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diff --git a/24818-8.txt b/24818-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36b8e35 --- /dev/null +++ b/24818-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6376 @@ +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) + + + + + + + + + + SKETCHES OF TRAVEL + + IN + + NORMANDY AND MAINE + + + [Illustration: Decoration] + + [Illustration: St. Stephens, Caen, E. + + _Frontispiece_] + + + + + SKETCHES OF TRAVEL + + IN + + NORMANDY AND MAINE + + + BY + + EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR + + + AND A PREFACE BY + + W.H. HUTTON, B.D. + + FELLOW AND TUTOR OF S. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD + + + London + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + + 1897 + + _All rights reserved_ + + RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, + LONDON AND BUNGAY. + + + + +EDITOR'S NOTE + + +The first eight and the last four of these sketches appeared in the +_Saturday Review_, the others in the _Guardian_. They are here reprinted +with a few omissions, but with no other alteration. The permission +courteously given to reproduce them is gratefully acknowledged. + + FLORENCE FREEMAN. + + + + +PREFACE + + +"Beyond 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." + +So wrote Mr. Freeman in his _Methods of Historical Study_,[1] 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."[2] + +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."[3] + +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 _Historical and Architectural Sketches_ or in his +_Sketches from French Travel_, 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. + +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 _Life_. In +1856 he made his first foreign excursion--to Aquitaine--and after 1860 a +foreign tour was "almost an annual event."[4] 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"[5] 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 _The Guardian_ 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." + +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. + +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 _Sketches from French Travel_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The kindness which allows me to say these words here is like his own, +which was felt by the humblest of his scholars. + + W.H. HUTTON. + + + + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + + NORMANDY [S.R. 1861] 1 + + FALAISE [S.R. 1867] 10 + + THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHES OF BAYEUX, COUTANCES, AND + DOL [S.R. 1867] 21 + + OLD NORMAN BATTLE-GROUNDS [S.R. 1867] 33 + + FÉCAMP [S.R. 1868] 42 + + FOOTSTEPS OF THE CONQUEROR [S.R. 1868] 51 + + THE CÔTENTIN [S.R. 1876] 62 + + THE AVRANCHIN [S.R. 1876] 74 + + COUTANCES AND SAINT-LO [G. 1891] 80 + + HAUTEVILLE-LA-GUICHARD [G. 1891] 89 + + MORTAIN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS [G. 1892] 100 + + MORTAIN TO ARGENTAN [G. 1892] 112 + + ARGENTAN [G. 1892] 125 + + EXMES AND ALMENÈCHES [G. 1892] 139 + + LAIGLE AND SAINT-EVROUL [G. 1892] 154 + + TILLIÈRES AND VERNEUIL [G. 1892] 168 + + BEAUMONT-LE-ROGER [G. 1892] 179 + + JUBLAINS [S.R. 1876] 189 + + THE CHURCHES OF CHARTRES AND LE MANS [S.R. 1868] 200 + + LE MANS [S.R. 1876] 211 + + MAINE [S.R. 1876] 224 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + + 1. ST. STEPHEN, CAEN, E. _Frontispiece_ + + 2. FALAISE CASTLE 12 + + 3. ST. GERVASE, FALAISE, S.W. 16 + + 4. COUTANCES CATHEDRAL, CENTRAL TOWER 24 + + 5. INTERIOR OF COUTANCES CATHEDRAL 28 + + 6. CAPITALS IN BAYEUX CATHEDRAL 29 + + 7. ABBEY OF FÉCAMP, N.E. 43 + + 8. LIMAY CHURCH, TOWER, S.E. 53 + + 9. DOMFRONT CASTLE 56 + + 10. EU CHURCH, S.E. 57 + + 11. VALOGNES CHURCH, N.E. 69 + + 12. ABBEY OF LESSAY, S.W. 72 + + 13. NOTRE-DAME, SAINT-LO, S.E. 83 + + 14. ST. NICOLAS, COUTANCES, INTERIOR 88 + + 15. LE MANS CATHEDRAL, N.W. 205 + + 16. INTERIOR OF LE MANS CATHEDRAL 208 + + 17. ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-VALE, CHARTRES 210 + + 18. APSE OF LA COUTURE, LE MANS 210 + + 19. NOTRE-DAME-DU-PRÉ, LE MANS, N.E. 221 + + 20. SAINTE-SUSANNE, KEEP 235 + + + + +SKETCHES OF TRAVEL IN NORMANDY AND MAINE + +NORMANDY + +1861 + + +Before 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.[6] +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 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. + +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 to the natives +he will perhaps make them understand his _Langue d'oil_; but he will +find that his Parisian grammar and dictionary will go but a very little +way towards making him understand their _Lingua d'oc_. 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. + +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 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 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. + +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.[7] 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 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 vulgarly and perversely still sound divers _s's_ and _t's_ which +the politer tongue of the capital dooms to an existence on paper only. + +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. + +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 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.[8] 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. 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.[9] 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. + + + + +FALAISE + +1867 + + +The 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 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 +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. + +[Illustration: Falaise Castle] + +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 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. + +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 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 Val-ès-dunes. 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." 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. + +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 Bayeux 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 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. + +[Illustration: St. Gervase, Falaise, S.W.] + +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 _falaises_, the _felsen_--the honest Teutonic +word still surviving, and giving its name to the town itself, and to its +distinguishing feature. The 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. + +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 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 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.[10] 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 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. + + + + +THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHES OF BAYEUX, COUTANCES, AND DOL + +1867 + + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: Coutances Cathedral, Central Tower] + +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 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 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. + +[Illustration: Interior of Coutances Cathedral] + +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 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 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. + +[Illustration: Capitals in Bayeux Cathedral] + +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.[11] 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 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? + +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 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. + +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.[12] +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 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. 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. + + + + +OLD NORMAN BATTLE-GROUNDS + +1867 + + +In 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.[13] 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 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. + +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 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. + +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.