ARCHITECTURAL

 ANTIQUITIES

 OF

 NORMANDY, BY JOHN SELL COTMAN;

 ACCOMPANIED BY HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES BY DAWSON TURNER, ESQ. F. R. AND A. S. 

 VOLUME THE FIRST. 

 [Illustration: Coat of arms of the Duchy of Normandy. Emblems of the towns of Rouen and Caen. ]

 LONDON:

 PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL; AND J. S. COTMAN, YARMOUTH. 

 MDCCCXXII. 

 [Illustration]

PREFACE. 

An artist, engaged in the illustration of the Architectural Antiquitiesof England, could scarcely do otherwise than often cast a wistful looktowards the opposite shores of Normandy; and such would particularly bethe case, if, like Mr. Cotman, to a strong attachment to his professionand the subject, he should chance to add a residence in Norfolk. Thisportion of the kingdom of the East-Angles, in its language and in itscustoms, but especially in the remains of its ancient ecclesiasticalarchitecture, abounds in vestiges of its Teutonic colonists. The richlyornamented door-ways of its village churches have, in particular, longbeen the theme of admiration among antiquaries. Bred up in the midst ofthese, and warmly partaking in the admiration of them, Mr. Cotmandevoted his pencil and his graver to the diffusion of their fame. Commonreport, aided by the suffrages of the learned, and in some degree bylocality, designated them as Saxon: at the same time, when they werecompared with what is left in Britain, of workmanship avowedly Norman, the points of dissimilarity appeared trifling or altogether vanished. Was it then to be inferred that, between Norman and Saxon architecture, there was really no difference; and, carrying the inference one stepfarther, that the hordes of barbarians denominated by these differentappellations, although they might not have embarked at the same port, were only cognate tribes of one common origin, if not in reality thesame? The solution of the first of these questions, the only oneimmediately in view, seemed best to be sought in that province ofFrance, where the Norman power had been most permanently established, and where it was therefore reasonably to be expected, that genuineproductions of Norman art might, if any where, be found. With this view, Mr. Cotman crossed the channel; and the result of three successivejournies, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1820, is here submitted to thepublic. 

Those who find pleasure in inquiries of this description, will join inthe regret, that an undertaking like the present was so long delayed. Incalculable had been the advantages, had it but commenced previouslyto the period of the French revolution. That fearful storm burst withtremendous violence upon the castles of barons, the palaces of kings, and the temples of religion. Many of the most sumptuous edifices, whichhad mocked the hand of time, and had been respected amidst the ravagesof foreign or domestic warfare, were then swept from the face of theearth. Others, degraded, deserted, neglected, and dilapidated, are atthis moment hastening fast to their decay. Yet no small portion of whatis valuable has been happily left. The two royal abbeys of Caen, thoughshorn of much of their former grandeur, are still nearly entire. ChâteauGaillard, the pride of Richard's lion heart, and the noble castles ofArques and of Falaise, retain sufficient of their ancient magnificence, to testify what they must have been in the days of their splendor: thetowns and châteaus, which were the cradles of the Harcourts, Vernons, Tancarvilles, Gurneys, Bruces, Bohuns, Grenvilles, St. Johns, and manyothers of the most illustrious English families, are still in existence;and, of more modern date, when the British Edwards and Henrys resumedthe Norman sceptre, numerous buildings of the highest beauty are everywhere to be met with. In his researches after these, Mr. Cotman had theadvantage of being assisted by the kindness of three of the mostdistinguished antiquaries of the present day, M. Le Prevost, M. Rondeau, and M. De Gerville, but particularly by the last, whose friendly helphas likewise extended towards the preparing of the letter-press for manyof the articles from the western part of the province. It wereungrateful not to acknowledge the assistance derived from Mr. Cohen, inthe same department. The value of his aid, which has been most freelycontributed, can be duly appreciated by those alone who have hadopportunities of judging of the accuracy and extent of his knowledge. 

In the selection of subjects for engraving, attention has beenprincipally paid to two points, excellence in the objects themselves, and certainty as to dates; but the greatest stress has been laid uponthe latter. The author of a work which professes to be in any degreedidactic, can never impress too strongly upon his mind the value of theRoman precept, "prodesse quàm delectare;" and an artist, accustomed byhis habits to the contemplation of the beautiful and the picturesque, requires above all men to be warned on this head. Many of the buildingshere represented, might easily have been exchanged for others, moreperfect, more elegant, or more ornamented; but it is hoped that theycould not have been exchanged for those that would have been moreinstructive. The main object of the publication has been to exhibit aseries of specimens of Norman architecture, as they actually exist inNormandy itself; and, by taking those whose dates are best defined, toenable the antiquary and the amateur of other countries, not only toknow the state of this extraordinary people, as to their arts, at theepoch of their greatest glory, but also to compare what is in Normandywith what they find at home. Another volume, devoted to the illustrationof the same description of architecture, in the south of France, inItaly, and in Sicily, would fill a hiatus, whose existence has long beenregretted. In Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, it is to be feared thatlittle remains; and, thanks to the spirit of English artists and to thepatronage of the English public, what is in this country is already ina great measure recorded. To an Englishman, it is hoped it may be asource of venial self-congratulation, that the first publication uponNorman architecture originates in his own island: he will likewiseprobably not be displeased to find, that this collection of the finestremaining specimens of Norman art upon the continent, contains nothingwhich he cannot rival, indeed surpass, at home. 

But, at the same time that the principal end proposed in this work hasbeen to set before the public those edifices, whether sacred, military, or domestic, which were erected during the age most properly designatedas Norman, the æra anterior to the union of the ducal coronet with thecrown of France, it has been felt that, in whatever light thepublication might be regarded, it would be incomplete without theaddition of other buildings of a subsequent period. A farther number ofspecimens has therefore been admitted, conducting the series through thestyle of architecture, commonly termed Gothic, down to the time whenthat style finally disappeared before an Italian model, more or lessdebased. 

In the descriptive portion of these volumes, attention has been almostexclusively directed to two points, the historical and thearchitectural. On the latter of these, so much has been said under eachseparate article, that whatever might be added in this place could belittle more than repetition; and the history of Normandy, from theestablishment of the dukedom to the beginning of the thirteenthcentury, is so interwoven with that of England, that it has beenconsidered needless here to insert an epitome of it, as had at firstbeen intended. In lieu of this, a Table is subjoined, exhibiting thesuccession, marriages and progeny of the Norman Princes, copied from DuMoulin; and such Table can scarcely be regarded otherwise than useful, as bringing the whole under the eye in a single point of view: aChronological Index, it is hoped, may in a great measure answer the samepurpose as to architecture. It is only justice, however, to add, that, in this Index, much has necessarily been left to conjecture; and, whereit is so, the author naturally expects that others will occasionallydiffer from him in opinion; especially as no opportunity is afforded himof detailing the grounds whereby he has formed his own. Upon the subjectmost likely to create doubts and difficulties, the very early dateassigned to the employment of the pointed arch, he begs the attention ofthe reader to those authorities, which, in his judgment, warrant theconclusion he has drawn. If mistaken in this, or in any other point, hewill be most thankful for correction; and, in the language of thatauthor, who is, as he long has been and probably always will be, morethan any other the object of quotation, he takes leave, with thewell-known valedictory lines, "Vive, vale; si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum. "

 [Illustration: CHURCH OF QUERQUEVILLE NEAR CHERBOURG]

SUBJECTS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. 

In the following list, an Obelisk is affixed to the dates which dependupon conjecture. Those preceded by an Asterisk denote the year of thededication of the building. 

 NO. OF PLATES. DATE. 

 53. _Rouen_, Crypt in the Church of St. Gervais before + 1000 13. _St. Sauveur le Vicomte_, Castle before + 1000 69. _Lillebonne_, Castle + 1000 48. _Caen_, Chapel in the Castle + 1000 89, 90. _Falaise_, Castle--Keep of + 1000 83. _St. Sanson sur Rille_, Church + 1020 67. _Anisy_, Church + 1030 68. _Perriers_, Church--Nave of + 1030 97. _Cerisy_, Abbey Church 1040 95. _Mount St. Michael_, Abbey Church--Nave of 1048 87, 88. _St. Lo_, Church of the Holy Cross--(some of the sculpture probably of the ninth century) + 1050 1. _Arques_, Castle + 1050 84. _Foullebec_, Western door-way of the Church + 1050 70. _Briquebec_, Castle--(the multangular tower probably of the fourteenth century) + 1050 5-10. _St. Georges de Bocherville_, Abbey Church 1050 92-94. _Coutances_, Cathedral * 1056 17. _Tamerville_, Church + 1060 44-46. _Léry_, Church + 1060 54. _Rouen_, Church of St. Paul + 1060 73-75. _Lisieux_, Church of St. Peter 1060 55, 56. _Caen_, Church of St. Nicholas 1066 24-33. _Ditto_, Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity * 1066 82. _Montivilliers_, Abbey Church--Towers and door-way + 1066 2, 3. _Jumieges_, Abbey Church * 1067 60, 61. _Fontaine-le-Henri_, Church + 1070 21-23. _Caen_, Abbey Church of St. Stephen * 1077 57. _Cheux_, Church + 1080 98. _Oyestraham_, Church + 1080 58, 59. _Bieville_, Church + 1080 * 33. _Caen_, Tombstone of Queen Matilda 1083 37. _Haute Allemagne_, Tower of Church + 1100 16. _Than_, Church + 1100 18. _Caen_, Tower of the Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles + 1100 12. _Grâville_, Church 1100 99, 100. _Séez_, Cathedral * 1126 14. _St. Sauveur le Vicomte_, Abbey Church + 1130 96. _Mount St. Michael_, Knights' Hall 1130 39-41. _Gournay_, Church of St. Hildebert--Interior of the nave, and capitals of columns + 1140 20. _Statue of William the Conqueror_ + 1150 91. _Creully_, Church + 1150 11. _St. Georges de Bocherville_, Sculpture in the Chapter House 1170 42, 43. _Rouen_, Chapel of the Hospital of St. Julien + 1190 80, 81. _Château Gaillard_ 1195 51, 52. _Rouen Cathedral_, West front--Northern Tower 1200 47. _Colomby_, Church + 1200 68. _Perriers_, Church--Choir + 1230 38. _Gournay_, Church of St. Hildebert--West front + 1250 4. _Jumieges_, Entrance to the Knights' Hall + 1280 76. _Rouen_, Church of St. Ouen 1340 71. _Fécamp_, Southern entrance of the Church of St. Stephen + 1340 35. _Dieppe_, Church of St. Jacques--Western front--(the tower probably fifty years earlier) + 1350 72. _Eu_, Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence + 1360 66. _Tréport_, Church 1370 19. _Caen_, South Porch of the Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles + 1380 82. _Montivilliers_, Abbey Church--Chapter-House 1390 36. _Dieppe_, Eastern end of the Church of St. Jacques + 1400 79. _Louviers_, South porch of the Church + 1420 85, 86. _Tancarville_, Castle + 1420 89, 90. _Falaise_, Castle--Talbot's Tower 1430 34. _Dieppe_, Castle + 1450 51, 52. _Rouen Cathedral_, Western front--Southern Tower 1485 95. _Mount St. Michael_, Abbey Church--Choir 1500 78. _Rouen_, Palace of Justice 1500 77. _Ditto_, Fountain of the Stone Cross 1500 68. _Caen_, House in the Rue St. Jean + 1500 62, 63. _Fontaine-le-Henri_, Château + 1500 49, 50. _Rouen Cathedral_, Southern Transept 1500 51, 52. _Ditto_, Western Front--Porch 1509 15. _Andelys_, Great House + 1530 64. _Rouen_, House in the Place de la Pucelle + 1540

PLATES IN THE FIRST VOLUME. 

 PLATE. 

 1. Castle of Arques to face page 1 2. Abbey Church of Jumieges, West Front 2 3. -- -- -- -- Parts of the Nave 3 4. -- -- -- -- Arch on the West Front 3 5. Abbey Church of St. Georges de Bocherville, West Front 4 6. -- -- -- -- -- -- General View 4 7. -- -- -- -- -- -- West Entrance 5 8. -- -- -- -- -- -- South Transept 5 9. -- -- -- -- -- -- Sculptured Capitals 5 10. -- -- -- -- -- -- Ditto 6 11. -- -- -- -- -- -- Sculptures in the Cloisters 6 12. Church of Grâville 7 13. Castle of St. Sauveur le Vicomte 8 14. Abbey Church of St. Sauveur le Vicomte 11 15. Great House at Andelys 13 16. Church of Than 16 17. Church of Tamerville 17 18. Tower of the Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles, Caen 18 19. North Porch of Ditto 18 20. Statue of William, Duke of Normandy 20 21. \ Abbey Church of St. Etienne, Caen, West Front 21 22. / 23. -- -- -- -- Compartments of the Nave 24 24. Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity, Caen 27 25. -- -- -- -- East End 32 26. -- -- -- -- East End of Interior 32 27. -- -- -- -- North Side of the Choir 32 28. -- -- -- -- Arches under the central Tower 33 29. -- -- -- -- East Side of South Transept 33 30. -- -- -- -- Interior of the Nave 33 31. -- -- -- -- South Side of the Nave 34 32. -- -- -- -- Crypt 34 33. -- -- -- -- Capitals 34 33. * Inscription on the Tomb of Queen Matilda 35 34. Castle of Dieppe 35 35. Church of St. Jacques, at Dieppe, West Front 38 36. -- -- -- -- East End 38 37. Tower of the Church of Haute Allemagne, near Caen 39 38. Collegiate Church of St. Hildebert, at Gournay, West Front 39 39. -- -- -- -- -- -- View across the Nave 41 40. -- -- -- -- -- -- Capitals 42 41. -- -- -- -- -- -- Capitals 42 42. Chapel in the Hospital of St. Julien, near Rouen, South Side 43 43. -- -- -- -- -- -- Interior 44 44. Church of Léry, near Pont de l'Arche, General View 45 45. -- -- -- -- -- West Front 46 46. -- -- -- -- -- Interior 46 47. Elevation of the Church of Colomby, near Valognes 47 48. Chapel in the Castle at Caen 48 49. \ Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, of Rouen, South Transept 50 50. / 51. \ -- -- -- -- -- -- West Front 51 52. / 53. Crypt in the Church of St. Gervais, at Rouen 56 54. Church of St. Paul, at Rouen, East End 57

 GENEALOGY OF THE NORMAN DUKES. ===============

 N. PRINCE OF LOWER DENMARK. | | +----------+-----------+ | | | GOURIN, killed | in Denmark. | 2nd wife, POPPEIA, ROLLO, 1st Duke = 1st wife, GISLA, daughter daughter of Berenger, = of Normandy. Of Charles the Simple, Count of the Bessin. | A. D. 911. King of France. | +---+-----------------------+ | | SPROTE, daughter of = WILLIAM, LONGA-SPATHA, GERLOC, wife to the Count of Senlis. | 2nd Duke of Normandy. William, Count of | A. D. 917. Poitiers. +--------+ | 1st wife, EMMA, daughter = RICHARD I. 3rd = 2nd wife, GONNOR, of Hugues le Grand, Duke Duke of Normandy. | originally his of France. A. D. 944. | concubine. | +-----+-----------------+-----------+------+------+-------------+ | | | | | | | ROBERT, MAUGER, EMMA, HAVOISE, MATILDA, | Archbishop of Count of Queen of wife of wife of | Rouen, Count Corbeil. England. Geoffrey, Eudes, | of Evreux. Duke of Count of +---------------------+ Brittany. Chartres. | 2nd wife, = RICHARD II. Called = 1st wife, JUDITH, da. PAPHIE, or | THE GOOD, 4th | of Geoffrey, Duke of POPPEA. | Duke of Normandy. | Brittany. | A. D. 996. | +------------+-+ | | | | MAUGER, WILLIAM OF ARQUES, | Archbishop Count of Talou. | of Rouen. | +------------+---------+--------+---+--------+--------+--+ | | | | | | | RICHARD III. WILLIAM, ALICE, ELEANOR, PAPIE, | N. Died 5th Duke of Monk at wife of wife of wife | unmarried. Normandy. Fécamp. Rinaldo, Baldwin, of Guibert | A. D. 1026. Count of Count of of St. | | Burgundy. Flanders. Vallery. | | | NICOLAS, Abbot of St. Ouen: and two daughters, one | of them married to Walter of St. Vallery, the other | to the Viscount of Bayeux:--all illegitimate. | +----------------------------+ | ROBERT, 6th = ARLETTE, Duke of | daughter Normandy. | of Foubert, A. D. 1028. | citizen of | Falaise. | WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, = MATILDA, daughter 7th Duke of Normandy, | of Baldwin, Count and King of England. | of Flanders. A. D. 1035. | +-------+-------------+--------------+----+--+------+------+------+-----+ | | | | | | | | | | RICHARD, WILLIAM RUFUS, | CECILIA. | | | | | killed in King of England. | CONSTANCE. | | | | the New | ALICE. | | | Forest. +---------------+ AGATHA. | | | | | N. His = ROBERT, COURT-HOSE, = SIBILLA, | | MISTRESS. | 8th Duke of | daughter | | | Normandy. | of William, | | | A. D. 1087. | Count of | | | | Conversans. | | +--------+------+--------+ +----------------------------+ | | | | | | | | RICHARD, WILLIAM, N. Wife to N. Da. Of Marquis = WILLIAM, | | died from a killed in Hélie de Renier, and sister Count of | | surfeit, in the St. Saen. To the Queen of Flanders. | | hunting. Crusades. France. +------------+ | | | ADELA. = STEPHEN, | | Count of | | Blois. | +------------+----------+---------------------+--+ | | | | | | WILLIAM. THEOBALD, HENRY, STEPHEN, = MATILDA of | Earl of Bishop of King of | Boulogne. | Blois. Winchester. England. | | +---------------+ | | | EUSTACE, 10th Duke of | Normandy. A. D. 1135. | +------------------------------------+ | 1st wife, = HENRY I. King = 2nd wife, MATILDA, da. | of England, ADELIZA, of Malcolm, | and 9th Duke daughter of King of | of Normandy. The Duke of Scotland. | A. D. 1107. Louvain. +---------+-----------------+ | | WILLIAM ADELIN, 1st hus. = MATILDA. = 2nd hus. Drowned after his HENRY V. | GEOFFREY, marriage. Emperor. | Count of | Anjou, and | 11th Duke of | Normandy. | A. D. 1143. +-------------------+------------+ | | | ELEANOR, = HENRY PLANTAGENET, GEOFFREY, WILLIAM. Countess of | 12th Count of Poitiers and | Duke of Normandy. Nantes. Duchess of | A. D. 1150: Aquitaine. | Count of Anjou, | Touraine, | and Maine, and King | of England. +-----------++--------------+----------------+-----------+ | | | | | WILLIAM. | RICHARD COEUR- | JOHN LACKLAND, King | DE-LION, King of | of England, 14th MARGARET, = HENRY THE England, and 13th | and last Duke of of France. YOUNG, Duke of Normandy. | Normandy. A. D. 1199. Crowned King A. D. 1189. | of England. +-----+ | GEOFFREY, Count = CONSTANCE, of Brittany. | daughter of +----------+ Conan, Duke of | Brittany. | ARTHUR, Duke of Brittany, killed by his uncle John. 

 THE ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF NORMANDY. 

PLATE I. 

CASTLE OF ARQUES. 

 [Illustration: Plate 1. CASTLE OF ARQUES. ]

The town of Arques, situated in the immediate vicinity of Dieppe, is aspot consecrated by the historical muse, and one upon which a Frenchmanalways dwells with pleasure, as the place that fixed the sceptre in thehands of the most popular monarch of the nation, Henry IV. 

The sovereign, fleeing from the superior forces of the league, here, inthe very confines of his kingdom, finally resolved to make his laststand; urged to the measure by the Marshal de Biron, but doubtful in hisown mind, whether it would not be the wisest as well as the safest plan, to seek refuge in the friendly ports of England. Reduced to the utmostextremity, "a king without a kingdom, a husband without a wife, and awarrior without money, " he stopped at Arques, in a state bordering upondespair; and yet, when the Count de Belin, who was brought in prisonershortly before the battle, assured his majesty, that, in two hours, anarmy of forty thousand men would be upon him, and that he saw no forcesthere to resist them, the king replied, with that gaity of mind thatnever forsook him, "You see not all, M. Belin, for you reckon not God, and my just claim, who fight for me. "

Henry's whole army consisted of only three thousand infantry and sixhundred cavalry: the hostile forces amounted to more than thirtythousand, commanded by the Duke of Mayenne, one of the ablest leaders ofthe league, but the Fabius rather than the Marcellus of the party. Theoccasion, however, needed the sword rather than the buckler: Henry'ssoldiers fought with the courage of desperation; but every thing seemedlost, when, according to the account given by Sully, the fog, which hadbeen very thick all the morning, cleared suddenly away, and afforded thegarrison in the castle of Arques a full view of the enemy's army, against which they discharged four pieces of artillery with such effect, as to kill great numbers of them. Their progress was thus effectuallystopped; and the guns from the castle continuing to play upon them, theywere soon thrown into disorder, and retreated to their originalposition. 

From this time, the aspect of the king's affairs changed: his well-knownlaconic epistle to Crillon, "hang thyself, brave Crillon, for we havefought at Arques without thee, " shewed his own sense of the importantresults that might be expected from the battle. The most important ofall was, that he was immediately joined by an auxiliary force of fourthousand English and Scotch, sent by Queen Elizabeth to his aid; andthat, almost immediately afterwards, another, still more considerablereinforcement, was brought him by the Count of Soissons, Henry ofOrleans, Duke of Longueville, D'Aumont, and Biron; so that the Duke ofMayenne was obliged to retreat in his turn, and Henry saw himself withina few days under the walls of the capital; in a situation to dictateterms to his rebellious subjects. 

The castle of Arques had on this occasion essentially served the royalcause; but it seems to have been suffered from that time forwards tofall into decay. All mouldering, however, and ruined as it is, itswalls and towers may yet for many centuries bid defiance to wind andweather, unless active measures are used for their demolition. 

At the revolution the castle became national property, and as such wassold: it has now fallen into the hands of a lady who resides in theneighbouring town. 

The present plate, which represents the principal entrance, will serveto convey some idea of the general character of the building, as well asof the immense size of the massy towers, and of the crumbling appearanceof their surface. Two piers only remain of the draw-bridge, by whichthey were approached; and the three successive arches of the gateway aretorn into little more than shapeless rents. It would be very difficultto convey, by means of any engraving, an adequate idea of the grandcharacter of the whole ruin, or of its imposing situation. Still moredifficult would be the attempt to represent its masonry. The walls havecertainly been in most places, and probably in all, covered with afacing of brick, of comparatively modern date; and in some parts thisfacing still remains, or, where it is torn off, nothing but rubble isvisible. In other places they appear to have been constructed ofalternate layers of brick and flint, disposed with the same regularityas in Roman buildings; and the thin form of these bricks leads also tothe impression that they are of Roman workmanship. 

If such a supposition may be allowed to be well founded, the firstestablishment of a fortress in this situation is probably but littleposterior to the Christian æra; and many antiquarians are disposed tobelieve that such was really the case. At the same time, even allowingthe truth of this surmise in its fullest extent, it is most probablethat the Roman castle had fallen into ruin and disuse long before theNorman conquest. 

Both William of Jumieges and the chronicle of St. Wandrille expresslymention, that William, son to Duke Richard II. Received from his nephew, the conqueror, the earldom of Arques, and built a castle there. Otherwriters ascribe the origin of the fortress to the eighth century, andothers to the latter part of the twelfth. Nothing is now leftsufficiently perfect to determine the point, nor any thing that canjustly be considered decisive of the style of its architecture. 

The situation of the castle is very bold: it crowns the extremity of aridge of chalk hills of considerable height, which commencing to thewest of Dieppe, and terminating at this spot, have full command of thevalley below. The fosse which surrounds the walls is wide and deep. Theoutline of the fortress is oval, but not regularly so; and it is variedby towers of uncertain shape, placed at unequal distances. The twoentrance towers, and those nearest to them to the north and south, areconsiderably larger than the rest. One of these larger lateral towers[1]is of a most unusual form. It appears as if the original intention ofthe architect had been to make it circular; but that, changing hisdesign in the middle of his work, he had attached to it a triangularappendage, probably by way of a bastion. Three others adjoining this aresquare, and indeed appear to partake as much of the character ofbuttresses as of towers. 

The castle is internally divided into two wards, the first of which, onentering, is every where rough with the remains of foundations: theinner, which is by far the largest, is approached by a square gate-housewith high embattled walls, and contains towards its farther end thequadrangular keep, whose shell alone is standing. The walls of this areof great height: in their perfect state they were carefully faced withlarge square stones, but these are principally torn away. The cryptsbeneath the castle are spacious, and may still be traversed for aconsiderable length. 

NOTES:

[1] See _Account of a Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 37, t. 3. 

PLATES II. III. IV. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF JUMIEGES. 

Before the revolution despoiled France of her monastic institutions, theright bank of the Seine, from Rouen to the British Channel, displayed analmost uninterrupted line of establishments of this nature. Within aspace of little more than forty miles, were included the abbeys of St. Wandrille, Jumieges, Ducler, and St. Georges de Bocherville. 

 [Illustration: Plate 2. ABBEY CHURCH OF JUMIEGES. _West Front. _]

The most illustrious of these was Jumieges; it occupied a delightfulsituation in a peninsula, formed by the curvature of the stream, wherethe convent had existed from the reign of Clovis II. And had, with onlya temporary interruption, caused by the invasion of the Normans, maintained, for eleven centuries, an even course of renown; celebratedalike for the beauty of its buildings, the extent of its possessions, and the number and sanctity of its inmates. Philibert, second abbot ofRebais, in the diocese of Meaux, was the founder of this monastery. Hemigrated hither with only a handfull of monks; but the communityincreased with such surprising rapidity, that in the time of Alcadrus, his immediate successor, the number was already swelled to nine hundred, and, except upon the occasion just mentioned, this amount never appearsto have experienced any sensible diminution. 

The monastery of Jumieges reckoned among its abbots men of the mostillustrious families of France. In early times, Hugh, the grandson ofCharlemagne, held the pastoral staff: it afterwards passed through thehands of Louis d'Amboise, brother to the cardinal, and of differentmembers of the houses of Clermont, Luxembourg, d'Este, and Bourbon. 

The abbatial church, as it now stands, (if indeed it does now stand, forin 1818, when drawings were made for these plates, its demolition wasproceeding with rapidity, ) was chiefly built in the eleventh century, byRobert the Abbot, who was translated from Jumieges to the bishopric ofLondon, and thence to the archiepiscopal throne of Canterbury. Thewestern front (_see plate 2_) is supposed to be certainly of thatperiod, and all very nearly of the same æra, though the southern toweris known to be somewhat the most modern. The striking difference in theplan of these towers, might justly lead to the inference, that there wasalso a material difference in their dates, and that they were not bothof them part of the original plan; but there do not appear to be anygrounds for such a supposition. On the other hand, the contrary seems tobe well established; and those who are best acquainted with theproductions of Norman architects, will scarcely be surprised atanomalies of this nature. 

 [Illustration: Plate 3. ABBEY CHURCH OF JUMIEGES. _Parts of the Nave. _]

The interior of the nave (_plate 3_) is also a work of the same period, except the lofty pillars that support the cornice, and the symbols ofthe evangelists that are placed near the windows of the clerestory. These were additions made towards the latter end of the seventeenthcentury. The pillars were rendered necessary by the bad state of theroof: the symbols were added only by way of ornament. They are ofbeautiful sculpture, and, as such, have lately been engraved upon alarger scale, in an _Account of a Tour in Normandy, in 1818_, (II. P. 27) which work also contains a general view of the ruins of Jumieges, and a representation of some ancient trefoil arches that are veryremarkable. 

Of the square central tower one side only is now remaining. This towerwas despoiled of its spire in 1557. The Choir and Lady-Chapel are almostentirely gone. They were of pointed architecture; and it appears thatthey were erected during some of the latter years of the thirteenthcentury, or at the commencement of the fourteenth. 

In the Lady-Chapel lay the heart of Agnes Sorel, who died at theneighbouring village of Mesnil, on the ninth of February, 1450, whileher royal lover, Charles VII. Was residing at Jumieges, intent upon thesiege of Honfleur. Her body was interred in the collegiate church ofLoches in Touraine. Upon her monument at Jumieges was originally placedher effigy, in the act of offering her heart to the Virgin. But thisstatue was destroyed by the Huguenots, who are said to have been guiltyof the most culpable excesses in this monastery. Agnes' tomb remainedtill the revolution, when it was swept away with all the rest, and, among others, with one of great historical curiosity in the neighbouringchurch dedicated to St. Peter; for the convent of Jumieges containedtwo churches, the larger under the invocation of the Holy Virgin, and asmaller by its side, sacred to the chief of the apostles. 

The tomb here alluded to was called by the name of _le tombeau desEnerves_, or _de Gemellis_; and so much importance was attached to it, that it has even been supposed that the Latin name of Jumieges, _Gemeticum_, was a corruption from the word _gemellis_. Upon themonument were figures of two young noblemen, intended, as it is said, torepresent twin sons of Clovis and Bathilda, who, for sedition, werepunished by being hamstrung and confined in this monastery. 

 [Illustration: Plate 4. ABBEY OF JUMIEGES. _Arch on the West Front. _]

The third plate of Jumieges, which is copied from a drawing by MissElizabeth Turner, represents a noble arch-way, the entrance to a porchthat leads to a gallery adjoining the former cloisters, and known by thename of the _Knight's Hall_. It is a remarkably fine specimen of a veryearly pointed arch, still preserving all the ornaments of thesemi-circular style, and displaying them in great richness and beauty. There is no authority for the date of this gallery: nor does it appearthat any historical record is preserved respecting it. The style of thearchitecture would lead to the referring of it, without much hesitation, to the latter part of the thirteenth century. 

PLATES V. -XI. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 5. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _West Front. _]

In a work like the present, devoted expressly to the elucidation of theArchitectural Antiquities of Normandy, and more particularly intended toillustrate that style of architecture which prevailed during the timewhen the province was governed by its own Dukes, it has appeareddesirable to select one or two objects, and to exhibit them, as far aspossible, in their various details. 

Under this idea, the abbey church of St. Georges de Bocherville has beentaken from the upper division of the province, and that of the HolyTrinity at Caen from the lower. Both of these are noble edifices; bothare in nearly the same state in which they were left by the Normanarchitects; and both of them are buildings whose dates may be cited withpositive certainty. 

The abbey of St. Georges was situated upon an eminence on the right bankof the Seine, two leagues below Rouen. It owed its origin to Ralph deTancarville, lord of the village, about the year 1050. A rage for thebuilding and endowing of monastic establishments prevailed at thatperiod throughout Normandy; and this nobleman, who had been thepreceptor to Duke William in his youth, and was afterwards hischamberlain, unwilling to be outdone by his compeers in deeds of pietyand magnificence, founded this monastery and built the church in honorof the Virgin and St. George. Both the conqueror and his queen assistedthe pious labour by endowments to the convent; and Ordericus Vitalisrelates how, upon the decease of the monarch, the monks of St. Gervais, at Rouen, where he died, made a solemn procession to the church of St. Georges de Bocherville, there to offer up their prayers for the soul oftheir departed sovereign. 

At the revolution the abbatial church was fortunate enough to becomeparochial, and it thus escaped the ruin in which nearly the whole of themonastic buildings throughout France were at that time involved. Itsprevious good fortune in having been so very little exposed to injury orto alteration, is even more to be wondered at. 

 [Illustration: Plate 6. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _General view. _]

The general view of the church, (_plate 6_) for the drawing of which theauthor is indebted to Miss Elizabeth Turner, is calculated to convey afaithful idea of the effect of the whole. Whatever is here seen ispurely Norman, except the spire; and upon the subject of spiresantiquaries are far from being agreed: some regarding them as acomparatively modern invention, while others, on the contrary, believethat the use of them may be traced to a very remote period. Thesemi-circular east end, with a roof of high pitch, the windows separatedby shallow buttresses, or by slender cylindrical pillars, and thegrotesque corbel-table, are, all of them, characteristics of the earlyNorman style: a greater peculiarity of the present building, and oneindeed that is found in but few others, lies in the small semi-circularchapels attached to the sides of the transepts. 

The west front (_plate 5_) exhibits a deviation from the general styleof the church, in the two towers with which it is flanked. The shape ofthe arches in these plainly indicates a later æra; but they are earlyinstances of pointed architecture. The grand entrance is displayed upona larger scale in the seventh plate. The ornaments to this door-way arerich and varied, and there are but few finer portals in Normandy. But inspecimens of this description the duchy is far from being able to bear acomparison with England. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, toassign a satisfactory reason for this circumstance; and yet the fact isso obvious, that it cannot fail to have occurred to every one who haspaid any attention to the architecture of the two countries. 

In the interior of the church there is scarcely an architectural anomalyto be discovered. The only alterations are those which were renderednecessary by the injuries done to the building in the religious wars, during the sixteenth century; and the repairs on that occasion extendedonly to a portion of the roof, and of the upper part of the wall on thesouth side of the nave. As a satisfactory specimen of the character ofthe whole of the inside, the south transept has been selected for thesubject of the eighth plate. In this, however, as well as in theopposite one, there is a peculiarity which requires to be noticed; that, within the church, at the distance of a few feet from the end wall, isplaced a column, from which an arch springs on either side, occupyingthe whole width of the transept, and thus forming an open screen. Thescreen terminates, above, in a plain flat wall, which is carried to buta very short distance higher than the arches, so as to be nearly on aline with the triforium. The same arrangement exists also in some otherchurches in Normandy; as in that of the royal abbey of St. Stephen atCaen, in the abbey church at Cerisy, in the abbey church at Fécamp, andin the cathedral at Séez. In the two last mentioned buildings, it isfound connected with the pointed architecture. At Cerisy, a church, erected A. D. 1030, by Robert, father to the Conqueror, the screen issurmounted by a row of seventeen semi-circular arches, which rise toabout half the height of the columns of the triforium, and form anelegant parapet. It is possible that there may have been originally somedecoration of the same kind at St. Georges. At Fécamp, the screen iscarried up to the roof by three tiers, each consisting of three arches;and the recess thus made, is still used as a chapel, having an altar atthe east end, and, in the centre, an ancient font. Such may have beenoriginally the case at St. Georges; and thus we may account for thesmall semi-circular additions to the transepts, one of which is visiblein the general view of the church. Mr. Cotman, however, suggests anotheridea, which may have entered into the mind of the architect of St. Georges; that, by means of this screen at the end of the transepts, theaisles of the nave would receive apparent length; from the columns, which form the screen, ranging in a line with those of the outer wallsof the church. Among our English ecclesiastical buildings, there aresimilar screens in the transepts of Winchester cathedral[2], where theportion of the church that remains in its original state, greatlyresembles, in its architecture, the church of St. Georges deBocherville, and is known to have been erected at nearly the samedate[3]. 

 [Illustration: Plate 7. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _West entrance. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 8. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _South Transept. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 9. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _Sculptured Capitals. _]

Within the spandrils of the arches, just mentioned, are two highlycurious bas-reliefs, figured here in the _tenth plate_, and marked A andB. They are on square tablets, cut out of the solid stone, in the samemanner as the blocks of a stone engraving; the rims being left elevated, so as to form rude frames. One of them represents a prelate, who holds acrozier in his left hand, while the first two fingers of the right areelevated in the action of giving the blessing. Below him are two smallheads; but it would be as difficult to conjecture what they are intendedto typify, or why they are placed there, as it would be to state themeaning of the artist, in having represented the whole of his vestmentas composed of parallel diagonal lines. In the opposite bas-relief, areseen two knights on horseback, in the act of jousting; as rude a pieceof sculpture, especially with respect to the size and form of thesteeds, as can well be imagined; and yet it possesses a degree ofspirit, worthy of a better age. The shields of the riders are oblong;their tilting spears pointless; their conical helmets terminate in anasal below, like the figures in the Bayeux tapestry. "Thiscoincidence, " as has been observed elsewhere[4], "is interesting, asdeciding a point of some moment towards establishing the antiquity ofthat celebrated relic, by setting it beyond a doubt, that such helmetswere used anterior to the conquest; for it is certain, that thesebasso-relievos are coeval with the building that contains them. "

The nave of the church of St. Georges is, in its height, divided intothree compartments: the lowest consists of a row of square, massy piers, varied only by a few small columns attached to their angles, andconnected by wide arches, which are generally without any other ornamentthan plain fluted mouldings; the second compartment, or triforium, iscomposed of a uniform series of small arches, broken, at intervals, bythe truncated columns; which, supporting the groinings of the roofabove, terminate abruptly below, nearly upon a level with the capitalsof the lowest arches; in the clerestory, the arches are also simple andunornamented; their size nearly intermediate between those of the firstand second tiers. It is almost needless to mention, that, in a perfectbuilding, of such a date, the whole of the arches are semi-circular. Thesame is equally the case in the choir; but this part of the edifice isconsiderably richer in its architectural decorations; and the noblearch, which separates it from the nave, is surrounded with a broad bandof the embattled moulding, inclosing two others of the chevron moulding. A string-course, of unusual size, formed of what is called the cableornament, goes round the whole interior of the building. 

The general effect of the semi-circular east end, shews a strikingresemblance between the church of St. Georges and Norwich cathedral; andthose who take pleasure in researches of this description, will do wellto trace the points of similarity through other parts of the edifices. The two kingdoms can scarcely boast more noble, or more perfectbuildings, of the Norman style; and there is the farther advantage, thatthe difference between the periods of their respective erection is butsmall. Our English cathedral rose in the early part of the reign ofWilliam Rufus, when his follower, Herbert de Losinga, who, not contentwith having purchased the bishopric for £1900, bought also the abbacy ofWinchester for his father, for £1000, was cited before the Pope for thisdouble act of simony, and, with difficulty, retained his mitre, upon thecondition of building sundry churches and monasteries. Norwich has, indeed, a superiority in its tower, in regard to which, it may safely beput in competition with any edifice of the same style, in Normandy or inEngland. For beauty, richness, variety, and purity of ornament, there isnothing like it. On the other hand, Norwich has undergone variousalterations, as well in its interior, as its exterior[5], and it has nodecoration of the same description comparable with the capitals in thechurch of St. Georges. These are so curious, that it has been thoughtright to devote to them the _ninth_ and _tenth plates_ of this work[6]. The capitals near the west end of the church, are comparatively simple:they become considerably more elaborate on advancing towards the choir;and it is most interesting to observe in them, how the Norman architectsappear, in some instances, to have been intent upon copying the Romanmodel, or even adding to it a luxury of ornament, which it never knew, yet still preserving a classical feeling and a style of beauty, of whichthe proudest ages of architecture need not be ashamed; while, in othercases, the rudeness of the design and execution is such, that it canscarcely be conceived, but that they were executed by a barbarouspeople, just emerged from their hyperborean woods, and equally strangersto the cultivation of art, and the finer feelings of humanity. And yet, even in some of those of the latter description, attentive observationmay lead to traces of classical fables, or representations of the holymysteries of Christianity. Thus, one of the capitals[7] seems designedto portray the good Shepherd and the Lamb; another[8] appears to alludeto the battle between the followers of Æneas and the Harpies. It wouldnot, perhaps, be going too far, to say, that many of the others havereference to the northern mythology, and some of them, probably, toScandinavian history. 

 [Illustration: Plate 10. CAPITALS IN THE ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. ]

 [Illustration: Plate 11. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. GEORGES DE BOCHERVILLE. _Sculpture in the Cloisters. _]

In the chapter-house, which stands between the church and the monasticbuildings, the capitals are decidedly historical, and exhibit anapparent connection very unusual in similar cases. The _eleventh plate_contains some of these[9]. Another, and of the greatest curiosity, nowlost, has been etched in Mr. Turner's _Tour in Normandy_, from a drawingby M. Langlois, a very able and indefatigable artist of Rouen. Itrepresents a series of royal minstrels, playing upon different musicalinstruments. This part of the building is known to have been erectedtowards the close of the twelfth century, and is consequently an hundredyears posterior to the church. It is now extremely dilapidated, andemployed as a mill. The capitals here figured, are taken from threearches that formed the western front. The sculpture in the upper line, and in a portion of the second, most probably refers to some of thelegends of Norman story: the remainder seems intended to representthe miraculous passage of Jordan and the capture of Jericho, by theIsraelites, under the command of Joshua. The detached moulding on thesame plate, is copied from the archivolt of one of these arches: thestyle of its ornament is altogether peculiar. To the pillars thatsupport the same arches, are attached whole-length figures, in highrelief, of less than the natural size. Two of them represent females;the third, a man; and one of the former has her hair disposed in longbraided tresses, that reach on either side to a girdle. All of them holdlabels with inscriptions, which fall down to their feet in front. Thebraided locks, and the general style of sculpture, shew a resemblancebetween these statues and those on the portals of the churches of St. Denys and Chartres, as well as those which stood formerly at theentrance of St. Germain des Prés, at Paris, all which are figured byMontfaucon, in his _Monumens de la Monarchie Française_, and by himreferred to the sovereigns of the Merovingian dynasty; but have beenbelieved, by subsequent writers, to be the productions of the eleventhor twelfth century, an opinion which the statues at St. Georges may beconsidered to confirm. 

NOTES:

[2] See _Britton's Winchester Cathedral_, ground plan and plate 12. 

[3] _Milner's Winchester_, I. P. 194. --Other authors, I am well aware, and those of great weight, have said much with regard to the _Saxonwork_ at Winchester; but, though I have examined the building itself, and the various publications respecting it, with some care, I confess Ihave met with no portion that did not appear to me to be truly Norman. 

[4] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 10. 

[5] The complete uniformity of style throughout the church of St. Georges, joined to the absence of all screens or other objects whatever, that might intercept the sight from west to east, produces an effect, not only grand, but altogether deceptive. It is impossible not to admitthe superior judgment of the French, in thus keeping their religiousedifices free from incumbrances; it is scarcely possible, too, not tofeel persuaded, that the Norman church is larger than the English, though their respective dimensions are in reality as follows:

 NORWICH. ST. GEORGES. 

 Length of nave 200 feet 135 feet -------- choir 183 92 -------- transepts 180 102 Width of the nave with aisles 70 64-1/2

[6] In the former of these plates, the capitals, marked Nos. 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12, are taken from the exterior of the east end; Nos. 2, 6, and7, from the nave; and Nos. 3, 4, and 11, from the door-way. In thelatter plate, the exterior of the east end has supplied Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 10; the nave, Nos. 4 and 9; and the door-way, No. 5. 

[7] Plate 10, No. 8. 

[8] Plate 10, No. 5. 

[9] It may be well to remark, that this plate contains five capitals, the extent of each of which may be distinguished by the small crossesabove. 

PLATE XII. 

CHURCH OF GRÂVILLE. 

(END OF THE NORTH TRANSEPT. )

 [Illustration: Plate 12. CHURCH OF GRÂVILLE. ]

The church of Grâville, like that of St. Georges de Bocherville, thoughnow parochial, was, before the revolution, monastic, being attached tothe priory of the same name, beautifully situated on an eminence nearthe mouth of the Seine, at the distance of half a league from Havre deGrâce. The origin of this monastery is referred, in the _NeustriaPia_[10], to about the year 1100; but nothing is known with certaintyrespecting it till 1203, when Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, confirmed, byhis approbation, the foundation of regular canons established here byWilliam Malet, lord of the village, which is called in the Latin ofthose times, _Girardi Villa_, or _Geraldi Villa_. The modern name ofGrâville is supposed to be an abbreviation of these. The canons thusfixed here, had been brought from St. Barbe in Auge, and were endowed bythe founder with all the lands he possessed in Normandy and England. Bysubsequent deeds, one of them dated as late as the end of the fifteenthcentury, different members of the same family continued their donationsto the priory. The last mentioned was Louis Malet, admiral of France, whose name is also to be found among the benefactors to Rouen cathedral, as having given a great bell of six hundred and sixty-six pounds weight, which, previously to the revolution, hung in the central tower. 

William Malet, the founder of Grâville, was one of the Norman chieftainswho fought under the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings[11]; and he issaid to have been selected by his prince, on that occasion, to takecharge of the body of Harold, and see it decently interred. Writers, however, are not agreed upon this point: Knighton, on the authority ofGiraldus Cambrensis, asserts that, though Harold fell in the battle, hewas not slain; but, escaping, retired to a cell near St. John's church, in Chester, and died there an anchoret, as was owned by himself in hislast confession, when he lay dying; in memory whereof, they shewed histomb when Knighton wrote. Rapin, on the other hand, in his _History ofEngland_ observes, that an ancient manuscript in the Cottonian library, relates, "that the king's body was hard to be known, by reason of itsbeing covered with wounds; but that, it was at last discovered by onewho had been his mistress, by means of certain private marks, known onlyto herself; whereupon the duke sent the body to his mother withoutransom, though she is said to have offered him its weight in gold. "Nearly the same story is told in the _Gesta Gulielmi Ductis_[12], written by William, archdeacon of Lisieux, a contemporary author. Ordericus Vitalis[13] mentions William Malet two years afterwards, ascommanding the Conqueror's forces in York, when besieged by the Danesand a large body of confederates, under the command of Edgar Athelingand other chieftains; and we find that his son, Robert, received fromthe same king, the honor of Eye, in Suffolk, together with two hundredand twenty-one lordships in the same county; and many others inHampshire, Essex, Lincoln, Nottingham, and York. This Robert held theoffice of great chamberlain of England, in the beginning of the reign ofHenry I; but, only in the second year of it, he attached himself to thecause of Robert Curthose, for which he was disinherited and banished. With him appears to have ended the greatness of the family, in England. 

The church of Grâville was dedicated to St. Honorina, a virgin martyr, whose relics were preserved there in the times anterior to the Normaninvasion; but were then transported to Conflans upon the Marne. Peter deNatalibus, copious as he is in his Hagiology, has no notice of Honorina, whose influence was nevertheless most extraordinary in releasingprisoners from fetters; and whose altars were accordingly hung roundwith an abundance of chains and instruments of torture. The author ofthe _Neustria Pia_, who attests many of her miracles of thisdescription, relates, that her sanctity extended even to the horse whichshe rode, insomuch, that, when the body of the beast was thrown, afterits death, as carrion to the dogs, they all refused to touch it; and themonks, in commemoration of the miracle, employed the skin for a coveringto the church door, where it remained till the middle of the seventeenthcentury. 

Except towards the west end, which is in ruins, and has quite lost theportal and towers that flanked it, the church of Grâville stillcontinues tolerably entire: in its style and general outline, butparticularly in its central tower and spire, it bears a considerableresemblance to that of St. Georges de Bocherville. Architecturallyregarded, however, it is very inferior to that noble edifice; but theend of the north transept, selected for the subject of the presentplate, will, in point of interest, scarcely yield to any other buildingin Normandy. The row of sculptures immediately above the windows, isprobably unique: among them is the Sagittary, very distinctly portrayed;and near him, an animal, probably designed for a horse, whose tail endsin a decided fleur-de-lys, while he holds in his mouth what appearsintended to represent another. The figure of the Sagittary is alsorepeated upon one of the capitals of the nave, which are altogether ofthe same style of art, as the most barbarous at St. Georges, and notless fanciful. The interlaced arches, with flat surfaces, that inclosethe windows immediately beneath the sculptures, may be matched bysimilar rows in the exterior of the abbey church of St. Stephen, atCaen, and on the end of the north transept of Norwich cathedral. Itappears likewise, from Mr. Carter's work on _Early EnglishArchitecture_, (_plate 23_) that others, resembling them, line thelowest story of the east end of Tickencote church, in Rutlandshire. Thiscircumstance is the rather mentioned here, as that able antiquaryregards the church as a specimen of true Saxon architecture; whereas itmay safely be affirmed, that there is no part of it, as figured by him, but may be exactly paralleled from Normandy. The same may also be saidof almost every individual instance that he has produced asillustrations of the style in use among our Saxon progenitors. InGrâville, a series of similar arches is continued along the west side ofthe north transept; and, judging from the general appearance of thechurch, it may be believed that it is of a prior date to any of theothers just mentioned. 

A considerable portion of the monastic buildings is still remaining; butthey are comparatively modern. --A lithographic plate of this monasterywas published at Paris, by Bourgeois, in 1818. 

NOTES:

[10] P. 861. 

[11] _Bankes' Extinct Peerage_, I. P. 126. 

[12] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 204. 

[13] Ibid. P. 512. 

PLATE XIII. 

CASTLE OF ST. SAUVEUR LE VICOMTE. [14]

The origin of the castle, here figured, is coeval with the establishmentof the Normans, in the province which now bears their name. Theinventory of the ancient barony of St. Sauveur, shews that, in 912, theyear when Charles the Simple ceded Normandy to Rollo, the new dukegranted this great lordship, under the common obligations of feudaltenure, to Richard, one of the principal chieftains who had attended himfrom Norway. In 913, Richard founded in his castle a chapel, which, inthe following year, was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, by Herbert, Bishop of Coutances. Many of the descendants of Richard bore the name ofNéel; and it was upon the first of those so called, that Duke WilliamLongue Epée conferred the title of viscount, about the year 938. In 998, Richard, the second of that name, established in his castle of St. Sauveur, with the sanction of Hugh, Bishop of Coutances, a collegiatechurch, consisting of four prebends. At the beginning of the reign ofWilliam the Conqueror, Néel de St. Sauveur took up arms against thedisputed title of that sovereign, in consequence of which, his landswere confiscated, and he himself compelled to seek an asylum inBrittany. This is supposed to have happened in 1047; but the anger ofthe offended duke was short-lived; for the very next year, there is anaccount of William's restoring to Néel the lordship of St. Sauveur, "inconsideration of the services he had rendered him. " The same lenity, however, was not shewn with regard to Néel's lordship of Nehou; for thiswas permanently alienated, and was granted to the family of Riviers, orRedvers, who, some years afterwards, became powerful in England, wherethey had a grant of the Isle of Wight, in fee, and were created, byHenry I. Earls of Devonshire. The collegiate church, founded in thecastle of St. Sauveur during the preceding century, was suppressed in1048, on account of some umbrage taken by the chieftain at the conductof the canons; and he established, in their room, a convent ofBenedictines, whose successors, removing without the precincts of thefortress, erected the abbey, the subject of the following plate. 

 [Illustration: Plate 13. CASTLE OF ST. SAUVEUR LE VICOMTE. ]

The name of St. Sauveur is to be found in the list of officers whoaccompanied the Conqueror to England; and the records of those timesalso preserve the remembrance of one Néel, who was slain at Cardiff, in1078. The troops, however, of the Côtentin, were at the conquest, commanded by Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother to the duke, who, most probably, was indebted to this near degree of relationship for soproud a mark of distinction. The family of Néel did not retain muchlonger possession of St. Sauveur: the lord of the castle died in 1092, leaving only a daughter, named Lætitia, who married Jourdain Taisson, orTesson, and brought to him these possessions as her dowry. After theexpiration of about a century, a similar event deprived the Taissons ofSt. Sauveur. Jane, the last of that family, formed an alliance with theHarcourts, and with them the lordship remained till the middle of thefourteenth century, when the domains of Géoffroy d'Harcourt wereconfiscated for felony, and the castle would have passed into the handsof a new master, had not the successes of our sovereign, Edward III. Interfered, and stopped the effects of the confiscation. 

History, from this time forward, speaks more decidedly as to thestrength of the fortress: at the time of the battle of Poitiers, Géoffroy d'Harcourt maintained himself here, at the head of a numerousgarrison, composed of troops from England and Navarre, and, not onlybade defiance to the superior force of the French generals, but extendedhis ravages over the whole of Lower Normandy. The abbey of Lessay, andcathedral of Coutances, particularly suffered from his attacks. To thelatter, he had actually laid siege, when a detachment sent against him, by the regent and the states of the kingdom, obliged him to turn hisattention homeward; and his forces were defeated, and himself slain. Thecastle, on this occasion, afforded safe shelter to the fugitives; and, in consequence of Harcourt's death, passing into the hands of the Kingof England, was, by him, supplied with a garrison of four hundred men, under the command of Jehan Lisle, and was almost immediately afterwardsbestowed, by Edward, upon Sir John Chandos, as a reward for his eminentservices. The fortifications, under the care of this able captain, underwent a thorough repair in the year 1360; and it is believed that, upon this occasion, the keep was principally, if not altogether, rebuilt; the same broad square tower, which is now standing, and is theprincipal feature in the ruins. The labor thus bestowed upon St. Sauveur, rendered it one of the principal posts of the duchy. Rymer, bywhom it is repeatedly mentioned, expressly states, that our countrymenmaintained in it a numerous garrison, who, after the battle of Auray, lorded it without restraint over the neighboring parts, and were guiltyof such excesses, that, in 1374, Charles V. Then King of France, wasinduced to send against them a powerful armament, both by sea and land, under Sir John of Vienne, admiral of the kingdom, assisted by all thebarons and knights of Brittany and Normandy. St. Sauveur was, at thattime, in the hands of Sir Aleyne Boxhull, to whom Edward had given it, after the death of Sir John Chandos; but he, himself, was then inEngland; and, according to Froissart[15], he had left there as governora squire, called Carenton, or Katrington, with Sir Thomas Cornet, Johnde Burgh, and the three brothers Maulevriers, with whom there might beabout six score companions, all armed, and ready for defence. Thishandful of men made a long and obstinate resistance, which, at length, terminated in a truce for six weeks, accompanied with a stipulation, that, unless previously relieved, the fortress should be surrenderedupon a certain day of July, 1375. The time came; no relief arrived; andthe French took possession of St. Sauveur; though not without manyremonstrances on the part of the besieged, who contended, that thetreaty of Bruges, which had been signed in the interim by the twosovereigns, and had established a general truce, ought also to have theeffect of superseding all partial treaties. 

Mention is made, upon this occasion, of a considerable sum of money, which was to be paid to the garrison, upon their evacuating the castle. The fact, though unnoticed by Froissart and Holinshed, could not buthave been notorious; for it appears, that John of Vienne assembled thethree states of the province at Bayeux, for the purpose of raising themoney; and Rymer tells us, that the papal legates were appointed by therespective parties, as depositaries, both of the money and the castle, till all the stipulations should be fulfilled. In this circumstance, wefind an explanation of the death of Katrington, on which Holinsheddwells at considerable length, giving a most curious and interestingaccount of the circumstances attending it[16]. Sir John Anneslie, whohad married the niece of Sir John Chandos, and, on that account, claimedthe inheritance of St. Sauveur, with the lands appertaining to thecastle, charged Katrington with treason, in the matter of the surrender;and, after considerable difficulties, prevailed upon King Richard II inthe third year of his reign, to suffer the point to be established bysingle combat. The event of the contest was considered to make good thecharge. According to Holinshed, Katrington, who was a very strong man, while his adversary was much the contrary, was so grievously wounded inthe fight, that he died the following day. Dugdale and Fabian, however, state, that he was dragged to Tyburn, and there hanged for his treason. 

The King of France, upon recovering possession of St. Sauveur, conferredthe lordship upon Bureau de la Riviere, his chamberlain: from him, itpassed, in 1392, into the hands of John Charles, Lord of Evry, who stillheld it in 1417, when our King Henry once more brought it under the swayof the English sceptre. During the succeeding unfortunate reign, thiscastle shared, in 1450, the fate of all the other British possessions inNormandy; and, like most of the rest, it offered but a feeble resistanceto the victorious arms of France. A few days' siege was sufficient toinduce its garrison, of two hundred men, to surrender, what thecontemporary historians admit to have been one of the finest andstrongest places in the duchy. St. Sauveur, from this time, is no longercelebrated in history, as a fortress; nor, indeed, does it even appearto be mentioned as such, except in the Memoirs of Marshal de Matignon, where a demand is stated to have been made for thirty men to garrisonit. In all probability, the change produced in the art of warfare, bythe introduction of cannon, caused it silently to pass intoinsignificance, and then gradually to sink into its present wretchedstate of dilapidation. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, anhospital was established within its walls; and the same still subsists, but in great poverty, in consequence of the funds having been alienated, or lost, during the revolution. 

Of the ancient fortifications of the castle, the greater part exists, either entire, or sufficiently so to be traced. The most important ofall, the keep, is perfect in its exterior, but has been so completelygutted within, that the original situation of the floors and beams isnot to be discovered without difficulty. The two ballia likewise remain:the larger, which defended the keep; the lesser, in the form of acrescent, designed to oppose the approach of an enemy on the side of thetown. Towards the north, the small river, the Ouve, formed a naturaldefence. On the south, are still to be seen two gates, of which, thatleading to the dungeon was considerably the stronger. It was defended bythe works, commonly employed from the fourteenth to the sixteenthcentury, for the protection of the entrances to fortresses; and, underit, there yet remain, on either side, freestone seats, designed for theguard, capable of containing from fifteen to twenty persons. The restof the outworks, which were many, have now disappeared; but people arestill living in the town, who remember to have seen the fosses filledwith water. At present they are obliterated; and their site is occupiedby houses and gardens. 

The following is a list of the lords of St. Sauveur, from the year 1450, to the revolution. --Charles VII. When first he wrested the castle fromthe English, conferred it, together with its extensive domain, uponAndrew de Villequier, and his heirs male; and it remained in this familytill 1536, when, from default of such heirs, it reverted to the crown, and was kept in the hands of Francis I. And his successors, till 1572. At that time Charles IX. Granted it to Christopher de Bassompierre, fromwhom it passed to Francis de Bassompierre, Marshal of France. In 1612, it again returned to the throne, then filled by Mary of Medicis, widowof Henry IV. Whose son, Louis XIII. Alienated it in 1620, to JohnPhélipeaux de Villesavey, and he held it till 1631. After him, thefamilies of De la Guiche and Géran were, for thirty-eight years, possessors of St. Sauveur. At the expiration of this term, the lordshipbecame once more incorporated in the royal domain, till Louis XIV. In1698, conferred it upon his natural son, the Count of Toulouse, whoseson, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duc de Penthievre, succeeded to it, byinheritance, in 1727. He shortly after gave it, in part of her portion, to his daughter, who married Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orleans, Duc deChartres; and it thenceforward continued in the possession of theOrleans family, till the period of the revolution. 

NOTES:

[14] The author has to express his acknowledgments, and he begs to do itin the strongest terms, to the kindness of M. De Gerville of Valognes, for very many communications towards the furtherance of this work; butparticularly for those relating to the church and abbey of St. Sauveurle Vicomte, which have been so copious, that little has been necessary, but to translate them into English. 

[15] _Johnes' Translation_, octavo edit. IV. P. 268. 

[16] Quarto edit. II. P. 726. 

PLATE XIV. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. SAUVEUR LE VICOMTE. 

(NORTH-EAST VIEW. )

 [Illustration: Plate 14. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. SAUVEUR LE VICOMTE. ]

The remains of the abbey of St. Sauveur le Vicomte, are situated withina very short distance of the castle of the same name, in the departmentof La Manche, near the western extremity of Normandy, about eighteenmiles south of Valognes, and fifty north of Coutances. The addition ofthe term _Vicomte_, to the appellation of this domain, may have beenowing to a two-fold cause;--to denote the importance of its possessor, and to distinguish the monastery from other religious establishments inthe duchy, also dedicated to the Holy Savior, especially from thenunnery of St. Sauveur, at Evreux. 

It has been necessary, under the preceding article, briefly to allude tothe establishment of this convent, which took its rise from thecollegiate church, founded in the year 998, in the castle of St. Sauveur, by Richard Néel, the second viscount; a foundation, which, onlyfifty years afterwards, was suppressed, and replaced by a society ofBenedictines from Jumieges. Changes of this description were by no meansunfrequent in those unsettled times: indeed, regarding the character ofthe chieftains and the clergy, it is rather matter of surprise, thatthey did not occur more commonly; and greater astonishment may beentertained at the Viscount of St. Sauveur having suffered a body ofmen, naturally imperious, and necessarily guided by interests differentfrom his own, to remain about a century under his roof, than to find himafterwards removing them to the spot which they subsequently continuedto occupy. The original charter, granted by Néel to the monks fromJumieges, is preserved among the documents in the _Gallia Christiana_. His brother, Roger, is said to have superintended the erection of thenew monastery, in which pious task, he was assisted by Lætitia, hisniece, sole heiress of Néel, and now married to Jourdain Taisson, whohad, in her right, become lord of St. Sauveur. This Jourdain, with hiswife, and their three sons, was present at the dedication of the church;so that the building of it may safely be referred to the early part ofthe twelfth century. M. De Gerville, upon the authority of the Memoirsof the Harcourt Family, states, that some of these latter also assistedin the construction; and yet he is unwilling to admit that any portionof it was erected in the following century, when the Harcourts becamepossessed of the domain. He contends, that "the whole style of thebuilding indicates a period approaching the year 1100; at which time thestruggle existed between the pointed and the semi-circulararchitecture. " Setting aside the long-contested question concerning thedate of the introduction of the pointed arch, I cannot help, for my ownpart, suspecting, that the Lady-Chapel was a subsequent erection, and, probably, of the æra of the Harcourts. Its narrow trefoil-headed windowsabove, and the plainer ones below, seem decisively to indicate such aperiod; and the deep buttresses afford another, not less positive, mark. The lower part of this portion of the church, exhibits an architecturalpeculiarity deserving of notice: the wall is considerably widest, whereit unites with the ground; after which, it gradually decreases in size, by successive tiers, for a few feet upwards, and then it risesperpendicularly. 

What remains of the western portal, is of the earlier style. It wasentered by a semi-circular arch, bordered by a fillet of the nail-headmoulding. In the nave, the lower arches, with the columns and theircapitals, as well as the false row of arches in the triforium, arewholly Norman; while the windows of the clerestory and theiraccompanying ornaments, are as completely gothic. The transepts and thechoir shew a similar medley. 

The Harcourts, who held St. Sauveur till the middle of the fourteenthcentury, bestowed much pains upon the preservation of the abbey; but thelast of this noble family was scarcely dead, when the convent wasexposed to all the calamities of war. It was repeatedly pillaged by thecontending parties, and was finally almost destroyed by the orders ofKing Edward III. Who foreseeing, from the unfortunate complexion ofaffairs, that the French would be likely soon to besiege the castle, wasdesirous at least to deprive them of the advantage they might derivefrom having possession of the monastery. The heterogeneous character ofthe architecture of the church, is attributable to the injuries receivedon this occasion, and to those inflicted during the wars in thefollowing century. The lower portion of the building, most probably, remained for a considerable length of time in the same ruined andneglected state in which it had been left after the execution of theorders of Edward III. ; the clerestory and arches above, were not addedtill the return of a tranquil æra. 

