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Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2)
by
Dawson Turner






In the suburb of Vaucelles, the church of St. Michael contains some
architectural features of great curiosity[75]. The circular-headed
arches in the short square tower, and in a small round turret that is
attached to it, are unquestionably early Norman, and are remarkable for
their proportions, being as long and as narrow as the lancet windows of
the following aera. It would not be equally safe to pronounce upon the
date of the stone-roofed pyramid which covers this tower. The north
porch is entered by a pointed arch, which, though much less ornamented,
approaches in style to the southern porch of St. Ouen, and, like that,
has its inner archivolt fringed with pendant trefoils. The wall above
the arch rises into a triangular gable, entirely covered with waving
tracery, the only instance of the kind which I have seen at Caen.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 71: _Huet, Origines de Caen_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 72: Upon this subject, Huet has an extraordinary observation,
(_Origines de Caen_, p. 186.) "that, in the early times of Christianity,
it was customary for all churches to front the east or north, or some
intermediate point of the compass."--So learned and careful a writer
would scarcely have made such a remark without some plausible grounds;
but I am at a loss where to find them. Bingham, in his _Origines
Eccleslasticae_, I. p. 288, says, "that churches were so placed, that
the front, or chief entrances, were towards the west, and the sanctuary
or altar placed towards the east;" and though he adduces instances of a
different position, as in the church of Antioch, which faced the east,
and that of St. Patrick, at Sabul, near Down in Ulster, which stood from
north to south, he cites them only as deviations from an established
practice.]

[Footnote 73: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 20.]

[Footnote 74: _Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 151.]

[Footnote 75: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
18, 19.]




LETTER XXV.

ROYAL ABBEYS OF THE HOLY TRINITY AND ST. STEPHEN--FUNERAL OF THE
CONQUEROR, EXHUMATION OF HIS REMAINS, AND DESTRUCTION OF HIS MONUMENT.


(_Caen, August_, 1818.)

The two royal abbeys of Caen have fortunately escaped the storms of the
revolution. These buildings are still standing, an ornament to the town,
and an honor to the sovereign who caused them to be erected, as well as
to the artist who planned, and to the age which produced them. As models
of architecture they are the same land-marks to the history of the art
in Lower Normandy, as the church of St. Georges is in the upper division
of the province. Their dates are equally authenticated; and the
characteristic features in each are equally perfect.

Both these noble edifices rose at the same time, and from the same
motive. William the Conqueror, by his marriage with Matilda, daughter of
Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, had contracted an alliance proscribed by the
degrees of consanguinity. The clergy inveighed against the union; and
they were supported in their complaints by Lanfranc, then resident at
Bec, whose remonstrances were so uncourtly and strenuous, that the duke
banished him from the province. It chanced that the churchman, while in
the act of obedience to this command, met the sovereign. Their interview
began with recriminations: it ended with reconciliation; and Lanfranc
finally engaged to undertake a mission to the supreme Pontiff, who,
considering the turbulent disposition of the Normans, and that a better
end was likely to be answered by peaceable than by hostile measures,
consented to grant the necessary dispensation. At the same time, by way
of penance, he issued an injunction that the royal pair should erect two
monasteries, the one for monks, the other for nuns. And in obedience to
this command, William founded the abbey of St. Stephen, and Matilda, the
abbey of the Holy Trinity; or, as they are usually called at Caen,
_l'abbaye aux hommes_, and _l'abbaye aux dames_.

The approach to the monastery of the Trinity is through a spacious
gate-tower, part of the original structure. Over the rent and shapeless
door-way are three semi-circular arches, upon the capitals of which is
distinctly observable the cable-moulding, and along the top of the tower
runs a line of the same toothed ornament, remarked by Ducarel at
Bourg-Achard, and stated by him to have been considered peculiar to
Saxon architecture[76]. The park that formerly environed the abbey
retains its character, though abandoned to utter neglect. It is of great
extent, and is well wooded. The monastic buildings, which are, as usual,
modern, are mostly perfect.--A ruined wall nearly in front of the
church, with a chimney-piece, perhaps of Norman workmanship, belonged to
the old structure. Such part of the chimney wall as was exposed to the
flame is built of large tiles, placed diagonally. All other vestiges of
the ancient apartments have been removed.

