middle ages. And all the girls are so much alike, that it might have
+been supposed that they all were sisters. As to our Lady, she is gaily
+attired in a Cashemire shawl, and completely covered with glaring amber
+necklaces and beads, and ribband knots, and artificial flowers. Many
+votive offerings are affixed round her shrine. The pilgrim is
+particularly desired to notice a pair of crutches, which testify the
+cure of their former owner, who lately hobbled to the Virgin from
+Falaise, as a helpless cripple, and who quitted her in perfect health.
+Of course the Virgin has operated all the usual standard miracles,
+including one which may be suspected to be rather a work of
+supererogation, that of restoring speech to a matron who had lost her
+tongue, which had been cut out by her jealous husband. Miracles of every
+kind are very frequently performed, yet, if the truth must be told, they
+are worked, as it were, by deputy, for the real original Virgin suffered
+so much during the revolution, that it has been thought advisable to
+keep her in the sacristy, and the statue now seen is a restoration of
+recent workmanship. In order to conciliate the sailors and fishermen of
+the coast, the Virgin has entered into partnership with St. Nicholas,
+whose image is impressed on the reverse of the medal representing her,
+and which is sold to the pilgrims.
+
+The country about La Délivrande is flat, but industriously cultivated
+and thickly peopled. The villages are numerous and substantial. From a
+point at the extremity of the green lane which leads onward from La
+Délivrande, six or eight church spires may be counted, all within a
+league's distance. By the advice of the Abbé de la Rue, we proceeded to
+Bernieres, which is close to the sea. The mayor of the commune offered
+his services with great civility, and accompanied us to the church,
+which, as he told us, was built by Duke William. We easily gave credit
+to the mayor's assertion, as the interior of the nave is good Norman.
+The pillars which support the groining of the roof are square; this
+feature is rather singular. The tower and spire are copied from Saint
+Peter, at Caen. Those of Luc, Courseilles, Langrune, and the other
+neighboring villages, are upon the same model. Many instances of the
+same kind of affiliation occur at home, which shew how easily a fashion
+was set in ecclesiastical architecture.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: Font at Magneville]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The most remarkable among the ancient inscriptions found in that part of
+Normandy, which is now comprised in the Department of La Manche, are
+upon an ancient altar, at Ham, on a medallion attached to the outside of
+the church of Ste. Croix, at St. Lô, and upon the font at Magneville,
+near Valognes. The first of these has generally been referred to the
+seventh century; the second seems to be of the ninth; and the last may
+with safety be considered as of the latter part of the tenth, or
+beginning of the eleventh, at which period, the choir of the church of
+Magneville appears also to have been erected. Of the sculpture upon the
+font, as well as of the inscription, an accurate idea may be formed,
+from the annexed drawing: the most remarkable character of the
+inscription seems to be in its punctuation. The letters upon the altar,
+at Ham, touch one another, and there is no separation of any kind
+between the words: here, on the contrary, almost all the words are
+divided by three or four points placed in a perpendicular direction,
+except at the end of the phrases, where stops are wholly wanting. At
+Ham, also, the letters are cut into the stone, while at Magneville they
+are drawn with a brush, with a kind of black pigment.
+
+G.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A.
+
+_Abbey_, of Ardennes,
+  Bec,
+  Bernay,
+  Bonport,
+  Cormeilles,
+  Ducler,
+  Jumieges,
+  Preaux,
+  St. Evroul,
+  St. Georges de Bocherville,
+  St. Stephen, at Caen,
+  St. Taurinus,
+  Trinity at Caen.
+_Academy of Druids_, at Bayeux.
+_Academy of Sciences_, at Caen.
+_Agnes Sorel_, buried at Jumieges,
+  her statue destroyed by the Huguenots,
+  her tomb destroyed at the revolution,
+  inscription upon.
+_Amphitheatre, Roman_, found near Lisieux.
+_Amyot, Mr_. his paper on the Bayeux tapestry.
+_Andelys_, origin of the name,
+  history of,
+  seat of an early monastery,
+  great house at,
+  birth-place of Poussin.
+_Andromeda polifolia_, found near Jumieges.
+_Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury_, a monk at Bec.
+_Aqueduct, Roman_, remains of, at Vieux.
+_Archbishops of Rouen_, their palace at Gaillon.