Indeed, it is matter of historical notoriety, that the finances of themonastery were, at this period, in the same state of dilapidation as thewalls; insomuch, that Thomas du Bigard, who was elected abbot in 1376, and held the post for fourteen years, lay all that time under a papalinterdict for the non-payment of his annats; nor did his successor, Denis Loquet, venture to accept the crozier, till he had made a journeyto Avignon, and obtained, from Clement VII. The remission of what wasdue, as well on the election of his predecessor, as on his own. In 1422, the official of Valognes was charged by the three states of Normandy, assembled at Vernon, with the consent of the Duke of Bedford, to makeinquiry into the losses sustained by the abbey. His report upon thesubject is a curious historical document, little known, and, unfortunately, nearly twenty feet long. M. De Gerville has kindlysupplied the following extracts from it. "Sylvester de la Cervelle, Yvonde Galles, and Bertrand de Glesquin, were, with the admiral, John deVienne, in command of the army, at the siege of the castle of St. Sauveur, A. D. 1375. --The English had, previously to the siege, destroyedthe abbey and the adjacent buildings, lest their enemies shouldestablish themselves there, and annoy them. --The monks of St. Sauveurhad, at first, taken refuge in the abbey of the Vow, near Cherbourg, andafterwards in Jersey, where the convent had some property: certain amongthem had also retired to foreign monasteries, there to seek asubsistence, which their own could no longer afford them. --At theirreturn, the abbot and the clergy found their buildings destroyed; and, at the period of the inquisition, notwithstanding all their efforts andthe money they could raise, they were still obliged to celebrate divineservice in the refectory. --The monks and abbot, who had sought shelterat Jersey, had been obliged to quit that retreat, because the King ofEngland put their property there under sequestration. --Those whoreturned first to the monastery, built themselves sheds against a wall, and there made a fire to dress, their victuals, while, forlodging-places, they had recourse to some vaults that were stillleft. --So great was their poverty, that it is stated by one of thewitnesses, in his deposition, that they had not wherewithal to buy_peciam mutonis vel aliarum carnium_. --Another deposes that, during thesiege, the French fired with such violence at one of the towers, that itwas destroyed, _fueruntque combustæ novæ campanæ, quarum una habebatocto buccellos ad mensuram Sti. Salvatoris_. "

After the final expulsion of the English, John Caillot, who wasappointed abbot in 1451, "rebuilt, " to use the words of the _GalliaChristiana_, the monastery destroyed by our countrymen; and the creditmust be given him of having endeavoured to make his additions in a styleconformable to the original. But the difference in the workmanship isobvious to the eye; and various ornaments have been added, inconsistentwith the simplicity of early times. 

The length of the church was about two hundred French feet. --A list offorty-three abbots is given in the _Gallia Christiana_;[17] and, fromthe time of the publication of that work, till the breaking out of therevolution, there were two others, of whom M. De Nicolai was the last. 

NOTES:

[17] XI. P. 923. 

PLATE XV. 

HOUSE AT GREAT ANDELYS. 

 [Illustration: Plate 15. GREAT HOUSE. _Andelys. _]

About forty miles, in a south-westerly direction from Rouen, upon theright bank of the Seine, and on the western frontiers of the ancientduchy of Normandy, stands the town of Great Andelys, so called, not byreason of its own positive magnitude, but to distinguish it from avillage of the same name, situated in its immediate vicinity. 

In early times, few places could boast to a greater degree than Andelys, "the odor of sanctity. " It was indebted for its celebrity, and, probablyalso, for its existence, to a nunnery, founded here by St. Clotilda, which, in the seventh century, the time of the venerable Bede, enjoyedthe highest reputation. But its fame was short-lived: it fell during theincursions of the Normans, and, unlike most others, seems to havepossessed none of the phoenix-power of reviviscence. In its place, aroseafterwards, a collegiate church, which M. De Harlay, Archbishop ofRouen, by a formal act, dated 1634, honored with the title of firstcollegiate church of the diocese. The distinction, thus obtained, wasdue not only to its antiquity, but to the unusual number of itsecclesiastics, particularly those who composed its chapter. 

Though St. Clotilda's convent, however, was destroyed, the inhabitantsof Andelys continued to enjoy her especial protection. The church wasunder her invocation; but her favor was more eminently vouchsafed to anancient chapel and an adjacent fountain, both of which bore her name. The latter was, from the earliest times, celebrated for its miraculousqualities in the cure of various disorders; and it continues to be so tothe present day. St. Clotilda, at the period of the erection of themonastery, turned its waters into wine, for the benefit of the faintingworkmen. The clergy of Andelys, in commemoration of the miracle, usedannually, before the revolution, upon the return of her festival, topour large pitchers of wine into the spring. During the revolutionaryfervor, St. Clotilda, together with the rest of the Romish hierarchy, lost her credit in France. She is now rapidly recovering it: miraclesare again wrought at her shrine; and, in all probability, the time isnot far distant, when the belief will be as strong, the processions assplendid, the throng of votaries as great, and the cures as certain, asever. It is only to be hoped, that the good sense and the superiormorality of the age, may prevent the recurrence of those indecent andscandalous scenes, which, we are told by eye-witnesses, were formerlytoo often practised on the occasion. Human nature must be strangelyaltered, before the mind of man will cease to prefer the surfeit ofsuperstition, to the wholesome diet of sound religion: no one, but afool or a rogue, would ever advise it to have recourse to the starvationof infidelity. 

At the close of the eleventh century, Andelys appears with somehistorical notoriety, in the well-known exchange made between RichardCoeur-de-Lion and Walter, Archbishop of Rouen; when the king, desirous, as he states, to prevent the incursions of the enemy into his duchy, purchased of the prelate the town and manor of Andelys, by the cessionof the towns of Dieppe, Bouteilles and Louviers, together with theforest of Aliermont, and the mills of Rouen. The bargain was a hardone; but the erection of Château Gaillard, in the immediate vicinity ofAndelys, proved the correctness of the monarch's views. A subsequenttreaty, [18] executed in the year 1200, between King John and the samearchbishop, confirmed the exchange. 

In modern times, Andelys has been celebrated on no other account, thanas the birth-place of Poussin and Adrian Turnebus, and as theburial-place of Corneille. 

The _Great House_ at Andelys, the subject of the plate, existed in 1818, as it is here represented, shorn, indeed, of much of its ancientsplendor, reduced from the residence of a nobleman to a granary, andmost probably curtailed of full two-thirds of its size, as retainingapparently little more than that portion of the square which fronted thecourt-yard, together with a small part of one of its wings. It can now(in 1821) only be spoken of as a building that did exist: last year sawit levelled with the ground. The following description of it istranscribed from Mr. Turner's _Tour in Normandy_:[19] "Andelys possessesa valuable specimen of ancient domestic architecture. The _Great House_is a most sumptuous mansion, evidently of the age of Francis I. ; but Icould gain no account of its former occupants or history. I must againborrow from my friend's vocabulary, and say, that it is built in the'Burgundian style. ' In its general outline and character, it resemblesthe house in the _Place de la Pucelle_, at Rouen. Its walls, indeed, arenot covered with the same profusion of sculpture: yet, perhaps, itssimplicity is accompanied by greater elegance. --The windows are disposedin three divisions, formed by slender buttresses, which run up to theroof. They are square-headed, and divided by a mullion and transom. --Theportal is in the centre: it is formed by a Tudor arch, enriched withdeep mouldings, and surmounted by a lofty ogee, ending with a crocketedpinnacle, which transfixes the cornice immediately above, as well as inthe sill of the window, and then unites with the mullion of thelatter. --The roof takes a very high pitch. --A figured cornice, uponwhich it rests, is boldly sculptured with foliage. --The chimneys areornamented by angular buttresses. --All these portions of the buildingassimilate more or less to our Gothic architecture of the sixteenthcentury; but a most magnificent oriel window, which fills the whole ofthe space between the centre and the left-hand divisions, is a specimenof pointed architecture in its best and purest style. The arches arelofty and acute. Each angle is formed by a double buttress, and thetabernacles affixed to these are filled with statues. The basement ofthe oriel, which projects from the flat wall of the house, after thefashion of a bartizan, is divided into compartments, studded withmedallions, and intermixed with tracery of great variety and beauty. Oneither side of the bay, there are flying buttresses of elaboratesculpture, spreading along the wall. --As, comparatively speaking, goodmodels of ancient domestic architecture are very rare, I wouldparticularly recommend this at Andelys to the notice of every architect, whom chance may conduct to Normandy. --This building, like too manyothers of the same class in our own counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, isdegraded from its station. The _great house_ is used merely as agranary, though, by a very small expense, it might be put into habitablerepair. The stone retains its clear and polished surface; and the massytimbers are undecayed. --The inside corresponds with the exterior, indecorations and grandeur: the chimney pieces are large and elaborate, and there is abundance of sculpture on the ceilings and other partswhich admit of ornament. "

NOTES:

[18] Copies of both these instruments are preserved in the _GalliaChristiana_, XI. _Inst. _ pp. 27 and 30. 

[19] II. P. 55. --In a note to this passage, Mr. Turner states anintention, on the part of Mr. Cotman, to devote a second plate to thisbuilding, for the purpose of doing more justice to the beauty andelaborate decorations of the oriel window; and it is very much to bedesired that such should be the case; but it is feared that the numberand importance of other subjects, will prevent the intention from beingrealized. 

PLATE XVI. 

CHURCH OF THAN. 

(ELEVATION AND DETAILS. )

 [Illustration: Plate 16. CHURCH OF THAN. _Elevation and details. _]

The small village of Than lies about ten miles distant from Caen, in anorth-easterly direction, in a valley washed by the diminutive stream, the Meu, a little to the north of the road which leads to Bayeux. Of its"short and simple annals, " few have come to the knowledge of the writerof this article; and for those few, he is wholly indebted to thekindness of M. De Gerville, who, last year, discovered at Mortain thebook containing the charters of the abbey of Savigny, many of which makemention of the church of Than. The following is an extract from the mostimportant among them: the deed itself is without a date, but is clearlyof the time of Henry I. Its being anterior to 1135, is distinctly provedby the title of Earl of Mortain, which it gives to Stephen ofBlois. --"In nomine Ste et individue trinitatis, notum sit universis tampresentibus quam futuris, qd. Ego Guillelmus de Sto Claro, concedenteHamone fratre meo et cis, dono et concedo in perpetuam elimosinam ecclieSte trinitatis de Savigneio et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus totampossessionem de Thaun, quam ego et antecessores mei, sive in terradominica sive in hominibus sive in quibuslibet aliis rebus, unquamhabuimus omnino quietam, ab omni consuetudine absolutam, perpetuo jureab eadem ecclesia possidendam. Predictam autem donacionem concessit etab omnib. Consuetudinibus absolutam confirmavit Stephanus ComesMoritonii, ad cujus feodum predicta possessio pertinet, &c. "--Inaddition to the information contained in the above charter, there isonly to be added, that Cardinal Le Moine, when dean of Bayeux, at theclose of the thirteenth century, founded here a chapel, dedicated to St. John; and that a lord of Than was among the companions of the Conquerorin his descent upon England. 

The church has been selected by Mr. Cotman as a specimen of a religiousedifice in the true Norman style, unaltered, and also uninjured, exceptby the loss of the southern aisle; and the removal of this is so farfortunate, as it affords an opportunity of shewing the form anddisposition of the columns and arches of the nave, seen, as they are, inthe lower part of the left-hand side of the plate, imbedded in themodern wall, which now constitutes the exterior of the building. Subjects like this, however necessary for a work expressly devoted toarchitectural antiquities, obviously afford no room for picturesquebeauty, or for an attempt, on the part of the artist, to produce what iscalled _effect_. Horace's line is altogether applicable to them, that

 "Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri. "

The great hope to be entertained is, that they may be renderedintelligible; and this, it is trusted, will be effected by means of thefollowing references; though the multitude of parts that it seemednecessary to introduce, may have given rise to an appearance ofconfusion, which the author could only have avoided, by subjecting hissubscribers to the expense of an additional plate. 

 * * * * *

A. A. A. _Elevation of the tower, nave, and chancel. _

The roof of the tower is of stone; and the angles are faced with slendercylindrical columns, as in the part below, terminating, in bothinstances, in little hooks, beneath which, the pillars are banded to thepart adjoining. This kind of termination, or, as it might almost bedenominated, decoration, is in itself remarkable, and perhaps unique;but it is rendered considerably more interesting, if regarded as theprobable origin of the crocket, one of the most distinguished ornamentsin the decorated style of pointed architecture. The date of theintroduction of the crocket, and the source whence it sprung, have beenthe subject of many inquiries among antiquaries: neither Mr Cotman, northe writer of these remarks, recollects to have seen any other approachto it in Norman buildings; though the towers of many churches in LowerNormandy are capped with stone roofs of similar form, and of undoubtedantiquity. Such, in particular, are those of Haute Allemagne, of BasseAllemagne, and of St. Michel de Vaucelles, at Caen: such also is theroof at the east end of the church of St. Nicholas, in the same town;and, in the three last-mentioned specimens, the angles are edged withthe same small pillars by way of moulding. 

It is farther to be observed of this church, that the windows of thetower are simple, bold, and, for the elegance of their proportions, scarcely to be surpassed by those of any other Norman building; that thecapitals of the pillars throughout the church are destitute ofsculpture; and that the walls of the clerestory are altogether withoutbuttresses. This last peculiarity is likewise observable in the nave ofthe church at Tollevast, an edifice of the plainest and earliestarchitecture. At Than, the clerestory is externally decorated withtwenty-nine arches, of which every sixth (reckoning from the westward, )is narrower than the rest, and is pierced with a window. The surface ofthe blank ones is cut into squares, which are alternately depressed. Onthe corbels are not only represented grotesque heads, but some of thesimplest heraldic charges, as the chief, chief indented, pale, bend, bendlets undy, fess, saltier, crosses of various kinds, chevron, &c. Such ordinaries occasionally occur in similar situations on other Normanreligious edifices, but only on the most ancient. They are to be seen atTollevast, Martinvast, the church of St. Croix at St. Lo, St. Matthieu, and Octeville. At St. Matthieu, they are found in conjunction with othersculptures, fit only for a temple dedicated to Priapus; and atOcteville, with what is probably the earliest representation of theLord's Supper, that is known to exist from the hand of a Norman artist. 

B. _Elevation of the west front. _

The lower part of the door-way is considerably sunk in the ground. 

C. _Elevation of the east end. _

The irregularity of the architecture of this part of the buildingrequires to be noticed. In the two lower compartments, the southernportion is left quite plain, while the northern is decorated with adouble tier of arches, very much resembling those which still exist inthe outer wall of the chancel, and which, most probably, were originallycontinued along the wall of the nave that is now destroyed. The broadshallow buttress which divides the east end into two parts, is notplaced in the centre. Here, and indeed throughout the building, eachsmall arch is hewn out of a single block of stone. One of the upper onesin this front, is surmounted with a broad square band, made in theimitation of a drip-stone, composed of quatrefoils, of a form not knownto exist in Norman architecture, though of common occurrence in thesucceeding style. 

D. _Portion of the clerestory in the nave. _

E. _Portion of the clerestory in the chancel. _

F. _Capital and part of the arch of the western door-way. _

G. G. G. _String-mouldings. _

PLATE XVII. 

CHURCH OF TAMERVILLE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 17. CHURCH OF TAMERVILLE. ]

This church is situated at the distance of half a league from the townof Valognes, near the road which leads to Barfleur and La Hougue. 

The whole building is ancient, with the exception of the western portaland a chapel to the north of the choir. Its general style ofarchitecture, the columns which support the tower, the buttresses, thecorbels, and the small windows of the nave, especially those frontingthe north, are all indicative of a production of the early days ofNorman rule, and, probably, of the period immediately preceding thedescent upon England. This period of comparative peace and tranquillitywas a time, when, to use the language of two nearly contemporaryhistorians, "the noblemen of Normandy emulated each other in erectingchurches upon their domains: they thus filled their continentalterritory; and they shortly afterwards did the same in England. "

The steeple represented in the plate is in excellent preservation: it isof beautiful proportions; and, to an architect, is peculiarlyinteresting for the cylindrical buttress, which runs nearly to the topof the first story on the southern side, and is probably the onlyinstance of the kind known to exist. [20] To an English antiquary, however, it may be allowed to have a claim to greater interest, onaccount of its general shape and proportions. In these respects itforcibly recalls the round-towered churches of Norfolk and Suffolk, mostof them surmounted by octagonal lanterns. Two of the churches of theformer county, those at Toft-Monks, and at Bokenham, [21] preserve theoctagonal shape down to the ground; but, in both instances, it is inconjunction with early pointed architecture; and the church ofTamerville, it is feared, would not be of itself sufficient, as being aninsulated specimen, to justify the assigning of a Norman origin to thosejust mentioned. No churches with round towers have yet come under theauthor's knowledge in Normandy; and yet they might certainly have beenexpected in the duchy, if there be any truth in the tradition whichascribes those in England to the Danes. On the other hand, supposingsuch report to be altogether void of foundation, it seems quiteunaccountable that not one of them probably exists, which does notretain some traces of Norman architecture. 

In early times, the barons of this great province seldom, if ever, useda family name. Like the chieftains of the Scottish clans of our owndays, they generally adopted for their surname, that of their parish orfief. The fief or manor of Tamerville had, from before the conquest, borne the appellation of Cyfrevast, or Sifrevast, (Sifredi Vassum;) anddown to the period of the revolution, the possessors of that fief werepatrons of the advowson of the parochial church. One of them, and, probably, the very one who built the church now standing, followed theConqueror into England, and obtained from him considerable grants inOxfordshire and in Dorsetshire. In the latter county, the familycontinued long to flourish. Hutchins states, that the branch of them, established at More-Crichel, bore for their arms, _argent, three barsgemels azure_; and he quotes the epitaph of one of them, who died in1581, from which the following is an extract:--

 "Intombed here one Cyfrevast does lie, Whom nature caused by death to yealde his due. 

 . . . . . . . 

 Lord of More-Crichel was he by ---- _Three hundred yeares possessed by line and descent. _"

Another of the same family, named John Cyfrevast, representedDorsetshire in parliament, during the seventh, sixteenth, and eighteenthyears of Edward II. ; and Robert Cyfrevast had the same honor in theeighteenth and twentieth years of the following reign. About 1424, thefief of Chiffrevast at Tamerville, passed, by marriage, into the houseof Anneville, which had also supplied a companion to the Conqueror; andthis family continued to possess it till the moment of the revolution, the epoch of the abolition of all feudal rights. 

In the burial-ground at Tamerville, have been found many coffins made ofvolcanic tuff: similar ones are by no means of unfrequent occurrencethroughout the diocese of Coutances; but they are never met with, exceptin places which were formerly held in particular veneration. 

NOTES:

[20] The reader will observe, that this pillar is probably imperfect;for that there seems reason to believe, that it was originallysurmounted by a capital, which united with the moulding above. 

[21] See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk_, plate 37. 

PLATES XVIII. AND XIX. 

CHURCH OF ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES, AT CAEN. 

(CENTRAL TOWER AND NORTH PORCH. )

 [Illustration: Plate 18. TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES, CAEN. ]

The Abbé De la Rue, in his excellent publication upon the town ofCaen, [22] does not furnish the satisfactory information which might havebeen hoped, relative to the date of the erection of the church of St. Michael, in the suburb of Vaucelles. He contents himself withobserving, [23] that it is a work of different æras: that the tower andits supporting pillars belong to a primitive church, of which no accountremains; that a part of the nave may be seen, from the circular form ofthe arches having been obviously altered into pointed, to have belongedto the same church; that the choir was raised and increased during thesixteenth century; that the aisles are partly of the same century, andpartly of the preceding; and that the other portion of the nave and thenew tower, are productions of our own days. 

In all this there is nothing definite; and, unfortunately, our knowledgeof Norman architecture is not such as will justify us in attempting tofix precise æras to the different specimens which are left us of it. Asfar, however, as it may be allowed to judge from corresponding edifices, Mr. Turner seems correct in his opinion, that "the circular-headedarches in the short square tower, and in a small round turret which isattached to it, are _early Norman_. "[24] He subjoins the observation, that "they are remarkable for their proportions, being as long and asnarrow as the lancet-windows of the following æra. " The conicalstone-roofed pyramid is, with the exception of its lucarne windows, mostprobably of the same date. With regard to the porch, [25] the subject ofthe _nineteenth plate_, its general resemblance in style to the southernporch of the church of St. Ouen, and its having, like that, its innerarchivolt fringed with pendant trefoils, are circumstances that havelikewise been pointed out in the work just referred to. Both porches mayprobably be of nearly the same date, the latter part of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century. Caen, but a short time before therevolution, contained another very similar architectural specimen in thewestern portal of the church of St. Sauveur du Marché, [26] now replacedby an entrance altogether modern. The nave of the church of St. Sauveurwas built, according to De la Rue, in the fourteenth century; and it mayfairly be inferred, that the portal was also of the same date; but thisporch wanted the pendant trefoils, and was altogether less ornamentedthan that of St. Michael, as the latter was than that at Rouen. Boththose at Caen, however, agreed in the wall above the arch rising into atriangular gable covered with waving tracery, a very peculiar, and avery beautiful style of decoration. 

 [Illustration: Plate 19. CHURCH OF ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES, CAEN. _North Porch. _]

Vaucelles is at this time the largest of the five parishes that composethe suburbs of Caen. It is separated from the town by the great canal ofthe Orne, the formation of which has somewhat circumscribed its limits;for these formerly extended into the Rue St. Jean, and included thehospital, called the Hôtel Dieu, as well as that which derives its namefrom the Conqueror. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, thepresentation to the living of Vaucelles lay alternately between the tworoyal abbeys of Caen. Queen Matilda, previously to the year 1066, purchased a moiety of the patronage and of the tythes, together with amill at Montaigu, and gave them to her abbey of the Trinity; and abouteleven years afterwards, Ralph, the curate of Vaucelles, the hereditaryproprietor of the other half, ceded his share to the abbey of St. Stephen, on condition of being himself received into that monastery. Thelatter establishment, within less than one hundred and fifty years, obtained the exclusive patronage, upon the consideration of their makingthe nuns an annual payment of twenty sols, and ninety-six bushels ofbarley. 

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the parish of Vaucelles was inthe hands of lords of its own; among whom, the most conspicuous were theFitz-Herberts. An illegitimate son of Prince Henry, afterwards Henry I. By a daughter of Robert Corbet, was the origin of this family. To hisown name, Herbert, he added that of Fitz-Henry: his sons becameFitz-Herberts; and each of their descendants, in every successivegeneration, commonly adopted the baptismal appellation of his respectivefather, by way of a family name; till, towards the close of thethirteenth century, the whole of them agreed upon Fitz-Herbert as apatronymic. Their possessions were extensive in Caen and theneighborhood; and the records of those early times make frequent mentionof their riches and liberality. Thus, according to the Abbé De la Rue, from whom these historical particulars are derived, this noble family, still represented in our own country by the Earls of Pembroke, was notonly derived from the town of Caen, but had an origin different fromwhat is assigned to it by Dugdale, Collins, and Edmondson. [27] The firstof the family noticed in England, appears to have lived in the time ofKing Stephen. In 1302, Vaucelles seems to have become exempt from allfeudal conditions. It was in that year, that Philip le Bel sent Williamde Gilly to Caen, to liberate his own vassals and those of the lords, and to grant them all the privileges of burghers. 

Among the ministers of this parish, was Roger, one of the mostdistinguished of our British prelates in the time of Norman rule. Thetradition relates, that, during the wars for the succession among theConqueror's sons, Henry, chancing to enter Caen with his small army upona Sunday, stopped to hear mass at the church of Vaucelles; and thatRoger performed the service with such spirit and rapidity, that theofficers were unanimous in their wish that he should accompany the army. The invitation was accordingly given, and the priest consented; and heso completely gained the confidence of the prince, by recommendingeconomy as the surest means of carrying his point, that he was soonappointed superintendant of the finances; and, in 1102, was honored withthe mitre of Salisbury. At a subsequent period, he was createdChancellor of England; and, during the absence of the king in Normandy, constantly filled the high office of regent of the kingdom. William ofMalmesbury, who dwells at much length, and with equal satisfaction, uponhis history, states, that many of our noblest edifices arose from hismunificence. In this respect, his greatest works were at Salisbury andMalmesbury: the former, long since levelled with the ground; the latter, still lovely and venerable in its ruins, and exhibiting, even in ourdays, one of the most noble remains of Norman architecture. 

NOTES:

[22] _Essais Historiques sur la Ville de Caen et son arrondissement. Caen, 1820. _ In 2 vols. 8vo. 

[23] I. P. 279. 

[24] _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 181. 

[25] Over the door-way within this porch is sculptured a figure of St. Michael, in high relief, of apparently the same date as the porch. 

[26] Engraved in _Ducorel's Tour in Normandy_, p. 74. 

[27] See _Bankes' Extinct Baronage_, I. P. 301. 

PLATE XX. 

STATUE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 

The statue here figured, has been introduced into this work altogetheras an historical curiosity; and, though it may seem to be somewhatmisplaced in a publication devoted to the elucidation of theArchitectural Antiquities of Normandy, it is hoped, that a singledeviation, and in favor of such a subject, may not only be deemedadmissible, but may also be acceptable to the reader. 

At the time when De Bourgueville wrote his _Antiquités de la Ville deCaen_, near the close of the sixteenth century, this statue was attachedto the gate adjoining the church of St. Stephen: it has since beentransferred to the wall of the church itself. The worthy old magistratesays of it, that "it represented William the Conqueror on horseback, asif in the act of entering the town, having under the feet of his horsethe figure of the body of a young man; while, before him, are kneeling aman and woman, apparently in the act of demanding explanation respectingthe death of their son. " He adds, that "it is a remarkable piece ofantiquity; but that he can tell nothing more of its history, than isrepresented by the figures. " From the above account, the only oneapparently left us, it is plain how much the statue, or rather group, has suffered in modern times; but at what particular period, or on whatoccasion, is unknown. It is equally plain, that the supposing of it tobe intended to represent the greatest of the dukes who swayed the Normansceptre, is by no means a fiction of the present day. This circumstance, however, and its age likewise, have of late been much disputed. Theleading opinions upon these subjects, have been collected by Mr. Turner, [28] who inclines to think that it is really of the period ofNorman dominion, and was actually designed for Duke William. Heparallels it with a very similar piece of sculpture from thechapter-house of the abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville, [29] aperformance of unquestionable antiquity. His remarks upon the subjectare as follows:--"One of the most learned antiquaries of the presenttime has found a prototype for the supposed figure of the Duke among thesculptures of the Trajan column. But this, with all due deference, isfar from a decisive proof that the statue in question was not intendedfor William. Similar adaptations of the antique model, 'mutato nomine, 'frequently occur among the works of the artists of the middle ages; andthere is at least a possibility that, had the face been left us, wemight have traced some attempt at a portrait of the Norman duke. Uponthe date of the sculpture, or the style of the workmanship, I dare notventure an opinion. There are antiquaries, I know, (and men wellqualified to judge, ) who believe it Roman: I have heard it pronouncedfrom high authority, that it is of the eleventh century; others suspectthat it is Italian, of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries; while M. Le Prevost and M. De Gerville maintain most strenuously that it is notanterior to the fifteenth. De Bourgueville certainly calls it 'uneantiquité de grand remarque;' but we all know that any object which isabove an hundred years old, becomes a piece of antiquity in the eye ofan uncritical observer; and such was the good magistrate. "

 [Illustration: Plate 20. STATUE OF WILLIAM DUKE OF NORMANDY. _South side of the Parish Church of St. Etienne at Caen. _]

The parish of St. Stephen, at Caen, is generally distinguished by theepithet of _the old_, whence an opinion has commonly prevailed, that itschurch was one of those founded by St. Regnobert, in the middle of thefourth century; and that the present edifice, if not actually in partthe same, is at least raised upon its foundations, and is certainly oneof the most ancient in Caen. This belief has been, in a measure, countenanced by De Bourgueville and Huet, relying upon what appears tohave been an inaccurate translation from Robert Cenalis[30] But, on thecontrary, it appears from the Abbé De la Rue, that the author inquestion makes no mention whatever of this parish, and that theappellation was first given it by the Conqueror, by way ofdistinguishing its church from the more sumptuous one erected byhimself, and also dedicated to the protomartyr; a circumstance, fromwhich the Abbé justly observes, that nothing more is to be deduced, thanthat a church existed here anterior to his time; but by no meansnecessarily of great antiquity. The present building is of thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries; a medley of debased Gothic andcorrupted Roman. 

NOTES:

[28] _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 174. 

[29] See plate 11, of this work, right-hand figures in the upper line;see also _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 11, with a figure. 

[30] _Essais Historiques sur Caen_, I. P. 225. 

PLATES XXI. --XXIII. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN. 

(WEST FRONT, AND ELEVATION OF COMPARTMENTS OF THE NAVE. )

 [Illustration: Plates 21-22. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. ETIENNE, CAEN. ]

The two royal Abbeys of Caen, long the pride of the town, while France, not yet revolutionized, suffered them to exist in their glory, and whileher sons felt honored by the monuments of the piety and greatness oftheir ancestors, are still, in their present state of degradation, amongthe most interesting edifices which the province or the kingdom canboast The building and the endowment of them are often mentioned withadmiration by the monastic historians of Normandy, one of whom, Williamof Jumieges, gives the following account of their origin. 

The marriage of Duke William with Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, Count ofFlanders, the son of his father's sister, [31] was within the prohibiteddegrees of consanguinity, and greatly scandalized the clergy of theduchy. They frequently remonstrated with their sovereign upon thesubject, and at length they succeeded so far, that he was induced todispatch ambassadors to Rome, to consult the Pope upon the stepsnecessary to be adopted. His Holiness, prudently considering that adivorce would in all probability be followed by war between the Flemingsand Normans, determined to have recourse to a more pacific expedient;and consented to grant them absolution, upon condition of theirperforming penance. The penance enjoined upon the occasion was theerection of two monasteries; one for the religious of eithersex. --Gratefully, we are told, did the noble pair accept the profferedterms; and instantly did they apply themselves to the fulfilment oftheir task. 

The abbey, undertaken by the Duke, the subject of these plates, isstated by Huet, and authors in general, to have been completed in 1064, two years prior to the conquest of England:[32] according to OrdericusVitalis, it was not dedicated till 1077. But upon this latter pointauthors are not agreed: some say that the dedication took place in 1073;and others, in 1081. However this may be, it seems certain that thefoundation-charter was granted subsequently to the year 1066; for in itWilliam takes the title of king, and among his many princely donationsare enumerated various properties and privileges in different parts ofBritain; decisive proofs that he was at that time in possession of theisland, and considered himself firmly fixed upon its throne. The abbeythus raised, was, during the whole of the monarch's life, honored withhis especial favor; and at his death, he bequeathed it other lands, together with his sceptre, the crown he wore upon occasions of thehighest solemnity, his hand of justice, a cup made of precious stone, his golden candlesticks, and all the royal ornaments which usuallyappertain to the crown. Still further to manifest his gracious regard, he directed that the abbatial church should be the depository of hismortal remains; and that a foundation, so rich in worldly wealth, mightnot lack the more precious possessions of sanctity, he bought, as weare told by the early writers, [33] _at no small price_, a portion of therelics of the proto-martyr, consisting of a part of his arm, which waspreserved in the city of Besançon, and a small phial containing somedrops of blood, averred to have flowed from the same limb. At asubsequent time, the King added to these a lock of the Saint's hair, together with a portion of the skin of his head, and the stone withwhich he was killed. [34] The hair was white, and as fresh as if it hadonly then been severed; and it was kept in a beautiful crystal vessel;so that, to use the words of a contemporary manuscript, "totum fuitpulchrum: capilli albi et pulchri; lapis etiam unde percussus fuitalbus; vas pulchrum et album; et aspicientibus rem adeo pulchram magnamfaciunt admirationem. "

The first abbot of the convent was Lanfranc, a native of Italy, who hadestablished himself in the neighboring monastery of Bec, where the fameof his talents had acquired him a most extensive celebrity; and the zealwith which he had applied himself to the task of education, [35] hadincreased it to a degree, of which, in these days, we have little idea. But he held the pastoral staff only a very short time, for he was, asearly as the year 1070, translated to the more important post ofArchbishop of Canterbury; and it was reserved to his successor, Williamde Bonne Ame, to have the honor of presiding over the community, at theperiod when John of Avranches, Archbishop of Rouen, assisted by hissuffragan bishops, as well as by Lanfranc himself, with Thomas, hisbrother metropolitan, and many abbots, and a wonderful throng of people, performed the ceremony of the dedication. [36]

The Conqueror's sons confirmed the various donations made to the abbeyby their parent. The eldest of them, Robert, his successor in thedukedom, added the privilege of a fair and a weekly market at Cheux. William Rufus, the second, entered into a negociation with the monks, tore-purchase his father's royal ornaments, in exchange for the parish ofCoker, in Somersetshire; but he died before the completion of thetreaty; and this was finally carried into effect by Henry I. With oneonly difference, that Brideton, (now called Burton) in Dorsetshire, wassubstituted for Coker. It was Henry, according to the Abbé De laRue, [37] who raised the superb monument over his father's remains; butOrdericus Vitalis expressly attributes the work to William Rufus. [38]Respecting its splendor, all writers are unanimous: the shrine placedupon the mausoleum, was a "mirificum memoriale, quod ex auro et argentoet gemmis competentèr splenduit. " The care of building the tomb wascommitted to a goldsmith at Caen, of the name of Otto, who had receivedfrom the Conqueror a grant of land in Essex; and whose descendants, under the name of Fitz-Othon, had the principal direction of the Englishmint, till the death of Thomas Fitz-Othon, the last of the family, in1282. 

Henry II. In a very long charter, confirmed the various endowments andprivileges previously bestowed upon the convent, and added others of hisown. From this time forward, it continued to increase in wealth andpower. In the year 1250, its revenues, in Normandy, amounted to fourthousand livres, a sum equivalent to eighty-two thousand and sixteenlivres of the present day. In 1668, when money in France was of abouthalf its present value, the abbot and monks divided an income ofsixty-four thousand and four livres: and in 1774, this income hadswelled to one hundred and ninety-two thousand livres, notwithstandingthe immense losses suffered by the suppression of the alien priories inEngland. Thus an increase had taken place of nearly one hundred and tenthousand livres, in about five hundred and twenty years. Theecclesiastical patronage of the abbey, at the time of the revolution, extended over twelve churches. Its monks, who were of the order of St. Benedict, continued till the year 1663 to belong to the class ofBenedictines, called _unreformed_; but the Duchess of Longueville, wifeof the then abbot, introduced at that period the brethren of thecongregation of St. Maur. 

The privileges and immunities granted to the convent of St. Stephen, aredetailed at considerable length by Du Moustier, [39] who has alsocarefully collected the particulars of the life of Lanfranc, and hasgiven a catalogue, accompanied with short biographical notices, of therest of the abbots. By far the greater number of these were men eminentfor their rank or talents; and some of them were subsequently promotedto higher dignities. William de Bonne Ame, the second abbot, succeededJohn de Bayeux in the metropolitan throne of Rouen; Hugh de Coilly, grandson of King Stephen, after being elected to preside over thismonastery, was almost immediately transferred to the archbishopric ofYork;[40] and Charles de Martigni, abbot of St. Stephen's in thefifteenth century, was successively honored with two episcopal mitres. It was by him that the prelacy was first held _in commendam_, an exampletoo tempting not to be followed; and the abbey, thus constantly gainingin the dignity of its superiors, as constantly lost in their real value. Seven cardinals, (among whom were the celebrated Cardinals of Richelieu, Mazarine and Fleury, ) a natural son of King Henry IV. An archbishop ofLyons, two of Aix, and one of Rouen, were among its most modern abbots. Another of them, John Le Got, [41] was present at the abjuration of HenryIV. In the church of St. Denys, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1593; andby virtue of his office as apostolical prothonotary, subscribed his nameto the letter from the bishops to the Pope, declaring that nothing hadtaken place in the transaction, inconsistent with the reverence due tohis holiness. A list of considerable length might also be made fromamong the monks of the convent, of those who have been ennobled by theirtalents or dignities. 

The monastic buildings appertaining to the Abbey of St. Stephen werebegun in 1704, and completed after a period of twenty-two years. Theyare now attached to the royal College of Caen, to which establishmentthey were appropriated at the revolution; and, provided as they werewith noble gardens, they were an accession of the utmost importance tothe institution. But the value of the gift has, within the ten lastyears, been considerably lessened, by the municipality having robbed thecollege of the greater part of the gardens, for the purpose ofconverting them into an open square. The plan of the buildings wasfurnished by a lay-brother of the Benedictine order, named William De laTremblaye, who also erected those of the sister Convent of the Trinity, at Caen; and those of the Abbey of St. Denis. During the storms of therevolution, the abbatial church happily suffered but little. Fallen, though it be, from its dignity, and degraded to parochial, it stillstands nearly entire. Not indeed as it came from the hands of the Normanarchitect, but as it was left by the Huguenots in the sixteenth century, when, with the violence which marked the transactions of that æra, doors, windows, floors, wood-work, lead, iron, marble, manuscripts, andbooks, were given up to indiscriminate destruction: bells were broken, roofs stripped, altars profaned, the very tombs opened; and, as if nopoint had been gained, so long as aught was suffered to remain, thecentral tower was undermined, in the hope that its fall would involvethe ruin of the whole edifice. And fall, indeed, it did; but happilyonly carried away with it a portion of the eastern end. From thiscircumstance, however, have arisen discrepancies of style, for which itwould be difficult, without such knowledge, to account. The nave and thetransepts are the only pure remains of the original building: the choirand aisles are of pointed architecture, and are, consequently, not ofequal antiquity. Even the western front partakes, in a measure, of thesame mixture. All, to the top of the towers, is genuine Norman, and ofthe eleventh century: the spires, with their surrounding turrets, areof a later æra. [42] At the same time it may reasonably be doubted howfar the Abbé De la Rue is right in ascribing them to the fourteenthcentury. To differ from so able an antiquary and so competent a judge inmatters of this description, is always hazardous; but the author of thisarticle must, nevertheless, be allowed to hesitate before he gives afull assent. It is known that the choir was enlarged, and the apsisbuilt as it now exists, during the prelacy of Simon de Trevieres, whichextended from the year 1316 to 1344; but history is silent as to anyother additions made at that period to the church; and the style of thearchitecture of the spires does certainly appear to be earlier than thatof the parts just mentioned. No argument is to be drawn from the generalaspect of the building; for such is the great excellence of the Caenstone, and so little has it suffered in an atmosphere untainted by coalsmoke, and in a climate probably superior to our own, that all the partsappear to be in equally good preservation, and the whole looks as freshas if but yesterday hewn from the quarry. An opinion has commonlyprevailed, that an epitaph, still visible on the exterior of the apsis, is that of the builder of the church. Facsimiles of it have been givenby Ducarel[43] and Gough, [44] the former of whom seems to have no doubtof the fact. Such, however, cannot be the case; the very shape of thecharacters sufficiently disproves it: they are altogether unlike thoseused on Queen Matilda's tomb, a relic, whose authenticity was nevercalled in question. The character of the architecture of the chapelaffords a still more decisive contradiction. Indeed, after what hasalready been said, it needs scarcely be added, that the building itselfdid not exist at the period assigned by Ducarel to the epitaph, which ismost probably that of the person who erected the apsis, and made theother alterations in the fourteenth century. 

The western front of the church exhibits two different characters:below, all is simple, almost to meanness: the upper part abounds inornament; and here the good sense of the architect, who added thepinnacles and spires, merits commendation, in having made themcorrespond so well in their decorations with the towers. The platesufficiently explains all that is to be said of this part of thebuilding, excepting as to the more minute ornaments of the door-ways, which deserve to be exhibited in detail. The architrave is composed ofseveral bands of the simplest moulding, inclosed within three of adifferent style; the two outermost being formed of the chevron ornament, with its angles unusually acute; the inner, of the billet moulding. Thecapitals of the pillars are studded with small heads, placed under theIonic volute, exhibiting a mixture of classical and barbarous taste, which is likewise to be found at Cérisy, and upon one of the capitals inthe abbey church of the Trinity. 

Along the exterior of the upper part of the nave, runs a row oftwenty-four semi-circular arches, with imposts and bases, and alluniform, except that eight of them are pierced for windows. This portionof the building is entirely without buttresses. Upon the extremity ofthe north transept are three very shallow buttresses, which rise fromthe ground to the bottom of the clerestory windows, unbroken by anyinterruption whatever, but here meet with a string-course, beyond whichthe two outer ones are continued, unchanged in form and appearance, tothe summit of the ends of the gable, while the centre one, though it israised to an equal height, loses more than half its width, and is alsomuch reduced in depth. Over this latter buttress is a window; andbetween the buttresses are six others, arranged in a double row. Eachpair differs in size from the rest: those nearest the ground are thelargest, and those immediately above them the least. The lowest pair oneach side is inclosed within a spacious arch, which occupies nearlytwo-thirds of the gable. Eastward of the transepts is a series of blankintersecting arches, remarkable for their mouldings, which consist of aflat, wide, and very shallow band;[45] and here the mixture of thepointed with the semi-circular architecture commences. This portion ofthe building altogether resembles the cathedral of Coutances in thedisposition of its parts. 

 [Illustration: Plate 23. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. ETIENNE, CAEN. _Elevation of compartment of the Nave. _]

It would be difficult to describe the interior of the church in cleareror more comprehensive terms, than has been done by Mr. Cohen in Mr. Turner's Tour, [46] from which work the following account is, therefore, extracted. --"Without doubt, the architect was conversant with Romanbuildings, though he has Normanized their features, and adapted thelines of the basilica to a _barbaric_ temple. The Coliseum furnished theelevation of the nave;--semi-circular arches surmounted by another tierof equal span, and springing at nearly an equal height from the basis ofthe supporting pillars. The architraves connecting the lower rows ofpillars are distinctly enounced. The arches which rise from them haveplain bold mouldings. The piers between each arch are of considerablewidth. In the centre of each pier is a column, which ascends as usual tothe vault. These columns are alternately simple and compound. The latterare square pilasters, each fronted by a cylindrical column, which ofcourse projects farther into the nave than the simple columns; and thusthe nave is divided into bays. This system is imitated in the gothiccathedral at Sens. The square pilaster ceases at about four-fifths ofits height: then two cylindrical pillars rise from it, so that, fromthat point, the column becomes clustered. Angular brackets, sculpturedwith knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are affixed to the base ofthese derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted moulding is continuedbelow the clerestory, whose windows adapt themselves to the binaryarrangement of the bays. A taller arch is flanked by a smaller one onthe right or the left side, as its situation requires. These aresupported by short massy pillars: an embattled moulding runs round thewindows. --In the choir the arches become pointed, but with Normanmouldings: the apsis is a reconstruction. In that portion of the choirwhich seems original, there are pointed windows formed by theinterlacing of circular arches: these light the gallery. --The effectproduced by the perspective of the interior is lofty and palatial. Theancient masonry of the exterior is worthy of notice. The stones are allsmall, perhaps not exceeding nine or twelve inches: the joints are aboutthree-quarters of an inch. "

To this description, it may be well to add the following particularsconcerning the dimensions of the church, taken from the exterior:--

 FEET. Length from east to west 871 Height of western towers 145 ----------------------- with their spires 262 -------- nave on the western front, to the point of the gable 98 -------- northern transepts 84 Width of ditto 42

It may also not be amiss to observe, that the nave is on either sidedivided into nine compartments, the second and third of which, reckoningfrom the west, on the south side, form the subject of the _twenty-thirdplate_. The rest, though diversified in their ornaments, are uniform intheir plan, except only the one on either side, immediately adjoiningthe entrance: each of these contains a slender shallow arch, not piercedto the transepts, and rising from the pavement nearly to the top of theupper windows. In that part of the church, two peculiarities will notfail to be remarked: the greater width of the arches of the triforium, than that of those below; and the balustrade of quatrefoils, which iscontinued throughout this portion of the building. Immediately uponentering the church, a doubt involuntarily suggests itself, how far thisbalustrade may not be an addition of comparatively modern date. But, upon the whole, there seems no reason to consider it so. Precisely thesame ornament is found upon the tomb of Berengaria, wife to RichardCoeur-de-Lion, which Mr. Stothard has lately figured, and believes to becoeval with the queen whom it commemorates. 

The monument raised to William the Conqueror, in the middle of the choirof this church, was violated and broken to pieces by the Calvinists, andits contents wantonly destroyed, towards the close of the sixteenthcentury. The account of the outrages then committed are given at length, and with great naïveté, as well as feeling, by De Bourgueville, [47] whowas present on the occasion; and they have lately been translated intoEnglish, [48] with the addition of some interesting details thataccompanied the death and funeral of the monarch. Nearly a hundred yearsbefore that time, a cardinal, upon a visit to Caen, had opened the tombthrough curiosity. After the tumults caused by the Huguenots hadsubsided, the monks of the convent, who had gotten possession of one ofthe thigh-bones that had been preserved by the Viscount of Falaise, re-interred it, and, out of gratitude to their founder, raised, in 1642, a new monument of black marble, at great expense. One side of it borethe original metrical epitaph, composed by Thomas, Archbishop of York, beginning with the following line:--

 "Qui rexit rigidos Normannos atque Britannos;"

on the other side, was an inscription[49] commemorative of thecircumstances attendant on the tomb; but this second tomb was also takenaway in 1742, by virtue of an order from Louis XV. Empowering thegovernor of Caen to remove the monarch's remains into the sanctuary, asinterfering, in their original position, with the ceremonies of thechurch. A flat stone, in front of the high altar, succeeded to themonument; and even this, the democrats of 1793 tore up. It was, however, replaced by General Dugua, while Prefect of Caen, and it still holds itssituation. [50] There are no other monuments of any kind in the church. 

Extensive buildings were attached to the abbey of St. Stephen; and, among the rest, what was generally supposed to have been a royal palace, and passed commonly under the name of the Palace of the Conqueror. Asevery thing connected with the abbey was naturally referred by thepublic to that sovereign, it will not appear surprising that thisedifice was so likewise, however little ground there may have been forthe appellation. Its having been called a palace, arose probably fromthe circumstance of the French monarchs always residing in thismonastery, during their visits to Caen. The names of St. Louis, of John, of Henry V. And of Francis I. Are to be found in the list of those whohonored it with their presence. The greater part of the palatialbuildings were destroyed by the Huguenots; but portions of them werestanding in 1752, when Ducarel made his tour in Normandy; and he hasfigured them. Among these was the most interesting part of the whole, the great hall, the place in which the States of Normandy used toassemble, as often as they were convened at Caen; and where theExchequer repeatedly held its sittings, after the recapture of Normandy, by the kings of France, from its ancient dukes. This hall even escapedthe fury of revolutionists as well as Calvinists; but it was in the year1802 altered by General Caffarelli, the then prefect, into rooms for thecollege; and its superb painted windows were destroyed, together withits pavement of glazed tiles, charged with heraldic bearings. The tileshave long afforded scope for the learning and ingenuity of antiquaries, some of whom have believed them coeval with the Conqueror; while others, who hesitate about going quite so far, have regarded them as bearing thearms of his companions. In the _Gallia Christiana_, the placing of themis attributed to Robert de Chambray, who is there stated to have beenabbot from 1385 to 1393, a fact which the Abbé De la Rue utterlydisbelieves. He, however, is of opinion, that the tiles are of nearlythe same date, or a little earlier; and he considers them as belongingto the families who had supplied abbots and monks to the convent. 

NOTES:

[31] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, pp. 277 and 282. 

[32] So says Huet, in his _Origines de Caen_, p. 175, upon the authorityof the Chronicle of the _Abbey of Bec_; and no attempt was made tocontrovert this fact, till the recent publication of the Abbé De laRue's _Essais Historiques_, in which it is attempted to be proved, fromvarious indirect testimonies, that the building could not have beenfinished till after the year 1070; indeed, that it could not even havebeen begun at the time fixed by Huet for its completion, inasmuch as thefoundation charter, which must be of a date posterior to 1066, uses thefollowing expression. --"Ego Guillelmus, Anglorum Rex, Normannorum etCoenomanorum princeps, Coenobium in honorem Dei ac Beatissimiprothomartyris Stephani, intra Burgum, quem vulgari nomine vocant, Cadomum, pro salute animæ meæ, uxoris, filiorum ac parentum meorum, _disposui construendum_. "

[33] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 639. 

[34] Dom Blanchard, a Benedictine Monk, who left an unpublished historyof this monastery, says, "that the Conqueror obtained about the sametime from Constantinople, St. Stephen's skull; and that the translationof it into the abbatial church was celebrated by an annual festival onthe eighth of October. " The Cathedral of Soissons boasted of thepossession of the same relic; and of having also procured it fromConstantinople. --"Too much confidence, " it is prudently observed by acatholic writer on this subject, "must not be placed in the authenticityof those relics, which cannot be traced to the date of St. Gregory ofTours, the sixth century!"

[35] Lanfranc, after having for some time directed at Bec the firstschool ever established in Normandy, upon his translation to Caen, opened another in that town. In the _Lives of the Abbots of Bec_, written in latin verse, in the twelfth century, by Peter, a monk of theconvent of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, particular honor is given to Lanfrancon the subject of his school at Caen, which had produced many meneminent for their proficiency in sacred and secular literature, and wasat that time flourishing. The Abbé De la Rue gives a long list of them. _Essais Historiques_, II. P. 70. 

[36] _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni_, p. 549. 

[37] _Essais Historiques_, II. P. 64. 

[38] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 663. 

[39] _Neustria Pia_, p. 640. 

[40] _Gallia Christiana_, II. P. 425. 

[41] His name is not to be found in the list of abbots given in the_Neustria Pia_; but the authors of the _Gallia Christiana_ say, (XI. P. 480, ) "that he was nominated to the prelacy upon the resignation of thethirty-fourth abbot, Charles d'O, and was confirmed in it by the Statesof Blois. It is admitted, however, that, notwithstanding his appointmentin 1596, his predecessor continued to receive the emoluments of theoffice, till 1624, and enjoyed a large pension arising from them, tillhis death, in 1627. "

[42] In speaking of these, the Abbé De la Rue takes occasion to lay downa general rule, (_Essais Historiques_, II. P. 61) that "on ne trouveordinairement en Normandie, que des arcades semi-circulaires dans lesXe. XIe. Et XIIe. Siècles; au contraire, les arcades en pointes desnefs, des fenêtres et des portes des églises, autrement les arcades enogive, n'ont eu lieu chez nous que dans le XIIIe. Siècle et les suivans. On trouve également ces deux styles en Angleterre et aux mêmes époques, et leur différence est une des principales règles qui servent auxantiquaires Anglois, pour discerner les constructions Normandes etAnglo-Normandes, des constructions d'un autre genre. "--But Mr. Turner, in his inquiries respecting the former cathedral of Lisieux, (_Tour inNormandy_, II. P. 131) appears to have proved that the pointed arch musthave had existence at a considerably earlier period in France; and it isexpected, that some instances which will be adduced in the sequel of thework, will have the effect of confirming his opinion. 

[43] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 57. 

[44] _Sepulchral Monuments_, I. P. 247, t. 30. --The epitaph, which, inthe original, is full of contractions, it is supposed by the Abbé De laRue, should be read as follows:--

 "Guillelmus jacet hic, petrarum summus in arte: Iste novum perfecit opus; det premia Christus. Amen. "

[45] A similar row of arches is found on the north transept of NorwichCathedral, between the first and second tier of windows. --See _Britton'sNorwich Cathedral_, plate 10. 

[46] II. P. 195. 

[47] _Antiquités de Caen_, p. 171. 

[48] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 203. 

[49] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 656. 

[50] The inscription upon it, which details the various events that hadbefallen the tomb, is given in _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 197. 

PLATES XXIV. --XXXIII. 

ABBEY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, AT CAEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 24. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, CAEN. _West front. _]

Mention has already been made, under the preceding subject, of theorigin of the convent of the Holy Trinity, whose church, though not anequally extensive building as that of the monastery of St. Stephen, isinfinitely more rich in its decorations, and has been left almostentirely in its original form. A more perfect example of a Normanabbatial church, is perhaps no where to be found; and, as this edificehad the farther advantage of having been raised at the period when theprovince was at the acme of its power, of having been erected by anindividual of the highest rank, and of having owed its existence to anoccasion peculiarly calculated to call forth the exercise of the utmostliberality and splendor, it has been conceived that the object of a worklike the present, could not be better answered, than by exhibiting sucha building in its fullest details. 

With the churches of the Trinity and of St. Georges before him, thereader will best be enabled to judge what Norman architecture reallywas: no difficulty or doubt can arise as to the history or the date ofeither; and he may rest satisfied, that whatever has been selected fromthem, is, as far as human observation can decide, exactly in the statein which it was left by the original builder. 

The abbey of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1066, by Matilda ofFlanders, wife to William II. Duke of Normandy; and its church wasdedicated on the eighteenth of June of the same year, by Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen, assisted by the bishops and abbots of the province, and in the presence of the duke and duchess, together with theirprincipal barons. The sovereign, upon the same day, presented at thealtar his infant daughter, Cecilia, devoting her to the service of Godin this monastery, in which she was accordingly educated, and was itsfirst nun and second abbess. History has recorded the name of the firstabbess, Matilda, and relates that she was of one of the most noblefamilies of the duchy; but no farther particulars are known respectingher. The foundation-charters of this convent, which bear date in theyears 1066 and 1082, are full of donations in every respect princely;and these, not only on the part of the sovereign, but also of hisnobles, whose signatures are likewise attached to the instruments. Thequeen, also, at her decease, left the monastery her crown, sceptre, andornaments of state;[51] thus setting the example, which was shortlyafterwards followed by her royal consort, with regard to the abbey ofSt. Stephen. Robert, the Conqueror's successor in the dukedom, was notbehind-hand with his father in his liberality to the convent of theTrinity. The latter, in his charter, dated 1083, had reserved to himselfthe right of the fishery of the Orne, together with sundry possessionsoutside the walls of the town, in the direction of the suburb ofVaugeux. All these were ceded by the new duke to his sister; and out ofthe various grants, on the part of the father and son, was formed whatwas denominated the _Bourg l'Abbesse_, or _Barony of St. Giles_. DukeRobert did yet more; for, after having distinguished himself at thecapture of Jerusalem, and refused the crown of the Holy Land, hebrought home with him, on his return to France, and deposited in theabbatial church founded by his mother, the great standard of theSaracens, wrested from them by his valor in the field of Ascalon. 

Among the privileges conferred upon the abbey of the Trinity, by theNorman princes, was the right of holding a fair upon Trinity-Sunday andthe days that immediately preceded and followed it. The abbess, duringthese days, was entitled to all the town dues; and, to leave no doubt ofher right, she was in the habit of sending some of her officers atvespers time on the Friday, to affix her armorial bearings to everyentrance of the town. The same officers also attached their own boxesfor the receipt of customs to the gates, in lieu of those of thefarmer-general. Water alone could be brought in without payment of toll. As long as the fair lasted, the abbess was likewise treated withmilitary honors; the commandant of the garrison, whatever his rank, wasbound to apply to her, in person, for the parole of the day. The Abbé Dela Rue, from whose work most of the historical facts concerning thisconvent are extracted, states, that he has himself seen the Maréchal deHarcourt, while governor of Normandy, wait upon the abbess for thepurpose; and he is of opinion, that the custom existed from the veryfoundation of the monastery. 

It will not be matter of surprise, that an establishment, thus giftedand distinguished, should have been tenanted by the children of thosewho had contributed to the endowment. The names of the daughters andnieces of the chief Norman barons, will be found in the catalogue of thefirst nuns. Such, however, was at that period the state of society, thateven an abbey, so founded, endowed, and occupied, was doomed to afford aremarkable instance of the capricious barbarity of the times. No soonerwas the death of the Conqueror known, than the very nobles, who, but afew years previously, had been foremost as benefactors to the convent, assumed the opposite character, and did every thing in their power todespoil, and to destroy it. They had themselves subscribed the followingdenunciation:--"Si quis verò horum omnium, quæ prædictæ S. Trinitatisecclesiæ data ostensa sunt, temerariâ præsumptione aliquando, (quodabsit) violator effectus, in suâ impudenti obstinatione perstiterit:Noverit ille se anathema factum a Domino, sanctâ ac beatâ fideliumomnium communione privatum Divino judicio, perpetualitèr esseplectendum. "--But no consideration, human or divine, could restraintheir rapacity: they pillaged the lands; seized the corn and cattlebelonging to the monastery; imprisoned some of the tenants and vassals, and put others to the sword. These, and many other facts, most curiouslyillustrative of the manners of the age, are to be found in thecollection of the charters of the abbey. They prove indisputably, (ifsuch a fact needs proof) that the days of chivalry were far from beingdays of honesty. But they also shew, what the reader may not be equallyprepared to see, that among these plunderers was Henry himself, theConqueror's youngest son, who did not scruple to lay waste the landsgiven to the abbey by his mother; and who, as the Abbé de la Rueremarks, had probably, even at that early period, conceived theintention of seizing upon his paternal territory, and might be engagedin the amassing of those pecuniary resources, by the aid of which heultimately succeeded in his usurpation of the throne. 

Among the possessions of the abbey of the Holy Trinity, were severalestates[52] and advowsons in England; for the better administration ofwhich, the presence of the abbess was occasionally required on this sideof the water. The names of more than one of the holy ladies are onrecord, who honored our island with their presence. The journal of thetour of the abbess, Georgette du Molley Bacon, states her to haveembarked at Caen, on the sixteenth of August, 1570, with fifteen personsin her suite, and to have landed in London, and proceeded to hermanor-house at Felsted, in Essex, from which she did not return toNormandy till Trinity-Sunday in the following year. 

Hence it may be easily inferred, that the rules of the convent were notof the strictest description. The establishment indeed was, from itsorigin, under the regulation of the order of St. Benedict, but the nuns, though they lived under the same roof, were not bound by vows: they wereaccustomed to receive their friends in their own apartments; and many ofthem had nieces or other relations with them, whom they brought up. Therefectory was common; and they ate meat several days in the week. Therewere also stated times, on which it was allowable for them to take theair in a garden at a short distance from the convent. The abbess herselfhad her Country-house at Oistreham, where she frequently resided; andupon the occasion of those festivals which are distinguished by publicprocessions, the whole body of the community used to go in procession toeach of the different churches of Caen. Sometimes too the abbessattended with a party of her nuns at the performance of any mystery orsimilar scenical representation. The account of the revenues of themonastery in 1423, shews how Nicole de Rupalley, then abbess, waspresent at the acting of the _Miracle of St. Vincent_, and rewarded theperformers with a gratuity of ten sols, a sum equivalent, at that time, to ten bushels of wheat. 

About the year 1515, an attempt was made by the superior, Isabel ofBourbon, to curtail the indulgences of the sisterhood, by keeping themmore closely confined, increasing the number of fast-days, and generallyintroducing a system of greater rigor. But the nuns remonstrated againstthe innovation, and had recourse to the Bishop of Bayeux, alledging theinjustice of their being called upon to submit themselves toregulations, to which they had not originally subscribed. The prelate, who felt the point to be a delicate one, refused to decide; and thematter ended in an appeal to the Pope, who, finally, allowed the nuns toretire into other convents, where they might enjoy the freedom theyclaimed. 

When, after the capture of Caen by Edward, in 1346, the inhabitantsresolved upon fortifying the town anew, the abbeys of St. Stephen and ofthe Trinity, both of which lay in the suburbs, were excluded from theline of circumvallation; and the consequence was their exposure toinsults and pillage. The monks and nuns were therefore obliged to lookto their own defence; and, upon King John's coming to Caen, eight yearsafterwards, they obtained from him letters patent, authorizing them toencircle their convents with walls, towers, and fosses of their own. Hence originated the strange anomaly of a fortress and nunnery withinthe same precincts. The sisterhood, alarmed at their situation, soldtheir plate, and even the shrines of their relics, to provide for theirsafety; and permission was afterwards granted them to levy contributionsupon their vassals, for the purpose of expediting and completing thetask. --In the reign of Henry VI. During the wane of the British power inFrance, orders were issued by the monarch for the dismantling of thefort of the Trinity, lest it should be seized by the inhabitants of theneighborhood, who were endeavoring to get possession of Caen. But theabbess resisted the royal edict; and, under an apprehension, lest theattempt to carry it into effect should induce her to open the gates tothe insurgents, her resistance was allowed to be effectual. --KingCharles repeatedly took up his quarters in this monastery, while hisarmy was laying siege to Caen, in 1450, and mention continues to be madeof the fortress till the commencement of the following century; butafter that time, it appears to have been suffered to go to ruin. 

M. De la Rue rejects, as unfounded, the statement of the Bishop ofAvranches, which has obtained general credence, that the spires of thewestern towers of the abbey were destroyed in 1360, by Charles the Bad, on account of their use for the detecting of the approach of an enemy. His principal argument against the fact is, that the King of Navarre wasat that very time at peace with France; and therefore, supposing it tobe certain that they were taken down by that prince, he is of opinion, that their demolition must have been ordered to prevent them fromserving as landmarks to the English. At the same time, he is evidentlyinclined to think that the towers were never surmounted by spires atall; and he observes, with much apparent justice, that, if there reallywere any, and if they were really destroyed at the period alledged, thetowers must have been left for a long time in a ruined state, as theirpresent termination is known to be the work of the eighteenth century. 

The original charters and title-deeds of the abbey of the Trinity werelost during the revolution. They perished in consequence of the extremecare of the last abbess, who, full of anxiety for their preservation, secured them in trunks, and hid them in the ceiling of the church. But, in those disastrous times, the lead that covered the churches was amongthe earliest objects of plunder; and the consequence was, that the roofwas stripped; the boxes exposed to the rain; the wood and paper whollydestroyed; and the tin cases that held the charters so eaten by rust, that their contents were rendered illegible. It was in this state thatthey were found by the Abbé De la Rue, who was in possession of thesecret, and who, on his return to France, after the cessation of thetroubles and the death of the abbess, obtained permission from theprefect for the search to be made. 

The church of the abbey of the Trinity had its own peculiar rites; and, till the period of the revolution, the community were in the habit ofprinting their liturgy annually in latin. A very beautiful quartovolume, containing the ritual, was published at Caen, in 1622, by theorder of Laurence de Budos, then abbess. It was probably from pride at aprivilege of this nature, and from a confidence in their strength, thatthe nuns persisted in celebrating the ridiculous, or, it might almost becalled, blasphemous _Fête des Fous_, for a hundred years after theCouncil of Basle had decreed the suppression of it throughoutChristendom. In imitation too of the Boy-Bishops of Bayeux, Salisbury, and other churches, the nuns of the Holy Trinity had theirGirl-Abbesses. The ancient rolls of the monastery make mention, underthe head of expenses in 1423, of six sols given, by way of offering, onInnocents'-Day, "_aux petites Abbesses_. " This was the day on which theGirl-Abbess was elected: the superior of the convent resigned to her theabbatial stall and crozier at vespers, as soon as they came to the verseof the _Magnificat_, beginning "_Deposuit potentes de sede_;" and thefarce was kept up till the same hour the succeeding evening. The Abbé Dela Rue, who mentions this fact, observes with justice, that anothercircumstance, which appears from these accounts, is still moreextraordinary;--that, even as late as 1546, the abbess was in the habitof making an annual payment of five sols to the cathedral of Bayeux, forits Boy-Bishop. The entry is in the following terms: "_Au petit évêquede Bayeux, pour sa pension, ainsi qu'il est accoutumé, V. Sous. _" Duringthe early part of the preceding century, the abbot of St. Stephen wasalso accustomed to pay twenty sols per annum, on the same account; buthis payment was probably discontinued immediately after the edict of theCouncil of Basle, though the ceremony of the Boy-Bishop was notsuppressed at Bayeux till 1482. Indeed, only six years before that time, the inventory of the sacristy of the cathedral enumerated, among itsother valuables, "Two mitres for the Boy-Bishop, The crozier belonging to the Boy-Bishop, The Boy-Bishop's mittens, And four small copes of scarlet satin, for the use of the singing-boys on Innocents'-Day. "

The abbess of Caen, through the medium of her official, exercisedspiritual jurisdiction over the parishes of St. Giles, Carpiquet, Oistreham, and St. Aubin-d'Arquenay, by virtue of a privilege granted bythe bishops of Bayeux, as well for herself and her nuns, as for thevassals of the several parishes. This privilege, however, extended nofarther than to an exemption from certain pecuniary fines, which thediocesans, in the middle ages, exacted from their flocks; and even inthis confined acceptation, it was more than once the subject oflitigation between the convent and the see. In like manner, the civiland criminal jurisdiction claimed by the abbess over the same parishes, brought her occasionally into disputes with the bailiff and viscount ofCaen: her rights were repeatedly called in question, and she was obligedto have recourse to legal tribunals to establish them. The followingvery extraordinary suit is at once illustrative of the fact, and of thecharacter of the times:--In the year 1480, an infant was eaten up in itscradle, by a _bestia porcina_, within the precincts of the parish of St. Giles. The abbess' officers seized the delinquent, and instituted aprocess for its condemnation before the seneschal of the convent. Duringthe time, however, that the question was pending, the king'sattorney-general interfered. He summoned the abbess before thehigh-bailiff, and, maintaining that the crime had been committed withinthe cognizance of the bailiwick, he claimed the beast, and demanded thatits trial should take place before one of the royal tribunals. Debatesimmediately arose as to the limits of their respective jurisdictions:inquiries were set on foot; memorials and counter-memorials werepresented; and the abbess finally succeeded in carrying her point, onlyby dint of proving that she had, some years previously, burned a youngwoman in the _Place aux Campions_, for having murdered a man in theself-same house where the hog devoured the child. 

