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diff --git a/24818-h/24818-h.htm b/24818-h/24818-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86b8145 --- /dev/null +++ b/24818-h/24818-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6569 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine, by Edward A. Freeman + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + p.t1 {text-align: center; font-size: 110%;} + p.t1 big {text-align: center; font-size: 130%;} + p.t1 small {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + p.t3 {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + p.t3 big {font-size: 180%;} + p.oldeng {text-align: center; font-family: "Old English Text MT"; + font-size: 120%; margin-top: 6em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; + } + h1.t2 {text-align: center; font-size: 130%; font-weight: normal;} + h1.t2 small {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + h1.t2 big {text-align: center; font-size: 180%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;} + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + border: none; + border-bottom: 1px solid black; + } + hr.deco {width: 25%; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none; } + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #444; background-color: #EEE;} + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right; margin-right: 2em;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .greek {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0;} + .tnote {background-color: #DDE; + border: black 1px dotted; + font-size: 80%; + margin: 2em 5%; + padding: 1em;} + .corr {border-bottom: 1px dotted blue;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine, by +Edward A. Freeman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sketches of Travel in Normandy and Maine + +Author: Edward A. Freeman + +Commentator: W. H. Hutton + +Release Date: March 13, 2008 [EBook #24818] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF TRAVEL *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<p class="t1">SKETCHES OF TRAVEL<br /> +<br /> +<small>IN</small><br /> +<br /> +<big>NORMANDY AND MAINE</big></p> +<hr class="deco" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/002.gif" width="150" height="59" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<hr class="deco" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<a name="Frontis" id="Frontis"> +<img src="images/image1.jpg" width="500" height="720" alt="St. Stephens, Caen, E. +Frontispiece" title="" /></a> +<span class="caption">St. Stephens, Caen, E.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Frontispiece</i></span> +</div> +<hr /> + + + +<h1 class="t2">SKETCHES OF TRAVEL<br /> +<br /> +<small>IN</small><br /> +<br /> +<big>NORMANDY AND MAINE</big></h1> + +<p class="t3"><br /><br />BY<br /> +<br /> +<big>EDWARD A. FREEMAN</big><br /> +<br /> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR<br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +<br /> +AND A PREFACE BY<br /> +<br /> +<big>W.H. HUTTON, B.D.</big><br /> +<br /> +FELLOW AND TUTOR OF S. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD</p> + + +<p class="oldeng">London</p> + +<p class="t3"><big>MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span></big><br /> +<br /> +NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +<big>1897</big><br /> +<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i></p> +<hr /> +<p class="t3"><br /><br /><br /><span class="smcap">Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,<br /> +LONDON AND BUNGAY.</span><br /><br /><br /> +</p> +<hr /> + + +<h2>EDITOR'S NOTE</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first eight and the last four of these sketches appeared in the +<i>Saturday Review</i>, the others in the <i>Guardian</i>. They are here reprinted +with a few omissions, but with no other alteration. The permission +courteously given to reproduce them is gratefully acknowledged.</p> + +<p class="right"> +FLORENCE FREEMAN. +</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Beyond</span> doubt the finished historian must be a traveller: he must see +with his own eyes the true look of a wide land; he must see, too, with +his eyes the very spots where great events happened; he must mark the +lie of a city, and take in, as far as a non-technical eye can, all that +is special about a battle-field."</p> + +<p>So wrote Mr. Freeman in his <i>Methods of Historical Study</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and he +possessed to the full the instincts of the traveller as well as of the +historian. His studies and sketches of travels, already published, have +shown him a wanderer in many lands and a keen observer of many peoples +and their cities. He travelled always as a student of history and of +architecture, and probably no man has ever so happily combined the +knowledge of both. Though his thoughts were always set upon principles +and upon the study of great subjects, he delighted in the details of +local history and local building. "I cannot conceive," he wrote, "how +either the study of the general sequence of architectural styles or the +study of the history of particular buildings can be unworthy of the +attention of any man. Besides their deep interest in themselves, such +studies are really no small part of history. The way in which any people +built, the form taken by their houses, their temples, their fortresses, +their public buildings, is a part of their national life fully on a +level with their language and their political institutions. And the +buildings speak to us of the times to which they belong in a more living +and, as it were, personal way than monuments or documents of almost any +other kind."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>And no less clearly and decisively did he write of the value of local +history: "There is no district, no town, no parish, whose history is not +worth working out in detail, if only it be borne in mind that the local +work is a contribution to a greater work."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the keenness of his interest in the architecture and the history +that could be studied and learnt in every little town made him to the +last the most untiring and enthusiastic of historical pilgrims. It is +impossible to read his letters, so fresh and natural yet so full of a +rare knowledge and insight, without seeing how thoroughly he had +succeeded in achieving in himself that union of the traveller and the +historian which adds so immeasurably to the powers of each. And that is +what makes his letters from foreign lands so delightful to read, and his +sketches (published and republished from time to time during the last +thirty years) so illuminative. No one, I think, who has seen the places +he writes of in his <i>Historical and Architectural Sketches</i> or in his +<i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, with the books in his hand, will deny +that they have added tenfold to his pleasure. Mr. Freeman tells you what +to see and how to see it,—just what you want to know and what you ought +to know. It would be an impertinence in me to point out the breadth or +the accuracy of his knowledge as it appears in these sketches, which can +be read again and again with new pleasure. But I think it may be said +without exaggeration that in all the great work that Mr. Freeman did he +did nothing better than this. He never "writes down" to his readers: he +expects to find in them something of his own interest in the buildings +and their makers; and he supplies the knowledge which only the traveller +who is also a historian has at hand.</p> + +<p>The volume that is now published contains sketches written at different +times from 1861 to 1891. It will be seen that they all bear more or less +directly on the great central work of the historian's life, the history +of the Norman Conquest. In his travels he went always to learn, and when +he had learned he could not help teaching. The course of each of these +journeys can be traced in his own letters as published in the <i>Life</i>. In +1856 he made his first foreign excursion—to Aquitaine—and after 1860 a +foreign tour was "almost an annual event."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In 1861 he paid his first +visit to Normandy, with the best of all companions. In 1867 he went +again, specially for the sake of the "Norman Conquest," with Mr. J.R. +Green and Mr. Sidney Owen; and in the next year he was in Maine with Mr. +Green. In 1875 he was again in Normandy, for a short time, on his way to +Dalmatia. In 1876 he went to Maine also to "look up the places belonging +to"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> William Rufus, and again in 1879 with Mr. J.T. Fowler and Mr. +James Parker. In 1891 he paid his last visit to the lands which he had +come to know so well. He was then thinking of writing on Henry I., a +work of which he lived to write but little. In this last Norman journey +the articles, published in <i>The Guardian</i> after his death, were written. +His method on each of these expeditions seems to have been the same. +Before he started he read something of the special history of the places +he was to visit. He always, if possible, procured a local historian's +book. He wrote his articles while he was still away. "To many of these +Norman places," says his daughter who has prepared this volume for the +press, "he went several times, and he never wearied of seeing them again +himself or of showing them to others.... In the last Norman journey of +1891 how one feels he was at home there, re-treading the ground so +carefully worked out for the Norman Conquest and William Rufus—the same +enthusiasm with which, often under difficulties of weather or of health, +he 'stepped out' all he could of Sicily."</p> + +<p>Not only did he walk, and read, and write, while he was abroad, he drew: +and from the hundreds of characteristic sketches which he has left it +had been easy to select many more than those which now illustrate this +volume. Still, from those that have been reproduced, with the +descriptive studies just as they were written, the reader is in a +position to see the Norman and Cenomannian sites as they were seen by +the great historian himself. More remains from his hand, sketches of +Southern Gaul, of Sicily, Africa, and Spain, which I hope may be +republished; but the present volume has a unity of its own.</p> + +<p>I have said thus much because it was the request of those who loved him +best that I should say something here by way of preface, though I have +no claim, historical or personal, that my name should in any way be +linked with his. But the last of his many acts of kindness to me was the +gift of his <i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, which had been recently +published in the Tauchnitz edition. And as one of those who have used +his travel-sketches with continued delight, who welcomed him to Oxford +in 1884, and whose privilege it was to attend many of the lectures which +he delivered as Professor, I speak, if without any claim, yet very +gratefully and sincerely. And since his lectures illustrate so well the +work which made his sketches so admirable, I may be suffered to say a +word from my memory of them and of himself.</p> + +<p>In his lectures on the text of mediæval historians he did a service to +young students of history which was, in its way, unique. He showed them +a great historian at work. In his comparison of authorities, in his +references to and fro, in his appeal to every source of illustration, +from fable to architecture, from poetry to charters, he made us familiar +not only with his results, but with his methods of working. It was a +priceless experience. Year after year he continued these lectures, +informal, chatty, but always vigorous and direct, eager to give help, +and keen to receive assistance even from the humblest of his hearers, +choosing his subjects sometimes in connection with the historical work +on which he happened to be engaged, sometimes in more definite relation +to the subjects of the Modern History school. In this way he went +through Gregory of Tours, Paul the Deacon—I speak only of those courses +at which I was myself able to be present—and, in the last year of his +life, the historians of the Saxon Emperors, 936–1002—Widukind, +Thietmar, Richer, Liudprand, and the rest. In these and many other +books, such as the Sicilian historians and the authorities for the +Norman Conquest, he made the men and the times live again, and he +seemed to live in them. Whatever the praise which students outside give +to his published lectures, we who have listened to him and worked with +him shall look back with fondness and gratitude most of all to those +hours in his college rooms in Trinity, in the long, high dining-room in +S. Giles's—the Judges' lodgings—and in the quaint low chamber in +Holywell-street, where he fled for refuge when the Judges came to hold +assize.</p> + +<p>Much has been heard about Mr. Freeman's want of sympathy with modern +Oxford, much that is mistaken and untrue. It is true that he loved most +the Oxford of his young days, the Oxford of the Movement by which he was +so profoundly influenced, the Oxford of the friends and fellow-scholars +of his youth. But with no one were young students more thoroughly at +home, from no one did they receive more keen sympathy, more generous +recognition, or more friendly help. He did not like a mere smattering of +literary chatter; he did not like to be called a pedant; but he knew, if +any man did, what literature was and what was knowledge. He was eager to +welcome good work in every field, however far it might be from his own.</p> + +<p>It is true that Mr. Freeman was distinctly a conservative in academic +matters, but it is quite a mistake to think that he was out of sympathy +with modern Oxford. No man was more keenly alive to the good work of the +younger generation. Certainly no man was more popular among the younger +dons. A few, in Oxford and outside, snarled at him, as they snarl still, +but they were very few who did not recognise the greatness of his +character as well as of his powers. It is not too much to say of those +who had been brought into at all near relations with him that they +learnt not only to respect but to love him. He was—all came to +recognise it—not only a distinguished historian, but, in the fullest +sense of the words, a good man. He leaves behind him a memory of +unswerving devotion to the ideal of learning—which no man placed higher +than he. His remembrance should be an inspiration to every man who +studies history in Oxford.</p> + +<p>The kindness which allows me to say these words here is like his own, +which was felt by the humblest of his scholars.</p> + +<p class="right"> +W.H. HUTTON. +</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="smcap"> +<table border="0" width="700" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="3" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Normandy [S.R. 1861]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Falaise [S.R. 1867]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>The Cathedral Churches of Bayeux, Coutances, and +Dol [S.R. 1867]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Old Norman Battle-grounds [S.R. 1867]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Fécamp [S.R. 1868]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Footsteps of the Conqueror [S.R. 1868]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>The Côtentin [S.R. 1876]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>The Avranchin [S.R. 1876]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Coutances and Saint-Lo [G. 1891]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Hauteville-la-Guichard [G. 1891]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Mortain and its Surroundings [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Mortain to Argentan [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Argentan [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Exmes and Almenèches [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Laigle and Saint-Evroul [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Tillières and Verneuil [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Beaumont-le-Roger [G. 1892]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Jublains [S.R. 1876]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>The Churches of Chartres and Le Mans [S.R. 1868]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Le Mans [S.R. 1876]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>Maine [S.R. 1876]</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table border="0" width="700" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="3" summary="List of Illustrations"> +<col style="width:5%;" /> +<col style="width:70%;" /> +<col style="width:25%;" /> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right"><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">1.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">St. Stephen, Caen, E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">2.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Falaise Castle</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">3.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">St. Gervase, Falaise, S.W.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">4.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Coutances Cathedral, Central Tower</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">5.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Interior of Coutances Cathedral</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">6.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Capitals in Bayeux Cathedral</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">7.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Abbey of Fécamp, N.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">8.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Limay Church, Tower, S.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">9.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Domfront Castle</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">10.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Eu Church, S.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">11.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Valognes Church, N.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">12.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Abbey of Lessay, S.W.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">13.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, S.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">14.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">St. Nicolas, Coutances, Interior</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">15.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Le Mans Cathedral, N.W.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">16.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Interior of Le Mans Cathedral</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">17.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">St. Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">18.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Apse of La Couture, Le Mans</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">19.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, N.E.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">20.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sainte-Susanne, Keep</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> +<h1>SKETCHES OF TRAVEL IN<br /> NORMANDY AND MAINE</h1> + +<h2>NORMANDY</h2> + +<h3>1861</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Before</span> foreign travelling had become either quite so easy or quite so +fashionable as it is now, the part of France most commonly explored by +English tourists was Normandy. Antiquarian inquirers, in particular, +hardly went anywhere else, and we suspect that with many of them a tour +in France, as Mr. Petit says, still means merely a tour in Normandy.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +The mere holiday tourist, on the other hand, now more commonly goes +somewhere else—either to the Pyrenees or to those parts of France which +form the road to Switzerland and Italy. The capital of the province, of +course, is familiar to everybody; two of the chief roads to Paris lie +through it. But Rouen, noble city as it is, does not fairly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> represent +Normandy. Its buildings are, with small exceptions, later than the +French conquest, and, as having so long been a capital, and now being a +great manufacturing town, its population has always been very mixed. +There are few cities more delightful to examine than Rouen, but for the +true Normandy you must go elsewhere. The true Normandy is to be found +further West. Its capital, we suppose we must say, is Caen; but its +really typical and central city is Bayeux. The difference is more than +nine hundred years old. In the second generation after the province +became Normandy at all, Rouen had again become a French city. William +Longsword, Rollo's son, sent his son to Bayeux to learn Danish. There +the old Northern tongue, and, we fancy, the old Northern religion too, +still flourished, while at Rouen nobody spoke anything but French.</p> + +<p>A tour in Normandy has an interest of its own, but the nature of that +interest is of a kind which does not make Normandy a desirable choice +for a first visit to France. We will suppose that a traveller, as a +traveller should, has learned the art of travel in his own land. Let him +go next to some country which will be utterly strange to him—as we are +talking of France, say Aquitaine or Provence. He will there find +everything different from what he is used to—buildings, food, habits, +dress, as unlike England as may be. If he tries to talk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> to the natives +he will perhaps make them understand his <i>Langue d'oil</i>; but he will +find that his Parisian grammar and dictionary will go but a very little +way towards making him understand their <i>Lingua d'oc</i>. Now, Normandy and +England, of course, have many points of difference, and doubtless a man +who goes at once into Normandy from England will be mainly struck by the +points of difference. But let a man go through Southern Gaul first, and +visit Normandy afterwards, and he will be struck, not with the points of +difference, but with the points of likeness. Buildings, men, beasts, +everything will at once remind him of his own country. We hold that this +is a very sufficient reason for visiting the more distant province +first. Otherwise the very important phenomenon of the strong likeness +between Normandy and England will not be taken in as it ought to be.</p> + +<p>Go from France proper into Normandy and you at once feel that everything +is palpably better. Men, women, horses, cows, all are on a grander and +better scale. If we say that the food, too, is better, we speak it with +fear and trembling, as food is, above all things, a matter of taste. +From the point of view of a fashionable cook, no doubt the Norman diet +is the worse, for whence should the fashionable cook come except from +the land with which Normandy has to be compared? But certain it is that +a man with an old-fashioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> Teutonic stomach—a man who would have +liked to dine off roast meat with Charles the Great or to breakfast off +beef-steaks with Queen Elizabeth—will find Norman diet, if not exactly +answering to his ideal, yet coming far nearer to it than the politer +repasts of Paris. Rouen, of course, has been corrupted for nine +centuries, but at Evreux, and in Thor's own city of Bayeux, John Bull +may find good meat and good vegetables, and plenty of them to boot. Then +look at those strong, well-fed horses—what a contrast to the poor, +half-starved, flogged, over-worked beasts which usurp the name further +south! Look at those goodly cows, fed in good pastures, and yielding +milk thrice a day; they claim no sort of sisterhood with the +poverty-stricken animals which, south of the Loire, have to do the +horse's work as well as their own. Look at the land itself. An +Englishman feels quite at home as he looks upon green fields, and, in +the Bessin district, sees those fields actually divided by hedges. If +the visitor chance not only to be an Englishman but a West-Saxon, he +will feel yet more at home at seeing a land where the apple-tree takes +the place of the vine, and where his host asks special payment for wine, +but supplies "zider" for nothing. But above all things, look at the men. +Those broad shoulders and open countenances seem to have got on the +wrong side of the Channel. You are almost surprised at hearing anything +but your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> own tongue come out of their mouths. It seems strange to hear +such lips talking French; but it is something to think that it is at +least not the French of Louis the Great or of Louis Napoleon, but the +tongue of the men who first dictated the Great Charter, and who wrung +its final confirmation from the greatest of England's later kings.</p> + +<p>The truth is, that between the Englishman and the Norman—at least, the +Norman of the Bessin—there can be, in point of blood, very little +difference. One sees that there must be something in ethnological +theories, after all. The good seed planted by the old Saxon and Danish +colonists, and watered in aftertimes by Henry the Fifth and John, Duke +of Bedford, is still there.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> It has not been altogether choked by the +tares of Paris. The word "Saxon" is so vague that we cannot pretend to +say exactly who the Saxons of Bayeux were; but Saxons of some sort were +there, even before another Teutonic wave came in with Rolf Ganger and +his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> Northmen. Bayeux, as we have said, was the Scandinavian stronghold. +Men spoke Danish there when not a word of Danish was understood at +Rouen. Men there still ate their horse-steaks, and prayed to Thor and +Odin, while all Rouen bowed piously at the altar of Notre-Dame. The +ethnical elements of a Norman of the Bessin and an Englishman of Norfolk +or Lincolnshire must be as nearly as possible the same. The only +difference is, that one has quite forgotten his Teutonic speech, and the +other only partially. Not that all Teutonic traces have gone even from +the less Norman parts of Normandy. How many of the English travellers +who land at Dieppe stop to think that the name of that port, disguised +as it is by a French spelling, is nothing in the world but "The Deeps?" +If any one, now that there is a railway, prefers to go along the lovely +valley of the Seine, he will come to the little town of Caudebec. Here, +again, the French spelling makes the word meaningless; but only write it +"Cauld beck," and it at once tells its story to a Lowland Scot, and +ought to do so to every "Anglo-Saxon" of any kind. As for the local +dialect, it is French. It is not, like that of Aquitaine and Provence, a +language as distinct as Spanish or Italian. It is French, with merely a +dialectical difference from "French of Paris." But the Normans, in this +resembling the Gascons, have no special objection to a final consonant, +and most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> vulgarly and perversely still sound divers <i>s's</i> and <i>t's</i> which +the politer tongue of the capital dooms to an existence on paper only.</p> + +<p>It is certainly curious that Normandy—which, save during the +comparatively short occupation in the fifteenth century, has always been +politically separate from England, since England became English once +more—should be so much more like England than Aquitaine, which was an +English dependency two hundred and fifty years after Normandy and +England were separated. The cause is clearly that between Englishmen and +Normans there is a real natural kindred which political separation has +not effaced, while between English and Gascons there was no sort of +kindred, but a mere political connexion which chanced to be convenient +for both sides. The Gascons, to this day, have not wholly forgotten the +advantages of English connexion, but neither then nor now is any +likeness to England the result. So, in our own time, we may hold Malta +for ever, but we shall never make Maltese so like Englishmen as our +Danish kinsmen still are without any political connexion more recent +than the days of Earl Waltheof.</p> + +<p>For the antiquary, nothing can be more fascinating than a Norman tour. +Less curious, less instructive, because much more like English +buildings, than those of Aquitaine, the architectural remains of the +province<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> are incomparably finer in themselves. Caen is a town well nigh +without a rival. It shares with Oxford the peculiarity of having no one +predominant object. At Amiens, at Peterborough—we may add at +Cambridge—one single gigantic building lords it over everything. Caen +and Oxford throw up a forest of towers and spires, without any one +building being conspicuously predominant. It is a town which never was a +Bishop's see, but which contains four or five churches each fit to have +been a cathedral. There is the stern and massive pile which owes its +being to the Conqueror of England, and where a life which never knew +defeat was followed by a posthumous history which is only a long series +of misfortunes. There is the smaller but richer minster, part of which +at least is the genuine work of the Conqueror's Queen.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Around the +town are a group of smaller churches such as not even Somerset or +Northamptonshire can surpass. Then there is Bayeux, with its cathedral, +its tapestry, its exquisite seminary chapel; Cerisy, with its mutilated +but almost unaltered Norman abbey; Bernay, with a minster so shattered +and desecrated that the traveller might pass it by without notice, but +withal retaining the massive piers and arches of the first half of the +eleventh century.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> There is Evreux, with its Norman naves, its tall +slender Gothic choir, its strange Italian western tower, and almost more +fantastic central spire. All these are noble churches, sharing with +those of our own land a certain sobriety and architectural good sense +which is often wanting in the churches of France proper. In Normandy as +in England, you do not see piles, like Beauvais, begun on too vast a +scale for man's labour ever to finish; you do not see piles like Amiens, +where all external proportion is sacrificed to grandeur of internal +effect.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> A Norman minster, like an English one, is satisfied with a +comparatively moderate height, but with its three towers and full +cruciform shape, it seems a perfection of outline to which no purely +French building ever attains.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span></p> +<h2>FALAISE</h2> + +<h3>1867</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> beginnings of the Norman Conquest, in its more personal and +picturesque point of view, are to be found in the Castle of Falaise. +There, as Sir Francis Palgrave sums up the story, "Arletta's pretty feet +twinkling in the brook made her the mother of William the Bastard." And +certainly, if great events depend upon great men, and if great men are +in any way influenced by the places of their birth, there is no place +which seems more distinctly designed by nature to be the cradle of great +events. The spot is one which history would have dealt with unfairly if +it had not contrived to find its way into her most striking pages. And +certainly in this respect Falaise has nothing to complain of. Except one +or two of the great cities of the province, no place is brought more +constantly under our notice during five centuries of Norman history. And +Norman history, we must not forget, includes in this case some of the +most memorable scenes in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>history of England, France, and Scotland. +The siege by Henry the Fourth was in a manner local; it was part of a +warfare within the kingdom of France. But that warfare was one in which +all the Powers of Europe felt themselves to be closely interested; it +was a warfare in which one at least of them directly partook; it was one +in which the two great religions of Western Europe felt that their own +fates were to be in a manner decided. In the earlier warfare of the +fifteenth century Falaise plays a prominent part. Town and castle were +taken and retaken, and the ancient fortress itself received a lasting +and remarkable addition from the hand of one of the greatest of English +captains. The tall round tower of Talbot, a model of the military +masonry of its time, goes far to share the attention of the visitor with +the massive keep of the ancient Dukes. Thence we leap back to the +earliest great historical event which we can connect, with any +certainty, with any part of the existing building. It was here, in a +land beyond the borders of the Isle of Britain, but in a comparatively +neighbouring portion of the wide dominions of the House of Anjou, that +the fullest homage was paid which ever was paid by a King of Scots to a +King of England. Here William the Lion, the captive of Alnwick, became +most effectually the "man" of Henry Fitz-Empress, and burdened his +kingdom with new and onerous engagements from which his next overlord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +found it convenient to relieve him. Earlier in the twelfth century, and +in the eleventh, Falaise plays its part in the troubled politics of the +Norman Duchy, in the wars of Henry the First and in the wars of his +father. Still going back through a political and military history spread +over so many ages, the culminating interest of Falaise continues to +centre round its first historic mention. Henry of Navarre, our own +Talbot, William the Lion, Robert of Bellême, all fail to kindle the same +emotions as are aroused by the spot which was the favourite +dwelling-place of the pilgrim of Jerusalem, the birthplace of the +Conqueror of England.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/image2.jpg" width="700" height="486" alt="Falaise Castle" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Falaise Castle</span> +</div> + +<p>Local tradition of course affirms the existing building to be the scene +of William's birth. The window is shown from which Duke Robert first +beheld the tanner's daughter, and the room in which William first saw +what, if it really be the spot, must certainly have been light of an +artificial kind. A pompous inscription in the modern French style calls +on us to reverence the spot where the "legislator of ancient England" +"fut engendré et naquit." The odd notion of William being the legislator +of England calls forth a passing smile, and another somewhat longer +train of thought is suggested. William, early in his reign, tried to +learn English. He proved no very apt scholar, and he presently gave up +his studies; but we may fairly believe that he learned enough to +understand the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> simple formulæ of his own English charters. This leads +one to ask the question: Would he not have been as likely to understand +his own praises in the tongue of the conquered English as in what is +supposed to represent his own native speech? Have we, after all, +departed any further from the tongue of the oldest Charter of London +than the Imperial dialect of abstractions and antitheses has departed +from the simple and vigorous speech of the Roman de Rou? And, if he +could spell it out in either tongue, he would find it somewhat faint +praise to be told that, judged by the standard of the nineteenth +century, he was a mere barbarian, but that M.F. Galeron would +condescend so far as to suggest to his contemporaries to judge the local +hero by a less rigid rule. If this is all the credit that the great +William can get from his own people in his own birthplace, we can only +say that, while demurring to his title of legislator of England, we +would give him much better measure than this, even if we were writing on +the site of the choir of Waltham.</p> + +<p>Antiquaries have, till lately, generally acquiesced in the local belief +that the existing building is the actual castle of Robert the Devil. The +belief in no way commits us to the details of the local legend. Robert +must have had an astonishingly keen sight if he could, from any window +of the existing keep, judge of the whiteness of a pair of feet and +ankles at the bottom of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> the rock. Nor does it at all follow that, if +the present keep was standing at the time of William's birth, William +was therefore born in it. The Duke's mistress would be just as likely to +be lodged in some of the other buildings within the circuit of the +castle as in the great square tower of defence. And, if we accept the +belief, which is now becoming more prevalent, that the present keep is +of the twelfth century and not of the eleventh, we are not thereby at +all committed to the dogma that, because Robert the Devil lived before +1066, he could not possibly have had a castle of stone. In the wars of +the eleventh and twelfth centuries many castles in Normandy were +destroyed, not a few of them by William himself after the great revolt +which was put down at <span class="corr" title="Source: Val-des-dunes">Val-ès-dunes</span>. The Norman castle, evidently of the +type used after the Conquest, was introduced into England before the +Conquest by the foreign favourites of Edward the Confessor. They could +have built only in imitation of what they had been used to build in +Normandy, and unless the new fashion, with its new name, had been a +distinct advance on anything in the way of fortification already known +in England, it would not have caused so much amazement as it did. +Englishmen were perfectly familiar with stone walls to a town, but the +Norman keep was something new, something for which there was no English +name, and which therefore retained its French name of "castel."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> On the +whole, the evidence is in favour of the belief that the present castle +of Falaise is of the twelfth century. But there is no reason to deny, +and there is every reason to believe, that Robert the Devil may have +inhabited a castle of essentially the same type in the eleventh century.</p> + +<p>Adjoining the keep is the tall round tower of the great Talbot. The two +towers suggest exactly opposite remembrances. One sets before us the +Norman dominant in England, the other sets before us the Englishman +dominant in Normandy. Or the case may be put in another shape. Talbot, +like so many of his comrades, was probably of Norman descent. Such +returned to the land of their fathers in the character of Englishmen. +And yet after all, when the descendants of Rolf's Danes and of the older +Saxons of <span class="corr" title="Source: Bayeaux">Bayeux</span> assumed the character of Englishmen, they were but +casting away the French husk and standing forth once more in the genuine +character of their earlier forefathers. Such changes were doubtless +quite unconscious; long before the fifteenth century the Norman in +England had become thoroughly English, and the Norman in Normandy had +become thoroughly French. French indeed in speech and manners he had +been for ages, but by the time of Henry the Fifth he had become French +in national feeling also. The tower of Talbot was no doubt felt by the +people of Falaise to be a badge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> bondage. It stands nobly and +proudly, overtopping the older keep; its genuine masonry as good as on +the day it was built, while the stuff with which its upper part was +mended twenty years back has already crumbled away. Within, a few +details of purely English character tell their tale in most intelligible +language.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image3.jpg" width="600" height="779" alt="St. Gervase, Falaise, S.W." title="" /> +<span class="caption">St. Gervase, Falaise, S.W.</span> +</div> + +<p>The position of the castle is striking beyond measure. It is all the +more so because it comes on the traveller who reaches the place in the +way in which travellers are now most likely to reach it as a thorough +surprise. In the approach by the railway the castle hardly shows at all. +We pass through the streets of the town; the eye is caught by the +splendid church of St. Gervase, but of the castle we get only the +faintest glimpse, nothing at all to suggest the full glory of its +position. We pass on by the fine but very inferior church of the Holy +Trinity; we contemplate the statue of the local hero; we pass through +the castle gate; we pass by a beautiful desecrated chapel of the twelfth +century; we feel by the rise of the ground and by the sight of the walks +below that we are ascending, but it is not till we are close to the keep +itself, till we have reached the very edge of the precipice, that we +fully realise there is a precipice at all. At last we are on the brow; +we see plainly enough the <i>falaises</i>, the <i>felsen</i>—the honest Teutonic +word still surviving, and giving its name to the town itself, and to its +distinguishing feature. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>castle stands on the very edge of the +steep and rugged rock; opposite to it frowns another mass of rocks, not +sharp and peaked, but chaotic, like a mass of huge boulders rolled close +together. From this point the English cannon played successfully on the +ancient keep, which, under the older conditions of warfare, must have +been well nigh impregnable. It is from this opposing height that the +castle is now best surveyed by the peaceful antiquary. Between the two +points tumbles along the same little beck in which the pretty feet are +said to have twinkled, and not far off the trade of the damsel's father +is still plied, perhaps on the very spot where that unsavoury craft, of +old the craft of the demagogue, was so strangely to connect itself with +the mightiest of Norman warriors and princes.</p> + +<p>What, it may be asked, is the condition of this most interesting +monument of an age which has utterly passed away? If there is any +building in the world which belongs wholly to the past, towards which +the duty of the present is simply to preserve, to guard every stone, to +prop if need be, but to disturb nothing, to stay from falling as long as +human power can stay it, but to abstain from supplanting one jot or one +tittle of the ancient work by the most perfect of modern copies—it is +surely the donjon-keep of Falaise. But, like every other building in +France, the birthplace of the Conqueror is hopelessly handed over to the +demon of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> restoration. They who have turned all the ancient monuments of +France upside down have come to Falaise also. They who were revelling +ten years back in the destruction of Périgueux, they who are even now +fresh from effacing all traces of antiquity from the noble minster of +Matilda, they who have thrust their own handiworks even into the gloomy +crypt of Odo, have at last stretched forth their hands to smite the +cradle of the Conqueror himself. The Imperial architect, M. Ruprich +Robert, has surveyed the building, he has drawn up a most clear and +intelligent account of its character and history, and, on this showing, +the work of destruction has begun. Controversy will soon be at an end; +there will be no need to dispute whether any part be of the eleventh or +of the twelfth century; both alike are making room for a spruce +imitation of the nineteenth. We shall no longer see the dwelling-place +either of Robert the Devil or of Henry Fitz-Empress; in its stead we +shall trace the last masterpiece of the reign of Napoleon the Third. +Sham Romanesque is grotesque everywhere, but it is more grotesque than +all when we see newly-cut capitals stuck into the windows of a roofless +castle, when the grey hue of age is wiped away from a building which has +stood at least seven hundred years, and when the venerable fortress is +made to look as spick and span as the last built range of shops at +Paris. Among the endless pranks, at once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> grotesque and lamentable, +played by the mania for restoration, surely the "restoration" of this +venerable ruin is the most grotesque and lamentable of all. The +municipality of Caen have lately made themselves a spectacle to mankind +by pulling down, seemingly out of sheer wantonness, one half of one of +the most curious churches of their city.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> We commend them not; but we +do not place even them on a level with the subtler destroyers of +Falaise. The savages of Caen are satisfied with simple, open +destruction; what they cannot understand or appreciate they make away +with. But there is no hypocrisy, no pretence about them; they simply +destroy, they do not presume to replace. But the restorer not only takes +away the work of the men of old, he impudently puts his own work in its +stead. He takes away the truth and puts a lie in its place. Our readers +know very well with what reservations this doctrine must be +taken—reservations which in the case of churches or other buildings +actually applied to appropriate modern uses, are very considerable. But +in the case of a mere monument of antiquity, a building whose only value +is that it has stood so many years, that it exhibits the style of such +an age, that it has beheld such and such great events, there is no +reservation to be made at all. In the castle of Falaise we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> adopt, +word for word, the most vehement of Mr. Ruskin's declamations on this +head. The man who turns the ancient reality of the twelfth century into +a sham of the nineteenth deserves no other fame than the fame which +Eratostratus won at Ephesus, and which James Wyatt won in the +chapter-house of Durham.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p> +<h2>THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHES OF BAYEUX, COUTANCES, AND DOL</h2> + +<h3>1867</h3> + + +<p>One would rather like to see a map of France, or indeed of Europe, +marking in different degrees of colour the abundance or scarcity of +English visitors and residents. Of course the real traveller, whether he +goes to study politics or history or language or architecture or +anything else, is best pleased when he gets most completely out of the +reach of his own countrymen. The first stage out of the beaten track of +tourists is a moment of rapture. For it is the tourists who do the +mischief; the residents are a comparatively harmless folk. A colony of +English settled down in a town and its neighbourhood do very little to +spoil the natives among whom they live. For the very reason that they +are residents and not tourists, they do not in the same way corrupt +innkeepers, or turn buildings and prospects into vulgar lions. It is +hard to find peace at Rouen, as it is hard to find it at Aachen; but a +few English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> notices in the windows at Dinan do not seriously disturb +our meditations beneath the spreading apses of St. Sauveur and St. Malo +or the plaster statue of Bertrand du Guesclin. For any grievances +arising from the neighbourhood of our countrymen, we might as well be at +Dortmund or Rostock. But, between residents, tourists, and real +travellers, we may set it down that there is no place which Englishmen +do not visit sometimes, as there certainly are many places in which +Englishmen abound more than enough.</p> + +<p>We have wandered into this not very profound or novel speculation +through a sort of wish to know how far three fine French churches of +which we wish to speak a few words are respectively known to Englishmen +in general. These are the Norman cathedrals of Bayeux and Coutances, +both of them still Bishops' sees, and the Breton Cathedral of Dol, +which, in the modern ecclesiastical arrangements, has sunk into a parish +church. Bayeux lies on a great track, and we suppose that all the world +goes there to see the tapestry. Coutances has won a fame among professed +architectural students almost higher than it deserves, but we fancy that +the city lies rather out of the beat of the ordinary tourist. Dol is +surely quite out of the world; we trust that, in joining it with the +other two, we may share somewhat of the honours of discovery. We will +not say that we trust that no one has gone thither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> from the Greater +Britain since the days of the Armorican migration; but we do trust that +a criticism on the cathedral church of Dol will be somewhat of a novelty +to most people.