[14] 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 + + De Costentin partit la lance + Qui abastit le roy de France. + +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 was an exploit which supplied the vanquished with +some little consolation. + +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. + +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 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 _combes_ 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. + +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 _mêlée_, of mounted knights, a +tournament in earnest. And it is quite 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. + +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.[15] 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 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 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. + +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 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. + + + + +FÉCAMP + +1868 + + +It 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 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. + +[Illustration: Abbey of Fécamp, N.E.] + +Modern taste might possibly make one objection to 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 "_in periculo maris_." 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.[16] 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 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 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. + +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 _jubé_ 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 _jubé_ was pulled down at the +restoration 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. + +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 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 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 +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +FOOTSTEPS OF THE CONQUEROR + +1868 + + +Many 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 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 _eys_ or _holms_ +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 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. + +[Illustration: Limay Church, Tower, S.E.] + +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.e._ 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 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, "_duo germani fratres_," had a conference. We forget who it was +who translated "_duo germani fratres_" 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 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 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. + +[Illustration: Domfront Castle] + +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.[17] 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 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.[18] 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. + +[Illustration: Eu Church, S.E.] + +After Domfront had submitted to William and had become permanently +incorporated with Normandy, he himself founded the fortress of Ambrières, +as a border stronghold.[19] 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.[20] The site of Mayenne, sloping, +like that of Mantes, down 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.[21] 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 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.[22] 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 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. + +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.[23] 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.[24] The +French invaders of Normandy, King Henry at their head, had gorged +themselves 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. + + + + +THE CÔTENTIN + +1876 + + +The "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 _Constantinus_" and the +French _Côtentin_ are simply the same word. For we have seen a French +geography-book in which _Côtentin_ was explained to mean the land of +_coasts_; the peninsular shape of the district gave it "trois côtes," +and so it was called _Côtentin_. We cannot parallel this with the +derivation of Manorbeer from "man or bear";[25] because this last is at +least funny, while to derive Côtentin from _côte_ 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 or Valais was +so called "parce que c'est la plus grande _vallée_ 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 _côte_ deal with other names of +districts following the same form? The _Bessin_, the land of Bayeux, +might perhaps be twisted into something funny, but the _Avranchin_ could +hardly be anything but the district of Avranches, and this one might +have given the key to the others. But both _Côtentin_ and _Bessin_ +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.[26] So _Constantia_ has become Co_u_t_a_nces; but the adjective +_Constantinus_ has become C_ô_t_e_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. + +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 Côtentin, 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 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. + +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.[27] 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 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. + +It is singular enough that the two most prominent names among those +which connect the Bessin and the 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,[28] 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 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 _Cæsaris Burgus_. 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 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 _kirk_; 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. + +[Illustration: Valognes Church, N.E.] + +From the rocks of the Norman _Scarborough_, 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 +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, _Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte_, 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.[29] 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 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 Phoenician--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 +more than three hundred years before Sir John Chandos. + +[Illustration: Abbey of Lessay, S.W.] + +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 _landes_ 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 in some +detail;[30] 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.[31] 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 _Renaissance_ +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. + + + + +THE AVRANCHIN + +1876 + + +The 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 _table-d'hôte_ 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 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. 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. + +When we write "Saint James," we are not translating.[32] 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. _Jacques_ and _Jack_ +must surely be the same; how then came _Jack_ to be the diminutive of +_John_? 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 _Giacomo_. 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"[33] 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, and whose fortification +led to a war in which two future and rival Kings of the English fought +side by side. + +For the castle of Saint James was one of the fortresses raised by +William's policy to strengthen the Norman frontier against the +_Bret-Welsh_ of Gaul, just as in after days he and his Earls raised +fortresses on English ground to strengthen the English frontier against +the _Bret-Welsh_ 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.[34] 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 +_beck_--that is the right word in the land which contains Caude_bec_ and +_Bec_ 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 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 _château_. 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 _fort_." 