Among the obligations originally imposed upon this convent, was that ofgiving a dinner annually, on Trinity Sunday, to such of the inhabitantsof the parish of Vaux-sur-Saulles and their domestics, as had residedthere a year and a day. The repast was served up within the abbey walls, and in the following manner:--After the guests had washed their hands ina tub of water, they seated themselves on the ground, and a cloth wasspread before them. A loaf, of the weight of twenty-one ounces, wasthen given to each individual, and with it a slice of boiled bacon, sixinches square. To this was added a rasher of bacon, fried; and the feastconcluded with a basin of bread and milk for every person, all of themhaving likewise as much beer and cider as they could drink. The dinner, as may naturally be supposed, lasted from three to four hours; and itwill also not be difficult to imagine, that the entertaining of such amotley throng on such a day, could not fail to be attended with greatannoyance to the nuns, and with various inconveniences. The convent hadtherefore, from a very early date, endeavored to free themselves fromthe obligation, by the payment of a sum of money; and, in times of war, the town of Caen had occasionally interposed, and forced the people toaccept the composition, from an apprehension, lest the enemy should gainpossession of the fort of the Trinity, by introducing themselves into itamong the authorized guests. It appears that, in 1429, the abbesspurchased an exemption at the price of thirty livres, a sum equivalentto thirty-seven and a half quarters of corn, at a time when wheat soldfor two sols the bushel; and twenty-two years subsequently, Charles VII. Then King of France, granted his letters patent, abolishing the dinneraltogether, upon condition of a like sum being annually paid to theparochial chest. 

To the abbey church of the Trinity were attached several chapels, aswell without as within its walls: the most remarkable of these was thatof St. Thomas, generally known by the name of _St. Thomas l'Abattu_, inthe suburb of St. Giles. It was, in its original state, an hospital, andwas called the Hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr in the fields, whenceDe la Rue infers that it was built in commemoration of Thomas-à-Becket, and was probably erected immediately after his canonization in 1173. Huet, on the contrary, tells us, that it had existed "from timeimmemorial;" and Ducarel, who has described and figured it, [53] appearsto have also regarded it as of very high antiquity. The gradualdisappearance of leprosy had caused it to be long since diverted fromits original purpose. In 1569, it was pillaged by the Huguenots; and, asno pains were taken to repair the injuries then done, it continued in astate of dilapidation, imperceptibly wasting away, till the period ofthe revolution, when it was sold, together with the other nationalproperty; and even its ruins have now disappeared. 

Happily, the abbatial church of the Trinity was at that time morefortunate: it was suffered to continue unappropriated, till, upon theinstitution of the Legion of Honor, Napoléon applied it to some purposesconnected with that body, by whom it was a few years ago ceded for itspresent object, that of a workhouse for the department. The choir aloneis now used as a church: the nave serves for work-rooms; and, to renderit the better applicable to this purpose, a floor has been thrownacross, which divides it into two stories. 

It has been observed in a recent publication, [54] that "a finer specimenof the solid grandeur of Norman architecture, is scarcely to be foundany where than in the west front of this church, " (the subject of the_twenty-fourth plate_. ) "The corresponding part of the rival abbey ofSt. Stephen, is poor when compared to it; and Jumieges and St. Georgesequally fail in the comparison. In all these, there is somearchitectural anomaly: in the Trinity none, excepting indeed thebalustrade at the top of the towers; and this is so obviously anaddition of modern times, that no one can be misled by it. [55] Thisbalustrade was erected towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the oval apertures and scrolls, seen in Ducarel's print, [56] wereintroduced. "--It may be well to take the present opportunity of making ageneral observation, that though, in speaking of this and of otherchurches, the term, _west front_, may commonly be applied to the partcontaining the principal entrance; yet that this term must be receivedwith a certain degree of latitude. The Norman religious edifices are farfrom being equally regular in their position as the English. With ageneral inclination to the west, they vary to every point of thecompass. [57] The church of the abbey of the Trinity fronts thenorth-west--The architrave of the central door-way is composed of manysurfaces of great depth: two-thirds of them are flat and plain, andrecede so little, as to afford but small opportunity for light andshade. Its decorations are few and simple, consisting almost wholly ofthe billet and chevron moulding, the former occupying the exterior, thelatter the interior, circles. In the outermost band, the billets form asingle row, and take the curve of the arch; the succeeding circleexhibits them with an unusual arrangement, placed compound, and allpointing to the centre of the door. These, with the addition ofquatrefoils, and of some grotesque heads, which serve as key-stones tothe mouldings over the windows of the triforium, are the only ornamentswhich this front can boast. The capitals throughout it are of thesimplest forms, being in general little more than inverted cones, slightly truncated, for the purpose of making them correspond with thecolumns below. Some few of them have the addition of small projectingknobs immediately below the angles of the impost; while those in thesquare towers are formed by a short cylinder, whose diameter exceedsthat of the shaft, surmounted by a square block, by way of abacus. Thetowers and buttresses decrease in size upwards. --An architecturalpeculiarity deserving of notice in this front, lies in the triangularmouldings, observable in the spandrils of the arches of the clerestory. The same are occasionally, though rarely, found in other buildings ofunquestionably Norman origin, as in the church at Falaise, and inNorwich Cathedral[58] in our own country. They are here moreparticularly noticed, as serving to illustrate what has been consideredan anomaly in the architecture of some of the round-towered churches inNorfolk and Suffolk, [59] where the windows are formed with heads of thisshape. Antiquaries, unwilling to admit that the _flat-sided arch_, as ithas been called by a perversion of terms, was introduced into Englandprior to the fourteenth century, have labored to prove that such windowswere alterations of that period, contrary to the evidence of every partof the building. 

 [Illustration: Plate 25. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, CAEN. _East End. _]

The east-end of the choir (_plate twenty-five_) presents a boldtermination, pierced with ten spacious windows, that give light to thechoir, each of them encircled with a broad band, composed of the sameornaments as are found in the rest of the exterior of the edifice. Thispart of the church is divided in its elevation into three compartments, the lower containing a row of small blank arches, while in each of theupper two is a window of an unusual size for a Norman building, butstill without mullions or tracery. The windows ore separated by thickcylindrical pillars, which rise from immediately above a row of windowsthat give light to the crypt. The heads of these windows are level withthe surface of the ground; and the wall, in this subterranean part ofthe building, is considerably thicker than it is above. The balustradeof quatrefoils above appears coeval with the rest, and may be regardedas tending to establish the originality of that in the nave of the abbeychurch of St. Stephen. [60]

 [Illustration: Plate 26. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _East end, interior. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 27. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _North side of the Choir, upper compartment. _]

The _twenty-sixth_ and _twenty-seventh plates_ shew the interior of thechoir, as the _thirty-third_ does the most remarkable of its capitals. This part of the church, in its general arrangement, very much resemblesthe same portion in St. Georges and in Norwich Cathedral. The second, however, of these buildings, retains the original groinings of the roof, which in our English church have been sacrificed, to make room for largepointed windows; while in the church of the Trinity they have givenplace to a spacious dome, painted with a representation of theAssumption. In the foreground of this picture, is seen the royalfoundress of the abbey; and, according to common tradition, the portraitof a female dressed in the habit of a nun, on the north side of the highaltar, is also intended for her. But traditions of this nature are toovague for much reliance to be placed upon them. The altar-piece itselfis an _Adoration of the Shepherds_, not devoid of merit. --The plainarches, with their truncated columns, seen in the upper part of _plate26_, near the front on either side, and repeated in the following plate, are those which terminate the flat part of the choir. The wide unvariedextent of blank surface beneath them is attributable to modern masons, who have filled up and covered arches without mercy or discretion, andhave pierced the walls anew with plain mean door-ways. The windows arelofty, and of fine proportions. Their glazing is probably of the time ofLouis XIV. When the gorgeous splendor of painted glass gave wayto the less beautiful and less appropriate ornaments, supplied by thefancy of the plumbers. [61] The narrow passage formed in the thickness ofthe wall, with its small arches variously decorated, surrounds the wholebuilding; choir, nave, and transepts. In the architectural arrangementof this portion of the edifice, where every large arch of the windows isflanked by two lesser ones of the triforium, the church of the Trinityagrees with the cathedral at Oxford, as figured in Mr. Carter's work onancient architecture[62] and there treated as a genuine Saxon building, erected by King Ethelred, after the destruction of the monastery by theDanes in 1004. But the capitals of the columns in the two churches bearonly a slight resemblance to each other. Those at Oxford[63] are amongthe most beautiful left us by early architects, consisting chiefly offoliage; and, in one instance, of a very elegant imitation of a coronet. In the abbatial church at Caen, they display the same mixture of Grecianand barbarous taste, the same beauties, the same monstrosities, and thesame apparent aim at fabulous or emblematic history, as has beenpreviously remarked at St. Georges. On the angles of one, which containsfour storks, arranged in pairs, will be found an obvious representationof the heraldic fleur-de-lys. In that, figured below it on the plate, isa head placed over two lions, commonly believed to be intended for aportrait of the Conqueror. 

 [Illustration: Plate 28. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _Arches under the central Tower looking from the South Transept. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 29. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _East side of the South Transept. _]

The _twenty-eighth_ and _twenty-ninth plates_ are devoted to thetransepts: the first of them exhibits two of the arches which supportthe central tower. Finer specimens of the kind are scarcely to be seenin Normandy; and the decoration of them is very peculiar, consistingaltogether of numerous bands of quatrefoils in bas-relief. The sculptureof the capitals is likewise remarkable: that of one of them representsentire rams; while the opposite one has only the heads of the sameanimal at its angles, accompanied with an ornament, which the writer ofthis article does not remember to have met with elsewhere. The arch thatseparates the tower from the nave, [64] rises higher than any of therest, and is obtusely pointed; but its decorations correspond with thoseof the others, and it appears to be of the same date. [65] For thepurpose of more effectually marking the connection of the _twenty-eighthplate_ with the preceding, it may be well to observe, that thestring-course, seen in the former through the first arch and adjoiningthe base of the truncated column, is the same which, in _platetwenty-seven_, forms the base-line of the windows. The samestring-course in the choir runs immediately below the gallery; but inthe transepts, this gallery is upon a different line, being elevated bythe interposition of a very beautiful range of small blank arches, between the larger arches below and the windows of the clerestory; andthese latter, in conjunction with the small arches, only occupy the samespace as the windows of the choir. The southern transept has been hereselected for publication, as being the most perfect. Had the oppositeone been equally so, it would have been preferable, from thecurious character of its capitals, many of which are taken fromscripture-history. But these are, unfortunately, much mutilated. 

 [Illustration: Plate 30. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _Interior of the Nave looking west. _]

In the _thirtieth plate_ is given a general view of the upper half ofthe interior of the nave, shewing the western extremity, with the threecompartments nearest to it on either side; and here, as in the twopreceding plates, it is impossible not to regret the existence of thefloor, which, by dividing the church into different stories, greatlyinjures the effect of the whole. Neither in this nor in any other partof the building, are there side-chapels or aisles. The architecture ofthe nave, in its general arrangement, resembles that of the transepts;except as to the arches of the second row, which are peculiar. Upon anattentive examination too, it will be found that, notwithstanding theapparent uniformity, no two compartments are precisely alike, while thecapitals are infinitely varied. This playfulness of ornament isremarkable in a building, whose architect appears, at first view, tohave contemplated only grandeur and solidity. At the farther end of thenave, are seen the five windows of the principal front, together with aportion of the great arch of entrance. The remaining part of this arch, as well as of the others of the lower tier, with the pillars thatsupport them, are concealed by the floor. The gallery, it will beremarked, sinks at the western end, as in the choir, and is connectedwith the sides by a staircase. The roof is only of lath and plaster, painted in imitation of masonry. 

 [Illustration: Plate 31. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _South side of the Nave, exterior. _]

The _thirty-first plate_ exhibits three of the eight compartments of theclerestory, on the south side of the nave, as seen externally. Thecloisters and conventual buildings hide the whole of the opposite sideof the church; and, perfect as is the part here represented, there isnothing to be seen below; for a range of work-shops and of sheds hasobstructed the view of the exterior, as effectually as the floor has ofthe corresponding portion within. The corbel-table, with its monsters ofall descriptions, affords a curious specimen of the sculpture of theage. The string-course above it is rich and beautiful. The same is alsothe case with the decorations of the windows, as well as of the blankarches with which they are flanked, while the intervening flatbuttresses, edged by slender cylindrical pilasters, likewise indicate adegree of care and of taste which is very pleasing, and which is themore remarkable, when considered in union with the architecture of theexterior of the contemporary abbey of St. Stephen. 

 [Illustration: Plate 32. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _Crypt. _]

The crypt (_plate thirty-two_) occupies the space under the choir. TheAbbé De la Rue, who terms it "_une jolie chapelle_, " says that, in thefifteenth century, it was denominated the subterranean chapel of St. Nicholas; but previously to the revolution, had assumed the name of thechapel of the Holy Trinity. It was originally entered by two narrowstaircases from the transepts. Its length from east to west is aboutthirty feet: its width, about twenty-seven. The simple vaulted roof issupported by thirty-two slender columns, sixteen of them half imbeddedin the wall, and rising from a stone bench, with which this crypt issurrounded, in the same manner as that of the church of St. Gervais, atRouen. This chapel was, till lately, paved with highly-polishedvitrified bricks, each about two inches square, diversified with veryvivid colors, but of a description altogether unlike those in theConqueror's palace. It is lighted by narrow windows, which widenconsiderably inwards, the wall being here of great thickness; and, according to all probability, there were originally eleven of them, though the greater part are now closed. One of them was lately filledwith bones, and bricked up. Upon the place it occupied is to be seen thefollowing inscription, placed between a couple of vases of antiqueform:--"_Ossemens trouvés dans l'ancien chapitre des dames de laTrinité, et déposés dans ce lieu le IV. Mars, MDCCCXVIII. _"

 [Illustration: Plate 33. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAEN. _Capitals in the Choir. _]

In the same year, at the time when these drawings were made, no tombswhatever existed in the church of the Trinity. There had formerly beenmany here; but the revolution had swept them all away. [66] Among therest were those of the royal foundress, of her daughter Cæcilia, thefirst abbess, and of two other daughters of English kings, who likewisewore the ducal coronet of Normandy. The most celebrated of all was thatof Matilda: according to Ordericus Vitalis, it was of exquisiteworkmanship, and richly ornamented with gold and precious stones. Butthe Calvinists demolished it in 1562; and, not content with plunderingthe monument of all that was valuable, tore open the Queen's coffin, anddispersed her remains. Towards the close of the same century, Anne deMontmorenci, then abbess, caused the royal bones to be collected, andagain to be deposited in the original stone coffin; and things continuedin this state till the year 1708, when the abbess, Gabrielle FrançoiseFronlay de Tessé, raised a second altar-tomb of black marble, arepresentation of which has been preserved by Ducarel. In addition tothis, she inclosed the bones of the princess for greater security in aleaden box, which she laid in the coffin; and these happily escapedviolation in 1793, when the revolutionists destroyed the monument, because the arms of Normandy, with which it was ornamented, sinnedagainst the doctrines of the liberty and equality of man. France beingonce more settled under a monarchical form of government, a fresh searchwas instituted in March, 1819, by the prefect of the department, in thepresence of the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Spencer Smythe, for thediscovery of Matilda's remains; and they were found and verified, andre-interred in their original situation. --Another tomb, similar tothat which was destroyed at the revolution, is also raised over them. The engraved stone in _plate twenty-six_, marks the place which itoccupies. Upon it is laid the original slab with the epitaph, which, bygreat good fortune, escaped unhurt from the hands both of democrats andHuguenots; and, as many of the subscribers to this work have expressed adesire that a fac-simile of it should be inserted, as illustrative ofthe form of the letters, as well as of the manner of writing in use atthat period, Mr. Cotman has had a pleasure in meeting their wishes, atthe same time, that he has not considered it as sufficiently belongingto the publication, to justify him in making it an object of charge. Theinscription, divided into lines, and written in modern characters, is asfollows:--

 "Egregie pulchri tegit hec structura sepulcri Moribus insigne germen regale Matildem Dux Flandrita pater huic extitit Adala mater Francor gentis Rotberti filia regis Et soror Henrici regali sede potiti Regi magnifico Wlllelmo juncta marito Presentem sedem presente fecit et edem Tam multis terris quam multis rebus honestis A se ditatam se procurante dicatam Hec consolatrix inopum pietatis amatrix Gazis dispersis pauper sibi dives egenis Sic infinite petiit consortia vite In prima mensis post primam luce Novembris. "

 [Illustration: Plate 33*. _A fac simile of the inscription upon the tomb of Queen Matilda in the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity at Caen. _]

NOTES:

[51] The will of the Queen has been printed by the Abbé De la Rue, (_Essais Historiques_ II. P. 437) from a manuscript in the royal libraryat Paris; but the writer of the present article is not aware that it hasever yet appeared in any English publication; and he therefore considersit desirable here to reprint it, for the antiquaries of his owncountry. --"Ego Mathildis Regina do Sanctæ Trinitati Cadomi casulam quamapud Wintoniam [Winchester] operatur uxor Aldereti, et clamidem operatamex auro quæ est in camera mea ad cappam faciendam, atque de duabusligaturis meis aureis in quibus cruces sunt, illam quæ emblematibus estinsculpta, ad lampadem suspendendam coram Sancto altare, candelabraquemaxima quæ fabricantur apud Sanctum Laudum, coronam quoque et sceptrum, calicesque ac vestimentum, atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur inAnglia, et cum omnibus ornamentis equi, atque omnia vasa mea, exceptisillis quæ antea dedero alicubi in vita mea; et Chetehulmum [Quetehou enCotentin] in Normannia, et duas mansiones in Anglia do Sanctæ TrinitatiCadomi. Hæc omnia concessu domini mei Regis facio. 

 "Ex cartulario Sanctæ Trin. Bibl. Reg. Paris. No. 5650. "

[52] The annual income arising from these, is stated by Odon Rigaud, Archbishop of Rouen, in the _procés-verbal_ of his visit to this abbeyin 1250, to have amounted to one hundred and sixty pounds sterling; asum nearly equivalent to eighty thousand livres of the present day. 

[53] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 75, t. 7. --In this figure, whichrepresents the south side of the building, a striking resemblance willbe observed with the architecture of the church of Than, figured in thiswork, _pl. 16_. --Ducarel, in speaking of the pillars in the inside ofthe chapel, says they are of a peculiar construction, and widelydifferent from all others that have fallen under his consideration; buthe has unfortunately furnished no engraving of them, and has evenomitted to mention wherein their peculiarity lay. 

[54] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 184. 

[55] Still less can any one be so by the alteration of the arches ofentrance into modern windows, which Mr. Turner did not think it worthwhile to mention. 

[56] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, plate 5. 

[57] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 171. 

[58] See _Britton's Norwich Cathedral_, plate 4, F. P. 32. 

[59] Hadisco church, figured in _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities ofNorfolk_, plate 38, affords an excellent specimen of these windows. 

[60] See plate 23. 

[61] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 252, under the head ofBayeux Cathedral, the windows of which are remarkable for thecomplicated patterns of the lead-work. --See also _Carter's AncientArchitecture_, I. Plate 79, p. 54, where this laborious author stateshimself to have collected nearly all the remains of this description ofart in England. He is inclined to refer it to the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries. --In the second volume of the same work, plate 27, fig. F. 2, is represented one of the borders of the west window of thenave in York Cathedral, which almost exactly resembles one of these atCaen. 

[62] I. Plate 28, fig. A. 

[63] See _Britton's Oxford Cathedral_, plate 4. 

[64] In Mr. Turner's _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 186, this arch is, by a_lapsus calami_, called the _eastern_, instead of the _western_. 

[65] Mr. Cotman thought that he could discover visible traces of itshaving been originally semi-circular, and subsequently raised andpointed: and it is certainly most probable that such has been the case. 

[66] Drawings of them all are fortunately preserved by the Abbé De laRue; and it is hoped some French antiquary will be found sufficientlypatriotic to cause them to be engraved. 

PLATES XXXIV. --XXXVI. 

CASTLE AND CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, AT DIEPPE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 34. CASTLE AT DIEPPE. ]

The anonymous author of the _History of Dieppe_, [67] published towardsthe close of the last century, traces the origin of the town as high asthe year 809, when Charlemagne visited this part of the coast of hisempire, and, observing how much it was exposed to hostile attacks, ordered the construction of a fort upon the beach. The fort was honoredwith the name of the emperor's daughter, Bertha; and as the protectionthus afforded, joined to the advantageous nature of the position, causedthe fortress, within a short time, to be surrounded by the cottages ofthe neighboring fishermen, an establishment insensibly grew up, whichacquired the appellation of Bertheville. 

But the irruptions of the Normans, towards the close of the same, or thecommencement of the succeeding, century, gave a new color to affairs inNeustria: places changed their names with their masters; and, no respectbeing paid to the emperor or his descendants, Bertheville ceased to beknown under any other denomination than that of _Dyppe_, a Norman word, expressive of the depth of water in its harbor. Under Rollo, we are toldthat Dieppe became the principal port in the duchy. That politicsovereign was too well versed in nautical affairs, not to be aware ofthe importance of such a station; and he had the interest of hisnewly-acquired territory too much at heart, not to labor at theimproving of it. It was at Dieppe that he embarked the troops, which hedispatched, in 913, for the assistance of his countrymen, the Danes, intheir attempts to conquer England; and the town flourished under hissway, and then laid the foundation for that maritime greatness to whichit has subsequently risen. 

From this time forward, Dieppe is frequently mentioned in history:William the Conqueror honored it with his presence in 1047, and receivedin person the homage of its inhabitants, on his return from Arques, whenthe surrender of that important fortress by his uncle, Telo, put an endto the troubles occasioned by the illegitimacy of his birth. The samemonarch, during the preparations for his descent upon Britain, made aparticular call on the people of Dieppe, to arm their vessels for thetransport of his troops. They obeyed the summons; and they boast thattheir ships were the first that arrived at the place of rendezvous. Noport in Normandy derived equal advantage from the conquest: theintercourse between the sister countries was naturally conducted throughthis channel; and such continued the case till 1194, when RichardCoeur-de-Lion, defeated under the walls of Arques, was compelled toleave this part of the province a prey to the victorious arms ofPhilip-Augustus. Upon this occasion, the French monarch appears to havesingled out Dieppe as an object of particular vengeance, and heconducted himself towards it with a cruelty for which it would bedifficult to assign an adequate reason. Not content with burning thetown and its shipping, he transported the inhabitants into the ulteriorparts of France, that they might never re-assemble and raise it from itsashes. Brito, at the same time that he glosses over the more flagrantpart of the transaction, tells enough to leave no doubt of its truth;and his passage upon the subject deserves attention, particularly asbeing decisive with regard to the state of Dieppe at that period:

 "Haud procul hinc portus famâ celeberrimus atque Villa potens opibus florebat nomine _Deppen_. Hanc primùm Franci sub eodem tempore gazis Omnibus expoliant, spoliatam denique totam In cinerem redigunt; et sic ditatus abivit Coetus ovans, quòd tot villâ non esse vel urbe Divitias aut tam pretiosas diceret unquam. "--

In the course of the succeeding year, the treaty of Gaillon restoredDieppe and Arques, with their dependencies, to Richard, who almostimmediately afterwards surrendered the former town to Walter, Archbishopof Rouen, as one of the articles of compensation for the injury done tothat prelate, by the erection of Château Gaillard upon his territory. Dieppe appears to have recovered itself with surprising rapidity: a newchurch, under the invocation of St. James, was erected in 1250, that ofSt. Remi being no longer sufficient for the accommodation of itsinhabitants; and these, however cruelly they had been injured byPhilip-Augustus, were among the foremost in their demonstrations ofloyalty to him as their sovereign, when the cold-blooded tyranny of Johnhad bereft him of the Norman diadem. In one of the first years of thesucceeding century, John Baliol, more properly called De Bailleul, afugitive from Scotland, sought refuge in Dieppe, and finally retired tohis paternal domain in the valley of the Yaulne, five leagues distantfrom the port. The remainder of his days were spent here in the villagethat bears his name; and the parochial church, which still contains hisashes, was, till lately, ornamented with his tomb, charged with aninscription, reciting the various events of his life. 

During the wars of Edward III. The ships from Dieppe took the lead inthe great naval engagement in 1337; and their admiral, Béhuchet, sodistinguished himself, as to draw down upon him the marked resentment ofthat prince. He was himself made prisoner and hanged; and a detachmentof English and Flemings was dispatched to destroy the harbor. Theinjuries, however, now sustained, were repaired with the same rapidityas before: Philip shewed himself no less ready to reward services, thanhis opponent had been to resent offences. His letters patent, bearingdate in February, 1345, exempted the inhabitants from the payment of alltaxes and dues, for the purpose of enabling them to rebuild theirwalls. --Dieppe, in 1412, was again attacked by the English, and, on thisoccasion, both by land and sea; but the inhabitants made a gallant andan effectual resistance. 

Their opposition, though unavailing, was not at all less spirited in thefollowing reign, when they were compelled, in common with the rest ofFrance, to acknowledge the power of the fifth Henry. But they againdisengaged themselves from the English crown in 1431, after havingremained in subjugation to it for eleven years; and the subsequentsiege, conducted by Talbot himself in person, in 1442, only added totheir military character. During this siege, which was of great length, the English general erected the formidable fortress, known by the nameof the Bastille, in the suburb of Pollet. The following year saw theFrench become in their turn the assailants: Louis II. Then dauphin, joined the troops of the Comte de Dunois in Dieppe, and the Bastillefell, after a most murderous attack. It was afterwards levelled with theground in 1689, though, at a period of one hundred and twenty yearsafter it was originally taken and dismantled, it had again been made aplace of strength by the Huguenots, and was still farther fortifiedunder Henry IV. The pious dauphin, who ascribed the capture of thisalmost impregnable castle to the especial grace of the Virgin Mary, would not quit Dieppe without leaving behind him an equally signal markof gratitude on his part. He accordingly repaired in person to thechurch of St. James, there to place the town under her especialprotection; and, not content with this, he instituted the Guild of theAssumption, charging the members annually to commemorate the day oftheir deliverance by a solemn festival. [68]

After this time, Dieppe appears to have been exposed to no farthercalamities from warfare, except what it suffered, in common with a greatpart of France, during the religious troubles, and also excepting thebombardment by the English fleet in 1694. From the earliest rise ofCalvinism in France, the inhabitants of Dieppe had distinguishedthemselves in favor of the reformation; and they were already preparedto go to the utmost lengths in its support, when John Knox, one of themost devoted apostles of the new faith, landed there in 1560, on his wayfrom Scotland to Geneva. The presence of such a man produced the effectwhich might naturally be expected, of kindling the spark into a flame;and Dieppe continued for two years in open rebellion to the court. Theinhabitants, in 1562, alarmed by the capture of Rouen, consented toreceive a garrison from our Queen Elizabeth, rather than submit torenounce their creed; but they were obliged, in the course of the sameyear, to surrender to the royal troops. Notwithstanding all this, theProtestants of Dieppe, through the wisdom and moderation of thegovernor, escaped unhurt from the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The townwas nevertheless one of the first in France to declare, in 1589, forHenry IV. When, pursued by the victorious forces of the league, hesought shelter in these walls, and here collected the handful of troops, with which he almost immediately afterwards gained the important victoryof Arques. The same prince also retired hither three years subsequently, and remained ten days in the midst of _ses bons Dieppois_, as he was inthe habit of styling them, to be cured of the wounds received in thebattle of Aumale. 

Among the various royal personages, with whose presence Dieppe has beenhonored on different occasions, were Mary of Guise, widow of James V. OfScotland, and mother to the unfortunate princess of the same name, whosucceeded her on the Scottish throne. She landed here in 1549, and wasimmediately joined by Henry II. Who was at that time at Rouen. In 1564, Catherine of Médicis came hither, attended by her son, Charles IX. Witha view of healing the wounds occasioned by the religious dissentions;and, in 1618, Louis XIII. After holding an assembly of the states ofNormandy at the capital of the duchy, repaired to Dieppe, to visit oneof the most important sea-ports of his kingdom. The same attention wasshewn to the town twenty-nine years subsequently, by Louis XIV. Then inhis minority, accompanied by the Queen Regent; and, in our own days, ithas been equally distinguished by Napoléon. 

In this short outline of the principal events connected with the historyof Dieppe, no notice has been taken of the honor acquired by itssailors, who have, however, on all occasions, distinguished themselves. They did so particularly in the year 1555, when, unassisted by theirking, or by any other part of France, they armed their merchant vessels, and attacked and defeated, and nearly destroyed, the Flemish fleet, consisting of twenty-four sail of ships of war. At all times they havebeen considered as supplying some of the best men to the French navy, sothat the President de Thou pronounced them to be entitled to the highestglory in nautical affairs. They lay claim to the honor of having firstplanted the standard of Christianity upon the coast of Guinea, wherethey established a settlement in the fourteenth century; of having beenthe first who discovered the great river of the Amazons; and also thefirst who sailed up that of St. Lawrence. Even to the present day, theycarry on a considerable traffic in small ornaments made of ivory, ahumiliating memento of their connection with Senegal: but all the restof their commerce is dwindled into the fishery, and a small portion ofcoasting-trade. 

The castle, (the subject of _plate thirty-four_, ) stands upon a steephill; and, on approaching the town from the sea, has a grand andimposing appearance. Its walls, flanked with towers and bastions, causeit to retain the look of strength, the reality of which has long sincedeparted. The earliest portion of the building is probably a highquadrangular tower, with lofty pointed pannels, in the four walls. Eventhis, however, cannot have been erected anterior to the year 1443; forit is upon record that the Sieur des Marêts, the first governor of theplace, then began to build a castle here, to protect the town from anyfarther attacks on the part of the English army. The inhabitants, duringthe reign of Henry IV. Obtained permission to add to it a citadel; butthe whole was suffered almost immediately afterwards to fell into decay. 

 [Illustration: Plate 35. CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, AT DIEPPE. _West front. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 36. CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, AT DIEPPE. _East end. _]

The church of St. Jacques, figured in the _thirty-fifth_ and_thirty-sixth plates_, is the largest, and considerably the mostinteresting of the two parochial churches of the place. It had thesingular good fortune of escaping, together with the castle, nearlyuninjured from the bombardment, during the reign of our third William, which laid the town in ashes. It was begun about the year 1260, but waslittle advanced at the commencement of the following century; nor wereits nineteen chapels, the works of the piety of individuals, completedbefore 1350. The roof of the choir remained imperfect till ninety yearsafterwards; while that of the transept is as recent as 1628. Thus it isa valuable specimen of the ecclesiastical architecture of successiveages. In the lines of the transepts are traces of the early pointedstyle, apparently coeval with the church at Eu: the friezes areornamented with small pierced quatrefoils, as in that building; and theportals, now mutilated, are in the same style. --The nave is of muchlater date; and the vaulting, though Gothic, is intermixed with Grecianmembers and scrolls. --The triforium in the choir is filled with elegantperpendicular tracery. The Lady-Chapel is perhaps one of the lastspecimens of Gothic art, but still very pure, except in some of thesmaller members, such as the niches in the tabernacles, which end inscallop-shells, instead of terminating with a groined canopy. The bossesof the groined roof are of the most delicate filagree work, and thevaulting is also ornamented with knots pendant from the ribs. --Thepannel-work round the chapel takes circular terminations in each pannel;but filled within with an elegant tracery, terminating with theacanthus. --The windows of the chapel are acutely pointed. --Thehorizontal mullions, (an unusual feature in French architecture, ) areornamented on the outside with the ovolo. The nave is supported byflying buttresses, each filled with tracery of eight mullions. --Thetower at the south angle of the west front is lofty, and in the_perpendicular style_. In the north aisle of the choir is an elegantscreen, which probably incloses a chantry-chapel, and, like thelady-chapel, exhibits a singular mixture of pointed forms, interspersedwith Roman members: parts of it resemble the tomb of Bishop Fox, atWinchester. 

NOTES:

[67] _Mémoires Chronologiques pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe et àcelle de la Navigation Française, Paris, 1785. _--(2 vols. 8vo. )

[68] This festival was attended with ceremonies of the most absurddescription, which were continued till the time of the revolution. Theyare detailed at length in the _Histoire de Dieppe_ I. P. 68; and a briefaccount has lately been given of them in English, in _Turner's Tour inNormandy_, I. P. 24. 

PLATE XXXVII. 

TOWER OF THE CHURCH AT HAUTE ALLEMAGNE, NEAR CAEN. 

The village of Haute Allemagne is situated at the distance of about aleague to the south of Caen. Mention of it is to be found in the latincharters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under the appellation of_Alamannia_, or _Alemannia_; and the older historians contend that itderived this name from having been the site of a colony of the _Alani_, a Scythian tribe, who ravaged a portion of Gaul in the early years ofthe fifth century, and afterwards, with the consent of the Romanemperors, established themselves in various parts of the country. Thisopinion, in the judgment of the Abbé De la Rue, receives confirmationfrom the circumstance of there being another village called _Allemagne_, in the vicinity of Valence, where it is known that a body of the samepeople was fixed; and it may perhaps be adduced as a still farther proofof its correctness, that the village of Allemagne, near Caen, formerlyembraced a considerably greater extent of country. 

 [Illustration: Plate 37. TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF HAUTE ALLEMAGNE NEAR CAEN. ]

Allemagne was one of the domains granted by the Conqueror to his abbeyof St. Stephen; and in the charter, he states that he cedes it "with itsdependencies. " The meaning of this latter term is explained in thesubsequent charter from his son Henry, in which four neighboringvillages are expressly said to be _dependent upon Allemagne_. Allemagnewas itself also divided into two parishes, the _upper_ and _lower_. 

At present it is only remarkable for its quarries, from which the stonesare dug, known in France by the name of _Carreaux d'Allemagne_, andcommonly used for floors to rooms, not only in the province of Normandy, but throughout the whole kingdom. There is also a considerable export ofthem for the same purpose. It was in these quarries that the fossilcrocodile was discovered in 1817; which, as being extraordinarilyperfect, and the first specimen ever found with scales, has excited anuncommon degree of interest among naturalists. 

Of the history of the parish of Allemagne, nothing is known. The portionof its church here figured, has been selected for engraving, as aninstance of a Norman tower of unquestionable antiquity, and in thehighest preservation. The pyramidal stone roof, similar to that of thechurch of St. Michel de Vaucelles, at Caen, appears to be quite in itsoriginal state. Even the small lucarne window in it looks coeval withthe rest. The row of intersecting arches below is beautiful andpeculiar. 

PLATES XXXVIII. --XLI. 

CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT, AT GOURNAY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 38. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT AT GOURNAY. _West front. _]

The town of Gournay is generally supposed to rival, in point ofantiquity, almost any other in this part of France. Tradition refers itsorigin to the days of Julius Cæsar, during the latter part of whosegovernment in Gaul, a dangerous conspiracy broke out among theBellovaci, the Caletes, and the Velliocasses, assisted by theinhabitants of other neighboring districts. This confederacy is supposedto have given rise to Gournay. 

The situation of the town is upon the frontiers of the territories ofthe two first tribes just mentioned, the present inhabitants of the Paysde Caux and of the Beauvaisis, in a marshy spot, subject to frequentinundations from two small rivers, the Epte and the St. Aubin, whosewaters flow beneath the walls of the place. Hence, an inference hasnaturally arisen, that the necessity for communication between people sonear in point of position, and yet so effectually separated, firstsuggested the advantages to be derived from a bridge over the Epte, in aplace otherwise impassable; and that the bridge was shortly afterwardsfollowed by a cause-way, which, in its turn, held out inducements tosettlers, so that the town imperceptibly grew out of the traffic thusoccasioned. 

The historical celebrity acquired by Gournay, far exceeds what mighthave been expected from its size or importance, and has altogetherarisen from the power and the high military character of its Normanlords. Rollo, at the time that he parcelled out the lands of hisnewly-acquired sovereignty, amongst his companions in arms, bestowedGournay, together with the whole of the Norman division of the Pays deBrai, upon a chieftain of the name of Eudes, to be held as a fief of theduchy, under the usual military tenure; binding him and his successorsto furnish to the prince, in times of war, twelve of their vassals, andto arm all their dependents for the defence of the adjacent frontier. Eudes had a son of the name of Hugh; and he it is who is reported tohave first directed his attention towards making Gournay a place ofstrength. The ancient records ascribe to him the erection of a citadelin the immediate vicinity of the church of St. Hildebert, surroundedwith a triple wall and double fosse; and farther secured by a tower, which was called after his name, _la Tour Hue_, and which continued inexistence till the beginning of the seventeenth century. Such was thereported strength of this fortress, that Brito, a chronicler, but, itmust be remembered, a poetical one, declares that it was able to resistan hostile attack, even without a single soldier within the walls! Hiswhole account of the place, in the time of Philip-Augustus, and of itscapture by that monarch, in the sixth book of his _Philippiad_, iscurious and interesting. 

A second Hugh de Gournay, born after a lapse of about a century from thedeath of the son of Eudes, is usually accounted the head of the family, because it is from him that the regular series of their descent is to betraced. He was a man of whose military prowess many instances arerecorded: among his other exploits, he is supposed to have been thechieftain, who, carrying his arms into the district of Beauvais, madehimself master of the four villages there, which, from their subjectionto him, have retained the name of _Les Conquêts_ and which continued formany centuries under the administration of the lords of Gournay. He alsoattended the Conqueror to England, where he was rewarded for hisservices by a grant of land which he held from that prince _in capite_. Upon a former occasion, he had been employed by him in a place of hightrust, having been appointed to command, in conjunction with Taillefer, half-brother to the duke, and three other Norman nobles, the fleet sentto the protection of Edward the Confessor, against the claims of Harold. His name is also found in 1059, among the leaders of the Norman army, which defeated the French forces at Couppegueule, near Mortimer. Atlast, disgusted with earthly affairs, he retired to the abbey of Bec, and there, in the monastic robe, ended a life which had been devoted topursuits of the most opposite tendency. --This Hugh de Gournay had a sonof the name of Girald, who married the sister of William, Earl Warren, and accompanied Robert, Duke of Normandy, to the Holy Land. --The third, and last Hugh de Gournay, grandson of Girald, was in the number of thosewho followed Richard Coeur-de-Lion in a similar expedition, and wasappointed his commissioner to receive the English share of the spoilafter the battle of Acre. He was also among the barons who rose againstKing John. But his attachment to the English cause ultimately lost himhis possessions in Normandy; for no sooner was Philip-Augustus master ofGournay, than he declared him a traitor, and banished him from France. 

Philip added to the fortifications a new castle, in the direction ofFerrieres. This, however, has been long since destroyed; and indeed theprobability is, that the walls and towers of Gournay were neglected andsuffered to fall into decay, shortly after the annexation of the duchyto France. There can be little doubt but that the town originally owedits importance, as a fortress, to its position upon the frontiers ofFrance and Normandy; and the consequence would therefore naturallyfollow, that, as soon as the ducal and regal crowns were united on thesame head, it would cease to be maintained as a place ofstrength. --About a hundred years after the capture of Gournay byPhilip-Augustus, Philip the Bold, great grandson of that monarch, bestowed the town and lordship upon his youngest son, Charles of Valois, at whose death it became a part of the dower of his widow, Matilda ofChatillon. Again, in like manner, on the decease of Philip of Valois, in1350, Gournay was separated from the Crown, and assigned to the widowedqueen, Blanche of Navarre. By this princess it was held for forty-eightyears, when it once more reverted to the royal domains. But early in thesucceeding century, the town fell, together with the rest of France, under the victorious arms of our sovereign Henry V. And upon his demise, it was a third time selected as a portion of the dower of the royalwidow, Catherine, daughter of the French monarch, Charles VI. Her death, in 1438, restored it to England: but only to be held for the short termof eleven years, at which time, the reverses sustained by the Britishtroops, occasioned the expulsion of our monarchs from their continentaldominions. --From that period to the revolution, the lordship of Gournay, with the title of count, was constantly added by the French kings to thedignities of some one of the principal families of the realm; and inthis manner, it successively passed through different branches of thehouses of Harcourt, Orléans, Longueville, and Montmorenci. 

 [Illustration: Plate 39. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT AT GOURNAY. _View across the Nave into the North transept. _]

The church of St. Hildebert, [69] the subject of these plates, was, previously to the revolution, both parochial and collegiate. Itsfoundation is supposed to be of very high antiquity. There is, however, no proof of the precise period of the establishment of the chapter here. The earliest records upon the subject, bear date in the year 1180, andmerely mention it as being then in existence; but, according totradition, it was first fixed at the neighboring village of Brefmoutier, and was removed to Gournay by Hugh, the last of the Norman counts. Thesame Hugh is generally reported to have commenced the erection of thepresent church; but it is sufficiently known with how little accuracythe early historians are wont to express themselves on these subjects. The term, "to rebuild, " often means no more than to repair; so that itis in many cases more safe to judge from the style of a building itself, than from the records preserved to us respecting it. The architecture ofthe church of St. Hildebert would lead to the supposition, that aconsiderable portion of it was standing in its present state, at leastone hundred years anterior to the time of Hugh; and, even admitting suchto have been the case, there is still sufficient discrepancy in the restof the edifice to account for the well attested circumstance, that, atthe close of the thirteenth century, the church yet remained incomplete. The imperfect state of the building did not prevent its receiving thehonor of a dedication: this ceremony was performed in one of the lastyears of the twelfth century, by Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, in person, attended, as commonly happened, by a great concourse of the nobles andclergy of the province; and, in the first year of the following century, Herbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, passed over from England for theexpress purpose of doing honor by his presence to the translation of thereliques of St. Hildebert. The banishment of Hugh de Gournay andconfiscation of his property, which took place shortly after theseevents, deprived the canons of their liberal and powerful benefactor. Poverty caused the progress of the building to be suspended; and it wasonly by the aid of repeated indulgences, granted by the popes andarchbishops, [70] that it was finally brought to a state of completion. The two western towers are of a considerably more recent period: theywere erected in their present state, of wood, roofed with slate, in themiddle of the seventeenth century. The timber was supplied by theDuchess of Longueville, whose husband was at that time Count of Gournay;and the rest of the charge was defrayed by the sale of the materials ofa ruined chapel, dedicated to St. Julian, and of a small central tower, the only one originally attached to the building. 

The church is in the form of a cross; consisting of a nave with aisles, choir, and transepts. The west front (_plate thirty-eight_) is in theearliest style of pointed architecture, and evidently of the period ofthe same Hugh de Gournay, by whom the whole edifice is said to beraised. If compared with the same portion of the churches known to havebeen erected at a similar period in England, the closest resemblancewill be traced between them. That of Salisbury cathedral, the most nobleinstance of the kind in Britain, is later, and infinitely more richlyornamented. But in this at Gournay, the windows are the only portionthat have altogether escaped mutilation or alteration. The side portalswere evidently, in their original state, fronted with porches, whichhave now disappeared. Such has likewise been the case with the arches ofentrance; and mention has already been made of the posterior date of thetower. 

The _thirty-ninth plate_ exhibits a portion of the older part of theinterior of the church, and displays a style of architectureconsiderably prior to the period assigned for its rebuilding; so that noone can well doubt but that, as has been hinted above, though it may besaid to owe its existence to Hugh de Gournay, this assertion is to betaken only in a qualified sense. This plate contains the lastcompartment of the north side of the nave, and also admits a portion ofthe transept. Flanking the nave, on either hand, is a row of sevencolumns, supporting six arches. It is scarcely possible for the mostcasual observer not to be struck, immediately upon entering thebuilding, with the extreme massiveness and solidity of the piers. Theyare for the most part square, and only varied with a semi-cylindricalshaft attached to each of the four sides. Similar piers are to be foundin many of the village churches upon the coasts of Sussex and Surrey, the part of our island which, from its situation nearest to Normandy, ismost likely to retain genuine specimens of the earliest and purestNorman architecture. But the most remarkable character attending thepiers at Gournay is, that the sculpture upon them, instead of beingconfined as usual to the capitals of the pillars, is also continued overthe flat intermediate surface of the piers, extending to the same depthas the capitals, as if intended, by forming a band round the whole, toconnect it more closely in a kind of architectural unity. The pattern, however, in general varies as applied to the flat or circular sides. Thearches of the nave of the church are of a shape between what isgenerally termed the semi-circular and the horse-shoe arch; their centrebeing somewhat higher than the spring, but not remarkably so. Theclerestory windows above are all Norman; and the same is the case withthe great arches, originally intended to support the central tower;excepting, indeed, in that to the north, which has evidently undergonean alteration. 

 [Illustration: Plate 40. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT AT GOURNAY. _Capitals. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 41. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT AT GOURNAY. _Capitals. _]

_Plates forty_ and _forty-one_[71] are devoted to the capitals, the mostcharacteristic feature of the building. A more remarkable or a moreinteresting set, is not to be seen in any church throughout Normandy. Their character is by no means altogether the same as that of those atSt. Georges, or in the abbatial church of the Trinity at Caen. There areindeed monsters among them, but they are of unfrequent occurrence; and, if the expression may be allowed, they are not equally monstrous. Norare they of a description to appear to bear any reference to mythology, or to history. On the contrary, the sculpture on them is for the mostpart of great beauty; and the patterns display a fertile, and anelegant, if not a classical, taste on the part of the architects. Thegreatest peculiarity among them, and one that is believed to be whollyconfined to this church, is, that seven or eight of the pillars have, byway of capitals, a narrow projecting rim, carved with undulating lines. So frequent a repetition of the same ornament, and of an ornament sovery singular, removes the idea of accident. It has therefore beensupposed, that the intention of the sculptor was to exhibit a kind ofhieroglyphical representation of water. "Perhaps, " as has been observedelsewhere, [72] "it is the chamber of Sagittarius; or, perhaps, it is a_fess-wavy_, to which the same signification has been assigned byheralds. --If this interpretation be correct, the symbol is allusive tothe ancient situation of the town, built in a marsh, intersected by twostreams. "

The aisles of the church are in all parts ancient: their vaultingresembles that of Norwich cathedral, an arch springing from eachcapital. --Large windows of the decorated English style, and consequentlycomparatively modern, have been inserted, at the east end of the church, and at the extremity of the south transept; but, in both these parts, sufficient is left to shew the original design of the architect. In thelatter, it is evident that there once were, as there still remain in theopposite transept, four semi-circular-headed windows, disposed, to speakin heraldic language, 1, 2, and 1; while, in the former, were seven, placed 1, 2, and 4. Of the four lowest of these, the two outermost gavelight to the aisles. Each window was separated from the rest by ashallow undivided Norman buttress, built of squared freestone, andinterrupting the herring-bone masonry, which occupies the rest of theeast end, to the height of about five feet from the ground. 

NOTES:

[69] St. Hildebert is a name of rare occurrence in hagiology. He wasbishop of Meaux in the seventh century, but was not honored with a placein the calendar, till about three hundred years after his decease; atwhich time his reliques were carried to different parts of France, andfinally interred at Gournay. The church, on this occasion, changed itspatron, an event which commonly happened in those ages, and placeditself under the protection of the new saint, instead of theproto-martyr, to whom it had been originally dedicated. --Peter deNatalibus, in his _Catalogus Sanctorum_, says, that St. Hildebert endedhis life as Archbishop of Tours; and that he died in that city, and wasthere buried, "_ibique jacens in miraculis vivit_. " He speaks of himlikewise as an elegant scholar, and the author of a work, _de contemptuhujus vitæ_, written partly in verse, and partly in prose. 

[70] Of the last of these, which bears date in 1278, a copy, translatedfrom the Archiepiscopal Archives, is printed in the _ConciliaNormannica_, (II. P. 85, ) and is here inserted, not only on account ofthe information it affords concerning the church, but as a curiousspecimen of similar compositions:--

 "GUILLELMUS DE FLAVACURIA INDULGENTIAS ECCLESIÆ GORNACENSI CONCEDIT ANNO CHRISTI MCCLXXVIII. 

 "Guillelmus permissione divinâ Rotomagensis Archiepiscopus, universis præsentes literas inspecturis, salutem in Domino Jesu Christo. Cum, sicut accepimus, Ecclesia de Gournayo nostræ Diocesis, in qua Corpus B. Hildeverti requiescit, ita graviter sit oppressa, quòd ad sustentationem pauperum Clericorum ibi deservientium, necnon et ad reædificationem dictæ Ecclesiæ propriæ facultates non suppetant nisi fidelium subventionibus adjuvetur, maximè cùm prædicta Ecclesia amiserit redditus quos in Anglia solebat percipere annuatim. Nos de omnipotentis Dei misericordia et B. Mariæ semper Virginis genitricis ejus, beatorum Petri et Pauli, ac beatorum Confessorum Romani et Audoëni, et omnium Sanctorum meritis et intercessione confisi: Omnibus verè poenitentibus et confessis, qui ad dictam Ecclesiam causâ peregrinationis Dominicâ in qua canitur: _Isti sunt dies_, et die Sabbathi et die Veneris immediatè præcedentibus accesserint, vel prænominatæ Ecclesiæ manum suam porrexerint, adjutorium dictis diebus vel aliis eleemosynas largiendo, 40 dies de injunctis sibi poenitentiis misericorditer relaxamus. Datum Gournaii anno Domini 1278, die Veneris ante Festum B. Dionysii. "

[71] The capitals in the former of these plates are all selected fromthe nave; in the latter, those marked E, H, M, are taken from thecolumns placed at the intersection of the transepts; and G, I, K, and O, from the choir. L and N represent consols to ribs in the aisles. 

[72] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 44. 

PLATES XLII. AND XLIII. 

CHAPEL OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JULIEN, NEAR ROUEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 42. CHAPEL OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JULIEN, NEAR ROUEN. _South side. _]

The chapel figured in these plates is all that now remains of amonastery, which, at the period of the revolution, was one of the mostmagnificent in the vicinity of Rouen. It was then likewise almostaltogether new: Farin, in his history of the city, printed in 1731, states that, at the time when he wrote, the monks of the order of theChartreux, the then occupants of the priory, had just began to rebuildthe great cloister, according to a very simple and magnificentdesign. [73] But the revolutionary commotions levelled the whole with theground, sparing only the unassuming chapel, which has since served as awood-house for the neighboring farmer. 

The convent itself underwent many changes of owners. It was originallyfounded in 1183, by Henry II. King of England and Duke of Normandy, as apriory, under the invocation of St. Julien, for the reception ofunmarried females of rank, who, having the misfortune to be affectedwith leprosy, devoted themselves to a religious life. That terribledisease, happily almost unknown except by tradition, in our days, was inthose times of so frequent occurrence, that legislative enactments wererepeatedly necessary to restrain its ravages. In the history of thecouncils of the Norman church, allusions to the subject are often to befound. Lepers were forbidden to migrate, even from one lazar-house toanother; they were not allowed to set their foot in any city orfortress; and, in the event of their transgressing this order, and beingill-treated in consequence of such disobedience, no redress was to beafforded them. They could take rest in no inn, even for necessaryrefreshment. [74] By an especial order of the church of Bayeux, no onecould give alms to a leper, under pain of excommunication;[75] and thechurch of Coutances went still further, enjoining them never to appearwithout a particular kind of cope, by way of distinction, and never toattempt to dispose of the hogs which they were in the habit of fatting, except to such as labored under the same disease. Disobedience to thislast order, exposed both buyer and seller to a punishment, which soundsrather strange at this time, being _ad boni viri arbitrium_. [76] Inanother case, and nearly at the time of the foundation of the priory ofSt. Julien, it is upon record, that lepers were charged as engaged in ahorrible communion of crime with Jews. The latter were expelled fromFrance in 1321, upon the plea of their having been guilty ofadministering to the people potions of a poisonous quality; and thelepers were accused of having lent themselves as instruments in aidingand abetting. [77]

In the foundation-charter of the priory of St. Julien, Henry endows itwith an annual rental of two hundred livres, for the clothing andmaintenance of the nuns; and he gives them, in addition, the meadow ofQuevilli, in which parish the convent was situated, together with theprivilege of cutting their fire-wood, and feeding their cattle, in theforest there. Hence the monastery was indiscriminately known by the nameof _Salle du Roi_, _Salle des Pucelles_, _Notre Dame du Quevilli_, and_St. Julien du Parc_. 

In the year 1366, Charles V. King of France, being then at Rouen, transferred, by his letters patent, the convent of St. Julien, with allits appurtenances, which had by that time considerably increased, to thegreat hospital of the city, called the Magdalen. The prior of the latterestablishment was enjoined to take charge of the nuns, and to visit themdaily, for the purpose of recommending the soul of the king to theirprayers, in commemoration of the great benefits bestowed by him upon themonastery. Even down to the time of the revolution, this custom was to acertain degree maintained. The priest on duty during the week was boundto pronounce daily, with a loud voice, at the close of the eveningservice, "_Ames dévotes priez pour Charles V. Roi de France, et pour nosautres bienfaiteurs_;" and this was followed by the one hundred andtwenty-ninth psalm, and an appropriate prayer. The same ceremony was atthe same time performed by one of the nuns, among the females. 

After the union of the convent of St. Julien to the Magdalen, thesuperior of the hospital was in the habit of keeping a monk at thepriory, as a superintendant over the religious duties of the occupantsand temporal possessions of the foundation; and this state of thingscontinued till 1600, when, upon the destruction of the abbey upon MontSte Catherine, the friars of the latter establishment obtained from thehospital the cession of the deserted monastery, and occupied it forsixty-seven years. They then also in their turn resigned it, and it fellinto the hands of the Carthusians of Gaillon, who, uniting with theirbrethren of the same order at Rouen, formed a very opulent community, and resided here till the period when all monastic institutions ceasedthroughout France. 

Architecturally considered, the chapel is a building of greatinterest. [78] A more pure, or more perfect specimen of the Norman æra, is perhaps no where to be found. Without spire or tower, and dividedinto three parts of unequal length and height, the nave, the choir, andthe circular apsis, it resembles one of the meanest of our parishchurches in England. In its design, it is externally quite regular, being divided throughout its whole length, into small compartments, by arow of shallow buttresses, which rise from the ground to the eaves ofthe roof, without any partition into splays. Those on the south side, (see _plate forty-two_) are all, except the most eastern, still in theirprimeval state; but a buttress of a subsequent, though not very recent, date, has been built up against almost every one of the originalbuttresses on the north side, by way of support to the edifice. Eachdivision contains a single narrow circular-headed window; beneath whichis a plain moulding, continued uninterruptedly over the buttresses aswell as the wall. Another plain moulding runs nearly on a level with thetops of the windows, and takes the same circular form; but it isconfined to the spaces between the buttresses. There are no others. --Theentrance was by circular-headed doors, at the west end and south side, both of them very plain; but particularly the latter. The few ornamentsof the western are as perfect and as sharp, as if the whole were thework of yesterday. This part of the church has, however, been exposed toconsiderable injury, owing to its having joined the conventualbuildings. 

 [Illustration: Plate 43. CHAPEL OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JULIEN, NEAR ROUEN. _Interior. Choir and part of the Nave. _]

The interior of the chapel, however degraded from its original purpose, continues, like the exterior, almost perfect; but it is much more rich, uniting to the common ornaments of Norman architecture capitals of greatlabor. The ceiling is covered with paintings of scriptural subjects, which still remain. This discrepance of style between the outside of thebuilding and the inside, might lead to a suspicion that they had beenerected at different times; but there really seems to be no sufficientground for such an opinion. Those who attempt to decide upon the datesof Norman edifices, judging from the character of their ornaments, orthe comparative profusion of their decorations, will do well to reflect, that almost every building contains in itself a medley of what isbarbarous and classical, while no two can well vary more in the quantityof their ornaments, than the two abbatial churches of Caen; and yet theywere both of them, beyond dispute, productions of the self-same æra. --Itdeserves remark likewise, that two theories of directly oppositetendency, both of them perhaps equally plausible, have been started uponthis point. The partisans of one of these maintain, that the Normans, ontheir arrival in the more southern parts of Europe, found highlyornamented buildings, and, being themselves altogether ignorant of art, were content with copying what already existed; so that their progressin art was in a retrograde direction, from a classical style, to onecomparatively barbarous. On the other hand, it is averred, that thesereputed savages really imported with them the kind of architecture nowgenerally known by their name; and, in proportion as they improved inwealth, luxury, and refinement, drew nearer and nearer to the Romanmodel, either by dint of their own observations, or by the importationof Italian artists. The balance of probability appears at the firstglance to incline in favor of the latter of these opinions, as mostconsonant to the general march of human affairs. Perhaps, however, upona more attentive consideration, the former may appear nearer to thetruth: it is certain, that the style in architecture, which immediatelysucceeded what is commonly called Norman, is still farther removed fromthe Roman or the Greek; and it is equally certain, that the Normanitself has different characters in different parts of Europe. That ofEngland varies to a certain degree from what is seen in Normandy: thelatter still more so from the German, and the German from that of thesouth of France; while, in the north of Italy, and in Sicily, it isagain found with features unlike those of other countries, and equallyunlike those of each other. In all, the discrepancies most probablyarise from the styles peculiar to the several nations, previously to theirruptions of the northern hordes. The subject is, at all events, deserving of investigation and reflection. 

NOTES:

[73] Vol. V. P. 370. 

[74] _Concilia Normannica_, II. P. 72. 

[75] _Ibidem_, p. 239. 

[76] _Ibidem_, p. 545. 

[77] _Ibidem_, I. P. 175. 

[78] The greater part of what follows is borrowed from _Turner's Tour inNormandy_, I. P. 128. 

PLATES XLIV. --XLVI. 

CHURCH OF LÉRY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 44. CHURCH OF LÉRY, NEAR PONT-DE-L'ARCHE. _General view looking south east. _]

It is not in the vicinity of Rouen, nor indeed in any portion of thedistrict formerly known under the denomination of _Upper Normandy_, thatthe curious traveller must seek for the most interesting remains ofearly ecclesiastical architecture in the province. The village churches, throughout this portion of the duchy, are for the most part small andinsignificant, and of comparatively modern erection; while, in thevicinity of Caen, and indeed in the whole of the departments of Calvadosand of La Manche, a large proportion of them are unquestionablyreferable to the times of Norman dominion, and exhibit some of thepurest specimens of real Norman art. The solution of this question mustin all probability be sought for in the political state of the province;and no more obvious answer seems to present itself, than is afforded bya reference to the local character of its two great divisions, of which, Upper Normandy, consisting greatly of a border country, exposed to thecontinual ravages of warfare from its more powerful neighbor, withdifficulty preserved such of its public buildings as were defended bythe walls of the fortresses; and often gladly compounded for the secureexistence of these, by the sacrifice of the harvest, the cottage, andthe parochial church. 

Yet, even here, some of the ecclesiastical buildings have escaped thehand of time and violence; and among these, few, if any, more completelythan that of Léry, a village situated upon the right bank of the Eure, at a distance of about two miles from Pont de l'Arche, and nearly thesame from Louviers. 

Léry gives its name to the adjoining _commune_; and it may reasonably beinferred, that it was in former times a place of more importance, thanwould be imagined from its present appearance. The ingenious andestimable M. Langlois, of Rouen, in a work[79] which he commenced uponthe antiquities of Normandy, and in which he has figured the west frontof this church, tells us, that but a few years since, Léry could boastof several specimens of domestic architecture of unusual size andembellishment. Of one of these, an engraving has lately been given by M. Willemin, in his exquisite _Monumens Inédits de la France_. It was knownby the name of the Palace of Queen Blanche; and if, by the Blanche inquestion, is to be understood the Princess of Navarre, consort of PhilipVI. Who died in 1350, there is nothing in the exterior of the buildingto prevent its being ascribed to that æra. It was entered by a flatdoor-way, under a wide, pointed, crocketed arch; the transom-stoneenriched with a trefoil-headed moulding; and the whole portal surmountedwith a balustrade of quatrefoils. But, unfortunately, nothing more cannow be said of the building, than is supplied by the plate in question. It had, in its earlier time, repeatedly suffered from the effects offire; and a similar calamity completed its ruin, during the month ofJune, 1814. The lower part of the walls and the gothic portal are allthat are left standing, to attest the original size and magnificence ofthe palace. 

The church of Léry is referred by M. Langlois to the æra of theCarlovingian dynasty, a period that extended from the middle of theseventh century, to the concluding years of the tenth. Its claim to soextraordinarily high a degree of antiquity, is founded, in his opinion, upon the resemblance borne by the columns and capitals of the westfront, particularly those of the windows, to the same parts in the cryptof the abbey of St. Denis, generally supposed to be the joint work ofPepin and of Charlemagne. But these latter decidedly partake more of thecharacter of the classical model, [80] while every member throughout thewhole front of Léry, (_see plate forty-five_) may find a parallel inother Norman churches; or, if an exception is to be made to so sweepingan assertion, it can only be in favor of the second and largest mouldingin the archivolt of the portal, which is very peculiar. The two lateralpointed windows are obviously an introduction of a subsequent period;and a doubt may likewise perhaps be entertained with regard to thebuttresses. This front is small indeed, but elegant: it is more richlyornamented than that of the chapel in the castle at Caen;[81] and, though less so than that of the abbey church of St. Georges deBocherville, yet can it scarcely be said to be inferior in beauty. Arecent tourist[82] has remarked, with much apparent probability, thatthe churches of St. Georges and of Léry may, from the general conformityin the style of both, reasonably be regarded as of nearly the sameæra, --the time of the Norman conquest; and he goes on to add that, through these, the English antiquary may be enabled to fix the date to aspecimen of ancient architecture in his own country, more splendid thaneither, --the church of Castle-Rising, [83] in Norfolk, whose west frontis so much on the same plan, that it can scarcely have been erected at avery different period. 

The church of Léry (_see plate forty-four_) is built in the form of across, having in the centre a short square tower, to which has beenattached, in modern times, a wretched wooden spire. This Mr. Cotman hasvery judiciously omitted, as adding nothing to the interest of theplate, and merely tending to deform what is otherwise seen in nearly thesame state in which it left the hands of the original builders. Thecorbel-table, observable immediately under the top of the tower, and insome parts of the choir and transepts, exhibits the same description ofmonsters, as in the church of St. Paul at Rouen, of the Holy Trinity atCaen, and other Norman religious buildings. --Two peculiarities attendingupon the exterior of the church are, that the east end is flat, and thatthe transepts are altogether without buttresses. 