</p> + +<p>We select these three because they have features in common, and because +they all belong to the same general type of church. As cathedrals, they +are all of moderate size; Coutances and Dol, we may distinctly say, are +of small size. They do not range with such miracles of height as France +shows at Amiens and Beauvais, or with such miracles of length as England +shows at Ely and St. Albans. They rank rather with our smaller episcopal +churches, such as Lichfield, Wells, and Hereford. Indeed most of the +great Norman churches come nearer to this type than to that of minsters +of a vaster scale. And the reason is manifest. The great churches of +Normandy, like those of England, are commonly finished with the central +tower. Perhaps they do not always make it a feature of quite the same +importance which it assumes in England, but it gives them a marked +character, as distinguished from the great churches of the rest of +France. Elsewhere, the central tower, not uncommon in churches of the +second and third rank, is altogether unknown among cathedrals and other +great minsters of days later than Romanesque. It is as much the rule for +a French cathedral to have no central tower as it is for an English or +Norman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> cathedral to have one. The result is that, just as in our +English churches, the enormous height of Amiens and Beauvais cannot be +reached. But, in its stead, the English and Norman churches attained a +certain justness of proportion and variety of outline which the other +type does not admit. No church in Normandy, except St. Ouen's, attains +any remarkable height, and even St. Ouen's is far surpassed by many +other French churches. But perhaps a vain desire to rival the vast +height of their neighbours sometimes set the Norman builders to attempt +something of comparative height by stinting their churches in the +article of breadth. This peculiarity may be seen to an almost painful +extent at Evreux.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image4.jpg" width="600" height="638" alt="Coutances Cathedral, Central Tower" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Coutances Cathedral, Central Tower</span> +</div> + +<p>Our three churches, then—Coutances and Dol certainly—rank with our +smaller English cathedrals, allowing for a greater effect of height, +partly positive, partly produced by narrowness. They are, in fact, +English second-class churches with the height of English first-class +churches. Bayeux, in every way the largest of the three, perhaps just +trembles on the edge of the first-class. Coutances, the smallest, is +distinctly defective in length; the magnificent, though seemingly +unfinished, central tower, plainly wants a longer eastern limb to +support it. Even at Bayeux the eastern limb is short according to +English notions, though not so conspicuously so as Coutances. We suspect +that Dol is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span>really the most justly proportioned of the three, though +in many points its outline is the one which would least commend itself +to popular taste. The central tower is still lower than that at Lisieux; +it is rather like that of St. Canice at Kilkenny, only just rising above +the level of the roof. But, as is always the case with this arrangement, +the effect is solemn and impressive. The low heavy central tower is a +common feature in Normandy, and one to which the eye soon gets +accustomed. The west front of Dol is imperfect and irregular; the +southern has been carried up and finished in a later style, while the +northern one, whose rebuilding had been begun, was left unfinished +altogether. The whole front is mutilated and poor, and the chief +attractions of Dol must be looked for elsewhere. The west front of +Coutances is as famous as the west front of Wells, and both, to our +taste, equally undeservedly. Both are shams; in neither does a good, +real, honest gable stand out between the two towers. The west front of +Coutances also is a mass of meaningless breaks and projections, and the +form of the towers is completely disguised by the huge excrescences in +the shape of turrets. Far finer, to our taste, is the front of Bayeux. +Though it is a composition of various dates, thrown together in a sort +of casual way, and though the details of the two towers do not exactly +agree, yet the different stages are worked together so as to produce a +very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> striking effect. The later work seems not so much to be stuck upon +the earlier as to grow out of it. One could hardly have thought that +spires, among the most elegant of the elegant spires of the district, +would have looked so thoroughly in place as they do when crowning +towers, the lower parts at least of which are the work of the famous +Odo. There is nothing of that inconsistency which is clearly marked +between the upper and lower parts of the front of St. Stephen's at Caen. +The general external effect of Bayeux can hardly be judged of till the +completion of the new central lantern. This last is a bold experiment, +seemingly a Gothic version of the cupola which it displaces. But as far +as the original work goes, there can be no doubt of Bayeux holding much +the first place among our three churches.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/image5.jpg" width="550" height="698" alt="Interior of Coutances Cathedral" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Interior of Coutances Cathedral</span> +</div> + +<p>Looked at within, the precedence of Bayeux is less certain. The first +glance at Coutances, within as without, is disappointing, mainly because +the visitor has been led to expect a building on a grander scale. But +the interior soon grows on the spectator, in a way in which the outside +certainly does not. The first impression felt is one of being cramped +for room. The difference between Coutances and Bayeux is plainly shown +by the fact that at Bayeux room is found for a spacious choir east of +the central tower, while at Coutances a smaller choir is driven to annex +the space under the lantern. This is an arrangement which is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>often +convenient in any case, but which, as a matter of effect, commonly suits +a Romanesque church better than a Gothic one. But when we come more +thoroughly to take in the internal beauties of Coutances, we begin to +feel that Bayeux, with all its superior grandeur, has found a very +formidable rival. Coutances is the more harmonious whole. The choir and +the nave vary considerably, and the choir must be somewhat the later of +the two. But the difference is hardly of a kind to interfere much with +the general effect. The general appearance of the church is thoroughly +consistent throughout, and the octagon lantern, with its arcades, +galleries, and pendentives, all open to the church, forms a magnificent +feature. It is evidently the feature of which Coutances was specially +proud; it is repeated, at a becoming distance, in the other two churches +of the city, as well as elsewhere in the diocese. The nave arcades of +Coutances are exquisite, the triforium is well proportioned and well +designed, except that perhaps the beautiful floriated devices in the +head may be thought to have usurped the place of some more strictly +architectural design. The clerestory is perhaps a little heavy. In the +choir the clerestory and triforium are thrown into one stage of singular +likeness, though in this style the lack of a distinct triforium is +always to be regretted. The mouldings in both parts have, as is so usual +in Normandy, an English look, which is quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> unknown in France proper, +and in the choir we find a larger use of the characteristic English +round abacus. But, next to the lantern, the most striking thing in the +interior of Coutances is certainly the sweep of the eastern aisles and +chapels, where the interlacing aisles and pillars produce an effect of +spaciousness which is not to be found in the main portions of the +church.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image6.jpg" width="600" height="738" alt="Capitals in Bayeux Cathedral" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Capitals in Bayeux Cathedral</span> +</div> + +<p>The interior of Bayeux, besides its greater spaciousness and grandeur of +effect, is attractive on other grounds. It is far more interesting than +Coutances to the historical inquirer. Many facts in the history of +Normandy are plainly written in the architectural changes of this noble +church. The most interesting portion indeed does not appear in the +general view of the interior. The church of Odo, the church at whose +dedication William was present, and which must have been rising at the +time of the visit of Harold, now survives only in the crypt of the choir +and in the lower portions of the towers.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The rest was destroyed by +fire, like so many other churches in Normandy, during the wars of Henry +the First. Of the church which then replaced it, the arcades of the nave +still remain. No study of Romanesque can be more instructive than a +comparison of the work of these two dates. Odo's work is plain and +simple, with many of the capitals of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>a form eminently characteristic +of an early stage of the art of floriated enrichment—a form of its own +which grew up alongside of others, and gradually budded into such +splendid capitals of far later work as we see at Lisieux. Will it be +believed that the remorseless demon of restoration has actually +descended the steps of this venerable crypt, and that two of the +capitals are now, not of the eleventh century, but brand-new productions +of the nineteenth? Of course we are told that they are exact copies; but +what then? We do not want copies, but the things themselves, and if they +were a little ragged and jagged, what harm could it do down underground?</p> + +<p>A striking contrast to the work of Odo, a contrast as striking as can +easily be found between two things which are, after all, essentially of +the same style, is to be seen in the splendid arcades of the nave, one +of the richest examples to be found anywhere of the later and more +ornamented Romanesque. The arches are of unusual and very irregular +width; the irregularity must be owing to something in the remains or +foundations of the earlier building. They are crowned, however, not by a +triforium and clerestory of their own style, but a single clerestory of +coupled lancets of enormous height, with the faintest approach to +tracery in the head. The effect is striking, but certainly somewhat +incongruous. The choir is one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> the most beautiful productions of the +thirteenth-century style of the country, always approaching nearer to +English work than the architecture of any other part of the Continent. +Another church at Bayeux, that which now forms the chapel of the +seminary, is well known as being more English still. It might, as far as +details go, stand unaltered as an English building.</p> + +<p>And now for a few words as to the obscure Breton church which we have +ventured to put into competition with such formidable Norman rivals.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +Perhaps it derives some of its attractions from its being out of the way +and comparatively unknown. It has that peculiar charm which attaches to +a fine building found where one would hardly expect to find it—a +feeling which reaches its highest point at St. David's. The first +impression which it gives is that there is something Irish about it; +there is certainly no church in Ireland which can be at all compared to +it; still it is something like what one could fancy St. Canice growing +into. One marked characteristic of Dol Cathedral comes from its +material. It is built of the granite of the country, which necessarily +gives it a somewhat stern and weather-beaten look, and hinders any great +exuberance of architectural ornament. Not that we think this any loss; +the simple buttresses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> and flying buttresses at Dol are really a relief +after the elaborate and unintelligible forests of pinnacles which +surround so many French churches, even of very moderate size. It is only +in the huge porch attached to the south transept that an approach to +anything of this kind is found. But very beautiful work of other sorts +may be seen at Dol. The smaller porch is a gem of early work, and the +range of windows in the north aisle presents some of the most delicate +triumphs of geometrical tracery, too delicate in truth to last, as all +are more or less broken. The flat east end gives the church an English +look, and the flat east end with an apsidal chapel beyond it especially +suggests Wells. Within, the church has a great effect of height and +narrowness, greater certainly than Coutances. Like Coutances, the nave +and choir are of somewhat different dates, the choir being more modern, +but, unlike Coutances, still more unlike Bayeux, they range completely +together in composition. The nave we might fairly call Early English. It +is not quite so characteristic as some of the work at Bayeux, but it +uses the round abacus freely, although not exclusively. But for a few +square abaci which are used, and for the appearance of early tracery in +the side windows, it might pass as a purely Lancet building. The choir +is fully developed geometrical work, of excellent character, with a +beautifully designed triforium and clerestory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> Altogether we think Dol +may make good its claim to a high place among churches of the second +order. It is specially curious to see how a building which does not +differ in any essential peculiarity of style from its fellows assumes a +distinct character, and that by no means wholly to its loss, through the +use of a somewhat rugged material.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> +<h2>OLD NORMAN BATTLE-GROUNDS</h2> + +<h3>1867</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the strictly historical aspect, the English inquirer is perhaps +naturally led to think most of those events in which his more recent +countrymen were more immediately concerned—those events of the Hundred +Years' War, on which so much light has lately been thrown by the +researches of M. Puiseux.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> But he should not forget that, besides +being the scene of these events in the great struggle between England +and France, Normandy, independent Normandy, has also a history of its +own, in which both England and France had a deep interest. It is not +only because Normandy is the cradle of so many families which after +events made English, because so many Norman villages still bear names +illustrious in the English peerage. It is because it is in the earlier +history of Normandy, above all, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> the reign of William himself, that +we are to seek for one side of the causes which made a Norman conquest +of England possible, just as it is in the earlier history of England, +above all, in the reign of Eadward, that we are to seek for the other +side of those causes.</p> + +<p>No one among those causes was more important than the personal character +of the great Duke of the Normans himself. And the qualities which made +William able to achieve the Conquest of England were, if not formed, at +least trained and developed, by the events of his reign in his own +Duchy. Succeeding with a very doubtful title, at once bastard and minor, +it is wonderful that he contrived to retain his ducal crown at all; it +is not at all wonderful that his earlier years were years of constant +struggle within and without his dominions. He had to contend against +rivals for the Duchy, and against subjects to whom submission to any +sovereign was irksome. He had to contend against a jealous feudal +superior, who dreaded his power, who retained somewhat of national +dislike to the Danish intruders, and who, shut up in his own Paris, +could hardly fail to grudge to any vassal the possession of the valley +and mouth of the Seine. William, in short, before he conquered England, +had to conquer both Normandy and France. And such was his skill, such +was his good luck, that he found out how to conquer Normandy by the help +of France, and how to conquer France by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> the help of Normandy. The King +of the French acted as his ally against his rebellious vassals, and +those rebellious vassals changed into loyal subjects when it was needful +to withstand the aggressions of the King of the French.</p> + +<p>The principal stages in this warfare are marked by two battles, the +sites of which are appropriately placed on the two opposite sides of the +Seine. At Val-ès-dunes William of Normandy and Henry of France overcame +the Norman rebels.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Afterwards, when Henry had changed his policy, +the Normans smote the French with a great slaughter at Mortemer, neither +of the contending princes being personally present. Val-ès-dunes, we +must confess the fact, was in truth a victory of the Roman over the +Teuton. It was by the aid of his French overlord that William chastised +into his obedience the sturdy Saxons of the Bessin and the fierce Danes +of the Côtentin. The men of the peninsula boasted, in a rhyme which is +still not forgotten in the neighbourhood of the fight, how</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">De Costentin partit la lance</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Qui abastit le roy de France.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>For King Henry, successful in the general issue of the day, had his own +personal mishaps in the course of the battle, and to have overthrown the +King of the French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> was an exploit which supplied the vanquished with +some little consolation.</p> + +<p>The scene of this battle is fitly to be found in the true Normandy, but +towards its eastern frontier. It must not be forgotten that the truest +Normandy was not the oldest Normandy. The lands first granted to Rolf, +perhaps for the very reason that they were the lands first granted to +him, became French, while the later acquisitions of Rolf himself still +remained Danish.</p> + +<p>The boundary was seemingly marked by the Dive. Val-ès-dunes then, placed +a little to the west of that river, comes within the true Normandy, +though it is near to its outskirts. The Teutonic Norman was beaten on +his own ground, but the Frenchman at least never made his way to the +gates of Bayeux or Coutances. The site of the battle is less attractive +to the eye than many other battle-fields, but the ground is excellently +adapted for what the battle seems really to have been, a sharp encounter +of cavalry, a few gallant charges ending in the headlong flight of the +defeated side. This was the young Duke's first introduction to serious +warfare; but he had tougher work than this to go through before his +career was over. To the east of Caen stretches a somewhat dreary +country, which forms a striking contrast to the rich meadows and +orchards of the Bessin, while it in no way approaches to the wildness of +the sterner portions of the Côtentin. A range<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> of hills of some height +bounds the prospect to the north, and it was from that direction that +William brought his forces to the field. The field itself is a sort of +low plateau, sloping to the east, and bordered by a series of villages +placed in what, if the height of the rising ground were higher, might be +called <i>combes</i> or valleys. The churches of Valmeray, where a ruined +fragment of later date marks the spot where King Henry heard mass before +the fight, Billy, Boneauville, Chicheboville, and Secqueville, all skirt +the hill, if hill we can call it. The actual battle-field lies between +the two last-named villages. To the west a higher ridge, called by the +name of St. Lawrence, marks the furthest point of the battle, the place +where the defeated rebels made their last stand, and which was marked by +a commemorative chapel, now destroyed. From that point the high ground +again stretches westward as far as the village of Haute Allemagne, the +great quarry of Caen stone. Over all the ground in this direction the +rebels were scattered, multitudes of them being carried away, we are +told, by the stream of the Orne.</p> + +<p>The spot, as we have said, is not in itself particularly attractive, +though there is something striking in the view both ways from the high +ground of St. Lawrence. It is easy to say how thoroughly well the ground +was chosen for what took place on it, a <i>mêlée</i>, of mounted knights, a +tournament in earnest. And it is quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> worth the while of any student +of Norman history to walk over the ground, Wace in hand, taking in the +graphic description of the honest rhymer, as clear and accurate as usual +in his topographical details. And it is pleasant to find how well the +events of the day are still remembered by the peasantry of the +neighbourhood. There is no fear, as there is said to be in the +neighbourhood of Worcester, of an inquirer after the field of battle +being taken to see the scene of a battle between some local Sayers and +Heenan. The Norman of every rank, when let alone by Frenchmen, is a born +antiquary, proud of the ancient history of his country, and taking an +intelligent interest in it which in England is seldom to be found except +amongst highly-educated men.</p> + +<p>The other site, Mortemer, lies in a region far more attractive to the +eye than Val-ès-dunes, but, as an historical spot, it is chiefly +remarkable from the event of the battle having, so to speak, wiped out +all traces of itself.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The spot where the French invaders received so +heavy a blow lies appropriately in the more French part of Normandy, in +the region on the right of the Seine, and it seems to have been almost +wholly by the hands of the men of the surrounding districts that the +blow was struck. The Mortemer of which we speak must not be mistaken for +the Abbey of Mortemer, near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> Lyons-la-forêt, in that famous wood of +which Sir Francis Palgrave has so much to tell. Both the one and the +other Mortemer happily lie quite out of the beat of ordinary tourists. +The Mortemer of the battle lies on the road between the small towns of +Neufchâtel and Aumale. Neufchâtel-en-Bray, a Neufchâtel without lake or +watches or republic, can nevertheless boast of surrounding hills which, +if not equal to the Jura, are of considerable height for Northern Gaul, +and its cheese is celebrated through a large portion of Normandy. Ascend +and descend one hill, then ascend and descend another, and the journey +is made from Neufchâtel to Aumale. Just out of the road, at the base of +the two hills, the eye is caught by a ruined tower on the right hand. +This is what remains of the castle of Mortemer, a fragment of +considerably later date than the battle. The church is modern and +worthless; the few scattered houses, almost wholly of wood, which form +the hamlet, present nothing remarkable. But it is in this very absence +of anything remarkable that the historic interest of Mortemer consists. +The Mortemer of the eleventh century was a town; the Mortemer of the +nineteenth century is a very small and scattered village. Doubtless a +town of that age might be, in point of population, not beyond a village +now; still a town implies continuous houses, which is just what Mortemer +now does not possess. The French occupied Mortemer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> because of the +convenient quarters to be had in its hostels. It is now one of the last +places in the world to which one would go for quarters of any kind. +Mortemer was apparently an open town, not defended by walls or a castle, +or the French could hardly have occupied it, as they did, without +resistance. But it must have been a town, as towns then went, or so +large a body could not have been so comfortably quartered in it as they +evidently were. The key to the change is to be found in the event +itself. The Normans of the surrounding country surprised the French on +the morning after they had entered Mortemer, while they were still +engaged in revelry and debauchery. They set fire to the town, and slew +the Frenchmen as they attempted to escape. To all appearance, the town +was never rebuilt, and its change into the mean collection of houses +which now bears its name is a strange but abiding trophy of a great +triumph of Norman craft—in this case we can hardly say of Norman +valour—eight centuries back.</p> + +<p>Such are two of the historic spots which are to be found in abundance on +the historic soil of Normandy. They are only two out of many; every +town, almost every village, has its tale to tell. From Eu to Pontorson +there is hardly a spot which does not make some contribution to the +history of those stirring times when Normandy had a life of its own, and +when the Norman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> name was famous from Scotland to Sicily. After six +hundred years of incorporation with the French monarchy, Normandy is +still Norman; "le Duc Guillaume" is still a familiar name, not only to +professed scholars or antiquaries, but to the people themselves. Without +any political bearing—for the political absorption of Normandy by +France was remarkably speedy—the feelings and memories of the days of +independence have lingered on in a way which is the more remarkable as +there is no palpable distinction of language, such as distinguishes +Bretons, Basques, or even the speakers of the Tongue of Oc. But in +everything but actual speech the old impress remains, and the result is +that in Normandy, above all in Lower Normandy, the English historical +traveller finds himself more thoroughly at home than in any other part +of the Continent except in the lands where the speech once common to +England, to Bayeux, and to Northern Germany is still preserved.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span></p> +<h2>FÉCAMP</h2> + +<h3>1868</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> has sometimes struck us that the mediæval founders of towns and +castles and monasteries were not so wholly uninfluenced by +considerations of mere picturesque beauty as we are apt to fancy. We are +apt to think that they had nothing in their minds but mere convenience, +according to their several standards of convenience, convenience for +traffic, convenience for military defence or attack, convenience for the +chase, the convenience of solitude in one class of ecclesiastical +foundations, the convenience of the near neighbourhood of large centres +of men in another class. This may be so; but, if so, these +considerations of various kinds constantly led them, by some sort of +happy accident, to the choice of very attractive sites. And we venture +to think that it was not merely accident, because we often come upon +descriptions of sites in mediæval writers which seem to show that the +men of those times were capable of appreciating the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> picturesque +position of this or that castle or abbey, as well as its direct +suitableness for military or monastic purposes. Giraldus, for instance, +evidently admired the site of Llanthony, and, if he expressed himself +about it in rather exaggerated language, that is no more than what +naturally happens when any man, especially when Giraldus, expresses +himself in Latin, especially in mediæval Latin. In the like sort, we +have come across one or two descriptions of the Abbey of Fécamp which +clearly show that the writers were struck, as any man of taste would be, +with the position in which that great and famous monastery had arisen. +And, to leap to scenes which far surpass either Fécamp or Llanthony, the +well-known story of Saint Bernard's absorption on the shores of the Lake +of Geneva really tells the other way. We are told that the saint was so +given up to pious contemplation that he travelled for a whole day +through that glorious region without noticing lake, mountains, or +anything else. Now we need hardly stop to show that the fact that +Bernard's absorption was thought worthy of record proves that, if he did +not notice any of these things, there was some one in his company who +did. We suspect that in this, as in a great many things, we have more in +common with our forefathers several centuries back than we have with +those who are nearer to us by many generations.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image7.jpg" width="600" height="488" alt="Abbey of Fécamp, N.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Abbey of Fécamp, N.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>Modern taste might possibly make one objection to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> the site of Fécamp. +Though near the sea, it is not within sight of the sea. The modern +watering-place of Fécamp is springing up at a considerable distance from +the ancient abbey. But the love of watering-places and sea-bathing is +one which is altogether modern, and, in the days in which our old towns, +castles, and monasteries grew up, a site immediately on the sea would +have been looked on as unsafe. And in truth there are not many places, +and certainly Fécamp is not one of them, where all the various buildings +of a great monastery could have been planned so as to command the modern +attraction of a sea-view. Moreover it is a point not to be forgotten +that people who go to Fécamp or elsewhere for sea-views and sea-bathing +go there during certain months only, while the monks had to live there +all the year round. The monks of Saint Michael's Mount were indeed +privileged with, or condemned to, an everlasting sea-view; but the title +of their house was that of Saint Michael "<i>in periculo maris</i>." To be +exposed to the perils of the sea was no part of the intention of the +founders of Fécamp, either of abbey, town or palace.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> They chose them +a site which gave them the practical advantages of the sea without the +dangers of its immediate neighbourhood. Fécamp then lies a little way +inland. Two parallel ranges of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>hills run down to the sea, with a +valley and a small stream between them, at the mouth of which the modern +port has been made. On the slope of the hills on the left side lies the +huge mass of the minster rising over the long straggling town which +stretches away to the water. But though the great church thus lies +secluded from the sea, the spiritual welfare of sea-faring men was not +forgotten. The point where the opposite range of hills directly +overhangs the sea is crowned by one of those churches specially devoted +to sailors and their pilgrimages which are so often met with in such +positions. The chapel of Our Lady of Safety, now restored after a season +of ruin and desecration, forms a striking and picturesque object in the +general landscape. And from the chapel itself and from the hill-side +paths which lead up to it, we get the noblest views of the great abbey, +in all the stern simplicity of its age, stretching the huge length of +its nave, one of the very few, even in Normandy, which rival the effect +of Winchester and Saint Albans. A single central tower, of quite +sufficient height, of no elaborate decoration, crowned by no rich spire +or octagon, but with a simple covering of lead, forms the thoroughly +appropriate centre of the whole building. We feel that this tower is +exactly what is wanted; we almost doubt whether the church gained or +lost by the loss of the western towers, which would have taken off from +the effect of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> boundless length which is the characteristic of the +building. At any rate we think how far more effective is the English and +Norman arrangement, which at all events provides a great church with the +noblest of central crowns, than the fashion of France, which +concentrates all its force on the western front, and leaves the at least +equally important point of crossing to shift for itself.</p> + +<p>The church itself is one of the noblest even in Normandy, and it is in +remarkably good preservation. And the two points in which the fabric has +suffered severe damage are not owing either to Huguenots or to Jacobins, +but to its own guardians under two different states of things. The bad +taste of the monks themselves in their later days is chargeable with the +ugly Italian west front, which has displaced the elder front with towers +of which the stumps may still be seen. An Italian front, though it must +be incongruous when attached to a mediæval building, need not be in +itself either ugly or mean, but this front of Fécamp is conspicuously +both. The other loss is that of the <i>jubé</i> or roodloft, which, from the +fragments left, seems to have been a magnificent piece of later Gothic +work, perhaps almost rivalling the famous one at Alby. The destruction +of roodlofts has been so general in France that one is not particularly +struck by each several case of destruction. But there is something +singular about this Fécamp case, as the <i>jubé</i> was pulled down at the +restoration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> of religion, through the influence of the then curé, in +opposition to the wishes of his more conservative or more ritualistic +parishioners. With these two exceptions Fécamp has lost but little, as +far as regards the church itself. The conventual buildings, like most +French conventual buildings, have been rebuilt in an incongruous style, +and now serve for the various public purposes of the local +administration. In a near view of the north side, they form an ugly +excrescence against the church, but they are lost in the more distant +and general view.</p> + +<p>The church itself mainly belongs to the first years of the thirteenth +century, with smaller portions both of earlier and of later date. On +entering the church, we find that the long western limb is not all +strictly nave, the choir, by an arrangement more common in England than +in France, stretching itself west of the central tower. The whole of +this western limb is built in the simplest and severest form of that +earliest French Gothic, which to an English eye seems to be simply an +advanced form of the transition from Romanesque. Even at Amiens, amid +all the splendours of its fully-developed geometrical windows, the +pillars and arches, in their square abaci and even in the sections of +their mouldings, have what an Englishman calls a Romanesque feeling +still hanging about them. At Fécamp this is far stronger. The large +triforium, the untraceried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> windows, the squareness of everything except +a few English round abaci in some bays of the triforium, the external +heaviness and simplicity, all make the early Gothic of Fécamp little +more than pointed Romanesque. We do not say this in disparagement. This +stage was a necessary stage for architecture to pass through, and the +Transitional period is always one of the most interesting in +architectural history. And when work of that date is carried out with +such excellence both of composition and detail as it is at Fécamp, it is +much more than historically interesting, it is thoroughly satisfactory +in artistic effect. We say nothing against the style, except that, as +being essentially imperfect and not realising the ideal of either of the +two styles between which it comes historically, we cannot look on it as +a proper model for modern imitation. Several diversities of detail may +on minute examination be seen in the different bays of the nave of +Fécamp, just as in the contemporary nave of Wells. Just as at Wells, the +western part—in this case the five western bays—is slightly later than +the rest. And, as at Wells, the distinction between the older and newer +work is easily to be remarked by those who look for it, though it is a +distinction which makes no difference in the general effect and which +might pass unnoticed by any but a very minute observer. In truth it is, +in both cases, a difference not of style but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> of taste. The eastern limb +of Fécamp—strictly the presbytery and not the choir—is more remarkable +in some ways than the nave. It is here that we find the only remains of +an earlier church, and these are of no very remarkable antiquity. M. +Bouet, in a short account of Fécamp, addressed to the Norman Antiquarian +Society, records his disappointment at finding at Fécamp no traces of +the days of the early Dukes, or even of days earlier still, such as he +found at Jumièges. This oldest part of Fécamp is part of a church begun +so late as 1085. One bay of its presbytery and two adjoining chapels +have been spared. The style is a little singular. There is something not +quite Norman about the very square arches of a single order, and the +capitals are not the usual Norman capitals of the second half of the +eleventh century. Except this bay, the presbytery has been rebuilt in +essentially the same style as the nave, though naturally a little +earlier. But on the south side a singular change took place in the +fourteenth century. As at Waltham, the builders of that day cut away the +triforium and threw the two lower stages into one. But what was done at +Waltham in the most awkward and bungling way in which anything ever was +done anywhere, was at Fécamp at least done very cleverly. Without +meddling with the vaulting or the vaulting-shafts, the pier-arches and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> +triforium range of the thirteenth century have been changed into arches +of the fourteenth, resting on tall slender pillars, almost recalling the +choir of Le Mans. Whether this change was an improvement or not is a +question of taste, but there can be no question as to the wonderful +skill, æsthetical and mechanical, with which the change was made, and it +is the more striking from the contrast with the wretched "botch" at +Waltham.</p> + +<p>The church is finished to the east by a fine Flamboyant Lady Chapel. The +contrast between it and the earlier work suggests the effect of Henry +the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, though the contrast is not quite so +strong. Altogether there can be no doubt of the claim of the church to a +place in the very first rank of the great minsters of a province +specially rich in such works.</p> + +<p>We have dwelt so long on the position and the architecture of Fécamp +that we have no space left to add anything on its history. But the local +history of Fécamp naturally connects itself with several other more +general points at which we shall perhaps have some future opportunity of +glancing.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> +<h2>FOOTSTEPS OF THE CONQUEROR</h2> + +<h3>1868</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Many</span> of the great events of Norman history, many of the chief events in +the life of the Great William, happened conveniently in or near to the +great cities of the Duchy. But many others also happened in somewhat out +of the way places, which no one is likely to get to unless he goes there +on purpose. The Conqueror received his death-wound at Mantes, he died in +a suburb of Rouen, he was buried at Caen. All these are places easy to +get at. Perhaps we should except Mantes, which in a certain sense is not +easy to get at. All the world goes by Mantes, but few people stop there. +The reason is manifest. The traveller who goes by Mantes commonly has in +his pocket a ticket for Paris, which enables him to spend a day at +Rouen, but not to spend a day at Mantes. People very anxious to stop at +Mantes, and to muse, so to speak, among its embers, have had great +searchings of heart how to get there, and have not accomplished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> their +object till after some years of reflection. And the interest of Mantes, +after all, is mainly negative. The town stands well; its river, its +bridges, its islands, suggest the days when Scandinavian pirates sailed +up the Seine and encamped with special delight on such <i>eys</i> or <i>holms</i> +as that between Mantes and Limay. A specially prolonged fit of musing +may perhaps lead one to regret the prowess of Count Odo, and to wish +that Paris also had received that wholesome Northern infusion which +still works so healthily between the Epte and the Coesnon. But Mantes, +as regards William, is something like Mortemer as regards William's +rival King Henry. Mantes can show no traces of William or his age, for +the simple reason that William took good care that no such traces should +be left. By perhaps the worst deed of his life, a deed which awakened +special indignation at the time, he gave Mantes to destruction to avenge +a silly jest of its sovereign. At Mantes he held his churching and +lighted his candles, and their blaze burned up houses, churches, +whatever was there. Therefore, because William himself was there in only +too great force, it is that Mantes has no work of man to show on which +William can ever have looked. The church, whose graceful towers every +one has seen from the railway, is a grand fabric a hundred years or more +later than William's time, but to Norman and English eyes it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>might +seem that, with such a height as it has, the building ought to have +fully doubled its actual length. The third tower, that of a destroyed +church, is worth study as an example of a striking kind of cinque-cento, +the design being purely Gothic and the details being strongly +Italianised. But, after all, the architectural inquirer will be best +pleased with the fine Romanesque tower in the suburb of Limay, and the +lover of picturesque effect will not fail to dwell on the mediæval +bridge which leads thither from the town.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image8.jpg" width="600" height="799" alt="Limay Church, Tower, S.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Limay Church, Tower, S.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>So much for the spot, beyond the limits of his own Duchy, where William, +in the words of our Chronicles, "did a rueful thing, and more ruefully +it him befel." Of the points within Normandy which his name invests with +their main interest, we have already spoken of his birthplace at +Falaise—where the brutal work of "restoration," <i>i.e.</i> of scraping and +destroying, is still going on in full force—of the field of his early +victory at Val-ès-dunes, and of the victory won for him by others at +Mortemer. We may, however, suggest that any one who visits Val-ès-dunes, +will not do amiss if he extends his ramble as far as the churches of +Cintheaux and Quilly. Cintheaux is one of the best of the small but rich +twelfth-century churches which are so common in the district. And its +worthy curé, the historian of Val-ès-dunes, is doing his best to bring +it back to its former state, without subjecting it, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> Falaise or +like one of the spires of Saint Stephen's, to the cruel martyrdom of the +apostle Bartholomew. Quilly is more remarkable still, as possessing a +tower containing marked vestiges of that earlier Romanesque style of +which Normandy contains so much fewer examples than either England or +Aquitaine. Cintheaux=Centella, has also a certain historic interest in +the generation after William. There, in 1105, King Henry and Duke +Robert, "<i>duo germani fratres</i>," had a conference. We forget who it was +who translated "<i>duo germani fratres</i>" by "two German brothers," and +went on to rule that the Henry spoken of must have been the Emperor +Henry the Fourth, and to remark that the conference happened not very +long before his death. Cintheaux, however, has carried us from the age +of William into the age of his sons, and we must retrace our steps +somewhat. The sites connected with William himself will easily fall into +three classes—those which belong to his wars with France and Anjou, +those which figure in the Breton campaign which he waged in company with +Earl Harold, and those which have a direct bearing on the Conquest of +England. The second class we may easily dispose of. Of Dol and Dinan we +have said somewhat already, and Dinan especially is a place familiar to +many Englishmen. But we may remark that, though Dinan contains few +remains of any great antiquity, few places better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> preserve the general +effect of an ancient town. It still rises grandly above the river, +spanned both by the lowly ancient bridge and the gigantic modern +viaduct; the walls are nearly perfect, and houses, partly through the +necessities of the site, have not spread themselves at all largely +beyond them. We may add that the good sense of the inhabitants has found +out a way to make excellent boulevards without sacrificing the walls to +their creation. Rennes, the furthest point reached by the two comrades +so soon to become enemies, is now wholly a modern city. Saint Michael's +Mount has become a popular lion, which can only be seen under the +vexatious companionship of a guide and a "party." It is therefore +impossible to study the interior with much comfort or profit. Yet one +has still time to wonder at the strange effect produced by crowding the +buildings of a great monastery on the top of the rock, an effect which +reaches its highest point when we go up a staircase and find ourselves +landed in a cloister of singular beauty. But the rock and the +buildings—nowhere better seen than from the Mount of Dol—are still +there, a most striking object from every point of the landscape, Saint +Michael "in peril of the sea" seeming to watch over the bay which bears +his name, as from his height at Glastonbury he seems to watch over the +flats and the hills peopled with the names alike of British and of +West-Saxon heroes. And the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> vast expanse of sand brings vividly before +us the scene in the Tapestry where the giant strength of the English +Earl is shown lifting with ease the soldiers who found themselves +engulfed in the treacherous stream.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image9.jpg" width="600" height="789" alt="Domfront Castle" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Domfront Castle</span> +</div> + +<p>The wars of William with Geoffrey of Anjou and Henry of Paris introduce +us to several points, striking in the way both of nature and of art. Few +among them surpass Domfront, William's first conquest beyond the bounds +of his own Duchy, the fortress which he won by the mere terror of his +name after the fearful vengeance which he had inflicted on the rebels of +Alençon.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The spot reminds one in some degree of his own birthplace +at Falaise. That is to say, the castle crowns one rocky hill, and looks +out on another, still wilder and more rugged, with a pass between them, +through which runs the stream of the Varenne, a tributary of the +Mayenne, as that is in its turn of the Loire. But the position of the +two towns is different. Though the castle of Falaise occupies so +commanding a site, the town itself is anything but one of the +hill-towns, while Domfront is one of the best of the class. Not that it +is the least likely to be an ancient hill-fort, like Chartres, Le Mans, +or Angers; both Falaise and Domfront are, beyond all doubt, towns which +have gathered round their respective castles in comparatively modern +times. Both, there can be no doubt, date, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>their very beginnings, +from a time later than the Norman settlement. Still Domfront is +practically a hill-town; the walls simply fence in the top of the +height, and the town, never having reached any great size, has not yet +spread itself to the bottom. A more picturesque site can hardly be +found. Of the castle, the chief remnant is a shattered fragment of the +keep, most likely the very fortress which surrendered to William's +youthful energy.