+_Arches, trefoil-headed_, early specimen of, at Jumieges.
+_Ardennes_, abbey of, near Caen.
+_Arlette, mother of the Conqueror_, native of Falaise.
+_Arnulf_, bishop of Lisieux.
+_Arthur, Prince_, knighted at Gournay.
+_Asselin_, forbids the interment of the Conqueror.
+_Audinus, bishop of Evreux_, authorizes Henry Ist to burn the city.
+_Augustodurum_, probably the site of, at Vieux.
+
+
+B.
+
+_Bailiffs_, first established in Normandy under Philip Augustus,
+_Baiocco of Naples_, named after Bayeux,
+_Bas-relief_, in the church of St. Georges de Bocherville,
+_Baudius_, professor of law for a short time at Caen,
+_Bayeux_, seat of an academy of Druids,
+  Roman relics found near, but no Druidic,
+  a Roman station,
+  probably the Næomagus Viducassium,
+  its ancient name,
+  its importance under the early French kings,
+  its history,
+  the place where the Norman princes were educated,
+  castle,
+  situation, population, and trade,
+  tapestry,
+  cathedral,
+_Bayeux, Roman_, probably destroyed by the Saxons,
+_Bec, abbey of_, its present state,
+  former income and patronage,
+  church described by Du Plessis,
+  founded by Hellouin,
+  history,
+  seminary for eminent men,
+_Belenus_, worshipped near Bayeux,
+_Berengarius_, his tenets impugned by Lanfranc,
+  condemned by the council of Brionne,
+_Bernay_, abbey of,
+  church,
+  burial-ground,
+  population and trade,
+  costume of the females,
+_Bernieres_, church of,
+_Blanche, wife of Charles the Bel_, confined in Château Gaillard,
+_Bochart_, one of the founders of the academy at Caen,
+_Boileau_, his eulogium on Malherbe,
+_Bonport_, abbey of,
+_Borghese, Princess of_, original letter by,
+_Bouillon, Duke of_, Lord of Evreux, at the revolution,
+_Bourg-Achard_, seat of an abbey, dedicated to St. Eustatius,
+  leaden font,
+_Bourg-Theroude_,
+_Bourgueville_, his antiquities of Caen,
+  present at the exhumation of the Conqueror's remains,
+_Boy, bishop_, annually elected at Caen,
+_Bretteville l'Orgueilleuse_, church of,
+_Brionne_, situation of,
+  seat of the council which condemned the tenets of Berengarius,
+  castle,
+_Brito_, his account
+  of the siege of Gournay,
+  of Château Gaillard,
+  of the murder of the French garrison of Evreux,
+  of Caen.
+_Broglie_, church of.
+_Bruce, David_, a resident in Château Gaillard.
+_Buck-wheat_,
+  much cultivated in Lower Normandy,
+  etymology of its French name.
+
+
+C.
+
+_Caen_,
+  arrival at,
+  distant view of,
+  trade and population,
+  situation,
+  grand cours,
+  costume of females,
+  house-rent,
+  foundation,
+  described by Brito,
+  etymology of the name,
+  fortifications,
+  Château de Calix,
+  castle,
+  chapel in the castle,
+  hospital,
+  royal abbeys,
+  college,
+  palace,
+  museum,
+  library,
+  universities,
+  men of eminence,
+  academy,
+  Malherbe,
+  history,
+  neighborhood abundant in fossil remains,
+  seen from the road leading to La Délivrande.
+_Caen-stone_,
+  large quarries of,
+  formerly much used in England.
+_Cambre_.
+_Cambremer, Canon of_, tale respecting, at Bayeux.
+_Cannon_, first used in France, at the siege of Pont Audemer.
+_Canons_, four statues of, at Evreux.
+_Castle_, of Bayeux,
+  Brionne,
+  Caen,
+  Creully,
+  Falaise,
+  Gisors,
+  Montfort,
+  Neufmarché.
+_Cathedral of Bayeux_, founded by St. Exuperius,
+  history,
+  described,
+  crypt,
+  stripped of its relics,
+  revenue,
+  right of mintage.
+_Cathedral of Evreux_, often destroyed,
+  its present state,
+  little injured by the Huguenots,
+  founded by St. Taurinus.
+_Cathedral of Lisieux_, now the parish church of St. Peter,
+  described,
+  remarkable tomb in.