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. + + + + +COUTANCES AND SAINT-LO + +1891 + + +Geoffrey of Mowbray, 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--_Sanctus Laudus_, 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, 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 Mount of the Archangel in its bay, and the rocks of +Cancale beyond.[35] + +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.[36] 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 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. + +[Illustration: Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, S.E.] + +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 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 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 +_hallenkirche_, 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. + +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. _Distinguendum est._ 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _quasi_-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 _Renaissance_, +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 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,[37] as we shall see again +in a most marked form at Argentan, that curious process of transition +from mediæval to _Renaissance_ 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: St. Nicolas, Coutances, Interior] + + + + +HAUTEVILLE-LA-GUICHARD + +1891 + + +The 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, 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-_sur-mer_; it is the namesake that bears the speaking +surname of Hauteville-_la-Guichard_. 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. + +As an episode in the history of the world, one is tempted to think that +the fellowship of three such 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-_la-Guichard_, the Hauteville of Robert the +_Wiscard_, 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.[38] His sons are of Meulan, of Leicester, of Warwick, rather +than of Beaumont. Beaumont-_le-Roger_ 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 _de sancto +Iohanne_, is Saint-Jean-_le-Thomas_, 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 _La Lande-Patry_ and _Longueville-Giffart_, 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 _Wiscard_ 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.[39] The 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. + +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 _Statistique Routière de la Basse +Normandie_. 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. _Hauteville_, _Alta Villa_, 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 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 _Hauteville_, 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. + +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 _route +nationale_, with a fine view of the towers of Coutances for those who +look backwards, we turn off into a _route départementale_. And all who +are used to French roads know well that a _route nationale_ is always +excellent, and that a _route départementale_ 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 +_alta villa_. 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 _Basseville_ than _Haute_. 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 _château_. But _château_, 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 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 _château_ in +the later French sense, or perhaps only of its outhouses. The modern +_château_ does indeed often enough stand on the site of the ancient +_castle_; 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. + +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 _alta villa_. 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 _château_ which has taken the place of a _château-fort_. 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 "_domus defensabilis_," as distinguished from the +castle. And, as the famous one at Brionne, which so long defied the arms +of Duke William, is defined as "_aula lapidea_,"[40] it seems implied +that a "_domus defensabilis_" might be only "_lignea_." 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 _château_. 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 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. + + + + +MORTAIN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS + +1892 + + +In 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, 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 _Mortain_, _Moretolium_ or _Moretonium_, in the Avranchin, and +_Mortagne_, _Mauritania_, 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. + +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 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 +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. + +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 +_château_ that is, on the site of the _château-fort_ that was, looking +down on the valley, looking up at the hills, looking across at the +church which marks the hermitage of the Blessed 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. + +From Count Malger the castle of Mortain, and all that went with the +castle of Mortain, passed to his son William the Warling.[41] Such seems +to be the obvious English shape of _Warlencus_; but we have a natural +curiosity to know what a _Warling_ is, and why William was so called. +The name has an attractive sound, and some have seen in it that same +approach to a _warlock_ which Gibbon saw to a _wiseacre_ in the surname +of Robert Wiscard. We have also a natural curiosity to 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.[42] That is, he was the first who bore that name as a surname; +for Normans in general were scoffed at by Frenchmen as _bigods_, +_bigots_,--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.[43] + +The West-Saxon knew Count Robert only as a spoiler, the Norman of +Mortain knew him as a great 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _hospice_, +with the fragment of a church with a saddle-back to its central 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 _l'Abbaye Blanche_, 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.[44] 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 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. + +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.[45] 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 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. + + + + +MORTAIN TO ARGENTAN + +1892 + + +One 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 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. + +We had meant to go by carriage from Flers to Tinchebray, and to take on +the way La Lande-Patry 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 _La Fontaine de Patry_. +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."[46] 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 +"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 +_Patricius_--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.[47] + +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.[48] +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 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. + +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, 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 _Malvoisin_. 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. + +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 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 _Les +Porches_. Here was the _Champ Belle-Noe_, and on the hill on the +opposite site of the valley was _Beaulieu_. 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 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. + +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 _Lande-Pourrie_ 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 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 _Champ Henriet_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +We go back from Tinchebray to Flers. Next day the main line takes us to +Argentan. The name of _Tenarcebrai_ is written in our own Chronicles; so +is that of _Argentses_; only is that really Argentan or only Argences? + + + + +ARGENTAN + +1892 + + +A good 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 _Roman de Rou_. +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 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. + +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 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 _felsen_, as Saint German of Argentan must have been to +the _donjon_ of Argentan, even when that _donjon_ 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 _sainte chapelle_ 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. + +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 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, _Le Vieil Argentan_, 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 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.