The noble church[77] is now used as a work-house for the department. At
the revolution it became national property, and it remained
unappropriated, till, upon the institution of the Legion of Honor,
Napoleon applied it to some purpose connected with that body, by whom it
was lately ceded for it present object. But, if common report may be
credited, it is likely soon to revert to its original destination. The
restoration may be easily effected, as the building has sustained but
little injury. A floor has been thrown across the nave and transept,
dividing them into two stories; but in other respects they are
unaltered, and divine service is still performed in the choir.

A finer specimen of the solid grandeur of Norman architecture is
scarcely to be found any where than in the west front of this church.
The corresponding part of the rival abbey of St. Stephen is poor when
compared to it; and Jumieges and St. Georges equally fail in the
comparison. In all of these, there is some architectural anomaly: in the
Trinity none, excepting, indeed, the balustrade at the top of the
towers; and this is so obviously an addition of modern times, that no
one can be misled by it. This balustrade was erected towards the
beginning of the seventeenth century, when the oval apertures and
scrolls seen in Ducarel's print were introduced. Anciently the towers
were ornamented with very lofty spires. According to some accounts,
these were demolished, because they served as land-marks to the English
cruizers, being seen far out at sea; but other accounts state, that the
spires were pulled down by Charles, King of Navarre, who was at war with
his namesake, Charles Vth, then Dauphin and Regent. The abbey at that
time bore the two-fold character of nunnery and fortress.--Strangely
inconsistent as this union may appear, the fact is undoubted. Even now a
portion of the fosses remains; and the gate-way indicates an approach
to a fortified place. Ancient charters likewise expressly recognize the
building in both capacities: they endow the abbey for the service of
God; and they enjoin the inhabitants of the adjacent parishes to keep
the fortifications in repair against any assaults of men. Nay, letters
patent, granted by Charles Vth, which fix the salary of the captain of
the _Fort of the Trinity, at Caen_, at one hundred francs per annum, are
yet extant.

I shall attempt no description of the west front of this monastery, few
continental buildings being better known in England. The whole remains
as it was in the time of Ducarel, except that the arches of entrance are
blocked up, and modern windows have been inserted in the door-ways.--The
north side of the church is quite concealed by the cloisters and
conventual buildings. The southern aisle has been plastered and patched,
and converted into a range of work-shops, so that its original elevation
is wholly obliterated. But the nave, which rises above, is untouched by
innovation. The clerestory range is filled by a row of semi-circular
headed windows, separated by intervening flat buttresses, which reach to
the cornice. Each buttress is edged with two slender cylindrical
pilasters; and each window flanked by two smaller arches, whose surfaces
are covered with chequer-work. The arch of every window has a key-stone,
formed by a grotesque head.--Above the whole is a corbel-table that
displays monsters of all kinds, in the form of beasts, and men scarcely
less monstrous.--The semi-circular east end is divided in its elevation
into three compartments. The lower contains a row of small blank arches:
in each of the other two is a window, of a size unusually large for a
Norman building, but still without mullions or tracery; its sides
ornamented with columns, and its top encircled with a broad band of
various mouldings. The windows are separated by cylindrical pillars,
instead of buttresses.--In the upper part of the low central tower are
some pointed arches, the only deviations of style that are to be found
in the building. To the extremity of the southern transept has been
attached a Grecian portico, which masks the ancient portal. Above is a
row of round arches, some of which are pierced into windows.