 [Illustration: Plate 45. CHURCH OF LÉRY, NEAR PONT-DE-L'ARCHE. _West Front. _]

 [Illustration: Plate 46. CHURCH OF LÉRY, NEAR PONT-DE-L'ARCHE. _Interior. _]

In the interior (_plate forty-six_) it is impossible not to be struckwith the extraordinary simplicity and solidity of the whole. The onlyaim of the architect appears to have been to erect an edifice thatshould last for ever. A double row of pillars and arches separates thenave into three parts of unequal width; and another arch, of greaterspan, divides it from the chancel. The arches are in every instancedevoid of mouldings; the capitals are altogether without ornamentalsculpture of any description; and the pillars are even unsupported bybases. Indeed, the pillars are nothing more than rounded piers; and theyare not less remarkable for their proportions, than for theirsimplicity, their diameter being equal to full two-thirds of theirheight. Hence it is scarcely possible not to entertain the suspicionthat the floor may have been raised; but there is nothing in theappearance of the church to justify such an idea. It is scarcelynecessary to mention, that the figures of saints placed upon bracketsagainst the spandrils of the arches, are all modern. Their execution iswretched; and its imperfection is rendered but the more apparent, bytheir having been painted in imitation of living nature. Thestring-course, which runs immediately above their heads, is placed in avery uncommon situation. It is composed of the nail-head ornament, initself a sufficient proof of its antiquity; and also, as is observed byMr. Cotman, of such rarity in Normandy, that he does not recollect tohave met with another instance of it. 

The windows of the church of Léry were formerly filled with paintedglass, representing very curious subjects, taken from the life of St. Louis; but every vestige of the kind has now disappeared. From thechurch-yard, which stands upon a considerable elevation, immediatelyabove the banks of the Eure, are seen, upon an opposite hill beyond theriver, the ruins of the once celebrated convent, known by the name ofthe _Priory of the Two Lovers_. 

NOTES:

[79] _Recueil de quelques vues de sites et Monumens de la France, spécialement de Normandie, et des divers Costumes des Habitans de cetteProvince. _--Of this work, the first number, containing eight plates, appeared in Rouen, in 1816; but, unfortunately, it did not meet withsufficient encouragement to be ever followed by a second. 

[80] See _Howlett's Plan and Views of the Abbey Royal of St. Denis_, plate 6. 

[81] See plate 48. 

[82] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 188. 

[83] _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk_, plate 35. 

PLATE XLVII. 

CHURCH OF COLOMBY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 47. ELEVATIONS OF THE CHURCH OF COLOMBY NEAR VALOGNES. ]

The church of Colomby, to use the language of M. De Gerville, is one ofthe last of the religious edifices built by those powerful barons, whosesway extended equally over Normandy and England. No records, indeed, areleft either as to the actual time of its erection, or the name of itsfounder. With respect, however, to the former, the style of thearchitecture is sufficiently decisive; and there is as little cause forhesitation in referring its origin to a nobleman allied to the family ofthe Conqueror. 

Baldwin de Brionis, or de Molis, who accompanied that monarch in hisexpedition against England, and was afterwards married to his niece, wasrewarded by him for his services, with the barony of Okehampton, wherehe resided, as well as with the custody of the county of Devon, and thegovernment of Exeter castle, in fee. The earldom of the same county, together with a grant of the Isle of Wight, was conferred by Henry I. Upon the son of Baldwin, Richard de Redvers; and, either in the same orthe following generation, this powerful family obtained a still fartheraccession to its riches and honors, in the possession of Néhou, aconsiderable portion of the barony of St. Sauveur le Vicomte, whichNéel, Viscount of the Cotentin, had forfeited in 1047. The domain ofNéhou included a collegiate church; and one of the prebends of this wasattached to the second portion of the church of Colomby. 

It appears from three inquiries instituted at different times by thebishops of Coutances, with a view to ascertain the value of the livingsin their diocese, that, in the years 1255, 1666, and 1737, Colomby wasunder two separate ministers; one of them nominated by the lord, theother by the abbey of Montbourg. [84]

Almost all the noblemen of the family of Redvers, who, after theconquest of England, commonly assumed the additional name of Vernon, were distinguished by the baptismal appellation of Baldwin, William, orRichard. The first of the Richards laid the foundation of the monasteryof Montbourg. He died there in 1107, after having enriched his risingconvent with numerous donations, and, among others, with the secondportion of Colomby. Baldwin, his son and successor, confirmed thedonations: he took arms against King Stephen, and was forced by thatmonarch to flee from England in 1136; shortly after which time hecompleted the abbey begun by his father, and caused it to be dedicatedin 1152: three years subsequently, he died. A second Richard, whosucceeded him in his honors, as Earl of Devonshire and Lord of Néhou, died in 1162; and a third of the same name, in 1184. This last, notcontent with merely confirming the donations made by his ancestors toMontbourg, materially increased them: he also added to the collegiatechurch of Néhou, a fifth prebend, which he conferred upon one of theministers of Colomby; and it was by him, according to the opinion of M. De Gerville, that the church, the subject of the present article, wasbuilt. 

A few years only elapsed after the decease of this chieftain, beforeNormandy became re-united to the crown of France; and one of the firstacts of Philip-Augustus, who then sat upon the throne, was to registerthe fiefs of his new province, their several possessors, and the serviceowed by each. This took place in the year 1207; and Néhou, which wasbound to furnish the monarch with five horse-soldiers, was at that timein the possession of Richard of Vernon, a nobleman of whom no notice isto be found in the genealogy of the lords of the Isle of Wight. Theregister records the fact in the following terms:--"Ric. De Vernon tenetbaroniam de Neahou per servicium quimque militum. Guillelmus de Vernontenet inde duo feoda et dimidium. "--

The church of Colomby is in perfect preservation, unspoiled andundefaced by modern alterations or additions, saving only that of aporch at the western extremity. For simplicity and uniformity it cannotbe surpassed; nor can any building be better qualified to afford aspecimen of the religious architecture of the times. Though destituteboth of transept and aisles, the tower is central: the east endterminates in a flat wall. The columns within are clustered and light;formed of stone, which unites, in an eminent degree, the advantage ofgreat strength with that of yielding easily to the chisel, and which isdug from the quarries of Yvetot, near Valognes. The same quarries alsofurnished the principal part of the stone employed in the constructionof the cathedral of Coutances. The plate exhibits at C. The elevation ofthe south side of the church; to which have been added, for the morecomplete understanding of the subject, A. _The west front. _ B. _East end. _ D. _South door-way to the chancel. _ E. _A single window. _

NOTES:

[84] The words used upon this subject in the Inquisition of 1255, madeby Jean d'Essey, then bishop of Coutances, are as follows:--"Eccliæ deColombeo patronus Abbas Montisburgi pro medietate et percipit duasgarbas de portione sua. Rector percipit terciam cum altalagio. Gulielmusde Rivers patronus pro alia medietate. Rector percipit omnia. "--The twofollowing inquisitions state in express terms, that the first portionwas under the patronage of the lord. 

PLATE XLVIII. 

CHAPEL IN THE CASTLE AT CAEN. 

The Castle at Caen was built by William the Conqueror, whose son, HenryI. Though commonly reputed its founder, in reality confined himself toraising the walls and adding the keep, which latter was levelled withthe ground, by virtue of a decree of the National Convention, dated 6thAugust, 1793. By the same decree, it was still farther enacted, that thecastle itself should be demolished; but the wisdom of therepresentatives of the sovereign people failed in this, as in many otherinstances, by not duly appreciating the difficulties attendant upon theexecution of their edict: these proved to be so great, that the workmenwere compelled to desist, when comparatively but little progress hadbeen made in the work of destruction. 

It is expressly stated in the _Norman Chronicle_, that a castle, thoughof smaller size, previously existed upon the same spot. In opposition, however, to this assertion, we are told by Robert Wace, that at the timewhen Henry I. Of France, in his expedition against the Conqueror, in1054, advanced with his army as far as the banks of the Seville, hetraversed the town of Caen without resistance: "it being _sans chastel_, and the Duke not having yet surrounded it with walls. " But may not thisapparent contradiction be reconciled, by admitting that the words of thehistorian are only to be taken in a comparative sense? It is possible, that Wace intended to convey no farther meaning than that the town wasnot then fortified, as in his time; and such a supposition would causeevery difficulty to vanish. 

The Castle, as early as the eleventh century, was placed under thesuperintendance of a constable; and the office was, in 1106, madehereditary in the family of Robert Fitz-Hamon, Lord of Creuly, by whom, and his heirs, it continued to be held till the closing year of the samecentury. Under the reign of the last of the Norman Dukes, the keep had agovernor of its own, distinct from that of the castle; and he wasdignified with the title of _Constable of the Tower of Caen_; but, uponthe reduction of the province by Philip-Augustus, Caen itself, togetherwith the castle and its dungeon, was all committed to the charge of asingle officer, denominated the _Captain_. Such also appears to havecontinued the case, except during the reign of Louis XI. When oneRaymond d'Argeau is recorded to have been the _Garde particulier duDonjon_. The timid policy of a suspicious prince might naturally suggestthe idea of greater safety, in not allowing the power over so importanta fortress to be vested in any single hand. 

 [Illustration: Plate 48. CHAPEL IN THE CASTLE AT CAEN. ]

The Castle at Caen was the place on which the different lordships, attached to the dignity of Viscount of Caen, directly or indirectly, depended. Almost all of them were held upon the condition of some annualcontribution, consisting either of arrows, or quivers, or bows, orswords, or cuirasses, or other description of ancient armor. In time ofwar, the vassals of these different lords were likewise bound to mountguard at the castle; but most of the parishes purchased an exemptionfrom this service, by means of a pecuniary payment. Thus it is uponrecord that, in the year 1383, the parish of Méry compounded forfifty-six livres annually, and that of Cléville for thirty-two livresten sols. By the tenure of others among the dependencies of thebailiwick, it was stipulated, according to M. De Bourgueville, that theyshould supply the castle with provisions, in the event of war. 

The sums arising from these various contributions, were employed for thepay and maintenance of the garrison: in 1369, the salary of the governorof Caen was fixed at one thousand livres annually; half of it arisingfrom the revenues of the Viscounty of Caen, the other moiety from thoseof the Viscounty of Bayeux. The garrison, during the fourteenth century, was limited in time of peace to six esquires and ten crossbow-men. Evenduring the short period of English power, the governor was allowed forthe defence of the place only thirty heavy-armed soldiers and ninetyarchers, half of their number being mounted. Upon the capture of Caen byCharles VII. In 1450, that monarch left in the castle a garrisonamounting to nearly three hundred soldiers; and this number was notreduced below one hundred and forty, upon the conclusion of the peace. 

The above particulars, translated almost verbatim from the Abbé De laRue's recent publication upon Caen, [85] do not place the castle, as afortress, in the important light which might reasonably have beenexpected, considering its reputed strength and its great extent. Monstrelet, [86] speaking of it in his own time, says, "it is thestrongest in all Normandy, fortified with high and great bulwarks of avery hard stone, situated upon a rock, and containing in extent as muchas the whole town of Corbeil. " De Bourgueville[87] enters, as might beexpected, more at large into the subject. His description is full andinteresting. [88]

A short time previously to the revolution, when Caen was visited byDucarel, [89] the greater part of the castle was much out of order, having been altogether neglected; but the dungeon had then latelyundergone a thorough repair, and was used as a place of confinement forstate prisoners, and for such others, as by _lettres de cachet_, obtained at the joint request of their family, were deprived of theirliberty, in order to prevent their incurring the disgrace, after havingbeen exposed to the misfortune, of poverty. 

On the subject of its present condition, we learn from Mr. Turner, [90]that, "degraded as it is in its character by modern innovation, it ismore deserving of notice as an historical, than as an architectural, relic; but that it still claims to be reckoned as a place of defence, though it retains but few of its original features. The spacious, loftycircular towers, which flanked its ramparts, known by the names of theblack, the white, the red, and the grey horse, have been brought down tothe level of the platform. The dungeon-tower is destroyed; and all thegrandeur of the Norman castle is lost, though the width of its ditches, and the thickness of its walls, still testify its ancientstrength. "--The same author proceeds to state, that "there are reasonsfor supposing that Caen, when first founded, only occupied the site ofthe present castle; and that, when it became advisable to convert theold town into a fortress, the inhabitants migrated into the valleybelow. "--He adds, upon the authority of De Bourgueville, that "sixthousand infantry could be drawn up in battle array, within the outerballium; and that so great was the number of houses and of inhabitants, inclosed within the area, that it was thought expedient to build in it aparochial church, dedicated to St. George, besides two chapels. "

One of these chapels has been supposed to be the subject of the presentplate; but the high authority of the Abbé De la Rue[91] seems to rendersuch a supposition at least doubtful. Indeed, the reverend authorenumerates no fewer than six chapels within the precincts of the castle, without, however, entering upon a description of the remains of any oneof them. At the same time, he particularly notices the religiousbuilding here figured, evidently regarding it as having served formerlyfor a parochial church. At present, it is desecrated, and is devoted tothe office of a military storehouse. M. De la Rue regards it as beingnot only the oldest architectural relic in Caen, but as an erection ofthe tenth century. He founds this opinion upon its construction, destitute of any tower; upon the circular arches of its door andwindows; upon its zig-zag mouldings; upon the monsters of itscorbel-table; and, above all, upon the peculiarity of its position; thechoir being turned to the west, and the front to the east. It was, according to him, in the eleventh century, that the practice, nowuniformly adopted, of placing churches in an opposite direction, wasfirst introduced. The irregularity of the early Norman religiousedifices, in this latter respect, has already been noticed under apreceding article. [92]

NOTES:

[85] _Essais Historiques_, II. P. 272. 

[86] _Chronicles_, (Johnes' Translation) III. P. 472. 

[87] _Recherches et Antiquitez de la Ville de Caen_, p. 19. 

[88] Indeed, so detailed and curious is this account, that, thoughrather long, it appears desirable here to insert it. --"Reste à present àdescrire la situation de ce superbe chasteau, lequel est apparent ethaut eslevé comme une couronne et propugnacle à ceste grande ville, il aesté de tout tems l'un des premiers de ce royaume en beauté, grandeur, et forteresse pour estre assis sur un roc naturel, venteux, non sujet àla mine, ny escalade, accompaigné de son donjon, au mitan duquel esteslevee une tour carree d'une admirable grosseur et hauteur, circuye defortes murailles, et aux coings quatre grosses et hautes tours rondes àplate forme à plusieurs estages, que l'on a nommees, l'une le chevalblanc, l'autre le cheval noir, la tierce le cheval rouge, et la quatrele cheval grix, lesquelles seruent par aucunes fois pour enfermer lesplus insignes voleurs, les fossez de ce donion sont à fonds de cuuecomme ceux de ce chasteau d'une epouuantable profondeur, tellementqu'ils ne sont suiets à l'escalade, le belle ou basse court de cechasteau est de si ample estendue qu'on y peut mettre en ordre debataille pour combatre cinq ou six mil hommes de pied, et y peut onloger nombre de caualerie pour faire des saillies sur un campadversaire, les croniques contiennent qu'il y a plusieurs villes enFrance moindres que ce chasteau, comme Corbeil et Mont Ferant, i'yaiousterai Quarantan en basse Normandie, il y a si bon nombre de maisonset habitans, qu'il contient une eglise parrochiale en son circuit fondeede saint George, et deux chapeles, l'une de saint Gabriel, et l'autre desaint Agnen, son contour contient un bon nombre de carneaux de visiereset de tours, et l'enclos du donion contient aussi nombre de carneaux, etquatre grosses tours sans celle du parmy, il y a encores au de là dudonjon une grande terrasse, qu'on appele la Roqueste d'une admirableforteresse de rampars, puis une grande place que l'on appele la garenneà connins, où l'on peut mettre en seureté un bon nombre de bestaux pourla fourniture de viures de ce chasteau durant un siege. Et à la veritéles grands seigneurs et chefs de guerre qui ont veu cette place, laremarquent, et tiennent comme inexpugnables, d'autant même qu'elle estfortifiee de rampars de trente ou quarante pieds de largeur, et ne sepeut vaincre sans trahison, faute de coeur ou de viures, aussi noz Roisy ont tousiours pourueus de vaillans seigneurs et capitaines. "

[89] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 49. 

[90] _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 170. 

[91] _Essais Historiques sur la Ville de Caen_, I. P. 83. 

[92] See the Description of the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity, atCaen, p. 30. 

PLATES XLIX. --LII. 

CATHEDRAL AT ROUEN. 

 [Illustration: Plates 49-50. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT ROUEN. _South transept from the Place de la Calende. _]

The merit of first introducing the light of Christianity into that partof France, which has subsequently been known by the differentappellations of Westria, Neustria, and Normandy, is commonly attributedto St. Nicaise; whose name is therefore generally permitted to stand atthe head of the prelates of the archiepiscopal see of Rouen. St. Nicaise, according to the traditions of the Norman church, lived aboutthe middle of the third century, and was dispatched from Rome, incompany with the more illustrious St. Denis, upon an express missionfrom Pope Clement, to preach the gospel at Rouen, then the capital ofthe gallic tribe, the Velocasses. But it is admitted on all hands, thathe never reached the place of his destination. The many miracles hewrought by the way, consisting principally of the destruction ofdragons[93] and conversion of pagan priests, had rendered him obnoxiousto Fescenninus, the Roman governor of the province; and the saint wasconsequently doomed to suffer the pains, not without receiving the palm, of martyrdom. 

 [Illustration: Plates 51-52. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT ROUEN. _West front from the Place Notre Dame. _]

To Nicaise, succeeded St. Mello, a native of England, who, in theperformance of his duty, to carry the annual tribute from Britain to theRoman emperor, was converted by the pontiff; and, if credit may be givento the legends recounted by Pommeraye, [94] was, in the presence of thePope, invested by an angel from heaven with the pastoral staff; and, atthe same time, enjoined to take upon himself the spiritual jurisdictionover Rouen and its vicinity. A mission thus constituted, and stillfarther verified by the gift of miracles, could not fail of the desiredend. St. Mello not only succeeded in converting the lower class of thepagans, but he likewise reckoned many of the principal citizens amonghis disciples; and one of these, of the name of Precordius, ceded to himhis house, on the site of which was built the first Christian place ofworship known in Rouen. Hence, in the following distich, OrdericusVitalis, entirely passing over Nicaise, places St. Mello at the head ofthe line of the Norman prelates:--

 "Antistes sanctus Mellonus, in ordine _primus_, Excoluit plebem doctrinâ Rothomagensem. "--

Of the duration or history of the church thus erected, nothing is known;but it is certain that, from that time forward, Christianity continuedto gain ground in Normandy, and the annals of the see have preserved anuninterrupted catalogue of the bishops. Indeed, the conversion ofConstantine, which happened only a few years after the death of St. Mello, necessarily gave a new aspect to the religion of the Romanempire. 

Succeeding prelates are stated in general terms to have manifested theirzeal, in building new churches, as well as in enlarging and ornamentingthat of the capital; and Pommeraye suggests, [95] but only as a matter ofgreat probability, that a second cathedral was raised by Victrice, orsome one of his immediate successors, in the fifth century. With anequal, or still stronger degree of probability, it has been inferredthat, admitting a new church had been erected, it could not fail to havebeen destroyed during the incursions of the heathen Normans, whose trackthroughout Neustria was ever marked by fire and sword, and whose avariceprompted them, no less powerfully than their superstition, to make thereligious edifices the principal objects of their vengeance. Prior tothe arrival of these barbarians, the archiepiscopal chair had beenfilled by four prelates, eminent for their sanctity, St. Godard, St. Pretextat, St. Romain, and St. Ouen. The second of these, assassinatedbefore the altar, at the instigation of Fredegond, queen of Chilperic, holds nearly the same place in the martyrology of the Gallican church, as Thomas-à-Becket in that of England. St. Ouen was a prelate who hadfew rivals in munificence and splendor. Numerous monasteries throughoutthe province, and, above all, the splendid one that bore his name, testify the greatness of his mind, as well as the extent of his power:his sovereign, Dagobert, honored him with his friendship, and conferredupon him the dignity of chancellor of the realm. 

But the fame of St. Ouen, and of all the others, was eclipsed by that ofSt. Romain, by virtue of whose _privilege_, as it was generally called, the chapter of the cathedral continued till the revolution annually toexercise the right of delivering a criminal, whatever his offence, except treason, from the hand of the secular power. This singularprivilege, according to general tradition, had been earned by thedestruction of a dragon, called the _Gargouille_, which was long theterror of the adjacent country; and in his expedition the saint had beenunable to procure himself any other aid than that of a murderer, alreadyunder sentence of death. Hence, the prelate has commonly been regardedas little less than the tutelar divinity of the city. Portraits of him, all of them designated by the attendant dragon and criminal, were to beseen on the celebrated windows of stained glass in the church of St. Godard, as well as at the entrance of the town by the _porte Bouvreuil_, and probably in many other places: a building at the top of thestaircase, leading into the cloth-hall, was called his chapel; anotherchapel is to the present day consecrated to him in the cathedral itself;the northern tower of the same building bears his name; his shrine isstill preserved among the choicest treasures of the sacristy; and eventhe bases of some of the pillars of the nave are carved into a fancifulresemblance of the fabulous _Gargouille_. 

Dom Pommeraye, than whom no author was ever more superstitious and morecredulous, at the same time that he terms this privilege one of the mostvaluable and most noble rights of the church of Rouen, [96] admits thatthe origin of it is lost in obscurity. He adduces, however, anhistorical document, to prove its existence during the reign of theNorman Dukes; and, while he candidly states the difference of opinionamong learned men on the subject, some of them treating the story asallegorical, others setting it wholly aside, and regarding the privilegemerely as a special act of grace conceded to the church, in honor of theAscension, on the anniversary of which festival it was exercised, hetakes care to record his own firm belief in the miracle, and he callsupon all pious Christians to unite with him in supporting itsauthenticity. 

Upon the conversion of Rollo to Christianity, and the consequenterection of Normandy into a distinct dukedom, Rouen, as the metropolisof the new state, necessarily acquired additional importance, and itschurch additional lustre. Questions have arisen as to the spot where thefirst church was built, but no doubt is to be entertained of theexistence of the cathedral, during the reign of Rollo, on the same sitewhich it occupies at present; for that prince himself was buried in it, as was his son, William Longue-Epée, and their remains continue theretill this time[97]. Richard I. The son of William, and his successor onthe ducal throne, is expressly stated by Dudo of St. Quintin, to havemade great additions, both in length, width, and height, to the"admirable church" (_mirabile monasterium_) at Rouen, dedicated to theHoly Virgin. [98] The same author says, in terms which admit of nomisconstruction, that Robert, the son to this Duke, who was archbishopof Rouen, and by the splendor of his works won to himself the epithet ofthe _magnificent_, "completed the church, by the addition of the wholechoir, and by the work on the eastern side. "

The church, raised by Robert, was dedicated by Archbishop Maurilius, in1063; but its term of duration appears to have been unaccountably short;for it is recorded that, after the lapse of less than a century, theclergy of the cathedral directed their attention towards the building ofa new one; and that the year 1200 had not arrived before some progresswas already made in the execution of their plan. All precise dates, however, connected with this subject, are lost: the various wars thathave ravaged this part of France; the numerous sieges to which the cityof Rouen itself has been exposed; and the repeated changes of masters ithas undergone;--these, with the addition of occasional injuries fromfire and pillage, have effectually destroyed the archives of the townand cathedral. 

Authors have differed strangely regarding the remains of the churcherected by the Norman Dukes. Some of them, and indeed the greaternumber, assert that no small part of the structure now in existencebelonged to the building consecrated by Maurilius: others maintain, thatnot one stone of this latter has been left upon another. The truth seemsto be, that a small portion of the eastern side of the present northerntower, known by the name of the tower of St. Romain, is really of Normanworkmanship, but that nothing else throughout the cathedral is so, excepting, possibly, the lateral doorways in the western front. Thewhole of the tower just mentioned, up to its highest tier of windows, isevidently the most ancient part of the building, and is apparently ofthe architecture of the latter part of the twelfth century. The church, considered collectively, is so obviously the work of different æras, that there can be little risk in hazarding the assertion, that it hasbeen raised by piece-meal, on various occasions, as may either have beensuggested by the piety of potentates and prelates, or may have beenrequired by the state of religion or of the edifice itself. 

What is known as to the dates of the building is, that the southerntower was begun in 1485, and completed in 1507; that the first stone ofthe central portal was laid in 1509; and that the Lady-Chapel, thoughcommenced during some of the earliest years of the fourteenth century, and finished in the middle of the fifteenth, contains work of the year1538. At this last period, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise restored the roofof the choir, which had been injured in 1514, by the destruction of thespire. The square short central tower was erected A. D. 1200: it replacedone that had been damaged eighty years before, when the original stonespire of the church was struck by lightning. From that time forward, noattempt had been made to rebuild the spire, except with wood, of whichmaterial, that now in existence is the second. The first was destroyedby a fire, occasioned by the negligence of plumbers, in the beginning ofthe sixteenth century; the present suffered material injury from asimilar accident, in 1713, and narrowly escaped entire destruction. 

The western front of the cathedral, represented in plate _fifty-one_, offers a _tout-ensemble_ of the most imposing character. The verydiscrepancy in the different parts, by increasing the variety, adds tothe effect of the whole. All, with the exception of the northern tower, is rich, even to exuberance; and the simplicity of this, at the sametime that it appears to lay claim to a certain dignity for itself, places in a stronger light the gorgeous splendor of the rest. Theopposite tower, the work of the celebrated Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, and formerly the receptacle of the great bell that bore his name, commonly passes by the appellation of the _Tour de Beurre_. Traditiontells, or, to use the words of Dom Pommeraye, "every body knows" that itobtained this name from its being built with the money raised from theindulgence granted by the Cardinal, William d'Estouteville, to the piouscatholics throughout the dioceses of Rouen and Evreux, allowing them tomake use of milk and butter during Lent, when oil only could otherwisehave been employed by way of sauce to vegetables and fish. The bullissued upon the occasion, by Pope Innocent VIII. Is stated to be stillin existence. [99] The architecture of this tower may almost be regardedas the perfection of what has been called the decorated English style:it is copiously enriched with pinnacles and statues, and terminates in abeautiful octagonal crown of open stone-work. Its height is two hundredand thirty French feet. [100]

The central portal, for the erection of which the cathedral is likewiseindebted to its great benefactor, Georges d'Amboise, projectsbeautifully and boldly, like a porch, before the rest: every side of itis filled with niches, tier over tier, all crowded with endless figuresof saints and martyrs. In the middle of it rises a pyramidal canopy ofopen stone-work; and upon the wide transom-stone over the door, issculptured the genealogical tree of Christ, arising from the root ofJesse. The carving over the north entrance is yet more peculiar, andevidently far older. It represents the decapitation of the Baptist, with"Salome dancing in an attitude, which perchance was often assumed by the_tombesteres_ of the elder day; affording, by her position, a graphicalcomment upon the Anglo-Saxon version of the text, in which it is said, that she _tumbled_ before King Herod. "[101] Four turrets flank thecentral portal: one of them only is now capped by a spire: the pinnaclesof the remaining three were swept away by a storm which traversedNormandy for a considerable extent, on the twenty-fifth of June, 1683, marking its progress with a devastation that is scarcely to beconceived. [102]

The spire of the central tower, however vaunted and admired by theFrench themselves, looks to an unprejudiced eye mean and shabby; andprincipally from its being made of wood, which ill accords with theapparent solidity of the rest of the building. 

The entrances to the transepts, however inferior in splendor to thegrand western front, are still not such as to disgrace it; and, considered attentively as to their sculptured medallions, they are evenmore curious. The northern one is approached through a passage linedwith rows of the meanest houses, formerly the shops of transcribers andcalligraphists; and hence the singular gate-way that incloses the court, passes commonly under the name of _Le Portail des Libraires_. Theopposite transept, (see _plate forty-nine_, ) is called _Le Portail de laCalende_, an appellation borrowed from the _Place de la Calende_, uponwhich it opens; and which, though in reality far from spacious, appearsaltogether so by comparison. On each side of the entrances to both thetransepts, is a lofty square tower, "such as are usually seen only inthe western front of a cathedral; the upper story perforated by agigantic window, divided by a single mullion or central pillar, notexceeding one foot in circumference, and nearly sixty feet in height. These windows are entirely open; and the architect never intended theyshould be glazed. An extraordinary play of light and shade results fromthis construction. "[103] The rose windows, which are placed as well overthe entrances of the transepts, as over the greater one to the west, areno less magnificent in their dimensions, than beautiful in theirpatterns, and gorgeous in their colors. Much of the stained glass of thecathedral is also very rich. 

Mr. Dibdin, in his splendidly-illustrated Tour, [104] remarks with muchjustice, that "a person, on entering the church by the western door, cannot fail to be struck with the length and loftiness of the nave, andwith the lightness of the gallery which runs along the upper part of it, and which is continued also throughout the choir. " He goes on to add, "perhaps the nave is too narrow for its length. The lantern of thecentral large tower is beautifully light and striking. It is supportedby four massive clustered pillars, about forty feet in circumference;but the eye, on looking downwards, is shocked at the tasteless divisionof the choir from the nave, by what is called a _Grecian screen_; andthe interior of the transepts has also undergone a like tastelessrestoration. "

The cathedral at Rouen was the burial-place of many men of eminence anddistinction. Rollo and William Longue Epée have already been mentionedas interred here. The church also contained the lion-heart of the firstEnglish Richard, and the remains of his elder brother, Henry; togetherwith those of William, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet; of the Regent Dukeof Bedford; and of Charles V. Of France. The tombs of these, and ofvarious other individuals of high rank, are described at length byPommeraye; but the outrages of the Calvinists and the democrats, addedto the removals occasioned by the alterations made at various times inthe building, have now destroyed nearly the whole of them, exceptingthose raised to the two Cardinals D'Amboise, both of them archbishops ofRouen, and that which commemorates Louis de Brezé, Grand Seneschal ofNormandy. These monuments are placed on opposite sides of theLady-Chapel; the former as conspicuous for its many sumptuous ornaments, as the latter for its chaste simplicity. 

The archbishop of Rouen, prior to the revolution, took the title of_Primate of Neustria_; and his spiritual jurisdiction then extended oversix suffragans, the bishops of Bayeux, Avranches, Evreux, Séez, Lisieux, and Coutances. Not many years previously, it had also embraced theCanadian churches, together with the whole of French North-America; butthe appointment of a bishop at Quebec, deprived it of its trans-atlanticsway; and the concordat, in the time of Napoléon, reduced the number ofthe suffragan prelates to four, taking the mitres from Avranches andLisieux. A still more important alteration has been occasioned by moderntimes, in the archiepiscopal revenues. It had been customary throughoutFrance, before the recent changes, in speaking of the see of Rouen, todesignate it by the epithet, _rich_; an appellation that would now bewofully misapplied. The archbishop then possessed, in addition to theusual sources of ecclesiastical income, a peculiar privilege, entitledthe right of _Déport_; by virtue of which, he claimed the receipt of thefirst year's proceeds of every benefice which might become vacant in hisdiocese, whether by the resignation or death of the incumbent. [105]

A station so enviable as that of archbishop of Rouen, has been at almostall times in the hands of some individual belonging to one of theprincipal families of the kingdom. Among others, those of Luxembourg, Bourbon, D'Estouteville, D'Amboise, Joyeuse, Harlay, Colbert, andTressan, have successively held it. To sum up the catalogue, in thewords of Pommeraye, "the cathedral has furnished many saints for heaven, one pope for the apostolic chair, and thirteen cardinals to the church;nine of its prelates have belonged to the royal family of France; andmany others, eminent for their birth, have been still more so for theirown merit, and for the services they have rendered to the catholicchurch and the state. "

NOTES:

[93] The destroying of dragons, or fiery serpents, or similar monsters, appears to have been the most common of all miracles, in the early agesof Christianity. After the exploits of St. Michael, St. Margaret, andSt. George, ecclesiastical history abounds in similar legends. St. Romain, St. Marcel, St. Julian, St. Martial, St. Bertrand, St. Martha, and St. Clement, make but a small proportion of the saints whodistinguished themselves by these acts of pious heroism. The dragons ofRouen and of Metz were of sufficient celebrity to acquire the distinctnames of the _Gargouille_, and the _Graouilli_. --It has been commonlysupposed, that these various miracles were allegorical, and intended totypify the confining of rivers within their channels, or the limiting ofthe incursions of the sea. Other authors have been inclined to accountfor their prevalence, as having reference to the sun, or to astronomicalphænomena; but surely the most simple and satisfactory mode ofexplaining them, lies in considering the dragon as the emblem of evil, and the various victories gained over dragons, as so many conquestsobtained by virtue over vice. --A considerable fund of curiousinformation, on this subject, will be found in the _MagasinEncyclopédique_ for _January, 1812_, p. 1-24, in a paper by M. EusèbeSalverte, entitled _Légendes du Moyen Age_. 

[94] _Histoire des Archevêques de Rouen_, p. 40. 

[95] _Histoire de la Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 19. 

[96] _Histoire de la Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 625. 

[97] Not, however, in the identical spot in which they were originallydeposited: they were at first laid in the immediate vicinity of the highaltar, but were, before the close of the eleventh century, removed tothe situations they now occupy, in chapels on opposite sides of theupper end of the nave. The following account of their tombs, with thestatues and inscriptions, is transcribed from _Gilbert's DescriptionHistorique de l'Eglise de Notre Dame de Rouen_, p. 57:--"Le tombeau deRollon est placé dans un enfoncement cintré, pratiqué dans le mur de lachapelle; il consiste en un sarcophage de stuc, marbre de Portor, surlequel se voit la statue couchée de ce prince, dont la tête est appuyéesur un coussin. Rollon est vêtu d'une longue tunique, par-dessuslaquelle est un manteau couleur de pourpre, ou espèce de chlamydeattachée à l'épaule droite; il porte sur sa tête une couronne. Cettestatue a été un peu mutilée. Au-dessus de l'arcade dans laquelle est letombeau, on lit l'inscription suivante, gravée en lettres d'or sur unmarbre noir:

 HIC POSITUS EST ROLLO NORMANNIÆ A SE TERRITAE VASTATÆ RESTITUTÆ PRIMUS DUX CONDITOR PATER A FRANCONE ARCHIEP. ROTOM. BAPTIZATUS ANNO DCCCCXIII OBIIT ANNO DCCCCXVII OSSA IPSIUS IN VETERI SANCTUARIO NUNC CAPITE NAVIS PRIMUM CONDITA, TRANSLATO ALTARI, COLLOCATA SUNT A B. MAURILIO ARCHIEP. ROTOM. AN. MLXIII. 

Au-dessus de cette inscription est une urne en stuc, marbre de Portor. L'archivolte de l'arcade est en stuc blanc veiné de gris, ainsi que lelambris qui décore le pourtour de la chapelle. Tous ces ouvrages sontmodernes, à l'exception de la statue du duc Rollon, qui paroit avoir étéexécutée dans le treizième siècle. 

Dans la chapelle de Saint-Anne, située de l'autre côté de la nef, sevoit le tombeau de Guillaume _Longue-Epée_, fils de Rollon, et second ducde Normandie, mort victime de la plus infâme trahison, dans l'entrevuequ'il eut à Pecquigny, le 18 Décembre, 944, avec Arnoul, comte deFlandres. Le corps du duc Guillaume fut apporté à Rouen et inhumé dansla cathédrale. [Voyez Servin, _Hist. De Rouen_, tom. I. P. 118 et 119. ]

Sur le sarcophage en stuc, marbre de Portor, est placée la statue duduc, vêtu d'une longue tunique, et tenant à la main un sceptre qui a étémutilé. Au-dessus de l'arcade enfoncée, dans laquelle est la sépulturedu prince, on lit l'inscription suivante, gravée en lettres d'or sur unmarbre noir:

 HIC POSITUS EST GUILLELMUS DICTUS LONGA SPATA ROLLONIS FILIUS DUX NORMANNIÆ PRODITORIE OCCISUS DCCCCXXXXIV OSSA IPSIUS IN VETERI SANCTUARIO, UBI NUNC EST CAPUT NAVIS PRIMUM CONDITA, TRANSLATO ALTARI, HIC COLLOCATA SUNT A B. MAURILIO ARCHIEPISC. ROTOM. ANNO MLXIII. "

[98] "Rotomagensi namque urbe in honore genetricis Dei ampliavitmirabile monasterium, longitudinis, latitudinisque, atque altitudinishonorificæ exspatiatum incremento. "--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 153. 

[99] _Pommeraye, Histoire de l'Eglise Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 36. 

[100] The following are the dimensions of the principal parts of thecathedral, in French measure, copied from Mr. Turner's _Tour inNormandy_, I. P. 147:--

 FEET. Length of the interior 408 Width of ditto 88 Length of nave 210 Width of ditto 27 Ditto of aisles 15 Length of choir 110 Width of ditto 35-1/2 Ditto of transept 25-1/2 Length of ditto 164 Ditto of Lady-Chapel 88 Width of ditto 28 Height of spire 380 Ditto of towers at the west end 230 Ditto of nave 84 Ditto of aisles and chapels 42 Ditto of interior of central tower 152 Depth of chapels 10

[101] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 139. --The mention of thissculpture affords an opportunity of pointing out what appears a singularerror on the part of the late M. Millin, in his _Voyage dans lesDépartemens du Midi de la France_. He has figured, in the atlas to thatwork, _plate twelve_, a bas-relief of the eleventh century, representingthe assassination of Count Dalmace, by the hands of his son-in-law, Robert I. Duke of Burgundy; and, in the lower compartment, containing abanquet, he explains one of the figures (I. P. 190) to be the Earlfalling from the table; whereas, a comparison with the sculpture atRouen will scarcely leave a doubt, that it was designed for adancing-girl, introduced for the amusement of the company. 

[102] _Pommeraye, Histoire de l'Eglise Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 33. 

[103] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 144. 

[104] _Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in France andGermany_, I. P. 50. 

[105] _Pommeraye, Histoire des Archevêques de Rouen_, p. 22. 

PLATE LIII. 

CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS, AT ROUEN. 

It has been inferred, and with much apparent probability, from thesilence of Julius Cæsar, that the proud capital of Normandy had eitherno existence in the time of that general, or was at most only a place ofsmall importance. There have not, however, been wanting, among thehistorians of Rouen, some, who, jealous, as usual, for the honor oftheir city, ascribe to it an antiquity beyond the deluge, and trust tothe latter half of its classical name, for bearing them out in theassertion, that its foundations were laid by Magus, the son andsuccessor of Samothes, first king of Gaul. Others, more moderate, havecontented themselves with the belief, that, although Cæsar does not makemention of Rothomagus, there is still no reason to question itsexistence before the Christian æra, or to doubt that it was then thechief town of the Velocasses, as Lillebonne was of the neighboring tribeof the Caletes, the inhabitants of the present _Pays de Caux_. It is atleast known with certainty, that, in the division of Gaul, which tookplace not very long afterwards, into seventeen provinces, Rouen becamethe metropolis of the _Lugdunensis Secunda_; and that, from that timeforwards, it continued gradually to rise in consequence, till theestablishment of Neustria into an independent sovereignty stamped itwith the title of the capital of a nation. 

At the present time, Rouen can shew scarcely any remains of Romanantiquity: "the wide waste of all-devouring years, " has effaced thosevestiges which that powerful people seldom failed to have impressed, wherever their dominion had once been firmly established. The smallchurch of St. Gervais, derives therefore a peculiar interest, asexhibiting proofs, sufficiently decided, though far from important, of aconnection with Italy. These proofs rest principally upon the Romanbricks and other _débris_, some of them rudely sculptured, which havebeen employed in the construction of the piers of the crypt, and uponthe sculpture of the capitals of some columns on the exterior of theapsis. 

The church of St. Gervais is situated at a short distance without thewalls of Rouen, upon a slight eminence, adjoining the Roman road toLillebonne, and near a rising ground, commonly called the _Mont auxMalades_, as having been, in the eleventh century, the site of amonastery, destined for the reception of lepers. According toFarin, [106] the church was originally an abbey, and is expresslyrecognized as such in a charter of Duke Richard II. Dated A. D. 1020; inwhich, among other donations to his favorite monastery at Fécamp, heenumerates, "item _Abbatiam_ Sancti Gervasii, quæ est juxta civitatemRothomagum, et quicquid ad ipsam pertinet. " The authors of the _GalliaChristiana_[107] add that, "at the time when this abbey was conferredupon Fécamp, it was taken from the monks of St. Peter at Chartres. " Twocenturies subsequently, St. Gervais appears to have sunk into the rankof a simple priory, under the immediate control of the monks of Fécamp, who assumed the title of its priors. In process of time, the stillhumbler name and dignity of a parochial church were alone left; but theperiod at which this last change took place, is not recorded. The abbotof Fécamp continued, however, till the period of the revolution, toexercise spiritual jurisdiction over what was termed the barony of St. Gervais; including not only this single parish; but some othersdependent upon it. He nominated to the livings, directed the religiousestablishments, had entire control over the prisons, and was entitled toall privileges arising from the fair of St. Gervais, which was annuallyheld at Rouen, in the Fauxbourg Cauchoise, on the twentieth of June. Itis even on record, that in the year 1400, the abbot ventured upon thebold experiment of forbidding William de Vienne, then archbishop ofRouen, either to carry his cross, or to give his benediction within theprecincts of his jurisdiction; but so daring an assumption of power wasnot to be tolerated, and the matter was accordingly referred to theparliament of Paris, who decided in this instance against the abbot. 

 [Illustration: Plate 53. CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS AT ROUEN. ]

Adjoining to the church of St. Gervais, stood originally one of thepalaces of the Norman Dukes and it was to this[108] that William theConqueror caused himself to be conveyed, when attacked with his mortalillness, after having wantonly reduced the town of Mantes to ashes. Here, too, that mighty monarch breathed his last, and left a sad warningto future conquerors; deserted by his friends and physicians, the momenthe was no more; while his menials plundered his property, and his bodylay naked and deserted in the hall. 

The ducal palace, and the monastic buildings, are now wholly destroyed. Fortunately, however, the church still remains, and preserves someportions of the original structure, more interesting from their featuresthan their extent. The exterior of the apsis is very curious: it isobtusely angular, and faced at the corners with large rude columns, ofwhose capitals, some are Doric and Corinthian, others as wild as thefancies of the Norman lords of the country. None reach so high as thecornice of the roof; it having been the design of the originalarchitect, that a portion of work should intervene between the summitsof the capitals and this member. A capital to the north is remarkablefor the eagles carved upon it, as if with some allusion to Roman power. 

But the most singular part of this church is the crypt under the apsis, represented in the plate; a room about thirty feet long, by fourteenwide, and sixteen high, of extreme simplicity, and remote antiquity. Round it runs a plain stone bench; and it is divided into two unequalparts by a circular arch, devoid of columns or of any ornament whatever. Here, according to Ordericus Vitalis, [109] was interred the body of St. Mello, the first archbishop of Rouen, and one of the apostles ofNeustria; and here his tomb, and that of his successor, Avitien, areshewn to this day, in plain niches, on opposite sides of the wall. St. Mello's remains, however, were not suffered to rest in peace; for, aboutfive hundred and seventy years after his death, which happened in theyear 314, they were removed to the castle of Pontoise, lest thecanonized corpse should be violated by the heathen Normans. Theexistence of these tombs, and the antiquity of the crypt, recorded as itis by history, and confirmed by the style of its architecture, havegiven currency to the tradition, which points it out as the only templewhere the primitive Christians of Neustria dared to assemble for theperformance of divine service. Many stone coffins have also beendiscovered in the vicinity of the church. These sarcophagi serve toconfirm the general tradition; they are of the simplest form, andapparently as ancient as the crypt; and they were so placed in theground, that the heads of the corpses were turned to the east, aposition denoting that the dead received Christian burial. 

NOTES:

[106] _Histoire de la Ville de Rouen_, v. P. 1. 

[107] XI. P. 124. A. 

[108] The whole of the remainder of this article is transcribed from_Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 125. 

[109] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 558. 

PLATE LIV. 

CHURCH OF ST. PAUL, AT ROUEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 54. CHURCH OF ST. PAUL, AT ROUEN. _East End. _]

Next to the church of St. Gervais, that of St. Paul is the mostinteresting relic of ancient architecture among the ecclesiasticalbuildings at Rouen. Indeed, it may be considered as the only other of anearly date; the round tower attached to the abbatial church of St. Ouen[110] being altogether inconsiderable, and indebted for itsprincipal interest to its connection with an abbey endowed with suchextensive possessions, and gifted with so much reported sanctity. 

The foundation of the church of St. Paul is of very remote antiquity: itis said to have been laid by St. Romain, in memory of his great victoryover heathenism, when, triumphant, he erected the banner of the crossupon the ashes of the temple of Venus. Impure was the goddess, and mostimpure were her rites; so that, to use the words of Taillepied, inspeaking of this same temple, "là dedans la jeunesse, à bride avallée, souloit se souiller et polluer par ordre luxure et paillardiseabominable, ne ayant égard qu'auprès de ce lieu y avoit un repaire demalins esprits qui faisoyent sortir une fumée tant puante et infecte quela mortalité s'en ensuyvoit par après. "

This very remark concerning the infectious vapor, seems decisive as tothe feet of the church of St. Paul occupying the site of the pagan fane. It stands without the walls of the town, upon elevated ground, at a veryshort distance to the right of the barrier below Mont St. Catherine, onthe road to Paris, in the immediate vicinity of some mineral springs, strongly impregnated with iron. Prior to the revolution, the church wasunder the jurisdiction of the monastery of Montivilliers. The abbess hadthe right of nomination to the vacant benefice; and, till the middle ofthe seventeenth century, she was in the habit of regarding St. Paul's asa priory, and fixing there a colony of her nuns. But they were allrecalled in 1650, and were never afterwards succeeded by a freshestablishment. 

Respecting the various changes of the edifice, Farin contents himselfwith the brief remark, "that it was repeatedly destroyed during thewars, and rebuilt by the liberality of the Norman Dukes. "[111] Theeastern part of what is now standing is evidently of Norman time; and, architecturally considered, it is a most curious specimen, beingprobably the only church in existence which terminates to the east inthree semi-circular compartments. Of these, the central division isconsiderably the most lofty, as well as the most prominent; and thearrangement of the corbel-table, which is carried equally round themall, proves that it must always have been so. The sculpture of thiscorbel-table is viewed by the Norman antiquaries with peculiar interest:some of the heads, with widely distended jaws, beset with teeth ofenormous size, represent wolves; others, with human features andwhiskered upper lips, are supposed to be intended for the Saxon foe, who, at the time of the Norman invasion, were induced, we are told, bythe smooth faces of their opponents, to entertain the erroneous belief, that the approaching host was but an army of priests. Mr. Cotman, whohas observed in similar situations, in many other parts of Normandy, faces equally shadowed with whiskers, has been led to the suspicion, that they were intended in derision of the Saxons. 

Internally, the triple circular ending of the church is no longerobservable. Both of the lateral divisions are parted off at theextremity, and formed into distinct apartments: the southern is appliedto the purpose of a sacristy, while the northern serves merely as alumber-room. The nave, which is thrice the width of the chancel, and isclearly of a date comparatively modern, is separated from the moreeastern portion of the building by a semi-circular arch. The sculptureupon the capitals appears of Roman design: that on one of them, exhibitsa row of graceful figures in a pure classical taste, intent upon someaction, but so much mutilated, that it would be now no easy task toconjecture the object of the artist. The aisles of the chancel aredivided from the central compartment by double arches, a larger and asmaller being united together, all of them semi-circular, and all of theNorman style of architecture. Attached to the eastern end of the church, within the lumber-room just mentioned, stands a piece of Romansculpture, supposed by M. Le Prevost to have served originally for analtar. Mr. Turner has given a figure of it in his Tour; and heconjectures, that it was of the workmanship of the fourth century; asupposition founded upon the resemblance borne by its ornaments, tothose upon the pedestal of the obelisk raised by Theodosius, in theHippodrome at Constantinople, as represented in the elaboratepublication of the late M. Seroux d'Agincourt. [112]

NOTES:

[110] Figured in _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 127. 

[111] _Histoire de la Ville de Rouen_, v. P. 8. 

[112] _Histoire de la décadence de l'Art_, pl. 10, _Sculpture_, fig. 4-7. 

 ARCHITECTURAL

 ANTIQUITIES

 OF

 NORMANDY, BY JOHN SELL COTMAN;

 ACCOMPANIED BY HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES BY DAWSON TURNER, ESQ. F. R. AND A. S. 

 VOLUME THE SECOND. 

 [Illustration: Coat of arms of the Duchy of Normandy. Emblems of the towns of Rouen and Caen. ]

 LONDON:

 PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL; AND J. S. COTMAN, YARMOUTH. 

 MDCCCXXII. 

PLATES IN THE SECOND VOLUME. 

 PLATE. 

 55. Church of St. Nicholas, at Caen, West End to face page 59 56. -- -- -- -- East End 60 57. Church at Cheux, near Caen, from the North-East 62 58. Church at Bieville, from the North-West 63 59. -- -- Elevations and Details 64 60. Church at Fontaine-le-Henri, near Caen, North Side of Chancel 65 61. -- -- -- -- -- Elevations 66 62. Château at Fontaine-le-Henri, near Caen 67 63. -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of central Compartment 68 64. House in the Place de la Pucelle, at Rouen 69 65. House in the Rue St. Jean, at Caen 70 66. Tower of the Church at Tréport, near Caen 71 67. Church of Anisy, near Caen 73 68. Church of Perriers, near Caen 74 69. Castle of Lillebonne 75 70. Castle of Briquebec 77 71. Church of St. Stephen's, at Fécamp 79 72. Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence, at Eu 81 73. \ Church of St. Peter, at Lisieux, West Front 83 74. / 75. -- -- -- -- South Transept 86 76. Abbey Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen 87 77. Fountain of the Stone Cross, at Rouen 90 78. Palace of Justice, at Rouen 91 79. Church of Louviers, South Porch 93 80. Château Gaillard, North-East View 95 81. -- -- South-West View 96 82. Abbey Church of Montivilliers, West End 97 83. Church of St. Sanson sur Rille 99 84. Church of Foullebec, West Door-way 100 85. Castle at Tancarville 101 86. Entrance to the Castle at Tancarville 103 87. Church of the Holy Cross, at St. Lo, West Door-way 104 88. -- -- -- -- -- Sculpture 106 89. Castle of Falaise, North-West View 107 90. -- -- North View 109 91. Interior of the Church of Creully 110 92. \ Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, at Coutances, West Front 111 93. / 94. -- -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of the Nave 115 95. Mount St. Michael, on the Approach from Pontorson 116 96. -- -- Interior of the Knights' Hall 120 97. Abbey Church of Cerisy, Interior of the Choir 121 98. Church at Oyestraham, West Front 122 99. Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, at Séez, West Front 123 100. -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of the Nave 125

 The Figure referred to in the Note, p. 117, is inserted at the beginning of the Preface. --As a Vignette, at the end of the Preface, is introduced a View of the Church of Querqueville, near Cherbourg, a building of unquestionable antiquity, and here figured, as the only instance in Normandy, or possibly in existence, of a church whose transepts, as well as the chancel, terminate in a semi-circular form. In these parts, the walls are formed of herring-bone masonry, which is not the case with the tower or nave, which are more modern. The tower is, however, probably of the Norman æra; and the peculiar masonry which distinguishes the chancel, is still observable for a few feet above its junction with the nave. Its ornaments may be compared with those of St. Peter's church, at Barton-upon-Humber, and Earl's-Barton church, Northamptonshire, both of them figured in the _fifth_ volume of _Britton's Architectural Antiquities_, and both evidently Norman. The church of Querqueville has no buttresses. Its length, from east to west, is forty-eight feet and six inches; from north to south, forty-three feet and four inches; the width of the nave is nine feet and nine inches. 

PLATES LV. AND LVI. 

CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS, AT CAEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 55. CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS, AT CAEN. _West end. _]

The Abbé De la Rue, in his _Historical Essays upon Caen_, contentshimself with remarking, with regard to the church of St. Nicholas, thatit is the only specimen of real Norman architecture now left entire inthe town; for that the abbatial church of the Holy Trinity, a buildingof the same period and style, has been so disguised by the alterationsmade with the view of adapting it to its present purpose, that, considered as a whole, it is no longer to be recognized as a type of thereligious edifices of the Normans. Such being the case, it is the moreto be lamented that the church here figured, should not only have beendegraded from its original application, but should have beenappropriated to an object eminently liable to expose it to injury. It isnow used as a stable for cavalry; but, fortunately, it has still beensuffered to remain entire; and hopes are entertained, that it may yet beone day again employed as a place of worship. 

The exterior of the building has not altogether escaped uninjured orunaltered. In the western front, (see _plate fifty-five_, ) both thelateral towers have lost their original terminations, and have beenreduced to a level with the roof of the nave. One of them still remainsin a state of dilapidation: to the other has been added a square tower, of rather elegant proportions, surmounted by a small crocketed pinnacle, the workmanship probably of the fourteenth century. The rest of thispart of the church is as it was first built, except that the greatarches of entrance are entirely blocked up. The whole is of extremesimplicity, and vies in that respect with the same portion of theadjoining church of the abbey of St. Stephen; the different members ofthe two being nearly the same, though disposed in a dissimilar manner. 

The central tower of the church of St. Nicholas is square and small, andso low as to admit only a single tier of semi-circular-headed windows, four on each side. It terminates in a ridged roof, and apparently, neverwas higher; though, as far as may be judged from analogy, a greaterelevation was probably designed by the architect. Along the sides of thechurch, immediately beneath the roof, runs a bold projecting cornice, ofantique pattern, formed of numerous horizontal mouldings; and, underthis, the corbel-table presents only a row of plain knobs, instead ofthe monsters commonly found in Norman buildings. The clerestory, throughout both the nave and choir, is filled with narrow arches, alternately pierced for windows, and left blank. All these arches, aswell as the windows of the transepts and of the projecting aisles below, are without the accompaniment of pillars or ornaments of anydescription, excepting a broad flat moulding of the simplest kind, whichwholly encircles them. The disposition of the windows in the lower partof the nave, differs from that of those above, in their being separatedfrom each other by shallow buttresses, which hold the place of the blankarches. A plain string-course also is continued the whole length of thechurch beneath the windows, as in the west front. On the south side is adoor, the only one now in use in the church, which is entered by a verynoble Norman arch, composed of a great number of cylindrical mouldings, arranged in three broad bands, but without pillars or capitals, and withno other variation than that of size, and of the addition of thebillet-moulding to the outer row. The transome-stone of this arch isunquestionably coeval with the arch itself, the sculpture of the masonrybeing interwoven with it. Attached to the eastern side of both thetransepts, is a circular chapel, as in the churches of St. Georges, ofSt. Taurin at Evreux, of Fécamp, of Cerisy, and in several other ancientreligious buildings in Normandy. Nor is England altogether withoutspecimens of the same kind: a similar chapel, now in a ruinous state, and called by Blomefield, "the sexterie or ancient vestry, " is joined tothe north transept of Norwich cathedral; and near the eastern extremityof the same church, are four others. But the principal characteristic ofthose at St. Nicholas', is the extremely high pitch of the stone roof, apeculiarity equally observable in the roof of the choir; and hence thefollowing remarks on the part of Mr. Turner[113]:--"Here we have theexact counterpart of the Irish stone-roofed chapels, the most celebratedof which, that of Cormac in Cashel cathedral, appears, from all thedrawings and descriptions I have seen of it, to be altogether a Normanbuilding. Ledwich asserts that 'this chapel is truly Saxon, and waserected prior to the introduction of the Norman and Gothic styles. '[114]If we agree with him, we only obtain a proof, that there is no essentialdifference between Norman and Saxon architecture; and this proposition Ibelieve, will soon be universally admitted. We now know what is reallyNorman; and a little attention to the buildings in the north of Germany, may terminate the long-debated questions relative to Saxon architecture, and the stone-roofed chapels in the sister isle. "

 [Illustration: Plate 56. CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS, AT CAEN. _East end. _]

In the east end of the church of St. Nicholas, (see _plate fifty-six_, )may be remarked a sensible approximation in point of style, to the samepart in the church of the Trinity. The circular apsis is divided intocompartments by slender cylindrical pillars; and each intercolumniationis filled by a couple of windows of comparatively large size, placed oneabove the other, while a row of narrow blank arches occupies the lowerpart. The head of each of these smaller arches is hewn out of a singlestone. The height of the roof, in this part of the church, is so muchgreater than in the choir, as almost to justify the suspicion that itwas no part of the original plan, but was an addition of a subsequent, though certainly not of a remote, æra. Were the line of it continued tothe central tower, it would wholly block up and conceal the windowsthere. The discrepancy observable in the style of its architecture, mayalso possibly be regarded as enforcing the same opinion. But, indeed, ashas already been more than once observed in this work, no inferencesdrawn from style must be admitted without the utmost hesitation. A verysensible discussion upon this point, as illustrated by the church of St. Nicholas itself, and the two adjoining churches of the Trinity and ofSt. Stephen, has lately appeared in one of the most popular Englishperiodical publications, from the pen of a writer possessed of thedeepest knowledge of the subject, and gifted with the most comprehensiveand clearest views[115]. It were an injustice to the readers of thiswork, not to extract it upon the present occasion. It will supersede thenecessity of any labored description of the interior of the building. --

"When a distinct gradation of style is observable, it is natural toconclude, that these architectural varieties, emanating from oneprototype, each clearly to be discriminated, yet dying into another byimperceptible shades, were successively developed at certain intervalsof time. This reasoning, though it advances upon legitimate premises, may be fallacious, as is proved at Caen, where three coeval churches, probably erected by the same architect, are distinguished by suchremarkable modifications of the Norman Romanesque style, that were wenot acquainted with the facts, we might well suppose that they markedthe progress of architecture during three half centuries. --St. Nicholas, the first of these edifices, was built by the monks of St. Stephen'sAbbey some time between the years 1066 and 1083. The original lines arecharacterized by simplicity and regularity. All the capitals of thecolumns, embedded in the side walls, are of one order; and the capitalsof the pier-columns, which nearly resemble the others, are equallyuniform. The east end terminates by an apsis, of which the elevationresembles the exterior of the cathedral of Pisa. Three circular arches, supported by Corinthianizing pilasters, form the western portal. Theoriginal cross-vaulting of the side-aisles still remains: it is withoutgroins, and of Roman construction, and the whole interior shews that thearchitect was endeavoring to recollect the models of the great city. --Ifwe pass from hence to the adjacent abbey church of St. Stephen, erectedat the same period, we shall observe that the conception of thearchitect is more Norman than in the church which we have quitted. Thenave is divided into bays by piers, alternating with circular pillars ofsmaller diameter. The pier consists of a pilaster fronted by acylindrical column, continuing to about four-fifths of the height of theroof. Two cylindrical columns then rise from it; so that from this pointupwards, the pier becomes a clustered column: angular bracketssculptured into knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are affixed to thebases of the derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted moulding iscontinued below the clerestory, whose windows adapt themselves to thebinary arrangement of the bays of the nave; that is to say, a tallerarch is flanked by a smaller one, on its right side, or on its leftside, as the situation requires; these are supported by short massypillars; and an embattled moulding runs round the windows. Thesefeatures are Norman; but in other portions of the church, the architectRomanises again, as in St. Nicholas. The piers of the aisle-arches areof considerable width: the pillars at each angle are connected by anarchitrave, distinctly enounced, running along the front of the pier, and interposed between the capitals and the springing of the well-turnedsemi-circular arch. The triforium is composed of a tier of semi-circulararches, nearly of equal span with those below. The perspective of thebuilding is grand and palatial. In the evening, when it is illuminatedonly by a few faintly-burning tapers, the effect of the gleams of light, reflected from the returns of the arches and pillars, is particularlyfine. Beyond the central arch which supports the tower, all is lost ingloom, except that at the extremity of the choir, the star-light justbreaks through the topmost windows above the altar. --In the church ofSt. Stephen, the leading ideas of the architect were still influenced bythe Roman basilica; a third and more fanciful modification is to beobserved in the coeval church of the Holy Trinity. Here the piers arenarrower; the columns supporting the aisle-arches are consequentlybrought closer together, and the architrave is less prominent than atSt. Stephen's: there the embattled moulding is confined to theclerestory; in the present church, it runs round the principal arches;and, instead of the lofty triforium which there surmounts theside-aisles, the walls which we now describe are threaded by a gallerysupported by misproportioned pillars, whose capitals exhibit everypossible variety of grotesque invention. The bold archivolts beneath thecentral tower are chased with the Norman lozenge: they are circular; butthe eastern arch, which runs higher than the others, is obtuselypointed, though it is evidently of the same date with its companions. "

The parish of St. Nicholas is placed without the walls of Caen, in thatportion of the suburbs known by the name of _Le Bourg-l'Abbé_, as havingbeen, before the revolution, under the jurisdiction of the abbot of St. Stephen. In the same quarter was also included the parish of St. Ouen, as was a portion of those of St. Stephen and St. Martin. The twolast-mentioned churches were ceded, in the earliest period of thehistory of Caen, by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Bayeux, to QueenMatilda, in exchange for some other preferment, and were by her bestowedupon the nuns of her new convent of the Trinity. But the increasingpower of the rival monastery, built by her husband, naturally caused itsoccupants to turn a wistful eye towards churches so immediately in theirvicinity. Disputes succeeded; and the monks of St. Stephen erected thechurch of St. Nicholas, that their suburb might no longer be without areligious building which depended wholly upon themselves. Peace was atlength restored by means of a charter from the Duke, dated in the year1083, whereby St. Nicholas was recognized as parochial, an equivalentwas given to the abbess by the extension of her power in her own quarterof St. Giles, and the respective parishes of St. Stephen and St. Martinwere allowed to retain all they possessed in the Bourg-l'Abbé, exceptfive families expressly designated in the charter. These five weretransferred to St. Nicholas; and, to secure to the saint a certainincrease of votaries hereafter, a proviso was added, enacting that everyhouse which might be built in future, in that suburb, should belong tohis parish. Hence, the two other saints retained nothing more than theground covered by the tenements then standing, sixty-seven in number;and the necessary consequence was, that from that period till the year1790, when the whole was remodelled, the limits of the several parisheswere confused and irregular in the extreme. Not only did adjoiningdwellings belong to different parishes, but the line frequently ranbetween the various apartments of the same house, or even separated theapartment themselves. 

The church of St. Nicholas, as indebted for its existence to the monksof the abbey of St. Stephen, continued for some time to receive itspastors from among the brethren of that convent. At a subsequent period, the monks, after they had transferred to substitutes the performance oftheir religious duties, still endeavored to preserve their supremacy;but they were finally obliged to relinquish it; and the ministers of St. Nicholas enjoyed the same rights as the other clergy of Caen, though theecclesiastical privileges of the abbot remained inviolate. 

To the church of St. Nicholas was attached a guild, in the early listsof whose members were included names of the greatest distinction in thetown and neighborhood. St. Nicholas was in remote times an object ofespecial devotion; and the company incorporated under his patronage, naturally partook of his celebrity. The Abbé De la Rue also states, thatit was from within this church, that what were termed the _Apostolicdecrees_, were delivered in the twelfth century. They derived their namefrom being pronounced by commissioners delegated by the Pope, to decidein matters touching the canon law; and the numerous appeals to the courtof Rome, at that period, rendered the necessity for such decisions offrequent occurrence. 

NOTES:

[113] _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 176. 

[114] _Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 151. 

[115] _Quarterly Review for June_, 1821, p. 120. 

PLATE LVII. 

CHURCH OF CHEUX. 