+_Cauchon, Peter_, bishop of Lisieux, president at the trial of Joan of Arc.
+_Cecily_, daughter of the Conqueror, abbess at Caen.
+_Chapel_, subterranean, in Bayeux cathedral,
+  in the castle at Caen,
+  in the castle at Falaise,
+  of St. Adrian,
+  of La Délivrande.
+_Chapel in the castle at Caen_, built fronting the east
+_Chapels_, stone-roofed, in Ireland, of Norman origin
+_Charles the Bad_, born in the Château de Navarre
+_Charters_, of the abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville
+_Château de Navarre_
+_Château Gaillard_, its situation
+  described
+  account of, by Brito
+  history
+_Château de Calix_, at Caen
+_Chesnut-timber_, formerly much used in Normandy
+_Church_, of the abbey of Bec
+  Bernieres
+  Bernay
+  Bretteville l'Orgueilleuse
+  Broglie
+  Creully
+  Ducler
+  Ecouis
+  Falaise
+  Gisors
+  Gournay
+  Jumieges
+  St. Peter's at ditto
+  Louviers
+  Moulineaux
+  Pont Audemer
+  Pont-de-l'Arche
+  St. Germain de Blancherbe
+  St. Gervais, at Falaise
+  St. Georges de Bocherville
+  St. Giles, at Evreux
+  St. James, at Lisieux
+  St. John, at Caen
+  St. Michael, at ditto
+  St. Nicholas, at ditto
+  St. Peter, at ditto
+  St. Stephen's abbey, at ditto
+  St. Stephen, at ditto
+  Trinity, at ditto
+  Trinity at Falaise
+  Vernon
+_Cider_, the common beverage, in Normandy
+  first introduced by the Normans
+_Cocherel_
+_Coins, golden_, struck at Bayeux, under the first French kings
+_Colline des deux amans_, priory of
+_Cormeilles_, abbey of
+_Corneille_, buried at Andelys
+_Costume_, at Bernay
+  at Caen
+_Coupe gorge_, colony established at, by Napoléon
+_Creully_, castle
+  church
+_Crocodile fossil_, found near Caen
+_Croissanville_
+
+
+D.
+
+_Dalechamps_, native of Caen
+_D'Amboise, Cardinal_, built the palace at Gaillon
+_Darnétal_
+_De Boissy_, bishop of Bayeux, his epitaph.
+_De la Rue, Abbé_,
+  professor of history at Caen,
+  is preparing an account of Caen,
+  his paper on the Bayeux tapestry.
+_Douce, Mr._, his illustration of the sculpture at
+  St. Georges de Bocherville.
+_Douvre_.
+_Druids_, academy of, at Bayeux.
+_Dubois Louis_,
+  his discoveries among the ruins of Old Lisieux,
+  preserved the original M.S. of Ordericus Vitalis,
+  is preparing the history of Lisieux.
+_Ducarel_, his description of a pavement in the palace at Caen.
+_Ducler_,
+  convent,
+  parish church.
+_Du Perron_, cardinal, bishop of Evreux.
+_Du Plessis_,
+  his opinion as to Turold on the Bayeux tapestry,
+  description of the abbey church of Bec.
+
+
+E.
+
+_Ecouis, church of_,
+  burial-place of John and Enguerrand de Marigny,
+  singular epitaph.
+_Epitaph_,
+  enigmatical at Ecouis,
+  of John de Boissy,
+  on the exterior of Bayeux cathedral.
+_Evreux_,
+  destroyed by Henry Ist,
+  cathedral,
+  abbey of St. Taurinus,
+  history,
+  present appearance.
+_Evreux, Old_, a Roman station.
+
+
+F.
+
+_Falaise_,
+  situation of,
+  etymology of the name,
+  castle,
+  Talbot's tower,
+  chapel in castle,
+  history,
+  firmly attached to the League,
+  fortifications,
+  inhabitants _true Normans_,
+  population and trade,
+  churches.
+_Fastolf, Sir John_, governor of Caen.
+_Flambart, Ralph_, bishop of Durham, seizes Lisieux.
+_Fleury, Cardinal_, abbot at Caen.
+_Fonts_, seldom seen in French churches.
+_Font_, curiously sculptured, at Magneville.
+_Font, leaden_, at Bourg-Achard.