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> As for churches, the only one within the walls is +worthless, but the church of Notre-Dame at the foot of the hill is one +of the best and purest specimens of Norman work on a moderate scale to +be found anywhere. The original work is nearly untouched, except that +the barbarism of modern times has removed about half the nave.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image10.jpg" width="600" height="456" alt="Eu Church, S.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Eu Church, S.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>After Domfront had submitted to William and had become permanently +incorporated with Normandy, he himself founded the fortress of <span class="corr" title="Source: Ambières">Ambrières</span>, +as a border stronghold.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> A fragment of the castle still overlooks the +lower course of the Varenne, but the ground is no longer Norman. Some +way further on the same road we reach Mayenne, a town whose name +suggests far later warfare, but which was an important conquest of +William's in the days when Maine was the border ground, and the +battle-field, of Norman and Angevin.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The site of Mayenne, sloping, +like that of Mantes, down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> to a large river, has caused quite another +arrangement. The river is here the main point for attack and defence as +well as for traffic. The castle therefore does not crown the highest +point of the town, but flanks the stream with a grand range of bastions, +a miniature of the mighty pile of Philip Augustus at "black Angers." +This lower position of castles, thus returned to in later times, seems +however to have been the usual position for the fortresses of the +earliest Norman time. Before the Scandinavian conquerors were fully +settled in the country, the great point was to occupy sites commanding +the sea and the navigable rivers; it was a sign of quite another state +of things when the lord of the soil perched himself on the crest of an +inland hill. Of the earlier type of fortress we have an example in the +castle of Eu, a name whose associations may seem to be wholly modern, +but which is, in truth, as the border fortress of Normandy towards +Flanders and the doubtful land of Ponthieu between them, one of the most +historic sites in the Duchy. Eu figures prominently in the wars of Rolf; +in its church William espoused his Flemish bride; in its castle he first +received his renowned English guest.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The church of William's day has +given way to a superb fabric of the thirteenth century, which needs only +towers, which are strangely lacking, to rank among the finest minsters +in Normandy. The castle where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>William and Harold met has given way to +that well-known building of the House of Guise which lived to become the +last home of lawful royalty in France. But the site still reminds one of +the days of Rolf rather than of the days of William. It can hardly be +said to command the town; it is itself commanded by higher ground +immediately above it; town, church, castle, all seem from the +surrounding hills to lie together in a hole. But it is admirably placed +for commanding the approaches from the sea and from the low, and in +Rolf's time no doubt marshy, ground lying between the town and the +water. In exact contrast to Eu, stands the noble hill-castle of Arques, +near Dieppe, the work of William's rebellious uncle and namesake, which +he had to win by the slow process of hunger from Norman rebels and +French auxiliaries.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The little town, with a church of later date, +but of striking outline, lies low, lower than Eu; but the castle soars +above it, crowning a peninsular height which forms the extremity of a +long range of higher ground. The steep slopes of the hill might have +seemed defence enough, but Count William did not deem his fortress +secure without cutting an enormous fosse immediately within its circuit, +so that any one who climbed the slope of the hill would find a deep gulf +between himself and the fortress, even if he were lucky enough to escape +falling headlong. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> building has been greatly enlarged in later +times, but the shell of Count William's keep, a huge massive square +tower, is still here, as perhaps are some portions of his gateway and of +his surrounding walls. The view is a noble one, and it takes in the site +of that later battle of Henry of Navarre to which Arques now owes most +of its renown, and which has gone some way to wipe out the memory of +both Williams, Count and Duke alike.</p> + +<p>One point more. Round the lower course of the Dive all sorts of +historical associations centre. The stream divides the older and the +later Normandy, but of these the later is the truer, the land where the +old speech and the old spirit lingered longest. By its banks was fought +the battle in which Harold Blaatand rescued Normandy from the Frank, and +in which the stout Dane took captive with his own hands Lewis King of +the West-Franks, the heir and partial successor of Charles.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> There, +too, are the causeway and bridge of Varaville, marking the site of the +ford where William's well-timed march enabled him to strike almost as +heavy a blow against the younger royalty of Paris as the Danish ally of +his forefathers had struck against the elder royalty of Laon.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The +French invaders of Normandy, King Henry at their head, had gorged +themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> with the plunder of the lands west of the Dive and were now +carelessly advancing towards the high ground of Auge in the direction of +Lisieux. The King with his vanguard had already climbed the hill, when +he looked round, only to behold the mass of his army cut to pieces +before the sudden onslaught of the irresistible Duke. William had +marched up from Falaise and had taken them at the right moment, almost +as Harold took his Norwegian namesake at Stamford bridge. It is one of +those spots where the story is legibly written on the scene. The +causeway is still there, and it is easy to realise the King looking on +the slaughter of his troops, and hardly withheld from rushing down to +give them help which must have proved wholly in vain. The heights from +which he looked down stretched to the sea, by the mouth of the river. +The port of Dive, now nearly choked up with sand, was then a great +haven, and there the fleet of William, assembled for the conquest of +England, lay for a whole month, waiting for the favourable winds which +never came till they had changed their position for the more auspicious +haven of Saint Valery.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> +<h2>THE CÔTENTIN</h2> + +<h3>1876</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> "pagus Constantinus," the peninsular land of Coutances, is, or ought +to be, the most Norman part of Normandy. Perhaps however it may be +needful first to explain that the Latin "pagus <i>Constantinus</i>" and the +French <i>Côtentin</i> are simply the same word. For we have seen a French +geography-book in which <i>Côtentin</i> was explained to mean the land of +<i>coasts</i>; the peninsular shape of the district gave it "trois côtes," +and so it was called <i>Côtentin</i>. We cannot parallel this with the +derivation of Manorbeer from "man or bear";<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> because this last is at +least funny, while to derive Côtentin from <i>côte</i> is simply stupid. But +it is very like a derivation which we once saw in a Swiss +geography-book, according to which the canton of Wallis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> or Valais was +so called "parce que c'est la plus grande <i>vallée</i> de la Suisse." And, +what is more, a Swiss man of science, eminent in many branches of +knowledge, but not strong in etymology, thought it mere folly to call +the derivation in question. It was no good arguing when the case was as +clear as the sun at noon-day. Now, in the case of Wallis, it is +certainly much easier to say what the etymology of the name is not than +to say what it is; but in the case of the Côtentin one would have +thought that it was as clear as the sun at noon-day the other way. How +did he who derived Côtentin from <i>côte</i> deal with other names of +districts following the same form? The <i>Bessin</i>, the land of Bayeux, +might perhaps be twisted into something funny, but the <i>Avranchin</i> could +hardly be anything but the district of Avranches, and this one might +have given the key to the others. But both <i>Côtentin</i> and <i>Bessin</i> +illustrate a law of the geographical nomenclature of Gaul, by which, +when a city and its district bear the same name, the name takes two +slightly different forms for the city and for the district. Thus we have +Bourges and Berry, Angers and Anjou, Périgueux and Périgord, Le Mans and +Maine.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> So <i>Constantia</i> has become Co<i>u</i>t<i>a</i>nces; but the adjective +<i>Constantinus</i> has become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> C<i>ô</i>t<i>e</i>ntin. City and district then bear the +same Imperial name as that other Constantia on the Rhine with which +Coutances is doomed to get so often confounded. How often has one seen +Geoffrey of Mowbray described as "Bishop of Constance." In an older +writer this may be a sign that, in his day, Coutances was spoken of in +England as Constance. In a modern writer this judgment of charity is +hardly possible. It really seems as if some people thought that the +Conqueror was accompanied to England by a Bishop of the city where John +Huss was burned ages afterwards.</p> + +<p>We have called the Côtentin a peninsula, and so it is. Sir Francis +Palgrave points out, with a kind of triumph, that the two Danish +peninsulas, the original Jütland and this of the <span class="corr" title="Source: Cotentin">Côtentin</span>, are the only +two in Europe which point northward. And the Côtentin does look on the +map very much as if it were inviting settlers from more northern parts. +But the fact is that the land is not really so peninsular as it looks +and as it feels. The actual projection northward from the coast of the +Bessin or Calvados is not very great. It is the long coast to the west, +the coast which looks out on the Norman islands, the coast which forms a +right angle with the Breton coast by the Mount of Saint Michael, which +really gives the land its peninsular air. We are apt to forget that the +nearest coast due west of the city of Coutances does not lie in Europe. +We are apt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> further to forget that the whole of that west coast is not +Côtentin. Avranches has its district also, and the modern department of +Manche takes in both, as the modern diocese of Coutances takes in the +older dioceses of Coutances and Avranches.</p> + +<p>Part of the Côtentin then is a true peninsula, a peninsula stretching +out a long finger to the north-west in the shape of Cape La Hague; and +this most characteristic part of the land has impressed a kind of +peninsular character on the whole region. But we must not forget that +the land of Coutances is not wholly peninsular, but also partly insular. +The Norman islands, those fragments of the duchy which remained faithful +to their natural Duke when the mainland passed under the yoke of Paris, +are essential parts of the Constantine land, diocese and county. Modern +arrangements have transferred their ecclesiastical allegiance to the +church of Winchester, and their civil allegiance to the Empire of India; +but historically those islands are that part of the land of Coutances +which remained Norman while the rest stooped to become French.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The +peninsula pointing northwards, with its neighbouring islands, save that +the islands lie to the west and not to the east, might pass for no inapt +figure of the northern land of the Dane. They formed a land which the +Dane was, by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> kind of congruity, called on to make his own. And his +own he made it and thoroughly. Added to the Norman duchy by William +Longsword before Normans had wholly passed into Frenchmen, with the good +seed watered again by a new settlement straight from Denmark under +Harold Blaatand, the Danish land of Coutances, like the Saxon land of +Bayeux, was far slower than the lands beyond the Dive in putting on the +speech and the outward garb of France. And no part of the Norman duchy +sent forth more men or mightier, to put off that garb in the kindred, if +conquered, island, and to come back to their natural selves in the form +of Englishmen. The most Teutonic part of Normandy was the one part which +had a real grievance to avenge on Englishmen; in their land, and in +their land alone, had Englishmen, for a moment in the days of Æthelred, +shown themselves as invaders and ravagers. But before the men of the +Côtentin could show themselves as avengers at Senlac, they had first to +be themselves overthrown at Val-ès-dunes. Before William could conquer +England, he had first to conquer his own duchy by the aid of France. +Bayeux and Coutances were to have no share in the spoil of York and +Winchester till they had been themselves subdued by the joint might of +Rouen and Paris.</p> + +<p>It is singular enough that the two most prominent names among those +which connect the Bessin and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> Côtentin with England should be those +of their two Bishops, Geoffrey of Mowbray, for a while Earl of +Northumberland, and the more famous Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of +Kent. Geoffrey would deserve a higher fame than he wins by the +possession of endless manors in Domesday and by the suppression of the +West-Saxon revolt at Montacute,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> if we could believe that, according +to a legend which is even now hardly exploded, the existing church of +Coutances is his work. William of Durham and Roger of Salisbury would +seem feeble workers in the building art beside the man who consecrated +that building in the purest style of the thirteenth century in the year +1056. According to that theory, art must have been at Coutances a +hundred and fifty years in advance of the rest of the world, and, after +about a hundred and twenty years, the rest of the world must have begun +a series of rude attempts at imitating the long-neglected model. But +without attributing to the art of Coutances or the Côtentin so +miraculous a development as this, the district was at all times fertile +in men who could build in the styles of their several ages. A journey +through the peninsula shows its scenery, so varied and in many parts so +rich, adorned by a succession of great buildings worthy of the land in +which they are placed. The great haven of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> district is indeed more +favoured by nature than by art. In the name of Cherbourg mediæval +etymologists fondly saw an Imperial name yet older than that which is +borne by the whole district, and the received Latin name is no other +than <i>Cæsaris Burgus</i>. Yet it is far more likely that the name of +Cherbourg is simply the same as our own Scarborough, and that it is so +called from the rocky hills, the highest ground in the whole district, +which look down on the fortified harbour, and are themselves condemned +to help in its fortification. The rocks and the valley between them are +worthy of some better office than to watch over an uninteresting town +which has neither ancient houses to show nor yet handsome modern +streets. The chief church, though not insignificant, is French and not +Norman, and so teaches the wrong lesson to an Englishman who begins his +Côtentin studies at this point. But, four miles or so to the west, he +will find a building which is French only if we are to apply that name +to what runs every chance of being præ-Norman, the work of a day when +Rolf and William Longsword had not yet dismembered the French duchy. On +a slight eminence overhanging the sea stands Querqueville, with its +older and its newer, its lesser and its greater, church, the two +standing side by side, and with the outline of the greater—the same +triapsidal form marking both—clearly suggested by the smaller. Of the +smaller, which is very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>small indeed, one can hardly doubt that parts +at least are primitive Romanesque, as old as any one chooses. It is the +fellow of the little church of Montmajeur near Arles, but far ruder. But +at Querqueville the name is part of the argument; the building gives its +name to the place. The first syllable of Querqueville is plainly the +Teutonic <i>kirk</i>; and it suggests that it got the name from this church +having been left standing when most of its neighbours were destroyed in +the Scandinavian inroads which created Normandy. The building has gone +through several changes; the upper part of its very lofty tower is +clearly a late addition, but the ground-plan, and so much of the walls +as show the herring-bone work, are surely remains of a building older +than the settlement of Rolf.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image11.jpg" width="600" height="758" alt="Valognes Church, N.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Valognes Church, N.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>From the rocks of the Norman <i>Scarborough</i>, one of the only two railways +which find their way into the Côtentin will carry the traveller through +a district whose look, like that of so much of this side of Normandy, is +thoroughly English, to Valognes, with its endless fragments of old +domestic architecture, remnants of the days when Valognes was a large +and aristocratic town, and with its church, where the architect has +ventured, not wholly without success, on the bold experiment of giving +its central parts the shape of a Gothic cupola. Is its effect improved +or spoiled—it certainly is made stranger and more striking—by its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> +grouping with a spire of late date immediately at its side? There is +much to please at Valognes; but when we remember the part which the town +plays in the history of the Conqueror, that it was from hence, one of +his favourite dwelling-places, that he took the headlong ride which +carried him away safely from the rebellious peninsula before +Val-ès-dunes, we are inclined to grumble that all that now shows itself +in the place itself is of far later date. The castle is clean gone; and +the traveller to whom Normandy is chiefly attractive in its Norman +aspect may perhaps sacrifice the Roman remains of Alleaume if the choice +lies between them and a full examination of the castle and abbey of +Saint Saviour on the Douve, <i>Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte</i>, the home of the +two Neals, the centre, in the days of the second of the rebellions which +caused William to ride so hard from Valognes to Rye.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> A +characteristic church or two, among them Colomby, with its long lancets, +may be taken on the way; but the great object of the journey is where +the little town of Saint Saviour lies on its slope, with the castle on +the one hand, the abbey on the other, rising above the river at its +feet. The abbey, Neal's abbey, where his monks supplanted an earlier +foundation of canons, has gone through many ups and downs. Its +Romanesque plan remained untouched through a great reconstruction of its +upper part in the later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> Gothic. It fell into ruin at the Revolution, +but one side of the nave and the central saddle-backed tower still +stood, and now the ruin is again a perfect church, where Sisters of +Mercy have replaced the monks of Saint Benedict. Here then a great part +of the work of the ancient lords remains; with the castle which should +be their most direct memorial the case is less clear. Besides round +towers—one great one specially which some one surely must have set down +as Phœnician—the great feature is the huge square tower which forms +the main feature of the building, and which has thoroughly the air of a +Norman keep of the eleventh or twelfth century. But when we come nearer, +there is hardly a detail—round arches of course alone prove +nothing—which does not suggest a later time. And the tower is +attributed to Sir John Chandos, who held the castle in Edward the +Third's time. Did he most ingeniously recast every detail of an elder +keep, or did he choose to build exactly according to the type of an age +long before his own? Anyhow, as far as general effect goes, the tower +thoroughly carries us back to the days of the earlier fame of Saint +Saviour. The view from its top stretches far away over the peninsula of +which it was once the citadel to the backs of the hills which look down +on Cherbourg and the sea, the sea which, if we believe the tale, bore +the fleet of Æthelred when the elder Neal drove back English invaders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +more than three hundred years before Sir John Chandos.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image12.jpg" width="600" height="469" alt="Abbey of Lessay, S.W." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Abbey of Lessay, S.W.</span> +</div> + +<p>The visitor to Saint Saviour may perhaps manage to make his way straight +from that place to Coutances without going back to Valognes. In any case +his main object between Saint Saviour and Coutances will be the great +Romanesque abbey of Lessay; only, by going back to Valognes and taking +the railway to Carentan, he will be able to combine with Lessay the two +very fine churches of Carentan and Periers. Of these, Carentan has +considerable Romanesque portions, the arches of the central lantern and +the pillars of the nave which have been ingeniously lengthened and made +to bear pointed arches. Lessay, we fancy, is very little known. It is +out of the way, and the country round about it, flat and dreary, is +widely different from the generally rich, and often beautiful, scenery +of the district. But few churches of its own class surpass it as an +example of an almost untouched Norman minster, not quite of the first +class in point of scale. We say untouched, because it is so practically, +though a good deal of the vaulting was most ingeniously repaired after +the English wars, just as Saint Stephen at Caen was after the Huguenot +wars. Some miles over the <i>landes</i> bring us again into the hilly region +round the episcopal city, and Coutances is seen on its hill, truly a +city which cannot be hid. Of its lovely minster we once spoke <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>in some +detail;<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> of the city itself we may add that none more truly bespeaks +its origin as a hill-fort. The hill is of no extraordinary height; but +it is thoroughly isolated, not forming part of a range like the hills of +Avranches and Le Mans. And, saving the open place before the +cathedral—perhaps the forum of Constantia—there is not a flat yard of +ground in Coutances. The church itself is on a slope; you walk up the +incline of one street and see the houses sloping down the incline of the +other. In the valley on the west side of the city is a singular +curiosity, several of the arches of a mediæval aqueduct.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Pointed +arches, and buttresses against the piers, are what we are not used to in +such buildings. A road by a few small churches leads to Granville on its +peninsula, with its strange church where Flamboyant and <i>Renaissance</i> +die away into a kind of Romanesque most unlike that of Ragusa, and the +Côtentin has been gone through from north to south. The modern +department and the modern diocese go on further; but the "pagus +Constantinus" is now done with; the land of Avranches, the march against +the Breton, has a history of its own.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> +<h2>THE AVRANCHIN</h2> + +<h3>1876</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> town of Avranches is well known as one of those Continental spots on +which Englishmen have settled down and formed a kind of little colony. A +colony of this kind has two aspects in the eyes of the traveller who +lights upon it. On the one hand, it is a nuisance to find one's self, on +sitting down to a <i>table-d'hôte</i> in a foreign town, in the middle of +ordinary English chatter. Full of the particular part of the world in +which he is, the traveller may hear all parts of the world discussed +from some purely personal or professional aspect, without a single +original observation to add anything to his stock of ideas. On the other +hand, it must be allowed that the presence of an English settlement +anywhere always brings with it a degree of civilisation in many points +such as is not always found in towns of much greater size which our +countrymen do not frequent. But to the historical traveller Avranches is +almost dead. A few stones heaped together are all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> remains of the +cathedral, and another stone marks the sight of the north door where +Henry the Second received absolution for his share in the murder of +Thomas. The city which formed the halting-place of Lanfranc on his way +from Pavia to Bec is now chiefly to be noticed for its splendid site, +and as a convenient starting-point for other places where more has been +spared. Avranches, like Coutances, is a hill-city, and, as regards +actual elevation, it is even more of a hill-city than Coutances. But +then the hill of Coutances is an isolated hill, while Avranches stands +on the projecting bluff of a range. Seen from the sands of Saint +Michael's Bay, the site proclaims itself as one which, before the fall +of its chief ornament, must have been glorious beyond words. It might +have been Laon, as it were, with, at favourable tides at least, the +estuary washing the foot of its hill. What the view is from the height +itself is implied in what has just been said. The bay, with the +consecrated Mount and the smaller Tombelaine by its side, the Breton +coast stretching far away, the Mount of Dol coming, perhaps within the +range of sight, certainly within the range of ideas, the goodly land on +either side of the city, the woods, the fields—for in the Avranchin we +are still in a land of pasture and hedgerows—all tell us that it was no +despicable heritage of his own to which Hugh of Avranches added his +palatine earldom of Chester.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> And if Avranches gave a lord to one great +district of England, England presently gave a lord to Avranches. The +Avranchin formed part of the fief of the Ætheling Henry, the fief so +often lost and won again, but where men had at least some moments of +order under the stern rule of the Lion of Justice, while the rest of +Normandy in the days of Robert was torn in pieces by the feuds of rival +lords and countesses. But musings of this kind would be more to the +point if the city itself had something more to show than a tower or two +of no particular importance—if, in short, the hill of Avranches was +crowned by such a diadem of spires and cupolas as the hill of Coutances. +As it is, Avranches is less attractive in itself than it is as the best +point for several excursions in the Avranchin land. The excursion to the +famous Mount of Saint Michael and its fortified abbey need not here be +dwelled on. No one can walk five minutes in the streets of Avranches +without being reminded that the city is the starting-place for "le mont +Saint-Michel." But no one suggests a visit to Saint James nor even to +Mortain and its waterfalls. Nor should we ourselves suggest a visit to +Saint James, except to those who may be satisfied with a beautiful bit +of natural scenery, heightened by the thought that the spot is directly +connected with the memory of William, indirectly with that of Harold.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span></p><p>When we write "Saint James," we are not translating.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The "castrum +sancti Jacobi" appears as "Saint James" in Wace, and it is "Saint James" +to this day alike in speech and in writing. The fact is worthy of some +notice in the puzzling history of the various forms of the apostolic +names Jacobus and Johannes and their diminutives. <i>Jacques</i> and <i>Jack</i> +must surely be the same; how then came <i>Jack</i> to be the diminutive of +<i>John</i>? Anyhow this Norman fortress bears the name of the Saint of +Compostela in a form chiefly familiar in Britain and Aragon, though it +is not without a cognate in the Italian <i>Giacomo</i>. The English forms of +apostolic names are sometimes borne even now by Romance-speaking owners, +as M. James Fazy and M. John Lemoinne bear witness. But here the name is +far too old for any imitative process of this kind. And it is only as +applied to the place itself that the form "James"<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> is used; the inn +is the "Hôtel Saint-Jacques," and "Saint-Jacques" is the acknowledged +patron of the parish. Anyhow the effect is to give the name of the place +an unexpectedly English air. Perhaps such an air is not wholly out of +place in the name of a spot which was fortified against the Breton by a +prince who was to become King of the English,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> and whose fortification +led to a war in which two future and rival Kings of the English fought +side by side.</p> + +<p>For the castle of Saint James was one of the fortresses raised by +William's policy to strengthen the Norman frontier against the +<i>Bret-Welsh</i> of Gaul, just as in after days he and his Earls raised +fortresses on English ground to strengthen the English frontier against +the <i>Bret-Welsh</i> of Britain. It stands very near to the border, and we +can well understand how its building might give offence to the Breton +Count Conan, and so lead to the war in which William and Harold marched +together across the sands which surround the consecrated Mount. In this +way Saint James plays an indirect part in English history, and it plays +another when it was one of the first points of his lost territory to be +won back by Henry the Ætheling after his brothers had driven him out of +the Mount and all else that he had.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> But the place keeps hardly +anything but its memories and the natural beauty of its site. A steep +peninsular hill looks down on a narrow and wooded valley with a +<i>beck</i>—that is the right word in the land which contains Caude<i>bec</i> and +<i>Bec</i> Herlouin—running round its base. The church—a strange modern +building with some ancient portions used up again—stands on the extreme +point of the promontory. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> seems the best point for commanding the +whole valley, and we may perhaps guess that a less devout prince than +William would not have scrupled to raise his donjon at least within the +consecrated precinct. But he chose the southern side of the hill, the +side to be sure most directly looking towards the enemy; and church and +castle stood side by side on the hill without interfering with each +other. But the visitor to Saint James—if Saint James should ever get +any visitors—must take care not to ask for the <i>château</i>. If he does, +he will be sent to the other side of the valley, to a modern house, on a +lovely site certainly, and working in some portions of mediæval work, +but which has nothing to do with the castle of the Conqueror. The name +for that, so far as it keeps a name, is "le <i>fort</i>." The open space by +the church is the "place du Fort," and the inquirer will soon find that +on the south the hill-side is scarped and strengthened by a wall. That +is all that is left of the castle of Saint James; but it is enough to +call up memories of days which, from an English as well as from a local +point of view, are worth remembering.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p> +<h2>COUTANCES AND SAINT-LO</h2> + +<h3>1891</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Geoffrey of Mowbray</span>, Bishop of Coutances, appears once in Domesday as +Bishop of Saint-Lo, but it must not therefore be thought that he had his +bishopstool in the town so called, or that the great church of Saint-Lo +was ever the spiritual head of the peninsular land of Coutances. There +is indeed every opportunity for confusion on the subject. The Bishops of +Coutances were lords of Saint-Lo in the present department of La Manche; +but, so far as they were Bishops of Saint-Lo at all, it was of quite +another Saint-Lo, namely, of a church so called in the city of Rouen. +There, when the Côtentin was over-run by the still heathen Northmen, the +Bishops of Coutances took refuge, carrying with them Saint-Lo +himself—<i>Sanctus Laudus</i>, a predecessor in the bishopric—in the form +of his relics. When heathen Northmen were turned into Christian Normans, +the Bishops of Coutances went home again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> but the title which they had +picked up on their travels seems to have stuck to them. As they had to +do with two things, both called Saint-Lo, as well as with their own +city, the error of speech was not wonderful. But, setting aside times of +havoc, when there was nothing left to be head of, Coutances always +remained the formal head, ecclesiastical and civil, of the Côtentin, the +"pagus Constantinus," which took its name from the city. The town of +Saint-Lo has now outstripped Coutances in the matter of temporal honour +as the head of the department of La Manche, though that dignity was not +assigned to it without a good deal of opposition on the part of the +elder seat of rule. The same series of changes gave to ecclesiastical +Coutances, if not a higher dignity, at least a wider jurisdiction. When +the episcopal church of Coutances, after being put to various strange +uses in the revolutionary time, became once more a place of Christian +worship and the head church of the diocese, that diocese was enlarged by +the ecclesiastical territory of Avranches. Avranches and Lisieux have +both vanished from the roll of the six suffragans of the Archbishop of +Rouen, Primate of Normandy. But Avranches has suffered worse things than +Lisieux. The Lexovian bishopstool has passed away; but the church that +held it is still there. From Avranches the church itself has vanished. +It is from its site only that we look down on the wide plain at our +foot, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> Mount of the Archangel in its bay, and the rocks of +Cancale beyond.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>There is no need to describe anew a building so well known as the +cathedral church of Coutances. There is no need to argue against, there +is hardly need to wonder at, the strange belief against which Gally +Knight and others had to fight, that this beautiful example of the fully +developed Early Gothic was really the work of that Bishop Geoffrey who +blessed the Norman host on its march from Hastings to Senlac.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> That +belief was indeed a strange one. It implied that some nameless genius at +Coutances had, in the middle of the eleventh century, suddenly, at a +blow, invented the fully developed style of the thirteenth—that this +great discovery was kept hidden at Coutances till the very end of the +twelfth—that then various people in Normandy, France, England, and +above all Saint Hugh of Burgundy, began to make many, and at first not +very successful, attempts to imitate what the men of one spot in the +Côtentin had known, and must have been proud of, for a century and a +half. The local invention of Perpendicular at Gloucester, and its +spreading abroad by the great Bishops of Winchester forty or fifty years +later, is a remarkable fact; but it is a small matter to this fiction. +So strange a vagary need no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span>longer be discussed; but it is worthy of a +place in the memory among odd delusions. As an honest delusion, it is at +least more respectable than making Alfred found things at Oxford and +Ripon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image13.jpg" width="600" height="483" alt="Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, S.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, S.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>In position, Saint-Lo, town and church, outdoes Coutances. It is, we +believe, a favourite resort of artists, and it deserves to be so. At +Coutances we are on a hill. If we draw near to it by railway, we see the +three towers of the cathedral church soaring far above us, and even the +two towers of Saint Peter are by no means on our own level. The town +stands on a height, at the end of a range of high ground; yet somehow +there is not the same feeling of a hill town about Coutances which there +is in many other places—one thing perhaps is that there is no river. +The hill of Coutances is not a hill simply rising from a plain; there +are valleys on two sides, and we ask for a stream at the bottom of them +as naturally as we do at Edinburgh. At Saint-Lo, the Vire, with the +rocky hill rising high above it, is the chief feature of the landscape. +And as we pass by on the railway and look up, the two graceful spires of +the church of Our Lady seem quite worthy of their position. We feel at +once that the characteristic feature of Normandy and England, the +central tower, is missing. But, accepting a French effect instead of a +Norman one, the impression made by Saint-Lo and its church is a very +striking one. We must go on to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> Coutances and come back to Saint-Lo, and +then walk along the banks of the Vire if we wish to take in the fact, +that even the spires of Saint-Lo, much less the church as a whole, have +no claim to belong to the same class of buildings as Coutances. In +neither case is the church built, as that of Avranches must have been, +like Durham, on the brow of the hill. There is a considerable space, at +Saint-Lo a busy market, between the west front and the steep. From any +point in this space the effect of the west front of Saint-Lo is striking +beyond its actual size. The towers are of different dates, and do not +altogether match, which has the effect of thrusting the central door +rather out of its place. But the front is a grand one all the same. One +must go down below, and see from how many points the towers, and even +the spires, are lost among the houses, before we find out how +comparatively small they are. And in the body of the church we see a +marked example of an opportunity thrown away. That the church is much +smaller than that of Coutances is a fact of less importance than it +would be in England. A characteristic of French architecture is the +constant reproduction of the designs of great churches on a much smaller +scale. This is a thing which we know nothing of in England, where the +parish church and the minster are buildings of two different types, each +of which may be equally good in its own way. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> church of Saint Peter +at Coutances, much smaller than that of Saint-Lo, will illustrate this +position. And there are plenty of instances, from graceful miniatures +like Norrey and Les Petits Andelys up to churches of considerable size. +But at Saint-Lo, whatever little outline the church has apart from its +spires it gets from a series of gables along the aisles, something like +those of Saint Giles at Oxford. Inside we have a not very successful +<i>hallenkirche</i>, three bodies without a clerestory, Bristol-fashion. Much +of the work is good enough of its kind, and the late stained glass is +worth studying; but, as soon as we leave the west front behind there is +a strange lack of design in the whole building, inside and out.</p> + +<p>But Notre-Dame is not the only church at Saint-Lo. Both De Caumont and +Gally Knight have a good deal to tell us about the church of Saint +Cross, which it seems that some antiquaries had carried back to the days +of Charles the Great. <i>Distinguendum est.</i> To carry back a piece of +Romanesque of any date to a date too early, but still within Romanesque +times, is a mistake of quite another kind from attributing finished work +of the thirteenth century to Geoffrey of Mowbray in the eleventh. Gally +Knight himself erred more slightly in the same way. He knew very well +that the work at Saint Cross could not be of the eighth century; but he +took it for the eleventh instead of the twelfth. No<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> one can blame him +for that at the time when he wrote. But both Gally Knight and De Caumont +saw some things at Saint Cross which are not to be seen now, and some +things are to be seen now which they did not see. They saw a +twelfth-century church which had gone through some changes and +additions, and they also saw some considerable monastic buildings, of +part of which, a vault with what seems to be a rather classical column, +De Caumont gives a drawing. Here it is, if anywhere, that one would look +for the earlier date of Romanesque. But all outside the church itself +has perished. The church itself has, since De Caumont's visit, been +greatly enlarged in imitation of the twelfth-century work, and the +twelfth-century work itself has been frightfully scraped and scored +after the manner of restoration. Still several bays of arcade and +triforium are left in such a state that we can see the original design +of round arches with Norman mouldings on piers with shafts with foliated +caps. The church, before it was pulled about, must have been a fine one, +but assuredly of the twelfth century and not of any earlier time.</p> + +<p>One bit of detail which Gally Knight saw may still be seen untouched. +"The west entrance," he says, "is barbarously adorned with a grotesque +group, in high relief, which represents the Subjugation of the Evil +Spirit." The power subjugated takes the shape of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> creature, said to be +a toad, with his head downwards. The work of subjugation is done by two +men below pulling at his head with ropes.</p> + +<p>Though Romanesque is the thing which one wishes most to see, yet a +church in such a case as Saint Cross at Saint-Lo teaches one less than +the smaller churches at Coutances. Both of these, Saint Peter and Saint +Nicolas, aim at reproducing on a smaller scale the most distinctive +feature of the episcopal church. This is the grand central octagon, with +its <i>quasi</i>-domical treatment inside. But in both of the smaller +churches it is coupled with a single western tower. This arrangement of +a central and western tower is rare in England, because in most of the +cases where it once existed one or other of the towers has fallen down. +In France it is somewhat more usual, and in Auvergne it is the rule. +Here at Saint Peter's a vast deal of effective and stately outline is +crowded into a wonderfully small space on the ground. The two towers, +tall and massive, rise with a strangely small allowance of nave between +them. Begun in the latest Gothic, carried out in early <i>Renaissance</i>, +their outline is rich but fantastic, and in many points of general view +the three towers of the cathedral do not despise the two of Saint +Peter's as fellows in a most effective piece of grouping. The internal +effect, which the height might have made very striking, is not equal to +the external outline. The discontinuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> impost, the ugliest invention +of French Flamboyant, may perhaps be endured in some subordinate place; +it is intolerable in the main piers of a church. The treatment of the +central tower within is very curious; the lantern of the cathedral is +here translated into an Italianising style. In short we have here, as we +have seen in many places, specially at Troyes,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> as we shall see again +in a most marked form at Argentan, that curious process of transition +from mediæval to <i>Renaissance</i> detail which in England we are familiar +with in houses, but which in France is to be largely studied in churches +also. At Saint Nicolas, though the building is later in date and less +striking in design, such work as keeps any style at all is better. Its +nave is free from discontinuous imposts.</p> + +<p>Lastly, at Coutances the mediæval aqueduct, a little way out of the +town, must not be forgotten. There are not many such anywhere, save one +or two in Sicily. It is a pity that of late years the ivy has been +allowed to grow over the arches to that degree that a new-comer would +hardly know whether they were round or pointed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image14.jpg" width="600" height="729" alt="St. Nicolas, Coutances" title="" /> +<span class="caption">St. Nicolas, Coutances, Interior +</span> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p> +<h2>HAUTEVILLE-LA-GUICHARD</h2> + +<h3>1891</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> experienced antiquarian traveller is perfectly familiar with the +doctrine that in many cases it is more satisfactory to find a mere site +than to find anything on the site. Suppose one is castle-stalking in +Maine, suppose one is looking for primæval walls in the Volscian or the +Hernican land. If one does not find the exact thing that one wishes, the +second-best luck is to find the place where it once was, and to find +nothing there. Best of all is to find a fortress of the right age on its +mound surrounded by its ditch; next to this is to find the mound +surrounded by its ditch, but supporting nothing at all. If there is +nothing at all, there is nothing that stands in our way, whereas +anything of a later date does stand in our way. But what are we to say +when we cannot even find the site, and when the name seems meant for +some other place than that to which maps and common fame attach it? So +it is with what would be, if we could only find it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> one of the most +memorable sites, in its own way of being memorable, to be found in all +Western Normandy. We say in its own way of being memorable, because, +even if we found ditch and mound and tower all as they should be, their +claim to historic reverence would not be that they themselves were the +witnesses of any specially memorable acts. Its sound has gone forth into +all lands; but it is in lands far away from the site that we seek that +the deeds were wrought which made the name of the site famous. We are at +Coutances; we seek for Hauteville. The Hauteville that we seek is not +that which seems to occur most naturally to the mind of Coutances. It is +not Hauteville-<i>sur-mer</i>; it is the namesake that bears the speaking +surname of Hauteville-<i>la-Guichard</i>. We seek, in short, for the home of +Tancred and his sons. Their statues are now again set up in their niches +on the north side of the church of Coutances. But the artist has surely +given William of the Iron Arm far too mild a look. It is true that he +and all the rest are tricked out as shepherds of the people, in royal, +or at least ducal, apparel. It may be then that even he of the Iron Arm, +when thus attired, ought not to look as one fancies he must have looked +when he sailed into the haven of Syracuse as the brother-in-arms of +George Maniakês and Harold Hardrada.