[49] 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. + +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, 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 _donjon_ 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. + +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 _donjon_. It makes very little show, +being sadly crowded in by houses. Somewhat lower down is the _château_, +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 _donjon_ by an inner wall, parting the two +castles from the town. Some parts of the wall in this neighbourhood, +both inner and outer, are still standing; and near the _château_ is the +desecrated chapel of Saint Nicolas, keeping some good windows. + +The _château_ would attract anywhere; the fragment of the _donjon_ +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 _Renaissance_. 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 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 _la +grosse tour_, 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 _Renaissance_ 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 _donjon_. We think of William Rufus bidding +Hildebert of Le Mans to pull down his pair of newly built towers.[50] +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 large panelled triforium a very keen eye +may possibly detect in the lowest range of ornament a tendency--it is +nothing more--to _Renaissance_ 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 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. + +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. + +This last remark is specially true of the smaller church of Argentan, +that of Saint Martin. Here we 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 _Renaissance_. 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. + +One is surprised to hear that in the old days Argentan had but a single +_curé_, 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. + +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 _Notre-Dame de la Place_. We relieve ourselves +by finding fault with M. Vimont, who certainly does not always put +things in those parts of his book where we should most naturally look +for them. + +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 _Argentses_, which Florence of Worcester translates by +_Argentinum castrum_.[51] 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 _Argentomum_, 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. + +There is a good deal more to say about Argentan in later times, from +Henry the Second of Normandy and England to Henry the Fourth of Navarre +and France. The traveller is most likely to sojourn at the _Hôtel des +Trois Maries_, 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 _Hôtel du Donjon_ 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. + + + + +EXMES AND ALMENÈCHES + +1892 + + +Exmes 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 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, _Oximum_, _Hiesmes_, +anything else, often shows itself; its early importance is noticed by +its giving its name to the large district, _Pagus Oximensis_, _Oixmeiz_, +_Hiesmsis_. And the _Oximenses_ 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. + +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 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. + +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.[52] Roger the _Poitevin_, so called +from his marriage, had 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 +_munitio_ 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--"_odibilis tyrannus_" +he is called, a phrase in which we must not forget the ancient sense of +"_tyrannus_."[53] Counts 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. + +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.[54] + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +The perfection of the Norman nave seems to have 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 into an equal substitute +for the vault, preferred to it by a deliberate taste. + +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 "_munitio_" 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 +_communes_. This is encouraging; we seem to have lighted on what at home +we should call "Abbess Almenèches" and "Castle Almenèches." 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:-- + + "Ce temple lequel a esté ruiné par l'antiquité fut commencé à + reedifier l'a^n de grace 1534 et fut perfaict l'a^n 1550 par + revere^nde dame Madame Loyse de Silly abbesse de cea^ns. Gloire et + hon^r. soyt au seigneur." + +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 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? + +Of the "Manoir de la Motte" nothing can be heard. But the "_munitio_" +must be represented, at least in name, by Le Château d'Almenèches. Our +driver protests that there is no _château_ there, only a _commune_. So +much the better. If there is no _château_ there in his sense, that is, +no intruding modern house, we are more likely to find the site of the +real _château_, the _munitio_. 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 _munitio_, of Almenèches, whence the Duke's followers first troubled +Abbess Emma. But yet more, here is Joanne's "_beau tumulus_" 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 _château_ 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 +"_beau tumulus_." We do not like to be too positive about præ-historic +tumps, but this certainly looks very like 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 +_munitio_ proper; but we may be sure that the makers of the _munitio_ +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 +[Greek: en parergôô]. It is not at all a bad two days' work that we have +done in the immediate land of the _Oximenses_. + + + + +LAIGLE AND SAINT-EVROUL + +1892 + + +Our 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 King, the greatest name in the history of Romanesque art. He is +_Willelmus de Sancto Carilefo_, just like William of Malmesbury or +William of Newburgh, simply because he had been monk and prior in the +monastery of _Sanctus Carilefus_, in modern form, _Saint-Calais_, 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, _Aquila_, 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 _Laigle_ rather than _L'Aigle_, though _L'Aigle_ 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 whatever age, +translated this into "the Honour of the Eagle," they plainly did not +know that _Aquila_, _Laigle_, 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. + +"Richard de Aquila" is a form notable on another ground, as implying a +confusion between the two wholly distinct names of _Richard_ and +_Richer_. 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. + +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 _le vieux château_, 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; +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 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. + +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 _château_ 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 +_Oximenses_, where the gardens in the ditch do comparatively little +harm. Or rather we cherish a hope that the _vieux château_ may not be +the true _castrum de Aquila_. 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. + +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 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 _scriptorium_ of a +chronicler of whom we get more personally fond than of any other. + +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.