 [Illustration: Plate 57. CHURCH OF CHEUX NEAR CAEN. _From the North East. _]

The earliest mention which occurs of Cheux, a small country town, aboutnine miles to the west of Caen, is to be found in the charter, grantedabout the year 1077, by the Conqueror, for the foundation of his abbeyof St. Stephen. The king, in this instrument, after a pious proem, reciting that he has been led to the holy task by the expectation ofobtaining remission for his sins and a hundred-fold reward in heaven, places, as the very first of the gifts destined for the endowment of therising monastery, the town of Cheux. He also expressly designates Cheux, and the four places immediately following, as _villas juris mei_, thereby meaning, as M. De Gerville justly remarks, to draw a distinctionbetween those donations which came immediately from himself, and thosewhich originated with any of his subjects, and stood in need of nothingmore than a ratification on his part. Another remark may, perhaps, notimpertinently be made upon this part of the charter, as curiouslyillustrative of the manners of the times as to the nature of feudaltenures, and the mode of recruiting the army. In the very nextparagraph, a distinction is drawn between the rights of two differentclasses of men, the _coloni_ and _conditionarii_, the latter beingexplained by the words of the charter itself, to mean _free men_("_liberos homines_. ") The Duke assigns to the abbey, the townsthemselves, together with their inhabitants, mills, waters, meadows, pastures, and woods; and also with all the revenues and customsderivable from them, as they have been enjoyed by himself, or any of hispredecessors. He likewise expressly stipulates, that such of the peopleof Cheux and Rotz, as do not hold _frank-tenements_, ("_qui francamterram non tenent_, ") should be exclusively devoted to the service ofthe church and the monks, so as not to be subject to any call arisingfrom military expeditions, or other cause, unless the Prince himselfshould personally, or by letter, direct the abbot to send them. Even inthe latter case, he binds himself to summon each by name, and never tocall them out, except the province should be invaded by a foreign foe;nor on any account to require their services beyond the limits of theduchy. 

At the same time that the Conqueror's children confirmed all thedonations made by their father to the abbey of St. Stephen, Robert, hissuccessor upon the ducal throne, added the privilege of an annual fairat Cheux, and a weekly market: the latter was held upon a Sunday, duringthe twelfth century, but was afterwards, by an order from King John, changed to a Tuesday. Upon the accession of Henry II. To the dukedom, another charter of great length was granted in favor of the royal abbey;and in this, Cheux is again mentioned. The King not only follows theexample of his predecessors, in renouncing all right to it, but he giveshis royal assent, in the following terms, to two purchases which hadbeen made in it:--"Concedo emptionem, quam fecit Willelmus Abbas, Joanni, filii Conani, Canonico Bajocensi, scilicet, totam terram suam deCeusio, quæ est de feudo S. Stephani; 23 libr. Annual; et emptionem quamfecit Willelmus Abbas, a Radulpho, fratre Vitalis, scilicet, sex acrasterræ, quam tenebat in feodu de prædicto sancto in Ceusio, pro quibusfaciebat serraturas portarum Ceusii, pro C. Solid. Census. "

From that time to the revolution, Cheux continued to be one of theprincipal domains of the abbot of St. Stephen. According to theterritorial division of ancient France, it formed a part of what wastermed the _Election_ of Caen, and was included in the archdeaconry ofBayeux, and the deanery of Fontenay. The revolution, introducing a newarrangement, together with a new set of terms, has placed it in the_arrondissement_ of Caen, and in the _canton_ of Tilly. 

The church is a fine specimen of Norman architecture; remarkable as toits plan, in having the choir of considerably greater width than thenave. The portion east of the tower is composed of three distinct parts, unequal in size, the central being the narrowest, as is strikingly thecase in the church at Great Yarmouth; but all of the same height, andeach of the lateral ones exactly equalling in its width the length ofthe transept to which it is attached; and thus, also, the choir andtransepts, taken collectively, form nearly a square, except that, to theend of the middle compartment, is attached a circular apsis, of anunusually small size; and, seen from the inside of the church, thisdisproportion becomes even more conspicuous: the great thickness of thewall necessarily subtracting much from the space. It even strikes theeye as being less than it really is, from being subdivided into a numberof small arches; which, with the vaulted roof, lighted by the extremelynarrow windows below, and the larger ones above, give this end of thechurch a very peculiar appearance. 

PLATE LVIII. AND LIX. 

CHURCH OF BIEVILLE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 58. CHURCH OF BIEVILLE NEAR CAEN. _From the North West. _]

It is only when considered as a curious relic of ancient ecclesiasticalarchitecture, that the church of Bieville can lay claim to any attentionwhatever. History, even in its lowest department, topography, isaltogether silent with regard both, to the building and the parish, except so far as to record that the church was among the dependencies ofthe royal abbey of St. Stephen, at Caen; though even in this character, it does not appear till the middle of the fourteenth century, when it ismentioned in one of the registers of the diocese of Bayeux. Itssituation is about four miles north of Caen. 

Taken as a whole, the church of Bieville has probably no parallel inNormandy or in England. The upper story of the tower alone is of asubsequent æra, and _that_, the earliest style of pointed architecture:all the rest of the structure is purely Norman, and of extremesimplicity. The church of St. Peter, at Northampton, said to have beenerected by Simon de St. Liz, during the reign of William the Conqueror, is encircled at the height of the clerestory by a row of small arches, similar in their proportions and decorations to those at Bieville; butthey are there continued in an uninterrupted line round the building, while at Bieville they occupy only a comparatively small portion of it. In the nave of this latter church, they are disposed regularly intriplets, the central one only pierced for a window, and each threeseparated by a flat Norman buttress. 

The western front, represented in _plate fifty-eight_, is divided byplain string-courses into three stories of irregular height: thebasement contains only the door, which is entered by a richly-ornamentedarch, (see _plate fifty-nine, fig. B_. ) surmounted by a broaddrip-stone, decorated with quatrefoils, and terminating at each end in ahuman head of classical character. The lowest moulding of this arch isconsiderably more flattened than the upper, a peculiarity that islikewise observable in the interior arch to the great door-way atCastle-Acre Priory, in Norfolk. [116] In the second story are six arches, supported by eight pillars, with capitals and bases of ordinarycharacter: even these, contiguous as they stand, are divided into twoequal sets, by the intervention of a flat space in the centre, sonarrow, as to wear the appearance of a pilaster. Here, too, as in thenave, the central arch of each compartment is alone pierced for awindow. --The upper story has only a single window, precisely resemblingthose below, but flanked on each side by a circular one, similar to thatin the front of the neighboring chapel of the _Délivrande_:[117] or, ifa comparison be sought among Norman edifices in England, to those in thetower of Norwich cathedral;[118] in the same part of the church of St. James, at Bury St. Edmunds;[119] and in the east end of the church ofthe Hospital of St. Cross. [120] In point of general character, thewestern front of the church of Bieville may not unaptly be compared withthat of the chapel of the _Délivrande_, or of the hospital of St. Leonard, at Stamford, as figured by Carter. [121] The tower of the churchat Bieville is well calculated to serve as a specimen of the towers ofthe village churches, comprized in a circuit of twenty miles round Caen. Among others, those of Soumont, Ifs, Soulangy, Potigny, and the LowerAllemagne, to the south, and of Lyons, Oyestraham, and several more, tothe north, greatly resemble it. 

 [Illustration: Plate 59. CHURCH OF BIEVILLE NEAR CAEN. _Elevation and Details. _]

_Plate fifty-nine_, as being altogether architectural, will best beunderstood by a set of regular references to the different subjects itembraces. 

A. _Door-way on the north side of the nave_, remarkable for its lintelor transom-stone in the figure of a pediment, from which the arch rises, encircled with a single, wide, plain, flat moulding. There is a similarinstance in the church of Martinvast, near Cherbourg; but the pedimentthere assumes a form more decidedly conical. [122] Transom-stones occurfrequently in Normandy, and are variously sculptured; from the rudecross, either alone or encompassed with the cable-moulding, to theelaborate representations of the crucified Saviour, or other subjectsfrom holy writ. Profane subjects, which are of so frequent occurrence ontransom-stones in England, are very seldom found in the duchy: thewriter of the present article never recollects to have met with any; andMr. Cotman's more extensive researches have brought him acquainted onlywith a single instance, a centaur, in the act of discharging his arrowat a stag, in the church of Urville, near Valognes. 

B. _Great western entrance_, (already described. )

C. _First compartment of the nave from the west_, showing the structureand disposition of the arches, and the very flat buttresses with adouble projection, the first only equalling that of the corbels. Thesquare-headed door is modern. Several of the sculptures on the corbelsare close imitations of those upon the church of the Holy Trinity, atCaen. 

D. And E. _Portions of other compartments of the nave_, to obtain acomplete idea of which, it is only necessary to produce the dotted linesbelow, to the same length as that at C; the parts and their dispositionbeing precisely the same, with the exception of the door. 

F. _Elevation of the choir_, which is divided into two equal portions bya flat buttress, flanked on each side by a slender cylindrical column. Of these parts, one is quite plain, except only the corbel-table andornamented frieze below. The other has two arches, recently blocked up, similar to those of the nave, but with a richer exterior moulding. Thedoor below these has the same peculiarity, in the drip-stone rising fromsculptured heads, as in the western entrance. The frieze beneath thecorbels very much resembles that in the same situation in the church ofthe Holy Trinity, (see _plate thirty-one_, ) and is likewise continuedover the buttresses, as well as along the receding part between. 

NOTES:

[116] Figured in _Britton's Architectural Antiquities_, III. Pl. 2. 

[117] Figured in _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 295. 

[118] _Britton's Norwich Cathedral_, p. 33, pl. 6. 

[119] _Britton's Architectural Antiquities_, III. P. 80. 

[120] _Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet_, V. 

[121] _Ancient Architecture_, pl. 24. --In the description of thisbuilding, page 33, Mr. Carter speaks of it as being of _Saxon_ origin;and, in the chronological table attached to his work, he classes it inthe third of the four æras into which he divides his specimens of_Saxon_ architecture. 

[122] A still more remarkable example occurs in Essington church, Gloucestershire, figured by Carter, in his _Ancient Architecture_, pl. XV. Fig. X. The transom-stone is there formed of part of an octagon, rising from an horizontal torus moulding, which finishes in a spiraldirection round two heads. A lion and a griffin fill the space within. 

PLATE LX. AND LXI. 

CHURCH OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI, NEAR CAEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 60. CHURCH OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI NEAR CAEN. _North side of the Chancel. _]

The parish of Fontaine-le-Henri lies about eight miles north of Caen, immediately adjoining Than, whose church has already been figured inthis work. The register of the livings appertaining to the diocese ofBayeux, made about the year 1350, and commonly known by the name of the_livre pelut_, (_liber pelutus_, or the _parchment book_, ) contains onlythe following brief notice of it:--"Ecclesia de Fontibus Henrici LXLibras. --Dnus dicte ville. --Archidiaconatus de Cadomo. --Decanatus deDovra. " In the _Gallia Christiana_, and other similar works, no mentionwhatever is made of this parish. 

According to the modern division of France, Fontaine-le-Henri isincluded in the canton of Creüilly: the name of the village, to whosedeanery it formerly appertained, cannot fail to strike the ear of anEnglishman, as being the same with that of the celebrated harbor in hisown island, the common landing-place from Calais. But the English Dover, from having been originally a Roman station, is generally supposed tohave derived its appellation from the Romans; and Darell, in his Historyof the castle, published by Grose, [123] gives it as his opinion that, among the ancient Britons, it was called _Rupecester_, but, on the Romaninvasion, got the new name of _Dofris_, _Dobris_, or _Doris_, "inconsequence of the filling or damming up of the harbor;" "Doafer, " as heobserves a few pages before, "signifying, in the language of thosetimes, a harbor shut up, or of difficult access. " A still higherauthority, the learned Bishop Huet, [124] classes the word, Douvres, among those whose origin is to be sought in the ancient language ofGaul, and proposes two derivations: one from _Dufyrrha_, a risingground; the other from _Dvvr_, the term for water. Thus, without givingany opinion of his own, he leaves the matter to his reader, with a"utrum horum mavis elige. "

The Norman village of Douvres is celebrated upon more than one account:it was the birth-place of Thomas of Dover, almoner to the Conqueror, andby him created archbishop of York in 1070; of Sampson of Dover, hisbrother, made bishop of Worcester in 1097; and of a second Thomas ofDover, nephew to the first of the name, who, in 1109, had the singularhonor of being elected at once to the episcopal throne of London, andthe archiepiscopal throne of York; the latter of which he accepted. Hisbrother, Richard, wore at the same time the mitre of Bayeux. --Douvreswas the principal place of one of the seven baronies, which formed theepiscopal manse of the bishops of Bayeux. During the thirteenth, and thetwo following centuries, it was also selected for their country-seat. Within its limits stands the chapel of the _Délivrande_, [125] said tohave been founded by St. Regnobert, the second bishop of the diocese, and still held in the highest repute for its sanctity. 

Of the church of Fontaine-le-Henri, the architecture is decidedlyNorman, and is distinguished by a bold and noble style, resembling inits general character, as well as in its individual features, theabbatial churches of St. George, and of the Trinity. Hence, though norecord is left of the actual founder, there is little room for doubt asto the æra of the foundation. It may be observed on this occasion, thatin Normandy, as in England, it very seldom happens that information isto be obtained on these particulars, when the same individual united inhis person the characters of lord of the village and patron of theliving. It was only where benefices were in the hands of religioushouses, that events so generally unimportant as the building andrepairing of village churches, were considered deserving of beingrecorded. 

With regard to the various proprietors of Fontaine-le-Henri, muchinformation is to be gleaned from Laroque's History of the House ofHarcourt. The laborious author, after having completed his generalaccount of the Norman nobility, in a single folio volume, devoted fourothers to the genealogy and fortunes of this one illustrious family. From him it appears that, during the period when Normandy was underthe sway of its own Dukes, the parish of Fontaine-le-Henri was in thehands of the family of Tilly, one of whom is to be found among thecompanions of the Conqueror, in his descent upon England. Early in thethirteenth century, during the reign of King John, they held thelordship of Fontaine-le-Henri conjointly with the castellany of Tilly. Mention of them occurs repeatedly in the Ecclesiastical History ofOrdericus Vitalis, as well as in the annals of the abbeys of St. Stephen and of Ardennes, near Caen; and it was from the baptismal nameof Henry, commonly borne by that branch of them, who were possessorsof Fontaine, that the parish took its present distinctive appellation;a distinction not a little needed, considering that there are fifteenother places in Normandy, called by the general name of Fontaine. Johnde Tilly, the last of the male line of the family, who were lords ofFontaine-le-Henri, died about the year 1380: he was succeeded in theinheritance by his sister, Jane, who, in 1382, married PhilipD'Harcourt, and thus added the property to the immense domains of theHarcourts. 

The first of the plates appropriated to this building, embraces only aportion of the western compartment of the south side of the chancel, drawn in rapid perspective, the view being taken from immediatelybeneath the corbel-table, for the sake of embracing the soffit of thearches, and the projecting mouldings. Here, as at Bieville, the lintelor transom-stone of the arch of entrance[126] assumes the form of apediment, but rests upon the jambs of the door-way, on a level with thecapitals. To the instances of a similar formation, adduced under thepreceding article, should be added the very remarkable one at Penchurch, in Somersetshire, figured in the _Antiquarian and TopographicalCabinet_. On the lintel is sculptured the Lamb bearing the Cross, enclosed within a circle, flanked on either side by a nondescriptanimal; the whole supported by two crowned heads placed in niches in thejambs. 

 [Illustration: Plate 61. CHURCH OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI NEAR CAEN. _Elevations of the East end of the South side of the Chancel. _]

The following is a description of the different parts of _platesixty-one_:[127]--

 A. _East end of the chancel. _--The central buttress, flanked, like the two lateral ones, with cylindrical pillars, divides this portion of the church into two equal portions. The general appearance of these buttresses, and the circumstance of their being supported upon a fillet and plinth, would almost warrant the calling of them pilasters; and those upon the northern side of the chancel, _Figure_ B, assume that character even more decidedly, having no projection beyond the cornice, which they support as an entablature. --It will be remarked, that the whole building is raised upon a plinth of a bold character; and Mr. Cotman justly observes, that the chancel may be regarded as a model for beautiful proportions and exquisite finishing. As respecting Norman buttresses, he is of opinion, that the edifices of highest antiquity will be found to be altogether without any; and that they were first added merely by way of ornament, to break the monotonous appearance of a long uninterrupted space of level wall. Indeed, the Norman walls, commonly from six to ten feet in thickness, could scarcely require any additional strength from extrinsic objects; and least of all, could they receive it from a projection of not more than the same number of inches. Even where buttress has been added to buttress, as in the north side of the chapel of the hospital of St. Julien, near Rouen, [128] and in some other instances, it may almost be questioned, if support was the only circumstance contemplated by the architect. The double buttresses at St. Julien's, could scarcely fail to be coeval with the building, as appears from the string-course being continued in an unbroken line over them, a fact that was omitted to be noticed in the description of the chapel. 

NOTES:

[123] _History of Dover Castle_, p. 8. 

[124] _Origines de Caen_, p. 315. 

[125] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 295; where this chapel isdescribed and figured. 

[126] Mr. Cotman observes, that much might be said in connection withthis door-way, upon the subject of the decorations of thesemi-circular-headed arches in Normandy and in England. But, confininghimself to heads of the peculiar grotesque character, sculptured uponthe arch at Fontaine-le-Henri, he remarks, that such, though far frombeing very uncommon in Britain, are of extremely rare occurrence in theduchy; insomuch, that he can recal no other specimens of them, thanthose upon a large arch which separates the nave from the chancel, inthe church of Berigny, near St. Lo, and upon another on the south sideof the church of Bracheville près le Grand. The heads, in this lastinstance, are precisely like those at Iffley church, in Oxfordshire, (see _Britton's Chronological and Historical Illustrations of AncientArchitectures_;) but they are confined to the archivolt alone, while, atIffley, they are disposed in a double row, and form broad bands, thatencircle the pillars as well as the top of the arch. In England are thefollowing instances, most of them figured in the works of Britton andCarter:--

 South door-way of St. Peter's church, Oxford. ---------------- St. Peter's church, at Rasen, in Lincolnshire. ---------------- Earls-Barton church, Northamptonshire. North door-way of Lullington church, Somersetshire. Architrave on the east side of the cemetery-gate, Canterbury cathedral. West door-way of Kenilworth church. South door-way of Moorvinstowe church, Cornwall. Arches in the nave of ditto. -------------------- Wymondham church, Norfolk. West door-way of the church of Barton St. Mary, ditto. 

[127] In the title of this plate, it is unfortunately stated torepresent the _East end_ OF _the_ SOUTH _side of the chancel_, insteadof the _East end_ AND _the_ NORTH _side of the chancel_. 

[128] See p. 44. 

PLATES LXII. -LXV. 

CHATEÂU OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI. 

CENTRAL COMPARTMENT OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI. 

HOUSE IN THE PLACE DE LA PUCELLE, AT ROUEN. 

HOUSE IN THE RUE ST. JEAN, AT CAEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 62. CHÂTEAU AT FONTAINE-LE-HENRI, NEAR CAEN. ]

It neither falls within the scope of this work to attempt any thing inthe form of a dissertation upon the ancient domestic architecture ofNormandy, nor, supposing such an object to be desirable, would thepresent state of the duchy afford materials for the purpose. The loverof researches into architectural antiquity no sooner directs hisattention to that branch of his subject, which, as tending to elucidatethe habits of his forefathers, would be peculiarly interesting, than hefinds an insuperable obstacle opposed to his progress. The zeal ofchurchmen and the pride of barons, have preserved us many noble relicsof ecclesiastical and castellated buildings; but the private residenceof the more humble individual has, in no portion of the globe, been ableto secure to itself any thing approaching to a durable existence. Whatwas raised for comfort alone, was not in itself designed for perpetuity;and the varying tastes of successive occupants, the changes of fashions, or, what operate even more powerfully than all, the changes of fortune, have conspired to subject this portion of human labor, in an eminentdegree, to that mutability which is the general lot of humanundertakings. In early times, also, the state of society operatedpowerfully towards the production of the same destructive effect. Wheneven the monarch could no otherwise provide for the safety of hispalace, than by encircling it with the fortifications of the castle, alife of continual alarm afforded his subjects no encouragement for thecultivation of the arts of peace. Society knew no other classes than thelord and his vassals: the former, enthroned in military state; thelatter, too poor to raise his aim beyond the necessaries of life; or, where riches existed, too depressed by servitude to dare to let themappear. Hence, during the prevalence of the feudal system, very little, if any thing, more is known of domestic architecture, than is to becollected from the rude illuminations of missals, or the unsatisfactorydescriptions of chroniclers. The monuments themselves have disappearedfrom the face of the earth; or, if any instances can be adduced, tendingto disprove so comprehensive an assertion, they are few in number, andworthless in quality. The utmost to be hoped for are such mutilatedremains, as Winwal-House, in Norfolk, lately figured by Mr. Britton, inhis _Chronological and Historical Illustrations of the AncientArchitecture of Great-Britain_; remains that are calculated to excite noother emotions than regret, and to awaken, without being by any meansable to satisfy, curiosity. --Nor indeed have Mr. Cotman's extensiveresearches enabled him to meet with any of this description, all poor asthey are, within the limits of Normandy. 

At the same time it has appeared right, conformably with the plan thathas been adopted in this work, as to ecclesiastical edifices, to laybefore the reader some specimens of the domestic architecture of theduchy, which, though far removed from Norman times, are almost equallyso from our own days. Even these are rapidly disappearing; it is morethan possible, that the three subjects here selected for publicationmay, in the course of a few years, be recorded only in these plates. Oneof them is already levelled with the ground;[129] while the moreinteresting house in the Place de la Pucelle, at Rouen, though it hasbeen suffered to continue in existence, has been so much injured in itsexterior, and is degraded to so mean a purpose, that its demolitionwould at no time be matter for surprise. --Specimens, like these, arecurious in the history of the arts: they shew the progress whicharchitecture had made in Normandy, at one of the most interesting epochsin French history; they also shew its relative state, as respectivelyapplied to civil and religious purposes. And, if they be all threeproductions of nearly the same æra, they are sufficiently characterisedeach from the other, by marks of distinction. 

"A history of the civil and domestic architecture of the middle ages, isyet a desideratum; and unless this task is soon accomplished in England, the opportunity will be lost for ever. " The very sensible author, fromwhom this sentence is quoted, goes on to say, "The halls of Elizabeth'sdays are almost worn out. The mansions of the time of Charles I. Arefalling apace, and in every quarter of a century a class must disappear, by the conjoined operations of repair and decay. The towns of Englandperhaps afford the worst and poorest specimens of the dwelling houses:the best and richest are found in the Netherlands. We can hardly qualifythis assertion by recollecting the magnificent range of palaces whichbordered the Strand, in the reign of Henry VIII. Our own dwelling-housesare usually composed of timber frames filled in with plaster. Troyes, inChampagne, is built entirely in this fashion, every street is theperfect 'counterfeit' of old Cheapside. Beauvais is built in the samemanner, but the houses are profusely varied with carving, and a goodartist might employ himself there for a twelvemonth. Many of the ancienthouses at Caen are of chesnut timber. The Abbé De la Rue supposes thatthey were built by the English, after the place was taken by Henry V. In1417. His 'bombards' destroyed a great part of the town during thesiege; and after he had regained possession, he granted the sites of thedemolished tenements to his English subjects. In choosing this material, they may have been guided partly by choice, as being a domestic fashion, and partly by necessity; for the use of stone was restricted by Henry, to the building and repairing of 'eglises, chasteaulx, et forteresses. 'The king, by letters-patent, declared that the 'quarries of white stone'were to remain to him and his heirs for ever: this monopoly proves thevalue in which the Caen stone was held. "

 [Illustration: Plate 63. CHÂTEAU OF FONTAINE-LE-HENRI, NEAR CAEN. _Elevation of Central Compartment. _]

Some account has already been given, under the preceding article, of thechanges of proprietors which the domain of Fontaine-le-Henri underwent, during the reigns of the Norman Dukes, and down to the conclusion of thefourteenth century. The estate then passed into the possession of theHarcourts, in whose hands it continued a considerable length of time: ithas since been subject to various owners, and has now finally become theproperty of the Viscount de Canisy. The _Château_ (see _platessixty-two_ and _sixty-three_) is a noble building, and a verycharacteristic specimen of the residences of the French noblesse, during the latter part of the fifteenth century, at which period thereis no doubt of its having been erected, although no records whatever areleft upon the subject. Fontaine-le-Henri was then still in thepossession of the family of Harcourt, whose fortune and consequencemight naturally be expected to give rise to a similar building. --Ascompared with the mansions of the English nobility, the château atFontaine-le-Henri may be advantageously viewed in conjunction withLongleat, in Wiltshire, [130] the noble seat of the Marquess of Bath. Theerection of the latter was not commenced till the year 1567, thusleaving an interval of at least half a century between them; a period, probably, much the same as may be presumed from other documents to haveintervened between the introduction of the Italian style of architecturein France and in England. Longleat was built by John of Padua, who isstated by Mr. Britton, "to have been an architect of some note at thetime; as is evinced by his being termed _Devizor of his Majesty'sbuildings_, and by the grant made him by Henry VIII. And renewed in thethird year of Edward VI. " Fontaine-le-Henri was also the production oftrans-alpine architects. Both of them bear decided marks of the nationto which they owe their origin; but in the English mansion, the Italianfeatures are most decidedly enounced; while, in the French, they arestrikingly modified by the peculiarities of their adopted country. 

The central compartment (_plate sixty-three_) has been selected by Mr. Cotman for publication, as being the portion of the structure which isin the purest taste. This also most resembles Longleat. But it is on theother hand by far the least ornamented. The rest of the front of thebuilding is covered with the richest profusion of medallions, scrolls, friezes, canopies, statues, and arabesques, in bas-relief, worked withextraordinary care, and of great beauty. Their style is that of the_Loggie_ of Raphael; or, to compare them with another Norman subject ofthe same æra, of the sculptures upon the mausoleum raised to theCardinal d'Amboise, in Rouen cathedral: indeed, for delicacy ofworkmanship, they may almost compete with the ornaments upon thisfar-famed monument. [131]

 [Illustration: Plate 64. HOUSE IN THE PLACE DE LA PUCELLE, AT ROUEN. ]

For the drawing of the second of the houses here figured, that in the_Place de la Pucelle_, at Rouen, (see _plate sixty-four_, ) Mr. Cotmanhas to acknowledge himself indebted to the pencil of Miss Mary Turner. Rouen abounds in buildings, whose fronts are ornamented in a somewhatsimilar manner, but none among them will bear a comparison with this forthe sumptuousness of its decorations. [132] In another and more importantpoint of view, the house in question stands still more decidedlyunrivalled; for a wing of it, which is not shewn in the present plate, exhibits a series of representations, illustrative of different eventsconnected with the chivalrous meeting _in the field of cloth of gold_. These figures have been already engraved: they were first published byMontfaucon; then copied by Ducarel; and, very recently, two of them haveagain appeared in the publications of Mr. Dibdin[133] and Mr. Turner. [134] The latter of these gentlemen has been copious in hisdescription of this building; and the following account of it isborrowed nearly verbatim from his pages:--

"In the square which has acquired an ill-omened celebrity by thebarbarous execution of the Maid of Arc, stands a house within a court, now occupied as a school for girls, of the same æra as the _Palais deJustice_, and in the same _Burgundian style_, but far richer in itssculptures. The entire front is divided into compartments by slender andlengthened buttresses and pilasters. The intervening spaces are filledwith basso relievos, evidently executed at one period, though bydifferent masters. A banquet beneath a window in the first floor, is ina good _cinque-cento_ style. Others of the basso-relievos represent thelabors of the field and the vineyard; rich and fanciful in theircostume, but rather wooden in their design: the salamander, the emblemof Francis I. Appears several times amongst the ornaments, and veryconspicuously. I believe there is not a single square foot of thisextraordinary building, which has not been sculptured. --On the northside extends a spacious gallery. Here the architecture is rather inHolbein's manner: foliaged and swelling pilasters, like antiquecandelabra, bound the arched windows. Beneath, is the well-known seriesof bas-reliefs, executed on marble tablets, representing the interviewbetween Francis I. Of France, and Henry VIII. Of England, in the _Champdu Drap d'or_, between Guisnes and Ardres. They were first discovered bythe venerable father Montfaucon, who engraved them in his _Monumens dela Monarchie Française_; but to the greater part of our antiquaries athome, they are, perhaps, more commonly known by the miserable copiesinserted in Ducarel's work, who has borrowed most of his plates from theBenedictine. --These sculptures are much mutilated, and so obscured bysmoke and dirt, that the details cannot be understood without greatdifficulty. The corresponding tablets above the windows are even in aworse condition; and they appear to have been almost unintelligible inthe time of Montfaucon, who conjectures that they were allegorical, andprobably intended to represent the triumph of religion. Each tabletcontains a triumphal car, drawn by different animals--one by elephants, another by lions, and so on, and crowded with mythological figures andattributes. --A friend of mine, who examined them this summer, tells me, that he thinks the subjects are either _taken_ from the triumphs ofPetrarch, or _imitated_ from the triumphs introduced in the _Polifilo_. Graphic representations of allegories are susceptible of so manyvariations, that an artist, embodying the ideas of the poet, mightproduce a representation bearing a close resemblance to the mythologicalprocessions of the 'mystic dream. '--The interior of the house has beenmodernized: so that a beam covered with small carvings is the onlyremaining object of curiosity. On the top, a bunch of leaden thistleshas been a sad puzzle to antiquaries, who would fain find someconnection between the building and Scotland; but neither record nortradition throw any light upon their researches. Montfaucon, copyingfrom a manuscript written by the Abbé Noel, says, 'I have more than oncebeen told, that Francis I. On his way through Rouen, lodged at thishouse; and it is most probable, that the bas-reliefs in question weremade upon some of these occasions, to gratify the king by therepresentation of a festival, in which he particularly delighted. ' Thegallery-sculptures are very fine, and the upper tier is much in thestyle of Jean Goujon. It is not generally known that Goujon re-drew theembellishments of Beroald de Verville's translation of the Polifilo; andthat these, beautiful as they are in the Aldine edition, acquired newgraces from the French artist--I have remarked, that the allegoricaltablets appear to coincide with the designs of the Polifilo: a moreaccurate examination might, perhaps, prove the fact; and then littledoubt would remain. The building is much dilapidated; and, unlessspeedily repaired, these basso-relievos, which would adorn any museum, will utterly perish. In spite of neglect and degradations, the aspect ofthe mansion is still such that, as my friend observed, one would expectto see a fair and stately matron standing in the porch, attired invelvet, waiting to receive her lord. "

 [Illustration: Plate 65. HOUSE IN THE RUE ST. JEAN, AT CAEN. ]

To the house at Caen[135] (figured in _plate sixty-five_) are attachedno historical mementos; nor is any record preserved as to its founder orpossessor. It is not even honored by the slightest mention in the AbbéDe la Rue's recent publication, or in those of De Bourgueville or Huet. In all probability it owes its existence to some wealthy citizen, duringthe reigns of Charles VIII. Or Louis XII. As "it was principally at thatperiod, that the practice prevailed in France, of ornamenting the frontsof the houses with medallions. The custom died away under FrancisI. "[136]--According to this theory, the houses at Caen and atFontaine-le-Henri may be placed in exactly the same æra, and about fortyyears anterior to that at Rouen. 

Caen can show another remarkable instance of domestic architecture, acastellated building, which, it has been remarked, might easily misleadthe studious antiquary. This building, commonly known by the name of the_Château de la Gendarmerie_, but more properly called the _Château deCalix_, is generally believed by the inhabitants of the town to havebeen erected for the purpose of commanding the river, while it flowed inits ancient, but now deserted, bed. According, however, to the Abbé Dela Rue, no fortification of any description ever existed in the sameplace; but the structure, however martial in its appearance, was in itscharacter altogether pacific, and was built during some of the latestyears of the fifteenth, or earliest of the sixteenth, century, byGirard de Nollent, then owner of the property. [137] Two statues, apparently intended to represent heathen divinities, but now absurdlycalled _Gendarmes_, frown over its battlements, which, like those of theadjacent wall, and like the face of the principal tower, are stillcharged with medallions, though the ebullition of revolutionaryenthusiasm has destroyed the arms of the Nollents. 

Previously to dismissing this subject, it may be worth while to remark, that the ogee canopy, surmounting the window placed between the twomedallions in the house in the Rue St. Jean, at Caen, is nearly afac-simile of that which is still seen over the door that led to whatwas once the great hall in the Conqueror's palace, adjoining the abbeyof St. Stephen. The resemblance between them is so great, that it wouldbe difficult to believe that they are of very different dates. But thepalace was unquestionably the production of more than one æra; and inthe scarcity of materials for the forming of a correct opinion upon thesubject, it is impossible to say, whether the door in question may nothave been inserted some time after its erection, or even whether theornamental part may not have been added to it at a period subsequent toits formation. 

NOTES:

[129] The house at Caen, is that which is here alluded to. --It hasalready been mentioned, that the _Great House_ at Andelys has sufferedthe same fate. Since the account of that circumstance was written, theauthor of the present article has been favored with the followingextract from a letter from Lord Compton, dated in August last:--"Thenoble _grande maison d'Andelys_, is now, alas, no more! We made a_détour_ by a horrible road, for the purpose of visiting it; but greatwas our mortification to find only a small piece of unornamented wall, the sole vestige which the barbarians had left standing; and _that_ isnow probably destroyed--and 'green grass grows where Troy-town stood. ' Ineed hardly say, that I derived a great deal of pleasure from athree-days' stay at Rouen; after which we made an excursion to St. Georges de Bocherville and Jumieges, and were highly interested andpleased by both. --Oh! that the Vandals would leave the abbey ofJumieges, even in its present state of dilapidation! In a few years, with the mellowing tints of time, and the ornament of a little ivy andvegetation, it would be one of the most picturesque and beautiful ruinsin Europe; but, alas! it is in vain to hope it. Cotman's representationsof Jumieges and Andelys will now be doubly valuable. "

[130] Figured and described in _Britton's Architectural Antiquities_, II. P. 105. 

[131] See _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 157. 

[132] One of the most curious buildings of this description, the ancientabbey of St. Amand, was not only rich to the greatest degree ofprofusion in its decorations, but derived a peculiar interest from theirbeing almost wholly carved in wood. This building is now nearlydestroyed; but, fortunately, some of its principal features are recordedin four of the plates of M. De Jolimont's _Monumens de la Normandie_. 

[133] _Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour throughFrance_, &c. I. P. 101. 

[134] _Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 200. 

[135] On the front of the new house, which has lately been erected uponthe spot that was occupied by this, have been fastened the twomedallions here represented: these alone were saved from the generaldestruction. 

[136] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 170. 

[137] _Essais Historiques sur la Ville de Caen_, I. P. 310. 

PLATE LXVI. 

CHURCH OF TRÉPORT. 

 [Illustration: Plate 66. TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF TRÉPORT, NEAR EU. ]

Tréport is an insignificant fishing-town, situated at the mouth of thesmall river, the Bresle, near the western extremity of Normandy. But, however unimportant its present state, most writers agree in regardingit as venerable for antiquity, assigning to it an existence coeval withthe days of Julius Cæsar. That illustrious general speaks of a harbor, opening into the British Channel, under the denomination of _UlteriorPortus_; and by this name he is supposed to have intended to designateTréport. The modern Latin historians of France apply the title withoutscruple: it is even so used in the charter for the foundation of theabbey, dated in the middle of the eleventh century. The very sensibleauthor of the _Description of Upper Normandy_, is, however, of opinion, that such application is not warranted; and, after discussing thesubject at some length, he inclines to think it more probable thatTréport may have been termed by the Romans, _Citerior Portus_; though hecandidly admits that he finds no mention of a place so called amongtheir writers. [138] The modern name of the town he derives from theCeltic word, _Treiz_; or, as it is sometimes spelt, _Traiz_, _Trais_, or_Treaz_; a word still in use in Lower Brittany, to signify "_the passageof an arm of the sea, or of a river towards its mouth_. "

According to the same author, there is no reason to believe that Tréportwas a place of note, either during the period of the dominion of theGauls, or of the Romans. From the beginning of the twelfth century, however, it has excited, at different times, a greater or less degree ofinterest. Various attempts have been made to raise it into commercialimportance; and, sunk as it is at present, "it once could boast rows ofhandsome, well-built streets, a considerable number of inhabitants, andas many as a hundred vessels, fishing-boats included, belonging to theport. "--Henry I. One of the earliest Counts of Eu, turned in 1101, thecourse of the Bresle, so as to bring it more immediately under the wallsof Tréport: it was he also who dug the first harbor. Another of the sameline of Counts, Charles of Artois, repaired this harbor in 1475, andundertook the greater work of cutting a navigable canal as far as Eu. The task, however, was suspended long before its completion; but thevestiges still remain, and even to the present day pass under the nameof the _Canal d'Artois_. In 1154, a fresh attempt was made, and by a fargreater man, to raise the prosperity of Tréport. Henry, Duke of Guise, caused a basin to be formed here, capable of containing ships of threehundred tons burthen; and added to it a jetty, defended by strongpalisades. The whole was shortly after swept away; nor did bettersuccess attend the labors of the celebrated Vauban, who, admiring thesituation of the town, undertook, after a lapse of one hundred andthirty-four years, to repair the works of the Duke of Guise. 

But the sea is not the only enemy with which Tréport has had to contend:its misfortunes have also been in great measure attributable to itsdefenceless state, situated as it is, in the immediate vicinity ofEngland. The British fleet effected a landing in 1330, and destroyed thetown with fire and the sword. In the course of the succeeding year, theyreturned with the same design; and again in 1413; on which lastoccasion, not content with burning Tréport itself, they likewise setfire to many neighboring villages. The religious wars during thefollowing century were the source of almost equal calamities; butneither the sea nor warfare have inflicted such fatal wounds uponTréport, as causes emanating immediately from the prosperity of France. Its proximity to the flourishing harbor of Dieppe, has naturallydiverted its trade to that quarter: the restoration of Calais to theFrench monarchy, caused it a yet more irreparable injury; for, previously to that time, Tréport was the principal place in the channel, for the baking of biscuit, and for the landing and curing of theherrings caught by the fishermen of France in the German Ocean. 

Tréport was one of the first French towns that afforded a residence forthe Knights Templars. A colony of them established themselves here in1141. In the middle of the preceding century, its abbey of Benedictines, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, had been founded by Robert, Earl ofEu. The foundation-charter is preserved, both in the _Neustria Pia_ and_Gallia Christiana_; and a very curious document it is, as illustrativeof the manners of the times. Robert appears in it in the light of a mostliberal, and a most wealthy, benefactor. Not the least extraordinary ofhis donations, is the permission which he bestows upon the monks, of"getting whatever they can in the towns of Eu and of Tréport:"immediately after this, succeed particular grants relative to sturgeonsand grampuses, fish that are now of extremely rare occurrence in thechannel, but which would scarcely have there been noticed, had not thecase in those times been far different; and had they not also been heldin high estimation. [139]

Just one hundred years subsequently to the foundation of the monastery, John, Count of Eu, confirmed to it whatever donations it had previouslyreceived; in doing which, he makes use of this singular expression, "that he places them all with his own hands upon the altar. " His piety, however, appears to have been but short-lived. A few years only elapsedbefore the same nobleman was guilty of flagrant sacrilege in the veryabbey that he had sworn to protect. His crime and his penitence aretogether recorded in an instrument printed in the _Neustria Pia_. [140]

What is further known relative to the convent, is little andunimportant. The most remarkable circumstance, is the extreme poverty towhich the monks were reduced in 1384; when, on being called upon to paythe sum of forty-six shillings and eight-pence, they pleaded their utterinability, and presented to the king the following piteousremonstrance:--"Cette Abbaïe, étant frontiere de l'Anglois, n'aïant nichâteau ni défense, a été arse et mise en un si chetif point, qu'il y apeu de lieux où nous puissions habiter, si ce n'est ès demeurans desanciens edifices, et ès vieilles masures.......... Notre grande Egliseest arse depuis trente ans, et une autre petite Eglise qu'avions depuisrefaite, à grand meschief est ruinée et chue jusqu'en terre, avec laclosture et tout le dortoir ars, ensemble nos biens et nos lits.... Deplus sommes endettez en Cour de Rome pour les finances dez Abbezqu'avons eus en brief temps; et devons encore à plusieurs persones degrosses sommes de deniers que n'avons pu, et ne pouvons encoreacquitter; dont c'est pitié.... Finalement pour païer 10 livres sur les56 livres demandées par le Receveur, avons engagé nos Calices sans lespouvoir retirer. "

NOTES:

[138] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. P. 13. 

[139] The whole of the passage is curious. --"Item in _Ulteriori Portu_et in _Auco_ oppido; decimam denariorum de Vice-comitatibus, et inutrâque villâ _quicquid abbas et monachi acquirere poterunt_. Quod sihomines Abbatis piscem, qui vocatur _Turium_, capiunt, totus erit S. Michaelis: crassus piscis si captus fuerit, ala una et medietas caudæerit monachis. "--From this passage, it is plain what importance wasattached to the _crassus piscis_, under which denomination were probablyincluded the porpesse, the dolphin, and all kinds of cetaceous animals, as well as the grampus. Ducange, with his usual ability and learning, has brought together a considerable quantity of curious matter upon thesubject, under the word, _Craspiscis_. From him it appears that, in theyear 1271, the question was argued before the Norman parliament, to whomsuch fish belonged, in the event of its being thrown upon the shore; andthe decision was in the following words. --"Quod consuetudo generalis estin Normanniâ, quod, quando talis piscis invenitur in littore maris, necBaro, nec Miles, nec alius, qui a Rege teneat, talem piscem habet, sivaleat ultra 50 libras, _nisi per cartam eum habeat_. "--See also_Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 21, respecting the existence of awhale-fishery near Jumieges, upon the authority of the writer of the_Gesta Sancti Philiberti_. 

[140] P. 589. --"Notum sit universis Ecclesiæ Dei filiis, quod egoJoannes, Comes Auci, pro stipendio militum et servientium, quos tenuiper guerram Regis, invadiavi maximam partem et optimam Thesauri EcclesiæS. Michaëlis de Ulterior-Portu, duos videlicet Textus prætiosos, et duoThuribula prætiosa, unum calicem argenteum, et optimè deauratum; cappascaras viginti quatuor: casulam peratam et bonam: Præterea, tot et tantisgravaminibus præfatam Ecclesiam tam sæpè gravavi, quàm vices gravaminumnumerare non possem: quare pro multis pauca, pro magnis parua, rependens, concedo, et in perpetuum do prædictæ Ecclesiæ, avenam etfrumentum de Verleio, quæ pertinet ad Forestagium. Diligenter autemhæredes exoro, ne Ecclesias terræ suæ gravent, sed honorent etprotegant. Et si quid eis pro salute animæ meæ et parentum meorum dedi, vel pro ablatis reddidi, in pace stabiliter tenere faciant: recordantes, quod ipsi morituri sunt: Sicut prædecessores nostri mortui sunt. "

PLATE LXVII. 

CHURCH OF ANISY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 67. CHURCH OF ANISY, NEAR CAEN. ]

The present plate has been introduced into this work, with the view ofexhibiting a Norman village church of unquestionable antiquity, havingits walls, on either side, built of a coarse dark stone, fashioned likeRoman bricks, and disposed in a zig-zag, or, as it is more commonlytermed, a herring-bone direction. A similar disposition of the masonryis observable in a portion of the church of Perriers, the subject of thefollowing plate: it is still more conspicuous at the neighboring churchof St. Matthieu, already mentioned in this work. [141] The old church ofSt. Croix, at St. Lo, and the lower part of the east end of the churchof St. Hildebert, at Gournai, exhibit the same peculiarity, which, according to Mr. Turner, likewise exists in portions of the outer wallsof the castle at Arques, as well as in the keep of the castle atFalaise. [142] These various instances, all of them taken from structureswhich are beyond a doubt of Norman origin, will remove any hesitation asto the Normans having practised this mode of building. Still fartherconfirmation will be found in the English castles of Tamworth andColchester, both of the same early æra:[143] the stones, in the latter, are disposed precisely as here figured: in the former, horizontal strataregularly alternate with the inclined, as if in imitation of variousRoman remains. [144] And, indeed, that they were really constructed withsuch an intention, appears highly probable; as, according to Sir HenryEnglefield, whose authority is unquestionable, the same style of masonryis seen at Silchester, which is most certainly a pure Roman relic: it iseven stated, that the old walls of the city of Rome were so built. [145]

Abstracted from the peculiarity just noticed, there is little in thechurch of Anisy to excite interest. A flat moulding, not less wide thana buttress, and surmounted by a narrow string-course of the plainestcharacter, is continued round the whole nave, and divides it into twostories of equal height; while four Norman buttresses, on either side, separate it into three compartments. In the original state of thechurch, the windows were confined to the upper portion alone, andalternated with the buttresses: they rose from the string-course, narrow, circular-headed, surrounded with squared freestone, and havingno other ornament than a slender cylindrical moulding above. Insucceeding times, either the want of a sufficient quantity of light, ora desire for improvement, led to the introduction of largercinquefoil-headed windows, occupying equal portions of the upper andlower stories. Throughout the whole of this part of the church, theapertures made by the scaffolding are left; and, what is remarkable, areedged with freestone. 

The corbels are grotesque; and the subjects of some indecent. --In thewest front there is nothing remarkable: the door-way and window aboveare of the most common character of Norman architecture: neither in thispart of the church, nor in the chancel, is the herring-bone masonrycontinued; nor does the horizontal moulding extend over either of them. 

NOTES:

[141] P. 16. 

[142] _Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 37. 

[143] It is hoped, that this assertion is not too bold. --The accounts ofTamworth castle, as a building, are indeed particularly unsatisfactory:neither Leland, in his _Itinerary_, nor Shaw, in his _History ofStaffordshire_, throw any light upon the æra of its construction. Yet, even from the wretched plate given in the latter work, the castle, allaltered as it is, appears to preserve somewhat of the character of itsNorman origin; while the fact of its having belonged to the powerfulfamily of Marmion, immediately after the conquest, adds historicalprobability to the opinion. With regard to Colchester, no one who hasseen it will feel hesitation on the subject, although the quantity ofRoman bricks visible in every part, very naturally lead to theconclusion, that it was raised upon the ruins of a far earlier edifice. 

[144] _Carter's Ancient Architecture_, p. 36, pl. 42, fig. E. 

[145] _Strutt's Manners and Customs of the Anglo-Saxons_, &c. I. P. 28. 

PLATE LXVIII. 

CHURCH OF PERRIERS. 

 [Illustration: Plate 68. CHURCH OF PERRIERS, NEAR CAEN. ]

The upper half of this plate exhibits a north-west view of the church ofPerriers: the lower represents it in the opposite direction. From bothit will be observed, that the different parts of the building are theproductions of two different æras, the nave having been erected duringthe prevalence of the semi-circular architecture, while the chancelexhibits a specimen of probably the very earliest period of the pointedstyle. In reference to the preceding plate, it is not uninteresting toremark, that the herring-bone masonry is, in this instance, altogetherconfined to the more early portion of the structure, the whole of whichis composed of it, with the exception of the buttresses. 

The great western door-way to the church of Perriers is very peculiar. Mr. Cotman regards it as the only instance, in the duchy, of a realNorman building having its principal entrance square-headed. Its massivelintel, shaped, as at Bieville, into a pediment, and surmounted by anarch, which is rather the segment of an ellipsis than of a circle, islikewise remarkable. But the very large arch on the northern side of thenave, adjoining the west end, is by far the most striking architecturalfeature of the building. It would be difficult, if not impossible, toassign any satisfactory reason for its existence. Its situationprecludes the idea of its having been placed there by way of support tothe tower: its size forbids the supposition, that it ever served as anentrance. Had there been an aisle or chapel beyond, it certainly mighthave been the medium of their communication with the main building; butthe buttress contiguous to it, proves that the wall in which it isinserted, was the outer wall of the church. As it is, it appears aperfect anomaly, and must remain as a _crux_ for the ingenuity of futureantiquaries. 

The similar arch, now blocked up, at the western extremity of thechancel, places it almost beyond a doubt that the church had a centraltower. The windows of the chancel far exceed, in point of length andnarrowness, any others that have yet appeared in this work. They arewholly destitute of mouldings or decoration of any description; but, like those at Anisy, are edged with freestone, as are the apertures leftby the scaffolding, which in this building are disposed with unusualregularity, as if with the intention of their being ornamental. Thisintroduction of white smooth stone, assorts ill with the dullreddish-brown mass all around it, and produces a glaring anddisagreeable effect. The indented cornice is similar to that observed byMr. Turner upon the gate-tower, leading to the monastery of the HolyTrinity, at Caen. [146]

NOTES:

[146] _Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 183. 

PLATE LXIX. 

CASTLE OF LILLEBONNE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 69. CASTLE OF LILLEBONNE. ]

Julius Cæsar, the principal source of information respecting ancientGaul, at the same time that he mentions the Caletes, the inhabitants ofthe modern Pays de Caux, is altogether silent with regard to theprincipal city of their territory. From Ptolemy, however, and theItinerary of Antoninus, it appears, that such city was called_Juliobona_;[147] and, notwithstanding the attempts of Cluvier andAdrien de Valois to establish Dieppe as the site of this Caletianmetropolis, [148] the learned of the present day seem unanimously agreedto fix it at Lillebonne; and there are but few who are not also ofopinion, that the present French name is a corruption of the ancientRoman one. Some Latin writers of the twelfth century make mention of_Insula Bona_; and the word, _Lillebonne_, spelt, as it not uncommonlyis, _L'Ilebonne_, might be regarded as originating from thatappellation, of which, indeed, it is a literal translation. But thepoint is not worth arguing: it is equally possible, that _Insula Bona_may be no other than _Lillebonne_ latinized. 

Leaving all discussions of this kind, and equally passing by theattempts which have been made to derive the name of Lillebonne fromCeltic roots, [149] it is at least certain, that the place was a Romansettlement; and the undoubted fact of no fewer than five Roman roadsbranching from it, to different parts of the country, [150] justifies theinference, that it was likewise a settlement of some importance. Thesubterraneous passages and foundations of ancient buildings, scatteredover a wide extent of ground, attest a place of no small size. Theremains of a theatre, [151] added to abundance of vases, cinerary urns, sepulchral lamps, and coins and medals, both of the upper and lowerempire, which have been from time to time dug up here, prove it to havebeen occupied by the Romans during a considerable period. But no recordsremain, either of its greatness or overthrow. It fell, in allprobability, in consequence of the irruptions of the northern hordes, and was swept away, like other neighboring towns, "Unknown their arts, and lost their chroniclers. "

In the midst of the general destruction, it is possible that someremains of the city may have been left, that attracted the notice of thenew lords of the country: or, possibly, their choice was fixed by thelovely situation of Lillebonne, in a valley upon the eastern bank of theSeine, not far from the mouth of that majestic stream. While Normandywas ruled by its own princes, Lillebonne was the seat of a ducal palace;and tradition, whose accuracy in this instance there is no reason toimpugn, teaches that the actual remains of such palace are to be seen inthe building here figured. It even goes farther, and maintains that thishall is the very spot in which William assembled his barons, for thepurpose of hearing their counsel, and marshalling their forces, preparatory to his descent upon England. [152] His actual residence atLillebonne at various times is clear, from a number of charters whichbear date from this place. In one of these, granted in the year 1074, for the sake of establishing[153] harmony between the Abbot of St. Wandrille and the Count of Evreux, the sovereign styles himself_gloriosus rex Anglorum_ and he dates it a _Castro Julio-Bona_. Atanother time, in consequence of a dispute respecting the succession tothe abbacy of St. Evroul, Ordericus Vitalis relates, that one of therival competitors repaired to the Duke, "who was then holding his courtat Lillebonne" and who, incensed at the interference of the Pope on theoccasion, exhibited a strong trait of his natural character, byswearing, that if any monk belonging to his territory, should dare tocalumniate him abroad, he would hang him by his cowl upon the highesttree in the neighboring wood. [154] This happened in the year 1063: in1080, there was held here, by order of the same prince, a provincialsynod, which passes in the annals of the Norman churches, under the nameof the _Concilium Julio-Bonense_. Its canons are preserved, and arereported at length by Bessin, "with the intention, " as he remarks, "ofenabling posterity to judge of the character of the laws in Normandy, during the reign of Duke William. "[155]

Lillebonne is at present a poor small country town, whose inhabitantscarry on an inconsiderable trade in tanning, and in the manufacturing ofcotton. The ruins of the castle, however, are far from unimportant. Notonly is the whole plan of the structure still distinctly to be traced;but there remain, in addition to the great hall, here figured, extensiveportions of other buildings, some of which are altered into a modernfarm-house. A noble circular tower, surrounded by a deep moat, andapproached by a draw-bridge, appears at first view to be the greatcharacter of the ruin; but it is obviously an addition of a subsequentperiod, and, indeed, of a time considerably posterior to the hall. Thepointed arches of its windows, and the elegant bosses of its ceiling, denote an æra when the arts had arrived at a high state ofperfection. --Of the date, or cause of the decay of the castle, nothingis recorded. 

The hall has the appearance of having been erected by Italianarchitects. Its features are distinctly Roman; and it may be regarded asholding, in this respect, the same place among the castellated buildingsof Normandy, as the church of St. Stephen, at Caen, occupies among theecclesiastical. The broken cornice at the top of the walls, is a decidedimitation of that upon the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, the arch ofConstantine, and the colosseum at Rome; and the windows may be likenedto those of Mæcenas' villa at Tivoli, in which there is the samearrangement of arch within arch. But the Norman architect has introduceda peculiarity, scarcely to be paralleled, in the transom, which, placedupon a line with the capitals, divides each window into two unequalparts, and at once supports, and is supported by, the central pillar, that subdivides the lower moiety. 

The Church at Lillebonne is also an object deserving of observation, especially in the principal entrance: the great arch is flanked by twosquare massy projections, in the form of buttresses, each of them facedby a row of small cylindrical pillars in high relief, broken towards thecentre, to give place for canopied saints, and ending at the top inornaments, apparently intended to convey the idea of a series of antiquecandelabra. 

NOTES:

[147] Ordericus Vitalis, on the other hand, says, but he is borne out byno classical authority, that Lillebonne occupies the site of an oldBelgic town, called _Caletus_ which was destroyed by Julius Cæsar; whobuilt on its foundation a new one, and named it _Julio-bona_, afterhimself. The passage, which is curious, is as follows:--"Antiqua urbsfuit, quæ Caletus ab incolis dicta est. Hanc (ut in antiquis Romanorumlegitur gestis) Caius Julius Cæsar obsedit, et pro nimia bellatorumobstinatione intus acerrimè repugnantium subvertit. Deinde postquamhostes ibidem ad libitum compressit, considerata opportunitate loci, præsidium Romanorum providè constituit, et a nomine suo Juliam-bonam(quam barbari nunc corrupto nomine Ille-bonam nuncupant)appellavit. "--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 554. 

[148] These authors were led to this opinion by the difficulty ofreconciling the distances, as stated by Antoninus, between Julio-bonaand the adjacent towns, with the actual distance of the same places fromthe modern Lillebonne. 

[149] See _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. P. 6, where it issuggested, that the word, _L'Ilebonne_, may be derived from the twoCeltic words, _Ile_, signifying a current of water, and _Bonne_, whichdenotes the termination of any thing. The towns of Bonne, upon theRhine, and of Libourne, are supposed to have taken their names fromthese words. 

[150] _Noel, Essais sur le Département de la Seine Inférieure_, II. P. 126. 

[151] Figured in the _Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques dansl'Ancienne France, par Nodier, Taylor, et De Cailleux_. --In the sectionof this publication, comprising Normandy, the authors have devoted nineplates to the illustration of Lillebonne. 

[152] In the _Gallia Christiana_, XI. P. 31, it is said on this subject, in speaking of Maurilius, archbishop of Rouen, that "adfuitJuliobonensibus Comitiis pro expeditione Anglicana, in 1066. "

[153] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 168. 

[154] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 488. 

[155] _Concilia Normannica_, I. P. 67. 

PLATE LXX. 

CASTLE OF BRIQUEBEC. [156]

 [Illustration: Plate 70. CASTLE OF BRIQUEBEC, NEAR VALOGNES. ]

Briquebec is an extensive parish, situated about seven miles to thesouth of Valognes, with a population of four thousand five hundredinhabitants, a weekly market on Mondays, and several considerable fairs. Its castle claims an antiquity, nearly, if not altogether, coeval withthe days of Rollo. When that Duke, on gaining peaceable possession ofNormandy, parcelled out the land among his companions in arms, theportion that included Briquebec was one of the most considerable. Thelord of Briquebec held in the Norman exchequer the third place among thebarons of the Cotentin, the present department of La Manche. [157] Hisservices and his rank, to which may probably also be added, hisrelationship to Rollo, entitled him to this proud distinction. 

After the assassination of William Longue Epée, second Duke of Normandy, in 942, Amlech, or, as he is sometimes called, Lancelot, of Briquebec, was appointed one of the council of regency, during the minority of theyoung prince, Richard, the son to the deceased, and heir to the throne. In this capacity he was also one of those deputed to receive Louisd'Outremer, King of France, at Rouen. --Amlech had a son, named Turstinof Bastenburg, and he left two sons, one of whom, William, was lord ofBriquebec. --The other, Hugh, commonly called _the bearded_, was the headof the family of Montfort, which produced the famous Count, Pierre, slain at the battle of Evesham, while commanding the barons in revoltagainst Henry III. --The line of the lords of Briquebec was continued inthe posterity of William, whose son, of the same name, attended theConqueror into England. Seven of his descendants successively bore thename of Robert Bertrand, and successively possessed the barony ofBriquebec. The last died in the middle of the fourteenth century, leaving his extensive domains, including this castle, to his eldestdaughter, Jane, with whom it passed in marriage to William Paisnel, baron of Hambye. [158]

The name of Paisnel will be found, as well as that of Bertrand, in theroll of chieftains engaged in the conquest of England. Duke Williamrecompensed the services of Ralph Paisnel, his companion in arms, withvarious domains in different counties of his newly-acquired kingdom, andparticularly in Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Somersetshire. Hisdescendants, who were numerous in Great Britain, possessed, among otherdistinguished lordships, those of Huntley and of Dudley. --In theCotentin, their family was equally extensive and powerful. William, sonof Jane Bertrand and of William Paisnel, succeeded his parents as lordof Briquebec and of Hambye. --He, in his turn, was followed by anotherWilliam, who, by a marriage with his cousin, daughter of Oliver Paisnel, lord of Moyon, united that great barony to a property, which waspreviously immense. Upon the death of William, without children, FulkPaisnel, his brother, became his heir; and, as he likewise diedchildless, the fortune devolved upon a younger brother, Nicholas. ThisNicholas, who was previously lord of Chanteleu, married Jane de laChampagne, baroness of Gaie, and left an only daughter, by whosemarriage with Louis d'Estouteville, in 1413, the baronies of Gaie, Moyon, Hambye, and Briquebec, passed at once from the family of Paisnel. 

Briquebec, at the same time that it thus again changed masters, wasstill possessed by a descendant of one of those powerful barons, who hadshared in the glory of the conquest of England. --Robert de Huteville, one of the Conqueror's companions in arms, had received from thatsovereign a princely recompense, particularly in the county of York. Butafter the death of William Rufus, he espoused the party of the eldestbrother, against Henry I. And was taken prisoner at the battle ofTinchbray, when his property was confiscated, and given to Néeld'Aubigny. --The name of his son, Robert, is to be found among theYorkshire barons, who defeated the Scotch army at North Allerton; and itagain occurs in the twentieth year of the reign of Henry II. At thebattle of Alnwick, where he made the King of Scotland prisoner. 

To return to the possessor of Briquebec, who was destined to afford astriking example of the mutability of fortune--scarcely had he become byhis marriage the most powerful lord in the Cotentin, or possibly inNormandy, when Henry V. Of England, invaded the duchy, gained the battleof Agincourt, and shortly afterwards made himself master of the wholeprovince, except Mount St. Michael. In this trying emergency, Louisd'Estouteville remained faithful to his sovereign, and was, consequently, deprived of his possessions. 

Henry immediately bestowed Hambye and Briquebec upon one of his favoritegenerals, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, [159] who, in 1427, stillcontinued lord of Briquebec, in which capacity he confirmed to the abbeyof Cherbourg, a rent of fifty sols, that had been given by hispredecessor, Robert Bertrand, in 1329. The act of confirmation yetexists: it is dated in the year just mentioned; two years after which, the Earl of Suffolk, who had always previously been victorious, experienced a reverse of fortune, and was made prisoner at Gageau, together with his brothers, Alexander and John de la Pole. Theconsequence was, that he was compelled to sell his lands in the Cotentinto pay his ransom. 

They were purchased by Sir Bertyn Entwyssle, a knight of the county ofLancaster, who, in the archives of the castle of Briquebec, dated aboutthe year 1440, is styled Admiral of England; as his brother, HenryEntwyssle, in the same documents, bears the title of the King ofEngland's Lieutenant-General in Normandy. In the hands of this nobleman, Briquebec continued, till the battle of Formigny compelled the Britishto evacuate Normandy. Sir Bertyn afterwards took part with Henry VI. Against the Duke of York, and was slain at the battle of St. Albans, in1455. 

Upon the restoration of the province to the crown of France, the familyof D'Estouteville were replaced in the lordship of Briquebec. They haddeserved eminently well of the French King, for whom LouisD'Estouteville had continued to hold possession of Mount St. Michael, the only fortress that offered an availing resistance to the English. 

In succeeding times, Briquebec and Hambye passed, by differentmarriages, into the families of Bourbon St. Pol, and of OrleansLongueville; but at the close of the sixteenth century, Mary of Orleans, Duchess of Nemours, sold this property to Jaques Gougon de Matignon, Marshal of France. --The descendants of the marshal continued lords ofBriquebec till the revolution. It had shortly before that event falleninto the hands of a female, the only survivor of that family, and shehad married the eldest son of the Duke de Montmorency. But therevolution swept away the whole of their fortune. A few detachedfragments of the property, which had not been alienated, have recentlybeen restored to them: the rest has long since been sold, including thecastle, the only habitable part of which now serves for an ale-house. All the remainder is hastening fast to decay. 

The walls of the castle inclose a considerable space of ground; and, atthe time when they were perfect, they comprised eight towers, ofdifferent sizes and forms, including the multangular keep, the principalfeature of the plate. This tower, which is a hundred French feet inheight, is still nearly perfect. The sides towards the west andsouth-west, from which Mr. Cotman has made his drawing, are entirelyso. --In an architectural point of view, Briquebec offers specimens ofthe workmanship of many different epochs. --The case is widely differentbetween fortresses and churches: the latter, whatever the date of theirconstruction, commonly exhibit a certain degree of unity in their plan:in castles, on the other hand, the means provided for defence haveusually had reference to those employed in attack. Both the one and theother are found to vary _ad infinitum_, according to time andlocalities. Briquebec shews some traces of the architecture of theeleventh century, but many more of the fourteenth, fifteenth, andsixteenth. The chapel, the magazines, the stables, and the presentdwelling-house, were the parts last built. Of these, the two first havebeen for some years destroyed: the others are in a state of extremeneglect; and, neither in the dwelling-house, nor in the apartments overthe great gate, does there now remain any thing curious. 

NOTES:

[156] For the whole of this article, the author has to express hisacknowledgments to his friend, M. De Gerville, from whose manuscript itis almost verbatim translated. 

[157] _Masseville, Histoire de Normandie_, III. P. 46. 

[158] While one branch of the Bertrand family continued in possession ofthe barony of Briquebec, another branch established itself inNorthumberland, where it received from the Conqueror many manors. Underthe reign of Henry I. William Bertrand, or, as he is called by Tanner, Bertram, founded the priory of Brinkburn. Roger, one of his descendants, was conspicuous among the barons who revolted against King John; at thedeath of which prince, he espoused the party of Henry III. ; but his son, Roger, took arms against this latter monarch, and was made prisoner atNorthampton. A third Roger succeeded him, and was the last baron ofBrinkburn. --Richard Bertram, who lived under Henry II. Had a son calledRobert, baron of Bothal, whose son Richard joined the confederate baronsagainst King John. A descendant of his, of the name of Robert, livedunder Edward III. And enjoyed the title of Lord Bothal, and was sheriffof Northumberland, and governor of Newcastle. He was present at thebattle of Durham, where he made William Douglas prisoner. His onlydaughter, the heiress to his property, married Sir Robert Ogle; and thusthe family of Bertram became extinct both in France and England nearlyat the same time. 