</p> + +<p>As an episode in the history of the world, one is tempted to think that +the fellowship of three such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> warriors as those, each representing the +tongue, the speech, and the mode of warfare of his own folk, is the most +striking scene in the whole story of the house of Hauteville. But it is +naturally the brother whose deeds have had more abiding results who has +made the deepest impression on the minds of men, and who has stamped his +surname on the place of his birth. One might almost have been better +pleased if Hauteville were known as the Hauteville of Tancred himself +rather than by the name of any of his sons. But, if it was to bear the +name of one of his sons, one cannot wonder at the son who was chosen. +Hauteville is Hauteville-<i>la-Guichard</i>, the Hauteville of Robert the +<i>Wiscard</i>, him whom Palermo knows in one character and Rome in another. +A good deal of local history lies hid in these surnames of places. The +place took the name of its lord to distinguish it from other places of +the same name. But we cannot always say why it took the name of this or +that particular lord, that is, in effect, why it took its name in this +or that particular generation. Old Roger of Beaumont, who stayed to look +after Normandy and its duchess while Duke William went to seek a crown +in England, is so distinctly Roger of Beaumont that it seems only fair +that his Beaumont should be known back again as the Beaumont of +Roger.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> His sons are of Meulan, of Leicester, of Warwick, rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> +than of Beaumont. Beaumont-<i>le-Roger</i> is felt at once to be the becoming +name of his home. Nearer to Hauteville, Saint-Jean, between Avranches +and Granville, cradle of all who have written themselves <i>de sancto +Iohanne</i>, is Saint-Jean-<i>le-Thomas</i>, after Thomas, its lord in the days +of Henry the First. His name is written in Orderic, but he is hardly so +famous even as the name-father of Beaumont, much less as the name-father +of Hauteville. One needs to know the exact state of things at Saint-Jean +in the days of Thomas, before one can tell why the place took his name +as its surname rather than the name of any other lord before or after. +But mark that it was the Christian name only that Saint-Jean could take; +it could not, like <i>La Lande-Patry</i> and <i>Longueville-Giffart</i>, take the +surname of the house which was called after itself. But if Hauteville +had to take the name of a Tancreding, Robert was the obvious one to +choose, and his surname of the <i>Wiscard</i> was the most distinctive name +that the family could show. The fame of Robert, the actual founder of +the Apulian duchy and indirectly of the Sicilian kingdom, the ally of +Gregory the Seventh, the deliverer or the destroyer of Rome, the invader +of Eastern Europe, must have quite overshadowed the fame of his elder +brothers. And, while he lived, it must have overshadowed the fame of +Roger of Sicily also.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> Great Count was the younger brother and +the liegeman of the Duke. It was later events which caused the youngest +branch of the house of Hauteville to outstrip all that had gone before +it, to rise in the next generation to the royal crown of Sicily, and in +the female line to the crown of Jerusalem and the crown of Rome.</p> + +<p>It is then the Hauteville of Robert Wiscard, Hauteville-la-Guichard, +that we seek for. As far as the map goes, as far as the road goes, there +is no difficulty. But it is a strange thing that in such books as we are +able to carry with us we can find no account of Hauteville whatever. +Joanne does not mention it; Murray does not mention it; it does not come +within the range of De Caumont's <i>Statistique Routière de la Basse +Normandie</i>. A little local book on Coutances and its neighbourhood looks +upon Hauteville either as too far off or unworthy of notice. Yet the +distance at least, as the map witnesses, is not frightful, and one would +have thought that the mere fact of the setting up of the new statues +would have awakened the writer of the Coutances guidebook to the fact +that such a spot was not far off. Anyhow, if all refuse to describe, the +place seems to describe itself. <i>Hauteville</i>, <i>Alta Villa</i>, must surely +be what its name implies. We may have unluckily forgotten the warning of +Geoffrey Malaterra that Hauteville was not so much called from the +height of any hill ("non quidem tantum pro excellentia alicuius montis +in quo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> sita sit"), but rather prophetically, from the height of power +and glory to which men who went from it should climb ("sed quoniam, ut +credimus, aliquo auspicio ad considerationem praenotantis eventum et +prosperos successus eiusdem villae futurorum haeredum, Dei adiutorio et +sua presenuitate gradatim altioris honoris culmen scandentium"). We look +then for a high place. It might be bold to expect to see the high place +crowned by any actual building of the days of Tancred; but it seems only +reasonable to argue that Hauteville must be <i>Hauteville</i>, that it must +stand high. We feel sure of finding, perhaps, if our hopes are very +daring, the eagle's nest on the top of the rock, or perhaps, what in +Norman scenery is far more likely, the mound, natural or artificial, +with its ditches, rivals, it may be, of Arques. And, where there is so +little chance of finding any building of Tancred's own day, we cherish +the hope that the site of his dwelling may stand wholly void, and may +not have been turned to support any other building of later times.</p> + +<p>In this fairly hopeful frame of mind, we set forth from Coutances to the +north-east. The path at least is easy enough. After some miles of <i>route +nationale</i>, with a fine view of the towers of Coutances for those who +look backwards, we turn off into a <i>route départementale</i>. And all who +are used to French roads know well that a <i>route nationale</i> is always +excellent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> and that a <i>route départementale</i> is always endurable and +something more. We have one or two gentle ups and downs; but we neither +see nor feel anything to suggest the presence or the neighbourhood of an +<i>alta villa</i>. Presently a gentle down rather than a gentle up brings us +to a small village, a church with a good example of the usual +saddle-back tower, and with a few houses around it. We are told, and the +ordnance map confirms the statement, that this is Hauteville, +Hauteville-la-Guichard. Here then is the home of the Norman gentleman of +the twelfth century, whose sons grew into counts and dukes in the +southern lands, and whose remoter descendants wore the crowns of +kingship and of Empire. With this knowledge, we are staggered to find +ourselves, if not actually in a hole, yet in something much nearer to a +hole than to a height, in a spot which, of the two, would seem to be +more fittingly called <i>Basseville</i> than <i>Haute</i>. A slightly rising +ground to the east of the church kindles again some faint hopes, the +more so when the bystanders, again confirmed by the map, point out this +direction as the way to the <i>château</i>. But <i>château</i>, in modern French +use, is a dangerous word, and even the higher ground did not at all +answer our preconceived notion of Hauteville. Still, not to throw away +the faintest chance, we go on in the direction pointed out, trusting to +our natural wits, for we had nothing else to guide us. Our books had +failed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> us; nor did we, as sometimes happens, light on some intelligent +priest or other person more likely to help us than the ordinary +villager. A short further drive through two or three narrower roads and +their turnings brings us to a spot beyond which there is clearly nothing +"carossable" or even "jackassable." We come to two ranges of buildings +standing among fields, buildings which have greatly gone down in the +world, but which proclaim themselves as the remains of a <i>château</i> in +the later French sense, or perhaps only of its outhouses. The modern +<i>château</i> does indeed often enough stand on the site of the ancient +<i>castle</i>; but here were no signs whatever of mound or ditch, though we +ran into several fields to look for them. And, though we were certainly +on higher ground than the church and village, there was nothing at all +to suggest why the name of the place should have been called Hauteville.</p> + +<p>The only hope now is to go back to the village, on the chance either of +finding out something more by the light of nature or of lighting on some +one who can tell us something. To the south of the church, as to the +east, there is some ground rather higher than the village itself; but we +see nothing of a mound, nothing to suggest an <i>alta villa</i>. But some +farm-buildings to the west of the church attract the eye; they are not +of yesterday; a round tower, seemingly belonging to a gateway, suggests +a <i>château</i> which has taken the place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> of a <i>château-fort</i>. And, hard +by, some of our company are led, perhaps by their noses, to an undoubted +ditch, though not exactly a fellow of Arques, Marsala, or Old Sarum. And +it is more than a common ditch; it is deep; it is four-sided, and it +fences in a distinct plot of ground. Our thoughts have come down so low +from the lofty donjon with the vision of which we set out that we begin +to think of the smaller kind of moated houses in our own land. The +rectory at Slymbridge in Gloucestershire had, some years back at least, +a moat round it. Some traces of a moat were not long ago still to be +seen at the Bishop's court-house at Wookey in Somerset. Is it possible +that this unsavoury ditch really marks out the home precinct of the +father of kings? Can it be that Tancred lived within it, perhaps in a +wooden house, defended by a palisade and by such a ditch? We do not like +the guess, but we have no better, and it really is not so absurd as it +sounds. We must remember that, in Tancred's day, at least in Tancred's +youth, the existence of stone castles is a little problematical. It is +certain that there are few or none left of so early a date; but Normandy +has seen so many seasons of the destruction of castles that it is rash +to say positively that there never were any. In Tancred's day and later +we often hear of the "<i>domus defensabilis</i>," as distinguished from the +castle. And, as the famous one at Brionne, which so long defied the arms +of Duke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> William, is defined as "<i>aula lapidea</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> it seems implied +that a "<i>domus defensabilis</i>" might be only "<i>lignea</i>." To be sure the +stone house at Brionne had in the river Rille a ready-made moat in every +way better than the ditch that we have stumbled on at Hauteville. In +England, at the same time, we should have been perfectly satisfied with +a wooden "aula" as the dwelling place of a powerful thegn, but then we +should have looked for it on something of a mound, like the home of +Wiggod at Wallingford. Certainly, a frightfully stinking ditch of no +great width, compassing a square field, is a poor find after the hopes +with which we set out. But, in the absence of all help from books or +men, it is all that we have to offer. We should be glad if anybody would +tell us of something better; but this is all we could make out for +ourselves. The name is hardly a greater difficulty on this lower site +than on the higher ground of the <i>château</i>. It may be then—we hope it +is not so, but it may be—that it was within this ditch that Humphrey +and Drogo and William of the Iron Arm were so carefully brought up by +their good stepmother, that it was here that the Wiscard played his +first childish tricks, with the yet smaller Roger as a willing younger +brother. Tancred's estate, we are told, was not large enough to feed his +two batches of children; that was the reason why they went to seek +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> fortunes so far off. If they had stayed at home, the estate might +possibly have grown; for we are told by their own biographer that it was +the nature of the sons of Tancred, when they saw that anybody else had +anything, to take it to themselves. Perhaps this dangerous tendency +extended only to misbelievers, schismatics, or at least men of other +tongues. Otherwise such vigorous annexers of other men's lands might +have found more than one chance at home, in days of confusion, of +enlarging the estate of Hauteville. In short we may speculate on many +matters; we can only say what we have seen and what we have not. And at +the last moment a frightful thought comes upon us. We have with us one +book of Gally Knight's, but it is only the Norman book. But he wrote +another book, in which the house of Hauteville plays a great part. What +if he went to Hauteville and found out all about it and put it all in +print, only not in his Norman, but in his Sicilian book.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span></p> +<h2>MORTAIN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the course either of a Norman journey or of any study of Norman +matters, the thought is constantly suggesting itself that there is an +important class of people who are always using the names of the places +through which we go, but who seem to attach no meaning to them. The +whole tribe of genealogists, local antiquaries, and the like, are, in +the nature of things, constantly speaking of Norman places, or at least +of the families which take their names from them. But it never seems to +come into their heads that these places are real places still in being +on the face of the earth. What was the state of mind of the endless +people who have spoken of both King Stephen and King John in earlier +stages of being by the strange title of "Earl of Moreton"? Do they think +they took their title from Moreton-in-the-Marsh, or do they mix those +kings up with the Earl of Moreton in Scotland, who died by the maiden a +good while later? And,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> if they try to improve their spelling, and to +give it more of a continental look, perhaps he comes out in some such +shape as "Count of Mortaigne." That is to say, no distinction is made +between <i>Mortain</i>, <i>Moretolium</i> or <i>Moretonium</i>, in the Avranchin, and +<i>Mortagne</i>, <i>Mauritania</i>, in Perche. Yet the two towns are both there, +each in its old place, though in official speech we have no longer to +speak of the Avranchin, but of the department of La Manche, no longer of +Perche, but of the department of Orne. There are railways, branch +railways certainly, which lead to both; there is no difficulty in +getting to either, and Mortain at least, the one most closely connected +with our own history, is very well worth going to indeed.</p> + +<p>The position of Mortain, to say nothing else, is certainly one of the +most beautiful to be found in any region which does not aspire to the +sublimity of mountain scenery. The waterfalls have been famous ever +since Sir Francis Palgrave connected them with the story of the place +and its counts. But the whole position of town, castle, everything about +Mortain, is lovely. The town itself in a strange way suggests Taormina. +It stands in somewhat the same sort on a kind of ledge on a hill-side, +with higher hills rising behind it. But while Taormina looks straight +down on the Ionian Sea, Mortain looks down only on the narrow dale of +the little river Cance, with its steep banks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> rising on the other side. +Yet there are spots among the limestone rocks which rise about and above +Mortain which call up other Sicilian memories. If the traveller intrusts +himself to the care of a local guide he will certainly be carried to the +little chapel of Saint Michael overhanging the town. From that height he +will be rewarded by a wide view, the most part of which, over the rich +Norman plain, is as unlike Sicily as may be. But, on another side, the +greater Mount of the Archangel may be seen far away floating on its bay, +and the position of the chapel itself—old, but modernised and no great +work of art—called up for a moment that chapel of Saint Blaise on the +Akragantine rocks, which once was the temple of Dêmêtêr and her Child. +And, if one only had the means of finding out, it may be that the +Archangel displaced some Celtic powers, such as those which Gregory of +Tours still knew as abiding on the Puy de Dôme of Auvergne. But the life +of Mortain as Mortain is, or rather as Mortain, with its counts and its +canons, once was, began at a lower point, at a point lower than the town +itself. The Moretolian akropolis, like some others, was not an akropolis +in the literal sense, for the good reason that the point of most value +for military purposes was not the most lofty. The windings of the little +stream allow of the projection of a bold peninsular rock, joined by a +kind of isthmus to the main hill on which the town stands. Here stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> +the castle; town and church rise above it, and higher hills rise above +town and church. But no higher point was so well suited for the purposes +of a great and strong fortress. On that spot therefore the castle of +Mortain arose; the town, the church, the suburb on the opposite height +with its smaller church, the house of nuns above the waterfalls, the +Archangel's chapel on the highest point of all, were alike satellites of +the castle. They came into being, because the castle had come into +being. Count Robert, the brother of the Conqueror, founded the great +church of Mortain; but he founded it only because some one before him +had founded the castle.</p> + +<p>The castle is gone; a few pieces of wall on the rock are all that +remains. Mortain is now ruled, not by a count, but by a sub-prefect, and +the sub-prefect has made his home on the site of the home of the count. +The sub-prefect of Mortain is therefore in one sort to be envied above +all sub-prefects, and even prefects too. Such functionaries are commonly +quartered in some dull spot in the middle of a town. The sub-prefect of +Mortain dwells, and doubtless goes through the duties of his +sub-prefecture, in a fair house in a fair garden. That house is the +<i>château</i> that is, on the site of the <i>château-fort</i> that was, looking +down on the valley, looking up at the hills, looking across at the +church which marks the hermitage of the Blessed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> Vital. Whether from any +point he can actually look over on the lesser waterfall, one must be the +sub-prefect or his guest to know. Such is the change, and perhaps one +should not regret it; a sub-prefect is certainly a more peaceful +representative of authority than a mediæval count. But he is less +picturesque and less ancient; and his dwelling follows the pattern of +its inhabitant. Sub-prefects are a fruit of the principles of 1789, and +it would doubtless be easy to find out who was the first of the +sub-prefects of Mortain. Nor is it hard to find out who was the first of +the counts. We came upon him in Malger, son of Duke Richard the +Fearless. But we are tempted to think that the first of the counts of +Mortain need not have been absolutely the first man to make himself a +stronghold on the peninsula rock of Mortain, whether for his own defence +or for the better harrying of his neighbours.</p> + +<p>From Count Malger the castle of Mortain, and all that went with the +castle of Mortain, passed to his son William the Warling.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Such seems +to be the obvious English shape of <i>Warlencus</i>; but we have a natural +curiosity to know what a <i>Warling</i> is, and why William was so called. +The name has an attractive sound, and some have seen in it that same +approach to a <i>warlock</i> which Gibbon saw to a <i>wiseacre</i> in the surname +of Robert Wiscard. We have also a natural curiosity to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> know whether +Duke William really had any good reason for banishing him, and thereby +giving the Wiscard another comrade in the Apulian wars. We care more for +the reputation of William the Great than for that of William the +Warling: the accuser of the Warling too was the first recorded +Bigod.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> That is, he was the first who bore that name as a surname; +for Normans in general were scoffed at by Frenchmen as <i>bigods</i>, +<i>bigots</i>,—never mind the spelling or the meaning—and also as drinkers +of beer. We have that reverence for a much later Bigod that we had +rather not think that any Bigod told lies; but there is an awkward oath +which an intermediate Bigod took at the time of the election of Stephen. +So we will not venture to go beyond the fact that Duke William gave the +lands of the Warling to his half-brother Robert. We know him on Senlac; +we know him in Cornwall; we know him through all the western lands; we +know him most of all on that Montacute of his founding which once was +Leodgaresburh, scene of the Invention of the Holy Cross of Waltham.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>The West-Saxon knew Count Robert only as a spoiler, the Norman of +Mortain knew him as a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> ecclesiastical founder. In 1082 he founded +the collegiate church of Saint Evroul "in castro Moretonii" for a Dean +and eight Canons, to whom seven more were added by other benefactors. He +also built or rebuilt the church, and, just as in the case of Harold at +Waltham, the language of the charter seems to imply that he built the +church first and then founded the canons to serve in it. There was a +time—it seems not so very long ago—when Gally Knight had to fight +against people who believed that the present church was of Count +Robert's own building. So to believe was indeed one degree less +grotesque than to believe that the far more advanced church of Coutances +was earlier still. Gally Knight easily saw that there was nothing in the +church which could be of Count Robert's time except the fine Romanesque +doorway on the south side. And even that we should now call too advanced +for Count Robert's own work; we should set it down for the last finish +of a building which doubtless took some time to make complete in all its +parts.</p> + +<p>It is common enough in England to find a grand doorway of the twelfth +century left in a church where everything else has been rebuilt. Later +builders clearly admired them and spared them. Much more would this be +the case at Mortain, where the building of the new church must have +begun no very long time after the adding of this last finish to the old. +The style<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> of the building is Transition, and advanced Transition; it is +all but early Gothic. The pointed arch alone is used; the only trace of +Romanesque feeling is to be seen in the short columns of the arcade, and +in the extreme simplicity of the triforium and clerestory, a single +unadorned lancet in each. The vaulting is naturally a little later; that +at least, with the English-looking shafts from which it springs, is in +the fully developed Pointed style.</p> + +<p>The plan of the church of Saint Evroul, Mortain, is as simple as a +church that has aisles can be. We were going to say that it is a perfect +basilica; but no; the basilica commonly has the transepts and the arch +of triumph. At Mortain the same simple arcade runs round nave, choir, +and apse without break of any kind. Within the building the effect of +this austere and untouched simplicity—no one at Mortain has altered a +window or added a chapel—is perfectly satisfactory. Many buildings are +larger and more enriched; not many can be said to be more perfect +wholes. Save in the matter of multiplied aisles within and flying +buttresses without, Mortain may pass for Bourges in small. And, just as +at Bourges, the external outline is less satisfactory than the internal +effect. A single body of this kind has in itself no outline at all; it +depends on its tower or towers. At Mortain the usual central tower of a +great Norman church could not be; but neither has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> Saint Evroul the two +Western towers of Saint-Lo and Séez; the arrangement designed was rather +a development of the side towers common in the smaller churches of the +district. A tower on each side was designed and begun. They stand near +the east end; but they are not eastern towers like those of Geneva and +many German churches. They stand outside the aisles, so as not to +interrupt the continuous design within. They therefore do not really +group with the apse; they are detached towers whose lowest stage just +touches that of the church. But we are speaking as if both towers were +there. In truth only the southern one was carried up, and that only to a +height very little above the ridge of the roof, and there furnished with +a saddle-back. Such a tower lends the building hardly any increase of +outline in the distance, and in a near view it is chiefly remarkable for +the oddness of the wonderfully long coupled windows on the west side, +which are not continued all round. Save only the simple and graceful +west front and the general goodness of the design and execution, the +beauties of the church of Mortain are certainly to be sought within.</p> + +<p>The castle looks up at the church, which stands on the rather steep +slope of the hill, the effect of which is that the east end can hardly +be seen, except from a considerable distance. Above it is the <i>hospice</i>, +with the fragment of a church with a saddle-back to its central<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> tower. +Above again is the chapel of Saint Michael. Of quite another value from +Saint Michael is a church a little way out of Mortain, in the near +neighbourhood of the waterfalls, with rocks above it and rocks below. +This is the church of nuns known as <i>l'Abbaye Blanche</i>, a foundation of +Count William of Mortain in 1105. As the next year he was taken at +Tinchebray and kept in prison for the rest of his days, he was not +likely to do much in the way of building. The church described long ago +by Gally Knight and De Caumont is palpably later than his day. It is of +the Transition, and it is a much less advanced example of the Transition +than the church of Mortain. Whatever Count William meant to found, the +actual house was Cistercian, and the church carries Cistercian severity +to its extremest point. One thinks of Kirkstall; but Kirkstall, plain as +it is, drew majesty from its grand and simple outline; the White Abbey +is small; it has, through the lack of a central tower, no outline +without, and its small scale hinders the effect of Kirkstall.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> One +might even say that, in buildings of this class—not in those of more +elaborate design—something is gained, as with the monuments of Rome, by +being somewhat out of repair. Anyhow, in connexion with Mortain, the +White Abbey does not lack architectural importance. It is very odd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> if +anybody took the collegiate church to be the older. The White Abbey is a +truly Cistercian building, a simple cross with a flat east end, no +aisles to the nave, but chapels east of the transepts. It follows the +usual law of Transitional buildings. The main constructive arches are +pointed; the windows are round-headed in the eastern part, pointed in +the western. The cloister and chapter-house have round arches; the +remains of the cloister have small single shafts, not the Saracenic +coupling to which we have got used in Italy, Sicily, and Southern Gaul. +In an odd position to the west of the church, forbidding any west front, +is an undercroft with columns with good, but not very rich, +twelfth-century capitals, clearly of a piece with the cloister.</p> + +<p>Lastly, on the opposite side of the valley, forming a picturesque object +on the road from Mortain to the White Abbey, is the small plain church +of Neufbourg. The spot marks the solitary dwelling of the Blessed Vital, +him who strove to make peace between the contending brothers at +Tinchebray, and who gave up his prebend at Mortain and all that he had, +to dwell as a hermit amid the woods and rocks.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> The church, bating a +few later insertions, is a perfect Transitional cross church, with a +flat east end and no aisles. In this part of Normandy the small churches +that one lights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> on in the villages, though commonly of pleasing +outline, have seldom any remarkable work. In this they are distinguished +in a marked way from the wonderful series of parish churches round Caen +and Bayeux. Those we are tempted to compare with the churches of our own +Holland, Marshland, and Northern Northamptonshire. But the comparison +does not strictly apply. In each case there is a series of notable +churches which never were collegiate or monastic. But in the English +district the churches are, as parish churches, of considerable size, +sometimes indeed very large, though never affecting the character of a +minster. The churches in the Bessin are mainly small, but of singular +excellence of work, largely Romanesque of the twelfth century. We may +come to some of them before we have done.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span></p> +<h2>MORTAIN TO ARGENTAN</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> great object in the parts of Mortain is to see the historic site of +Tinchebray, so closely connected with Mortain in its history, though the +two places are, and seem always to have been, in different divisions, +ecclesiastical and civil. We debate whether Tinchebray can be best got +at from Mortain, Vire, or Flers. Mortain would be the best way by +railway, if only trains ran on every part of the line. But between +Sourdeval and Tinchebray no trains now run. We rule then that Tinchebray +will be best got at by road from Flers, and owing to the gap on the +railway, the way by train from Mortain to Flers is by Vire. We thus get +a few hours at Vire. It is the Feast of the Assumption; the great church +is crowded with worshippers. It is therefore impossible to make a study +of its interior. But we can see that it has a grand nave, nearly of the +same style as Mortain, but loftier. There are many additions and changes +in the later styles, and the only tower is at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> side and of no great +height. We would fain see more of this church on some less venerated +day. Then there is the gateway with the tower-belfry; there is the +donjon on its mound, crowning another of the peninsular heights on which +castles rose, this time a real peninsula, with the river below from +which the town takes its name. There is a glimpse to be taken of the +famous valley of Vire, and we go back to the station to betake us to +Flers. It is not altogether for the sake of its own merits that we go to +Flers, but because we have ruled that it is on the whole the best place +from whence to make the journey to Tinchebray. Flers, we imagine, is as +old as other places; but there seems to be nothing to say about it. It +has no church of any importance, it has a respectable castle of late +mediæval lines, standing in a real moat. This has become in an odd way a +dependency of a later house, which happily has not swallowed it up. +Flers itself has of late years risen to some importance as a +manufacturing town. And we are bound to say that these French +manufacturing towns look much cleaner and tidier than their fellows in +England. But for historical and antiquarian purposes Flers counts for +very little. And it is, after all, possible that it may not be the best +starting point for Tinchebray. We cannot say till we have made the +attempt from Vire.</p> + +<p>We had meant to go by carriage from Flers to Tinchebray, and to take on +the way La Lande-Patry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> the house of that William Patry who appears in +Wace as having entertained Earl Harold as a guest at the time of his +stay in Normandy. And we did get to La Lande-Patry another day. Strange +to say, while De Caumont spoke of traces of the castle in the past +tense, Joanne, so much later, spoke of them in the present. At any rate, +the thing was worth trying; one might at least muse on the spot. We +found the place a little way from Flers, a church and a few houses, +called distinctively La Lande-patry, as distinguished from a +neighbouring village called by some such name as <i>La Fontaine de Patry</i>. +The church is not quite wholly new, though it is mostly so; but there is +nothing that could have been built or looked on by any one who received +Harold. Nor do we distinctly see anything in the way of mounds or +ditches. And yet we flatter ourselves that we have lighted on the site. +He who has read Wace's story of Duke William's ride from Valognes and of +his greeting by Hubert of Rye will remember how Hubert was standing +"entre le moutier et la motte."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The "moutier" and the "motte," the +church and the castle, have, in these places, a way of standing near +together. So, having got the church and marked that it stands on a bit +of high ground with a slope to the south-east, we run down a lane and +into a field to the north-west, and there find a charming site for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> +"motte." The little hill rises with a fair amount of steepness above a +flat piece of land with a small stream wriggling about in it. Then we go +on and find that there is a near slope to the north-east also, so we +have our "moutier" and the almost certain site of our "motte." They are +fixed, as they should be, on one end of a peninsular hill, though we +must confess that the hill is not very lofty. Here then, we feel fairly +satisfied, it was that William Patry—written, it seems, in Latin +<i>Patricius</i>—welcomed as a peaceful guest the Earl whom in after-days he +was to meet in arms as King on the day of the great battle.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>But Tinchebray is much more than La Lande-Patry, and the site is much +more certain. There it was, as Englishmen at the time deemed, that the +assize of God's judgment on Senlac was reversed after forty years.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +England had been won by the Duke of the Normans; Normandy was now to be +won by a King of the English. To be sure the English King was the son of +the Norman Duke; but he was born in England; he spoke the English +tongue; Englishmen had chosen him to be their king rather than his +purely Norman brother. King Henry's host was most likely far more +largely Norman—specially West-Norman—than English; the chief men above +all were Norman; still there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> were Englishmen in it, and those +Englishmen looked on the fight as a national struggle and on the result +as a national victory. William of Malmesbury witnesses to the feeling; +it is odd that there is not a word of it in "Ordericus Angligena," +writing at Saint-Evroul. We read our Orderic; we read the little that +there is in Wace; we read the contemporary account in a letter by a +Norman partisan of Henry. We then go forth to make out what we can of +the site, knowing perfectly well that we shall not find a castle +standing up as at Falaise.</p> + +<p>The railway takes us from Flers to Montsecret junction, and from +Montsecret junction to Tinchebray station. We are looking out for a +possible site for the battle, and we soon rule that the ground where the +station itself stands, the flat ground to the north of the town, will do +perfectly well for the purpose; but we do not as yet know whether there +may not be some other site which may do equally well. We walk up from +the station, and we find Tinchebray itself a somewhat larger town than +we had looked for, though still but small. It strikes us almost at once +that it is a town of the same class as Carlisle, Stirling, and +Edinburgh, where a single long street, with more or less of slope, leads +up to a castle at one end. Here at Tinchebray it is the east end, where +the castle hill rises boldly enough over the little stream of the +Noireau, the Norman Blackwater,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> which gives a surname to that Condé +which became the seat of princes. On the opposite side of the narrow and +grassy valley rise higher hills on which King Henry may well have +planted his <i>Malvoisin</i>. To the south, the hills have withdrawn to a +greater distance; the castle hill rises above a meadow which in times +past seems to have been a marsh. On the northern side, the hill slopes +away more gradually to the plain. Here the castle must have trusted +wholly to its own defences. It is on this north side only, where the +railway runs, that the battle could have been fought. For the fight of +Tinchebray really was a battle, one of the very few pitched battles of +the age. The campaign indeed began in an attack on the fortress; but it +grew into something more on both sides. And it is only to the north that +there was room for the operations of two armies of any size; the earlier +besieging could take place from all points, but specially, one would +think, from the east and north. But we have to make out these things as +well as we can from the look of the ground. The contemporary accounts +give us the facts; but they give them without local colouring.</p> + +<p>Of the buildings of the castle fairly full accounts have been preserved, +which may be studied in a History of Tinchebray in three volumes by the +Abbé L.V. Dumaine (Paris: 1883). It is a book most praiseworthy for +bringing together all manner of local facts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> of all manner of dates. And +it is full of plans and plates to illustrate particular subjects. For +historical criticism we do not look; but we should have liked a clear +plan of the castle and town, and, if possible, the reproduction of some +old drawing of the castle, such as one often finds. As things are, we +have to put up with M. Dumaine's description. Towards the river and the +marsh the castle trusted mainly to its natural defences; but at least on +the side towards the town it had a ditch which has now vanished. The +gates are gone, but the likeness survives of a building near the eastern +gate with two pointed arches rising from a pillar, known as <i>Les +Porches</i>. Here was the <i>Champ Belle-Noe</i>, and on the hill on the +opposite site of the valley was <i>Beaulieu</i>. The names were not ill +deserved; the stream and its accompaniments make a pleasant look-out. +But of the buildings of the castle nothing now is left; the utmost that +we can do is to make out, not the eastern gate itself, but its site. No +walls and bulwarks stand up; we must be content with calling up an +imagination what there once was. But that is enough; the castle of +Henry's day standing up would be best of all; a simple empty space would +be next best; but the scattered buildings of the little suburb which +occupies the castle site do not seriously hinder us from understanding +what we want to understand. In other lines all that Tinchebray has to +show is a desecrated fragment of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> the church of Saint Remigius just +outside the castle. Here is a central tower with a very short eastern +limb. On the eastern face of the tower is a Romanesque arcade, so very +simple and even rude that one is inclined to assign it to a time a good +bit earlier than the day of Tinchebray. But there is no such arcade on +the other sides, and the western arch of the tower is pointed. What are +we to infer when the place is locked and it is hopeless trying to get +the key? We do at least remember that the four lantern-arches at Saint +David's are not all of the same date; and we hope that, whenever the +pointed arch was made, the plain arcade was there on the 28th day of +September, 1106, just forty years after the father of the contending +princes had landed at Pevensey.</p> + +<p>Our accounts are not very clear in their topography, and they do not +distinctly point out the site of the battle. The relieving force under +Duke Robert and Count William came from Mortain—that is, from the +south-west. A striking tale is told of their march. In crossing the +forest of <i>Lande-Pourrie</i> to the south of Tinchebray the army heard mass +under a tree from the mouth of Vital, the holy solitary of Neufbourg. +Count William was his lord, if one who had renounced the world could be +said to have an earthly lord, and he was only in his allegiance if he +accompanied the forces of Mortain. The object of the holy man was to +reconcile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> the brothers, and he made an attempt on the mind of Henry +also. But, according to Orderic, the King of the English was able to +show that the fault rested wholly with Robert, and that he himself had +entered Normandy only from the purest motives. Anyhow arms were to +decide. Only on what spot? The south side of the castle, the natural +approach from Mortain, gave no opportunities for fighting an open +battle, hardly even for an assault on the castle. The ducal army, with +William of Mortain and the terrible Robert of Bellême, must have gone +round to some other point. The name of <i>Champ Henriet</i>, borne by a site +to the west of the town, therefore away from the castle, does not seem +to prove much. The north side seems to furnish the best fighting-ground, +and it is the weakest side of the castle. The King's forces would most +likely be on that side, and the Duke would come round to attack them. +But one cannot pretend to certainty.</p> + +<p>The combatants, some of them, awaken a more lively interest than the +immediate scene of their exploits. It is hard to throw ourselves into +the feeling of those men of the time who saw in the fight of Tinchebray +a national victory of Englishmen over Normans. In some sort it was so; +from that day no once could say that a Duke of the Normans held England; +it was the King of the English who held Normandy. And the invasion of +Normandy by Englishmen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> and their King, and the fighting of the +victorious battle on the forty years' anniversary of the Conqueror's +landing, could not have failed to strike men's minds. One strange +turning-about of things indeed there was. The man whom Englishmen had +once chosen as their King, the heir of Alfred, Cerdic, and Woden, fought +at Tinchebray in the following of Duke Robert. Eadgar and Robert had +been comrades in the Crusade, and the two men were not unlike in +character. Neither could ever act for himself; both could sometimes act +for others. And if Eadgar thought at all, he may have seen a rival in +Henry, while he assuredly could not have seen one in Robert. Anyhow the +Ætheling who had marched on York with Waltheof and Mærleswegen now +marched on Tinchebray with William of Mortain and Robert of Bellême. +Englishmen may well have seen a truer countryman in the son of the +Conqueror, born in England, chosen to his crown by Englishmen and +leading Englishmen to battle, than in the grandson of Æthelred, born in +Hungary, and fighting alongside of the foreign oppressors whom England +and her King had cast out. And the best and the worst of the warrior +princes and nobles of the time were there on opposite sides. With Duke +Robert came Robert of Bellême, no longer of Shrewsbury or Arundel. With +King Henry came the Count of Maine, Helias of La Flèche.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span></p><p>Orderic witnesses to the presence of Englishmen in the battle. The +contemporary letter-writer only implies it by mentioning others, of whom +he speaks a little scornfully, as well as the men of Bayeux, Avranches, +and Coutances, and the Breton and Mansel allies. When Robert of Torigny +speaks of the "acies Anglorum," he doubtless simply means, according to +a very common form of speech, the force of the King of the English, +whatever they might be, either "genere" or "natione." But all who were +under the King's immediate command had in some sort to become Englishmen +in the hour of battle. Like Brihtnoth and Harold, King Henry stood and +waited for the enemy on foot. So did Randolf of Bayeux and the younger +William of Warren; so did the wary counsellor who had little love for +Englishmen, Robert of Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and presently to be +Earl of Leicester, forefather in the female line of another Earl who +loved them well. Seven hundred horsemen only kept the two flanks of the +infantry. The main body of the horse, Breton and Mansel, stood apart. +King Henry's footmen, perhaps with some little advantage of the ground, +stood as firm in their ranks as the fathers of some of them had stood +forty years before when the lord of Meulan was foremost in the charge +against them. They bore up against every charge of the ducal force till +Count Helias, with his reserve, chose a happy moment and broke in on +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> assailants with his horsemen. The lord of Bellême fled for his +life; the Duke of the Normans and the Count of Mortain became the +prisoners of their conqueror and near kinsman.</p> + +<p>The prison of Count William was a strait one. Henry might fairly look on +him as a traitor, and it was the general belief that he paid for his +treason with his eyes. Here we may perhaps see the groundwork for the +foolish story that Duke Robert's fate was equally hard. But Henry was +far too wise to commit so useless a crime. The captive Duke spent the +remaining twenty-eight years of his life in this castle, and that, +treated with all honour, but kept under such restraint as was needful, +specially after he had once tried to get away altogether. He did not +even cease to be Duke of the Normans. His brother administered his duchy +for him; but he never took the ducal title while Robert lived. Robert, +in short, was in much the same case as Henry III. was at the hands of +Earl Simon. To be carefully looked after at Bristol or Cardiff must have +been dull work for one who had scaled the walls of Jerusalem; but in his +brother's keeping Robert assuredly never had to lie in bed for want of +clothes. As for his comrade Eadgar, he was let go free altogether. The +crowned King had no need to fear the momentary King-elect of forty years +before. We only wish to know whether he did himself live to so +preternatural an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> age as to be a pensioner of Henry II., or whether he +who bears his name in the accounts of that reign is a son of whom +history has no tale to tell.</p> + +<p>We go back from Tinchebray to Flers. Next day the main line takes us to +Argentan. The name of <i>Tenarcebrai</i> is written in our own Chronicles; so +is that of <i>Argentses</i>; only is that really Argentan or only Argences?</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span></p> +<h2>ARGENTAN</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A good</span> many of the places which we go through on such a journey as we +are now taking in Western Normandy, full as they are of historic and +local interest on particular grounds, might easily fail to attract, not +only the ordinary tourist, but even the general antiquarian traveller. +No one, for instance, need go to La Lande-Patry, unless he is anxious to +get a better understanding of a single sentence of the <i>Roman de Rou</i>. +Even at Tinchebray the strictly historic interest is all. Unless we +except that single arcade on the tower of St. Remigius, there is really +nothing memorable to show in the shape of either church or castle. With +Argentan the case is different. Any one who has a turn for mediæval +antiquities in any shape would surely reckon that town as one of high +interest. With no such single memory as the great fight of Tinchebray, +it plays a certain part in history through many ages; the local history +of the town itself is remarkable, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> its existing monuments are of +various kinds and instructive in several ways. And the means of getting +there are as simple as any means well can be; for Argentan is a +principal station on the line from Paris to Granville. It is also a +station on the great cross line from Caen to Le Mans. This position +makes it a good centre for seeing several places in various directions, +to say nothing of others for which none of the many railways of Normandy +has as yet done anything. In the journey now recorded it served as a +centre for Falaise and Séez, and for what will to most people be the +less familiar names of Exmes and Almenèches, and it might easily have +been made a centre for other places.