[55] 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 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. + +Orderic, son of a French father and an English 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;[56] 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, like Joseph in Egypt hearing a strange language, ever +stopped to think of the true meaning of his patron's name, how the +softened _Ebrulfus_ and _Evroul_ disguised the two fierce beasts which +went to make up the name of _Eoforwulf_. 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 _Otlingua Saxonica_, 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. + +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 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.[57] 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 before +Orderic are not fated to be gratified; but we have done well to come to +Saint-Evroul none the less. + +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 +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. + +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. + + + + +TILLIÈRES AND VERNEUIL + +1892 + + +Our 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 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. + +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 +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. + +That part may be told in a few sentences, but it is a striking story +none the less. Tillières, _Tegulense castrum_, 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 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.[58] 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. + +With such a history as this, and with a site so well suited to the +history, one could wish that there was 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 _Renaissance_ 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 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. + +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 _Peraia_, 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. 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 _Tourgrise_ 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; 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. + +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 _tourelle_. The other has +a _tourelle_ of the same kind, but it runs off into _Renaissance_. 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 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 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." + +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 _Renaissance_ at the west end. But the +other great piece 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. + + + + +BEAUMONT-LE-ROGER + +1892 + + +The 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. He was not +always Roger of Beaumont; he first appears as Roger, son of Humfrey _de +Vetulis_. One learns one's map of Normandy by degrees. The description +of _De Vetulis_ 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 _faubourg_ of _Les Vieilles_. +How it came by the name we need not ask; the name was there and is +there, and we see that Humfrey _de Vetulis_ is simply Humfrey of _Les +Vieilles_. We see that here down below was the earliest seat of the +house, till Roger climbed the _Bellus Mons_, 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 day. At Hauteville +we could simply guess at the spot which may have witnessed the earliest +wiles of Robert the _Wiscard_: 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.[59] + +We walk from the station with the _Bellus Mons_ 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 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 +_De Vetulis_. They are brought from the neighbouring abbey, of which we +shall presently have to speak. + +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 _Bellus Mons_ itself. We soon begin +to see fragments of masonry rising above us on the left hand. Here, +then, is the castle; 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." + +It is, indeed, a "_bellus mons_" 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 "_bellus mons_" 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 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, _but_ 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 _Les Vieilles_ 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. + +Was the lord of Beaumont-le-Roger entitled to a _sainte chapelle_ 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 +Beaumont had come into the hands of French kings, and had begun to be +granted out as a _comté-pairie_ for their sons. But, seemingly before +that time, which did not come till the fourteenth century, a building +arose which is not exactly a _sainte chapelle_ within the castle, but +which is very near to the castle, and which has very much the air of a +_sainte chapelle_. When we speak of a _sainte chapelle_ we, of course, +mean a _sainte chapelle_ 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 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 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. + +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 +_sainte chapelle_ 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;[60] 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. + +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 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 _monument historique_ 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. + + + + +JUBLAINS + +1876 + + +We 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.[61] The names which +the two places now bear respectively illustrate the rules of French and +English nomenclature. Silchester proclaims itself by its English name +to have been a Roman _castrum_, 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 _Jules_ and of _bains_; but a moment's thought will show that +the name is a natural corruption of _Diablintes_. The name is spelled +several ways, of which _Jublains_ is now the one in vogue; but another +form, _Jublent_, 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 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. + +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. + +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, 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 _thermæ_ 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 +_chester_, but rather with a greater number of ways meeting together, +like our Godmanchester. The whole eastern side of the 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 _La Tonnelle_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _Roma Quadrata_ 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 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. + +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, 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 +was forsaken, most likely slighted, within a very few years after its +first building. + +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. + +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 +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.[62] 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. + + + + +THE CHURCHES OF CHARTRES AND LE MANS + +1868 + + +It 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 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. + +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 earliest enclosure, and therefore upon the highest ground in +their respective cities. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +[Illustration: Le Mans Cathedral, N.W.] + +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 is at Beauvais, where the small but precious fragment +of early work, which looks like an excrescence against the gigantic +transept--the _Basse Oeuvre_, as it is locally called--is really the +ancient nave--.[63] 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 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, 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.[64] 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. + +[Illustration: Interior of Le Mans Cathedral] + +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 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 (_de culturâ Dei_) is a perfect minster with two unfinished +western towers, a nave of Aquitanian width,[65] 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 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. + +[Illustration: St. Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres] + +[Illustration: Apse of La Couture, Le Mans] + + + + +LE MANS + +1876 + + +We 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 _commune_. 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 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. + +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 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 +_commune_, 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 _commune_ 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 +_commune_ of Le Mans, a _commune_ in which all Maine shared, a _commune_ +which the Bishops and the nobles had to join against their will, and +which one of the nobles betrayed as soon as he could.[66] 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 +moment in the history of the city is exactly the one which has left no +trace in its existing monuments. + +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 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. + +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 _chester_. The +high ground immediately overlooking the river formed a long narrow +ridge, and the space included within the Roman walls--_la Cité_, 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 _Rue des Chanoines_, running parallel with +the more secular _Grande Rue_, bears in mediæval documents the strange +title of _Vetus Roma_, 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 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 _La Tannerie_; an +extension to the south and south-east took in the quarter of Saint +Ben'et, and another suburb called _L'Epéron_. 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 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. + +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, _Evigilans Canem_, to +sally forth on the nightly raids before which black Angers trembled.[67] +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 _Renaissance_. 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 _Regia +turris_. Some way to the north-east, at a greater distance from the +river, rose the fortress of _Mons Barbatus_ or _Mont Barbet_, 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 escaped the politic destruction of the +days of Richelieu. Of Mont Barbet nothing is left but the _motte_ or +_agger_, 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. + +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.[68] 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 _Renaissance_ 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 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. + +[Illustration: Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, N.E.] + +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 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, _la Cité_ 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 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 +_menhir_ 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. + + + + +MAINE + +1876 + + +We 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 _Commune_, the history of +Maine during its life as a separate state 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 +_chef-lieu_ of Sarthe and Laval for the _chef-lieu_ 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 _commune_ 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. + +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 _La Couture_ 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 _Le +Pré_, 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. + +Maine is, in one point, one of the parts of France 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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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 1868,[69] 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.[70] 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 _commune_. 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. + +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 _chef-lieu_ of the department of +Mayenne and the see of the newly 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,[71] 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 _Grande Rue_ of Le Mans runs along the +ridge, the _Grande Rue_ 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 +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. + +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 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 _commune_, 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 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 _Renaissance_ 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. + +[Illustration: Sainte-Susanne, Keep] + + + + +INDEX + + +A + +Abbaye Blanche, near Mortain, 109, 110 + +Almenèches, 139 _et seq._; + its church, 150, 151; + site of the castle, 152 + +Ambrières, fortress of, 57, 229; + architectural significance of its church, 230 + +Amiens, 8, 9, 23, 24, 47 + +Architecture in Normandy, its points of likeness with that of England, +23, 27, 28, 31, 46; + Romanesque, at Bayeux, 28, 29; + at Exmes, 147; at Le Mans, 206, 207, 209; + transitional period well marked in Fécamp Abbey, 48 + +Argentan, 125-138 + +Arletta [Herleva], mother of William the Conqueror, 10 + +Arnulf of Montgomery, 141, 142 + +Arques, fortress of Count William at, 59, 60; + battle of, 60 + +Avranches, historical associations of, 75; + its position, _ib._, 81, 82; + its ecclesiastical territory merged in the diocese of Coutances, 81 + + +B + +Barbe, M. Henri, quoted, 191, 194, 196 + +Bayeux, retention of the Danish tongue and religion at, 2, 6; + Richard the Fearless educated at, _ib._; + Saxon and Danish colonies at, 5, 6; + its cathedral church, 8, 22-30; + the seminary chapel, 8, 30; + compared with Coutances, 25-28; + Bishop Odo's work at, 26, 28; + later Romanesque at, 29; + its English character, 30 + +Beaumont-le-Roger, 179 _et seq._ + +Beaumont-le-Vicomte, castle and church, 234, 235 + +Beauvais, 9, 23, 24 + +Bernay, Judith's Abbey at, 8, 182, 188 + +Bigod, use of the name, 105 + +Brionne, character of the building, 97, 98 + + +C + +Caen, 2; + its ecclesiastical buildings, 8; + destruction of churches at, 19; + burial-place of William the Conqueror, 51 + +Cæsaris Burgus, 67. _See_ Cherbourg + +Calleva, its fall, 199. _See_ Silchester + +Carentan, 72 + +Castles, beginning of in England, 14; + in Normandy, earlier and later sites of, 58; + question as to the earliest date of stone castles in Normandy, 97 + +Caudebec, Teutonic origin of the name, 6 + +Cerisy, 8 + +Chandos, Sir John, building of the keep of St. Saviour attributed to, 71 + +Channel Islands, their relation to England, 65 + +Chartres, contrasted with Le Mans, 200 _et seq._; + its historical associations, 202, 203; + architectural features of its cathedral church, 203, 204; + why it differs from Le Mans, 204; + its height, 207; + its secondary churches, 209 + +Cherbourg, name probably cognate with Scarborough, 68 + +Churches, Norman, French and English, compared, 9, 23, 24, 46, 111 + +Cintheaux, 53, 54 + +Colomby, 70 + +Côtentin, derivation of the name, 62; + its peninsular character, 64, 65; + acquired by William Longsword, 66 + +Coutances, cathedral church of, 22 _et seq._, 82; + its sham west front compared with that of Wells, 25; + its internal architecture compared with that of Bayeux, 26, 27; + men of, at Senlac, 66; + its position, 72, 73, 75, 83; + aqueduct at, 73, 88; + its diocese enlarged, 81 + + +D + +Diablintes, tribal name survives in Jublains, 190 + +Dieppe, meaning of the name, 6 + +Dinan, 22, 54, 55 + +Dive, river, battle by, 60 + +Dol, church of, 22, _et seq._; + compared with S. Canice at Kilkenny, 25, 30; + its position suggests St. David's, 30; + east end compared with Wells, 31 + +Domfront, fortress of, won by William, 56, 228; + compared with Falaise, _ib._ + +Dumaine, l'Abbé L.V., his history of Tinchebray, 117, 118 + + +E + +Eadgar the Ætheling, at Tinchebray, 121; + taken prisoner and released, 123 + +Ecclesiastical foundations, choice of sites for, 42, 43 + +Emma, Abbess of Almenèches, sister of Robert of Bellême, 140-143 + +England, likeness of Normandy to, how accounted for, 5-7 + +Eu, its historical associations, 58, 59 + +Evreux, 4, 8, 24 + +Evron, abbey at, 