[159] The instrument, which is curious, is still in existence, and is asfollows:--"Henricus dei gracia rex Francie et Anglie et dnus hybernieoibus ad quos psentes littere puenerint salutem. Sciatis qd de gracianostra speciali et ob grata et laudabilia obsequia nobis per carissimumconsanguineum nostrum Guillelmum, Comitem de Suffolk, huc usquemirabiliter impensa dedimus et concessimus eidem comiti castra etdominia de Hambye et de Briquebec cum ptinenciis suis una cum oibusfeodis, aliis hereditatibus et possessionibus quibuscumque quas tenuitfouques Paisnel chevalier defunctus intra ducatum meum Normanniehabendis et tenendis prefato comiti et heredibus suis masculis decorpore suo nascentibus ad valorem 3500 scutorum per annum, cum omnibusdignitatibus, libertatibus, franchesiis, juribus, donationibus, reversionibus, forisfacturis, etallis, proficiis, commoditatibus etemolumentis quibuscumq. Ad pdicta castra et dominia vel altera eorum seuad feoda hereditates et possessiones predictas aliqualiter ptinentibusseu spectantibus intra ducatum nostrum Normannie adeo plene perfecte etintegre et eodem modo sicut pdictus fouques vel aliquis alius tenebat etpossidebat per homagium nobis et heredibus nostris faciendum et reddendounum scutum de Armis Sci Georgii ad festum suum apud castrum nostrum deCherbourg, singulis annis in perpetuum reservata tamen nobis et heredib. Nostris alta et summa justicia et omni alio jure quod ad nos poteritpertinere proviso semper qd idem comes et heredes sui predicti sexhomines ad arma et 12 sagittarios ad equitandum nobiscum seu heredibusnostris vel locum tenente nostro durante presenti guerra qui ad sumptussuos servire tenebuntur funtaque presenti guerra hujus modi et serviciain parte debita faciet et supportabit, et ulterius de uberiori graciadedimus et concessimus...... In cujus rei testimonium has litterasnostras fieri fecimus patentes. --Teste meipso apd civitatem nram deBayeux, XIII. Die Martii, anno regni nri quinto. 

 L. S. Per ipsum regem STORGEON. "

PLATE LXXI. 

CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN, AT FÉCAMP. 

 [Illustration: Plate 71. CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN, AT FÉCAMP. _Southern entrance. _]

Fécamp, like many other towns in Normandy, has fallen from its originalgreatness to a state of extreme poverty. The sun of its prosperity hasset, to rise no more. Neglect immediately followed upon the removal ofthe ducal throne to England: the annexation of Normandy to the crown ofFrance, completed the ruin of the town; and the great change in thehabits of mankind, from warlike to commercial, leaves no hopes for therestoration of the importance of a place, whose situation holds out noadvantages for trade. Hence, Fécamp at present appears desolate anddecayed; and, though the official account of the population of Francestill allows the number of its inhabitants to amount to seven thousand, the great quantity of deserted houses, calculated to amount to more thana third of all those in the town, impress the beholder with a strongfeeling of depopulation and ruin. [160]

But, in the earliest periods of French history, long before thefoundation of the Norman throne, Fécamp was honored as a regalresidence. The palace is said to have been rebuilt by WilliamLongue-Epée, with extraordinary magnificence. That prince took greatpleasure in the chace; and he and his immediate successors frequentlylived here. He also selected the castle as a place of retirement for hisduchess, during her pregnancy with Richard. His choice, in this respect, was probably not altogether guided by his partiality for the place; but, threatened at that time with a dangerous war, he was desirous of fixinghis wife and infant heir in a situation, whence they might, in case ofnecessity, be with ease removed to the friendly shores ofEngland. --Richard, born at Fécamp, preserved through life an attachmentto the town, and omitted no opportunity of benefiting it. He rebuilt, endowed, and enriched the abbatial church at vast expense; and hefinally ordered it to be the resting-place for his bones, which, however, he would not permit to be interred in any spot whatever withinthe structure, but, with his dying breath, expressly enjoined his son todeposit them on the outside, immediately beneath the eaves, in orderthat, to use the words put by the monastic historians into his mouthupon the occasion, "stillantium guttarum sacro tecto diffluens infusioabluat jacentis ossa, quæ omnium peccatorum tabe foedavit et maculavitnegligens et neglecta vita mea. "--A curious question might be raised, whether the monarch, in this injunction, was solely impressed with thefeeling of his own unworthiness, or whether he had also in view, themystic doctrine of the efficacy of water towards the ablution of sins. 

Richard II. And the succeeding dukes, appear to have regarded Fécampwith an equally friendly eye; till, in process of time, the increasingsplendor of its monastery altogether eclipsed the waning honors of thetown; and Henry II. Of England, finally sealed its downfall, by making aregular donation of the town to the abbey, from which period till therevolution, the latter was every thing, the former nothing. 

"Fécamp, " as it is remarked by Nodier, "was to the Dukes of Normandy, what the pyramids were to the Egyptian monarchs, --a city of tombs:Richard II. Rested there by the side of Richard I. And, near him, hisbrother Robert, his wife Judith, and his son William. "[161]--The listmight be lengthened by the addition of many other scarcely less noblenames. 

"The abbey of Fécamp is said to have been founded in the year 664 or666, for a community of nuns, by Waning, the count or governor of thePays de Caux, a nobleman who had already contributed to the endowment ofthe monastery of St. Wandrille. St. Ouen, Bishop of Rouen, dedicated thechurch in the presence of King Clotaire; and so rapidly did the fame ofthe sanctity of the abbey extend, that the number of its inmatesamounted, in a very short period, to more than three hundred. Thearrival, however, of the Normans, under Hastings, in 841, caused thedispersion of the nuns; and the same story is related of the few whoremained at Fécamp, as of many others under similar circumstances, thatthey voluntarily cut off their noses and their lips, rather than be anobject of attraction to their conquerors. The abbey, in return for theirheroism, was levelled with the ground; and it did not rise from itsashes till the year 988, when the piety of Duke Richard I. Built thechurch anew, under the auspices of his son, Robert, archbishop of Rouen. Departing, however, from the original foundation, he established thereina chapter of regular canons, who soon proved so irregular in theirconduct, that within ten years they were doomed to give way to a body ofBenedictine monks, headed by an abbot, named William, from a convent atDijon. From his time the monastery continued to increase in splendor. Three suffragan abbeys, that of Notre Dame at Bernay, of St. Taurin atEvreux, and of Ste. Berthe de Blangi, in the diocese of Boullogne, ownedthe superior power of the abbot of Fécamp, and supplied the threemitres, which he proudly bore on his abbatial shield. Kings and princes, in former ages, frequently paid the abbey the homage of their worshipand their gifts; and, in a more recent period, Casimir of Poland, afterhis voluntary abdication of the throne, selected it as the spot in whichhe sought for repose, when wearied with the cares of royalty. TheEnglish possessions of Fécamp do not appear to have been large; but, according to the author of the _History of Alien Priories_, the abbotpresented to one hundred and thirty benefices, some in the diocese ofRouen, others in those of Bayeux, Lisieux, Coutances, Chartres, andBeauvais; and it enjoyed so many estates, that its income was said to beforty thousand crowns per annum. "[162]

The work, from which this account of the abbey of Fécamp has beenextracted, also contains some details relative to a few of the principalmiracles connected with the convent, and relative to the _preciousblood_, to the possession of which Fécamp was indebted for no smallportion of its celebrity. But the reader must be referred for all theseto the _Neustria Pia_, where he will find them recorded at great length. The author of that most curious volume, appears to have treated nosubject more entirely _con amore_ than Fécamp; and if the moreenlightened progeny of the present day incline, in the plentitude oftheir wisdom, to "think their fathers fools" for listening to suchtales, let it at least be recollected, that even these tales, with alltheir absurdity, are most interesting documents of the progress of thehuman mind; and, above all, let it never be forgotten, that books ofthis description contain a mass of materials for the elucidation of themanners and customs of the age, which would in vain be sought for in anyother quarter. 

The abbatial church of Fécamp is still standing uninjured, and is a workof various ages. Some circular chapels attached to the sides of thechoir, are probably remains of the building erected by Duke Richard: therest is all of the pointed style of architecture; and the earliest partis scarcely anterior to the end of the twelfth century. --The church ofSt. Stephen, selected here for publication, is undeserving of notice, except for its southern portal, which is an elegant specimen of what iscalled by Mr. Rickman, the decorated English architecture. 

NOTES:

[160] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 60. 

[161] _Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques dans l'Ancienne France_, I. P. 110. --Seven plates in this work are devoted to the illustration ofthe religious buildings at Fécamp. 

[162] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 62. 

PLATE LXXII. 

SCREEN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, AT EU. 

 [Illustration: Plate 72. SCREEN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, AT EU. ]

The town of Eu has, by some writers, been supposed to have been thecapital of the Gallic tribe mentioned in Cæsar's Commentaries, under thename of the Essui; but a conjecture of this description, foundedaltogether upon the similarity of the name, and unsupported by anycollateral testimony, must be allowed to be at best only problematical;and ancient geography presents so wide a field for the display ofingenuity and learning, that it is in no department of science morenecessary to be upon the guard against plausible theories. --There areothers who contend for the Teutonic origin of the town, and refer toetymology with equal zeal, and with greater plausibility. The word _Eu_, otherwise spelt _Ou_ or _Au_ signifies a meadow, in Saxon; and the samename was likewise originally applied to the river Bresle, [163] whichwashes the walls of Eu, within a distance of two miles from itsconfluence with the ocean at Tréport. [164]

The first mention that occurs of Eu in history, is in the pages ofFlodoard, according to whom, the town was in existence in the year 925;but, whether the Roman or the Saxon derivation of its name be preferred, in either case etymology would fairly allow the inference, that itsfoundation was considerably more ancient. During the reign of Louis XI. Eu obtained a melancholy celebrity: a report was circulated in thesummer of 1475, that it was the intention of the English to make adescent upon the coast of France, and to establish themselves there forthe winter. At the same time, this town was confidently mentioned as theplace where they proposed to fix their quarters. To deprive them of suchan advantage, the French monarch had recourse to a measure which couldonly be justified by the most urgent necessity: he ordered the Maréchalde Gamaches to enter the place with four hundred soldiers, on theeighteenth of July, and to set fire to the houses of the citizens, together with the castle. His commands were executed; and the whole wasreduced to a heap of ashes, with the exception of the churches. Theneighboring towns of Dieppe, St. Valeri, and Abbeville, profited fromthe misfortunes of Eu, which has never recovered its prosperity, notwithstanding the various privileges subsequently granted to it. --Thepresent population consists of about three thousand four hundredinhabitants, whose only trade is a trifling manufactory of lace. 

From as early a period as the year 1102, the title of Count was bestowedby Richard I. Duke of Normandy, upon the lords of Eu, who, in 1458, received the additional dignity of _Comtes et Pairs_; probably as somerecompense for the misery inflicted upon the place three years before. In the number of these counts, was the celebrated Duc de Guise, commonlyknown by the name of _Le Balafré_. His monument of black and whitemarble, in the church of the Jesuits at Eu, was executed by Genoeseartists; as was that of his wife, the Duchess of Cleves. Both of themhave long been subjects of admiration. [165] The last of the line ofcounts of Eu, was the Duc de Penthièvre, a nobleman of the mostestimable character: the title was his at the breaking out of therevolution; and it is not a little to his honor, that a writer of themost decidedly republican principles could be found, in the midst ofthat stormy period, to bear the following testimony in his favor:--"Néau milieu d'une cour, oú la corruption et les vices avoient pris le nomde la sagesse et des vertus, il dédaigna leurs délices funestes; ilrepoussa l'air empesté de Versailles; supérieur à leurs prestiges, iloublia sa naissance; il prouva enfin, par de longues années consacrées àfaire le bien, qu'il étoit digne d'être né simple citoyen. [166]"--Thecastle, the residence of the counts, is now converted into a militaryhospital. 

The abbey of Eu is said to have been founded in 1002, [167] by William, first count of the place, natural son of Richard _Sans-peur_, Duke ofNormandy. It was at its origin dedicated to the Virgin; but, after alapse of somewhat more than two hundred years, was placed under theinvocation of St. Lawrence, archbishop of Dublin. That prelate had, inthe year 1181, crossed into Normandy, with the view of restoring afriendly understanding between the King of Ireland, his brother, and theKing of England; and, at the moment of his approaching Eu, and beholdingthe lofty towers of the abbey, he is said to have exclaimed in strainsof pious fervor, "Hæc requies mea in seculum seculi: hic habitabo, quoniam elegi eam. " Having accomplished the object of his mission, hedied shortly after at the convent, and was there interred; and the fameof his sanctity attracting crowds of devotees to his tomb, he wascanonized by a papal bull, dated the 11th of December, 1218, since whichtime the monastery has borne his name. 

The church of St. Lawrence, though no longer abbatial, has been sufferedto exist; even before the revolution, it served at once as the church tothe convent and to the first parish of Eu. The screen here figured, abeautiful specimen of the decorated English architecture, is placed atthe entrance of one of the chapels. Another chapel contains a _HolySepulchre_, said to be superior, in point of the execution of thefigures, to any other in France. In the south transept is aspirally-banded column of extraordinary elegance. The church stands uponthe foundations of an earlier building, erected at the close of thetwelfth century, and destroyed by lightning in 1426. According to therecords of the monastery, it was either wholly, or in great measure, rebuilt by John de Vallier, the twenty-fourth abbot, in 1464. [168]--Thefollowing description of the building is borrowed from the journal of avery able friend of the writer of this article, who visited Eu inSeptember, 1819:--"The abbey church of Eu is plain and massy on theoutside of the nave and transepts. The east end of the choir is highlyenriched with flying buttresses, &c. The windows of the nave arelancet-headed, and very tall: on the outside is a circular arch, whichmay be a restoration. The west window has been in three lancetdivisions, which have been filled up with more modern tracery. The naveis singularly elegant: the triforium, or rather the upper tier ofarches, is new in design, and most extraordinary. In the choir, thetriforium is composed of tracery. The north transept is something likeWinchester, only the arches are pointed: there are two arches. Thisarrangement is probably general; as I saw it at Troyes and other places. In a side-chapel is an entombment: the figures as large as life, ornearly so, and richly painted; quite perfect. Inscriptions on the hemsof the garments. The _culs de lampe_ are of the most elegant reticulatedwork. In the north transept is a circular window filled with latetracery. No towers at the west end. East end, a polygon, as usual. --Thischurch, which is well worthy of an attentive study, is quite distinct incharacter from the churches in the east of France: it has no marigoldwindow; no row of niches over the portal; no massed door-way; so thatthe general outline of the front agrees wholly with the earliest pointedstyle. But the exterior is more chaste than any thing we have inEngland; and its architectural unity is better preserved. On the otherhand, its parts are less elaborate. "

NOTES:

[163] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. P. 45. 

[164] "Le païs d'Auge a tiré son nom de ses prairies. Au, Avv, Avve, etOu, en Allemand, signifient un Pré.... Aventin est mon témoin dans sonexplication des noms Allemans. La ville d'Eu, située dans des prairies, a tiré son nom de la même origine. Elle est nommée dans les vieuxEcrivains, _Auga_, _Augam_, et _Aucum_; et dans les auteurs Anglois_Ou_, d'où est formé le nom d'Eu. De cette même origine vient le nomd'_Au_, qu'on a depuis écrit et prononcé _O_, et que portent plusieursSeigneuries de Normandie et d'ailleurs, et qui est le même que celuid'_Ou_. _Ou_ est une Comté qui a appartenue à ce Robert, que Robert duMont qualifie Comte d'_Ou_. Ces mots d'_Eu_, d'_Au_, et d'_Ou_, setrouvent encore dans la composition de plusieurs noms de terres et deSeigneuries. _Eu_, dans le nom d'_Eucourt_, d'_Eumesnil_, etd'_Eulande_, terre dans le païs d'Auge, entre le Mare-Aupoix etAngerville, et ce nom est le même, sans aucune différence, que celuid'_Oelande_, isle de la mer Baltique, du domaine de la couronne deSuede. Les Suedois et les Danois prononcent _Oelande_ ce que nousprononçons _Eulande_. _Au_ dans _Aubeuf_, _Aubose_, _Aumesnil_, _Aumont_, _Auvillers_. _Ou_ dans _Ouville_. Pour _Auge_ on a dit _Alge_en quelques lieux; et c'est de là que vient le nom d'une terre au païsde Bray, qui ne consiste presque qu'en prairies. Le même nom d'_Auge_, que portent quelques familles, montre assez qu'il a été appellatif. Maisla chartre de confirmation de la fondation de l'Abbaye de St. Etienne, donnée par Henry II. Roy d'Angleterre, le montre incontestablement parces paroles, "_cum sylvâ et algiâ et cum terris_". "--_Huet, Origines deCaen_, p. 294. 

[165] The church of St. Lawrence likewise contained the monuments ofseveral distinguished personages, as appears by the following extractfrom the _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. P. 72. --"Là sontinhumez Jean d'Artois, Comte d'Eu, fils de Robert d'Artois, Comte deBeaumont le Roger, et de Jean de Valois, mort le 6 Avril, 1386: Isabellede Melun, son epouse: Isabelle d'Artois, leur fille, dans la chapelle deSaint Denys, sous une belle table de marbre noir, qui sert de tabled'autel: Charles d'Artois, Comte d'Eu, sous l'autel de la chapelle deSaint Laurent: Jeanne de Saveuse, sa premiere femme: Helène de Melun, saseconde femme, dans la chapelle de Saint Antoine, dite aujourd'hui deSaint Crepin: le Coeur de Catherine de Cleves, Comtesse d'Eu, au bas duSanctuaire, sous une magnifique colonne de marbre noir: N.... De Bourbon, dit le Duc d'Aumale, fils de Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, legitimé deFrance, Duc de Maine, mort le 8 Septembre, 1708: enfin Philipped'Artois, Comte d'Eu, et Connétable de France, mort selon son epitaphe à_Micalice_ en Turquie, c'est-à-dire Nicopoli, le 16 Juin, 1397. LeMausolée de celui-ci, qui est de marbre, est enfermé dans une espece deCage de fer, dont les barreaux n'empêchent point qu'on ne puisse enapprocher et y porter la main. Le Prince y est representé armé, maissans casque et sans gantelets, pour marquer, dit-on, qu'il est mort à laguerre, mais non dans le combat: il a deux petits chiens à ses pieds, pour signifier, ajoute-t-on, qu'il est mort dans son lit: enfin lagrille qui l'environne represente, dit-on encore, qu'il est mort enprison. Le monument, selon l'Ecrivain de qui j'emprunte ces conjectures, n'a coûté que 100 livres. "

[166] _Noel, Essais sur le Département de la Seine Inférieure_, I. P. 84. 

[167] _Neustria Pia_, p. 694. 

[168] _Neustria Pia_, p. 700. 

PLATE LXXIII. -LXXV. 

CHURCH OF ST. PETER, AT LISIEUX. 

 [Illustration: Plates 73-74. CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT LISIEUX. ]

The effects produced by the French revolution upon the religious stateof the country, were scarcely less important than upon the political. Inboth cases, the nation hurried, with the blindest fury, from extreme toextreme; in both, they followed phantoms of ideal perfection through anunexampled series of excesses and sufferings; in both, they rested atlength from exhaustion much more than from conviction; and, happily formankind and for themselves, they finally attained in both nearly thesame end, reverting indeed to their original constitutions, buttempering them with a most seasonable mixture of civil andecclesiastical liberty. The _concordat_ effected for the church, whatthe charter did for the state. The former of these was one of themaster-pieces of Napoleon's policy, and was likewise one of the earliestacts of his power. It was established in the year 1801, while France yetretained the name of a republic, and the ambition of its ruler had notventured to grasp, at more than the consular dignity. By thisinstrument, the whole ecclesiastical constitution was changed; and notonly was all the power placed in the hands of the chief of the state, but the provinces and dioceses were entirely remodelled; and, instead oftwenty-three archbishoprics and one hundred and thirty-four bishoprics, the number of the former, notwithstanding the vast extension of theFrench territory, was reduced to ten, and that of the latter to fifty. 

The archbishop of Rouen was one of those who suffered least upon theoccasion. His dignity was curtailed only by the suppression of two ofhis suffragans, the bishops of Avranches and of Lisieux. [169] Thechurch, here figured, then resigned the mitre, which it had conferredfrom the middle of the sixth century, upon an illustrious, though not anuninterrupted, line of prelates. It is admitted, in the annals of thecathedral, that either the see must have been vacant for the space offour hundred years, or at least that the names of those who filled itduring that period, are lost. Ordericus Vitalis, who resided fifty-sixyears in the diocese, and has collected, in the sixth book of his_Ecclesiastical History_, whatever was to be found in his time, relativeto its early state, acknowledges the chasm, and accounts for it by thefollowing general remarks. --"Piratæ de Daniâ egressi sunt, in Neustriamvenerunt, et christianæ fidei divinique cultûs penitùs ignari, superfidelem populum immanitèr debacchati sunt. Antiquorum scripta cumbasilicis et ædibus incendio deperierunt, quæ fervida juniorum studia, quamvis insatiabilitèr sitiant, recuperare nequiverunt. Nonnulla verò, quæ per diligentiam priscorum manibus barbarorum solertèr erepta sunt, damnabili subsequentium negligentiâ interierunt. "

The city of Lisieux represents the capital of the Gallic tribe, mentioned by Cæsar, and other almost contemporary writers, under thename of _Lexovii_; and it is supposed by modern geographers, that theterritory occupied by these latter, was nearly co-extensive with thelate bishopric of Lisieux. On this subject it has been observed, that"it is to be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics ofFrance were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces andprefectures. "[170] _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus Lexoviorum_, the capital ofthe Lexovii, had always been supposed to have occupied the site of thepresent town, till some excavations made in the year 1770, for thepurpose of forming a _chaussée_ between Lisieux and Caen, proved theancient and the modern city to have been placed at the distance of aboutthree quarters of a mile from each other. Extensive ruins of buildings, situated in a field, called _Les Tourettes_, were then brought to light;and among them were dug up various specimens of ancient art. Theresearches of more modern times, principally conducted by M. LouisDubois, a very able antiquary of Lisieux, have materially added to thenumber as well as the value of these discoveries; and the quantity ofRoman coins and medals that have rewarded his researches, would haveleft little doubt as to the real site of Neomagus, even if thecircumstance had not within a very few years been established almostbeyond a question, by the detection of a Roman amphitheatre in a stateof great perfection. 

Tradition, which there is in this instance no reason to impugn, relatesthat the Gallo-Roman capital disappeared during the incursions of theSaxons, about the middle of the fourth century. In farther confirmationof such opinion, it is to be observed, that none of the medals dug upwithin the ruins, or in their vicinity, bear a later date than the reignof Constantine; and that, though the city is recorded in the _Itineraryof Antoninus_, no mention of it is to be found in the curious chart, known by the name of the _Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reignof Theodosius the Great; so that it then appears to have been completelyswept away and forgotten. 

Modern Lisieux is supposed to have risen at no distant period of timeafter the destruction of Neomagus. In the writings of the monkishhistorians, it is indifferently called _Lexovium_, _Lexobium_, _Luxovium__, Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, names obviously borrowed fromthe classical appellation of the tribe, as the French word _Lisieux_ isclearly derived from them. In the early portion of Norman history, Lisieux is mentioned as having felt the vengeance of these invaders, during one of their predatory excursions from the Bessin, about the year877. It was shortly afterwards sacked by Rollo himself, when thatconqueror, elated with the capture of Bayeux, was on his march to takepossession of the capital of Neustria. But the territory of Lisieux wasstill the last part of the duchy which owned Rollo as its lord: it wasnot ceded to him by Charles the Simple, till 923, at which time he hadfor eleven years been the undisputed sovereign of the rest of Normandy. 

Neither under the Norman dukes, nor at a subsequent period, does Lisieuxappear to have taken any prominent part in political transactions. Itscentral situation, by securing it against the attacks of the French informer times, and more recently of the English, also prevented it fromobtaining that historical celebrity, which, from its size and opulence, it could scarcely have failed to have otherwise gained. The principalevents connected with it, upon record, are the following:--It was thefocus of the civil war in 1101, when Ralph Flambart, bishop of Durham, escaping from the prison to which he had been committed by hissovereign, fled hither, and raised the standard of rebellion againstHenry, in favor of his brother. --In 1136, Lisieux was attacked by theforces of Anjou, under the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband ofthe Empress Maude, joined by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and thegarrison, composed of Bretons, seeing no hope of resistance or ofrescue, burned the town. --Thirty-three years subsequently, the city washonored by being selected by Thomas-à-Becket, as the place of hisretirement during his temporary disgrace. Arnulf, then bishop ofLisieux, had labored diligently, though ineffectually, to restore amitybetween the sovereign and the prelate, espousing, indeed, decidedly thecause of the latter, but at the same time never forfeiting thefriendship of the former, for whom, after the murder of Becket, he wrotea letter of excuse to the supreme pontiff, in the joint names of all thebishops of England. --Lisieux, in 1213, passed from under the dominion ofthe Norman dukes, to the sway of the French monarch. It opened its gatesto Philip-Augustus, immediately after the fall of Caen and Bayeux; andits surrender was accompanied with that of Coutances and Séez, all ofthem without a blow, as the king's poetical chronicler, Brito, relatesin the following lines:--

 "Cumque diocesibus tribus illi tres sine bello Sese sponte suâ præclari nominis urbes Subjiciunt, Sagium, Constantia, Lexoviumque. "

In subsequent times, Lisieux suffered severely, when taken by theEnglish army under Henry V. In 1417. Its recapture by Charles VII. Thirty-two years afterwards, was unstained by bloodshed. 

A great part of the preceding account of Lisieux has been borrowed fromMr. Turner's Tour in Normandy: what follows, relative to the church herefigured, will be entirely so:--"The cathedral, now the parish church ofSt. Peter, derived one advantage from the revolution. Another church, dedicated to St. Germain, which had previously stood immediately beforeit, so as almost to block up the approach, was taken down, and the westfront of the cathedral was made to open upon a spacious square. --Solid, simple grandeur are the characters of this front, which, notwithstandingsome slight anomalies, is, upon the whole, a noble specimen of earlypointed architecture. --It consists of three equal compartments, thelateral ones rising into short square towers of similar height. Thesouthern tower is surmounted by a lofty stone spire, probably of a dateposterior to the part below. The spire of the opposite tower fell in1553, at which time much injury was done to the building, andparticularly to the central door-way, which, even to the present day, has never been repaired. --Contrary to the usual elevation of Frenchcathedrals, the great window over the principal entrance is notcircular, but pointed: it is divided into three compartments by broadmullions, enriched with many mouldings. The compartments end in acutepointed arches. In the north tower, the whole of the space from thebasement story is occupied by only two tiers of windows. Each tiercontains two windows, extremely narrow, considering their height; andyet, narrow as they are, each of them is parted by a circular mullion orcentral pillar. You will better understand how high they must be, whentold that, in the southern tower, the space of the upper row is dividedinto three distinct tiers; and still the windows do not appeardisproportionately short. They also are double, and the interior archesare pointed; but the arches, within which they are placed, are circular. In this circumstance lies the principal anomaly in the front of thecathedral; but there is no appearance of any disparity in point ofdates; for the circular arches are supported on the same slendermullions, with rude foliaged capitals, of great projection, which arethe most distinguishing characteristics of this style of architecture. 

"The date of the building establishes the fact of the pointed arch beingin use, not only as an occasional variation, but in the entireconstruction of churches upon a grand scale, as early as the eleventhcentury. --Sammarthanus tells us that Bishop Herbert, who died in 1049, began to build this church, but did not live to see it completed; andOrdericus Vitalis expressly adds, that Hugh, the successor to Herbert, upon his death-bed, in 1077, while retracing his past life, made use ofthese words:--'Ecclesiam Sancti Petri, principis apostolorum, quamvenerabilis Herbertus, prædecessor meus, coepit, perfeci, studiosèadornavi, honorificè dedicavi, et cultoribus necessariisque divinoservitio vasis aliisque apparatibus copiosè ditavi. '--Language of thiskind appears too explicit to leave room for ambiguity, but an opinionhas still prevailed, founded probably upon the style of thearchitecture, that the cathedral was not finished till near theexpiration of the thirteenth century. Admitting, however, such to be thefact, I do not see how it will materially help those who favor theopinion; for the building is far from being, as commonly happens ingreat churches, a medley of incongruous parts; but it is upon one fixedplan; and, as it was begun, so it was ended. --The exterior of theextremity of the south transept (see _plate seventy-five_, ) is a stillmore complete example of the early pointed style than the west front;this style, which was the most chaste, and, if I may be allowed to usethe expression, the most severe of all, scarcely any where displaysitself to greater advantage. The central window is composed of fivelancet divisions, supported upon slender pillars: massy buttresses ofseveral splays bound it on either side. 

 [Illustration: Plate 75. CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT LISIEUX. _South Transept. _]

"The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of thebuilding. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond theaisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, andplain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is alsosculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support areacute. --The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but thecapitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obviousimitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smallerones. In the clerestory the windows are modern. --The transepts appearthe oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case;whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being lessused in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objectsof subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisleon the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of thenave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender, and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute. --The Lady-Chapel, which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenthcentury, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for hissteady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see, in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fellinto the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for theinvidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orleans. Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct, according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a highmass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers; inorder, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the falsejudgment which he pronounced. [171]--The two windows by the side of thealtar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to theeffect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, throughthe long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir, the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing. --The central tower is openwithin the church to a considerable height: it is supported by fourarches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, ofthe same character as the rest of the building; and still higher, oneach side, are two lancet-windows. --The vaulting of the roof is veryplain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved. 

"At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus, so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated withthe edifice, at the period when it was raised. The character of theheads, the crowns, and the disposition of the foliage, may be consideredas indicating that it is a production, at least of the Carlovingianperiod, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I believe it istraditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint, perhaps St. Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate in therecollection of the name. --Above are two armed statues, probably of thetwelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by Willemin, in his useful work, _Les Monumens Français_, under the title of _TwoArmed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral, at Lisieux_; and both arethere figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great manydetails which do not exist, and never could have existed; though at thesame time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of thestatues, one of which is yet nearly entire. --This may be reckoned amongthe innumerable proofs of the total disregard of accuracy which pervadesthe work of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples tosacrifice correctness to what he considers effect. --Willemin describesthe monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he hasavailed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this andmany other instances. It is evident that, originally, the statues wererecumbent; but I cannot ascertain when their position was changed. --Noother tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised toHannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop, William d'Estouteville; founder of the _Collège de Lisieux_ at Paris, that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, weredestroyed during the revolution. "

NOTES:

[169] The following account of the bishopric of Lisieux, is extractedfrom the _Gallia Christiana_, XI. P. 762, to enable the reader to forman opinion of its extent and importance. --"Ecclesia hæc cæteris Neustriæepiscopatibus facultatibus haud impar, patronum agnoscit S. PetrumApostolorum principem. Episcopus, qui et episcopus est capituli, comesest et civitatis. Hunc comitatum septem componunt baroniæ, de Nonanto inBajocassino, de Thibervilla, de _Glos_ et Courthona, de Gaceio, deTouqua, de Canapvilla et de Bonnavilla _la Louvet_, omnes in dioecesi. Episcopus præterea conservator est privilegiorum academiæ Cadomensis. Dignitates omnes et præbendas ecclesiæ Lexoviensis confert, exceptodecano qui eligitur a capitulo, nec a quoquam confirmatur. Præterdecanum, capitulum octo constat dignitatibus, cantore, qui resideretenetur, thesaurario, capicerio, magistro scholarum et quatuorarchidiaconis; 1. De Lievino cui subsunt quatuor decanatus rurales, _Moyaux, Cormeilles, Bernai, et Orbec_, in quibus 139 parochiæ, rectoriævero seu curæ 148; 2. De Algia, cui subsunt tres decanatus, _Mesnil-Mauger, Beuvron et Beaumont_, in quibus 128 parochiæ, rectoriævero 137; 3. De Ponte Audomaro, cui subsunt tres decanatus, _Touques, Honfleur, et Pontaudemer_, in quibus 89 parochiæ, rectoriæ 93; 4. Denique de Gaceio, cui subsunt quatuor decanatus, _Gacey, Livarot, Montreul, et Vimontier_, in quibus 111 parochiæ, et 117 rectoriæ. Postdignitates sunt 31 præbendæ integræ cum duabus semipræbendis, e quibusundecim antiquæ fundationis, quas qui tenent barones vocantur. Sunt etaliæ sex præbendæ _Volantes_ dictæ, quæ quotidianis non gaudentdistributionibus. Sunt adhuc in eadem ecclesia 4 vicarii, quorum tresrevocabiles, et 30 capellani, quorum septem episcopus, et 23 instituitcapitulum. Præter parochias supra memoratas, sunt et aliæ undecim inurbe et baleuca Lexoviensi, rectoriæ duodecim: quatuor in exemtione deNonanto prope Bajocas, quarum sex rectores, et quinque in exemtione S. Candidi senioris in urbe et dioecesi Rotomagensi, quarum unam, scilicetS. Candidi senioris collegiatam simul et parochialem administrantquatuor canonici, qui alternis vicibus parochialia obeunt munia;decanatus enim annexus est episcopo Lexoviensi qui jurisdictionemexercet in quinque illas ecclesias. Tota denique dioecesis Lexoviensis487 parochias continet, rectorias 520. "

[170] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 139. 

[171] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47. 

PLATE LXXVI. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 76. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN. _North East View. _]

The beauty of the church of St. Ouen has been a frequent theme ofadmiration among the lovers of ancient ecclesiastical architecture. Theexcellencies of the building have been denied by none, while some havegone so far as to consider it as the very perfection of that style, which has generally, however improperly, obtained the name of _Gothic_. A recent English traveller, whose attention was expressly directed tothe different departments of the arts, bears the following testimony inits favor: "Beyond all comparison, the finest specimen of Gothicarchitecture which we have met with in France, is _Saint Ouen_, thesecondary church at Rouen. Contrasted with Salisbury cathedral, it issmall; but it does not, I think, yield to that or any other structure Ihave ever seen, in elegance, lightness, or graceful uniformity. "[172]

Previously to the suppression of monasteries in France, the church ofSt. Ouen made part of the abbey of the same name, one of the mostcelebrated and most ancient in Normandy. It is now a parochial church, and is happily in nearly a perfect state, having suffered comparativelybut little from the mad folly of the Calvinists of the sixteenthcentury, or the democrats of the eighteenth; though every studied insultwas offered to it by the former, and in the fury of the revolution itwas despoiled and desecrated--degraded at one time to a manufactory forthe forging of arms, and at another to a magazine for forage. --Differentaccounts are given of the foundation of the convent: some writerscontend for its having taken place as early as the last year of thefourth century, and having been the work of the piety of Saint Victrice, then bishop of Rouen; others, and these the greater number, are contentwith tracing it from the reign of Clothair. Those who adopt the latteropinion are again divided, as to whether that prince himself was theactual founder, or only ratified by his royal sanction what was reallythe establishment of Archbishop Flavius. In either case, however, theyagree in dating the origin of the abbey from the year 535. 

An historian, who lived as early as the middle of the tenth century, speaks of the original church of St. Ouen, as an edifice deserving ofadmiration:--"..... Miro opere, quadris lapidibus, manu Gothicâ, .... Olimnobilitèr constructa. "[173]--The abbey was at first placed under theinvocation of the Holy Apostles generally: it was afterwards dedicatedto St. Peter alone; but, from the year 692, it has owned no other patronthan St. Ouen, [174] whose body was three years before interred in thechurch, which he had protected with his especial favor while living, andwhich derived still greater benefits from him after his death, owing tothe concourse of pilgrims attracted by the miracles that were wrought athis tomb. 

Upon the irruption of the Normans in the ninth century, this abbeyshared the common fate of the Neustrian convents; and, like the rest, itrose from its ashes with greater magnificence, after the conversion ofthese barbarians to Christianity. Nicholas, the fourth abbot of theconvent, son of Duke Richard II. And of Judith of Brittany, is said byOrdericus Vitalis to have commenced "a new church of wonderful size andelegance. " But though he presided over the fraternity nearly sixtyyears, he did not live to see the building finished: the bringing of thetask to perfection was reserved for William Balot, the next but one tohim in the succession; and even he died in the very year of thededication, which did not take place till 1126. 

This church, which it had cost eighty years to build, was suffered toexist but a short time after its completion: only ten years had elapsedfrom its dedication, when it fell a prey to a conflagration, which wasat the same time destructive to the greater part of the city: anotherchurch, built shortly after, and chiefly by the munificence of RichardCoeur-de-Lion, shared the same fate in 1248. But even these repeateddisasters in no wise abated the spirit of the monks: they had retiredwith the wreck of their property to one of their estates near Rouen, andthere, by economy on their own part, and liberality on that of others, they soon found themselves in a state to undertake the erection of afourth convent, of greater extent than any of the former, and to incloseit with high walls. 

The honor of laying the first stone of the new church, the same that isnow standing, is attributed to one of the most celebrated of the abbots, John Roussel, more commonly known by the name of _Marcdargent_. [175] Hehad been elected to the prelacy in 1303; and, fifteen years afterwards, he commenced the structure. He presided over the monastery thirty-sevenyears, and was buried in the Lady-Chapel of the church, which he hadcompleted as far westward as the transepts. The pomp with which hisfuneral was conducted, is recorded at length in the _Neustria Pia_; andthe same work has also preserved the following inscription, engravedupon his coffin, which describes, with great precision, the progressmade by him in the building:--

 "HIC JACET FRATER JOANNES MARCDARGENT ALIAS ROUSSEL, QUONDAM ABBAS ISTIUS MONASTERII, QUI COEPIT ÆDIFICARE ISTAM ECCLESIAM DE NOVO; ET FECIT CHORUM ET CAPELLAS, ET PILLIARIA TURRIS, ET MAGNAM PARTEM TURRIS S. AUDOENI, MONASTERII DICTI. "

The remaining parts of the church were not finished till the beginningof the sixteenth century, when it was brought to its present state bythe thirty-fourth abbot, Anthony Bohier, who, in the annals of theconvent, bears the character of having been "a magnificent restorer andrepairer of ancient monasteries. " Admirable as is the structure, theoriginal design of the architect was never completed. The western frontremains imperfect; and this is the more to be regretted, as that part isnaturally the first that meets the eye of the stranger, who thusreceives an unfavorable impression, which it is afterwards difficultwholly to banish. The intention was, that the portal should have beenflanked by magnificent towers, ending in a combination of open archesand tracery, corresponding with the outline and fashion of the centraltower. An engraving, though a wretched one, of this intended front, isgiven in Pommeraye's History of the Abbey, from a sketch preserved amongthe records of the convent. 

The view of this church, etched by Mr. Cotman, is copied from a drawingmade by Miss Elizabeth Turner. It represents the building, as seen froma seat in the gardens formerly belonging to the monastery, but now opento the public; and it is well calculated to convey a general idea of thecharacter of the exterior of the building, including the central tower, which is wholly composed of open arches and tracery, and terminates, like the south tower of the cathedral, with an octangular crown offleurs-de-lys. The plate also exhibits a portion of a circular chapel, now commonly known by the name of _la Chambre des Clercs_, the onlyremaining part of the church built by William Balot, in the beginning ofthe twelfth century. This chapel, the south porch, the central tower, and a specimen of ancient sculpture in the church, have been engraved byMr. Turner, in his _Tour in Normandy_. The two first, of the samesubjects, together with the western front, a general view of the churchfrom the south, the curious bas-relief over the southern entrance, and arepresentation of the interior, have since been lithographized in M. Jolimont's _Monumens de la Normandie_. Considerable pains have beendevoted in both these works, to the description and the history of thebuilding; and to them the reader must be referred, who is unwilling toengage with the ponderous folio of Pommeraye. 

NOTES:

[172] _Milton's Letters on the Fine Arts, written from Paris in the year1815. _ p. 183. 

[173] Jolimont, from whom this quotation is borrowed, states, that it isto be found in the chronicle of an author of the name of Fridegode; andhe proceeds with the following observations:--"The expression appearsremarkable, as warranting the inference, that the style of architecture, which Fridegode calls _Gothic_, was in use in France as early as thecommencement of the sixth century, the time assigned by him for thebuilding of the first church of St. Ouen. But it is equally to beinferred, from the manner in which he notices it, that this style wasnot then common; and his subjoining, that it was made of square stones, (in opposition, most probably, to rubble) serves to point out that suchan edifice was an extraordinary building for Rouen at that period. Thisidea receives confirmation, from the reflection, that the materials forforming the city were originally supplied out of the forests thatinclosed it; so that, not only the houses of individuals, but the publicedifices, were merely of wood. St. Gregory of Tours, speaking, in hisfifth book, of a church at Rouen, dedicated to St. Martin, uses thefollowing expression:--'_Quæ super muros civitatis ligneis tabulisfabricata est. _'--Indeed, the few stone-buildings then at Rouen, werealmost exclusively devoted to the purposes of fortification, and were offlint or sand-stone, rather than of free-stone. Every thing too tends toprove that architecture was then in its infancy in the capital ofNeustria; or, if it ever had been more advanced there, which could havebeen only under the Roman sway, that it had retrograded into a barbarousstate. --Moreover, the _Gothic style_, mentioned by Fridegode, was noother than a degeneration of the Roman, or, more properly, of theLombardic architecture, distinguished by the circular arch, by insulatedcolumns, by a paucity of ornaments, and by a general massiveness. It isby no means to be confounded with the style which has since passed underthe same name, a style introduced about the beginning of the twelfthcentury, immediately after the crusades, with its ogee forms, slenderclustered columns, and every portion of the building characterized byextreme lightness, yet still loaded with a profusion of crowdedornaments. If, however, this Lombardic style was practised as early asthe fifth or sixth century, in a town so backward in the science ofarchitecture as Rouen, what date is to be assigned for its introductioninto other parts of France, where the knowledge of the fine artsdisappeared for a much shorter period?--It must be left to the decisionof antiquaries, whom this passage in Fridegode seems to have escaped, todetermine how far the foregoing observations are just, and may serve tothrow light upon the history of the style of architecture called_Gothic_, the origin of which in France has always been attended withgreat obscurity. "

[174] St. Ouen was born A. D. 600, at the village of Sanci, nearSoissons. He was of a noble family, and was educated in the abbey of St. Médar, at Soissons, whence he was removed, at an early age, to the courtof Clothair II. At the court, he contracted an intimate friendship withSt. Eloi; and, under Dagobert, became the favorite of the monarch, aswell as his chancellor and minister of state. During the whole of hislife, his strong turn to religion rendered him a warm patron of monasticestablishments; and, among others, he founded the celebrated abbey ofRebais en Brie. He was still young when he renounced the world, embracedthe ecclesiastical state, and devoted himself to the preaching of thegospel; shortly after which, at the request of the inhabitants of Rouen, he was appointed to succeed St. Romain, as their pastor. Hisconsecration took place in 646, and was performed in the church of themonastery of St. Peter, since-called St. Ouen. It was also at his ownparticular desire, that he was there interred. His name occurs amongthose of the prelates who were present at the council of Châlons, in650; he was likewise entrusted by the king with various importantnegociations; and, after an earthly career, passed, according to hishistorians, in the practice of every civil and apostolic virtue, he diedat Clichy, near Paris, in the year 689. 

[175] The following extract from the _Neustria Pia_, p. 35, bearswitness at once to the merits of the abbot, and the light in which thebuilding was regarded throughout France. --"Hic Abbatiam reperit bonisomnibus sufficienter munitam, pecunia et commeatu haud indigentem: quamet ipse sapienter ac religiosè gubernavit, locupletavit, et vehementeradauxit; tum possessionibus et redditibus, tum ædificiis acreparationibus: Basilicam iliam admirabili structura compositam, totiusque Galliæ speciosissimam, construere coepit, anno 1318, die festoS. _Urbani_; quam continuavit ad ann. Usque 1339, in festo ApostolorumSS. _Petri_ et _Pauli_: quo in opere expendit 63036 libras argenti, etquinque solidos Turonensis: (quæ nunc haud posset compleri ædificio pro663036 libris, etiam aureis) quorum omnium tesserem vetera hujusce domusinclytæ monimenta nunc usque accuratè continent. De hujusmodiceleberrima æde, sic quidam neotericus verè locutus est. _Nunc est S. _Audoeni: _cujus mirabilis structura, hodieque dubium relinquit, si aliaper Galliam splendidior et elegantior: Monasterium est tota quidemEuropa, celeberrimum, sed Patroni sui sanctitate magis æstimandum. _ cuialii adstipulantur. Et hoc, consilio et auxilio D. Caroli, Comitis_Valesii_: cui operi Carolus Valesius VI. Rex ann. 1380, dono dedit triamillia librarum ad instantiam Burgundiæ Ducis, sui patruelis. "

PLATE LXXVII. 

FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS, AT ROUEN. [176]

 [Illustration: Plate 77. FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS AT ROUEN. ]

Rouen has long boasted a pre-eminence over the greater part of thecities of France, with respect to its public fountains. The chalk hills, with which it is surrounded, furnish an abundant supply of excellentsprings; and the waters of these, led into different parts of the town, contribute in no less a degree to the embellishment of the city, than tothe comfort of the inhabitants. The form of some, and the ornaments ofothers, are well deserving of attention, notwithstanding the injuriesthat have inevitably occurred from time, or the more cruel ones thathave been caused by wanton mutilation. It is upon historical record, that there were several fountains at Rouen, as early as the twelfthcentury, but their number, which now exceeds thirty, received itsprincipal increase towards the beginning of the sixteenth century; andit was then also that the idea seems first to have been conceived ofmaking, what was originally designed only for convenience, subservientto beauty. For this new supply of ornamental fountains, Rouen isindebted to its great benefactor, the Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, who, uniting the Norman archiepiscopal mitre to the office of prime minister, under Louis XII. Was no less able than he was willing, to render themost essential services to the seat of his spiritual jurisdiction. Itwas under the auspices of this archbishop, that the fountain herefigured, one of the earliest of that period, was erected. He caused itto be built in the year 1500. The spot which it occupies, is thecross-way formed by the union of the streets, called St. Vivien, St. Hilaire, and Coqueraumont, a spot which, previously to the reign of St. Louis, was not included within the walls of the town, and which, even atthe distance of one hundred years after that time, had not begun to beinhabited. 

So ancient is the practice of placing stone crosses at the junction ofroads in the vicinity of cities, that it would be difficult to assignany probable time for the erection of that which was replaced by thefountain that still bears its name. The waters of this fountain havetheir origin in a spring, which flows at the foot of a hill near thevillage of St. Léger, at some distance from Rouen. The execution of thestructure unites a happy mixture of boldness in outline, and delicacy indetails: its pyramidal form is graceful. It consists of three stories, gradually diminishing in height and diameter as they rise, andterminating in a cross, whose clumsy shape only renders the destructionof that which it replaces the more to be regretted. The form is octagonthroughout; and upon every compartment in each of the stories, iscarved, at a short distance from its base, a narrow cinquefoil-headedarch, surmounted by a triangular crocketed canopy. But the crockets andfinials have been in most instances destroyed. The water issues fromfour pipes in the basement. Each of the arches of the lower tier servesas a tabernacle for a wooden statue of a Madonna, or saint, of wretchedexecution, a poor substitute for those that occupied the same nichespreviously to the troubles of 1792, at which time the religiouscharacter of the fountain marked it out as an object of popularvengeance. It was suffered to continue in its mutilated and degradedstate, from that period till the year 1816, when the inhabitants of thispart of the town undertook to restore it at their own expense. Theirlabors have hitherto proceeded no farther than filling the niches afreshwith images, and doing such repairs as were absolutely necessary to keepthe whole structure from falling into ruin. Even by this, however, theyhave secured themselves the good will of the archbishop, who consecratedthe fountain with great pomp anew, on the 24th of August, 1816. 

The resemblance between the _Fountain of the Stone Cross_, at Rouen, andthe monumental crosses erected in England by King Edward I. Toperpetuate the memory of his consort, Eleanor of Castillo, will not failto strike the British antiquary. It is more than probable, that the ideaof the former was borrowed from the latter, to which, however, it isvery inferior in point of richness of ornaments, or beauty ofexecution. 

NOTES:

[176] It is right to observe, that the accounts here given of this andthe following article, are little more than a translation, in the secondinstance materially abridged, of what is published upon the samesubjects, in _Jolimont, Monumens de la Normandie_. 

PLATE LXXVIII. 

PALACE OF JUSTICE, AT ROUEN. 

 [Illustration: Plate 78. PALACE OF JUSTICE, AT ROUEN. ]

The building here figured was, from its foundation, devoted to thepurpose of the administration of justice; and, notwithstanding the manymutilations to which it has at different times been exposed, it stillremains an interesting, and, in the city of Rouen, almost a uniquespecimen of the sumptuous architectural taste of the age in which it waserected. 

Down to as late a period as the year 1499, there existed in Normandy nostationary court of judicature; but the execution of the laws wasconfided to an ambulatory tribunal, established, according to thechroniclers, by Rollo himself, and known by the name of the _Exchequer_. The sittings of this Norman exchequer were commonly held twice a year, in spring and autumn, after the manner of the ancient parliaments of theFrench kings; the places of session depending upon the pleasure of thesovereign, or being determined in general, like the English _AulaRegia_, by his presence. The inconveniences attendant upon such a modeof administering justice, became of course the more heavily felt, inproportion as the country increased in population and civilization. Accordingly, the states-general of the province, assembled in the lastyear of the fifteenth century, under the presidency of the Cardinald'Amboise, petitioned Louis XII. Who was then upon the throne, toappoint in the metropolis of the duchy a permanent judicature, in thesame manner as had been previously done in others of the principalcities of the realm. The king was graciously pleased to accede to theirrequest; and, by the words of the royal edict, not only was theexchequer rendered permanent in the good city of Rouen, but permissionwas also granted to the members to hold their sittings in the great hallof the castle, till such time as a suitable place should be prepared fortheir reception. 

It was on this occasion that the _Palace of Justice_ was built; a pieceof ground was selected for the purpose, that had been known by the nameof the Jews' Close, from the time when Philip-Augustus expelled thechildren of Israel from France; and the foundations of the new structurewere laid within a few months after the obtaining of the royal sanction. The progress, however, of the work, was not commensurate, in point ofrapidity, with the haste with which it was undertaken; even in 1506 thelabors were not brought to a conclusion, though, in that year, theexchequer was installed by the king in person, with great pomp, in thenew palace. The sitting will long be memorable in the Norman annals, notonly as being the first, but as having been selected by the sovereign, as an opportunity for bestowing various important favors upon the cityand duchy. 

The palace, in its present state, is composed of three distinctbuildings, erected at different times, and forming collectively threesides of a parallelogram, whose fourth side is merely a wall. The courtthus enclosed is spacious. One of these buildings, the front in theplate, goes by the name of the _Salle des Procureurs_. Its erection wassix years anterior to that of the right-hand building, more properlycalled the _Palace of Justice_; and the object in raising it was, according to the edict of the bailiff upon the occasion, to serve as anexchange to the merchants, and put a stop to the impious practice ofassembling, even upon feast-days, in the cathedral, for purposes ofbusiness. At a subsequent time, this hall was added to the Palace ofJustice, and there was then built to it a chapel, now destroyed, inwhich mass was regularly celebrated twice a year, --upon the anniversaryof the feast of St. Martin, the day of the meeting of parliament, andupon Ascension-Day. The service on the first of these days, went by thename of _la messe rouge_, because the members always attended in theirscarlet robes: on the second, and more important occasion, it was called_la messe de la fierte_, being performed in commemoration of thedeliverance of the prisoner, by virtue of the privilege of St. Romain. [177]--The exterior of the _Salle des Procureurs_ iscomparatively simple: the most highly decorated part of it is thegable, which is flanked by two octangular turrets, ornamented withcrocketed pinnacles and flying buttresses. Within, it consists of anoble hall, one hundred and sixty French feet in length, and fifty inwidth, with a coved roof of timber, plain and bold, and destitute eitherof the open tie-beams and arches, or the knot-work and cross-timber thatusually adorn the old English roofs. Below the hall is a prison. 

The southern building, erected exclusively for the sittings of theexchequer, is far more sumptuous in its decorations, both without andwithin. The lucarne windows may even vie with those in the house in thePlace de la Pucelle. [178] Those below them find almost exactcounterparts in the _château_ at Fontaine-le-Henri, also figured in thiswork. [179] To use the language of the French critics, this front, whichis more than two hundred feet in width, "est decorée de tout ce quel'architecture de ce temps-là présente de plus délicat et de plusriche. " The oriel or tower of enriched workmanship, which, by projectinginto the court, breaks the uniformity of the elevation, is perhaps thepart that more than any other merits such encomium. But it is only halfthe front that has been allowed to continue in its original state: theother half has been degraded by alterations, or stripped of itsornaments. --The room in which the parliament formerly met, and which isnow employed for the trial of criminal causes, still remainscomparatively uninjured. Its ceiling of oak, nearly as black as ebony, divided into numerous compartments, and covered with a profusion ofcarving and of gilt ornaments, not only affords a gorgeous example ofthe taste of the time, but immediately strikes the stranger as wellsuited to the dignity of the purpose to which the apartment wasappropriated. But the open-work bosses of this ceiling are gone, as arethe doors enriched with sculpture, and the ancient chimney, and theescutcheons charged with sacred devices, and the great painting, bywhich, before the revolution, witnesses were made to swear. [180]

The building that fronts the _Salle des Procureurs_, and forms the thirdside of the court, was not erected till after the year 1700. Its frontis an imitation of the Ionic order, a style which harmonizes so ill withthe rest of the quadrangle, as to produce an unfavorable effect Anaccident which happened to the wood-work of the upper part of thisfront, on the 1st of April, 1812, unfortunately involved the destructionof a painting held in the highest estimation; the representation ofJupiter hurling his thunderbolts at Vice, executed by Jouvenet, upon theceiling of an apartment called _la seconde Chambre des Enquêtes_. Jouvenet, who commonly passes under the name of the Michelagnolo ofFrance, was born at Rouen, in 1664; and, in conjunction with Fontenelleand the great Corneille, forms the triumvirate, of which the city hasmost reason to feel proud. The painting in the Palace of Justice wasregarded as one of the happiest efforts of his pencil, and was not theless remarkable for having been executed with his left hand, after aparalytic stroke had deprived him of the use of the other. 

NOTES:

[177] See p. 51. 

[178] See plate 64. 

[179] Plate 63. 

[180] Upon this subject Mr. Turner is in error: it appears, from his_Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 193, that he was informed that the painting, now actually over the judges' bench, is the same by which it wasoriginally customary to take the oath; but M. Jolimont, who is, unquestionably, better authority, states the contrary in the followingnote:--"Le tableau, sur lequel on faisait jurer les témoins, et quiavait près de douze pieds d'élévation, consistait en trois portions oubandes horizontales réunies dans un grand cadre sculpté à la manière dutemps. La première, et la plus élevée, présentait quatre écussons auxarmes de France, parsemés de fleurs de lis d'or; celle du milieuoffrait, sous cinq arcades en ogives avec fleurons, un Christ entre laVierge et saint Jean, et les quatre Evangelistes; au-dessous, un Moyse, et les tables de la loi: il existait encore au moment de la révolution;on l'a remplacé, au mois de janvier 1816, par un autre, d'environ quatrepieds de hauteur, donné (dit l'inscription moderne mise au bas) parLouis XII à l'Echiquier, lorsqu'il l'établit au palais. Ce secondtableau, recueilli pendant la révolution par les soins de M. Gouel, graveur, et dont il a bien voulu faire hommage à la Cour royale (voir, àce sujet, le Journal de Rouen, du 30 janvier 1816), est composé de deuxparties: l'une renferme un Christ entre saint Jean et la Vierge;l'autre, en forme de couronnement, présente deux figures à mi-corps, avec des légendes; mais ces deux parties hétérogènes ne sont que deuxfragmens ajustés ensemble. Le premier, qui représente le Christ, estévidemment la portion qui remplissait une des cinq arcades du grandtableau dont nous venons de parler, et l'autre est une partie seulementdu tableau donné par Louis XII, et qui orna, pendant plus de deuxsiècles, le manteau de la belle cheminée de la chambre du Conseil quenous citons ci-après. Les deux figures, aujourd'hui mutilées, étaient enpied, et représentaient le Roi Louis XII et le Cardinal d'Amboise, avecces mots écrits sur des bandelettes, que les deux personnages semblents'adresser: _Pontifices, agite: Magistrats, agissez;--et vos Reges, dicite justa: et vous Rois, soyez justes_. Ces fragmens de deux tableauxdifférens, réunis, avec assez d'art, et qui paraissent être seulséchappés à la destruction, sont encore fort curieux, et l'on doit savoirgré à M. Gouel de leur conservation, et de la générosité avec laquelleil les a rendus à leur destination primitive. "

PLATE LXXIX. 

SOUTH PORCH OF THE CHURCH, AT LOUVIERS. 

 [Illustration: Plate 79. CHURCH OF LOUVIERS. _South Porch. _]

Louviers is one of the most considerable of the numerous manufacturingtowns which surround Rouen in every direction, depending altogether fortheir prosperity upon the state of commerce in the provincial capital. Its population consists of about seven thousand inhabitants. Itsposition is beautiful, in a small island formed by the Eure, whichdivides, in the immediate vicinity of the town, into two streams, flowing through a valley of the most luxuriant fertility, enclosed byhills covered for the greater part with extensive forests. 

The name of Louviers, in Latin _Locoveris_, occurs upon more than oneoccasion, in the early Norman chronicles; and the town, though neverfortified, has obtained a considerable degree of historical celebrity. When Richard Coeur-de-Lion, escaped from his captivity in the east, hastened to punish the perfidy with which he had been on all sidesassailed during his absence, and Normandy became the theatre of a mostbloody warfare, Louviers had the honor of being selected as the place inwhich these differences were composed. The treaty signed upon thisoccasion, in 1195, prescribed new bounds to the duchy; and the oldhistorians, who always delight in consecrating the recital of anymemorable event by a mixture of the marvellous, tell how, at the momentwhen the kings were engaged in the conference which led to this treaty, a serpent of enormous size darted from the foot of the tree beneathwhich they were standing, and approached them with marks of great fury, hissing violently at both, as if in the act to attack them. Themonarchs, who were alone, instantly laid their hands upon their swords;and the armies, who stood at a short distance on either side arranged inbattle array, alarmed at such hostile demonstrations, had well nighjoined in a fresh combat. --Only the following year, Louviers was one ofthe towns ceded by Richard to Walter, archbishop of Rouen, by way ofcompensation for the infringement of the rights of the see, of which hehad been guilty in the erection of Château Gaillard. The possession ofLouviers was peculiarly acceptable to the prelate, as being in theimmediate vicinity of the village of Pinterville, where the archbishopsof Rouen then had their country seat: they continued to occupy the sametill the reign of St. Louis, when that monarch conferred upon them thecastle of Gaillon, which they held till the revolution. 

Louviers was taken in 1345, by the English army under King Edward III. Then on his march for Paris, after the battle of Caen; and Froissart, inrelating the circumstance, takes occasion to mention the importance ofthe place, stating that the town was then a great one, and "the chieftown of all Normandy for drapery and riches, and full of merchandize. But, not being closed, the hostile army soon entered it. " He goes on toadd, not much to the credit of the invading host, that "they overran, and spoiled and robbed without mercy; and that they won there greatriches. "--In 1360, Louviers was once more chosen as the spot where peacewas signed: the treaty that had been concluded at Bretigny, wasconfirmed at Paris by the Regent, and was finally ratified by the BlackPrince in this town. --During the subsequent wars, under Henry V. And VI. Louviers is repeatedly mentioned; but principally for opposing aresistance of twenty-six days to the English in 1418. --In the time ofthe league, it distinguished itself most unfortunately by its devotedattachment to the Catholic cause; in consequence of which, it waspillaged by the royalists shortly after the battle of Ivry. [181]

The church of Louviers is an imposing structure: though materiallyinjured, and reduced to no more than a nave with its four aisles, it isstill a spacious and handsome building. The great western door isclosed, and the front defaced: the eastern end is likewise altogethermodern. The central tower is handsome, though square and short. Twowindows, very similar to those of the tower of St. Romain, in Rouencathedral, light it on either side; and saints, placed under canopies, ornament the angles behind the buttresses. A second tower, to the west, is surmounted with a truncated cone. The south porch, [182] here figured, is the great feature of the exterior; and, for beauty and elegance inthe formation or disposition of its parts, it may safely be put incompetition with any similar portion of an ecclesiastical building, either in Normandy or in England. Yet, even here, the saints have beentorn from their pedestals by the wanton violence of Calvinists or ofdemocrats. 

Internally, the church is a fine specimen of the pointed architecture ofthe thirteenth century;[183] but, to use the words of Mr. Turner, fromwhose Tour[184] a great part of the preceding description has beenborrowed, "the whole is so concealed and degraded by ornaments in theworst of taste, and by painted saints in the most tawdry dresses, thatthe effect is disgusting. " In the windows of the church there stillremains a considerable quantity of painted glass; and a bas-relief onthe right of the choir is well deserving of attention. It is placedunder a niche, which in all probability was originally filled with astatue of St. Hubert; as the sculpture pourtrays a well-known legend, recorded in his history--the miraculous stag with a cross between hisantlers, seen by the hunter-knight. --The foliage at the base of the nicheis executed with particular elegance and skill. 

In the town of Louviers is an old house, said to have belonged to theKnights Templars. Its gable, pierced with numerous windows, generally inthe form of flatly pointed arches, each of them containing a couple ofarches with trefoil-heads, has given currency to the tale of itsoriginal destination. It was figured some time since by M. Langlois, ina work commenced to illustrate the Antiquities of Normandy, but of whichthe first number only appeared; and it has recently been lithographizedby M. Nodier. But, from the style of its architecture, it does notappear to have been erected anterior to the fourteenth century, howeverconfidently it is referred by M. Langlois to the twelfth orthirteenth. 

NOTES:

[181] Sully, in his _Memoirs_, I. P. 254, (_English translation_) givesthe following account of its capture:--"The King succeeded better atLouviers: this town kept a priest in its pay; who, from the top of abelfry, which he never left, played the part of a spy with greatexactness. If he saw but a single person in the field, he rung a certainbell, and hung out at the same side a great flag. We did not despair ofbeing able to corrupt his fidelity, which two hundred crowns, and apromise of a benefice worth three thousand livres a year, effected. There remained only to gain some of the garrison; the Sieur du Rollettook this upon himself, and succeeded. He addressed himself to acorporal and two soldiers, who easily prevailed upon the rest of thegarrison to trust the guard of one of the gates to them only. Everything being thus arranged, the King presented himself before Louviers, at twelve o'clock in the night. No one rung the bell, nor was there theleast motion in the garrison. Du Rollet entered, and opened the gate, through which the King passed, without the smallest resistance, into thecentre of the town. Fontaine Martel made some ineffectual efforts todraw the garrison together: as for the citizens, they were employed inconcealing their wives and daughters. The town, whose chief richesconsisted in its magazines of linen and leather, was wholly pillaged: Ihad a gentleman with me, called Beaugrard, a native of Louviers, who wasof great use to us in discovering where these sort of goods wereconcealed, and a prodigious quantity of them was amassed together. Theproduce of my share amounted to three thousand livres. The Kingconsigned to Du Rollet the government of Louviers. "

[182] Mr. Cotman very much regrets that it was not in his power to dothis porch the justice it deserved, in consequence of the continualinterruptions to which he was exposed from the lower class of theinhabitants. 