</p> + +<p>Argentan is a kind of town to which it would be hard to find an exact +fellow in England. It is not the head of any district; it is not the +seat of any great ecclesiastical foundation; such importance as it has +in history seems to have come from the presence of a castle which not +uncommonly received princely sojourners. Yet it is plainly something +more than one of those towns which have simply sprung up at the gate of +a castle. It has one main characteristic of a class of towns much +greater than its own: the fortress and the great church stand side by +side in its most prominent quarter. That in the general view the church +is far more conspicuous than the fortress is the result of later havoc; +but we are surprised to find that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> a church of such dignity in itself +and placed in such a position as the chief church of Argentan was never +the seat of abbot or dean. Falaise is now a larger town than Argentan; +but we feel that at Falaise the town has simply grown up at the foot of +the castle hill. Saint Gervase at Falaise is no fellow to the mighty +fortress on the <i>felsen</i>, as Saint German of Argentan must have been to +the <i>donjon</i> of Argentan, even when that <i>donjon</i> was better seen than +it is now. The name of Argentan does not at once lead us to some Gaulish +tribe or to some Roman prince; but it does not, like that of Falaise, at +once carry its own meaning with it in the speech of some or other of the +Teutonic conquerors of Gaul. We feel that Falaise, looking up to the +great keep and to the tower of Talbot, is merely a magnificent Dunster +or Richmond—we cannot say Windsor; for the <i>sainte chapelle</i> of Saint +George has no fellow there. But Argentan is a miniature, a very small +miniature certainly, but still a miniature, of Durham and Lincoln and +Angers. That is, church and fortress stand together on the highest point +in the town.</p> + +<p>Is Argentan therefore to be set down among the hill-towns? Falaise, of +all places in the world, assuredly is not; the castle is set on a hill, +but not the town. But can we give the name to Argentan? Some scruple may +be felt by one who has come from Saint-Lo, from Coutances, or from +Avranches. Yet the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> ascent from the Orne to the upper part of the town +is very marked, and as the chief buildings, ecclesiastical and military, +are gathered together on the higher ground, there is a true akropolis. +And there is no doubt that this akropolis had its own circuit of wall, +distinct from that of the lower town. This last took in a large space, +and was of a strangely complicated shape, running out hither and thither +in various directions. According to all our experience of other places, +we would take for granted that the inner circuit was the older. Here, we +should say, was the original settlement; the town, after the usual +manner of towns, outstripped its boundaries; it spread itself in +whatever directions suited its inhabitants; lastly, the suburbs which +thus grew up were taken into the town, and were fenced in by a second +wall. This, one need hardly say, is a thing which has happened over and +over again, in this place and that, till we take it for granted as the +explanation of such a state of things as we see at Argentan. But in a +local book, in which a great deal of information about Argentan is +brought together, <i>Le Vieil Argentan</i>, by M. Eugène Vimont, it is +distinctly asserted that the case is the other way. The wider circuit, +he tells us, is the older. In the wars of the early days of William, +King Henry of France burned Argentan. The burning is undoubted; it is +recorded by William of Jumièges. But M. Vimont's inference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> seems +strange—namely, that after this destruction the town was rebuilt, but +on a smaller scale. The case would be something like one stage in the +history of Périgueux, when only a part of old Vesona was fortified at +the time of the barbarian invasion of 407, and the part outside the new +walls was forsaken.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> But an ordinary burning of a town in warfare +like that which went on between France and Normandy did not commonly +lead to such great changes as this, and it is very hard to believe that +the town of Argentan can, in the first half of the eleventh century, +have reached this great extent and this irregular shape. We are bound to +suppose that a local writer who shows much local knowledge has some +reason for what he says. But for a thing so hard to believe some direct +authority should be quoted, and M. Vimont quotes none. Till some other +convincing authority is produced, we shall believe that the growth of +Argentan followed the same law as that of other towns.</p> + +<p>It is only in a few small pieces here and there that either the wider or +the narrower circuit of wall has left any sign of itself. But we can +believe both on M. Vimont's witness, and indeed they hardly need any +witness. Each circuit has left its stamp behind it in the way that town +walls do leave it, even when, as walls, they have altogether vanished. +We hold, then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> that the narrower circuit, taking in only the higher +ground with the church of Saint German, and the two castles, is the +oldest. The church and the <i>donjon</i> doubtless had predecessors before +King Henry came against Argentan. His burning need not have wrought any +more of lasting destruction than a hundred other such burnings. The town +sprang up again; in course of time, when Argentan flourished under +princely favour, it grew beyond its old bounds. The growth of the +inhabited town called for a wider circuit of walls. The new suburbs, +with the church of Saint Martin, were taken within the fortified area. +Argentan no longer merely looked down on the Orne, but was washed by it.</p> + +<p>The upper town, then, besides the church of Saint German, contains not +only one, but two castles. On the highest ground of all, in the +north-west corner of the enclosure, are the remains of a large polygonal +keep, which keeps its name of the <i>donjon</i>. It makes very little show, +being sadly crowded in by houses. Somewhat lower down is the <i>château</i>, +a graceful building of the late French Gothic, now used as the Palace of +Justice. The building itself has hardly any defensive character about +it, but it stands as part of the general line of defence, and it was +also connected with the <i>donjon</i> by an inner wall, parting the two +castles from the town. Some parts of the wall in this neighbourhood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> +both inner and outer, are still standing; and near the <i>château</i> is the +desecrated chapel of Saint Nicolas, keeping some good windows.</p> + +<p>The <i>château</i> would attract anywhere; the fragment of the <i>donjon</i> +simply peeps over houses. The chief thing in Argentan after all is the +great church of Saint German. Both this and the smaller church of Saint +Martin down below give us most instructive lessons in the course by +which the late Gothic of France gradually changed into <i>Renaissance</i>. As +we have often said, this transition has in England to be studied almost +wholly in houses, while in France we trace it in churches, and grand +churches also. The church of Saint German at Argentan is undoubtedly a +noble pile. At a distance it suggests the memory of Saint Peter at +Coutances on a larger scale. We seem to look on the same grouping of +central and western towers, though the central tower of Saint German's +is not octagonal, but square. But the western tower at Argentan is not +western in the same sense as the western tower at Coutances. That is, it +does not stand in the same line with the central tower. It is not a +western, but a north-western tower. This allows a greater variety of +outline than can be had at Saint Peter's. But the general effect of the +towers, all of which evidently received their last finish after the days +of pure Gothic had passed away, is essentially the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> same in the two +cases. In the central tower of Saint German this finish is nothing more +than a cupola of wood and lead on a handsome but not lofty lantern of +late Gothic, wonderfully good, outside at least, for the date of 1555. +But the general effect is not bad. The north-western tower, known as <i>la +grosse tour</i>, has a more curious history. The lowest stage is good and +rich Flamboyant, with a highly adorned porch. On this is a much plainer +stage, from which the Gothic feeling has passed, but which has no +distinctly <i>Renaissance</i> detail. It has long narrow windows with +flat-arched heads. This must have been building in 1617, when the +governor of the town forbade the tower to be carried higher, lest it +should overlook the <i>donjon</i>. We think of William Rufus bidding +Hildebert of Le Mans to pull down his pair of newly built towers.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> +The hindrance was afterwards withdrawn, and in 1638 the tower was +finished with its fantastic, but certainly taking, cupola. The nave was +begun in 1421, when Normandy was ruled for a season by the descendants +of its ancient dukes. It was carried on gradually for 220 years, and was +finished in 1641. The changes in style during this time are easily +traced. The nave is late but pure Gothic, a really fine design, though a +good deal spoiled by the loss of tracery in so many of the windows both +in aisles and clerestory. In a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> large panelled triforium a very keen eye +may possibly detect in the lowest range of ornament a tendency—it is +nothing more—to <i>Renaissance</i> ideas. Or it may only be fancy suggested +by the stages further east. Certainly the nave, if not quite of +first-rate merit, has a really striking effect, and is far better than +most panel work of the time. The transepts are of the same style. They +are finished north and south with apses, which are really graceful, +though we miss the rose-windows which we should otherwise have looked +for in a French church on such a scale as this. The choir too, as seen +out of the nave, is well-proportioned and effective, though we see that +the windows in the apse have flat arches and no tracery. The apse, if we +can call it so, has the strange singularity of ending in a point, and +some odd details have crept into the bosses of the vault. But, in the +general view from the nave, the only thing that mars the general harmony +and good effect is the treatment of the lantern. The four lantern arches +have the flattened shape of the latest Gothic; but, oddly enough, the +variety here chosen is the English four-centred arch, not the usual +French shape, three-centred, elliptic, or actually flat-headed. But both +the English and the French form are quite unsuited for pier-arches, and +for lantern arches yet more. And, though the work of the lantern is +quite good outside, yet within we see that the enemy has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> begun to take +possession. There is perhaps no actual un-Gothic detail, but the feeling +of the arcade of flat-headed arches which forms the gallery shows the +way in which things are tending.</p> + +<p>We go into the choir. There, setting aside the apse windows, the arcade, +triforium, clerestory, are still pure, if very late Gothic; the new +fashion comes in one detail only; the vaulting shafts have an odd +kind of Ionic capital. It is in the latest part of all, the chapels +round the choir, that the new taste comes in most strongly, and even +there it is not altogether dominant. It is very strange outside, where +heavy flying-buttresses are tricked out with little columns. Within, +pairs of such little columns are the chief ornament. But they support no +arches, only scraps of entablature. The arches of the roof, the windows, +and everything else, are still of the elliptic shape, and they still +keep the late Gothic mouldings. No building better shows what a long +fight was waged between the two styles. Saint German at Argentan is not +like Saint Eustace, where we see a grand Gothic conception carried out +without a single correct Gothic detail. Here not only the conception, +but the great mass of the internal detail, is purely Gothic; the new +fashion thrusts itself in only in particular parts.</p> + +<p>This last remark is specially true of the smaller church of Argentan, +that of Saint Martin. Here we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> have not the full cruciform shape. There +is no central tower or lantern, but only lower transepts projecting from +a continuous nave and choir, whose roof-line, within and without, runs +uninterruptedly from east to west. The only tower is a small octagonal +one with a spire at the north-west corner. The peculiarity within is +that, while the arcade and clerestory are still late Gothic, the +triforium between them has run off into <i>Renaissance</i>. The reason seems +clear. The new fashion affected details long before it touched the great +lines of the building. The triforium at this date is, as at Saint +German, simply a matter of detail, an arrangement of panelling and the +like. That stage, therefore, was naturally touched by the intruding +foes, while the main features, like the pillars and pier-arches, are as +yet not all affected. At Saint Martin the windows are some of them good +Flamboyant, while some are a kind of very bad Perpendicular. From +others, as at Saint German, the tracery has been cut away altogether. +This church, smaller than Saint German, of a less effective outline, and +standing in the lower part of the town, has nothing like the same grand +effect as the two towers of Saint German on the hill. But it has, with +its tall clerestory, a stately look from some approaches, and it has its +lesson to tell in the history of art.</p> + +<p>One is surprised to hear that in the old days Argentan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> had but a single +<i>curé</i>, whose sphere of usefulness took in both Saint German and Saint +Martin. One fully expects to find that such a church as Saint German was +collegiate. But this is one of the characteristic features of French +architecture. We are used in England to great town churches, which never +were more than parish churches, covering a good deal more ground than +Saint German's. But we are not used, save at Shoreham and Bristol, to +see them built, like Saint German, so thoroughly on the type of churches +of higher rank. Boston, Newark, Saint Michael's at Coventry, Trinity +Church at Hull, are as grand in their way as Saint German at Argentan, +only it is in quite another way.</p> + +<p>There are a few other things to see at Argentan. On the slope of the +hill is a good late Gothic house, with two arches of street arcade in +front. Add a little more, and we should have the arcade of Carentan; add +a great deal more, and we should have the arcades of Bern. Those who +seek for it will also find a mediæval bridge of two pointed arches over +one of the branches of the Orne. And it is grievous when, after moving +from Argentan to new quarters at Laigle, we take another look at M. +Vimont's book, and find that we have failed to see a small desecrated +Romanesque church called <i>Notre-Dame de la Place</i>. We relieve ourselves +by finding fault with M. Vimont, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> certainly does not always put +things in those parts of his book where we should most naturally look +for them.</p> + +<p>But we have one point to settle with witnesses nearer home. In the war +between William Rufus and Duke Robert, the Duke, with his ally King +Philip of France, took a castle in which Roger the Poitevin, son of Earl +Roger of Shrewsbury and brother of Robert of Bellême, commanded for +William at the head of 700 knights. Strange to say, they all surrendered +without shedding of blood on the first day of the siege. Our chronicle +calls the place <i>Argentses</i>, which Florence of Worcester translates by +<i>Argentinum castrum</i>.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The name looks like Argences, much nearer to +Caen than Argentan. But one doubts whether Argences could ever have been +a fortress of such importance, perhaps whether it was a fortress at all. +And Robert of Torigny, who must have known the country better than +anybody at Peterborough or Worcester, has <i>Argentomum</i>, which certainly +means Argentan, and which may perhaps have the force of a correction. If +so, we have a second visit to Argentan by a French king of the eleventh +century, but not one which made any new building needful.</p> + +<p>There is a good deal more to say about Argentan in later times, from +Henry the Second of Normandy and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> England to Henry the Fourth of Navarre +and France. The traveller is most likely to sojourn at the <i>Hôtel des +Trois Maries</i>, a resting-place which, in its foundation rather than in +its buildings, goes back to the fourteenth century. It has received many +memorable guests, and its host is said to have purveyed for the last +Henry that we have spoken of. It stands in the main street on the lower +ground. The thought did suggest itself that it might be a trifle too +near the Orne, whose waters at Argentan are not attractively clean, and +that the <i>Hôtel du Donjon</i> on the top of the hill might have a better +air. But we can say nothing as to the further merits or demerits of the +Donjon, and the Three Maries sheltered us well enough by the space of +six days.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span></p> +<h2>EXMES AND ALMENÈCHES</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Exmes</span> and Almenèches; one fancies that those names will sound strange to +almost any one save those who have been lately reading the eleventh book +of Orderic the Englishman. Exmes indeed is one of those unlucky places +which, even in the year 1891, remain without the comfort of a railway. +But Almenèches has a station happily placed on two lines; it is visited +by trains between Granville and Paris, and also by trains between Caen +and Le Mans. It thus seems to stand in a closer relation to the world of +modern times than Exmes, to which he who does not care to trust himself +to a Norman omnibus must go on his own account. To Almenèches too one +may go on one's own account; each place makes a pleasant drive from +Argentan. There is nothing very striking on the road to either, but the +road to Almenèches decidedly goes through the prettier country. Each has +a church and a castle to show, or rather each has a church and the site +of a castle. As in so many places, the ecclesiastical building<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> has +outlived the fortress. And this is more to be noticed at Almenèches, +where the church was monastic, and therefore ran greater chances of +destruction in the days of havoc. In general history we cannot venture +to say that either spot has a place. In special Norman history Exmes, +under some or other of the forms of its name, <i>Oximum</i>, <i>Hiesmes</i>, +anything else, often shows itself; its early importance is noticed by +its giving its name to the large district, <i>Pagus Oximensis</i>, <i>Oixmeiz</i>, +<i>Hiesmsis</i>. And the <i>Oximenses</i> are sometimes spoken of in a special +way, as if they were a distinct people, capable of acting for +themselves. Of Almenèches we hardly hear anything but at one particular +moment, and then we hear of Exmes along with it.</p> + +<p>In short, the history of Almenèches, as far as we are concerned with it, +might be summed up under a sensational heading, as "The Sorrows of +Abbess Emma." Her sorrows did not last long, but they were heavy while +they lasted. It was hard for the head of a devout Sisterhood to have +three of the great ones of the earth set upon her at once, one of them +being her own brother. She was daughter of Roger of Montgomery, +afterwards Earl of two shires in England, and of his first wife, Mabel +of Bellême, who bears so evil a reputation for bloodshed and treachery. +She was therefore sister to the heir of her mother's estates and crimes, +to that Robert of Bellême who is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> charged with a crime from which the +worst Merwing would have shrunk, that of pulling out the eyes of his +little godson, seemingly only for the fun of the thing. But Emma and her +sisters are described as being much better than any of their brothers, +even those who were not so bad as Robert. She may therefore not have +been wholly unfit for the post in which she was set when her father put +her at the head of his newly founded abbey, though she could hardly have +been qualified according to the rule which Gregory the Great laid down +for the monasteries of Sicily, that no abbess should be under sixty +years of age.</p> + +<p>The troubles of Abbess Emma began in the year 1102, when her brother +Robert was happily driven out of England, with his brothers and his +whole followings and belongings. It might seem a little hard when King +Henry, in getting rid of the whole stock, seized on the English lands +which Earl Roger had given to his daughter's Norman Abbey. But we +remember that, in so doing, he was forestalling, not the Eighth of his +name, but the Fifth. We did not want alien priories in England. Robert +came back to his native Normandy, began to work every kind of mischief +there, and his brothers Arnulf and Roger helped him for awhile in so +doing. Arnulf is famous at Pembroke.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Roger the <i>Poitevin</i>, so called +from his marriage, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> been lord of that land between Mersey and +Ribble, which afterwards went to patch up the modern shire of Lancaster. +Presently the brothers quarrelled. Robert of Bellême refused to give +Arnulf and Roger any share in their father's inheritance. Then they +forsook him, and Arnulf took an active part against him on behalf of +Duke Robert. We read how, in June, 1103, he seized his brother's +<i>munitio</i> of Almenèches, and how it was occupied for the Duke. This was +dangerous to his sister's abbey, where his followers did not scruple to +occupy the buildings and to stable their horses in the church. Then +Robert of Bellême, looking on the abbey as a hostile fortress, comes +down on Almenèches, burns the church and all the buildings of the +monastery, and leaves his sister and her nuns to find shelter where they +can. The Duke's followers, who fall into his hands, he deals with after +his manner; they are killed, mutilated, or kept in hard bonds. Robert of +Bellême, it must be remembered, is the man of whom it was said that he +refused ransom for his prisoners, despising gain, compared with the +keener pleasure of tormenting them. The Duke then and his following set +forth to do something against the hateful tyrant—"<i>odibilis tyrannus</i>" +he is called, a phrase in which we must not forget the ancient sense of +"<i>tyrannus</i>."<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Counts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> and lords are with him, and the whole force of +the land of Exmes. They hold their councils in the castle of Exmes; they +did what they could against the tyrant; but he was too strong for them. +He defeated the Duke in battle, and got possession of the castle of +Exmes.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Abbess Emma and her Sisterhood had to go whither they could. +"Tener virginum conventus misere dispersus est." Some sought shelter +with kinsfolk and friends. The Abbess herself and three nuns went to +Saint-Evroul, where Orderic, who tells the story, dwelled as the monk +Vital. They found a shelter and a place of worship in an ancient chapel +where Saint Evroul himself had dwelled—"coelesti theoriae intentus +solitarie degebat." There they abode six months, till in the next year +they were able to go back to Almenèches and to begin to set up their +ruined home again. For ten years Abbess Emma laboured at gathering the +sisterhood together and rebuilding the church. Then she died, and, by as +near an approach to hereditary succession as could be in the case of +abbesses, her staff passed to her niece Matilda, daughter of her brother +Philip. She, too, had to rebuild church and monastery after another +fire. We are not told how it was kindled: but by that time her uncle +Robert was safe in prison in England, shorn of all power of burning +anything or of gouging out anybody's eyes.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span></p><p>Our present business is to see the sites of all these events. We hardly +dared to hope that we may see any ecclesiastical work of Abbess Emma or +Abbess Matilda. Still less do we hope to see the castles which Arnulf +and Robert of Bellême seized on standing up as they were in their day. +Both Exmes and Almenèches, in the present state of their military works, +are among the places which most fully bear out the doctrine with which +we started in speaking of Hauteville, that a site is often better when +there is nothing on it. The site of the castle of Exmes is not exactly +in an ideal state. The best case of all would be if it still bore a +castle of the right date; the second best would be if there were only a +green hill and its ditch, with full power of walking freely over them as +one thought good. The castle-hill of Exmes is not in so happy a case as +either of these; but it is much better off than if it were surmounted by +a barrack or a prison. The hill is there; the ditch, as we suppose we +must call it, is there; there is no building on the hill save a small +modern chapel; the only bad thing about it is that the top of the hill +is cut up into small fields with high hedges, and that the ditch is cut +up into gardens. There is therefore no means either of going freely +about, or of taking any connected view of the top of the hill. Still, +the general line of the place can be easily made out, and we soon see +that a site well suited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> for its purpose has been made the most of. The +actual hill of the castle makes no special show in the distance. No +longer marked by the castle itself, it seems simply part of the general +mass of high ground on which both town and castle stand, and from which +the castle-hill itself stands forward in a peninsular fashion towards +the north. The hill is round, or nearly so; and no small measure of +human skill has been employed in adapting it to purposes of defence. We +spoke of a ditch; but a ditch is hardly the right word. At a good height +above the actual bottom, as one feels very strongly in going up the road +from Argentan, the castle-hill strictly so called is surrounded by the +artificial work which, for want of a better name, we have called a +ditch. But it is safer to say that the hill-side has been cut, leaving +the upper part of the hill with scarped sides rising above a flat piece +of ground all round, which puts on the character of a ditch or not +according as the hill-side at different points supplies a bank on the +other side. It is on the side towards the town that it is most truly a +ditch. The general effect is something like the clerestory of a round +church, the Temple Church or any other, rising above a flat-roofed +surrounding aisle. The ditch is wide, and doubtless has been +deeper—that is, more of a ditch—than it is now; that is, its use for +gardens must have raised its general level. One's thoughts somehow +rather go away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> to Marsala than to Arques or Old Sarum—perhaps because +in those last we can freely go about, while gardens, houses, what not, +come in the way both at Marsala and at Exmes. If they were away, the +whole thing would be more like some of the ditches on the Malvern hills +than anything else.</p> + +<p>Such is all that is to be seen of the castle of Exmes; but, in the +absence of an actual donjon that can have seen the wars of the Conqueror +and his sons, it is quite enough. The look-out is a wide one indeed; but +it is now easier to get it from the road going back to Argentan than +from the top of the hill itself. The eye ranges over a vast space +chiefly to the north-west, over the great forest of Gouffers, over +plains and undulating ground, a wide and striking view, but in which no +remarkable object rises up to catch the eye. We look forth with the +special hope of getting a distant glimpse of Falaise and its donjon. +Perhaps not the donjon itself, but the high ground about it is said to +be seen from the tower of Saint German at Argentan. But we at least +could not see it from Exmes.</p> + +<p>The other object in the little town of Exmes, now hardly more than a +village, is the church. This stands on the general mass of high ground +from which the castle hill juts out. It is a building of no small +interest, both from what it has to show and from what it has not. At +first sight it seems utterly shapeless. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> first catches the eye is a +very pretty apse of good Flamboyant work, with windows in two ranges, of +which all in the upper and some in the lower are blocked. We see also at +the same glance that something just to the west of the apse has been +destroyed or left unfinished. Beyond this again is a much lower western +body, a nave with its aisles thrown under one roof. This last is not +attractive from without, but when we go in, we find that it is the jewel +of Exmes. There is a nave of five bays, perhaps once of six, of the very +simplest and purest Romanesque, one of the examples which show how that +style, better than any other style, can altogether dispense with +ornament. There are no columns, no capitals, not a moulding of any kind. +Arches of two orders rise from square piers with imposts, and support an +equally plain clerestory. For a clerestory there is, genuine and +untouched, though so strangely hidden outside by the great sloping roof. +This is all; but we ask for no more; the design, plain as it is, leaves +nothing to ask for. One does not rush at a date; it may be twelfth +century; it may be eleventh; but, if so, it is of the second half of the +eleventh. Plain as are the imposts, they show that the work is of the +confirmed Norman variety of Romanesque; there are no Primitive traces +hanging about it, such as we see at Jumièges.</p> + +<p>The perfection of the Norman nave seems to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> been tampered with in +later days by cutting through a low transepted chapel on each side. The +arches look as if they had supplanted a sixth arch of the nave. But far +greater changes were presently designed. As at Gisors, as at a hundred +other places, the Flamboyant architects thought the elder building too +plain, and above all things too low. In a great number of cases they +rebuilt the choir after their own fashion, but never carried the work on +to the nave. Here at Exmes the work in the eastern part was never +finished. That seems most likely; but it is possible that the work was +finished and has been pulled down. The apse at least was done, and very +pretty it is; but a tall transept on each side with a large chapel to +the east of each, perhaps built, certainly designed, are not there now. +Within, there is no vaulting, and a mean wooden roof has been thrown +across at about half the proper length. The nave, too, is covered with a +wooden roof, a kind of coved roof with tie-beams. A real barrel-vault +would be best of all; but a good flat ceiling, such as was common in +Romanesque times, would do very well. It is one of the differences +between French and English architecture that the French designers always +meant or hoped to have a vault; the wooden roof in a French church is +always a mere shift. It was the builders of English parish churches who +found out that the wooden roof could be made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> into an equal substitute +for the vault, preferred to it by a deliberate taste.</p> + +<p>For one very anxious to work out in detail the curious little bit of +history with which the two places are chiefly concerned, it might be +better, if he could manage it, to take Exmes and Almenèches in a single +round. But it is easier to make them the objects of two separate +excursions from Argentan. We set out then from that town with a twofold +anxiety on the mind. Shall we find any signs of the abbey of the +persecuted Emma? We do not give up all hope till we shall see with our +own eyes. Shall we find any signs of the "<i>munitio</i>" occupied by her +brother Arnulf? Signs we may fairly look for, if not for the thing +itself. Our guidebook describes a church of Almenèches, but it does not +distinctly say whether it is the church of the abbey or a separate +parish church. It speaks of a "beau tumulus" in the "environs" of +Almenèches, and says that the neighbourhood is full of "equestrian +memories," whatever those may be. One of them, to be sure, bears the +name of the "Manoir de la Motte," which has a very tempting sound. On +the ordnance map we can find nothing of this manor; but we do find +"Almenèches" and "le Château d'Almenèches" marked as two distinct +<i>communes</i>. This is encouraging; we seem to have lighted on what at home +we should call "Abbess Almenèches" and "Castle Almenèches."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> We see Emma +at the one and Arnulf at the other; but we still do not know what traces +either sister or brother may have left. At last we reach Almenèches, +Abbess Almenèches, and we see the church described in our Joanne. It is +not very tempting in its general look, and there is nothing particular +about its site, except that the ground does slope away from its +east-end. Is this Emma's minster or its successor, or is it merely a +parish church, and have we to look for the abbey elsewhere? Some signs +of the cloister roof on the south side soon settle this question. But we +begin to hope, for the credit of the house of Montgomery, that Emma, +either before or after her troubles, and her niece after her, had a +better church than this to preside over. We find from Joanne that +Almenèches boasts of its church; but it doth falsely boast. Instead of +the nave of Romsey or of Matilda's church at Caen, we have a single body +of late Gothic, with windows like very bad Perpendicular, a form not +uncommon hereabouts. We get its date from an inscription:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Ce temple lequel a esté ruiné par l'antiquité fut commencé à +reedifier l'a<sup>n</sup> de grace 1534 et fut perfaict l'a<sup>n</sup> 1550 par +revere<sup>n</sup>de dame Madame Loyse de Silly abbesse de cea<sup>n</sup>s. Gloire et +hon<sup>r</sup>. soyt au seigneur."</p></div> + +<p>Louise of Silly's work may be just endured; it is at any rate better +than the choir built by a later Abbess Louise—we have got out of the +age of Emmas and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> Matildas—in 1674. That is the lowest depth of all; it +is the depth reached by the choir of Saint Wulfram of Abbeville; that +is, it is of no style at all; a decent Italian building would be welcome +by the side of it. But its modern adornments may teach us the history of +Saint Opportuna down to our own day. That may be said, because it +represents her translation in the days of the second Republic in 1849. +What most strikes one is the appearance in stained glass of modern +uniforms and—we were going to say modern bonnets, only we are told that +the bonnets of 1849 are not counted as modern in 1891. Still we are sure +that neither Abbess Emma nor even Abbess Louise ever wore such before +they entered religion. Altogether one never saw so poor an abbey church +anywhere. One is curious to know what it immediately supplanted, and +whether the sisterhood was again in such straits as those which it had +been in the time of Emma of Montgomery. Did the house never recover +from the seizure of its lands by King Henry?</p> + +<p>Of the "Manoir de la Motte" nothing can be heard. But the "<i>munitio</i>" +must be represented, at least in name, by Le Château d'Almenèches. Our +driver protests that there is no <i>château</i> there, only a <i>commune</i>. So +much the better. If there is no <i>château</i> there in his sense, that is, +no intruding modern house, we are more likely to find the site of the +real <i>château</i>, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> <i>munitio</i>. And we presently do find it. We are +going on in some difficulties, amidst a good deal of rain; but we see +something in a field by the roadside, between Almenèches and the church +of Le Château d'Almenèches which is evidently the right thing. There is +a manifest mound and ditch of some kind. We go on to the church, one +about as worthless as may be, but which will serve as a place at least +of shelter. But by that time the rain has stopped, and we are able to +study our mound and ditch without let or hindrance. Here is the castle, +the <i>munitio</i>, of Almenèches, whence the Duke's followers first troubled +Abbess Emma. But yet more, here is Joanne's "<i>beau tumulus</i>" thrown in +along with it. A plan is almost needed to set forth what we see. Here is +a piece of slightly elevated ground girded by a ditch on all sides +except where the sluggish river Don—how many Dons are there in +Europe?—which in times past clearly supplied the ditch with water, +itself flows. Here then is the castle; at least here are its essential +features. And they are all clearer, because there is no <i>château</i> in the +driver's sense, but only a farmhouse of decent age, which does no harm. +But then the ditch, on one side at least, is prolonged to follow one +side of a much more striking mound, a long mound which is clearly the +"<i>beau tumulus</i>." We do not like to be too positive about præ-historic +tumps, but this certainly looks very like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> one. Indeed it need not be +præ-historic, it may cover the bones or ashes of some invading Northman, +who was cut off too soon to be christened, to learn French, and to +become the founder of a Norman house. The tump must be older than the +<i>munitio</i> proper; but we may be sure that the makers of the <i>munitio</i> +did not leave it out of their reckonings. It had to be guarded; it could +not well be lived on. Here then we have found all that we want at Exmes +and Almenèches. We understand the scene of the petty war which drove +Abbess Emma to Saint-Evroul. We have found our two castles, all that we +cared to find of them. We have found our abbey, or at least a successor +on its site. And we have both the tump and the church of Exmes thrown in +<ins class="greek" title="Greek: en parergô">ἐν παρέρλῳ</ins>. It is not at all a bad two days' work that we have +done in the immediate land of the <i>Oximenses</i>.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span></p> +<h2>LAIGLE AND SAINT-EVROUL</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> next halting-place is Laigle on the Rille, the Rille that runs out +to flow by Brionne and the Bec of Herlouin. We choose it as a +halting-place less from any merits of its own than because it is the +best centre for some very remarkable places indeed, and because the +place itself calls up certain associations. There is, perhaps, more +interest attaching to the name of Laigle and to the lords of Laigle than +to Laigle itself. Its name supplies us with the crowning instance of the +singular incapacity of so many in England to understand that these +Norman towns and castles are real places. They give surnames to a crowd +of men who figure in the English history of the eleventh and twelfth +centuries; but, as we have said before, hardly anybody seems to +understand that those surnames are taken from places which are still +standing, and to most of which the railway is open. There is the +renowned Bishop William of Durham in the days of the Conqueror and the +Red<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> King, the greatest name in the history of Romanesque art. He is +<i>Willelmus de Sancto Carilefo</i>, just like William of Malmesbury or +William of Newburgh, simply because he had been monk and prior in the +monastery of <i>Sanctus Carilefus</i>, in modern form, <i>Saint-Calais</i>, in the +land of Maine. It is better to say "William of Saint-Calais" than +"William of Saint-Carilef," because the use of the modern form shows +that we know where the place is; but "William of Saint-Carilef" is not +so bad as "Bishop Carilef," as if Carilef were no place at all, and as +if it had been usual in those days to talk of Bishops or anybody else by +their casual surnames. So with Laigle, <i>Aquila</i>, a place which must have +somehow taken its name from an eagle, possibly from some incident or +legend, as there is certainly nothing in the look of Laigle to suggest +eagles in a general way. Its lords of course called themselves +"Gilbertus," "Richeras," or anything else "de Aquila," "of Laigle." On +the whole, for the same reason as in the case of Saint-Calais, it is +better to speak in English of the place and its lords by the now +received form <i>Laigle</i> rather than <i>L'Aigle</i>, though <i>L'Aigle</i> is not +quite forgotten on the spot. But the events of the Norman Conquest +brought men of the house of Laigle into England, and their presence led +to a possession in Sussex being called "Honor de Aquila." When +South-Saxon antiquaries, or possibly lawyers, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> whatever age, +translated this into "the Honour of the Eagle," they plainly did not +know that <i>Aquila</i>, <i>Laigle</i>, was a real place from which men had taken +their name and brought it into Sussex. And we have heard of an +Englishman being christened "Richard de Aquila," as if it were hopeless +trying to put "de Aquila" into plain English. We have also heard of a +man being christened "Joseph of Arimathæa"; but that was at least in +English, and not in French, Latin, or Hebrew.</p> + +<p>"Richard de Aquila" is a form notable on another ground, as implying a +confusion between the two wholly distinct names of <i>Richard</i> and +<i>Richer</i>. We do not at this moment remember a Richard of Laigle, but +Richer of Laigle is, perhaps, the man of his house who is best worth +remembering. He lived in the days of the Conqueror, he bears the best +character possible in those times, and his one recorded act bears it +out. He was fighting for William, Duke and king, against that castle of +Sainte-Susanne in Maine which the Conqueror of Le Mans and Exeter could +not take. In a skirmish below the castle a beardless-boy, sheltered +behind a thicket, aimed an arrow which gave Richer a mortal wound. His +comrades would have killed the lad; but Richer bade them spare him; his +own sins deserved death. For want of a priest, he confessed those sins +to his comrades, and died.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span></p><p>The lords of Laigle did plenty of other things besides this; but it is +the thought of the last act of Richer which cleaves most firmly in the +memory, and makes us most wish to see the place where the lords of +Laigle dwelled. And we set out with some vague notion, a notion not +exactly to be fulfilled, that the home of the lords of Laigle—"domini +de Aquila"—must be something of an eagle's nest. But alas, when we +reach Laigle from Argentan, we find that, with all its historic +associations, it is in itself far from being a town of the same interest +as Argentan. The position of the two is quite different. The chief +buildings of Argentan cover a small hill in the midst of scenery in no +way strongly marked. Laigle covers the slope of the hill which forms one +side of the valley of the young Rille, while another height matches it +on the opposite side. At Laigle the chief church, standing out with a +dignity which it hardly keeps when we come near to it, is the one +striking object. Of the castle we see nothing but the surrounding woods, +and in truth there is nothing more to see. The large brick house known +as <i>le vieux château</i>, standing a little to the east of the church, +marks, it is to be supposed, the site of the home of Richer and all the +rest of the brood of the eagle. But no site of any castle can well be +further from the eagle's nest which we came in search of. The town, as +distinguished from castle and church, has little or nothing to show;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +like Flers, it has risen to some modern importance through manufactures. +The chief church, St Martin, has already struck us on our approach by +its stately tower of late Gothic such as in England we might have looked +to see crowned with battlement and pinnacles, but which here is finished +with a high roof bearing statues on its ridge. Beside the tower there is +something, one hardly knows what, a very high roof and a kind of spire. +When we come near, we find that the church, though very short, has two +western towers. The northern one is the rich piece of Flamboyant work +with which we have already got familiar—or rather not familiar, as its +narrow windows may in the distance be taken for a Romanesque arcade. Its +southern fellow is a real Romanesque tower with pilaster buttresses, +which bears the spire. It is very plain, of the eleventh century rather +than of the twelfth, so that the lord of Laigle, who awakens an interest +above the rest of his house, may have looked at it or even built it. The +same may be said of the apse which ends the central of the three +bodies—they are hardly to be called nave and aisles—which make up the +church of Laigle. But a Romanesque apse, rich or plain, is not improved +by first cutting pointed windows in it and then blocking them up. And +the apse, thus sadly mutilated, is further imprisoned. It barely peeps +out between the east ends of the northern and southern bodies, of which +the northern takes the form of a kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> of transept. They are in the +worst style of the late French Gothic, with windows of the same wretched +Perpendicular as those of Almenèches. Whence came this strange taste? +Henry the Fifth and John Duke of Bedford might, somewhat earlier, have +taught their Norman subjects to build good Perpendicular, but not this +kind of stuff.</p> + +<p>There is not much more to see in Laigle itself. Of the castle we can +hardly be said to have even seen the site. The house which represents it +has ceased to be a <i>château</i> even in the latter sense. It stands +pleasantly at the end of the town, with fields beyond it, and a good +slope down to the river, if only it could be seen. But the whole way +from the castle to the Rille is blocked with modern buildings. We wish +that the home of Richer was in the same case as the head of the +<i>Oximenses</i>, where the gardens in the ditch do comparatively little +harm. Or rather we cherish a hope that the <i>vieux château</i> may not be +the true <i>castrum de Aquila</i>. We cannot say that we saw any other castle +anywhere else at Laigle; but we saw one or two sites higher up the hill +where a castle might have stood very fittingly.</p> + +<p>But the main object at Laigle is not Laigle. The place may be used, like +Argentan, as a centre for seeing several objects, and in the case of +Laigle the objects to be seen from the centre are certainly of higher +interest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> than the centre itself. There are the famous border castles of +Verneuil and Tillières, easily to be reached by railway, and there is an +ecclesiastical spot of still higher fame which can in a rather +complicated way be reached by railway, but which it is pleasanter and +certainly more appropriate to take by road. Yet as a means of +approaching Ouche, Aticum, Saint-Evroul, even the road seems too modern. +It is essentially a place of pilgrimage, not a Canterbury pilgrimage, +but a pilgrimage to the cell of a hermit, to the <i>scriptorium</i> of a +chronicler of whom we get more personally fond than of any other.</p> + +<p>At Saint-Evroul we ought to think first of all of Saint Evroul; we do +think first of all of Orderic the Englishman, called in religion +Vital.