234 + +Exeter, commonwealth of, compared with Le Mans, 212, 213 + +Exmes, 139 _et seq._; + site of the castle, 144, 145; + its church, 146-149 + + +F + +Falaise, birthplace of William the Conqueror, 10, 12; + its historical associations, 11, 12; + probable date of the castle, 15; + its position, 16, 17; + origin of the name, 16; + spoiled by so-called restoration, 18-20, 53; + compared with Domfront, 56 + +Fécamp, abbey of, 43 _et seq._; + transitional period well marked at, 47, 48; + its fourteenth century alteration compared with Waltham, 49, 50 + +Flers, 113 + + +G + +Gally Knight, Mr., quoted, 82, 86, 106 + +Geoffrey of Mowbray, Bishop of Coutances, 67, 80 + +Geoffrey, Count of Mayenne, his betrayal of the Commune of Le Mans, +214, 231 + +Geoffrey Malaterra, quoted, 93, 94 + +Granville, 73 + + +H + +Harold, son of Godwine, received by William at Eu, 58; + the guest of William Patey, 114, 115 + +Harold Blaatand, his settlement in the Côtentin, 5, 66; + delivers the Norman Duchy, 60 + +Hauteville-la-Guichard, 90 _et seq._ + +Helias of La Flèche, Count of Maine, at Tinchebray, 121, 122 + +Henry I. of England, 54; + Avranchin held by, 76; + wins back Saint James, 78; + victorious at Tinchebray, 115, 120, 123; + his treatment of Robert, 123; + at Saint-Evroul, 164 + +Henry II. of England, homage paid him at Falaise by William the Lion, 11; + his hospital at Le Mans, 209, 220 + +Henry I. of France, helps William against his rebellious vassals, 35; + his personal experiences at Val-ès-dunes, _ib._; + sees the slaughter at Varaville, 61; + burns Argentan, 128, 130, 171; + fortress of Tillières burned by, 171; + re-fortifies Tillières, _ib._ + +Henry of Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, 91 + +Herbert Wake-Dog, Count of Maine, 218 + +Herlwin, Abbot of Saint Peter's, Orleans, pillages Abbey of +Saint-Evroul, 164 + +Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, ordered to pull down the towers of Saint +Julian's, 132, 208 + +Holy Trinity, Abbey church of, at Beaumont-le-Roger, 185-187 + +Hubert of Rye receives William on his escape from Valognes, 114 + +Humfrey _de Vetulis_, father of Roger of Beaumont, 180 + +Hundred Years' War, personal nomenclature in Normandy, affected by, 5 + + +J + +Jublains and Silchester compared, 189-191; + origin of the name, 190; + its position, 191, 192; + its Roman remains, 192, _et seq._; + numismatic evidence for date of fortress, 196-199 + + +L + +La Lande-Patry, 114, 115 + +Laigle, surname misunderstood, 154-156 + +Langlois, significance of the name, 5 + +Laval, 231, 232 + +Le Mans, contrasted with Chartres, 200, _et seq._; + Saint Julian's keeps its ancient nave, 205-207; + its thirteenth century choir, 207, 208; + destruction of its towers ordered by William Rufus, 208; + its secondary churches, 209, 220; + Henry the Second's hospital at, 220; + owes its special character to its municipal history, 210-214; + its analogy with Exeter, 212, 213; + no existing monuments of the time of the _Commune_, 215; + its position, _ib._; + Roman and mediæval walls, 216, 217, 218; + position of Saint Julian's, 217, 218; + early greatness of its ecclesiastical and civil rulers, 217; + its buildings, 218, 219; + William's fortresses at, 219, 220; + birthplace of Henry the Second, 220; + German occupation of, 221; + ruthless destruction at, 222; + _menhir_ at, 223 + +Les Vieilles, faubourg of, at Roger-le-Beaumont, 180; + church of, 187, 188 + +Lessay, 72 + +Lewis-from-beyond-Sea, King of the West-Franks, taken captive by Harold +Blaatand, 60 + +Limay, 52, 53 + +Louise of Silly, Abbess of Almenèches, 150 + + +M + +Maine, its history, 224 _et seq._; + its modern division, 225; + architectural borderland between Normandy and Anjou, 226 + +Malger, Count of Mortain, 104 + +Mantes, 51, 53 + +Matilda of Flanders, Queen, her church of the Holy Trinity at Caen, 8; + married to William at Eu, 58 + +Matilda, daughter of Richard the Fearless, marries Odo of Chartres, 170; + dispute about her dowry, _ib._ + +Matilda, Abbess of Almenèches, 143 + +Mayenne, 57, 58, 225, 230, 231 + +Montacute, siege of, raised by Geoffrey of Mowbray, 67; + Norman name of Leodgaresburh (Lutgaresburg), 105 + +Mortagne, 101 + +Mortain, its position, 101, 102; + site of the castle, 103; + its history, 104; + foundation of Saint-Evroul at, 105 + +Mortemer, battle of, 35; + its position, 38, 39; + reason for its historic interest, _ib._; + surprise of the French at, 40 + + +N + +Næodunum, 190, 198. _See_ Jublains + +Neufbourg, 110 + +Neufchâtel-en-Bray, its hills and cheeses, 39 + +Names, confusion of, 100, 101, 154, 155 + +Nomenclature, personal, in Normandy, affected by Hundred Years' War, 5; + local traces of Danish, in Normandy, 6; + in Gaul, 63 + +Normandy, its points of likeness with England, 3, 4, 41; + compared with France proper, 3; + Teutonic elements in, 5, 6; + traces of Danish local nomenclature in, 6; + its ecclesiastical buildings, 8; + compared with those of France proper, 9, 23, 24; + restoration and destruction in, 17-20, 29; + importance of its early history, 33; + its political absorption by France, 41, 218 + +Normans and English, original kindred of, 5-7; + in England, English fusion of, 15; + in Normandy, French fusion of, _ib._ + +Notre-Dame, Avesnières, 233 + +Notre-Dame, Domfront, 57 + +Notre-Dame, Saint-Lo, 83-85 + +Notre-Dame, Verneuil, 178 + +Notre-Dame de La Couture, Abbey of, Le Mans, 209, 220, 226 + +Notre-Dame de la Place, Argentan, 136 + +Notre-Dame-du-Pré, Le Mans, 209, 220, 226 + + +O + +Odelerius, sends his son Orderic to Saint-Evroul, 162 + +Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, his work at Bayeux, 26, 28 + +Odo II., Count of Chartres, refuses to give up his wife's dowry, 170; + defeated, 171 + +Orderic (Vital), at Neufbourg, 110, 119; + at Saint-Evroul, 143, 160, 162 + +_Oximenses_, use of the name, 140 + + +P + +Palgrave, Sir Francis, quoted, 39, 64, 101, 226 + +Periers, 72 + +Petit, Mr., quoted, 1 + +Puiseux, M.L., quoted, 33 + + +Q + +Querqueville, church of, 68, 69; + origin of the name, 69 + +Quilly, 53, 54 + + +R + +Rennes, 55 + +Richard the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, educated at Bayeux, 2 + +Richard the Good, Duke of the Normans, fortifies Tillières, 170; + his dispute with Odo of Chartres, _ib._ + +Richer of Laigle, his character and death, 156 + +Robert the Magnificent (the "Devil"), Duke of the Normans, castle of +Falaise attributed to, 13-15 + +Robert, Duke of the Normans, eldest son of William, 54; + his march to Tinchebray, 119; + his captivity, 123; + defeated by Robert of Bellême, 143 + +Robert, Count of Meulan, son of Roger of Beaumont, 91, 179, 181, 184; + at Tinchebray, 122 + +Robert, Count of Mortain, 103, 105, 106 + +Robert of Bellême, at Tinchebray, 120, 121; + banished by Henry, 141; + his treatment of Almenèches, 142; + defeats Robert, 143; + his imprisonment, _ib._ + +Robert of Grantmesnil, Abbot of Saint-Evroul, 162 + +Robert of Torigny, quoted, 122, 137 + +Robert the Bigod, accuses William of Mortain of treason, 105 + +Robert Wiscard, 91, 92, 98, 181 + +Roger I., Count of Sicily, 92, 98 + +Roger of Beaumont, 91, 179, 180 + +Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, 140, 141 + +Roger of Poitou son of Earl Roger, 137, 141, 142 + +Rolf, his settlement, 5, 36 + +Rouen, its French character, 2, 6; + death of William the Conqueror at, 51 + + +S + +Saint Andrew, Chartres, 209 + +Saint Canice, Kilkenny, central tower of, compared with that of Dol, 25 + +Saint Cross, Saint-Lo, 85-87 + +Saint-Evroul, 143; his story, 162; + his name, 163; + memorials and relics of, 167 + +Saint Evroul Abbey, home of Orderic, 143, 160, _et seq._; + restored by families of Geroy and Grantmesnil, 162; + pillaged by order of Hugh the Great, 164; + its architectural remains, 165-167 + +Saint-Evroul, Mortain, its foundation, 106; + its architectural features, 106-108 + +Saint German, Argentan, 127, 131-136 + +Saint Gervase, Falaise, 16, 173 + +Saint James, topographical use of the name, 77; + fortified by William the Conqueror, _ib._, 78; + won back by Henry the Ætheling, _ib._; + its position, _ib._; + site of William's castle, 79 + +Saint John, Verneuil, its tower, 176, 177 + +Saint Julian's, Le Mans, contrasted with cathedral church of Chartres, +200 _et seq._; + Romanesque work at, 206, 207; + Angevin style in, 226. _See_ also Le