[183] M. Nodier, in his _Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques_, hasfigured the interior of this church, the erection of which he refers (p. 18) to the time of the first crusades; but a comparison of the buildingwith others of that æra, would scarcely warrant such a conclusion. 

[184] Vol. II. P. 287. 

PLATE LXXX. AND LXXXI. 

CHÂTEAU GAILLARD. 

 [Illustration: Plate 80. CHÂTEAU GAILLARD. _North East View. _]

On the building of Château Gaillard, the following account is given byMasseville, in his _History of Normandy_:[185]--"In the year 1196, a fewmonths after the treaty of Louviers had been concluded betweenPhilip-Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion, the Norman Duke, consideringhow frequently inroads had been made into his territories, by the way ofAndelys, resolved to strengthen himself by means of a formidable barrierin that quarter. With this view, he built a fortress upon an island inthe Seine, opposite the village of Lesser Andelys; and, at the sametime, erected upon the brow of the rock that overhung the river, acastle of the greatest possible strength, without, however, reflectinghow far these works were likely to affect the rights, or to diminish therevenues, of the see of Rouen, to whom the ground belonged. But Walter, who then wore the archiepiscopal mitre, was by no means of a characterpatiently to submit to an invasion of his privileges. He complainedloudly during the progress of the works, menaced the artificers, andeven the prince himself, with the vengeance of the church; and, finally, finding his threats and his remonstrances equally disregarded, hadrecourse to the bold measure of laying the whole of Normandy under aspiritual interdict. The king, alarmed at so decisive a step, appealedto the papal see, and sent the bishops of Durham and of Lisieux, as hisambassadors to Rome. The archbishop also repaired thither to plead hisown cause; and the affair was finally compromised by an exchange, invirtue of which, the castles were allowed to stand, and the secularseigniory of Andelys was ceded to the duke, who, in return for thisacquisition, and to obtain his reconciliation to the church, gave up tothe primate the towns and lordships of Dieppe and Louviers, the land andforest of Alihermont, the land and lordship of Bouteilles, and the millsof Rouen. "--The contract was considered of so much importance, that thearchbishop of Canterbury, together with several other English prelates, as well as almost all those of Normandy, and many of the principalabbots and noblemen of the province, were summoned to sanction theexecution of it by their presence. Such were the benefits it wassupposed to bestow upon the church, that it has passed in ecclesiasticalhistory, under the significant appellation of the _celebris permutatio_. 

But the king also congratulated himself, and not without reason, uponhaving opposed an impregnable barrier to the inroads of his morepowerful, and scarcely less active, neighbor. He delighted in ChâteauGaillard, the very name of which is said to have had its origin in proudmockery and defiance; and he himself, in his public acts, designated ithis "_beautiful castle of the rock_. " Many of his charters bear datefrom this fortress; so that, though only begun three years before thedeath of the monarch, it is plain that it was already habitable in hislife-time. It may likewise safely be inferred, that it was then quitefinished; for his dastardly successor, engaged either in distant wars, or in intrigues at home, from the moment of his mounting the throne, hadbestowed no thought upon the strengthening of his hereditary continentaldominions, till he found himself, in the year 1202, attacked byPhilip-Augustus at the head of an overwhelming army, while his ownsubjects were but little disposed to assist a prince, whose hands werereeking with his nephew's blood. 

It was at this time that Château Gaillard supported the siege which willrender its name for ever memorable in history. Long, and curious, andinteresting details of the occurrences connected with the capture of thecastle, are given by Father Daniel: Du Moulin also briefly enumerates afew of the many stratagems to which the French king was obliged to haverecourse. But those who delight in narratives of this kind, or whodesire to obtain full information relative to the attacks and defence, combined with a lively picture of the strength of the fortress, must bereferred to Brito, the poetical chronicler of the exploits ofPhilip-Augustus. The whole of the seventh book of the _Philippiad_ ofthat author, containing no fewer than eight hundred and forty-one lines, are devoted to this single subject; so eventful was the history of thesiege, and so great the importance attached to the capture of the place. The fall of Château Gaillard was almost immediately followed by thetotal subversion of the power of the Norman Dukes; but, as to thefortress itself, though its situation was no longer such as to give itimportance, Brito expressly states, that Philip bestowed great painsupon the restoring of its damaged works, and upon augmenting itsstrength by the addition of new ones:--

 "Rex ita Gaillardo per prælia multa potitus, Cuncta reædificat vel ab ipso diruta, vel quæ Improbus appositis destruxerat ignibus hostis, In triplo meliùs et fortiùs intùs et extrà, Antea quàm fuerint muros et cætera firmans. "

Fortunately for France, the subsequent state of the kingdom renderedprecautions of this description unnecessary; Château Gaillard appears nomore in history as a formidable fortress, except upon the occasion ofthe occupation of the Gallic throne by Henry V. And of the expulsion ofhis successor. In the former case, the castle did not surrender to theEnglish army, till after a vigorous resistance of sixteen months;[186]and even then its garrison, though composed of only one hundred andtwenty men, would not have yielded, had not the ropes of theirwater-buckets been worn out and destroyed: in the latter instance, itwas one of the last of the strong holds of Normandy that held out forthe successors of its ancient dukes; and the siege of six weeks, sustained by a dispirited army, was scarcely less honorable to itsdefenders, than the far longer resistance opposed on former occasions. 

Even after the final re-union of the duchy, Château Gaillard was neitherpurposely destroyed, nor suffered to fall through neglect into decay, like the greater number of the Norman fortresses. During the religiouswars, it still continued to be a military post, as well as a royalpalace; and it was honored with the residence of Henry IV. Whose father, Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562. Its importance ceased in thefollowing reign. The inhabitants of the adjacent country petitioned theKing to give orders that the castle should be dismantled. They dreaded, lest its towers should serve as an asylum to some of the numerous bandsof marauders, by whom France was then infested. It was consequentlyundermined, and reduced to its present state of ruin. 

If the name of this castle is to be found at other times, in "thehistorian's ample page, " it is only in the comparatively unimportantcharacter of a place of safe confinement for state prisoners, or, on oneoccasion, as a temporary residence for a fugitive monarch. In the lattercapacity, it opened its gates to David Bruce, in 1331, when the Scottishprince, received by Philip de Valois, with all the honours due to anexiled sovereign, had this palace assigned him as a regal residence, andwas permitted to maintain here, for a while, the pageantry of a court. As a prison, Château Gaillard was frequently employed: it was inparticular distinguished with an unenviable preference in one of themost disgraceful æras of the history of France. Margaret of Burgundy, the Queen of Louis X. And Blanche, the consort of his brother, Charlesle Bel, were both of them confined here, after having been tried andconvicted of adultery; together with Jane, another princess of the houseof Burgundy, the wife to Philip, brother to Louis and Charles. Margaretwas shortly after murdered in this castle; when Louis, intent upon afresh marriage with the princess Clementia of Hungary, found an obstacleto his wishes in the protracted existence of his former queen. 

 [Illustration: Plate 81. CHÂTEAU GAILLARD. _South West View. _]

Of the extent, the magnificence, the commanding situation, or theimposing appearance of Château Gaillard, it is almost equally difficultto convey an adequate idea by the pencil or by the pen. "The faithfuleye" can alone give satisfaction upon such subjects. Mr. Turner'saccount of the present state of the ruin, has the merit of being themost copious that has yet appeared; and the following extract from itshall therefore conclude this article:--"Our expectations respectingChâteau Gaillard were more than answered. Considered as to itsdimensions and its situation, it is by far the finest castellated ruin Iever saw. Conway, indeed, has more beauty; but Château Gaillard isinfinitely superior in dignity. Its ruins crown the summit of a loftyrock, abruptly rising from the very edge of the Seine, whose sinuouscourse here shapes the adjoining land into a narrow peninsula. Thechalky cliffs on each side of the castle are broken into hills ofromantic form, which add to the impressive wildness of the scene. Towards the river, the steepness of the cliff renders the fortressunassailable: a double fosse of great depth, defended by a strong wall, originally afforded almost equal protection on the opposite side. 

"The circular keep is of extraordinary strength, and in its constructiondiffers wholly from any of our English dungeon-towers. It may bedescribed as a cylinder, placed upon a truncated cone. The massyperpendicular buttresses, which are ranged round the upper wall, whencethey project considerably, lose themselves at their bases in the conefrom which they arise. The building, therefore, appears to be dividedinto two stories. The wall of the second story is upwards of twelve feetin thickness. The base of the conical portion is perhaps twice as thick. It seldom happens that the military buildings of the middle ages havesuch a _talus_ or slope, on the exterior face, agreeing with theprinciples of modern fortification; and it is difficult to guess why thearchitect of Château Gaillard thought fit to vary from the establishedmodel of his age. The masonry is regular and good. The pointed windowsare evidently insertions of a period long subsequent to the originalerection. 

"The inner ballium is surrounded by a high circular wall, which consistsof an uninterrupted line of bastions, some semi-circular and otherssquare. The whole of this part of the castle remains nearly perfect. There are also traces of extensive foundations in various directions, and of great out-works. Château Gaillard was, in fact, a citadel, supported by numerous smaller fortresses, all of them communicating withthe strong central hold, and disposed so as to secure every defensiblepost in the neighborhood. The wall of the outer ballium, which was builtof a compact white and grey stone, is in most places standing, though inruins. The original facing only remains in those parts which are tooelevated to admit of its being removed with ease. --Beneath the castle, the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, notintended for mere passages or vaults, as at Arques and in most otherplaces, but forming spacious crypts supported by pillars roughly hewnout of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman'schisel. 

"The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty. We ventured to scaleit; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which wegained. The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rockin large lazy windings: the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and wellwooded: on the opposite shores, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly, crowned with dark forests. "

NOTES:

[185] Vol. II. P. 113. 

[186] So says Monstrelet; and he has generally been followed; but, according to Masseville, (_Histoire de Normandie_, IV. P. 84) the NormanChronicle limits the duration of the siege to only seven months. 

PLATE LXXXII. 

CHURCH OF MONTIVILLIERS. 

 [Illustration: Plate 82. ABBEY CHURCH OF MONTIVILLIERS. _West End. _]

Montivilliers is a town of about four thousand inhabitants, situated ina beautiful valley upon a small stream, called the _Lezarde_, near thewestern extremity of the Pays de Caux, within the distance of sixleagues from Fécamp, and two from Havre de Grace. Its fortifications, now in ruins, were erected near the close of the fourteenth century, till which time it was altogether defenceless; but the state of France, just recovered from one English invasion and threatened with another, turned the thoughts of the government towards the securing of allvulnerable points on the northern frontier; and the trade of the place, though at present trifling, was at that period far otherwise. The clothsof Montivilliers were then considered to rival those of Flanders; andthe preservation of the manufacture was regarded of so much consequence, that sundry regulations respecting it are to be found in the royalordinances. The two circular towers of one of the gates now standing, afford a good specimen of the military architecture of the time. 

Montivilliers is called in Latin, _Monasterium villare_; and in oldFrench, _Monstier Vieil_: the present name of the town is obviously acorruption of these; and the same fact also denotes that the placederived its importance, if not its existence, from the monastery. Amongthe Norman historians, the foundation of Montivilliers is referred tothe seventh century; during the latter half of which, St. Philibert, abbot of Jumieges, built a convent here for a community of nuns. Themonastery was richly endowed; but no records are left of its historypreviously to the incursions of the Normans, under whose hands it atfirst suffered the same destruction as the other religious houses inNeustria, and afterwards rose, like them, from its ashes, with increasedsplendor and opulence. The immediate successors of Rollo rebuilt theabbey, but without restoring it to its original destination. Richard II. Conferred it, with all its dependencies, upon the more favored monks ofFécamp; and, in the donation, he makes use of the strong expression, "utex eo facerent quicquid vellent, tamquam ex proprio alodo. " The union ofthe two establishments was, however, but short lived: either under thesame prince, or, as some authors say, under his son Robert, Montivilliers once more resumed a state of independence, and became oncemore the retreat of holy virgins. The duke was moved to this step by thesolicitation of his aunt Beatrice, who retired hither, and took theveil, and presided over the sisterhood; and the monastery of St. Taurinat Evreux was, on this occasion, ceded to Fécamp, in exchange forMontivilliers. A portion of the charter is preserved in the _NeustriaPia_; and, according to this work, the instrument was subsequentlyratified by the signatures of William the Conqueror, and of Philip leBel. At different times, various papal bulls were issued, for thepurpose of placing the abbey of Montivilliers under the especialprotection of the holy see, and of granting it sundry privileges andimmunities. These are also recorded in the same publication. One ofthem, originating in a dispute between the archbishop of Rouen and theabbess of Montivilliers, is but little to the credit of either party. Itrepresents the lady-abbess as by no means free from irregularities inthe performance of her office; it charges one of her nuns with dissolutelife; and it arraigns the primate himself of being the cause, if not theimmediate instrument, of scandal:--"Siquidem, ex parte abbatissæ fuitpropositum et probatum, quòd quidam, qui cum eodem archiepiscopo et suisprædecessoribus venerant ad monasterium memoratum, turpia quædam etillicita commiserunt contra honestatem observantiæ regularis, inscandalum plurimorum: volumus et mandamus, ut, cùm archiepiscopusRothomagensis ad monasterium ipsum, causâ visitationis, accesserit, abingressu claustri aliarumque domorum, in quibus habitant moniales, familiam suam talitèr studeat coercere, quòd de cætero similia noncontingant. Ipse quoque archiepiscopus, ejusdem monasterii claustrum velcapitulum intraturus, non nisi cum moderatâ societate accedat, quæ vitâet moribus sit honesta; ut per officium visitationis ejusdem, nondissolutionis vel scandali, sed ædificationis potiùs materiaministretur. "--The instrument, which is of considerable length, goes onto accuse the prelate of affording protection to some refractory nuns, and enjoins him never to suffer his clergy to frequent the abbey uponany pretext, or upon any occasion. 

The church of Montivilliers, represented in the present plate, is thesame as before the revolution belonged to the abbey. The portion to thenorth is the chapter-house, and is the work of the fourteenth century. The greater part of the rest of the building, though altered in someplaces, may safely be referred to the eleventh; at which time it is uponrecord, that Elizabeth, who succeeded Beatrice as abbess, nearly, if notaltogether, rebuilt the whole. At subsequent periods, the churchunderwent many considerable repairs and alterations. A sum of sevenhundred florins was expended upon it in 1370, the proceeds of a fineimposed upon the town, for some injuries done to the nuns; andToussaints Varrin, archbishop of Thessalonica, dedicated the edifice, in1513, under the invocation of the Holy Virgin. Five years subsequently, the abbess, Jane Mustel, repaired the ceiling and painted windows, andmade the stalls in the choir. [187]--The exterior of the Lady-Chapelaffords a fine example of early pointed architecture; its lofty narrowwindows are separated by slender cylindrical pillars, as in the churchof the Holy Trinity, at Caen. The embattled ornament round the southerndoor of the western front, is far from commonly seen in such situations. In the interior of the nave, the same massive semi-circular architectureprevails as in the towers; but it is mixed with some peculiarities thatwill scarcely be found elsewhere, particularly a flat band in the formof a pilaster, enriched with losenges, which is attached to the front ofone of the columns, and is continued over the roof, and again down thepillar on the opposite side. Mr. Turner noticed a small gallery, orpulpit, of elegant filigree stone-work, at the west end, near theroof;[188] and, upon the authority of the well-known antiquary, JohnCarter, he supposed it most probably intended to receive a band ofsingers on high festivals. But some corresponding erections in Englandwould make it seem more likely that this gallery communicated with theapartments of the superior, and was placed here for the purpose ofaffording her the means of paying her devotions in private, when, eitherfrom the weather, or any other cause, she might not wish to occupy herthrone in the choir. 

Mr. Turner has also remarked upon the capitals of the columns atMontivilliers, which are very peculiar. Some of them are obviousimitations of the antique pattern, and of great beauty. Others are asrude and wild as any of those already figured in this work, from thechurches of St. Georges or Gournay. The mysteries of Christianity, andthe fables and allegories of heathenism, the latter, as well in its mostrefined as its most barbarous forms, occur in endless variety in almostevery part of the edifice. One of the capitals contains a representationof the fabulous Sphynx, with her tail ending in a fleur-de-lys: uponanother, is sculptured a figure of Christ in the act of destroying theDragon, by thrusting the end of a crosier into its mouth. Two others, figured in the _Tour in Normandy_, exhibit a group of Centaurs, and theallegorical _psychostasia_: the remarks of the author of thatpublication, upon the latter of these, shall close the presentarticle:--"In this you observe an angel weighing the good works of thedeceased against his evil deeds; and, as the former are far exceedingthe avoirdupois upon which Satan is to found his claim, he isendeavoring most unfairly to depress the scale with his two-prongedfork. --This allegory is of frequent occurrence in the monkishlegends. --The saint, who was aware of the frauds of the fiend, resolvedto hold the balance himself. --He began by throwing in a pilgrimage to amiraculous virgin. --The devil pulled out an assignation with some fairmortal Madonna, who had ceased to be immaculate. --The saint laid in thescale the sackcloth and ashes of the penitent of Lenten-time. --Satananswered the deposit by the vizard and leafy robe of the masker of thecarnival. Thus did they still continue equally interchanging the sorrowsof godliness with the sweets of sin; and still the saint was distressedbeyond compare, by observing that the scale of the wicked thing (wisemen call him the correcting principle, ) always seemed the heaviest. Almost did he despair of his client's salvation, when he luckily saweight little jetty black claws just hooking and clenching over the rimof the golden basin. The claws at once betrayed the craft of the clovenfoot. Old Nick had put a little cunning young devil under the balance, who, following the dictates of his senior, kept clinging to the scale, and swaying it down with all his might and main. The saint sent the impto his proper place in a moment; and instantly the burthen oftransgression was seen to kick the beam. --Painters and sculptors alsooften introduced this ancient allegory of the balance of good and evil, in their representations of the last judgment: it was even employed byLucas Kranach. "

NOTES:

[187] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, II. P. 108. 

[188] _Tour in Normandy_, I. P. 69. 

PLATE LXXXIII. 

CHURCH OF ST. SANSON SUR RILLE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 83. CHURCH OF ST. SANSON SUR RILLE. _Remains of & capitals. _]

Normandy, throughout the whole of its extent, can scarcely boast alovelier stream than the Rille. Originating in the southern part of theduchy, this little river advances in a northerly direction, rolling itssparkling waters in rapid course, through a valley of the most brilliantverdure, till they mingle with the British Channel, at a very shortdistance from the west of the mouth of the Seine. The Rille, in everypart of its current, is varied by an infinity of islands, formed by thedivision of its waters. Hence its principal beauty, and hence alsoconsiderable benefit for the purpose of manufacture; but the samecircumstance is fatal to the more important objects of commerce; for itis in a great measure owing to this multiplicity of channels, that theriver is navigable to only a very short way above Pont Audemer; adistance scarcely exceeding ten miles from its confluence with theocean. 

The small village of St. Sanson is situated upon the right bank of theRille, within a league of its mouth. Its church, the same most probablyas is figured in this plate, is enumerated among the possessionsconfirmed to the Benedictine monastery of St. Martin, at Troarn, by abull of Pope Innocent III. Dated in the year 1210. In after-times, thepresentation to the living was in the hands of the bishops of Dol, inBrittany, who likewise continued till the revolution to be both temporaland spiritual lords of the parish, in right, as they alledged, of theancient barony of St. Sanson, which was annexed to their see. [189] Otherwriters asserted, that the bishops held their authority here, assuccessors to the superiors of an abbey, founded upon this spot in themiddle of the sixth century, by Childebert I. In favor of St. Sanson, then bishop of Dol. But the monastery fell during the earliestincursions of the Normans, and never rose again. Old traditions state itto have been called in French, _Pentale_; and in Latin, _MonasteriumPentaliense_: a corruption, as it is supposed, of _Poenitentiale_. Aneighboring chapel, under the invocation of _Notre Dame de Pentale_, gives color to the report. 

Of the church of St. Sanson, nothing more is now left than is exhibitedin the plate: the remains consist only of the chancel, and the archwhich separated it from the nave. But even these, inconsiderable as theyappear, have been judged deserving of a place among the more remarkableof the architectural antiquities of Normandy: the peculiar character ofthe capitals, and the small size of the whole, have entitled them tothis distinction. Upon regarding the arch, it is scarcely possible butto be struck with the impression, that, though in its present state itsheight is barely sufficient to allow of a man walking upright throughit, there must originally have been an inner member, which has nowdisappeared. The capitals differ materially from any others ever seen byMr. Cotman in Normandy; but Mr. Joseph Woods, whose authority isunquestionable, says that similar ones are to be found in the Temple ofBacchus, at Teos. There are also several, which in shape resemble theseat St. Sanson, in the very remarkable church of St. Vitalis, atRavenna, [190] and in the cloisters of the monastery of St. Scolastica, [191] at Subiaco: the latter also exhibit a certain degree ofsimilarity in the sculpture. 

NOTES:

[189] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, II. P. 777. 

[190] _Seroux d'Agincourt, Histoire de la Décadence de l'Art. Architecture_, t. 23. F. 7, 8; _and_ t. 69. F. 14. 

[191] _Ibid. _ t. 29. F. 3, 4. 

PLATE LXXXIV. 

WESTERN DOOR-WAY OF THE CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC. 

 [Illustration: Plate 84. CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC. _West Door-way. _]

The church of Foullebec, a small village situated upon the Rille, nearlyopposite to St. Sanson, is a building of Norman times; but the onlyportion of it particularly calculated to recommend it to attention, isthe arch figured in this plate. This arch exhibits two peculiarities, which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to parallel in Normandy;the ornamented shafts of the pillars, and the extraordinary width of thesouthern capital, which is more than double that of the column below. The same was also, in all probability, the case with the capital, nowdestroyed, on the opposite side of the door-way; and as it is plain thatthere never was a second pillar, either on the one side or the other, the only satisfactory mode of accounting for this singularity, is uponthe supposition, that it was the original intention of the architect tohave placed such, but that circumstances occurred which induced him toleave his design unfinished. --Ornamented shafts of columns, howeverunfrequently found in Normandy, are far from being of very uncommonoccurrence in the specimens that are left of genuine Norman art inGreat-Britain. Mr. Carter, in his elaborate work upon ancient Englisharchitecture, has collected a variety of similar enrichments in histhirty-third plate; and some of them extremely beautiful. Several othersare to be found in the more splendid volumes of Mr. Britton. --Thesculpture upon the archivolt is also deserving of observation: upon oneof the central stones, is represented the bannered lamb; upon the other, a figure, probably intended for a representation of our Savior enteringJerusalem upon an ass. The heads on either side are of an unusualcharacter. 

The church at Foullebec, as well in its nave as chancel, is externallydivided by plain Norman buttresses into a series of regularcompartments, each containing a single circular-headed window. In thenave are four; in the chancel only two. The tower is square and low: itis placed at the west end, which is only pierced for the door-way, andis otherwise quite plain, except a buttress at each corner. Internally, the only object to be noticed is an ancient cylindrical font; its sidessculptured with semi-circular arches, and a narrow moulding round therim. 

PLATE LXXXV. AND LXXXVI. 

CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 85. CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE. ]

M. Nodier, who, in his _Voyages Pittoresques_, has devoted six plates tothe illustration of the noble ruins of the castle at Tancarville, remarks with great justice, that, magnificent as the building must havebeen, "it is one that recals but few historical recollections. " At thesame time he gives the following quotation from the old _NormanChronicle_:--"During the reign of King Philip le Bel, after the knightof the green lion had conquered the King of Arragon, a great dissentionarose between two powerful barons in Normandy, the Lord of Harecourt andthe Chamberlain of Tancarville. The cause of their strife was a mill, ofwhich the Dwarf of Harecourt, assisted by forty of his people in arms, had taken forcible possession, mistreating the vassals of theChamberlain. The latter, incensed at the outrage, summoned his friendsand attendants; and, having collected them to the number of two hundred, marched upon Lillebonne, where the Lord of Harecourt and the Dwarf, hisbrother, were at that time residing. Many and bitter were the reproachesuttered on either side; and severe was the contest that followed; forthe Lord of Harecourt issued from the barriers with all his forces, andthey defended themselves valiantly; and several lives were lost. Theking, on receiving the tidings, was greatly discomforted, and bade theSieur Enguerrand de Marigni summon the offending parties to appearbefore him. It chanced most untowardly, that they met as they weretravelling towards the court; and the Lord of Harecourt attacked theChamberlain, and with his gauntlet put out his left eye, and thenreturned to his own people. No sooner was he of Tancarville healed, thanhe repaired to the royal presence, and defied the Lord of Harecourt tosingle combat. The pledge was accepted by M. Charles de Valois, brotherof the king, on behalf of his friend. On the other hand, M. Enguerrandde Marigny, privy counsellor of the monarch, maintained that Harecourthad been guilty of treason. This was denied by M. Charles, to whomEnguerrand in consequence gave the lie; and the former took the affrontso cruelly to heart, that Enguerrand, brave man as he was, wasafterwards hanged in consequence of it. When the conditions of battlewere arranged, the Lord of Harecourt came into the field with his armoremblazoned with fleurs-de-lys; and the combatants fought with the utmostvalor, till the Kings of England and of Navarre, who were present, besought the monarch of France to stay the fight; for that it would begreat pity that two so valiant chiefs should fall by each other's hand. Upon this, the king cried 'Ho!' and both parties were satisfied; andpeace was made between them by the foreign sovereigns, in the year1300. "

The same circumstance is related, though with some trifling variationsin the details, by Masseville, in his _History of Normandy_, a work ofwhich almost every volume bears frequent testimony to the greatness ofthe house of Tancarville. This family enjoyed the hereditary dignity ofchamberlain to the Norman dukes; but at what period it was conferredupon them, is lost in the obscurity of early history. Ralph deTancarville, who founded the abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville, aboutthe year 1050, [192] is styled in the _Neustria Pia_, under the accountof that monastry, as "Tancardi-Villæ Toparcha, præfectus hæreditariuscubiculo Guillelmi secundi. " In 1066, the name of the _Count ofTancarville_[193] is enumerated among those who attended the Conquerorinto England. The chamberlain of Tancarville is recorded both byOrdericus Vitalis and Masseville, in the list of Norman knights thatdistinguished themselves in the wars of Philip-Augustus. William ofTancarville, the same chieftain, probably, or his immediate predecessor, had previously suffered himself to be seduced by the arts of Eleanor, queen of Henry II. To join in the conspiracy of the sons of thatmonarch, against their father: he subsequently signalized his valor, when the banners of the lion-hearted Richard were unfurled upon theplains of Palestine. In 1197, Ralph of Tancarville was one of thewitnesses to the treaty of exchange, already more than once mentioned inthis work, made between the sovereign and the archbishop of Rouen, inconsequence of the building of Château Gaillard; and when, eight yearsafterwards, Philip, having become undisputed master of Normandy, conciliated the favor of the clergy by important concessions, thesignature and seal of the chamberlain of Tancarville were attached tothe instrument. --The task were easy, by multiplying quotations fromMasseville and the early chroniclers, to extend to a great length theinstances in which the noblemen of the house of Tancarville acted aprominent part in Norman history. It will be sufficient, upon thepresent occasion, to adduce two circumstances, as indisputable proofs oftheir importance. The name of Tancarville is found among the seventy-twomembers of the nobility, who, in the beginning of the fourteenthcentury, were summoned to the Norman exchequer; and, in the samecentury, in the year 1320, after Philip VI. Upon his accession to thethrone of France, had received at Amiens the homage of Edward III. Forthe dukedom of Aquitaine and earldom of Ponthieu, the Count ofTancarville was selected for the important office of ambassador toEngland, in conjunction with the Duke of Bourbon and the Earl ofHarcourt, to obtain from the monarch some explanations that wereconsidered indispensable for the dignity of the crown of France. As lateas the year 1451, the Lord of Tancarville appears as one of the generalsof the French forces, which, under the command of the Count ofLongueville, finally succeeded in expelling the English from Normandy. From that time forward, Masseville makes no mention of the family. Respecting the castle, he is altogether silent, except upon the occasionof its capture by the French in 1435, and its surrender to them again in1449. 

It may have been observed in the preceding brief enumeration of a fewprincipal facts connected with the family of Tancarville, that the Lordsof that house have, on more than one occasion, been designated asCounts: the author of the _Description de la Haute Normandie_, however, expressly states that this property was not raised into an earldom tillthe reign of King John of France, who ennobled it with that dignity in1351; at which time it was composed of all the fiefs, castellanies, baronies, and other lands of every description, in the duchy ofNormandy, occupied by John de Melun, and Jane Crepin his wife. From thehouse of Melun, this same earldom passed into that of Harcourt, by theunion of Jane of Melun with William of Harcourt--their daughter, whoinherited the property, afterwards carried it in dower to John, Count ofDunois and of Longueville. In the year 1505, when Louis XII. Added tothe earls of Longueville the higher honor of the dukedom, Tancarvillewas comprised among the dependencies of the new dignity; and when, shortly afterwards, the duchy of Longueville escheated to the crown, theearldom of Tancarville, remaining united to Longueville, shared the samefate. Mary of Orleans, duchess of Nemours and Estouteville, having becomepossessed of Tancarville, sold it in September, 1706, to Anthony Crozat, the king's secretary; and, at the same time, the monarch conferred allthe rights and privileges attached to the domain, upon Louis de la Tourd'Auvergne, Count of Evreux. Twelve years subsequently, the king, by hisletters patent, separated Tancarville from Longueville, and ordered thatthe Lords of Tancarville should thenceforth be summoned to theparliament at Rouen. 

The title of Earl of Tankerville is at the present day to be found inthe English peerage. It is borne by a descendant of Charles Bennet, second Lord of Ossulston, upon whom it was conferred by George I. In1714, after he had married the daughter and heiress of Ford, Lord Greyof Wark, Earl of Tankerville. One of the family of this Lord Grey, SirJohn Grey, Knight, Captain of Maunt, in Normandy, had originally beenrewarded with the title by King Henry V. For his eminent services in theFrench wars. But his grandson, Richard, Earl of Tankerville, wasattainted in the thirty-eighth year of the succeeding reign; and thetitle remained dormant till re-granted by King William III. To Ford, Lord Grey, just mentioned, who was lineally descended from the brotherof the first earl. 

 [Illustration: Plate 86. ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE. ]

Different opinions have prevailed with respect to the origin of the nameof Tancarville. Ordericus Vitalis calls it Tanchardi Villa: M. DeValois, in his _Notitia Galliæ_, is disposed to claim for it the moreimposing appellation of Tancredi Villa. The point will in allprobability never be settled: it is more to be regretted, that noaccount is to be found of the building of the castle, whose lofty towersstill frown in the pride of old baronial grandeur, from the summit of asteep cliff upon the right bank of the Seine, which here, so near itsmouth, rather assumes the character of an estuary than a river. The wideextent of the ruins sufficiently bespeaks the importance of its formerpossessors: at present, nothing can be more forlorn and desolate. Mr. Dibdin, who visited the remains in 1819, has traced the followinganimated sketch of their present appearance with his lively pencil; andMr. Lewis, who accompanied him, has enriched his splendid Tour with alovely view of the buildings and surrounding scenery:--

"We ascended to the castle: the day grew soft, and bright, andexhilarating.... But, alas; for the changes and chances of thistransitory world. Where was the warder? He had ceased to blow his hornfor many a long year. Where was the harp of the minstrel? It hadperished two centuries ago, with the hand that had struck its chords. Where was the attendant guard?--or pursuivants?--or men at arms? Theyhave been swept from human existence, like the leaves of the old limesand beech trees, by which the lower part of the building was surrounded. The moat was dry; the rampart was a ruin:--the rank grass grew withinthe area.... Nor can I tell you how many vast relics of halls, banqueting rooms, and bed rooms, with all the magnificent appurtenancesof old castellated architecture, struck the eager eye with mixedmelancholy and surprise! The singular half-circular, and half-square, corner towers, hanging over the ever-restless wave, interested usexceedingly. The guide shewed us where the prisoners used to be kept--ina dungeon, apparently impervious to every glimmer of day-light, andevery breath of air. I cannot pretend to say at what period even theoldest part of the castle of Montmorenci[194] was built: but I sawnothing that seemed to be more ancient than the latter end of thefifteenth century. Perhaps the greater portion may be of the beginningof the sixteenth; but, amidst unroofed rooms, I could not help admiringthe painted borders, chiefly of a red color, which run along the upperpart of the walls, or wainscots--giving indication not only of a good, but of a splendid, taste. Did I tell you that this sort of ornament wasto be seen in some part of the eastern end of the abbey of Jumieges?_Here_, indeed, they afforded evidence--an evidence mingled withmelancholy sensations on conviction--of the probable state ofmagnificence which once reigned throughout the castle. Between thecorner towers, upon that part which runs immediately parallel with theSeine, there is a noble terrace, now converted into garden ground, whichcommands an immediate and extensive view of the embouchure of the river. It is the property of a speculator residing at Havre. Parallel with thisterrace, runs the more modernised part of the castle, which the lastresiding owner inhabited. It may have been built about fifty years ago, and is--or rather the remains of it are--quite in the modern style ofdomestic architecture. The rooms are large, lofty, and commodious;--yetnothing but the shells of them remain. The revolutionary patriotscompletely gutted them of every useful and every valuable piece offurniture; and even the bare walls are beginning to grow damp, andthreaten immediate decay. I made several memoranda upon the spot, whichhave been unluckily, and I fear irretrievably, misplaced; so that, ofthis once vast, and yet commanding and interesting edifice, I regretthat I am compelled to send you so short and so meagre an account. Farewell--a long and perhaps perpetual farewell--to the Castle ofMontmorenci!"

NOTES:

[192] According to Masseville, (_Histoire de Normandie_, II. P. 192, )this abbey was not founded till the year 1114; but such a statement isirreconcileable with the fact of the dead body of the Conqueror havingbeen carried there in 1087; and, moreover, both the _Gallia Christiana_and _Neustria Pia_ expressly state that it was in 1114 that William, fifth son of the founder, and himself also hereditary chamberlain ofNormandy, removed from St. Georges the canons established there by hisfather, and replaced them with monks from St. Evroul. 

[193] So called by Masseville, I. P. 205. 

[194] Mr. Dibdin uniformly calls this castle, the Castle of Montmorenci;but on no occasion does he state his authority for so doing; the authorof these remarks never heard it so styled in Normandy, nor can he findit mentioned under that name by Nodier, or any other author. If, asappears probable, the people of the neighborhood are in the habit of sodesignating it, the probability is, that the modern part (see _plateeighty-five_) was erected at a period when Tancarville belonged to somemember of the noble family of Montmorenci. 

PLATE LXXXVII. AND LXXXVIII. 

CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS, AT ST. LO. 

(WESTERN DOOR-WAY, AND VARIOUS SPECIMENS OF SCULPTURE. )

 [Illustration: Plate 87. CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS AT ST. LO. _Western Entrance. _]

The town of St. Lo is said to owe its origin to the Emperor Charlemagne, and to have been founded by him in the fifth year of the ninth century. It is situated in the western part of Normandy, upon the small river, Vire, about five leagues to the east of Coutances; and at this time itcontains nearly seven thousand inhabitants. Old chroniclers relate thatthe name originally given to the place was Ste Croix; but that, soonafter its foundation, it exchanged that appellation for the present, upon being selected as the spot to be honored with the reception of therelics of St. Lo, or, as he is called in Latin, St. Laudus, who was thefifth bishop of Coutances, and presided over that see the greater partof the sixth century. Of the merits of the saint, the miracles heperformed both living and dead, and the various places that have, atdifferent times, received his mortal remains, a copious account is givenby M. Rouault, in his History of the Bishops of Coutances. It issufficient, in the present instance, to state, that, upon thetranslation of the body of St. Lo to the spot now dignified with hisname, a magnificent church was built under his invocation; and the townwas encompassed with fortifications of great strength, to defend itagainst the inroads of the Normans. These heathen plunderers had at thistime just begun their ravages in Neustria, when, notwithstanding its newwalls, St. Lo was soon obliged, in common with the rest of the province, to submit to their sway; and they emptied upon the Christian city thefull phials of pagan wrath, by burning it to the ground. 

In subsequent, and probably not distant, times, St. Lo was againconverted into a place of defence; and mention of it as such repeatedlyoccurs in the various unquiet periods of French history. Even at thepresent day, when fortifications in that part of the kingdom have longbeen neglected, there remain sufficient vestiges of them at St. Lo, toconvey the most imposing idea of their original strength, aided as theymust have been, by their situation upon the summit of a lofty andinaccessible rock. --St. Lo was one of the last towns in Lower Normandythat opened their gates to the victorious arms of the Empress Maude: itremained unshaken in its allegiance till 1142, only two years before thedeath of the English monarch. --In the third year of the followingcentury, it surrendered without bloodshed to Philip-Augustus, then onhis march towards the capture of Mount St. Michael; nor does it appearto have offered more than a trifling resistance to Edward III. By whomit was taken in 1346. Froissart, upon that occasion, gives the followingdetails relative to the English army, as well as to the state of thetown and its capture:--"The King of England and Prince of Wales had, intheir battalion, about three thousand men at arms, six thousand archers, and ten thousand infantry, without counting those that were under themarshals; and they marched in the manner I have before mentioned, burning and destroying the country, but without breaking their line ofbattle. They did not turn towards Coutances, but advanced to St. Lo, inCoutantin, which, in those days, was a very rich and commercial town, and worth three such towns as Coutances. In the town of St. Lo was muchdrapery, and many wealthy inhabitants; among them you might count eightor nine score that were engaged in commerce. When the King of Englandwas come near the town, he encamped: he would not lodge in it for fearof fire. He sent, therefore, his advanced guard forward, who soonconquered it at a trifling loss, and completely plundered it. No one canimagine the quantity of riches they found in it, nor the number of balesof cloth. If there had been any purchasers, they might have bought themat a cheap rate. "

In 1379, when the English arms, during the minority of the secondRichard, obtained in France an ephemeral superiority, St. Lo was theonly town in the Côtentin, except Carentan, which the French monarchconsidered of sufficient strength to justify him in entrusting it with agarrison. --It was taken by the English, under Henry V. In 1418; and wasagain restored to the French, by capitulation, thirty-one yearssubsequently. --In the beginning of the following tumultuous reign, St. Lo and Valognes were appointed as the places of residence for Clarenceand Warwick, and the other leaders of the Lancastrian party; after theirshort-lived success, in favor of the deposed Henry, had been followed bytheir own utter defeat, and the final discomfiture of their hopes. 

During the religious wars of the sixteenth century, St. Lo was once moreso unfortunate as to act a prominent part. Early in the troubles, itdistinguished itself by a decided devotion to the cause ofProtestantism; and, though often obliged, by the current of affairs, toyield a reluctant submission to the opposite party, it continuedthroughout the whole of the struggle, unshaken in its attachment to theHuguenots. Hence, when finally summoned to surrender to the Catholics, in 1574, it rather chose to expose itself to all the miseries of asiege, as well as to the still greater one of being taken by assault;and the severity of its sufferings is recorded by the historians of theconquering party, who themselves admit, that "it was sacked with ahorrible carnage. "[195] Its Protestant places of worship were not, however, finally rased, till 1685, the period of the revocation of theedict of Nantes. 

St. Lo was the seat of an abbey of Augustine friars, said to have beenfounded in the middle of the twelfth century, and to have been of suchcelebrity, that, according to Quercetanus, the bishops of Coutances werecontented for a time to be styled bishops of St. Lo. [196]The principalchurch in the place, that of Notre Dame, greatly resembles the cathedralof Coutances, of which it is even said to be a copy. It was not begun tobe built till the period of English rule in Normandy, during thefifteenth century. The older, or clock-tower, was erected in 1430: theopposite tower and western entrance, in 1464. Other parts of it were notcompleted till the following century; and the northern spire is a workof as late a period as 1685. 

The very ancient church of Ste Croix, (the subject of these plates, ) wasconnected with the abbey, of which little now remains. There is atradition in the town, that it was once a temple of Ceres; and suchtraditions, however uncritical or even absurd, deserve to be noticed, asgenerally originating in a confused knowledge of the remote date of thebuilding to which they are attached. In the opinion of M. De Gerville, aportion, at least, of the church, belongs to the edifice raised byCharlemagne, in 805. The actual erection of such an edifice, and itsdedication to the holy cross, are facts distinctly stated in the_Neustria Pia_: its identity with the present church does not appear tobe doubted, either by Du Monstier, or the Abbé de Billy, the historianof St. Lo. At the same time, neither the one nor the other of thesewriters was ignorant of the positive assertion in the _GestaNormannorum_, that, under those successful invaders--"Sancti Laudicastrum, interfectis habitatoribus, terræ æquatum est. " But, inopposition to this, M. De Gerville contends that, either this strongassertion is to be received with a certain degree of latitude, or that, by the word _castrum_, is to be understood only the citadel; so that, while that was destroyed, the domestic and religious edifices weresuffered to escape. He even thinks that the parts of the buildingascribable to the period of the Carlovingian dynasty, may bedistinguished by a practised eye, from the reparations of the eleventhcentury. He traces them especially in the western front, in itsdoor-way, (_plate eighty-seven_) and in some herring-bone masonry, observable over a narrow circular-headed window towards the south. Buthe founds his opinion still more upon the bas-relief, representing theDeity attended by angels, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. B. _) now built intothe wall at the end of the nave, on the south side. The character of thesculpture and the form of the letters appear to him to be almostdecisive. With regard to the latter, he observes;--"it is well knownthat the Roman characters were restored by Charlemagne, especially afterhe had been proclaimed emperor. This fact is sufficiently attested bythe various monuments still left us of his time, as well as by thecoins which were struck in the latter part of his reign, and during thatof Louis le Débonnaire. Elegance and simplicity in the shape of theletters, characterized the writing of this epoch; and the latter, atleast, of these qualities, is eminently to be found in the inscriptionat St. Lo. On the other hand, correct orthography was not equally one ofthe excellencies of the age. "

 [Illustration: Plate 88. CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS AT ST. LO. _Sculpture. _]

Pursuing the subject yet farther, M. De Gerville gives it as hisopinion, that the different epochs in the architecture, commonlydesignated as Norman, may be determined with some degree of precision;and he thinks he can trace, in several churches of the vicinity, anevident imitation of this at St. Lo; while he regards the superiorantiquity of the latter decisively established by the sculpture over thewestern entrance; by the medallion of the Deity, already noticed; and byseveral of the capitals of the interior; particularly those that havereference to the legends of St. Eloy, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. F. _)and St. Hubert, (_fig. D. _), both at that period quite recent; and twoof the others, (_fig C. And E. _) in the latter of which, the devil isroasting unfortunate sinners, while the former, exhibiting the_psychostasia_, affords a graphic illustration of two lines of thewell-known hymn of the Roman Catholic church:--

 "Statera facta corporis, Prædamque tulit Tartari. "

In the western front of the church of Ste Croix have been inserted, above the door-way, three windows of the earliest pointed style. Thewhole of the sculpture over the architraves of the arch, is, both in itsdesign and execution, curious. The knotted serpents, terminating ateither end in heads of devils; the two men tugging at rings, attached toa chain twisted round the neck of a decapitated demon, whom, two dogsare baying; and the structure of the chain itself, are all peculiar; andscarcely less so is the medallion below. [197]--The church ends at theeast with a large circular arch, which is now closed, and has alwaysbeen so since the memory of man; but probably, at some former time, itled into a chancel or sanctuary. There is a south transept, whichterminates in a similar arch: the arches of the nave, which are likewisecircular, are each of them surrounded with a double architrave of thezig-zag moulding: the capitals to the pillars supporting these arches, Mr. Cotman considers as being for the greater part of the best class ofNorman sculpture. He has selected for engraving those that are mostrude: the others commonly exhibit broad interlaced bands, foliage, andfruits. The abaci, too, though they are in general plain, are in someinstances enriched with similar sculpture, as in the churches ofGrâville, of Cerisy, and of the Holy Trinity at Caen. In the clerestory, over every arch below, were originally two smaller semi-circular-headedarches; but these are now closed, and their place is occupied by asingle, narrow, pointed window, that opens into a large recess. Thecorbels without, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. A. _) may bear a comparison, in point of singularity, with those of any other Norman church. Thesacred emblem of the Christian faith, the wimpled nun, the whiskeredSaxon, and the wolf, the scourge of Neustria, are found among them, sideby side with the Atlas and Cyclops of heathen mythology; and, as if thelegends of Rome and Greece could not furnish sufficient subjects for thesculptor's chisel, he appears to have extended his researches into themore remote regions, bordering upon the Nile, and thence to haveimported a rude imitation of the Egyptian head, and one still more rude, of the mystic Scarabæus. 

NOTES:

[195] St. Lo was then commanded by M. Colombieres, who was so resolutein the cause, that, rather than surrender, he placed himself in themiddle of the breach, with his two young sons, on either side of him, each holding a javelin in his hand, and then awaited the attack, exhorting his children to perish bravely, rather than be left toinfidels and apostates. The Catholic army was headed by M. De Matignon, who had, on a former occasion, distinguished himself by his lenitytowards the inhabitants of the place. The lordship of St. Lo, with thetitle of a barony, continued in his family as late as the year 1722, when Masseville published his History of Normandy. 

[196] For the following details, and indeed the greater part of theremainder of this article, the author has to express his obligations toM. De Gerville, whose kind assistance, throughout the whole of the work, cannot be too often, or too distinctly, acknowledged. 

[197] The bas-relief upon this medallion represents the most impressiveof the miracles connected with the history of St. Lo, and one that wasperformed at the very moment when he was about to enter upon the dutiesof his episcopacy, to which, by a manifest interposition of the Deity, he had been elected at the early age of twelve years. _Rouault_, in his_Abrégé de la Vie des Evêques de Coutances_, p. 81, gives the followingdetails respecting it; and his account, which is curious, is hereinserted, as adding probability to the opinion of M. De Gerville, thatthis medallion at least belonged to the original structure, whatever maybe thought of the rest of the church. --"Comme l'élection et laconsécration de S. Lo avoient été miraculeuses, Dieu fit voir par dessignes qui n'étoient pas moins surprenants que tout s'étoit fait selonsa volonté: car à la première entrée que le jeune Prélat fit dans sonEglise, la divine Puissance voulut prouver à St. Gildard, aux autresPrélats qui étoient encore presents, et à toute l'Eglise de Coûtances, que tout ce qu'ils avoient fait lui étoit très-agréable. Ce qui futconfirmé par un Miracle des plus éclatans dans la personne d'une Femmeaveugle née, qui s'étant faite conduire à la porte de la Cathédrale, yattendoit le nouvel Evêque, dans l'esperance de recevoir la vüe par sonintercession. En effet, lorsqu'elle apprit qu'il approchoit, elle leconjura à haute voix de lui faire voir la lumiere. Le Saint frappé d'unetelle demande en rougit, et crut que c'étoit tenter Dieu que d'attendrede lui des Miracles. Mais cette pauvre femme ne cessant de crier commel'Aveugle de l'Evangile, le Saint poussa un profond soupir, et ayantplus d'égard à la foi de la suppliante qu'à son propre mérite, ilinvoqua le secours du saint Esprit, fit avec confiance le signe de lacroix sur les yeux de l'Aveugle, et au même instant la vüe lui futrenduë à la grande admiration de tous les assistans, qui bénirent etremerciérent Dieu de leur avoir donné un Pasteur qui prouvoit savocation par un si grand Miracle, en reconnoissance duquel on éleva aumême lieu deux Statuës, l'une de Saint Lo, et l'autre de la femmeguérie, telles qu'on les voit encore aujourd'hui au Portail de l'Eglise, où on a aussi conservé fort soigneusement la Pierre sur laquelle étoitSaint Lo lorsqu'il opera ce Miracle. C'est encore sur elle que lesSeigneurs Evêques de Coûtances s'arrêtent à leur premiere entrée, pourfaire les sermens et promesses accoutumées en pareille Céremonie, etqu'ils y reçoivent les complimens et applaudissemens de la Ville, pourconserver la mémoire d'un si grand Miracle. "

PLATE LXXXIX. AND XC. 

CASTLE OF FALAISE. 

 [Illustration: Plate 89. CASTLE OF FALAISE. _North West View. _]

Whoever can take pleasure in the wildest extravagancies of absurdfiction, displayed in theories destitute of even the slender basis oftradition, yet raised with plausibility, connected with ingenuity, andsupported by learning, may find abundant gratification in the earlyhistory of Falaise. The town, as stated in a manuscript gazetteer ofNormandy, written in the seventeenth century, was not only among themost ancient in Gaul, but was founded by one of the grandsons of Noah. According to another yet more grave authority, its antiquity soars stillhigher, and mounts to the period of the deluge itself. It so far exceedsthat of the Roman empire, that, long before the building of the immortalcity, colonies were sent from Falaise into Italy, where they were knownby the Aborigines, under the names of _Falisci_, or _Falerii_. A thirdwriter, M. Langevin, author of the _Recherches Historiques sur Falaise_, assures his readers that Falaise was, from time immemorial, a stationconsecrated to religion; and, in a dissertation full of the mostrecondite information relative to the worship of Belenus and Abrasax, Isis and Felé, he so connects and intermingles the rites of thosedeities with the place and its vicinity, that he can scarcely be said todo it less honor than his predecessors. 

To turn from historians of this sanguine complexion to those of a moresober temperament, there will appear no reason for believing that thetown of Falaise had existence prior to the incursions of the Saxons, orthe establishment of the Normans, in Neustria. No mention of it whateveris to be found previous to the latter of these times; and its very name, obviously derived from the German word for a rock, _fels_, whence theFrench subsequently borrowed their appellation for cliffs, _falaise_, seems decisive as to the foundation of the town by some people ofTeutonic origin. It is at the same time altogether characteristic of itssituation. 

That Falaise was built by the Saxons, may probably, with justice, beinferred from the fact of its being casually mentioned during the reignof Rollo, as one of the places through which he passed in the year 912, while visiting the different parts of his duchy. The town cannot buthave been of importance in the time of his son, William Longue-Epée; asthat prince is stated to have received great assistance from theinhabitants of Falaise, and the district of the Hiémois, when engaged ina war with the people of Brittany. It is more than possible that thefortifications were added, and the castle erected, by one or the otherof these sovereigns. [198] Their immediate successor, Richard Sans-Peur, is stated to have made considerable additions to the works of the place, which, in the early part of the following century, under Richard III. The fifth of the Norman dukes, was unquestionably one of the strongestholds of the province. Not long afterwards, Falaise rose into newimportance, as the residence of Robert, father to the Conqueror, and thebirth-place of that sovereign himself, to whom it rendered acceptableservice during his youth, upon the occasion of the formidable conspiracyof the Norman barons, headed by Guy de Bourgogne, in 1046. The prince, then at Valognes, escaped with difficulty from the poniards of theassassins to Falaise, where he was received with open arms. Falaise wasat that time the capital of the Hiémois. In the reign of Henry II. OfEngland, the castle was used as a state prison, and was selected as theplace of confinement of Robert, Earl of Leicester, when taken prisonerin 1173, commanding the French forces in England. At a subsequent, butnot far distant period, Brito, the poetical chronicler of the deeds ofPhilip-Augustus, in speaking of the final subjection of Normandy to thatking, mentions the town of Falaise and its capture, in the followingverses:--

 "Vicus erat scabrâ circumdatus undique rupe, Ipsius asperitate loci Falæsa vocatus, Normannæ in medio regionis, cujus in altâ Turres rupe sedent et moenia, sic ut ad illam Jactus nemo putet aliquos contingere posse. Hunc rex innumeris circumdedit undique signis, Perque dies septem varia instrumenta parabat, Moenibus ut fractis villâ potiatur et arcâ: Verùm burgenses et præcipue Lupicarus, Cui patriæ curam dederat rex Anglicus omnem, Elegere magis illæsum reddere castrum, Omni re salvâ cum libertatis honore, Quàm belli tentare vices et denique vinci. "

The foregoing was the fourth of the nine sieges that have rendered thename of Falaise memorable in Norman history. The first of them had takenplace in 1027, when Falaise presumed to shelter Robert, the father ofthe Conqueror, during his rebellion against his brother, Duke RichardIII. In point of importance, none of the sieges were equal to those of1417 and 1589. Upon the former of those occasions, Henry V. Flushed bythe success that had unremittingly attended his arms, since his gloriousvictory at Agincourt, led his troops in person against the town, whichhe expected would fall an easy prey. But it resisted an incessantbombardment for three months, and did not finally surrender, till thefortifications had sustained such essential injuries, that the repairingof them by the besieged, at their own charge, was made one of theleading articles of the capitulation. It was upon this occasion, thatthe lofty circular tower, one of the principal objects in both theseplates, was added to the castle. Tradition ascribes its erection to thecelebrated English general, Talbot, then governor of the town; and, evento the present day, it bears his name. [199]

The last siege of Falaise, that of December, 1589, was occasioned by thedevoted adherence of the inhabitants to the League, and their consequentrefusal to recognize Henry IV. As their sovereign, on account of hisattachment to the Protestant faith. In defence of their creed, they hadalready sustained one siege in the month of July of the same year; and, headed by the Count de Brissac, governor of the castle, had repulsed theroyal troops under the command of the Duke de Montpensier. But the newsovereign was not a man to be trifled with; and when Brissac, upon beingsummoned to surrender, replied, according to the words of De Thou, "religione se prohiberi; sumpto quippe Dominici corporis sacramento, fidem suis obligâsse de deditione se prorsùs non acturum;" the king isreported, by the same noble historian, to have returned in answer, "semenses ad totidem dies contracturum, intra quos illum, sed magno suo cumdamno, religione soluturus esset. " The garrison, notwithstanding thesethreats, did not relax in their opposition, and the town was finallytaken by assault, the frost enabling the assailants to cross the moat. On this, the Count de Brissac retired to the castle, which hesurrendered about a month afterwards. 

Falaise appears in the religious annals of Normandy, as the seat of anabbey, founded in 1127, and first occupied by regular canons of theorder of St. Augustine, and placed under the invocation of St. Michael, the Archangel; but shortly afterwards transferred to thePræmonstratensian friars, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Themonastery is said to have taken its rise from an hospital, establishedby a wealthy inhabitant, in consequence of a beggar having died of coldand hunger in his barn. A bull from Pope Sextus IV. Dated in 1475, conferred upon the abbots the privilege of wearing the mitre, ring, andpontifical insignia, together with various other honorary distinctions. The revolution deprived Falaise of its abbey and eight churches. It nowretains only four; two within the walls, and two in the suburbs. Itspopulation is estimated at about ten thousand inhabitants. 

 [Illustration: Plate 90. CASTLE OF FALAISE. _North View. _]

The castle of Falaise is with justice regarded by Mr. Turner, as one ofthe proudest relics of Norman antiquity. The following description ofit, as more copious than any other that has yet appeared, is transcribedverbatim from the Tour[200] of that author:--"It is situated on a verybold and lofty rock, broken into singular and fantastic masses, andcovered with luxurious vegetation. The keep which towers above it is ofexcellent masonry: the stones are accurately squared, and put togetherwith great neatness, and the joints are small; and the arches are turnedclearly and distinctly, with the key-stone or wedge accurately placed inall of them. Some parts of the wall, towards the interior ballium, arenot built of squared freestone; but of the dark stone of the country, disposed in a zig-zag, or, as it is more commonly called, in aherring-bone direction, with a great deal of mortar in the interstices:the buttresses, or rather piers, are of small projection, but greatwidth. The upper story, destroyed about forty years since, was of adifferent style of architecture. According to an old print, [201] itterminated with a large battlement, and bartizan towers at the angles. This dungeon was formerly divided into several apartments, in one of thelower of which was found, about half a century ago, a very ancient tomb, of good workmanship, ornamented with a sphynx at each end, but bearingno inscription whatever. Common report ascribed the coffin to Talbot, who was for many years governor of the castle; and at length anindividual engraved upon it an epitaph to his honor: but the fraud wasdiscovered, and the sarcophagus put aside, as of no account. The second, or principal, story of the keep, now forms a single square room, aboutfifty feet wide, lighted by circular-headed windows, each divided intotwo by a short and massy central pillar, whose capital is altogetherNorman. On one of the capitals is sculptured a child leading alamb, [202] a representation, as it is foolishly said, of the Conqueror, whom tradition alledges to have been born in the apartment to which thiswindow belonged: another pillar has an elegant capital, composed ofinterlaced bands. --Connected with the dungeon by a stone staircase is asmall apartment, very much dilapidated, but still retaining a portion ofits original facing of Caen stone. It was from the window of thisapartment, as the story commonly goes, that Duke Robert first saw thebeautiful Arlette, drawing water from the streamlet below, and wasenamoured of her charms, and took her to his bed. --According to anotherversion of the tale, the earliest interview between the prince and hisfair mistress, took place as Robert was returning from the chace, withhis mind full of anger against the inhabitants of Falaise, for havingpresumed to kill the deer which he had commanded should be preserved forhis royal pastime. In this offence the curriers of the town had bornethe principal share, and they were therefore principally marked out forpunishment. But, fortunately for them, Arlette, the daughter of oneVerpray, the most culpable of the number, met the offended Duke whileriding through the street, and with her beauty so fascinated him, thatshe not only obtained the pardon of her father and his associates, butbecame his mistress, and continued so as long as he lived. From her, ifwe may give credence to the old chroniclers, is derived our Englishword, _harlot_. The fruit of their union was William the Conqueror, whose illegitimate birth, and the low extraction of his mother, servedon more than one occasion as a pretext for conspiracies against histhrone, and were frequently the subject of personal mortification tohimself. --The walls in this part of the castle are from eight to ninefeet thick. A portion of them has been hollowed out, so as to form acouple of small rooms. The old door-way of the keep is at the angle; thereturns are reeded, ending in a square impost; the arch above isdestroyed. --Talbot's tower, thus called from having been built by thatgeneral, in 1430 and the two subsequent years, is connected with thekeep by means of a long passage with lancet windows, that widen greatlyinwards. It is more than one hundred feet high, and is a beautiful pieceof masonry, as perfect, apparently, as on the day when it was erected, and as firm as the rock on which it stands. This tower is ascended by astaircase concealed within the substance of the walls, whose thicknessis full fifteen feet towards the base, and does not decrease more thanthree feet near the summit. Another aperture in them serves for a well, which thus communicates with every apartment in the tower. Most of thearches in this tower have circular heads: the windows are square. --Thewalls and towers which encircle the keep are of much later date; theprincipal gate-way is pointed. Immediately on entering, is seen the veryancient chapel, dedicated to St. Priscus, or, as he is called in French, St. Prix. The east end with three circular-headed windows, retains itsoriginal lines: the masonry is firm and good. Fantastic corbels surroundthe summit of the lateral walls. Within, a semi-circular arch restingupon short pillars with sculptured capitals, divides the choir from thenave. In other respects the building has been much altered. Henry V. Repaired it in 1418, and it has been since dilapidated and restored. Apile of buildings beyond, wholly modern in the exterior, is nowinhabited as a seminary, or college. There are some circular archeswithin, which shew that these buildings belonged to the originalstructure. --Altogether the castle is a noble ruin. Though the keep isdestitute of the enrichments of Norwich or Castle-Rising, it possessesan impressive character of strength, which is much increased by theextraordinary freshness of the masonry. The fosses of the castle areplanted with lofty trees, which shade and intermingle with the towersand ramparts; and on every side they groupe themselves with picturesquebeauty. It is said that the municipality intend to _restore_ Talbot'stower and the keep, by replacing the demolished battlements; but Ishould hope that no other repairs may take place, except such as may benecessary for the preservation of the edifice; and I do not think itneeds any, except the insertion of clamps in the central columns of twoof the windows, which are much shattered. "

NOTES:

[198] At the same time that no record whatever has been preservedrelative to the date of the building of the castle at Falaise, theNorman chroniclers have carefully recorded the æras of the erection ofthe other castles in the neighborhood. That of Domfront, according tothem, was built A. D. 1011 and 1014, by the Counts of Alençon; that ofCaen, by William the Conqueror, but much increased by his son, Henry I. ;that of Vignats, a league and a half from Falaise, about the year 1096, during the dukedom of Robert, by Robert of Montgomery, Count of Alençon, and Viscount of Hiêmes and of Falaise; and that of Argentan, by Henry I. King of England, by way of protection against his son-in-law, GeoffreyPlantagenet. --_Recherches Historiques sur Falaise_, p. 22. 

[199] According to Langevin, p. 30, Talbot likewise added to the castle, some noble apartments, ornamented with paintings, which also passedunder his name, and of which some portions were still standing a fewyears ago. 

[200] Vol. II. P. 266. 

[201] This print has lately been copied into _Mr. Dibdin's Tour_, vol. II. P. 11. 

[202] Mr. Turner appears to be in error with regard to this capital: Mr. Cotman, who examined it more attentively, found the child to be holding_two animals_ in a leash; and he supposes them to be greyhounds, comparing them with a very similar piece of sculpture upon one of thecapitals in the bishop's palace, in the castle at Durham, erected by theConqueror. --See _Carter's Ancient Architecture_, I. Pl. 17, fig. P. 

PLATE XCI. 

INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF CREULLY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 91. INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF CREULLY. ]

Creully, whose church has been here selected for publication, as afavorable specimen of genuine Norman architecture, is a smallmarket-town of the diocese of Bayeux, situated about six miles to theeast of the city of that name, and fifteen miles north-west of Caen. Itis an ancient barony, having been honored with that distinction by HenryI. In favor of his natural son, the Earl of Glocester, many of whosedescendants, according to Masseville, were still living in Normandy inthe eighteenth century, and bore the name of Creully. The same authormakes mention of the Lords of Creully, on more than one occasion, in thecourse of his Norman history. --They are to be found in the list of thebarons that accompanied Duke Robert to the Holy Land, in 1099; and whenthe Genoese, in 1390, called upon the King of France for succoursagainst the infidels of the coast of Barbary, and the pious monarch sentan army to their relief, under the command of the Duke of Bourbon, thename of the Seigneur de Creully stands prominent among those whoembarked upon that unfortunate expedition. Again, in 1302, the Baron ofCreully held the fifth place among the nine lords from the bailiwick ofCaen, who were summoned to sit in the Norman exchequer. 

From the days of the Earl of Glocester to the breaking out of the Frenchrevolution, the barony of Creully continued to be held by differentnoble families. In the early part of the eighteenth century, whenMasseville published his work, it was in the hands of the heirs of M. DeSeigneley-Colbert, who likewise possessed other considerable domains inNormandy. The last that had the title was a member of the family ofMontmorenci. --His emigration caused the estate to be confiscated, andsold as national property; but the baronial castle is now standing, anddisplays, in two of its towers, and in a chimney of unusual form, aportion of its ancient character. The rest of the building is modernizedinto a spruce, comfortable residence, which, in 1818, was occupied by anEnglish general of the name of Hodgson. [203]

The writer of this article has met with no records connected with thechurch of Creully. --Externally, it is wholly modernized; but within, thenave, side-aisles, and choir, are all purely Norman, except at theextremities. The piers are very massy; the arches wide and low; thecapitals covered with rude, but remarkable sculpture, which is varied onevery pillar; and the walls are of extraordinary thickness. 

NOTES:

[203] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. P. 264. 

PLATES XCII. --XCIV. 

CATHEDRAL AT COUTANCES. 