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> We called him just now a chronicler; but that is assuredly +not his right description. If he were more of a chronicler, that is, if +he told his story in a more orderly way, without so many repetitions and +runnings to and fro, that is, if he were other than the kindly, +gossiping, rambling old monk who has made Saint-Evroul a household word +for all students of English and Norman history in his own day we ought +not to feel so warmly drawn to him as we are. It was the home of Orderic +that we wished to see. But it was very hard to find out whether his home +had anything left to show us. Not a word could we find in any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> guidebook +to say whether the abbey was living or ruined or desecrated or wholly +swept away. It might be as unlucky as Avranches or as lucky as Saint +Peter-on-Dives. And a monastic site from which everything monastic has +been swept away is not so instructive as a fortified site from which the +fortifications are gone. We should be best pleased to find at +Saint-Evroul a church in which Orderic may have worshipped, but it would +be better to find a later church—we had almost said one with +discontinuous imposts to its pillars—rather than no church at all. We +set forth in faith, not knowing what we are to find, but determined that +we will at least see the place where the Ecclesiastical History of +Normandy was written. One little incident of the journey may be +mentioned. We reached Saint-Evroul; we saw more of Saint-Evroul's Abbey +than we had ventured to hope that we should find there. But before we +reached it our driver stopped near a house and buildings which seemed in +no way attractive. Asked why he stopped there, he said that was where +the landlady at Laigle had told him to stop. There were the great +glass-works for which Saint-Evroul is now best known. And it was the +Saint-Evroul of the glass-work that we were thought to have set forth to +see, not the Saint-Evroul of Orderic or of Saint Evroul himself.</p> + +<p>Orderic, son of a French father and an English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> mother, born by the +banks of the Severn ten years after King William came into England, in +the year of the martyrdom of Waltheof, was before all things Orderic the +Englishman. If we are to take his words literally, English must have +been the only language of his childhood. He was sent in his childhood to +be a monk of Saint-Evroul;<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> one wonders why, as his father might +surely have found him a cell either in the Orleans of his birth or the +Shrewsbury of his adoption. Himself more truly the founder of Shrewsbury +Abbey than his patron, Earl Roger, Odelerius of Ettingsham, the married +priest, preferred Saint-Evroul to any other house of religion as the +home of his son. The Abbey had lately been set up again, after a time of +decay, by the bounty of several members of the houses of Geroy and +Grantmesnil, one of whom, Abbot Robert, who plays also a part in +Calabria and Sicily, was at least as turbulent as bountiful. But nothing +would have more deeply grieved the monastic soul of Orderic than the +thought that any one could think more of him than of the local saint and +first founder. "Father Evroul," "Pater Ebrulfus," the man of the world +who turned hermit in the days of Chlotocher, and around whose cell the +monastery first grew up, lived in the devout memory of his spiritual +children. One asks whether Orderic, "tenellus exsul" in his Norman +monastery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> like Joseph in Egypt hearing a strange language, ever +stopped to think of the true meaning of his patron's name, how the +softened <i>Ebrulfus</i> and <i>Evroul</i> disguised the two fierce beasts which +went to make up the name of <i>Eoforwulf</i>. Perhaps, indeed, Orderic the +Englishman, and all other Englishmen, had some right to see a kinsman, +however distant, in the saint who bore so terrible a name. For Ebrulfus +came of the city or land of Bayeux, and in Chlotocher's day, and long +after, the land of Bayeux was still the <i>Otlingua Saxonica</i>, an abiding +trace of those harryings and settlements of Sidonius's times, which +planted the Saxon on both sides of the Channel. Still, to us Orderic is +more than Evroul, even in the form of Eoforwulf. It is for his sake that +we take our journey through the wood of Ouche till we come to the little +stream of the Charenton, where the hermit chose out his solitary cell, +where the monastery twice arose in his honour, and where now the +glass-works are thought to be a greater attraction than the monastery.</p> + +<p>The remains of the abbey soon catch our eye, as we draw near from the +east side, the side of Laigle. They are not placed quite at the bottom +of the valley; they gently climb up the hill to the west, the hill up +which the small low street of Saint-Evroul leads to the highest point, +where we find another sign of our own day in the railway station. The +church of the monastery is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> mere ruin; but it at least stands open to +the sky; it is not desecrated and disfigured by being put to any profane +use. Quite enough is left to put together the whole plan of the +building. There is perhaps a slight feeling of disappointment at finding +that here at Saint-Evroul there is nothing directly to remind us of the +man for whose sake we have come thither. We would fain see something +that had met the eyes of the island-born child in the first years of his +coming to his foreign home. We would fain see even the church of Robert +of Grantmesnil, much more the elder church from which the High +Chancellor of Duke Hugh the Great carried away the body of Saint Evroul +himself, as a piece of holy spoil which Normandy had to yield to +France.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> We would fain see the cloister where in Orderic's day, King +Henry of England, victor of Tinchebray, sat a long time in thought, and +the chapter-house where the Lion of Justice conferred with the brethren, +where he praised their good order and devotion, and was, at his earnest +request, admitted to their spiritual fellowship. And truly nowhere in +kingdom or duchy had he a more loyal subject than the chronicler who +knew so well what a work it was to bring some approach to peace and +order into a land torn in pieces by noble brigands. Hopes of this kind, +hopes of any immediate memory of the days of Orderic or of days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> before +Orderic are not fated to be gratified; but we have done well to come to +Saint-Evroul none the less.</p> + +<p>The ruined church offers us much to see and study. The only thing that +suggests itself as a possible memorial of Orderic's day is the +foundation of the apse. But as it is only a foundation and not a crypt, +there is no need to think that he ever saw it. The apse itself has +fallen; but traces enough are left to show that inside at least it was +polygonal. But it was an apse of the old simple pattern, without +surrounding aisles and chapels. It could not have been there when the +young novice from Shropshire came to Saint-Evroul. It may have been +built in the latter part of his long sojourn. And the stumps of the +great round pillars of the choir are most likely of the same date. The +use of such pillars is a fashion English rather than Norman; but it is +hard to believe that the "tenellus exsul" from Ettingsham brought with +him any architectural tastes. The choir was of some length, and its +length was broken by an apsidal chapel on each side, pointing north and +south, so as to form a kind of small eastern transept. But the greater +part of what is left is very fine work of the thirteenth century, +finished at the west end in the fourteenth. The pillars and arches of +the nave are broken down, leaving only stumps; but enough is left at the +west end and at the crossing to show the design. Clustering shafts +surrounded a central pillar; the mouldings of the arches are, as often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +happens in Normandy, as well and deeply cut as they would be in England. +Above the arcade was a tall clerestory, seemingly without any triforium +or with the triforium thrown into the clerestory. Altogether there is +about enough left to suggest the memory of Glastonbury, though +Saint-Evroul is certainly not on the scale of Glastonbury, even without +the western church. The west front must have been very remarkable. The +first impression on approaching from outside is that two western towers +stood out in front of the nave, as at Holyrood, or as the single towers +at Dunkeld and Brechin. A second glance shows that what seemed to be the +lower part of a south-western tower is really a building in advance of +such a tower. That is to say, a large porch, or rather portico, with +three tall arches, stood out in front of the western towers and of the +end of the nave. It must have looked just enough like Peterborough to +suggest Peterborough, but also to suggest the contrast between +Peterborough and itself. At Peterborough the great portico stands +indeed, as here, in advance of a west front with two towers. But it may +be said to have supplanted that front. One tower was never finished; the +other was thrown into insignificance. The portico is of the full height, +and became the real west front. Here at Saint-Evroul the portico was not +the whole of the west front, but only part; the towers must have risen a +long way above it. One would like to be able to judge of the effect of +such a design.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span></p><p>There is little or nothing left of the other buildings of the abbey, +except the gateway by which we enter, with a larger and a smaller +pointed arch. The field to the south of the church, where cloister, +chapter-house, refectory, and the rest must have stood, had a locked +gateway, and the owner had gone off with the key. But there seemed to be +nothing, at least nothing standing up. Yet we should have liked to see +at least the traces of the cloister on the southern wall. But Saint +Evroul is not forgotten in his own place, or even within the walls of +his own abbey. For a little chapel has been made within the buildings of +the gate-house. He has also a cross and fountain, of which the cross, a +modern one, is more visible than the fountain. And in the parish church +on the opposite hill some relics of the abbey, indeed of the saint +himself, are still preserved. There is specially a good fragment of an +ancient triptych. The surviving small church looks down on the relics of +the great one below. And the thought comes, so different from any +suggested by the monastic ruins of England, how short a time it after +all is since the great church of Saint-Evroul was a living thing as well +as the small one. A visitor of no wonderful age could do a sum and find +that his own father was at least able to walk and talk while Robert of +Grantmesnil had still a less famous, but perhaps less unquiet successor.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span></p> +<h2>TILLIÈRES AND VERNEUIL</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> second excursion from Laigle has quite another kind of interest from +that of Saint-Evroul. We go more strictly to see places, and not as it +were to commune with a single man. And the places that we go to see are +primarily military, and not ecclesiastical. We do not go for a great +church, not knowing whether we shall find it perfect or ruined, or +wholly swept away. We go to see two castles or sites of castles, knowing +that we shall find something more than their sites, and with a notion +that we shall also get something ecclesiastical thrown into the balance. +Our object is to see the two border castles of Tillières and Verneuil, +both easily reached by railway from our central point at Laigle, and +which by a more roundabout way, may be reached from Evreux also. +Tillières is famous in the early wars of Normandy and France. Verneuil +is best known in the days when Normandy had become the battle ground of +England and France, and when Scotland threw herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> on the French side. +As a matter of fact, we saw Verneuil first; we then went on to +Tillières, and thence back to Laigle, getting of course a second clear +view of Verneuil by the way. But it will be more convenient to speak +first of the place of more ancient fame.</p> + +<p>Tillières, Tillières on the Arve, if it were left in its ancient state, +would be an almost ideal border-fortress. It is close indeed on the +border. When Wace describes Alençon, he tells us that one side of the +water was Norman and the other side was Mansel. So here at Tillières one +side of the water was Norman and the other side was French. But the +stream of Arve at Tillières is so much narrower than the stream of +Sarthe at Alençon that French and Norman stood much nearer together at +Tillières than Mansel and Norman stood at Alençon. Alençon again, as far +as its history goes back, has always been a considerable town. Tillières +is now a mere village, except so far as so many of these villages put on +the character of very small towns. But town or village, Tillières is +simply something which has grown up at the foot of the castle, while at +Alençon one might say that one object at least of the castle was to +defend the town. There is high ground on each side of the stream; that +on the north side is Norman soil, that on the south is French. A +projecting point of the Norman height was seized for the building of the +great border-fortress of Normandy. A few dwellings of men, dependants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> +doubtless of the castle and its lords, arose under its shadow, just +within the Norman border. That this was done while France and Normandy +were still foreign and hostile lands is shown by the western doorway of +the church of Tillières, a piece of plain Romanesque, of late eleventh +or early twelfth century. Meanwhile, it does not appear that the +opposite height was crowned by any French fortress. Tillières must have +been a standing menace to France, without there being any standing +menace to Normandy back again. Here are our topographical facts, very +clear and simple, quite enough to account for the part which Tillières +plays in the history of the Norman duchy.</p> + +<p>That part may be told in a few sentences, but it is a striking story +none the less. Tillières, <i>Tegulense castrum</i>, bears a name cognate with +the Kerameikos of Athens and with the Tuilleries of Paris. It was first +fortified by Duke Richard the Good, the Duke who would have none but +gentlemen about him, and in whose days the peasants arose against their +masters. He gave his sister Matilda in marriage to Odo, Count of +Chartres; he gave her lands by the Arve as her dowry; but when she died +childless, he held that he had a right to take them back again. To this +doctrine the widower naturally did not agree; disputes arose between the +two princes, and the fortress of Tillières—one would like to know its +exact shape in those days—arose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> as a bulwark of Normandy, beneath +whose walls the Count of Chartres underwent a defeat at the hands of +Duke Richard's lieutenants. They were Neal of Coutances and Ralph of +Toesny, speaking names in Norman history. We next hear of Tillières in +the young days of William the Great, when King Henry could no longer +endure such a standing menace to France as the castle above the Arve. It +is the Norman writers who tell us, and we have no French tale to set +against this, how the King of the French demanded the castle of +Tillières—how the young duke's guardians found it prudent to yield to +his demand—how its valiant governor, Gilbert Crispin, refused to give +it up—how the united forces of France and Normandy constrained him—how +the border-fortress was burned before all men, while the King swore that +it should not be set again for four years. But they go on to tell us how +the faithless King went on into the land of Exmes, how he burned +Argentan, and came back to fortify Tillières again as a bulwark of +France against Normandy.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Time passed on. King Henry fought with Duke +William at Val-ès-dunes, and fled before him at Varaville; and, as a +fruit of the last Norman victory, Tillières passed back again to its old +use as the border defence of Normandy.</p> + +<p>With such a history as this, and with a site so well suited to the +history, one could wish that there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> more at Tillières to describe +than there actually is. We should be best pleased of all if the castle +hill of Tillières was still crowned with an ancient donjon; next to that +we should like to see it in the same case as Exmes or rather as +Almenèches. But the height is taken possession of by a house of much +more pretension than the harmless farm at Almenèches, and the passing +wayfarer can do little more than follow the outer wall of the castle—a +wall with work of endless dates—round a good part of its compass. +Looking down from the height, looking up from the village, best of all +perhaps from a point of the railway just west of the Tillières station, +the general relations of castle, village, stream, and the once hostile +hills beyond, can be well taken in; but not much more than the general +relations. And the village has little to show beyond its church; and +there the Romanesque doorway is the choicest thing, as being part of our +chain of evidence. But it seems not to be on this ground that the church +of Tillières is counted among "historic monuments," that is, forbidden +to be pulled about by any one else, but destined sooner or later, to be +pulled about by the national powers. Its qualification for admission +into this class seems to be the <i>Renaissance</i> choir. On the outside this +is about as poor a jumble of bad Gothic and bad Italian as can well be +thought of; within it has a somewhat better effect with a vault and rich +pendants. Still they are nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> like so striking as those in Saint +Gervase at Falaise, which do really make us wonder how they are kept up. +More really interesting, perhaps, is the wooden roof of the nave, +evidently as great a feat as a French artist was capable of in the way +of wooden roofs. And an eye from Somerset looks kindly at this +outlandish attempt to make a kind of coved roof, and to paint it withal. +Such a one hopes that the French Republic will not turn diocesan +architect, and try to get rid of it. But he thinks that he could show +better coved roofs at home, and he wonders why, if the coved shaped was +chosen, a system of South-Saxon tie-beams and king-posts was thrust in +as well.</p> + +<p>We turn to the other famous border-fortress of Verneuil. Here the +position, as a position, is in no way to be compared to that of +Tillières; but we have one grand military tower; we have a much larger +town, containing several important churches and houses, and one +ecclesiastical tower which may claim a place in the very first rank of +its own class. Verneuil is a border-fortress; but it is not so ideal a +border-fortress as Tillières. It is not so close on the border; for here +Normandy has a small <i>Peraia</i>, a certain amount of territory beyond the +river. And, as Verneuil presented no such commanding point for a castle +site as Tillières did, the fortress was not placed on a height at all, +but in the lower part of the town, to guard the stream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> There is a +distinct ascent in Verneuil; but nothing like the slope at Tillières +from the Norman castle down to the border-stream and from the +border-stream up again to the French hills. But there is enough rise to +make the grand ecclesiastical tower on the high ground stand out as the +most prominent object in the approach, while the grand military tower +down below makes no show at all. We were a little puzzled by Joanne's +account of Verneuil, in which he said that the castle had been +completely demolished, but that the donjon existed still. It seems that +at Verneuil, as at Argentan, castle and donjon are distinguished; but at +Verneuil castle and donjon are not, as at Argentan, separate buildings +joined only by a long wall; they stand close together and formed part of +one work. Nor is the castle as distinguished from the donjon, completely +demolished; there is a considerable fragment standing very near. The +donjon, called locally <i>Tourgrise</i> from the colour of its stone, is a +round tower, not quite a rival of Coucy, but tall enough and big enough +to have a very striking effect. It has been lately restored or set up +again in some way, perhaps cleared out and roofed in. Anyhow Verneuil is +not a little proud of the fact, and marks its thankfulness by a great +number of rather foolish inscriptions. The tower is proclaimed to be the +work of Henry I., our Henry of Tinchebray, not the developed rebuilder +of Tillières;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> but this seems out of the question, as the small +doorways—we cannot guarantee the windows—have pointed arches, which +seem to be original. But the ruined fragment of the castle hard by, with +its ruder masonry and a shattered round-headed window seemed certainly +to be as early as Henry's day and very likely a good bit earlier. Hard +by the donjon seems to be a small piece of town walls; otherwise the +walls have vanished, and are, as usual, marked by boulevards. That on +the north side still keeps the character of a rampart, and is a good +place for studying the most visible ornaments of the town.</p> + +<p>Verneuil has much to show both in churches and houses. Of the latter, +besides a good many of timber and brick, which are always pleasant to +see, there are two which are more remarkable. One is a singularly good +bit of late Gothic with windows and a graceful <i>tourelle</i>. The other has +a <i>tourelle</i> of the same kind, but it runs off into <i>Renaissance</i>. Both +have a curious kind of masonry, squares alternately of brick and stone. +The greatest church is that of Saint Mary Magdalen, in the great open +place in the upper part of the town. Here is the grand tower, built +between 1506 and 1530, a noble design, and carried out without any +infection of foreign detail. It is practically detached, standing at the +south-west corner of a low nave. If the nave had ever been rebuilt, as +was doubtless designed, to match<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> the later and loftier choir, the +effect of the tower would have suffered a good deal. As it is, from some +points, where the nave is not seen at all, it reminded one a little of +Limoges Cathedral, as it stood before the rebuilding of the nave was +begun. It rises by two tall stages above the church; then the square +tower changes to an octagon, a very small octagon supporting one still +smaller. It would have been far better to have given the octagon more +importance, as in most of the other great examples, French and English, +starting with Boston stump. It is further complained, and the complaint +is true, that the upper part of the square tower looks top-heavy. It was +just the same with the other Magdalen tower at Taunton till its +rebuilding. Since then, strange to say, though no difference of detail +can be seen in the rebuilt tower, the effect of top-heaviness is gone. +In both cases that effect was, doubtless, due to the piling of stage +upon stage, without making them gradually increase in lightness and +richness towards the top, as at Bishops Lydeard. But it is not a case to +find fault; the vast height, the grandeur of design, the purity of +detail at so late a time, all mark this tower as one of the noblest +works of the late French Gothic. A little way to the west is another +tower, attached to a now desecrated church, we believe of Saint John, +which was clearly built as a rival to the Magdalen tower. It is rather +smaller, and in its lower stages plainer—no fault<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> in that; but a +little higher it begins to Italianise, and then stops altogether. An +ugly modern top is all that answers to the upper stages and octagon of +the Magdalen. The people of the Magdalen parish must have been strongly +tempted to say of their nearest neighbours, "These men began to build, +and were not able to finish."</p> + +<p>The church to which this most stately tower is attached is not of any +great interest, beyond a simple Romanesque doorway and window in the +west front, and some very plain arches to match in the transepts. The +choir is rather poor late Gothic, spoiled by a great blank space between +arcade and clerestory. Of the nave we hardly know what to say. As it +stands, it is plainly modern; the great round pillars are hollow; but +the design is one which we can hardly fancy coming into anybody's head, +unless it reproduced something older. It is something like Boxgrove, +something like some German churches, but not exactly. A pair of +pier-arches are grouped under a single arch containing a single +clerestory window, and there is a barrel-vault above all. A church in +the hands of Huguenots, called "La Salle des Conférences," seems to have +a Romanesque shell and keeps three windows in a flat east end. Not far +from the donjon is the Decorated church of Saint Lawrence, where the +usual late Gothic dies off into <i>Renaissance</i> at the west end. But the +other great piece<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> of ecclesiastical work in Verneuil, besides the +Magdalen tower, is the choir of the church of Our Lady, lower down in +the town. There is an east end, such as one hardly sees on so small a +scale out of Auvergne. Here is the apse, the surrounding aisle, the +apses again projecting from the aisle; and the varied outline is made +yet more varied by a round turret of the same date and style thrown in +among the apses. The general air is early, the work plain, the masonry +simple; but the clerestory windows have pointed arches. We gaze with +delight on an outline more thoroughly picturesque than we have seen for +a long while, and which carries back our thoughts to a land of which all +the memories are pleasing. We purpose to look at it once more before we +finally turn away from Verneuil; but good intentions are not always +carried out. Let us dream of another Arvernian journey, so planned as to +take Verneuil on the road.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span></p> +<h2>BEAUMONT-LE-ROGER</h2> + +<h3>1892</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> name of Roger of Beaumont must be well known to any who have studied +the details of the Norman Conquest of England, though Roger's own +position with regard to that event is a negative one. His sons play a +part in the Conquest itself, and yet more in the events that followed +the Conquest. In the reign of Henry I. Robert of Meulan, son of Roger of +Beaumont, but called from the French fief of his mother, is the most +prominent person after the King himself and Anselm. But Roger himself, +the old Roger, stayed in Normandy as the counsellor of Duchess Matilda, +while his eldest son followed Duke William to the war. There is interest +enough about the man himself and his belongings to give attraction to +the place which specially bears his name, and which, in truth, was his +own creation. The man and the place are called after one another. Roger +is the Roger of Beaumont; Beaumont is the Beaumont of Roger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> He was not +always Roger of Beaumont; he first appears as Roger, son of Humfrey <i>de +Vetulis</i>. One learns one's map of Normandy by degrees. The description +of <i>De Vetulis</i> is a little puzzling; it has been turned into French and +English in more ways than are right. But get out at the Beaumont station +of the Paris and Cherbourg Railway—it comes between Evreux and +Bernay—and walk to the little town of Beaumont, and a fresh light is +gained. Perhaps it strikes us for the first time, perhaps it comes up +again as a scrap of knowledge lighted up afresh, when, between the +station and the town, we pass through the <i>faubourg</i> of <i>Les Vieilles</i>. +How it came by the name we need not ask; the name was there and is +there, and we see that Humfrey <i>de Vetulis</i> is simply Humfrey of <i>Les +Vieilles</i>. We see that here down below was the earliest seat of the +house, till Roger climbed the <i>Bellus Mons</i>, to found his castle, to +give it his name, and to take his name from it. It is a pleasant process +when these small facts come out on the spot with a life that they can +never get out of books. A scoffer might ask whether it were worth while +to go to Beaumont-le-Roger simply to get a clearer notion of the meaning +of the words "Humfredus de Vetulis." But it is clearly worth while to go +to Beaumont-le-Roger, both for the association of the place and to see +what Roger made and what others have made since his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> day. At Hauteville +we could simply guess at the spot which may have witnessed the earliest +wiles of Robert the <i>Wiscard</i>: there is no doubt at all as to the scene +of the earliest wiles of one who might have been called Robert the +Wiscard just as truly. Here were spent the early days of Robert, son of +Roger, great in three lands—Lord of Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and Earl +of Leicester, forefather in the female line of the most glorious holder +of his earldom.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>We walk from the station with the <i>Bellus Mons</i> plainly before us in a +general way, in the shape of a well-wooded range of high ground. But we +see no castle standing up. An abiding castle of Roger's day we hardly +look for; but we do not even see any special mount rising above the pass +of the hill, or standing out as a promontory in front of it. The most +prominent object is the parish church nestling at the foot of the hill. +We see that it has a rich tower; we presently see that it has also one +of those wonderfully lofty choirs, which seldom get westward as far as +the tower, but which, if they did, would cut down the tower to +insignificance. We are used to these things; we know that the work that +we see must be late; but that does not cut off the hope that the church +may contain something of the age of Roger or his sons. A building of +Roger's youth would be something precious. It would rank with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> Duchess +Judith's Abbey at Bernay, with the long and massive nave of the church +at Breteuil, in which, notwithstanding modern tamperings, we are tempted +to see a work of William Fitz-Osborn, while he was still only lord of +Breteuil, and not yet Earl of Hereford. But of Roger and his house the +church of Beaumont has no signs; all is late, save the pillars with +Transitional capitals, which peep out. The choir is very late, and in +its details very bad; here, as in a hundred other places, we wonder how +men who had such grand general conceptions could be so unlucky in the +way of carrying them out. The aisles have some good Flamboyant windows, +and the tower, if it had been carried up to its full height, would have +been a fine example of the style. And against it now lean two memorial +stones commemorating founders and foundations, but not of the house of +<i>De Vetulis</i>. They are brought from the neighbouring abbey, of which we +shall presently have to speak.</p> + +<p>Close above the church we take a road up the hill-side. It is well to +turn presently, to take in the strange grouping of the tower and the +tall choir, as seen from a point a little above them. But our object now +is that which is historically the central, physically the loftiest, +point at Beaumont, the castle on the <i>Bellus Mons</i> itself. We soon begin +to see fragments of masonry rising above us on the left hand. Here, +then, is the castle;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> and so in a sense it is. That is, it is part of +its works, within its precincts; but it is not the head work of all. We +go on a little further, and we see signs of mound and ditch plainly +enough. But we do not take in their full grandeur, till we are kindly +admitted within the gate of one of the small holdings into which the +site of the fortress of Roger's rearing is now cut up. Then we see, +indeed, why it was that "Rogerius de Vetulis" was changed into "Rogerius +de Bello Monte."</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, a "<i>bellus mons</i>" in the sense of commanding a wide and +pleasant outlook. The town and church of Beaumont, from some points the +abbey close below, the wide vale of the Rille and the hills beyond, make +up a cheerful landscape. But if by the "<i>bellus mons</i>" we were to +understand a fair natural hill, we should be led astray. The actual site +of Roger's keep is neither a natural hill nor an artificial mound. It is +a piece of the natural hill artificially cut off from the general mass. +The founder chose a point of the hill-side which suited his objects. Its +southern face, towards the open country, was steep enough for purposes +of defence; for the rest, he cut off the piece of ground that was to be +fortified by a gigantic ditch in the form of a horse-shoe. It is a ditch +indeed, one that gladdens the eye that is looking out for such things. +There is not so much of it, but what there is seems as grand as anything +at Arques or Old Sarum. Lilybæum stands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> apart; Roger must have had +plenty of labour at his command; but he had not, like the engineers of +Carthage, to dig through the solid rock. It is a ditch to look down on +from above, and also to walk along in its depth, and to look up on each +side. The ground is not absolutely open all round; some obstructions of +farm-buildings, and the like, hinder one from stepping out the +horse-shoe quite as far as it goes; but the top of the mound—if mound +is the right word—is perfectly free. There are fragments of masonry +left everywhere, <i>but</i> there is no continuous wall anywhere, nor any +scrap of detail by which we could fix a date. Still, enough is left for +all purposes of historical association, enough to show in what kind of a +place Roger of <i>Les Vieilles</i> fixed his home. It is not exactly an +eagle's nest; for that kind of dwelling Normandy supplies fewer +opportunities than some other lands. But it comes much more nearly to an +eagle's nest than the home of any lord of Laigle who dwelled at Laigle. +The exact ground-plan Mr. Clark, and few besides Mr. Clark, could make +out. But without making out the exact ground-plan, we learn enough to +teach us not a little about both Roger's Beaumont and Beaumont's Roger.</p> + +<p>Was the lord of Beaumont-le-Roger entitled to a <i>sainte chapelle</i> in his +castle? Perhaps he might seem to be so when he was also Count of Meulan +and Earl of Leicester. Perhaps it might seem so still more when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +Beaumont had come into the hands of French kings, and had begun to be +granted out as a <i>comté-pairie</i> for their sons. But, seemingly before +that time, which did not come till the fourteenth century, a building +arose which is not exactly a <i>sainte chapelle</i> within the castle, but +which is very near to the castle, and which has very much the air of a +<i>sainte chapelle</i>. When we speak of a <i>sainte chapelle</i> we, of course, +mean a <i>sainte chapelle</i> anywhere, whether at Riom, Paris, or anywhere +else. This building is the abbey church of Beaumont, which stands just +below the castle on the hill-side, a building once evidently of +remarkable beauty. Perhaps the most notable feature about it is the +ascent from the road below to the abbey buildings, a covered passage +lighted by large early Geometrical windows. We make our way up and +presently reach the abbey itself. It is plain that on this narrow ledge +on the hill-side it was no more possible than it was on the steep of +Saint Michael's Mount to put the several buildings of the monastery in +their accustomed relation to the church and to one another. Too much has +perished for any one but a specialist in monastic arrangements to +attempt to spell out the buildings of the monastery in detail; but it +seems that a good deal lay to the westward of the church which in +ordinary cases would have been placed to the north or south. The church +is but a fragment; the north and east walls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> are there, and from them we +can reconstruct it. "East Wall" is here a phrase that may be used; for +we are a little amazed to find that the church had no apse, but an +English-looking flat end. The large east window has lost its tracery, +which should have been something of the pattern of the Angels' Choir at +Lincoln. The whole of the work that remains is of the best French Early +Gothic. Seen from below, from the bridge across the Rille at no great +distance, there is something wonderfully striking in this single side of +the church, an inside seen from outside, with its sheltered windows and +vaulting-shafts, standing against the side of the castle-hill. How was +it when both abbey and castle were perfect? As it is, the abbey is the +more prominent of the two. We can see at least a piece of it, while we +have to guess at the castle; none of its fragments stand out at any +distance. Yet, even looking thus, the abbey seems something subordinate, +something dependent; it seems crowded into an unnatural position in +order to be an appendage to something else. The parish church stands out +boldly enough. It has a right to do so; it came in the order of nature. +It proclaims the separate being of the town of Beaumont. The town of +Beaumont doubtless sprang up because of the presence of the castle; but +it sprang up by an independent growth; it was not the personal creation +of any of its lords. The abbey, on the other hand, placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> on so strange +a site, was clearly the personal device of its own founder, who may have +felt a number of very different feelings gratified, as he saw an abbey +of his own making at his feet.</p> + +<p>The result is an abbatial church unlike all other abbatial churches. The +abbey of Beaumont is very beautiful, while the abbey of Almenèches is +very ugly; yet Almenèches comes one degree nearer than Beaumont to one's +ordinary notion of an abbey church. The abbey of Beaumont must have been +a lovely chapel, but only a chapel. If it stood in its perfect state at +Caen, among that wonderful group of noble minsters and great parish +churches, it would strike us as a beautiful, but a small thing. This is +not the usual position of the church of an abbey. It was, in fact, a +pious and artistic fancy; while not, in strictness of description, a +<i>sainte chapelle</i> or other chapel of a castle, it has all the effect of +being such. Or in its position against the hill-side, it may call up the +memory of Brantôme far away in Périgord;<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> it has nothing in common +with a typical abbey church like Saint-Evroul, except the accident of +being much of the same date and style.</p> + +<p>One building still remains to be noticed in the Beaumont of Roger. That +is the church of his earliest home at Les Vieilles. It had, or was meant +to have, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> pretty thirteenth-century tower. But the church is a mere +fragment, mutilated, desecrated, shut up. A decently kept ruin is far +less offensive than a church in such a state as this. But the thought +again comes, as at Saint-Evroul, how short a time has passed since the +parish church of Les Vieilles and the abbey church of Beaumont were both +living things. No man now alive can remember them such; but not so many +years back many could. In 1861 we talked with one who remembered the +abbey church of Bernay in the full extent of its choir and Lady-chapel. +We go back after thirty years to find the church of the Conqueror's +grandmother in other things much as it was, still desecrated, but with +no more of actual destruction. But we find that the one genuine Roman +shaft that was there, one of the very few such north of Loire, has +either perished or has been so covered up with timber framework as to be +quite out of sight. And one later, but still early capital, had been +knocked away to make a convenient resting-place for a wooden beam. One +would think that such a building as this, even if it cannot be restored +to divine worship, might at least be made <i>monument historique</i> and +taken care of. Only then the State would some day come and take away +every real shaft and every real capital, and put imitation shafts and +capitals in their stead. And that might be even worse than the wooden +beams.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span></p> +<h2>JUBLAINS</h2> + +<h3>1876</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> know not how far the name of Silchester may be known among Frenchmen, +but we suspect that the name of Jublains is very little known among +Englishmen. The two places certainly very nearly answer to one another +in the two countries. Both alike are buried Roman towns whose sites had +been forsaken, or occupied only by small villages; both have supplied +modern inquirers with endless stores both of walls and foundations and +of movable relics; and the two spots further agree in this, that both at +Silchester and at Jublains the history of the place has to be made out +from the place itself; all that we can do is to make out the Roman +names; we have no record of the history of either.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> The names which +the two places now bear respectively illustrate the rules of French and +English nomenclature. Silchester proclaims itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> by its English name +to have been a Roman <i>castrum</i>, but it keeps no trace of its Roman name +of Calleva. But Næodunum of the Diablintes follows the same rule as +Lutetia of the Parisii. The old name of the town itself is forgotten, +but the name of the tribe still lives. The case is not quite so clear as +that of Paris; some unlucky etymologists have seen in the name Jublains +traces of <i>Jules</i> and of <i>bains</i>; but a moment's thought will show that +the name is a natural corruption of <i>Diablintes</i>. The name is spelled +several ways, of which <i>Jublains</i> is now the one in vogue; but another +form, <i>Jublent</i>, better brings out its origin. As for the two places +themselves, Jublains and Silchester, each of them has its points in +which it surpasses the other. At Silchester there is the town-wall, +nearly perfect throughout the whole of its circuit. Jublains fails here; +but, on the other hand, Silchester has no one object to set against the +magnificent remains of the fortress or citadel, the traditional camp of +Cæsar. Silchester again has the great advantage of being systematically +and skilfully dug out, while Jublains has been examined only piecemeal. +This again illustrates the difference between the state of ownership in +England and in France. Silchester is at the command of a single will, +which happily is in the present generation wisely guided. Jublains must +fare as may seem good to a multitude of separate wills, of which it is +too much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> to expect that all will at any time be wisely guided. But it +is worth while to remember on the other hand that a single foolish Duke +may easily do more mischief than several wise Dukes can do good, and +that out of the many owners of Jublains, if we cannot expect all at any +time to be wise, there is a fair chance that at no moment will every one +of them be foolish.</p> + +<p>At the present moment most certainly several of the owners of Jublains +are the opposite of foolish, and the most important monument of all is +placed beyond the individual caprice of any man. The great fortress is +diligently taken care of under the authority of the local Archæological +Society; the theatre is the property of M. Henri Barbe, a zealous +resident antiquary and the historian of the place; and the other chief +remains are easily accessible, and, as far as we can see, stand in no +danger. But it is of course impossible to dig up the whole place in the +same way as Silchester has been dug up. The modern Diablintes must live +somewhere; no power short of that of an Eastern despot can expel them +all from the sites of their predecessors, even to make the ways and +works of those predecessors more clearly known.</p> + +<p>But we have as yet hardly said what and where Jublains is. It lies in +the old county and diocese of Maine, in the modern department of +Mayenne, on the road between the towns of Mayenne and Evron. The site +was, as the local historian well points out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> one admirably chosen for +the site of a town, standing as it does at the point of junction of the +roads from various parts of Central and Northern Gaul and from the +Constantine and Armorican peninsulas. It stands on a gently sloping +height, with a wide view over the flatter land to the south, and over +the Cenomannian hills more to the east, the peak of Montaigu, namesake +of our own Montacute, forming a prominent object. The traveller coming +along the road from Mayenne, the most likely point of approach, will +hardly notice anything remarkable till he reaches the parish church, a +building of no special importance, but which has a bell-gable of a type +more familiar in Britain than in Gaul. Here, if he has any eyes at all, +he will see that the church is built on the foundations of some much +larger and earlier building. The masses of Roman masonry are clear +enough, with two round projections near the two western angles of the +church. These are the remains of the <i>thermæ</i> of Næodunum, and the +traveller has in fact passed through the greater part of the ancient +city to reach them. There are plenty of other and far greater remains; +but this is the only one which lies immediately on the road by which the +traveller is likely to come. The enclosed space of the town was an +irregular four-sided figure, with no distinct four streets of a +<i>chester</i>, but rather with a greater number of ways meeting together, +like our Godmanchester. The whole eastern side of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> town is full of +remains among the fields and gardens; not far from the northern +entrance, a field or two away from the road, are the very distinct +foundations of a temple locally known as that of Fortune. A walk over +two or three more fields, crossed by traces of foundations at almost +every step, brings the traveller to a more singular object, known +locally as <i>La Tonnelle</i>, which looks very much like the foundation of a +round temple, such as that of Hercules (late Vesta) at Rome. And +something like the effect of such a temple is accidentally preserved. A +line of trees follows the circular sweep of the foundations, and their +trunks really make no bad representatives of the columns of the temple. +In short, when the traveller is once put upon the scent, he finds scraps +of ancient Næodunum at every step of his walk through Jublains and its +fields.</p> + +<p>But the most important remains of all lie in the south-western part of +the old enclosure. To the extreme south of the city lies the theatre. +This is happily the property of M. Barbe, who lives and carries on his +researches within its precinct. Its general plan has been made out, and, +as diggings go on, the rows of seats are gradually becoming visible. It +differs from the shape of most other theatres, as its curved line +occupies more than a semicircle, like the shape of a Saracenic +horse-shoe arch. It seems that no signs of an amphitheatre had been +found at Jublains; so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> M. Barbe is driven to the conclusion that the +same building must have been used for both purposes. How far this is +archæologically sound we must leave to those who are specially learned +in amphitheatres to determine. But we cannot forget the dissatisfied +audience in Horace who, between the acts, or even during the performance +itself, called for "aut ursum aut pugiles." The position, sloping away +to the south, is indeed a lovely one, and we may congratulate the man +who has found at once his home and his work on such a spot.