+
+
+
+
+G.
+
+_Gaillon_, vineyards near,
+  present state of,
+  ceded to the archbishop of Rouen,
+  made by the treaty of Louviers the frontier town of the Duchy,
+_Gisors_, castle, appearance of,
+  history,
+  place of interview between Henry IInd, and Philip Augustus,
+  arms of the town,
+  castle, described,
+  church of,
+  banded column in the church,
+_Glass painted_, at the abbey of Bonport,
+  in the church of Pont de l'Arche,
+_Gournay_, origin of,
+  present appearance,
+  history,
+  siege described by Brito,
+  arms of,
+  place where Prince Arthur was knighted,
+  church,
+  remarkable sculpture on the capitals,
+_Gournay, Hugo de_,
+_Guibray_, fair of,
+_Gurney, Hudson_, his paper on the Bayeux tapestry,
+
+
+H.
+
+_Harcourt_, castle of,
+_Hellouin_, founder of the abbey of Bec,
+  his epitaph,
+_Hennuyer, John_, bishop of Lisieux, said to have saved the Huguenots,
+_Henry Ist_, kept prisoner by Robert at Bayeux,
+  destroyed the city,
+_History, ecclesiastical, of Ordericus Vitalis_,
+  materials for a new edition of,
+  original manuscript,
+  manuscript copies,
+_Holy Trinity_, church of, at Falaise,
+_Honfleur_, situation of,
+  described,
+_Horses, Norman_, present price of,
+_Hospital at Caen_, founded in the thirteenth century,
+_Hoveden_, his account of the interview between Henry IInd,
+  and Philip Augustus, near Gisors,
+_Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury_, a monk of Bec,
+_Hubert, M._, discovered the site of the Neomagus Lexoviorum,
+_Huet_, his _Origines de Caen_,
+  one of the founders of the academy at Caen,
+_Huguenots_, destroy the tomb and violate the remains of the Conqueror,
+_Hume, David_, his opinion on the Bayeux tapestry,
+_Hypocaust, Roman_, found at Vieux,
+
+
+I.
+
+_Inscription_, on the font at Magneville,
+_John, King_, murders the French garrison of Evreux,
+_Isatis tinctoria_, cultivated in France under Napoléon,
+_Jumieges, abbey of_, its foundation,
+  original building,
+  history,
+  church,
+  Salle des Chevaliers,
+  church of St. Peter,
+  monuments,
+_Ivory chest_, in Bayeux cathedral,
+
+
+K.
+
+_Knights, Templars_, house of, at Louviers,
+
+
+L.
+
+_Lamouroux, M_. professor of natural history at Caen,
+  his publications,
+_Lanfranc_, settled at Bec,
+  first schoolmaster in Normandy,
+  first abbot of St. Stephen's,
+_Langevin, M_., author of the history of Falaise,
+_Langlois, M_., his portrait,
+  his work on Norman Antiquities,
+_Le Beuf, Abbé_, his opinion of Vieux,
+_Le Brasseur_, his account of the statues of four canons at Evreux,
+_Léproserie de Beauîleu_,
+_Letter, original_, from Princess Borghese,
+_Library, public_, at Caen,
+_Lisieux_, situation and trade of,
+  its see suppressed in 1801,
+  cathedral,
+  tomb in cathedral,
+  town probably founded in the sixth century,
+  ancient names of,
+  history of,
+  church of St. Jacques,
+_Littleton, Lord_, his opinion of the Bayeux tapestry,
+_Louviers_, treaty of,
+  population,
+  church,
+  house of knights templars,
+  history,
+
+
+
+
+M.