 [Illustration: Plates 92-93. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT COUTANCES. _West Front. _]

The diocese of Coutances, embracing the north-western portion of CelticGaul, appears to have been the last part of the country that was visitedby the light of Christianity; but its historians boast that the tardyapproach of the rays of gospel-truth has been more than compensated bytheir subsequent brilliancy; for that in no other of the Norman dioceseshas the sun of revelation blazed with equal splendor, or given birth tofruits of equal excellence. Thus, according to Rouault, [204] as early asthe fifth century, and during the whole of the two following, and aportion of the eighth, the Côtentin was so celebrated, by reason of thegreat number of saints, who were either natives of the country, or hadretired thither as to a place of safe retreat, that it was regarded asbeing honored with the divine favor, beyond any other district inFrance. No fewer than fifteen holy men, enshrined in the Roman calendar, are said to have resided there at or near the same period; and, whiletheir lustre irradiated the episcopal mitre, its beams extended to theremote fastnesses of the desert of Scycy, near Granville, thencelebrated for the sanctity of its hermits. At a time not longsubsequent, St. Algeronde and Theodoric, both of them bishops ofCoutances, and the martyrs, Leo, Philip, and Gervais, three natives ofCarentan, became principal instruments towards the conversion of theheathen Normans. History also records, that it was in the house of St. Clair, one of the protectors of this diocese, that the treaty wasfinally concluded, in conformity with which, the chief of the infidelswas, with his followers, admitted within the pale of the church. 

The foundation of the see of Coutances is commonly supposed to havetaken place about the middle of the fifth century, during the latteryears of the papacy of Celestine I. And of the reign of Pharamond, inFrance. The see lays claim to the proud distinction of having enrichedthe beatified calendar with the names of at least fifteen of itsbishops; of having added one to the list of the successors of St. Peter;of having supplied six cardinals to the holy college; and of havingproduced an equal number of martyrs. And if to this catalogue, alreadygreat, be joined the many anchorites of Scycy and of Nanteuil, who havebeen promoted to the episcopal dignity, _a whole legend_, to use thewords of a pious author, may be filled with the lives and the miraclesof the holy men of Coutances. 

In turning from the ecclesiastical to the secular annals of the diocese, the barons of the Côtentin scarcely occupy a less distinguished place. The histories of the Crusades, in particular, abound with theirexploits. Hauteville, near Coutances, boasts to have given birth andtitle to Tancred, of immortal memory; who, either himself, or by hisdescendants, founded the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and reigned overalmost the whole of Italy; while, with their victorious forces, theyexterminated the Saracens, protected the holy see, supported the Cretansin the east, and carried their conquering arms to the utmost confines ofthe Greek empire. To them, also, the chivalrous institution of theGolden Fleece owes its origin; and so extraordinary were their exploits, that they might pass for fabulous, had they occurred in a more remoteage, and did not the concurring testimony of historians unite to stampthem with the seal of truth. 

According to the ecclesiastical division of France before therevolution, the diocese of Coutances was bounded to the south by that ofAvranches, and to the east by that of Bayeux, while, in the tworemaining divisions, its limits were circumscribed by the ocean. [205] Atpresent, it includes the whole department of La Manche; the suppressionof the bishopric of Avranches having added considerably to itsextent. --In Roman Gaul, Coutances was included in the province called the_Lugdunensis secunda_: but, on the subject of the foundation or earlyhistory of the city, authors are, as commonly happens, much at variance, ascribing to it, according to their fancies or their prejudices, verydifferent degrees of antiquity. Those who are most disposed to do ithonor in this respect, contend that it was the capital of the tribementioned by Cæsar, in his _Commentaries_, under the name of _Unelli_;and called by Pliny, _Venelli_; and by Ptolemy, _Veneli_. They areguided in this opinion exclusively by locality. Others, with a greaterappearance of probability, at least as far as any reliance may be placedupon etymology, maintain that Coutances had no existence before the daysof the Emperor, Constantius Chlorus, father to Constantine the Great. There have also not been wanting writers who have referred its origin toConstantine himself, or who have maintained that it was indebted for itsname to its _constant_ and vigorous opposition to the Roman power. Thesecond of these opinions appears to have obtained general credence inthe time of Ordericus Vitalis, who, in speaking of Constantius, expressly says, "Hic in Neustriâ civitatem condidit, quam a nomine suo_Constantiam_ nominavit. " Ammianus Marcellinus adds strength to the samebelief, when he calls Coutances, _Constantia castra_. It is probablethat the city was in reality the seat of the Emperor's camp, at the timewhen he was about to lead his forces into Britain. 

Of the future progress of the town, and the steps by which it rose toits present eminence, no account whatever is left. History, so profusein details respecting many other places in Normandy, far inferior insize and in distinction, has done little more with regard to the capitalof the Côtentin, than record the bare facts, --that it was pillaged bythe Normans in 888; was sold by Duke Robert to his brother, Henry I. In1087; was taken by the Count of Anjou, in the twelfth year of thefollowing century; was, thirty years subsequently, surrendered to theEmpress Maude; was wrested from John, by Philip-Augustus, in 1202; in1418, opened its gates to the victorious arms of Henry V. ; and, afterremaining for thirty-one years in the hands of the English, was finallyre-united to the crown of France. In 1465, Coutances lost its militarycharacter: its walls were then destroyed, and the fortifications rased, by order of Louis XI. As a punishment upon the inhabitants for theirconduct, in aiding the treasonable attempt of Charles, the brother ofthe monarch, to obtain forcible possession of the dukedom ofNormandy. [206] Not long subsequently, Francis I. Gladdened the city withthe royal presence, on his return from his pilgrimage to Mont St. Michel, in 1487; and his grandson, Henry III. Bestowed upon it thedistinction of being the capital of the bailiwick; soon after which, itsuffered severely during the religious wars, especially when it fellinto the power of the Calvinists, in 1562. Those merciless religionistspillaged it with an unsparing hand, even consigning a portion of it tothe flames: they sacked the churches, and carried off the prelate, whomthey forced to accompany them upon an ass, with his face turned to itstail. 

Of the bishops of Coutances, it will be sufficient here to mentionthree--Richard de Longueuil, who was nominated in 1455, one of the fourcommissioners to revise the process of the Maid of Arc, and declaredher innocent; Nicholas de Briroy, who, at the end of the followingcentury, obtained from the Pope, Paul V. In return for his extensivecharities, the enviable title of _Father of the Poor_; and Geoffrey deMontbray, a prelate honored with the especial favor of the Conqueror, towhom he frequently rendered the most essential service, as well in armsas in peace. He it was, who performed mass in the Norman camp, preparatory to the battle of Hastings, and who preached at thecoronation of the monarch, from whom he is said, by Ordericus Vitalis, to have received no fewer than two hundred and eighty manors in England. 

The present population of Coutances amounts to between eight and ninethousand inhabitants. The remains of the noble aqueduct in theneighborhood, though commonly ascribed to the times of Roman power, aresaid to be with more justice referable to a nobleman of the family ofHaye-Paisnel, and to have been erected in the thirteenth century. Theprincipal feature and great ornament of the city is its noble cathedral, which, regarded as a whole, may, in the opinion of M. De Gerville, challenge a comparison with any other in France. Its architecture, according to the same able antiquary, affords a satisfactory proof thatthe pointed arch was really used in France, full half a century beforethe epoch generally assigned to its introduction. Upon this lattersubject, there has already been an opportunity of speaking in thepresent work, while treating of the Church of Lisieux; and the opinionthere stated by Mr. Turner, must be allowed to derive the strongestconfirmation from the cathedral of Coutances. The point is one that hasfrequently exercised the ingenuity of architects, and of the learned:the concluding portion, therefore, of this article, will be principallydevoted to that subject. [207]

It was, in the twelfth century, according to Mr. Whittington, that "thepointed arch began to shew itself in the edifices of France and theneighboring countries;" and, having originated in the east, naturallyfollowed this direction in its course towards England. On the otherhand, the sentiments of another, at least equally learned, author, thereverend Dr. Milner, have been given on more than one occasion, that thearchitecture, commonly denominated Gothic, really commenced in England, but did not appear till after the year 1130; the pointed arches in thechurch of St. Cross, erected by Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, and brother of King Stephen, being probably the earliest specimen of thekind that is any where to be found. M. De Gerville combats this latteropinion, by adducing the churches of Mortain and of Coutances; the firstof them, like St. Cross, an example of the mixed style, its upper archesbeing semi-circular, its lower pointed; the other, wholly of the latterdescription. The church of Mortain was founded in 1082, and must havebeen sufficiently finished for the performance of divine worship, withinnine years after that period; as it is expressly recorded that Geoffreyde Montbray, bishop of Coutances, who died in 1093, was present at theceremony of the consecration. With regard to the cathedral of Coutances, there is fortunately in existence a highly-curious document, written byan eye-witness to the building of the church, and printed in the _GalliaChristiana_[208] from the black book or chartulary of the diocese, whichwas compiled by order of John d'Essey, who wore the mitre in the middleof the thirteenth century. The memoir commences by reciting a portion ofthe hardships undergone by the see of Coutances, in common with otherparts of the north of France, from the Norman invasion; and then tellshow Herbert II. Who succeeded to the episcopal throne in 1020, expelled, _as useless and illiterate_, the canons in possession of the church ofCoutances, and took the whole of the ecclesiastical revenues into hisown hands, because "_sibi minùs urbani minùsque faceti videbantur!_" Itgoes on to state, that his successor, Robert, far from restoring whathad been seized under so extraordinary a plea, alienated the property byparcelling it out among his kindred; but that, notwithstanding this, abeginning was made in his time towards the erection of the church, whichwas founded by the Countess Gonora, widow of Duke Richard II. With theaid of contributions from various quarters. [209]

To Robert, in the year of our Lord, 1048, succeeded the celebratedGeoffrey de Montbray, who finally completed the great work commenced byhis predecessor. The first stone of the cathedral had been laid in 1030;the dedication took place in 1056, and was performed in the presence ofthe Duke himself, the archbishop, his suffragans, and a large proportionof the Norman nobility. Some English barons likewise crossed the sea toattend upon the occasion. The vigor of Geoffrey's character was nevermore strikingly exemplified, than in connection with this fabric. [210]In the earliest years of his prelacy, he undertook a voyage to Apulia, for the express purpose of obtaining from Robert Guischard, and hiscompanions in arms, pecuniary assistance towards the building; and, during the whole course of a long life, he appears to have beenunremitting in his endeavors to add whatever might contribute to itsdignity, its splendour, and its utility. [211] The following lines, traced by his dying hand, well mark the man himself, and the temper ofthe age, and the prevalence of the ruling passion:--"Gaufridus, misericordia Dei, Constantiensis episcopus, omnibus sub christianaregeneratione degentibus, tam clericis quam laïcis, salutem, prosperitatem et pacem. Constantiensem ecclesiam quam hucusque licetindigne tenueram, tamen miserante Deo, populo meæ pravitatis augmentumet honorare studui, et extrema...... Eam amplius factis adjuvare nequeoverbis quantum tutari et defensare cupio. Quicumque igitur qui subchristiana professione vocatus, præfatam ecclesiam honorare, consolariet defensare voluerit, auctoritate Domini nostri Jesu Christi ejusquesanctissimæ genetricis, in apostolica nostraque confirmationebenedictus, ab eodem Domino nostro Jesu Christo omnium bonorumretributore mercedem recipiat in futuro, et anima ejus inter chorosangelorum et archangelorum, apostolorum et martyrum, confessorum etvirginum requiem possideat in paradiso. Quod si aliquis irreverens etcontumeliosus, avaritiæ vel cupiditatis stimulis agitatus, eam de terrissuis, sive legibus et consuetudinibus, sive ornamentis absque justa etnecessaria eidem ecclesiæ ratione et clericorum assensione, minorari etdecurtare præsumpserit, ab his omnibus suprascriptis ordinibusmaledictus, et perpetuæ damnationis anathemate circumseptus, priusquamvita decedat terribilissimi divini examinis judicio prosequente, omnibusin commune tanti sacrilegii violator appareat, et in perpetuum cum Judatraditore, et Herode, Pilato et Caipha, cunctisque sanctæ ecclesiæadversariis ignem æternum possideat, semperque cum diabolo et angelisejus crucietur, nec ullam in secula seculorum misericordiæ scintillammereatur, nisi priusquam anima illa tenebrosa de corpore exieritresipuerit, et ad satisfactionem venerit. Fiat, amen. "

And the clergy were not wanting in their endeavors to do honor to thememory of so noble a benefactor. As the Roman historians and the Mantuanbard concur in attesting the various prodigies that foretold theapproaching end of Julius Cæsar, so the monkish chroniclers relate thatearth and sky united in presaging the death of Geoffrey; and, thoughthey could not succeed in obtaining for his name admission into thecalendar, they would allow of no doubt as to his reception into heaven;the details of which were communicated in a vision to one of the monksof Cerisy. --"There appeared to me, " said the monk, "a palace oftranscendent magnificence, in which a queen was seated, of more thanearthly beauty, surrounded by a numerous court; and, while each in histurn was making his obeisance, suddenly a messenger arrived, exclaimingaloud, 'Madam, Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, is here, and is at thismoment mounting the steps of the palace. ' No sooner were the tidingsheard, than she descended from her seat to meet the prelate; and, havingwelcomed him with a most gracious salutation, caused her attendants todisrobe him of his cope and boots, and then, taking the veil from herown head, wiped the wounds upon his body, and, leading him by the hand, conducted him to her room of state, and placed him near to herself uponthe throne. " The decease of the prelate, which took place on thefollowing day, left no doubt as to the interpretation or the inspirationof the vision. 

Of the identity of the church built by Geoffrey with that now standing, it is impossible to entertain a reasonable doubt. The details, and theyare many, contained in the document above quoted, all correspond withthe present building. A still more decisive proof is afforded by thesilence of succeeding historians, who could never have passed unnoticedso important a fact as the rebuilding of a cathedral, the repairs ofwhich they have recorded on various occasions. The principal of thesetook place during the prelacy of Sylvester de la Corvelle, and wereoccasioned by the wars of Edward III. In the course of which, theedifice incurred the most imminent danger, and would probably have beendestroyed in 1356, had not the timely arrival of the French troopscaused the invading army to raise the siege of the city. A batteringram, used upon that occasion, was still shewed in Coutances, in thebeginning of the last century. The king of France bestowed upon thechapter, in 1372, a sum of six hundred livres, in gold, for the expresspurpose of repairing the church, "_bellis attritâ et imminutâ_. " At thattime the Lady-Chapel was added; the great windows were inserted in theaisles; the exterior part of the choir towards the palace was built; anda portion of the work of the western front, between the towers, wasrepaired, and probably altered. This last has in particular tended tomislead the antiquary;--but to sum up the account, in the words of M. DeGerville, --"En y regardant plus attentivement, un antiquaire exercéfacilement démêlera l'ancienne partie de l'édifice, qui est encore debeaucoup la plus considérable. Cette ancienne partie offre un modèlebien caractérisé de fenêtres en lancettes. C'est surtout aux deux toursoccidentales qu'on en voit des plus étroites. Celles de la tour, oulanterne, sont géminées. Ces lancettes, que les antiquaires Angloisrapportent au regne de Henry II. Se montrent ici dans un édificeantérieur à ce prince de prés d'un siècle; et, ce qui est encore plussurprénant, elles y sont sans aucun mélange d'architecture Romane ouSaxonne. "[212]

 [Illustration: Plate 94. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT COUTANCES. _Elevation of the Nave. _]

In the interior of the building, (_plate ninety-four_) the sameuniformity of style prevails as in the exterior; and if, in conjunctionwith the cathedral of Coutances, be considered that of Lisieux, acontemporary building, and so much alike in character, that it mayreasonably be doubted if they were not the production of the samearchitect, it will scarcely be assuming too much, to say that the dateof the introduction of the pointed architecture in France, may safely beplaced as early as the middle of the eleventh century. 

NOTES:

[204] _Abrégé de l'Histoire des Evêques de Coutances_, p. 48. 

[205] At that time, its length was twenty-five leagues, and its widthten, without comprising the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, over whichit still held a titular sway. In it were included the district of theCôtentin; the city of Coutances; the towns of St. Lo, Granville, Carentan, Vallognes, and Cherbourg; twenty-four smaller market towns;four archdeaconries; twenty-two rural deaneries; ten abbeys; twenty-fourother convents; and five hundred and fifty parishes. The chapterconsisted of twenty-six canons and eight dignitaries. 

[206] The following are the words of Robertus Cenalis upon thissubject:--"Carolo, Ludovici XI. Germano, quorundam procerum principumquesuggestione ducatum Normanniæ non precario, sed vi impense ambiente, cumvia sibi per posticum episcopalis domus aperta esset, rex idcircoindignatus incolis qui a fide defecerant, cavit decreto suo in poenamcriminis, quod funditus a solo everterentur civitatis moenia, quæ nullavel pretii, vel precum sollicitatione restitui potuerunt. "--Cenalis thenproceeds to say, --"Habet in templi sui meditullio merito suspiciendumspectaculum miræ architecturæ contextum, e cujus abside si quis lapillumdejecerit, nunquam a puncto designato ultra citrave dimovebitur instarlaternæ vitreæ in sublime erectum: vitream arcem merito dixeris, opussane venustum et elegans. Urbem præterea insigniter ornat aquæductus admilliaris semissem, ingenti impensa et opera arcuatim suppositisfornicibus longo ductu protensus, cujus artificii ope civitas alluituret rigatur. Denique si moenibus conclusa foret, quis vetet civitatemillam Constantinopolim Neustriæ maritimæ appellari!"--_GalliaChristiana_, p. 863. 

[207] In the following part of the description of the church ofCoutances, considerable use has been made of a manuscript dissertation, kindly communicated by M. De Gerville to the author, who only lamentsthat the limits of this publication would not allow him to insert itentire. 

[208] Among the _Instrumenta Ecclesiæ Constantiensis_, p. 218. 

[209] "Hujus tamen temporibus incoepta et ex parte constructa estConstantiensis ecclesia, fundante et coadjuvante Gonorra comitissa, auxiliantibus etiam canonicis, reditibus medietatis altaris ad tempusoperi concessis, cooperantibus quoque baronibus et parochianisfidelibus, quod usque hodie contestantur aliquot ipsorum nominainsculpta lapidibus in ecclesiæ arcubus. "--_Gallia Christiana, Inst. _ p. 218. 

[210] "Anno igitur Dominicæ Incarnationis, MXLVIII. Duodecim tantumdiebus ipsius anni restantibus, id est IV idus Aprilis, indictione II, venerandus Gaufridus post Robertum Constantiensis episcopus Rotomagiconsecratur, nobilium baronum prosapia ortus, statura procerus, vultudecorus, prudentia consilioque providus, quanquam sæpissime curialibusnegotiis regiisque obsecundationibus irretitus, tamen ad ædificationemet incrementum ecclesiæ suæ omni nisu et voluntate per noctem erat etper diem, qui ut eandem ecclesiam celebrem gloriosamque restitueret, inApuliam et Calabriam adire Robertum cognomine Guischardum parochianumsuum, aliosque barones consanguineos suos, et alumnos, et notos peregreprofectus, multum in auro, et argento, et gemmis, et palliis variisquedivitiarum donariis acquisivit, tresque asportavit phialas plenas puroopobalsamo, aliaque pretiosissima quibus postea præfatam ecclesiam intuset extus locupletavit, majoremque crucifixum largis sumtibus et temporelongo construxit. Cum autem non haberet in civitate, sive in suburbiotantum possessionis ecclesia, ubi maneret episcopus, vel proprius equusejus posset stabulari, sed neque propriam domum, nisi quoddamappendicium humile, quod pendebat de parietibus ecclesiæ, ipse prudentiasua et probitate valentiorem medietatem civitatis, suburbii, et telonei, et vectigalis, cum molendinis et multa Grimoldi viaca a Guillelmoinvictissimo duce Normannorum, postea quoque glorioso rege Anglorumtrecentis libris comparavit et acquietavit. Postea vero episcopalemaulam et reliquas officinas construxit, virgultum et vineam non modicamplantavit, capitium navis ecclesiæ cum area, et hinc inde duo majoracapitia nobiliora et ampliora construxit. Duas turres posteriores afundamentis, tertiamque supra chorum opere spectabili sublimavit, inquibus classicum consonans et pretiosum imposuit, et hæc omnia plumbocooperuit. "--_Gallia Christiana, Inst. _ p. 218. 

[211] The instrument, above quoted, abounds in examples of this spirit. Among the rest, after detailing at length various estates which he hadpurchased or obtained as presents for the enriching of his church, itproceeds to say, --"Cæterum ornamenta ecclesiastica et ustencilia, calices, cruces, capsas, phylacteria, candelabra, thuribula, bacinos, siculam et ampullas aurea contulit et argentea, casulas quoque, dalmaticas, tunicas, planetas, albas, cappas mirifici operis, necnondorsalia serica et lanea, cortinas et tapeta, sed et bibliothecas, passionales, omeliares, missales aureis litteris duos sufficientesque etcompetentes libros subrogavit: super hæc omnia pretiosum famosumqueclerum, quo nihil pretiosius in ecclesia et utilius in officium etservitium divini cultus delegavit, septemque canonicos quos episcopusHugo Rotomagi in ecclesia S. Laudi irregulariter constituerat, apostolica auctoritate ecclesiæ matri revocavit, itemque duos aliosadjecit. Cantorem quoque, et succentorem, et rectorem scholarum, etcustodes ecclesiæ, clericos quoque præbendarios, aurifabros, fabrumqueferrarium, carpentarios et magistrum coementarium in opus ecclesiæconstituit. O virum prudentem et domui suæ bene præsidentem, qui devivis et electis lapidibus domum suam composuit, et mirabilibus columniseam sustentavit!"--_Gallia Christiana, Inst. _ p. 219. 

[212] The following remarks upon the architecture of the cathedral ofCoutances, transcribed from the journal of a most able friend of theauthor's, cannot fail to be acceptable to the reader:--"The cathedral ismost singular in its aspect. It is pointed throughout, except thecircular arches in the vaulting over the side-chapels, and one or twosegments of circles which form the door-ways, within the porches on thenorth and south sides. It is really a difficult task to come at anyconclusion respecting the æra of the building, from an inspection of it. If it is of the Norman age, then the pointed style arose at once from atransfusion of Arabian or Tartarian architecture. The whole is of apiece, complete in conception and execution; and there are nointersecting arches from which a pointed arch may have arisen. Thecircles in the spandrils are in the same oriental style as at Bayeux. The peculiarities of the cathedral are--the side-porches close behindthe towers; the screens of mullioned tracery, which divide theside-chapels; and the excessive height of the choir, which, having notriforium, has only a balustrade just before the clerestory windows. Thecentre tower is wonderfully fine in the exterior: it is apparently anexpansion of the plain Norman lantern, as at Caen; but most airy andgraceful. There is a double aisle round the ambit and altars are placedin the bays, as if they were distinct chapels, for which purpose theywere originally intended; but the line continues unbroken. Theperspective of these aisles, and also of the choir, seen from theLady-Chapel, is very fine. The round pillars of the choir are double, asat Canterbury and Senlis. The apsis is half a duodecagon. The pointedwindows above are in two lancet divisions, surmounted by a trefoil; butthe dividing masonry is not a mullion: it is the unperforated part ofthe wall. This perhaps is arabesque. There is a second arch within, which is really divided by a mullion or small pillar. A curious leafprojects above. Some of the painted glass is in the oldest style:dispersed patterns in a black outline, on a grey ground. In aside-chapel are painted tiles, brown and yellow as usual, displayingknots and armorial bearings. In the same chapel are fresco paintings:many more are on the east side of the wall that divides the lastchoir-aisle from the south transept. They represent St. Michael and theDevil, the Deity between angels, &c. In all of them, the outline isformed by a thick black line. "

PLATE XCV. AND XCVI. 

MOUNT ST. MICHAEL. 

 [Illustration: Plate 95. MOUNT ST. MICHAEL. _On the approach from Pontorson. _]

Religion, history, poetry, and painting, have all united in givingcelebrity to St. Michael's Mount. The extraordinary sanctity of itsmonastery, the striking peculiarities of its form and situation, and theimportance acquired by the many sieges it supported, or the almostendless pilgrimages it received, have so endeared it to the man of tasteand the philosopher, that scarcely a spot is to be found in Europe, moregenerally known, or more universally interesting. 

The legendary mist with which St. Michael's Mount is now denselyinvolved, has continued, from a period of remote antiquity, to floataround its summit. Tradition delights in relating how, in times prior tothe Christian æra, it was devoted to the worship of the great luminaryof heaven, under his Gallic name of Belenus, [213] a title probablyderived from the Hebrew Baal, and the Assyrian Belus. The same traditionrecounts how, at a more recent epoch, it reared its majestic head, embosomed in a spacious tract of woods and thickets, while the hermitswho had fixed themselves upon its summits, received their daily breadfrom the charity of the priest of the neighboring parish of Beauvoir; anass spontaneously undertaking the office of conveying it to them, tillon the road he fell a prey to a wolf, who was then constrained byProvidence to devote himself to the same pious labor. 

At length, about the year 709, it was decreed that the rock should atonce change its designation and its patron. To the clouds of Paganism, succeeded the sun of Christianity; and the original heathen appellation, _Tumba_, was replaced by one of the most elevated names of holy writ. St. Michael, "the chief of the angels and of the host of heaven, theprotector of the Hebrew synagogue of yore, as now of the Catholicchurch, the conqueror of the old serpent, and the leader of souls toheaven, " condescended to be worshipped here upon the western coast, ason Mount Garganus in the east, and with this view appeared to St. Aubert, then bishop of Avranches, commanding him to erect a church tohis honor upon the mount. Another legend relates, how there hadpreviously existed upon the same spot, a religious edifice, which hadpassed under the name of the _Monasterium ad duas Tumbas_, being equallyappropriated to the adjoining rock of Tombeleine. However this may havebeen, it is admitted on all sides that a church was built, and that thehill knew thenceforth no other name than that of St. Michael's Mount;though Aubert, tardy in his belief, had refused to obey the injunction, till it had been repeated three several times, upon the last of which, the archangel touched the head of the saint, and left imprinted in hisskull the marks of his fingers, which the author, here quoted, relatesthat he himself saw, to his great delight, in the years 1612 and 1641. 

To the miraculous vision, succeeded other occurrences of similar import. A tethered bull pointed out the spot where the holy edifice should beerected, and at the same time circumscribed its limits; a rock, thatopposed the progress of the workmen, and was immoveable by human art, spontaneously withdrew at the touch of an infant's foot; and the earthopening, on being struck with St. Aubert's staff, gave birth to a springof water, at once of the utmost use to the inhabitants, and gifted withthe most sanative powers. At about the same period also, the seaingulphed the neighboring forests, [214] insulating the rock; so thatthree messengers, who had been dispatched to Mount Garganus, thence tobring a portion of red cloth, the gift of St. Michael, together with afragment of the stone on which he himself had sate, found on theirreturn the aspect of things so changed, that "they thought they musthave entered into a new world. "

History, from this period, assumes a character of comparativeauthenticity. The Norman conquest threatened for awhile the extinctionof Christianity: the baptism of Rollo, rekindling its dying embers, madethem blaze forth with a light and warmth unknown before. The dukehimself, on the fourth day after he had presented himself at the holyfont, endowed the monastery of St. Michael, then styled "_ecclesiam inpericulo maris supra montem positam_. "--No further mention occurs of theconvent, during the reign of this monarch, or of his son, WilliamLongue-Epée; but their immediate successor, Richard I. Amply atoned forany neglect on their part. He built, according to Dudo of St. Quentin, achurch of wondrous size, together with spacious buildings, for a body ofmonks of the Benedictine order, whom he established there in 988, displacing the regular canons, whose irregular lives had been thesubject of much scandal. This munificence on the part of Richard, haseven caused him to be regarded by some writers as the founder of theconvent. --His son and successor, of the same name, selected St. Michael's Mount, as the favored spot, where, in the beginning of hisreign, he received the hand of the fair Judith, sister to Geoffrey, oneof the principal counts of Brittany. An opportunity was almostimmediately afterwards afforded him of testifying at once his liberalityand his devotion, as well as his love; for, on the first year of theeleventh century, the church, which had then been completed only fiveyears, was burned to the ground. The prince, however, appears to havebeen somewhat tardy on the occasion; no attempt was made towardsreplacing the loss, till Hildebert II. Succeeded as abbot. During hisprelacy, in 1022, the foundations of a new church were laid, upon astill more extensive scale. --Twenty-six years more were suffered toelapse, and the abbatial mitre had adorned the brows of four successiveabbots, when Ralph de Beaumont witnessed the completion of the work. 

The church then built is expressly stated by the authors of the _GalliaChristiana_, to be the same as was in existence at the time of thepublication of that work;[215] and M. De Gerville confirms their remarkby his own personal observation, at least as far as relates to the nave. This indeed has been shortened of late; but he is persuaded, thatwhatever still remains is really of the architecture of the days of DukeRichard. --Robert, the following duke, repaired to St. Michael's Mount, to superintend his forces, upon the occasion of the revolt of Alain, Count of Dol; and it was hither, also, that the archbishop of Rouenbrought the humbled count, to make his peace with his offendedsovereign. --At the period of the conquest, the monks of St. Michaelfurnished six transports towards that eventful expedition; and when, after the death of William, the dominion over the mount passed bypurchase from Robert to Henry, they distinguished themselves by theirattachment to their new sovereign, who here supported a siege on thepart of his two elder brothers, and was finally driven to surrender onlyby famine. The elder of these brothers, at an advanced period of hislife, re-visited the church in a far different guise; and, to dischargehis vows to the archangel for his safe return from the crusade, prostrated himself before the shrine which he had erst assaulted withthe fury of his arms. --The year 1158 was, almost above every other, memorable in the history of St. Michael's Mount. Henry Plantagenet, who, two years before, had there received the homage of his subjects ofBrittany, then returned in pilgrim weeds, accompanied by Louis VII. Whose repudiated wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he had married; and thetwo monarchs, attended by a numerous throng of secular nobility, as wellas by several cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, kneeled in amity atthe holy altar. 

During the reign of the ill-starred John, St. Michael's Mount passed, incommon with the rest of Normandy, under the sceptre of France, andsuffered severely upon the occasion. Guy of Thouars, then in alliancewith Philip-Augustus, advanced against it at the head of an army ofBritons; and, experiencing on the part of the inhabitants but a feebleresistance, set fire to the palisades, the principal defence of theplace. The flames communicated to the houses; and the church also fell aprey to them. To use the words of Brito, "vis ignea sursùm Scandit, et ecclesiæ decus omne, locumque sacratum, Resque monasterii cremat insatiabilis omnes. "

Philip lamented the injury, and did all in his power to repair it; but, considering that one great source of the misfortunes of the holy placehad sprung from the impiety of the Anglo-Norman monarchs, in placingtheir trust in ramparts made by human hands, rather than in theprotection of the archangel, he levelled with the ground the few worksof defence that remained. [216] His pious successor, the sainted Louis, was far from entertaining a similar feeling. On the other hand, when hisdevotion led him to the shrine of St. Michael, after returning from hisunfortunate expedition to Damietta, the chronicles expressly state, thathe placed, with his own hand, a considerable sum of money upon thealtar, for the purpose of repairing the fortifications. And it appearsprobable that, at a period not very distant, the money thus expendedstood the crown of France in good stead; for, during the war at thebeginning of the fifteenth century, St. Michael's Mount was the onlyplace that successfully resisted the English arms. The siege itsupported upon that occasion, is one of the few brilliant events thatgive lustre to a period of French history, generally dark and gloomy. Two cannon, of prodigious size, constructed for the discharge of stoneballs, above a foot in diameter, testify to the present moment theheroic defence of the garrison, and the defeat of the assailants. 

At a subsequent period of French history, during the times when party, under the mask of pious zeal, deluged the kingdom with blood, andvirtuous men of every creed joined in the lamentation, that "tantumReligio potuit suadere malorum, " the Huguenots made many and most braveand memorable, though vain, attempts to render themselves masters of St. Michael's Mount. From that time forward, the rock has been suffered tocontinue in tranquillity, though still retaining its character as afortification. Its designation of late has been a departmental prison:during the reign of terror, it was applied to the disgraceful purpose ofserving as a receptacle for three hundred ecclesiastics, whose age orinfirmities would not allow of their being transported; and who, withcruel mockery, were incarcerated within the walls, long gladdened withthe comforts, dignified with the pomp, and sanctified with the holinessof religion. Prisoners of importance, especially those charged withcrimes against the state, were chiefly confined here before therevolution, when the iron cage, and the vaults, known by the ominousnames of the _Oubliettes_, or the _In Pace_, gave the mount a melancholynotoriety. 

In this short outline of the history of St. Michael's Mount, mention hasbeen repeatedly made of French sovereigns who have proceeded thither inpilgrimage. The task were long to enumerate all those princes andmonarchs who distinguished it with this mark of their veneration. Butthere is one other instance too important in its consequences to bepassed over in silence. Louis XI. After having expelled the rebelliousBritons from Normandy in 1463, not content with paying his devotions tothe archangel at his shrine, and bestowing upon the monks a donation ofsix hundred crowns of gold, sent them the image of St. Michael, togetherwith the golden chain that he had himself worn upon his neck; anddirected that the three escalop shells, formerly borne upon the abbatialshield, should be enriched by the addition of four others, and threelilies. Nor satisfied with this, he, six years afterwards, still furthertestified his devotion, by various privileges granted to the community, and by the institution of the noble military order of St. Michael, [217]whose collar was composed of silver escalop shells, while the medal borea representation of the archangel trampling upon the dragon, with thelegend, "Immensi tremor oceani. "--Even in this enlightened age, theconcourse of pilgrims to the mount is by no means at an end: they arestill to be seen repairing to the church; and, if the female Druids haveceased for many a century to sell to the sailors their enchanted arrows, of power to still the angry ocean, when hurled into its waves by amaiden hand, the Pythonesses of the present day find a no less plentifulsource of emolument in their chaplets, and rosaries, and crosses, andmedals, of St. Michael. The annals of the world abound in details of thechanges of form and feature which superstition has assumed in differentages; but it is humiliating to human nature to reflect, that theconquests obtained by philosophy over her great adversary, are inreality very small. Superstition, like the fabled Proteus, appears underan endless variety of forms; but she is also, like the god, still oneand the same. 

The list of abbots of St. Michael's Mount, contains names of the highestconsequence in France: the Cardinal d'Estouteville, and the still moreillustrious Cardinal de Joyeuse, Henry of Lorraine, son of the Duke deGuise, and Charles Maurice, of the noble family of Broglio, have, intimes comparatively modern, presided over the community. The privilegesand honorary distinctions attached to the office, were alsoconsiderable. The names of the superiors of the monastery stand recordedon various occasions, as men selected for important trusts; and theywere formally empowered, by a bull of Pope Clement VII. Dated fromAvignon, to bestow the benediction, even in the church of Avranches, andin the presence of the bishop or the metropolitan himself, and to wearthe mitre, and all other episcopal insignia. The powers and immunitiesof the convent were likewise extensive and important. Its annual incomewas estimated by the author of the _Alien Priories_, in the middle ofthe last century, at forty thousand livres; but it is at the same timestated in that work, that, at an earlier period, it was far moreconsiderable. Among the transmarine possessions of the abbey, was itsnamesake in Cornwall, which was annexed to it by Robert, Earl of Moretonand Cornwall, before the year 1085, and was also renowned for itssanctity at a very remote epoch. The coincidence in form and situationbetween the two is most remarkable. 

St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy, is situated near the extremity of theprovince, towards Brittany; to the south of Granville, the south-west ofAvranches, and the north of Pontorson and Dol. It is a conical mass ofgranite, which, from a base of about one-fourth of a league incircumference, towers to the height of above four hundred feet, including the buildings that crown its summit. It stands insulated andalone, except the neighboring rock of Tombeleine, in the midst of adreary level of white sand, that presents a surface of more than twelvesquare leagues, extending on all sides, almost as far as the eye canreach, and unvaried, unless where it is intersected with branches ofdifferent rivers. The whole of this space is at high water entirelycovered with the sea, while the receding tide leaves it bare; yet stillso, that it is difficult and dangerous to traverse it without a guide. The base of the mount is surrounded with high thick walls, flanked withsemi-circular towers all machicolated, and bastions. Towards the westand north, its sides present only steep, black, bare, pointed rocks: theportions that lie in an opposite direction, incline in a comparativelyeasy slope, and are covered with houses that follow in successive lines, leaving but a scanty space for some small gardens, in which the vine, the fig-tree, and the almond, flourish in great luxuriance. The walls ofthe castellated abbey impend, and jut out in bold decided masses; andthe whole is crowned by the florid choir of the abbey church. Thearchitects of the latter time seemed to have wished to adapt thisglorious building to its site. All its divisions of parts, windows, andpinnacles, are narrower and more lofty than usual; and the projectionsare bolder, so as to be distinctly visible from below. The stranger isadmitted to the mount by a gate, of the time of Louis XII. Or Francis I. He proceeds along the walls, which continue leading upwards; and, traversing desolate towers, and staircases above staircases, hanging onthe sides of the rock, all forlorn, grassy, and mouldering, he isconducted to the gate of the abbey. The outside of the first gate-wayhas round towers: the second has a pointed arch. One pile of buildingshas a row of small arches round the top. The present population of thetown amounts to about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, who derivetheir chief support from the fishery. 

Of the church itself, a view is given in the Bayeux tapestry; rudeindeed, but curious, as coeval. --The following is a short chronologicalsummary of the principal events connected with the building:--

In 1103, the roof fell in, and involved in its ruins a portion of thedormitory. 

Ten years afterwards, on the twenty-third of April, 1113, the lightningset fire to the abbey, which was wholly consumed, except the crypt andthe great columns of the nave, and some other parts of the church. Roger, then abbot, repaired the injury, rebuilding the refectory and thedormitory, and the splendid apartment, called the Knights' Hall. 

 [Illustration: Plate 96. MOUNT ST. MICHAEL. _Interior of the Knights' Hall. _]

Bernard, who was abbot from 1135 to 1140, rebuilt the north part of thechurch, and erected the tower between the nave and the choir. 

Of the works done at the beginning of the thirteenth century, inconsequence of the injuries received by the church during the wars ofPhilip-Augustus, no particulars are preserved. It is only said ingeneral terms, that they were considerable. 

Richard Turstin, abbot in 1275, began buildings upon an extensive scale, between the extremity of the cloisters and the barracks. 

On the thirteenth of July, 1300, the lightning again struck the church, and great part of it was burned, and the bells melted, and many housesin the town reduced to ashes. 

The chapel of St. John the Evangelist was added by John De la Porte, thetwenty-seventh abbot, who died in 1334. 

In 1350, a fresh injury was sustained from a tempest; but so great wasthe zeal employed in repairing it, that the monastery is said to havebeen, a very short time subsequently, in a better state than it hadalmost ever been before: it raised its head, however, above thesemisfortunes, only to experience new ones, and from the same source, in1370. The damage was then greater, but was soon repaired; and the chapelof St. Catherine was erected. This happened during the prelacy ofGeoffrey de Servin. Peter le Roy, the following abbot, is ranked amongthe greatest benefactors to the convent: no one contributed more to thediffusion of its fame, or the increase of learning within its precincts;but he does not appear to have done any thing to its buildings. Hissuccessor, Robert Jolivet, surrounded the mount with the walls andtowers that now remain, with the view of defending it against theEnglish, whom he afterwards joined. 

In 1421, the whole roof of the choir fell in. The foundations of the newchoir, the remains of which are now standing, were laid by the Cardinald'Estouteville, in 1452; and he continued the work till his death, which happened thirty years afterwards. During his prelacy, the chapelsof the choir were completed, and roofed with lead; and the choir and thecolumns that surround the high altar, were raised to the height of thechapels. 

In 1509, another accident arose from lightning: the steeple, and thebells, and the wood-work of the nave, were destroyed; but the damage wassoon repaired by William de Lamps, then abbot, who also built theabbatial palace and alms-house, and raised the part of the church thatwas unfinished, as high as the second tier of windows. --The choir wascompleted under the prelacy of his brother, John de Lamps, who was nextbut one to him in the succession, and wore the mitre from 1513 to 1523. 

From that time forward, till the period of the revolution, the abbacy ofSt. Michael's Mount was held in commendam; and the abbots, regardless ofa charge in which they did not feel themselves personally concerned, ceased to bestow care or expense upon the buildings. Some of them evenrefused to do the necessary repairs; and more than one instance is onrecord, where they resisted the decrees of the Norman parliament to thateffect. 

From the preceding details, it will easily be imagined, that the churchupon St. Michael's Mount can scarcely fail to present a medley ofdifferent kinds of architecture. Two, however, predominate: in thechoir, which was finished at the beginning of the sixteenth century, allis pointed and lofty: the naves and transepts are Norman. Beneath arecrypts, which extend under every part of the church, supported uponshort columns with capitals of foliage, &c. The arches mostly ribbed, and circular. 

The shortening of the nave has destroyed the western front. Thecloister, according to the observations of a friend of the author, isstrangely moresque in its appearance. The position of the pillars in ithe regards as quite unique. 

The Knights' Hall, (see _plate ninety-six_, ) is an arched chamber, ninety-eight feet in length, by sixty-eight in width, noble andchurch-like in its aspect. Its groined stone roof rests upon eighteencylindrical columns, with bases and capitals; the latter, in very highrelief, of beautiful design and delicate execution. 

NOTES:

[213] It may be allowed, that this idea receives a certain degree ofconfirmation from the present name of the neighboring rock, _Tombeleine_, the natural derivation of which appears to be _TumbaBeleni_. 

[214] The tradition of the mount speaks of the monster that haunted thedrowned forest; and when the author's friend, Mr. Cohen, visited St. Michael's Mount in 1819, his guide, Jacques Du Pont, referred to thesubject, and called the beast "a monster of a Turk that ate theChristians. " The figure represented on the wrapper of this work, waspointed out as a figure of the _identical_ monster. It was formerly onthe outside of the wall in a niche; it is now just within the gate. "There, " said Jacques, "look at his teeth and his claws; how savage heis. "--The tradition is certain; but the image is nothing more than agriffin grasping a shield charged with an armorial bearing; its date15.. 

[215] A. D. 1759. 

[216] Of old, says Brito, the place

 ...... "satis angelicis gaudebat tutus haberi Præsidiis, nullo dispendia tempore passus; At simul ædificans muros ibi cura Johannis Prætulit humanas vires coelestibus armis, Quemque tuebatur coelesti milite Christus, Munivit sacrum humano munimine montem, Ex tunc causa loco pereundi inventa sacrato. "

The author goes on to add, that the king

 ...... "ne fiat eis deinceps injuria talis, Præcipit ut pereat munitio toto Johannis; Et sua militiæ coelesti castra resignans, Humanis bonus excubiis locra sacra resignat, Largifluâque manu monachos juvat in renovando Sarta tecta, libros, et cætera quæ furor ignis Solverat in cinerem, quæ nobiliore paratu Quàm priùs extiterant jam restaurata videmus. "

 _Phillip. _ lib. 8, l. 114. 

[217] In the preamble of the statutes of this order, the monarchexpresses himself in the following terms--"Nous, à la gloire de Dieu, notre créateur Tout-puissant, et revérence de glorieuse Vierge Marie, eten l'honneur de Monseigneur St. -Michel Archange, premier Chevalier, quipour la querelle de Dieu, d'estoc et de taille, se battit contrel'ennemi dangereux de l'humain lignage, et du Ciel le trébucha, et quien son lieu et oratoire appellé Mont-St. Michel a toujoursparticulièrement gardé, préservé et défendu, sans être pris, subjugué, ni mis ès mains des anciens ennemis de notre royaume, et afin que tousbons et nobles courages soient excités et plus particulièrement émus àtoutes vertueuses oeuvres; le 1er. Jour d'Août de l'an 1469 avons créé, institué et ordonné, et par ces présentes créons, constituons etordonnons un Ordre de fraternité ou amiable compagnie de certain nombrede Chevaliers, jusqu'à trente six, lequel nous voulons être nommél'Ordre de Saint-Michel. "

PLATE XCVII. 

ABBEY CHURCH OF CERISY. 

 [Illustration: Plate 97. ABBEY CHURCH OF CERISY. _Interior of the Choir. _]

Cerisy, a small market-town, upon the road leading from Bayeux to St. Lo, and equally distant about four leagues from each of those places, iswholly indebted to its abbey for the celebrity it has enjoyed. In thesecular history of the duchy, its name occurs upon only two occasions. The lord of Cerisy is enumerated among the companions in arms of Robert, son of the Conqueror, in his expedition to the Holy Land, in 1009; andthe abbot of Cerisy was one of the twenty-one ecclesiastics from thebailiwick of Caen, cited by Philip le Bel to the Norman exchequer, inthe beginning of the fourteenth century. 

The convent, which was at all times of the Benedictine order, is said tohave been founded as early as the year 560. It was under the invocationof St. Vigor, ninth bishop of Bayeux; and, according to some authors, was established by that saint himself. Du Monstier, in the _NeustriaPia_, recites the history of its origin at great length: how theprelate, moved by the entreaties of a rich man, of the name of Volusian, destroyed, by virtue of the sign of the cross, a monstrous serpent thatravaged the country; and how Volusian, in gratitude, ceded to him thedomain of Cerisy, upon which he immediately erected a monastery, andendowed it with the revenues of the property. The annals of the conventbeing lost, what is recorded of its history is very short. After thegeneral destruction of religious establishments by the Saxons andNormans, that of Cerisy appears to have been left in its ruins farlonger than most others. No hand is said to have been lifted towards itsrestoration, till the reign of Robert, father of the Conqueror. By himthe monastic writers all agree that a beginning was made towards therebuilding of this monastery; and one of them, William of Jumieges, adds, that his care of it suffered no diminution from time or distance;for that, during his wars in the Holy Land, when the patriarch ofJerusalem rewarded his pious zeal with a present of some preciousrelics, he immediately directed them to be here deposited. His moreillustrious successor, in one of the first years of his reign, completedand richly endowed the convent begun by his father, whose remains hecommanded should be brought from Palestine, for the express purpose oftheir being interred at Cerisy. But they were allowed to proceed nofurther than Apulia. In the _Neustria Pia_ is preserved a charter ofKing Charles VI. Dated 1398, in which the various donations conferredupon the abbey of Cerisy, by the Norman Dukes, Robert, William, andHenry, are enumerated and confirmed. Its annual income, in the middle ofthe eighteenth century, was estimated by De Masseville at twentythousand livres. The only property it appears ever to have possessed inEngland, was a priory of Benedictine monks at West Shirburne, inHampshire. 

Architecturally considered, the church of Cerisy is an interesting relicof Norman workmanship. The certainty of its date, not far removed fromthe year 1032, and the comparatively few alterations it has undergone, render it one of those landmarks, by the aid of which the observer ofthe present day can alone attain to any certainty in his inquiries intoancient art. And yet, in the portion here selected for engraving, theupper row of windows is of an æra posterior to the rest; and the greatarch in front has evidently changed its semi-circular form for a pointedone. Its height is unusual and impressive. Both taken collectively andin its parts, the church bears a strong resemblance to that nearlycoeval at St. Georges; like which, it is now appropriated to parochialpurposes, and is still of great size, [218] though the whole of theportion originally parochial, and which extended one hundred andtwenty-four feet beyond what remains of the nave, has been recentlypulled down. The principal front of the building, which faced the north, its position being north and south, has been consequently destroyed. Thestyle of the edifice is characterized by a noble and severe simplicity:the capitals of the columns are, indeed, enriched with sculpturedfoliage or animals, or occasionally with small heads placed in themiddle of a surface otherwise plain; but elsewhere the decorations arevery sparingly distributed. They are confined to the chevron and billetmouldings; the latter the most ancient and most rare among the Normanornaments. Both the transepts are parted off, as at St. Georges, byscreens near the extremities: these screens at Cerisy are surmounted byan elegant parapet of semi-circular arches, a singular and verybeautiful addition. 

NOTES:

[218] The following are the dimensions of the church, according to Mr. Cotman. 

 FEET. Length of the nave 98 Ditto of choir 64 Ditto of transepts and intervening part of the nave 118 Width of nave 73 Ditto of transepts 31 Ditto of choir, without the side-chapels 28 Height of nave 70

Before the demolition of the western extremity, the nave was two hundredand twenty-six feet long, and the total length of the building twohundred and ninety feet. 

PLATE XCVIII. 

CHURCH AT OYESTRAHAM. 

 [Illustration: Plate 98. CHURCH OF OYESTRAHAM. _West Front. _]

Oyestraham, or, as it is more commonly written, Estreham, is a villagesituated upon the left bank of the Orne, near its confluence with thechannel. Its name, derived from the Saxon, [219] seems to point it out asa settlement made by those daring invaders: its church, one of the firstobjects that presents itself to the English traveller, on hisentering France in the direction of Caen, is well calculated to impresshim with a forcible idea of the magnificence of the Norman lords of theduchy. That it was built in the time of their sway, is a fact whichcannot be doubted; but, in an architectural point of view, it is so fullof anomalies, that opinions would be likely to vary considerably withregard to the actual date of its erection. And here, unfortunately, norecords remain to guide the judgment. In the western front, indeed!(_the subject of the plate_) the whole is of the semi-circular style, and uniform. The upper tier of arches will find a parallel in the towersof the abbey of Jumieges, built during the reign of the Conqueror; andmost of the other members and decorations are of frequent occurrence inerections of the same æra. A peculiarity is alone observable in thesmaller arches of the second row, in which the artist has indulgedhimself in what may be termed an architectural conceit, lengthening, toa very disproportionate degree, and almost in the moorish fashion, thepart above the capital, in order that the whole might range in a linewith the larger arch in the centre. The truncated appearance of the wallon either side, leads to the obvious inference, that either this fronthad originally towers, like the church of St. Nicholas, at Caen, or thatit was intended there should have been such. A central tower now aloneremains, of square form, with massive buttresses of unusual size, projecting towards the south. This tower, as well as the portion of thechurch to the east of it, exhibits the Norman and Gothic architecturemixed in a very uncommon manner. Of three rows of arches, the lowest andhighest belong to the latter style; the central one only to the former. In the nave, all is Norman, excepting only two lancet windows of theupper tier, placed near the west end, on the south side, and exceptingalso the flying buttresses that extend from between the windows of theclerestory to the projecting aisles below. Within the choir, thetrefoil-headed arch takes, in some instances, the place of the pointedin the lower row, which is wholly blank; and the capitals of thepillars, according to Mr. Cotman, shew an extraordinary playfulness ofdesign. The arches above them are pierced for windows. Both thesemi-circular ones of the second tier, and the pointed ones above, areextremely narrow, seen from without, but widen greatly within; the wallbeing of more than ordinary thickness. The piers of the nave are sixfeet five inches in diameter, while the intervening spaces scarcelyexceed ten feet. 

NOTES:

[219] On this subject, see _Huet, Origines de Caen_, p. 299. --"Estrehamest le nom d'un bourg situé à l'embouchure de l'Orne, et d'un autre dansle Bessin. Mr. Bochart le faisoit, venir d'_Easter_, Déesse des anciensSaxons. Et comme il avoit entrepris de rapporter les anciennes originesà la langue et à la doctrine des Phéniciens il prétendoit que cetteEaster étoit la même qu'Astarté. Ses sacrifices se faisoient aucommencement du printems; et de la vient que les Saxons appellerentEaster le mois auquel se célebre la Pâque. Skinnerus ne s'éloigne pasbeaucoup de ce sentiment dans son Etymologique de la langue Angloise. Mr. Valois tire le nom d'Estreham du Latin _Strata_, et de l'Allemand_Hamum_, pour marquer une Demeure bâtie sur un chemin public, ou au boutd'un chemin public, comme si le bourg d'Estreham étoit sur un grandchemin, ou au bout d'un chemin public: et qu'il ne fût pas sur uneextrêmité de terre qui ne mene à rien, ayant la mer d'un côté, etl'embouchure de la riviere d'Orne de l'autre: ou comme si tous lesvillages du monde ne pouvoient pas être censez terminer des grandchemins. Mais ces opinions sont détruites par l'ancienne orthographe dunom d'Estreham, qui est constamment écrit dans les vieux Titres, et parMr. De Bras, Oistreham, pour Westerham, c'est-à-dire, VillageOccidental: car il se trouve placé à l'West de l'embouchure de l'Orne. "

PLATE XCIX. AND C. 

CATHEDRAL CHURCH AT SÉEZ. 

 [Illustration: Plate 99. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT SÉEZ. _West Front. _]

The city of Séez, though dignified by being the seat of a bishopric, isin itself small and unimportant, its population not exceeding fivethousand five hundred inhabitants. Of the early history of either thetown or the diocese, little is known with certainty; and authors havescarcely felt it worth their while to exercise their ingenuity, or todisplay their learning, upon a subject ill calculated to add dignity totheir researches. Those who have entered upon the inquiry, have given itas their opinion, that the _Civitas Sagiorum_, mentioned in the earliest_Notitia Galliæ_, as the fifth in rank among the cities of the province, _Lugdunensis Secunda_, was no other than the modern Séez; and, carryingtheir conjecture one step farther, they have inferred from locality, that the _Sagii_, otherwise called _Saii_, must have been the _Sesuvii_of Cæsar's Commentaries. Hence, in more modern _Latinity_, Séez hasgenerally acquired the name of _Sagium_; though Ordericus Vitalisoccasionally calls it _Salarium_, and Magno, _Saius_. In some maps it islikewise styled _Saxia_, whence an idea has arisen that it owed itsorigin to the Saxons; and that the words, _Saii_ and _Sagii_, were inreality nothing more than a corruption of _Saxones_ or _Sassones_. 

The favorers of this opinion have brought Séez within the limits of the_Otlingua Saxonia_, a district in Normandy, whose situation and extenthas been the subject of much literary controversy. The learned Huet, alluding to this very point, [220] observes, with great justice, that "itis more easy to tell what is not, than what is; and that, though thelimits of bishoprics serve in general to mark the divisions of theancient Gallic tribes, yet length of time has introduced manyalterations. Able men, " he adds, "have been of opinion, that Hiesmes wasoriginally an episcopal see, and that its diocese was afterwardsdismembered into three archdeaconries; one of them fixed at Séez, asecond at Lisieux, and a third at Bayeux. " Such, however, he says, isnot his own belief; but he thinks that Hiesmes was originally the seatof the bishopric of Séez. A report to the same effect will be found inthe _Concilia Normannica_; and it is adopted by Rouault, [221] who arguesin its favor; first, that Séez was too insignificant, at the time of thepreaching of the gospel in Neustria, to be dignified with the presenceof a bishop; the apostles and earliest popes having directed thatbishops should only be appointed to considerable towns: and, secondly, that Hiesmes was really then a place of importance, and probablycontinued so till the nineteenth year of the reign of King Henry I. OfEngland, when that prince destroyed it, as a punishment upon theinhabitants for their revolt. 

Ecclesiastical history refers the establishment of the bishopric of Séezto the fourth or fifth century. The earliest, however, of the prelates, of whom any certain mention is to be found, is Litaredus, whose nameappears, under the title of _Oximensis Episcopus_, subscribed to thecouncil of Orleans in 511. Azo, who succeeded to the mitre in one of thelast years of the tenth century, erected the first cathedral that isupon record at Séez. William of Jumieges relates of him, that hedestroyed the walls of the city, and with their stones built a church inhonor of St. Gervais, the martyr, "ubi sedes episcopalis longo posttempore fuerat. " The same author tells that, in consequence of thischurch having been turned into a place of refuge by some rebels, aboutfifty years afterwards, Ivo, the third from Azo upon the episcopalthrone, set fire to the adjoining houses for the purpose of dislodgingthem, and the church fell a victim to the flames. The act, thoughunintentional, brought upon the prelate a severe reprimand from thepope; and Ivo, to repair his fault, undertook a journey to his relativesand friends in Apulia and Constantinople, whence he returned, loadedwith rich presents, by the aid of which he undertook the erection of anew church upon so large a scale, that "his successors, Robert, Gerard, and Serlo, were unable to complete it in fifty years. " The cathedralthen raised is said to be the same as is now standing; and, according towhat has already been recorded of the cathedrals of Lisieux andCoutances, there is nothing in its architecture to discredit such anopinion. The first stone was laid about the year 1053: the dedicationtook place in 1126. Godfrey, archbishop of Rouen, performed the ceremonyin the presence of Henry, then duke, who, at the same time, endowed thechurch with an annual income of ten pounds. 

The diocese of Séez is surrounded by those of Lisieux, Evreux, Mans, andBayeux. According to De Masseville, [222] it extended, before therevolution, twenty-five leagues in length, and from eight to ten inwidth, comprising the districts of _le Houme_, _les Marches_, and a partof _le Perche_. The towns of Séez, Alençon, Argentan, Falaise, Hiesmes, Mortagne, and Bellême, together with several smaller towns, and fivehundred villages, were also included in its limits; as were fivearchdeaconries, six rural deaneries, and many abbeys and other religioushouses. The episcopal revenue was estimated at only ten thousand livres. The late concordat, by reducing the number of the Norman dioceses, hasof course added to the extent of those that remained. 

Seven of the early bishops of Séez are inscribed among the saints of theRoman calendar: in later times, no names appear of greater eminence thanthose of Frogerius and John de Bertaut. The first of these prelates wasmuch in the confidence of Henry II. To whom he rendered acceptableservice in his unfortunate disputes with Thomas-à-Becket. He was notonly one of the very few bishops who then preserved their fidelity totheir sovereign inviolate, but he undertook a mission to the Frenchking, for the purpose of remonstrating upon the favorable receptiongiven to the primate, on which occasion he received the followingmemorable answer:--"Tell your master, that if he cannot submit to theabolition of the ordinances, which he designates as the customs of hisancestors, because he thinks it would compromise the dignity of hiscrown, although, as it is reported, they are but little conformable tothe will of God, still less can I consent to sacrifice a right thathas always been enjoyed by the kings of France. I mean the right ofgiving shelter to all persons in affliction, but principally to thosewho are exiled for justice sake, and of affording them, during theirpersecution, all manner of protection and assistance. "--John de Bertautlived in the beginning of the seventeenth century: he was principalalmoner to Mary de Medicis, and was afterwards in high favor with HenryIV. To whose conversion he is said to have mainly contributed. Helikewise distinguished himself as a poet. --A third bishop of Séez, Serlo, already mentioned, was a man of such commanding eloquence, that, when he had the honor of preaching before Henry I. And his court, atCarentan, in 1106, he declaimed with so much effect against theeffeminate custom of wearing long beards and long hair, that thesovereign declared himself a convert, and the bishop, "_extractis emanticâ forcipibus, primo regem tum cæteros optimates attondit_. "[223]

 [Illustration: Plate 100. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT SÉEZ. _Elevation of the Nave. _]

The church of Séez may be compared in its architecture with those ofCoutances and of Lisieux: they are unlike, indeed, but by no meansdifferent. The points of resemblance exceed those of a contrarydescription. 

 "facies non omnibus una, Nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum. "

Severe simplicity characterizes Lisieux: Coutances is distinguished byelegance, abounding in decoration: Séez, at the same time that it unitesthe excellencies of both, can rival neither in those which arepeculiarly its own. On the first view of the church, its mean andinsignificant western tower strikes the spectator with an unfavorableimpression, which, on a nearer approach, the mutilated and encumberedstate of the western front is by no means calculated to remove. And yetthis western front, all degraded as it is, cannot fail to deriveimportance from the great depth of the central door-way, which is noless than forty-seven feet, [224] a projection exceeding that of thegalilee of Peterborough cathedral. It is in the interior that the beautyof the church of Séez is conspicuous. The noble lofty arches below; themoresque ornament, like those at Bayeux and at Coutances, in thespandrils; the double lancet arches of the triforium placed in triplets;and the larger pointed arches above, arranged two or three together, andencircled with arches of the Norman form, though not of the Normanstyle;--all these beauties, added to the enrichments of the sculpturedwalls and windows of the aisles, render the cathedral, if not the firstof Norman religious buildings, at least in the number of those of thefirst class, "Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores. "

NOTES:

[220] _Origines de Caen_, p. 5. 

[221] _Abrégé de la Vie des Evêques de Coutances_, p. 40. 

[222] _Etat Géographique de Normandie_, p. 304. 

[223] _Gallia Christiana_, XI. P. 684. 

[224] The following are the dimensions of the other parts of thebuilding. 

 FEET. Length of nave (including a space of sixty-four feet under the towers) 218 Ditto of choir 57 Ditto of aisle behind the choir 14 Ditto of Lady-Chapel 25 Ditto of each transept 39 Width of nave and choir, including aisles 72 Ditto of Lady-Chapel 20 Ditto of transepts 30 Height of nave and choir 80 Ditto of north-west spire 232 Ditto of south-west ditto 210

THE END. 

LEICESTER:

PRINTED BY THOMAS COMBE, JUNIOR. 

INDEX OF PLATES. 

 NO. OF PLATE. _Andelys_, Great House 15 _Anisy_, Church 67 _Arques_, Castle 1 _Bieville_, Church 58, 59 _Bocherville, St. Georges de_, Church 5-11 _Briquebec_, Castle 70 _Caen_, Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity 24-33 ------ Abbey Church of St. Stephen 21-23 ------ Chapel in the Castle 48 ------ Church of St. Nicholas 55, 56 ------ Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles 18, 19 ------ House in the Rue St. Jean 65 _Cerisy_, Abbey Church 97 _Château Gaillard_ 80, 81 _Cheux_, Church 57 _Colomby_, Church 47 _Coutances_, Cathedral 92-94 _Creully_, Church 91 _Dieppe_, Castle 34 -------- Church of St. Jacques 35, 36 _Eu_, Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence 72 _Falaise_, Castle 89, 90 _Fécamp_, Church of St. Stephen 71 _Fontaine-le-Henri_, Château 62, 63 ------------------- Church 60, 61 _Foullebec_, Western door-way of Church 84 _Gournay_, Church of St. Hildebert 38-41 _Grâville_, Church 12 _Haute Allemagne_, Tower of Church 37 _Jumieges_, Abbey Church 2-4 _Léry_, Church 44-46 _Lillebonne_, Castle 69 _Lisieux_, Church of St. Peter 73-75 _Louviers_, South porch of Church 79 _Matilda, Queen_, Tombstone of 33* _Montivilliers_, Abbey Church 82 _Mount St. Michael_ 95, 96 _Oyestraham_, Church 98 _Perriers_, Church 68 _Rouen_, Cathedral 49-52 ------- Chapel in the Hospital of St. Julien 42, 43 ------- Church of St. Ouen 76 ------- Church of St. Paul 54 ------- Crypt in the Church of St. Gervais 53 ------- Fountain of the Stone Cross 77 ------- House in the Place de la Pucelle 64 ------- Palace of Justice 78 _St. Lo_, Church of the Holy Cross 87, 88 _St. Sanson sur Rille_, Ruins of the Church 83 _St. Sauveur le Vicomte_, Abbey Church 14 ------------------------ Castle 13 _Séez_, Cathedral 99, 100 _Tamerville_, Church 17 _Tancarville_, Castle 85, 86 _Than_, Church 16 _Tréport_, Church 66 _William the Conqueror_, Statue of 20

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Original spelling, even where inconsistent, and punctuation have beenpreserved. Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. In the list of SUBJECTS--CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED, a + has been used inplace of the original obelisk. Typographical errors corrected in thetext (in brackets the original):

 17. Church of Tamerville [Tancarville] in the _tenth [ninth] plate_, and marked A and B daughters and nieces [neices] of the chief Norman barons marking the connection of the _twenty-eighth [twentieth] plate_ rendered the necessity for such decisions [dicisions]