</p> + +<p>But the great sight of all at Jublains, that which gives its special +character to the place, but which has also a history of its own distinct +from the place, has yet to be spoken of. We have kept it for the last, +both because of its special history and because it seems to be the only +thing which is locally recognised as a place of pilgrimage. Tell your +driver to take you to Jublains, and he will at once take you to "le camp +de Jules César." He knows the other objects perfectly well; but, unless +he is specially asked, he assumes that this one point is the object of +the journey. Nor is this wonderful; for the camp, fortress, citadel, +whatever it is to be called, though most assuredly not the work of the +great Dictator, is after all the great object at Jublains, which gives +Jublains its special place among Gaulish and Roman cities. More than +this, it is the one object which stands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> out before all eyes, and which +must fix on itself the notice of the most careless passer-by. Suddenly, +by the roadside, we come on massive Roman walls, preserved to an unusual +proportion of their height. Their circuit may in everyday speech be +called a square, though strict mathematical accuracy must pronounce it +to be a trapezium. Near the entrance we mark some fragments gathered +together, and the eye is regaled, as it so often is in Italy and so +seldom in Britain and Northern Gaul, with the sight of the Corinthian +acanthus leaf. The wall itself, on the other hand, is of that +construction of which we see so much in Britain and in Northern Gaul, +but which is unknown in Rome itself. Here are the familiar layers of +small stones with the alternate ranges of bricks. We enter where the +eastern gate has been, and find a second line of defence, a wall of +earth, square, or nearly so, but with its angles rounded off, with its +single entrance near the south-east angle carefully kept away from +either of the approaches in the outer wall. Within this again is the +fortress itself, again quadrangular, with projections at the angles. The +more finished parts of its walls, the gateways, and the parts adjoining +them, give us specimens of Roman masonry whose vast stones carry us +back, be it to the wall of <i>Roma Quadrata</i> at one end or to the Black +Gate of Trier at the other, and which specially call back the latter in +the marks of the metal clamps which have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> been torn away. Details must +be studied on the spot or in the works of M. Barbe, which is nearly the +same thing, as they seem to be had only on the spot. But there are not +many remains of Roman work more striking than this, and it is more +striking still if we try to make out its probable history from the +internal evidence, which is all that we have to guide us.</p> + +<p>That this fortress does not belong to any early period of the Roman +occupation is clear from its construction, the alternate layers of brick +and stone, and the bricks with wide joints of masonry between them, as +in all the later Roman work. And again, the fact that among the +materials of the fortress have been found pieces of other buildings used +up again might suggest that it was not built till after some time of +change, perhaps of destruction, had come over the city. But it is the +numismatic evidence which clearly parts off the history of the fortress +from the general history of the city. Jublains has no inscriptions to +show, but its numismatic wealth is great. Among the many coins found, +not many are earlier than the time of Nero, and those which there are +are chiefly coins of Germanicus. From Nero to Constantine coins of all +dates are common. It is M. Barbe's inference that it was in Nero's reign +that the place began to be of importance, and that its great temple was +built. But the numismatic stores of the fortress taken by itself tell +quite another story. There,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> not a coin has been found earlier than +Domitian, nor one later than Aurelian, saving a chance find of two +Carolingian pieces of Charles the Bald and a modern French piece of +Charles the Sixth. Again, though coins are found from Domitian onwards, +it is only with Valerian and Gallienus that they become at all common, +while the great mass belong to Tetricus and his son. One alone is of +Aurelian. That is to say, of 169 coins found in the fortress, 151 come +in the twenty years from 258 to 273, while 110 belong to the single +reign of the Tetrici. After Aurelian there is nothing earlier than +Charles the Bald. It is clear then that the fortress must have been +deserted in the reign of Aurelian; it is clear that the time of its +chief importance must have been just before, in the time of Tetricus. It +looks as if the fortress had had but a very short life. The conclusion of +the local antiquaries is that it was most likely raised by Postumus, and +that it perished in some revolt or sedition, or merely as the result of +the overthrow of Tetricus by Aurelian. A mere glance at the building +would have tempted us to put it a little later, to have set it down as +part of the defences of Probus, or even of some Emperor much later than +Probus. But the numismatic evidence seems irresistible; it seems +impossible to escape the conclusion that this splendid piece of Roman +military work belongs to the middle of the third century, and that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> +was forsaken, most likely slighted, within a very few years after its +first building.</p> + +<p>This is as curious and conclusive a piece of internal evidence as we +often light upon; but it must be remembered that all this applies only +to the fortress, and not to the town of Næodunum. That had a much longer +life. It began long before the fortress, and it went on long after. The +diggings at Jublains have brought to light a great number of Christian +Frankish objects, which shows that the place kept on some measure of +importance long after the Teutonic conquest of Gaul. It seems also to be +looked upon as a kind of secondary seat of the Cenomannian bishopric. +But it must either have died out bit by bit, or else have perished in +some later convulsion. The local inquirers seem to incline to attribute +the final destruction of Næodunum, the City of the Diablintes in the +nomenclature of the time, to the incursions of the Northmen in the ninth +century. That they did a great deal of mischief in Maine is certain; and +is a likely enough time for the city to have been finally swept away as +a city, and to have left only the insignificant modern village which has +grown up amongst its ruins.</p> + +<p>Jublains then, Diablintes, Næodunum, whatever it is to be called, has a +special place among fallen Roman cities. Aquileia and Salona once ranked +among the great cities of the earth; their destruction is matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +recorded history. The destruction of Uriconium is so far matter of +recorded history that a reference to it has been detected in the wail of +a British poet. The fall of Anderida was sung by our own gleemen and +recorded by our own chroniclers. But the fall of Calleva and the fall of +Næodunum are alike matters of inference. Geography shows that Calleva +fell in the northern march of Cerdic, and the most speaking of all Roman +relics, the treasured and hidden eagle, abides as a witness of the day +when our fathers overthrew it.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> Næodunum seems to have undergone no +such overthrow as those wrought by the Hun, the Avar, and the Saxon. But +the evidence of buildings and of coins reveals to us a most important +and singular piece of the internal history of the Roman province of +Gaul. The city of the Diablintes itself may have been finally swept away +by Hasting or Rolf; but the greatest thing in Næodunum, the Roman +fortress, must have been, perhaps broken down, certainly forsaken, by +the hands of men who called themselves Romans, while its bricks and +stones were still in their first freshness. Nowhere is the truth more +strongly brought home to us that there is another kind of evidence +besides chronicles, besides even written documents, the evidence of the +works of the men themselves who did deeds which no one took the trouble +to record with the pen or with the graving tool.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span></p> +<h2>THE CHURCHES OF CHARTRES AND LE MANS</h2> + +<h3>1868</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is sometimes curious to see how far the popular fame of buildings is +from answering either to their architectural merit or to their historic +interest. Take, for instance, the two cathedrals of Chartres and Le +Mans, two cities placed within no very great distance of one another, on +one of the great French lines of railway, that which leads from Paris to +Brest. Chartres is a name which is familiar to every one; its cathedral +is counted among the great churches of Christendom; men speak of it in +the same breath with Amiens and Ely. Le Mans, on the other hand, is +scarcely known; we suspect that many fairly informed persons hardly know +where the city itself is; the cathedral is hardly ever spoken of, and, +we believe, is scarcely at all known, except to professed architectural +students. Yet, except that Chartres is nearer Paris of the two, one is +as accessible as the other; the historical associations of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> Chartres, as +far at least as Englishmen are concerned, certainly cannot be compared +to those of Le Mans; there is nothing at Chartres to set against the +early military and domestic antiquities of Le Mans; the secondary +churches of Le Mans distinctly surpass those of Chartres; though between +the two cathedral churches the controversy might be more equally waged. +Each has great and diverse merits; but for our own part, we have little +hesitation in preferring Le Mans even as a work of architecture; that it +is a building of higher historic interest there can be no doubt +whatever.</p> + +<p>Both cities belong to a class of which we have few or none in England. A +Celtic hill-fort, crowning a height rising steeply from a river-side, +has grown into a Roman city, and the Roman city has remained to our own +times the local capital, alike civil and ecclesiastical. It would be +hardly possible to find a single town in England whose history has run +the same course—a course which is by no means peculiar to Chartres and +Le Mans, but which they share with many other cities in all parts of +Gaul. And Le Mans especially has a local history of unusual interest, +and that history is written with unusual clearness on the site and the +earliest remains of the town. But on that history we shall not at +present enlarge. Our present object is to compare the churches of the +two towns, especially the two great cathedrals, which, as usual, stand +within the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> earliest enclosure, and therefore upon the highest ground in +their respective cities.</p> + +<p>Two or three events connect the cathedral of Chartres with general and +with English history. The first church of which any part survives is +that raised by Fulbert, the famous Bishop of Chartres in the early part +of the eleventh century, and the most diligent letter-writer of the +time. To this work, of which a vast crypt still remains, our great Cnut +was a benefactor. The dignity of the Lord of all Northern Europe has so +deeply impressed the writer of Murray's Handbook that he cuts him into +two, and speaks of the contributions of the Kings of England, France, +and Denmark. In the latter part of the next century, John of Salisbury, +so famous in the great struggle between Henry and Thomas, held the +Bishopric of Chartres. It was the spires of Chartres to which Edward the +Third stretched forth his hands when his heart smote him at the sound of +the thunder, and he vowed to refuse no honourable terms of peace. In was +in this cathedral that Henry of Navarre received the crown of France, a +new holy oil of Marmoutiers being extemporized to supply the place of +the inaccessible holy oil of Rheims. The history of the city and county +in earlier times is closely mixed up with those of France, Normandy, +Anjou, and Champagne. The counts of Chartres and Blois in the tenth, +eleventh, and twelfth centuries were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> men of importance in their day, +and one of them directly connected himself with England by a memorable +marriage. Chartres was long the dwelling-place of the excellent Adela, +the daughter of the Great William, the mother of King Stephen and of the +famous Bishop Henry of Winchester. But, while Chartres was thus closely, +though indirectly, connected with our history, it never, like Le Mans, +actually formed a part of the dominions of a common sovereign with +England and Normandy.</p> + +<p>The cathedrals of Chartres and Le Mans are about as unlike as any two +great mediæval churches well can be. Well nigh the only point of +likeness is that each possesses a magnificent east end of the thirteenth +century, of the usual French plan, with the apse, the surrounding +chapels, the complicated system of flying buttresses. But at Chartres +this east end is part of a whole. The crypt still witnesses to the days +of Fulbert, the lower stages of the western towers to those of Adela and +to those of John of Salisbury; but all the rest of the church, including +of course all the interior, is of an uniform style and design. The +church throughout follows the usual type of great French churches; the +eye accustomed to the buildings of England or Normandy misses the +central towers of Lincoln or of Saint Ouen's, but Chartres is not in +England or in Normandy, but in France, and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> church is built +accordingly. A fairer question of taste is raised by the unequal spires +of the west front—a French feature again, but occasionally extending +into Normandy and England, as at Rouen, Llandaff, Lynn, and Canterbury +as it was. But it is only in so long and varied a front as that of Rouen +Cathedral that it is at all satisfactory. At Chartres the great south +spire is modern and of iron, but we believe it very well reproduces the +outline of the elder one of wood, and it certainly comes down heavily +and awkwardly upon the towers and upon the roof of the church. The upper +part of the north tower is frittered away with work of a later style. +Still, allowing for the diversity of the towers, which of course does +not appear inside, Chartres is a whole—a consistent, harmonious whole, +of great, though we cannot think of first-rate, excellence. How does +such a whole stand as compared with a building of strange, and at first +sight, unintelligible outline, formed by the juxtaposition of two parts, +each of admirable merit in itself, but which startle by their absolute +contrast in every way? Chartres was made, Le Mans eminently grew; and +different minds will be differently inclined in the comparison between a +single harmonious work of art and a union of two buildings widely +differing in date, style, and proportion. But, on the other hand, it +must be said that nothing at Chartres equals the parts of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span>Le Mans +taken separately, and that, in the inside at least, the incongruity of +Le Mans is far from being felt in the unpleasant way that might have +been looked for.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image15.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="Le Mans Cathedral, N.W." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Le Mans Cathedral, N.W.</span> +</div> + +<p>The general effect of Le Mans Cathedral, as seen from any point but the +east, is certainly perplexing. From the east indeed, from the open place +below the church and the Roman wall, once a marsh, the apse, with its +flying buttresses and surrounding chapels, rises in a grandeur before +which Chartres is absolutely dwarfed, and which gives Amiens itself a +very formidable rival. We here see the main source of our difficulties, +namely that the church has but a single tower, and that at the end of +the south transept. Viewed from any other point—looking up, for +instance, at the old town from the other side of the river—what one +sees is a lofty body with a tower at one end of it, which one is +inclined rashly to assume to be the nave, with a western tower, and a +lower body joining it at right angles. This last is the real nave of the +church, and a magnificent building it is. The truth is that, at Le Mans, +as in various other churches in France, the Gothic builders, from the +thirteenth century onwards, designed a complete rebuilding. They began +at the east, they rebuilt the choir and transepts, but they never got +any further, so that the ancient nave remains. So it is at Bordeaux and +Toulouse; so it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> is at Beauvais, where the small but precious fragment +of early work, which looks like an excrescence against the gigantic +transept—the <i>Basse Œuvre</i>, as it is locally called—is really the +ancient nave—.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> So it is in a certain sense at Limoges, where a gap +intervenes between the finished choir and transept and the western tower +of the original design. But in none of these cases, as far as we can +see, can the elder nave have at all approached the grandeur of the noble +work at Le Mans. It is a Romanesque building of the eleventh century, +reconstructed in the gorgeous style which prevailed towards the end of +the twelfth. The outer walls, except in the clerestory, are of the +former date, and the contrast in the masonry is very striking. Within, +the whole has been recast in the later form of Romanesque, but it has +not been wholly rebuilt. Columns with rich and highly classical +capitals, supporting arches which are just pointed, have been inserted +under the massive round arches of the original church, but the arches +are still there and visible. The triforium and clerestory have been +wholly reconstructed, or so thoroughly disguised that the old work does +not appear. This nave is one of those buildings which, in the infancy of +vaulting, their builders found it convenient to vault with one bay of +vaulting over two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span>bays of arcade, as in the choir of Boxgrove in the +next century. The result is that the piers are alternately columnar and +clustered. Setting aside a few of the very grandest buildings of the +style—as one would hardly compare this nave with Peterborough, Ely, or +Saint Stephen's—this Romanesque nave of Le Mans is one of the finest +works of its kind to be found anywhere. And its juxtaposition with the +superb Gothic choir is less incongruous than might have been looked for. +The only fault is that, as it now stands, the nave ends abruptly to the +east with a mere vaulting rib, without any proper choir-arch. But this +fault is fully balanced by the glorious view of the choir thus given to +the whole church. That any one could compare the inside of Chartres with +the inside of Le Mans, thus seen, seems incredible. The height of Le +Mans is said to be a few feet greater than that of Chartres. It looks +half as high again. At Chartres the height is lost through the great +width, and through the use of a low spring for the vaulting arch. At Le +Mans everything soars as only a Gothic building, and pre-eminently a +French Gothic building, can soar. The pillars, of enormous height, +support the clerestory without a triforium. But the effect of the +triforium is there still. The aisles are double, and the inner +range—itself of the height of the nave of Wells and Exeter—is +furnished with a complete triforium and clerestory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> which, seen between +the pillars of the apses, allow the sort of break which the triforium +gives to be combined with the grand effect of the full unbroken columns. +Something of the same kind is found at Bourges, and, on a much smaller +scale, at Coutances. The effect of the arrangement comes out in +perfection at Le Mans. Altogether, little as the building seems to be +known, the thirteenth-century work at Le Mans undoubtedly entitles it to +rank among the noblest churches of the middle ages. One point more on +the Romanesque church of Le Mans. The original design embraced two +towers at the end of the transept, like Exeter, Ottery, and seemingly +Saint Martin's at Tours. These towers were destroyed by order of William +Rufus, who charged the Bishop Hildebert with having used them to shoot +at the neighbouring castle.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> The north tower has never been rebuilt; +its ruins are there to this day. The southern tower was again rebuilt at +the end of the twelfth century and finished in the fifteenth. This is +surely as speaking a bit of architectural history as one often finds.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image16.jpg" width="600" height="707" alt="Interior of Le Mans Cathedral" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Interior of Le Mans Cathedral</span> +</div> + +<p>The writer in Murray, in his zeal for the cathedral of Chartres, assumes +that no one will care to visit such inferior buildings as the other +churches of that city. Let no man be thus led astray. In the general +view of the city from the walks to the south-east, one of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span>most +effective views to be had of any city, two other churches stand out very +strikingly, the cathedral crowning all. Of these Saint Anian, we must +confess, is somewhat of a deceiver. The distant effect is good, but +there is little to repay a nearer examination. It is far otherwise with +the Abbey of Saint Peter, whose apse, though on a far smaller scale, is +distinctly more skilfully managed than that of the cathedral. The +disused collegiate church of Saint Andrew has some good Transitional +work, and Saint Martin-in-the-Vale, just outside the town, is a gem of +bold and simple Romanesque. But the secondary churches of Chartres do +not equal those of Le Mans, while Chartres is still further behind Le +Mans in military and domestic remains. At Le Mans the Abbey of La +Couture (<i>de culturâ Dei</i>) is a perfect minster with two unfinished +western towers, a nave of Aquitanian width,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> a fine Romanesque apse, +in which, if later windows have been inserted, some small fragments of +some early work have also been preserved. Beyond the Sarthe is another +fine Romanesque church, also a complete minster, the church of +Notre-Dame-du-Pré. A fine hospital, the work of Henry the Second, is now +perverted to some military purpose, and some military tomfoolery forbids +examination, in marked contrast to the liberal spirit which allows free +access to everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> that the antiquary can wish to visit at +Fontevrault and at Saumur. But the ecclesiastical remains of Le Mans are +far from being the whole of its attractions. Its military and civil +antiquities are endless, and they are more characteristic. We have not +the least wish to depreciate Chartres. It is a highly interesting city; +it contains a magnificent cathedral and several other remarkable +buildings. But it cannot compare with Le Mans.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image17.jpg" width="600" height="495" alt="St. Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres" title="" /> +<span class="caption">St. Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image18.jpg" width="600" height="731" alt="Apse of La Couture, Le Mans" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Apse of La Couture, Le Mans</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span></p> +<h2>LE MANS</h2> + +<h3>1876</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> spoke some years ago of the architectural character of the chief +churches of Le Mans, especially in comparison with those of Chartres. +But the comparison was of a purely architectural kind, and hardly +touched the general history and special position of the Cenomannian city +among the cities of Gaul. That position is one which is almost unique. +The city of the Cenomanni, the modern Le Mans, has never stood in the +first rank of the cities of Europe, or even of Gaul; but there are few +which are the centres of deeper or more varied interests. Le Mans has at +once a princely, an ecclesiastical, and, above all, a municipal history. +It is true that its princely and its ecclesiastical history are spread +over many ages, while its municipal history is a thing of a moment; yet +it is the municipal history which gives Le Mans its special character. +Le Mans, in the course of its long history, has been many things; but it +is before all things the city of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> <i>commune</i>. Among cities north of +the Loire—it might perhaps be unsafe to say among cities north of the +Alps—Le Mans shares with Exeter the credit of asserting the position of +a civic commonwealth in days when, even in more Southern lands, the +steps taken in that direction were as yet but very imperfect. And it was +against the same enemy that freedom was asserted by the insular and by +the continental city. The freedom of Exeter and the freedom of Le Mans +were alike asserted against the man who appeared in Maine as no less +distinctly the Conqueror than he appeared in England. Exeter, in her +character of commonwealth, checked the progress of William by the most +determined opposition that he met with in the course of his insular +conquest. Le Mans, conquered before William crossed the sea, threw off +his yoke when he was master of the island as well as of the mainland. +Had the men either of the island or of the mainland been capable of any +enlarged political combinations, England and Maine would have done +wisely to unite their forces against the common enemy. And it is just +possible that those obscure dealings of Earl Harold with the powers of +Gaul, which are dimly alluded to by the biographer of Eadward, may have +had some object of this kind. But, if so, nothing practical came of +them. Maine and England did nothing to help one another. In fact, when +Maine was won back to William's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> obedience, the work was largely done by +English hands, and those the hands of men who, there is some reason to +think, had Hereward himself as their captain. The actual relations +between England and Maine in the eleventh century were thus the exact +opposite of what they ought to have been. Englishmen appeared on the +mainland as the ravagers and conquerors of a district whose people ought +to have been their closest allies. Still even this kind of negative +relation does establish a kind of connexion between Maine and England. +Above all, it establishes a special analogy between the English city +which withstood the Conqueror, and the Gaulish city which revolted +against him, in the name of the same principle which a century later was +to do such great things among the cities of Lombardy.</p> + +<p>The moment then of greatest interest in the history of the Cenomannian +city is the moment of its short-lived republican independence. In the +case of Le Mans, as in the case of Exeter, we should be well pleased if +we knew more of the exact form of commonwealth which it was proposed to +establish, and, above all, of the relations which were to be maintained +between the city and the surrounding districts. Most likely nothing of +the kind was ever put into shape. The commonwealth of Le Mans and the +commonwealth of Exeter both sprang into being in a moment of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> patriotic +enthusiasm, when the city and the surrounding districts were fully +united in a vigorous effort against the common enemy. How the two were +to get on together in more settled times they most likely did not stop +to think. What we do know is that the citizens of Le Mans made a +<i>commune</i>, that the people of the country at large zealously supported +them, that the nobles swore to the new commonwealth unwillingly, and, in +some cases, even dishonestly. All that we know about the matter comes +from the historian of the Cenomannian Bishops, who first of all thinks +the <i>commune</i> which the Norman Bishop naturally opposed to be a very +wicked thing, but who afterwards, when it came to actual fighting, +cannot help sympathising with the men of his own city. There was a +<i>commune</i> of Le Mans, a <i>commune</i> in which all Maine shared, a <i>commune</i> +which the Bishops and the nobles had to join against their will, and +which one of the nobles betrayed as soon as he could.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> That is about +all our knowledge; it is just enough to make us wish to know a good deal +more. It is enough to throw over Le Mans and Maine an interest which is +shared by no other city and province of Northern Gaul; and it makes us +feel a kind of disappointment in the inevitable fact that the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +moment in the history of the city is exactly the one which has left no +trace in its existing monuments.</p> + +<p>Of the times earlier and later than the republican movement of the +eleventh century Le Mans has abundant remains of all kinds. No city is +more distinctly the Gaulish hill-fort which has gradually swelled into +the Roman, the mediæval, and the modern city. Yet the height of Le Mans +is neither so lofty nor so isolated as those of many of its fellows. It +is not a detached hill at all, nor does the city stand on the highest +ground in its own immediate neighbourhood; and on the eastern, the +inland side, the slope of the rising ground is very gradual. Yet the +site of the hill-fort which grew into the city was happily chosen. It +was pitched on the point where the high ground comes close to the river +Sarthe and rises precipitously above it. From the river side then, the +western side, Le Mans has most distinctly the character of a hill city, +which comes out much less strongly in the approach from the east, while +in the approach from the north, where there is an actual descent into +the ancient city, it is altogether lost. It is from the river side then +that those who wish—while there is yet time—to get a notion of what +the Cenomannian city was, either in Roman or in mediæval times, must go +to look for it. The city has extended itself on this side as well as on +the others, but it has extended itself in the form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> of an outlying +suburb beyond the river. To the west, the north, and the south, the +spread of the modern town has done much to wipe out the ancient +landmarks.</p> + +<p>The Roman remains of Le Mans show well how the conquering race in their +distant foundations knew how to adapt themselves to every kind of +position. There was one type of city which was preferred wherever the +ground allowed of it; but that type was freely forsaken whenever +practical necessity commanded that it should be forsaken. The hill of +Vindinum, Suindinum, Subdinnum, whichever form we are to choose, therein +differing from the hill of Isca, was not at all suited for the laying +out of a city according to the familiar type of a Roman <i>chester</i>. The +high ground immediately overlooking the river formed a long narrow +ridge, and the space included within the Roman walls—<i>la Cité</i>, as +distinguished from the more modern parts of the town—shows no approach +to a square, but forms an irregular figure, which only by a stretch of +courtesy can be called even an oblong. Within this again the chief +ecclesiastical street, the <i>Rue des Chanoines</i>, running parallel with +the more secular <i>Grande Rue</i>, bears in mediæval documents the strange +title of <i>Vetus Roma</i>, which has been held to point to a still earlier +enclosure, that of the primitive Gaulish fort itself. Of the Roman +walls, whose construction, like that of most Roman walls in Gaul and +Britain, shows them to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> not earlier than the third century, large +portions still remain; indeed a little time back it might have been said +that the river front of the wall, with its noble range of round +bastions, was all but absolutely perfect. On the other side, towards the +modern town, the wall was less perfect, but even there a great deal +could be made out. But the Roman walls did not take in the whole even of +the mediæval city. In the thirteenth century an outer range of wall was +raised close to the stream, taking in the suburb of <i>La Tannerie</i>; an +extension to the south and south-east took in the quarter of Saint +Ben'et, and another suburb called <i>L'Epéron</i>. More remarkably still, at +the north-east corner of the Roman inclosure, the growth of the +cathedral of Saint Julian to the east, exactly as in the case of +Lincoln, overleaped the Roman wall and caused a further enlargement at +this corner. It should be noticed that, contrary to the general Gaulish +rule, the church of Le Mans stood in a corner of the original city, so +as to make somewhat of an ecclesiastical quarter after a fashion English +rather than Gaulish. In the Cenomannian state, the Prince, the Bishop, +and the citizens all held their distinct places, and it was reasonable +that their geographical quarters should be marked also. In fact, in the +great days of Cenomannian history the Bishop was a power independent +alike of Count and city. He owed temporal allegiance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> neither, but +held directly of the King at Laon or at Paris. Had the development of +things in Gaul followed the same course as the development of things in +Germany, Maine might have seen, like so many German lands, the +ecclesiastical and the temporal principality and the free city, all side +by side, bound together by no tie beyond such degree of dependence as +any of them might have kept on the common centre. But when county, +bishopric, and city all came under the strong hand of the Norman, all +tendencies of this kind were checked. And they perished for ever when +Normandy and Maine, instead of external fiefs, became incorporated +provinces of the French kingdom.</p> + +<p>Within and around the walls of the city there arose in different ages a +series of buildings, ecclesiastical, military, and civil, which might +claim for Le Mans a place among the cities of Gaul and Europe next after +those cities which had been the actual seats of imperial or royal +dominion. Above the river rose the double line of walls and towers, +Roman and mediæval, and high above them the vast and wondrous pile of +Saint Julian's minster. On the side away from the river, the side +pointing towards the hostile land of Anjou, built on the Roman wall +itself and seemingly out of Roman materials, stood the palace of the +Counts, well placed indeed for Count Herbert, <i>Evigilans Canem</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> to +sally forth on the nightly raids before which black Angers trembled.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> +And besides the dwellings of the temporal and spiritual chiefs, the +ancient streets of Le Mans were set thick with houses, the dwellings of +priests and citizens, which showed how well both classes throve, and how +each did something for the adornment of the city in every form of art, +from Romanesque to <i>Renaissance</i>. But a little time back the traveller +might have seen at Le Mans more houses of the twelfth century than he +would see anywhere north of Venice. And besides the works of her own +princes, bishops, and citizens, Le Mans had also once to show the +grimmer memorials of her conquerors. But, as not uncommonly happens, the +memorials of the earlier time have outlived those of the later. At the +northern end of the city William thought it needful to strengthen his +greatest continental conquest by two distinct fortresses. Close by Saint +Julian's, just outside the eastern line of the Roman wall, and formed, +we may believe, out of its materials, rose the Castle, the <i>Regia +turris</i>. Some way to the north-east, at a greater distance from the +river, rose the fortress of <i>Mons Barbatus</i> or <i>Mont Barbet</i>, this last +standing on higher ground than the city and the royal tower. But of the +royal tower itself, and of the fortress into which it grew in later +times, a few fragments only have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> escaped the politic destruction of the +days of Richelieu. Of Mont Barbet nothing is left but the <i>motte</i> or +<i>agger</i>, dating doubtless from far earlier days, but which, as so often +happens, has outlived the buildings which were placed upon and around +it. One would have been well pleased to see the whole line of defence, +the double wall of the city, the double fortress of the Conqueror, +grouping, as they must have done, with the endless towers and spires of +the monastic and parochial churches of the city and its suburbs.</p> + +<p>For, besides the great cathedral church within its walls, Le Mans was, +as it were, girded with great ecclesiastical buildings. Two noble +monastic churches, those of La Couture, on the south-eastern side of the +city, and of Le Pré, on the other side of the river, still remain; and +we have spoken of their architectural character in past years.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> There +were also the Abbeys of Beaulieu, beyond the river, and of St. Vincent +opposite to it beyond Mont Barbet, of which the latter survives in the +shape of a <i>Renaissance</i> rebuilding. And far away in a distant suburb to +the east is the hospital founded by the last native prince of Le Mans, +the great Henry, to whom his native city might seem as a central point +of his vast domain, insular and continental. In him the blood of all the +older rulers and enemies of Le Mans was joined together. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>stock of +the old Counts and of the Norman conquerors, the blood of Helias and of +his Angevin representatives, all flowed together in the veins of the +King who was born within the walls of Le Mans, and who, if he did not +die within its walls, at least died of grief at seeing them in the hands +of his enemy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image19.jpg" width="600" height="416" alt="Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, N.E." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, N.E.</span> +</div> + +<p>But it is painful for one who remembers Le Mans only eight years back to +speak of what it is now. It is hard to believe that within that time Le +Mans has beheld no slight or unimportant warfare beneath its walls, and +that the city of Herbert and Helias bowed but yesterday to the power of +a third conquering William. Le Mans has lost something through the +foreign occupation, but the traveller needs to have it explained to him +what it has lost. When we hear that the Bishop's palace got burned by +the German invaders, it almost sounds as if Germans and Normans had got +confounded. But the damage wrought by the last conquerors is being +speedily made good on another site. It is the damage which is doing to +the city by the merciless hands of its own people that never can be made +good. One would have thought that the Cenomannian city on its height, +the proud line of its Roman bulwarks, the noble works of later days +which those bulwarks shelter, might have moved the heart of the most +ruthless of destroyers. It might have been a good work to clear away the +mean houses which cling to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> Roman wall, and to let the mighty +rampart stand forth in all its majesty; but among those who have the +fate of the ancient city in their hands there is no thought of +preservation—destruction is the only object. We know not who are the +guilty ones. Perhaps there is some stuck-up Mayor or Prefect who would +think himself a great man if he could make Le Mans as ugly and +uninteresting as the dreary modern streets of Rouen or of Paris itself. +It is at all events certain that M. Haussmann was not long ago seen in +Le Mans, and such a presence at such a time is frightfully ominous. At +any rate the facts which can be seen by the traveller's own eyes are +beyond doubt. The later walls close by the river have been broken down +to leave fragments here and there as ornaments in a kind of garden, and, +worse still than this, the ancient wall has been broken through, and the +ancient city itself cleft in twain. By an amount of labour which reminds +one of Trajan cutting through the Quirinal, <i>la Cité</i> has been cut into +two halves with a yawning gulf between them; the Roman wall is broken +through, and the very best of the twelfth-century houses has been +ruthlessly swept away. The excuse for this brutal havoc is to make a +road or street of some kind direct from the modern town to the river. If +the savages could have been persuaded to pay a visit to Devizes, they +might there have learned that the claims of past and present may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> be +reconciled. There the simple device of a tunnel carries the railway +under the ancient mound without doing the least harm; and a tunnel might +in the same way have connected the modern town with the Sarthe without +doing the least damage either to Roman walls or Romanesque houses. But +there are minds to which mere havoc gives a pleasure for its own sake. A +great part of Saint Julian's is more than seven hundred years old, and +in the eyes either of Bishop or of Prefect it may be ugly. The vast +<i>menhir</i> which rests against one of its walls has seen many more than +seven centuries, and the most devoted antiquary can hardly call it +beautiful. When the Roman walls of Le Mans are not spared, nothing can +be safe. All that can be done is for those in whose eyes antiquity is +not a crime to run to and fro over the world as fast as may be, and see +all that they can while anything is left.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span></p> +<h2>MAINE</h2> + +<h3>1876</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have already spoken of the capital of the Cenomanni, and some mention +of the district naturally follows on that of the capital. In no part of +Gaul, in the days at least when Le Mans and Maine stand out most +prominently in general history, are the city and the district more +closely connected. Maine was not, like Normandy, a large territory, +inhabited to a great extent by a distinct people—a territory which, in +all but name, was a kingdom rather than a duchy—a territory which, +though cumbered by the relations of a nominal vassalage, fairly ranked, +according to the standard of those times, among the great powers of +Europe. Maine was simply one of the states which were cut off from the +great duchy of France, and one over which Anjou, another state cut off +in the like sort, always asserted a superiority. Setting aside the great +though momentary incident of the war of the <i>Commune</i>, the history of +Maine during its life as a separate state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> consists almost wholly of its +tossings to and fro between its northern and its southern neighbours, +Normandy and Anjou. The land of Maine, in short, is that of the district +of a single city, forming a single ecclesiastical diocese. In old times +it contained no considerable town but the capital; and even now, when +the old county forms two modern departments, with Le Mans for the +<i>chef-lieu</i> of Sarthe and Laval for the <i>chef-lieu</i> of Mayenne, the more +modern capital is still far from reaching the size and population of the +ancient one. Normandy, with its seven ancient dioceses, its five modern +departments, cuts quite another figure on the map. With so many local +centres, Rouen never was Normandy in the sense in which Le Mans +certainly was Maine; and the strong feeling of municipal life which, as +the history of the <i>commune</i> shows, must have always gone on at Le Mans, +may have tended to make a greater concentration of the being of the +whole district in the capital than was found in other districts of the +same kind. Add to this, that, though the land of Maine contained but a +single diocese, yet that diocese was of much larger and greater extent +than any of the seven dioceses of Normandy. This is shown by the fact +that, while in the modern ecclesiastical arrangements of France, two of +the Norman dioceses have been united with others, the one Cenomannian +diocese has been divided into two.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span></p><p>In another point also Maine shows itself very distinctly as a Northern +district. This is in its architecture. As Anjou is the architectural +borderland between Northern and Southern Gaul, so Maine is again the +architectural borderland between Normandy and Anjou. But it shows its +character as a borderland, not by possessing an intermediate style, as +the Angevin style is distinctly intermediate between the styles of +Normandy and of Aquitaine, but rather by using the Norman and Angevin +styles side by side. In the nave of St. Julian's itself, an Angevin +clerestory and vault is set upon an arcade and triforium which may be +called Norman. At <i>La Couture</i> the nave has wholly given way to an +Angevin rebuilding, while the choir remains Norman, with a touch of +earlier days about it. In the third great church of Le Mans, that of <i>Le +Pré</i>, the Angevin influence does not come in at all. In the department +of military architecture, Sir Francis Palgrave says that the familiar +Norman square keep was borrowed from Maine; but he brings no evidence in +support of this theory, nor have we been able to find any. It seems far +more likely that the fashion was originally Norman, and that it then +spread into the borderland, and it is certain that some of the most +historically famous castles in the land of Maine were the work of Norman +invaders.</p> + +<p>Maine is, in one point, one of the parts of France<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> in which an +Englishman is most inclined to feel himself at home. It shares, though +perhaps in not so marked a degree, the same English look which runs +through a large part of Normandy and Brittany. It has hedges and green +pastures, a sight pleasing to the eye after the dreary look of so many +districts of France. The land is also fairly wooded, and the vine, of +which we hear so much in our accounts of ancient Cenomannian warfare, +is, to say the least, not so prominent a feature as it was then. And we +need not say that vines, except either on a hill-side or against a +house, do not add to the picturesqueness of a landscape. The land, +without being strictly hilly, much less mountainous, is far from flat, +and it contains some considerable heights, as the ranges culminating in +the peak of Mont Aigu, which forms a prominent object from the theatre +at Jublains, and the high ground at and near Le Mans itself, some points +of which proved of great importance in the last warfare which Maine has +seen. In short, without containing any very striking elevations, there +are many sites in Maine well suited for military positions in ancient +warfare, sites where the castle has not failed to spring up, and where a +town or village has naturally gathered round the fortress. But since the +city of the Diablintes was swept from the earth, Maine has, at least +till quite modern times, contained no place which can at all set itself +up as a rival to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> ancient capital. The hill fort which grew into the +city of the Cenomanni still remains the undoubted queen of the land of +Herbert and Helias.</p> + +<p>It is well to enter the Cenomannian county by a point which is +Cenomannian no longer, but which not only plays a great part in the +local history, but gives a view of a very large part of the land from +which it was long ago severed. This is from the hill of Domfront, the +fortress and town which the Conqueror wrested from Maine and added to +Normandy; but which till the changes of modern times kept a sign of its +old allegiance in still forming for ecclesiastical purposes part of the +Cenomannian diocese. Domfront, the conquest of William, the cherished +possession of Henry, is indeed an outpost of the Norman land, placed +like a natural watch-tower, from which we may gaze over well nigh the +whole extent of the land which lay between Normandy and the home of the +enemy at Angers. Like Nottingham, town and castle stand on two heights, +with a slight fall between them, and the town itself is strongly +fortified, with a noble range of walls and towers which are largely +preserved. The shattered donjon rises on the height where the Varenne +runs through a narrow dell between the castle hill and a wild rock on +the other side. Castle and town alike equally look out in the direction +of danger; from either height it needs no strong effort of imagination<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> +to fancy ourselves on the look-out against the hosts of Geoffrey of the +Hammer coming from the South. Yet it is at Domfront that the traveller +coming from the land of Coutances and Avranches finds himself in one +important point brought back to the modern world. After going for many +days by such conveyances as he can find, he is there enabled to make his +journey into the land of Maine by the help of the railway which leads +from Caen to Laval. His first stage will take him to a spot which formed +another of William's early conquests, but which was not, like Domfront, +permanently cut off from the Cenomannian state.