+
+_Magneville_, font at,
+_Malherbe_, native of Caen,
+_Mallet, Anthony_, his statement of Hennuyer's saving the Calvinists,
+_Maréchal de Belle Isle_, his monument,
+_Margaret of Burgundy_, immured in Château Gaillard,
+_Marigny, Enguerrand de_, buried at Ecouis,
+  his mausoleum destroyed at the revolution,
+_Marriage ceremony_, in France,
+_Matilda, wife of the Conqueror_, supposed portrait of,
+  her seal
+  buried in the church of the Trinity,
+  her tomb destroyed by the Huguenots,
+  her remains lately found and new tomb raised,
+_Maud, Empress_, her expostulations with her father as to the place
+of her burial,
+_Mazarine, Cardinal_, abbot of St. Stephen's,
+_Melons_, cultivated on a large scale, near Lisieux,
+_Misereres_, sculptured, in Bayeux cathedral,
+_Misletoe_, commonly hung over inn-doors, near Caen,
+_Money_, struck by the chapter of Bayeux, how marked,
+_Montfaucon_, his engravings of the portraits of the Conqueror
+and his family,
+_Montfort_, castle of,
+_Moulineaux_, church of,
+_Mount Phaunus_, temple of, near Bayeux,
+_Museum_, at Caen,
+_Musicians_, sculptured at St. Georges de Bocherville,
+
+
+N.
+
+_Napoléon_, establishment formed by him at the pass of _Coupe Gorge_,
+  his attempt to make a naval station at Caen,
+_Navarre, kings of_, lords of Evreux,
+_Navarre, Château de_,
+_Næomagus Viducassium_, probably the modern Bayeux,
+_Neomagus Lexoviorum_, site of, lately discovered,
+_Neufmarché_, castle of,
+_Normandy_, divided anew, under Philip Augustus,
+_Notre Dame de la Délivrande_, chapel of,
+
+
+
+
+O.
+
+_Odo, bishop of Bayeux_, rebuilds the cathedral,
+  his life and character.
+_Ordericus Vitalis_, his account of the destruction of Evreux,
+  his account of St. Taurinus,
+  sketch of his life,
+  his ecclesiastical history,
+  his reflections on the death of the Conqueror
+_Ornaments_ on the spandrils of the arches in Bayeux cathedral.
+_Oxen_, breed of, near Caen.
+
+
+P.
+
+_Paintings, fresco_, in Bayeux cathedral.
+_Passports_, regulations respecting, in France.
+_Patye, John, Canon of Cambremer_, legend concerning, at Bayeux.
+_Pays de Bray_.
+_Pistae_, the site of, occupied by Pont de l'Arche.
+_Pont Audemer_, its situation,
+  history,
+  churches.
+_Pont de l'Arche_, seat of a palace under Charles the Bald,
+  origin of the name,
+  church.
+_Portraits_, of the Conqueror and family.
+_Poussin_, born at Andelys,
+  if his example has been favorable to French art.
+_Preaux_, abbey of.
+_Priory, des deux Amans_.
+
+
+R.
+
+_Rabelais_, his autograph.
+_Reseda luteola_, cultivated near Rouen.
+_Richelieu, Cardinal_, abbot of St. Stephen's at Caen.
+_Roads in France_, compared with those in England.
+_Robert the Devil_, his castle near Moulineaux.
+_Romance_, subjects borrowed from, sculptured on a capital in St. Peter's,
+at Caen.
+_Rupierre, William of, Bishop of Lisieux_, resists the power of King
+John.
+
+
+S.
+
+_St. Adrian_, Chapel of, near Rouen.
+_St. Clotilda_, her fountain, at Andelys
+  still worshipped there.
+_St. Evroul_, abbey of, founded by William de Gerouis,
+  residence of Ordericus Vitalis.
+_St. Georges de Bocherville_, abbey of, founded by Ralph de Tancarville,
+  its history,
+  abbey church described
+  sculpture in ditto
+  chapter-house.
+_St. Germain_, church of, at Pont Audemer.
+_St. Germain de Blancherbe_, church of.
+_St. Gervais_, church of, at Falaise.
+_St. Giles_, church of, at Evreux.
+_St. Jacques_, church of at Lisieux.
+_St. John_, church of, at Caen.
+_St. Lascivus_, bishop of Bayeux.
+_St. Lupus_, bishop of Bayeux, so called from destroying the wolves.
+_St. Maimertus_, subterranean chapel dedicated to, in Bayeux cathedal.
+_St. Michael_, church of, in the suburb of Vaucelles, at Caen.
+_St. Nicholas_, church of at Caen
+  its roof like those of the Irish stone-roofed chapels.
+_St. Peter_, church of at Caen
+  sculpture upon the capital of one of the columns.
+_St. Philibert_, founder of Jumieges.
+_St. Regnobert_, bishop of Bayeux, his chasuble kept in the cathedral,
+  domestic animals blessed on his feast-day.
+_St. Stephen_, church of, at Caen.