Mans. + +Saint-Lo (Manche), town and church of, 83-87 + +Saint-Lo, Rouen, 80 + +Saint Martin, Argentan, 131, 134-136 + +Saint Martin, Laigle, 157, 158 + +Saint Martin-in-the-Vale, Chartres, 209 + +Saint Mary Magdalen, Verneuil, its fine tower, 175, 176 + +Saint Michael in Peril of the Sea, 44, 55 + +Saint Nicolas, Beaumont-le-Roger, 181, 182 + +Saint Nicolas, Coutances, 87, 88 + +Saint Peter, Abbey, Chartres, 209 + +Saint Peter, Coutances, 85, 87, 88; + compared with Saint German, Argentan, 131 + +Saint Price, near Laval, 234 + +Saint Ouen, Rouen, 24 + +Saint Remigius, Tinchebray, 119 + +Saint Saviour, castle and abbey of, 70, 71 + +Saint Stephen's, Caen, 8, 26 + +Sainte-Susanne, 156, 234 + +Saxons, settlement of, at Bayeux, 5 + +Silchester and Jublains, compared, 189-191 + +Sillé-le-Guillaume, 234 + +Surnames of places, 91, 92; + misunderstood, 100, 101, 154-156 + + +T + +Talbot, John, Earl of Shrewsbury, his tower at Falaise, 11, 15, 16 + +Tancred of Hauteville, his home, 90, 95, 97, 98 + +Tillières, its position and history, 169-171; + church at, 172, 173 + +Tinchebray, battle of, an English victory, 115, 116, 120; + site of the battle, 117 + + +V + +Val-ès-dunes, battle of, a victory of the Roman over the Teuton, 35; + site of the battle-field, 36, 37 + +Valognes, 69, 70 + +Varaville, battle of, 60 + +Verneuil, its position, 173; + castle and donjon at, 174, 175; + churches at, 175-178 + +Vimont, M. Eugène, his book on Argentan, 128, 136 + +Vire, 112 + + +W + +Wace, value of his description of the battle of Val-ès-dunes, 37, 38; + quoted, 114, 169 + +Wells, west front of cathedral church compared with that of Coutances, 25; + east end compared with Dol, 31 + +William Longsword, Duke of the Normans, Danish education of his son, 2; + wins the Côtentin, 66 + +William the Conqueror, his church of S. Stephen at Caen, 8; + his birthplace, 10, 12; + his attempt at learning English, 12; + modern estimate of in Falaise, 13; + present at the dedication of Odo's church at Bayeux, 28; + results of his personal qualities, 34; + seeks help of Henry I. of France, 34, 35; + burns Mantes, 52; + his marriage to Matilda at Eu, 58; + Domfront submits to, 56; + fortifies Ambrières, 57; + his conquest of Mayenne, _ib._, 230; + takes Arques, 59; + his surprise of the French at Varaville, 61; + his escape from Valognes, 70, 114; + fortifies Saint James, 77-79; + gives the lands of William of Mortain to his half-brother Robert, 105; + opposition of Le Mans to, 212 + +William Rufus, bids Bishop Hildebert pull down the towers of Saint + Julian's, 132, 208 + +William, Count of Arques, his fortress, 59 + +William, Count of Mortain, 104; + his lands given to Robert, 105; + founds l'Abbaye Blanche, 109; + with Duke Robert at Tinchebray, 119, 120, 121; + taken prisoner, 123; + his alleged blinding, _ib._ + +William of Saint-Calais, use of the surname, 155 + +William Patry, receives Harold at La Lande, 115 + +William the Lion, King of Scots, does homage to Henry II. at Falaise, 11 + + +THE END. + +RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Lecture viii. p. 314. + +[2] _Methods of Hist. Study_, Lecture vi. p. 235. + +[3] _Crewkerne Inaugural Address_, 1871. + +[4] _Life of E.A. Freeman_, vol. i. p. 293. + +[5] _Ibid._, vol. ii. p. 137. + +[6] See Petit's _Architectural Studies in France_, p. 2. + +[7] Cf. the following passage in Mr. Freeman's article in _The Saturday +Review_, 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." + +[8] On the foundation of the abbeys of St. Stephen and of the Holy +Trinity, see _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. (2nd ed.), p. 106, _et seq._ + +[9] See Mr. Freeman's article on "Beauvais and Amiens" in _Sketches from +French Travel_ (Tauchnitz edition), and _History of the Cathedral Church +of Wells_, p. 116. + +[10] See Mr. Freeman's article on "Restoration and Destruction in +France," _Saturday Review_, June 8, 1861. + +[11] On Odo's work see also _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 209, and +note, p. 210. + +[12] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. pp. 235, 236. + +[13] Mr. Freeman alludes to M.L. Puiseux's _Siège et Prise de Rouen par +les Anglais_, &c., which was reviewed by him in _The Saturday Review_, +June 8, 1867. + +[14] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 249, _et seq._ + +[15] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. 154, _et seq._ + +[16] On the foundation of Fécamp, see _Norman Conquest_, vol. i. p. 253. + +[17] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 286. + +[18] See also p. 228. + +[19] See also p. 229. + +[20] See also p. 230. + +[21] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. p. 226. + +[22] _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii., p. 122, _et seq._ + +[23] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. i. pp. 216, 217. + +[24] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii., p. 175. + +[25] For the story of this derivation see Mr. Freeman's article on +"South Pembrokeshire Castles" in _English Towns and Districts_, p. 46. + +[26] On French nomenclature see also Mr. Freeman's article on "French +and English Towns," pp. 35, 36, in _Historical Essays_, fourth series, +and _Sketches from French Travel_, p. 99. + +[27] On the relation of the Channel Islands to England, see _Norman +Conquest_, vol. i. p. 187. + +[28] On the relief of Montacute by Bishop Geoffrey, see _Norman +Conquest_, vol. iv. p. 278. + +[29] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. pp. 242, 243. + +[30] See above, p. 21. + +[31] See also p. 88. + +[32] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. p. 233, note. + +[33] Cf. S. James, near Taillebourg. (_Sketches from French Travel_, p. +296.) + +[34] See _The Reign of William Rufus_, vol. i. p. 321. + +[35] See above, p. 75. + +[36] See above, p. 67. + +[37] See _Sketches from French Travel_, p. 35. + +[38] See p. 179. + +[39] _Historical Essays_, third series, pp. 446-451. + +[40] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. pp. 261, 607. + +[41] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 287. + +[42] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 288. + +[43] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iv. pp. 170, 272. For the legend of the +Holy Rood see _Old English History_, p. 271, and Mr. Freeman's article +on "Montacute" in _The Saturday Review_, September 9, 1871. + +[44] See Mr. Freeman's account of Kirkstall in _English Towns and +Districts_, p. 294. + +[45] See p. 119. + +[46] _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 246. + +[47] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iii. p. 466. + +[48] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. v. p. 175. + +[49] See _Historical Essays_, Fourth Series, pp. 139, 140. + +[50] See p. 208. + +[51] See _The Reign of William Rufus_, vol. i. pp. 463, 464. + +[52] See _The Reign of William Rufus_, vol. ii. p. 96. + +[53] On the force of the word _tyrant_ see _History of Sicily_, vol. ii. +p. 50. + +[54] See above, p. 123. + +[55] See above, pp. 110, 119. + +[56] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. iv. p. 496 + +[57] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 227. + +[58] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. pp. 201-203. + +[59] See _The Reign of William Rufus_, vol. i. p. 184. + +[60] See _Sketches from French Travel_, p. 266. + +[61] See Mr. Freeman's article on "Silchester" in _English Towns and +Districts_, p. 159. + +[62] See _English Towns and Districts_, p. 163. + +[63] See article on "Beauvais and Amiens" in _Sketches from French +Travel_, p. 87. + +[64] See _The Reign of William Rufus_, vol. ii, pp. 297, 298, 654. + +[65] See _Sketches from French Travel_, pp. 114, 117. + +[66] On the foundation of the _commune_ of Le Mans and the treachery of +Geoffrey of Mayenne, see _Norman Conquest_, vol. iv. p. 551, _et seq._ + +[67] See _Norman Conquest_, iii. p. 192. + +[68] See above, p. 209. + +[69] See above, p. 57. + +[70] See _Norman Conquest_, vol. ii. p. 209, _et seq._ + +[71] See comparison of Laval with Guildford in Mr. Freeman's article on +"Some Early Buildings in Sussex and Surrey" in _The Guardian_, August +22, 1883. + + +TRANSCRIBERS NOTE: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. 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