</p> + +<p>This spot is Ambrières, a town of the smallest class, hardly rising +above a village, but which holds an important place in the wars of +William and Geoffrey. There William built a castle, and the shattered +piece of wall which overhangs the road running on the right bank of the +Varenne may well be a part of his building. The little town climbs up, +as it were, to the castle, and contains more than one house bearing +signs of ancient date. It is clearly one of those towns which grew up +immediately round the fortress. But of the castle itself so little is +left that the most striking object now is the church, which stands apart +on the other side of the river. A large cruciform building of nearly +untouched and rather early Romanesque, it is thoroughly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> in harmony with +the memories of the place. But the church of Ambrières is more than +this. It tells us in what direction we are travelling; its aisleless +nave, though it would be narrow in Anjou, would be wide in England or +Normandy; and there is another feature which looks as if the men of +Ambrières had got on almost too fast in their tendencies towards a +southern type of architecture. The central tower is indeed low and +massive, but so are many others both in Normandy and England; nor would +the wooden spire with which it is crowned suggest that in the inside the +four plain arches of its lantern support as perfect a cupola as if we +were on the other side of the Loire. But both the arches of the lantern +and the barrelled vault of the choir keep the round arch. Maine was far +off from the land of the Saracen, and the pointed arch would here be a +sign that later forms were not far off. From Ambrières either the +railway or, if the traveller likes it better, a road leading up and down +over a series of low hills, will take him to another scene of William's +victories at Mayenne. Here the town slopes down to the river of its own +name on both sides, and the castle, instead of crowning either height, +rises immediately above the stream. Eight years does much in the way of +building up as well as of pulling down; and we may note that since we +made an almost casual reference to Mayenne in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> 1868,<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> the eastern +part of the great church, a building remarkable rather for a strange and +picturesque outline than for any strict architectural beauty, has had +its choir rebuilt on a vast scale after the type of a great minster. No +place after the capital has a greater share in the history of the +county.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> It was the lordship of that Geoffrey of Mayenne who played +so prominent a part in all the wars of William's day, a part which, both +in its good and its bad side, well illustrates the position of the +feudal noble. A faithful vassal to his lord, a patriotic defender of his +country against an external invader, he could stoop to play the part of +a perjured traitor when nobles had been forced to plight oaths against +their will to be faithful to a civic <i>commune</i>. To the student of the +twelfth century Mayenne is full of memories; to the student of earlier +times its chief attraction will be that it is the most natural point of +the journey to Jublains.</p> + +<p>Further down the stream which gives its name alike to the town of +Mayenne and the modern department, we come to the one place on +Cenomannian ground which, as having become in modern times a seat of +both civil and ecclesiastical rule, can alone pretend to any rivalry +with the ancient capital. Laval, the <i>chef-lieu</i> of the department of +Mayenne and the see of the newly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> founded bishopric, plays no great part +in the early history of the district; but though still much smaller than +Le Mans, it has fairly grown to the rank of a local capital as +distinguished from a mere country town. It is one of the towns which +have grown up on a hill and around a fortress,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> yet it is not a hill +city like Le Mans. The old town of Laval, as distinguished from the +later suburb on the other side of the river, does not stand on the hill, +but climbs up its side. While the <i>Grande Rue</i> of Le Mans runs along the +ridge, the <i>Grande Rue</i> of Laval finds its way up the slope. The castle, +as at Mayenne, rises above the river, and still keeps a huge round +donjon, patched somewhat, but still keeping several of its coupled +Romanesque windows. On the height, hard by a grand town-gate, is the now +cathedral church, uncouth enough in the external view, and we may fairly +say unworthy of its new rank, but which reveals one of the most +instructive pieces of architectural history to be found anywhere. +Imbedded in later additions, we still find the choir, transepts, and +lantern of a comparatively small Romanesque church, perhaps hardly on a +level with Ambrières, but its nave has given way to a vast Angevin nave +as wide as the transepts of the original building, and itself furnished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +with transepts to the west of them. The antiquary will earnestly pray +that no one may be led by zeal without discretion to rebuild this church +on a scale and style more worthy of its present rank. Let the diocese of +Laval, if anybody chooses, be furnished with a new cathedral; but let +the present building stand untouched, as one that has undergone changes +as instructive as any that can be found.</p> + +<p>But the church of the new diocese, though perhaps, by virtue of its +singular changes, the most interesting, is hardly the most attractive +ecclesiastical building in Laval and its immediate neighbourhood. Not +far off in a suburb by the river-side is the church of Our Lady of +Avesnières, not improved certainly by its modern spire, but keeping a +most stately Romanesque apse with surrounding chapels. Inside it +supplies one of the best examples of the transition, the pointed arch +having made its way into the great constructive arcades, but not into +any of the smaller arches. But the taste of those who designed its +capitals must have been singular. Any kind of man, beast, or bird, it +has been said, can put himself into such a posture as to make an Ionic +volute. When the volutes are made by the heads of eagles, well and good; +but it is certainly strange to make them out of the heads of cranes, who +are holding down their long necks to peck each one at a human skull +which he firmly holds down with one of his feet. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> on the other side +of Laval will also be found the church of Price, an almost untouched +Romanesque building the masonry of which seems to carry it back to days +before the growth of either Angevin or Norman taste. And the land of +Maine too is full of other spots at which we can barely glance, many of +which are famous in the history of the district. On the railway between +Laval and Le Mans, Evron has its abbey, with portions both of the +earlier Romanesque and of the later Gothic, but where one little +transitional chapel on the north side is undoubtedly the most attractive +feature of the church. Evron too opens the way to St. Susanne, the one +castle which the Conqueror himself could never take, and where the +shattered shell of the unconquered donjon, with its foundations raised +on a vitrified fort of primitive times, rises on a rocky height, with +the stream of the Arne winding in a narrow dell beneath it. Somewhat +nearer to the capital, Sillé-le-Guillaume, a spot famous in the war of +the <i>commune</i>, has a castle and church which should not be passed by, +though it is only the under-story of the church which keeps any portions +which can belong to the days when Sillé was besieged by the armed +citizens of the Cenomannian commonwealth. North of Le Mans, on the upper +source of the Sarthe, Beaumont-le-Vicomte keeps the shell of its castle, +a castle which long withstood the Conqueror, rising in a lovely position +over the river <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>Beaumont, too, has seen warfare in later days, and he +who looks down from the castle which withstood the Conqueror may hear +the tale of the stout fighting which went on by the banks of the Sarthe, +when Maine was invaded by the armies of a later William. The church too +with some genuine Romanesque portions, is more curious for a kind of +rude <i>Renaissance</i> which really reproduces a simple kind of Romanesque. +In short, there is hardly a spot in the historic land of Maine which has +not its attractions for those who can stoop to scenery which, though +always pleasing, is never sublime, to buildings of which perhaps one +only in the whole province reaches the first rank, and to a history +which, though in itself it is mainly local, has not been without its +influence on the destines both of England and of France.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image20.jpg" width="600" height="432" alt="Sainte-Susanne, Keep" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Sainte-Susanne, Keep</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +<big>A</big><br /> +<br /> +Abbaye Blanche, near Mortain, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +Almenèches, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its church, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the castle, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ambrières, fortress of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">architectural significance of its church, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Amiens, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +Architecture in Normandy, its points of likeness with that of England, +<a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Romanesque, at Bayeux, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Exmes, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Le Mans, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transitional period well marked in Fécamp Abbey, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Argentan, <a href="#Page_125">125–138</a><br /> +<br /> +Arletta [Herleva], mother of William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br /> +<br /> +Arnulf of Montgomery, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +<br /> +Arques, fortress of Count William at, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battle of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Avranches, historical associations of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <i>ib.</i>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its ecclesiastical territory merged in the diocese of Coutances, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>B</big><br /> +<br /> +Barbe, M. Henri, quoted, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br /> +<br /> +Bayeux, retention of the Danish tongue and religion at, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Richard the Fearless educated at, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saxon and Danish colonies at, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its cathedral church, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22–30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the seminary chapel, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with Coutances, <a href="#Page_25">25–28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bishop Odo's work at, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">later Romanesque at, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its English character, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Beaumont-le-Roger, <a href="#Page_179">179</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Beaumont-le-Vicomte, castle and church, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +Beauvais, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Bernay, Judith's Abbey at, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +<br /> +Bigod, use of the name, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Brionne, character of the building, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>C</big><br /> +<br /> +Caen, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its ecclesiastical buildings, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of churches at, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burial-place of William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cæsaris Burgus, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Cherbourg">Cherbourg</a><br /> +<br /> +Calleva, its fall, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Silchester">Silchester</a><br /> +<br /> +Carentan, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Castles, beginning of in England, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Normandy, earlier and later sites of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">question as to the earliest date of stone castles in Normandy, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Caudebec, Teutonic origin of the name, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Cerisy, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Chandos, Sir John, building of the keep of St. Saviour attributed to, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Channel Islands, their relation to England, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Chartres, contrasted with Le Mans, <a href="#Page_200">200</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its historical associations, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">architectural features of its cathedral church, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why it differs from Le Mans, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its height, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its secondary churches, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Cherbourg" id="Cherbourg"></a>Cherbourg, name probably cognate with Scarborough, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Churches, Norman, French and English, compared, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Cintheaux, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +Colomby, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Côtentin, derivation of the name, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its peninsular character, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">acquired by William Longsword, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Coutances, cathedral church of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its sham west front compared with that of Wells, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its internal architecture compared with that of Bayeux, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">men of, at Senlac, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">aqueduct at, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its diocese enlarged, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>D</big><br /> +<br /> +Diablintes, tribal name survives in Jublains, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +Dieppe, meaning of the name, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Dinan, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Dive, river, battle by, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +Dol, church of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with S. Canice at Kilkenny, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position suggests St. David's, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">east end compared with Wells, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Domfront, fortress of, won by William, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with Falaise, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Dumaine, l'Abbé L.V., his history of Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>E</big><br /> +<br /> +<span class="corr" title="Source: Edgar">Eadgar</span> the Ætheling, at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taken prisoner and released, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ecclesiastical foundations, choice of sites for, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +<br /> +Emma, Abbess of Almenèches, sister of Robert of Bellême, <a href="#Page_140">140–143</a><br /> +<br /> +England, likeness of Normandy to, how accounted for, <a href="#Page_5">5–7</a><br /> +<br /> +Eu, its historical associations, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br /> +<br /> +Evreux, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Evron, abbey at, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Exeter, commonwealth of, compared with Le Mans, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +<br /> +Exmes, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the castle, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its church, <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>F</big><br /> +<br /> +Falaise, birthplace of William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its historical associations, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probable date of the castle, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of the name, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spoiled by so-called restoration, <a href="#Page_18">18–20</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with Domfront, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Fécamp, abbey of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transitional period well marked at, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its fourteenth century alteration compared with Waltham, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Flers, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span><big>G</big><br /> +<br /> +Gally Knight, Mr., quoted, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Geoffrey of Mowbray, Bishop of Coutances, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Geoffrey, Count of Mayenne, his betrayal of the Commune of Le Mans, +<a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +<br /> +Geoffrey Malaterra, quoted, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br /> +<br /> +Granville, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>H</big><br /> +<br /> +Harold, son of Godwine, received by William at Eu, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the guest of William Patey, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Harold Blaatand, his settlement in the Côtentin, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delivers the Norman Duchy, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hauteville-la-Guichard, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> +<br /> +Helias of La Flèche, Count of Maine, at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry I. of England, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Avranchin held by, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wins back Saint James, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">victorious at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his treatment of Robert, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Saint-Evroul, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Henry II. of England, homage paid him at Falaise by William the Lion, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his hospital at Le Mans, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Henry I. of France, helps William against his rebellious vassals, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his personal experiences at Val-ès-dunes, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sees the slaughter at Varaville, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burns Argentan, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fortress of Tillières burned by, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">re-fortifies Tillières, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Henry of Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br /> +<br /> +Herbert Wake-Dog, Count of Maine, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +<br /> +Herlwin, Abbot of Saint Peter's, Orleans, pillages Abbey of Saint-Evroul, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +<br /> +Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, ordered to pull down the towers of Saint +Julian's, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +<br /> +Holy Trinity, Abbey church of, at Beaumont-le-Roger, <a href="#Page_185">185–187</a><br /> +<br /> +Hubert of Rye receives William on his escape from Valognes, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Humfrey <i>de Vetulis</i>, father of Roger of Beaumont, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Hundred Years' War, personal nomenclature in Normandy, affected by, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>J</big><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Jublains" id="Jublains"></a>Jublains and Silchester compared, <a href="#Page_189">189–191</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of the name, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its Roman remains, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <i>et seq.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">numismatic evidence for date of fortress, <a href="#Page_196">196–199</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>L</big><br /> +<br /> +La Lande-Patry, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Laigle, surname misunderstood, <a href="#Page_154">154–156</a><br /> +<br /> +Langlois, significance of the name, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<br /> +Laval, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Le_Mans" id="Le_Mans"></a>Le Mans, contrasted with Chartres, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saint Julian's keeps its ancient nave, <a href="#Page_205">205–207</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its thirteenth century choir, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of its towers ordered by William Rufus, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its secondary churches, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henry the Second's hospital at, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">owes its special character to its municipal history, <a href="#Page_210">210–214</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its analogy with Exeter, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">no existing monuments of the time of the <i>Commune</i>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Roman and mediæval walls, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">position of Saint Julian's, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early greatness of its ecclesiastical and civil rulers, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its buildings, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William's fortresses at, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birthplace of Henry the Second, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">German occupation of, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruthless destruction at, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>menhir</i> at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Les Vieilles, faubourg of, at Roger-le-Beaumont, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">church of, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lessay, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Lewis-from-beyond-Sea, King of the West-Franks, taken captive by Harold +Blaatand, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +Limay, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +<br /> +Louise of Silly, Abbess of Almenèches, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>M</big><br /> +<br /> +Maine, its history, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its modern division, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">architectural borderland between Normandy and Anjou, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Malger, Count of Mortain, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +<br /> +Mantes, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +<br /> +Matilda of Flanders, Queen, her church of the Holy Trinity at Caen, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">married to William at Eu, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Matilda, daughter of Richard the Fearless, marries Odo of Chartres, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dispute about her dowry, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Matilda, Abbess of <span class="corr" title="Source: Alminèches">Almenèches</span>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br /> +<br /> +Mayenne, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +<br /> +Montacute, siege of, raised by Geoffrey of Mowbray, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Norman name of Leodgaresburh (Lutgaresburg), <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mortagne, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Mortain, its position, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the castle, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its history, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foundation of Saint-Evroul at, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mortemer, battle of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reason for its historic interest, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surprise of the French at, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>N</big><br /> +<br /> +Næodunum, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Jublains">Jublains</a><br /> +<br /> +Neufbourg, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<br /> +Neufchâtel-en-Bray, its hills and cheeses, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +<br /> +Names, confusion of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +<br /> +Nomenclature, personal, in Normandy, affected by Hundred Years' War, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local traces of Danish, in Normandy, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Gaul, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Normandy, its points of likeness with England, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with France proper, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Teutonic elements in, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">traces of Danish local nomenclature in, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its ecclesiastical buildings, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with those of France proper, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">restoration and destruction in, <a href="#Page_17">17–20</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">importance of its early history, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its political absorption by France, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Normans and English, original kindred of, <a href="#Page_5">5–7</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England, English fusion of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Normandy, French fusion of, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame, Avesnières, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame, Domfront, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, <a href="#Page_83">83–85</a><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame, Verneuil, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame de La Couture, Abbey of, Le Mans, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>Notre-Dame de la Place, Argentan, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>O</big><br /> +<br /> +Odelerius, sends his son Orderic to Saint-Evroul, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +<br /> +Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, his work at Bayeux, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br /> +<br /> +Odo II., Count of Chartres, refuses to give up his wife's dowry, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Orderic (Vital), at Neufbourg, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Saint-Evroul, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Oximenses</i>, use of the name, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>P</big><br /> +<br /> +Palgrave, Sir Francis, quoted, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br /> +<br /> +Periers, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Petit, Mr., quoted, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br /> +<br /> +Puiseux, M.L., quoted, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>Q</big><br /> +<br /> +Querqueville, church of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin of the name, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Quilly, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>R</big><br /> +<br /> +Rennes, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Richard the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, educated at Bayeux, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Richard the Good, Duke of the Normans, fortifies Tillières, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his dispute with Odo of Chartres, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Richer of Laigle, his character and death, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert the Magnificent (the "Devil"), Duke of the Normans, castle of +Falaise attributed to, <a href="#Page_13">13–15</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert, Duke of the Normans, eldest son of William, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his march to Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his captivity, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated by Robert of Bellême, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Robert, Count of Meulan, son of Roger of Beaumont, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Robert, Count of Mortain, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert of Bellême, at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">banished by Henry, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his treatment of Almenèches, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeats Robert, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his imprisonment, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Robert of Grantmesnil, Abbot of Saint-Evroul, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert of Torigny, quoted, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert the Bigod, accuses William of Mortain of treason, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Robert Wiscard, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Roger I., Count of Sicily, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Roger of Beaumont, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +Roger of Poitou son of Earl Roger, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br /> +<br /> +Rolf, his settlement, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br /> +<br /> +Rouen, its French character, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of William the Conqueror at, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>S</big><br /> +<br /> +Saint Andrew, Chartres, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Canice, Kilkenny, central tower of, compared with that of Dol, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Cross, Saint-Lo, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>–<a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span>Saint-Evroul, 14<a href="#Page_3">3</a>; his story, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his name, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memorials and relics of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saint Evroul Abbey, home of Orderic, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">restored by families of Geroy and Grantmesnil, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pillaged by order of Hugh the Great, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its architectural remains, <a href="#Page_165">165–167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saint-Evroul, Mortain, its foundation, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its architectural features, <a href="#Page_106">106–108</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saint German, Argentan, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131–136</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Gervase, Falaise, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint James, topographical use of the name, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fortified by William the Conqueror, <i>ib.</i>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">won back by Henry the Ætheling, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its position, <i>ib.</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of William's castle, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saint John, Verneuil, its tower, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Julian's, Le Mans, contrasted with cathedral church of Chartres, +<a href="#Page_200">200</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Romanesque work at, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Angevin style in, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>. +<i>See</i> also <a href="#Le_Mans">Le Mans</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Saint-Lo (Manche), town and church of, <a href="#Page_83">83–87</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint-Lo, Rouen, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Martin, Argentan, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134–136</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Martin, Laigle, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Mary Magdalen, Verneuil, its fine tower, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Michael in Peril of the Sea, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Nicolas, Beaumont-le-Roger, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Nicolas, Coutances, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Peter, Abbey, Chartres, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Peter, Coutances, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with Saint German, Argentan, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saint Price, near Laval, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Ouen, Rouen, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Remigius, Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Saviour, castle and abbey of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Saint Stephen's, Caen, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +<br /> +Sainte-Susanne, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Saxons, settlement of, at Bayeux, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Silchester" id="Silchester"></a>Silchester and Jublains, compared, <a href="#Page_189">189–191</a><br /> +<br /> +Sillé-le-Guillaume, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Surnames of places, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">misunderstood, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154–156</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>T</big><br /> +<br /> +Talbot, John, Earl of Shrewsbury, his tower at Falaise, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br /> +<br /> +Tancred of Hauteville, his home, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Tillières, its position and history, <a href="#Page_169">169–171</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">church at, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tinchebray, battle of, an English victory, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the battle, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<big>V</big><br /> +<br /> +Val-ès-dunes, battle of, a victory of the Roman over the Teuton, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">site of the battle-field, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Valognes, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Varaville, battle of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +Verneuil, its position, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">castle and donjon at, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">churches at, <a href="#Page_175">175–178</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Vimont, M. Eugène, his book on Argentan, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Vire, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span><big>W</big><br /> +<br /> +Wace, value of his description of the battle of Val-ès-dunes, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wells, west front of cathedral church compared with that of Coutances, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">east end compared with Dol, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> +<br /> +William Longsword, Duke of the Normans, Danish education of his son, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wins the Côtentin, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> +<br /> +William the Conqueror, his church of S. Stephen at Caen, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his birthplace, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attempt at learning English, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">modern estimate of in Falaise, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">present at the dedication of Odo's church at Bayeux, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results of his personal qualities, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seeks help of Henry I. of France, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burns Mantes, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his marriage to Matilda at Eu, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Domfront submits to, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fortifies Ambrières, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conquest of Mayenne, <i>ib.</i>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes Arques, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his surprise of the French at Varaville, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his escape from Valognes, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fortifies Saint James, <a href="#Page_77">77–79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gives the lands of William of Mortain to his half-brother Robert, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition of Le Mans to, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br /> +<br /> +William Rufus, bids Bishop Hildebert pull down the towers of Saint<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Julian's, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></span><br /> +<br /> +William, Count of Arques, his fortress, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br /> +<br /> +William, Count of Mortain, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his lands given to Robert, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">founds l'Abbaye Blanche, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Duke Robert at Tinchebray, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taken prisoner, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his alleged blinding, <i>ib.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +William of Saint-Calais, use of the surname, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +<br /> +William Patry, receives Harold at La Lande, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +William the Lion, King of Scots, does homage to Henry II. at Falaise, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /> +<small>THE END.</small><br /> +</p> + +<p class="center"><br /> +<small>RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY</small> +</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Lecture viii. p. 314.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Methods of Hist. Study</i>, Lecture vi. p. 235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Crewkerne Inaugural Address</i>, 1871.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Life of E.A. Freeman</i>, vol. i. p. 293.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, vol. ii. p. 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See Petit's <i>Architectural Studies in France</i>, p. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Cf. the following passage in Mr. Freeman's article in <i>The +Saturday Review</i>, August 3, 1867: "The primitive Saxons of Bayeux, the +Danes of Rolf and of Harold Blaatand, the English colonists who remained +in the fifteenth century, have among them left a marked stamp on the +people. This last cause cannot have been an unimportant one, when we +hear that in the town of Caen alone there are twenty-four families +bearing the name of Langlois. French and Norman are not very uncommon +names in England, but they are hardly found in the same proportion."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> On the foundation of the abbeys of St. Stephen and of the +Holy Trinity, see <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. (2nd ed.), p. 106, <i>et +seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Mr. Freeman's article on "Beauvais and Amiens" in +<i>Sketches from French Travel</i> (Tauchnitz edition), and <i>History of the +Cathedral Church of Wells</i>, p. 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See Mr. Freeman's article on "Restoration and Destruction +in France," <i>Saturday Review</i>, June 8, 1861.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> On Odo's work see also <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 209, +and note, p. 210.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. pp. 235, 236.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mr. Freeman alludes to M.L. Puiseux's <i>Siège et Prise de +Rouen par les Anglais</i>, &c., which was reviewed by him in <i>The Saturday +Review</i>, June 8, 1867.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 249, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. 154, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> On the foundation of Fécamp, see <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. +i. p. 253.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See also <a href="#Page_228">p. 228</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See also <a href="#Page_229">p. 229</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> See also <a href="#Page_230">p. 230</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. p. 226.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii., p. 122, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. i. pp. 216, 217.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii., p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> For the story of this derivation see Mr. Freeman's article +on "South Pembrokeshire Castles" in <i>English Towns and Districts</i>, p. +46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> On French nomenclature see also Mr. Freeman's article on +"French and English Towns," pp. 35, 36, in <i>Historical Essays</i>, fourth +series, and <i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, p. 99.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> On the relation of the Channel Islands to England, see +<i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. i. p. 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> On the relief of Montacute by Bishop Geoffrey, see <i>Norman +Conquest</i>, vol. iv. p. 278.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. pp. 242, 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_21">p. 21</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> See also <a href="#Page_88">p. 88</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. p. 233, note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Cf. S. James, near Taillebourg. (<i>Sketches from French +Travel</i>, p. 296.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of William Rufus</i>, vol. i. p. 321.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_75">p. 75</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_67">p. 67</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See <i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_179">p. 179</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Historical Essays</i>, third series, pp. 446–451.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. pp. 261, 607.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 288.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iv. pp. 170, 272. For the +legend of the Holy Rood see <i>Old English History</i>, p. 271, and Mr. +Freeman's article on "Montacute" in <i>The Saturday Review</i>, September 9, +1871.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> See Mr. Freeman's account of Kirkstall in <i>English Towns +and Districts</i>, p. 294.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_119">p. 119</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iii. p. 466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. v. p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> See <i>Historical Essays</i>, Fourth Series, pp. 139, 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_208">p. 208</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of William Rufus</i>, vol. i. pp. 463, 464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of William Rufus</i>, vol. ii. p. 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> On the force of the word <i>tyrant</i> see <i>History of Sicily</i>, +vol. ii. p. 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_123">p. 123</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_110">pp. 110</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iv. p. 496</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 227.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. pp. 201–203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of William Rufus</i>, vol. i. p. 184.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> See <i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, p. 266.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> See Mr. Freeman's article on "Silchester" in <i>English +Towns and Districts</i>, p. 159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> See <i>English Towns and Districts</i>, p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> See article on "Beauvais and Amiens" in <i>Sketches from +French Travel</i>, p. 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> See <i>The Reign of William Rufus</i>, vol. ii, pp. 297, 298, +654.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> See <i>Sketches from French Travel</i>, pp. 114, 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> On the foundation of the <i>commune</i> of Le Mans and the +treachery of Geoffrey of Mayenne, see <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. iv. p. +551, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, iii. p. 192.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_209">p. 209</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_57">p. 57</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> See <i>Norman Conquest</i>, vol. ii. p. 209, <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> See comparison of Laval with Guildford in Mr. Freeman's +article on "Some Early Buildings in Sussex and Surrey" in <i>The +Guardian</i>, August 22, 1883.</p></div> + +<hr /> +<div class="tnote"> +<h4>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:</h4> + +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious typographical +errors in punctuation have been fixed. Corrections [in brackets] in the +text are noted below:</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_14">Page 14</a> Val-des-dunes [Val-ès-dunes]</p> +<p><a href="#Page_15">Page 15</a> Bayeaux [Bayeux]</p> +<p><a href="#Page_57">Page 57</a> Ambières [Ambrières]</p> +<p><a href="#Page_64">Page 64</a> Cotentin [Côtentin]</p> +<p><a href="#Page_238">Page 238</a> Edgar [Eadgar]</p> +<p><a href="#Page_240">Page 240</a> Alminèches [Almenèches]</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of Travel in Normandy and +Maine, by Edward A. 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