+_St. Stephen_, abbey of, at Caen, its privileges
+  now used as the college.
+_St. Stephen, abbey church of_, at Caen, described
+  formed on the the Roman model
+  burial-place of the Conqueror.
+_St. Taurinus_, founder of Evreux cathedral
+  his fight with the devil,
+  his shrine
+  crypt, in which he was buried.
+_St. Taurinus, abbey of_ at Evreux
+  its privileges
+  ancient architecture in the church
+  crypt.
+_St. Vitalis_, his feast celebrated annually at Evreux.
+_St. Ursinus_, privileges enjoyed by the Canons, at Lisieux, on his vigil
+and feast-day.
+_Saxons_, established about Bayeux, where many words from their language
+still exist.
+_Screens_, of rare occurrence in French churches.
+_Sculpture_, in the abbey church of St. Georges de Bocherville,
+  in the chapter-house of the same abbey,
+  in the abbey church of Jumieges,
+  on the capitals in the church at Gournay,
+  on a capital in the abbey church at Bernay,
+  over the high altar at Bernay,
+  on a tomb in Lisieux cathedral,
+  on a capital in St. Peter's at Caen,
+  on the capitals of the pillars in the crypt at Bayeux cathedral,
+_Seal_, supposed to belong to Matilda, wife of the Conqueror,
+_Sheep_, Norman breed of,
+_Siege_, of Château Gaillard,
+_Statues_, in the chapter-house of the abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville,
+  of William the Conqueror, at Caen,
+_Stothard, C.A._, his drawings of the Bayeux tapestry,
+  his opinion on its antiquity,
+_String-course_, remarkable, in the church of _Notre Dame des Prés_, at
+Pont Audemer,
+_Superstitions_, still remaining in Normandy,
+
+
+T.
+
+_Tancarville, Ralph_, chamberlain to the Conqueror, and founder of the
+abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville,
+_Tapestry, Bayeux_, accounts of, published by Montfaucon and Lancelot,
+  referred by them to Matilda, Queen of the Conqueror,
+  figure from,
+  its antiquity denied by Lord Littleton, Hume, and the Abbé de la Rue,
+  when first described,
+  reasons for believing in its antiquity,
+  formerly kept at the cathedral,
+  exhibited during the revolution at Paris,
+  described,
+_Tassillon_, confined at Jumieges,
+_Tassilly_, ancient tombs found at,
+_Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury_ a monk of Bec,
+_Thomas à Becket_, retired during his disgrace to Lisieux,
+_Tiles, painted_, in the palace at Caen,
+  supposed to prove the antiquity of heraldic bearings,
+_Tombeau des énervez_, at Jumieges,
+_Tombs, ancient_, at Cocherel,
+  in Lisieux cathedral,
+  at Tassilly,
+_Torigny marble_,
+_Trinity Holy, abbey of the_, at Caen, when built,
+  used as a fortress as well as a nunnery
+  its income
+  privileges.
+_Trinity Holy, church of the abbey of the_, at Caen, now a work-house,
+  described,
+  its spires destroyed by Charles, King of Navarre.
+_Turnebus_, Adrian, native of Andelys.
+_Turold_, founder of Bourg-Theroude, represented on the Bayeux tapestry.
+
+
+U.
+
+_University of Caen_, founded by Henry VIth,
+  abolished and restored by Charles VIIth,
+  esteemed the third in France.
+
+
+V.
+
+_Vernon_, its situation,
+  formerly the seat of a royal palace,
+  church.
+_Vieux_, a Roman station,
+  etymology of the name.
+_Vines_, formerly cultivated at Jumieges,
+  also at Caen and Lisieux.
+
+
+W.
+
+_Wace_, a resident at Caen.
+_Whales_, formerly caught near Jumieges.
+_William the Conqueror_, his statue at Caen,
+  supposed figure of him on a capital in the church of the abbey
+  of the Trinity,
+  buried in the abbey-church of St. Stephen,
+  his epitaph,
+  his death and burial, and the disturbance of his remains,
+  his palace at Caen,
+  fresco-paintings of him and his family,
+  born at Falaise,
+  receives the homage of the English, as successor to Edward, at Bayeux.
+_William of Jumieges_, his account of the attachment of the Empress
+  Maud to Bec.
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12538 ***