Of the effect of the nave and transept within, it is difficult now to
obtain a correct idea, the floor intervening to obstruct a general
view.--High arches, encircled with the embattled moulding below; above
these, a wide billeted string-course, forming a basis for a row of
smaller arches, without side-pillars or decoration of any kind; then
another string-course of different and richer patterns; and over this,
the triforium, consisting also of a row of small arches, supported by
thick pillars;--such is the elevation of the sides of the nave; and the
same system is continued with but small variation in the transepts. But,
notwithstanding the general uniformity of the whole, no two compartments
are precisely alike; and the capitals are infinitely varied. It is
singular to see such a playfulness of ornament in a building, whose
architect appears, at first view, to have contemplated only grandeur and
solidity.--The four arches which support the central tower are on a
magnificent scale. The archivolts are encircled by two rows of lozenged
squares, indented in the stone. The rams, or rams' heads, upon the
capitals of these piers, are peculiar. The eastern arch rises higher
than the rest, and is obtusely pointed; yet it seems to be of the same
date with its circular companions.--So exquisite, however, is the
quality of the Caen stone, that no opinion drawn from the appearance of
the material, ought to be hazarded with confidence. Seven centuries have
elapsed since this church was erected, and there is yet no difference to
be discovered in the color of the stone, or the sharpness of the work;
the whole is as clean and sharp as if it were but yesterday fresh from
the chisel. The interior of the choir has not been divided by the
flooring; and the eastern extremity, which remains perfect, shews the
original design. It consists of large arches, disposed in a double tier,
so as to correspond with the windows of the apsis, and placed at a short
distance from the wall; but without any Lady-Chapel beyond. The pillars
that support these arches are well proportioned: the sculptures on their
capitals are scarcely less grotesque than those at St. Georges; but,
barbarous as they are, the corners of almost every capital are finished
with imitations, more or less obvious, of the classical Ionic
volute.--Among the sculptures is a head resting upon two lions, which
has been fancied to be a representation of the Conqueror himself; whilst
a faded painting of a female, attired as a nun, on the north side of the
altar, is also commonly entitled a portrait of the foundress.--Were any
plausible reason alleged for regarding the picture as intended to bear
even an imaginary resemblance to Matilda, I would have sent you a copy
of it; but there appear no grounds to consider it as
authentic.--Willing, however, to contribute a mark of respect to a
female, styled by William of Malmesbury, "faeminam prudentiae speculum,
pudoris culmen," and, by way of a companion to the rough sketch of her
illustrious consort, in the initial letter in the library at Rouen, I
add the fac-simile of a seal, which, by the kindness of a friend has
fallen into my hands. It has been engraved before, but only for private
distribution; and, if a suspicion should cross your mind, that it may
have belonged to the Empress Maud, or to Matilda, wife to Stephen, I can
only bespeak your thanks to me, for furnishing you with a likeness of
any one of these ladies.

[Illustration: Fac-simile of seal]

Matilda was interred in the middle of this choir; and, according to
Ordericus Vitalis, a monument of exquisite workmanship, richly
ornamented with gold and precious stones, and bearing a long inscription
in letters of gold, was raised to her memory. Her effigy was afterwards
added to the monument; the whole of which was destroyed in 1652, by the
Calvinists, who tore open the Queen's coffin, and dispersed her remains.
After a lapse of an hundred and forty years, the royal bones were again
collected, and deposited in this church. At the same time, the splendid
monument was replaced by a plain altar-tomb, which existed till the
revolution, when all was once more swept away. The marble slab,
inscribed with the original epitaph, alone remained entire, and was
carried to the abbey church of St. Stephen's, where it still forms a
part of the pavement in a chapel. The letters are finely sculptured and
perfectly sharp. However, it is not likely to continue there long; for
Count de Montlivault, the prefect of the department, has already caused
a search to be made for Matilda's remains, and he intends to erect a
third monument to her memory. The excavations for this purpose have
hitherto been unsuccessful: the Count met with many monumental stones,
and many coffins of various kinds, but none that could be mistaken for
the desired object; for one of the inscriptions on the late monument
expressly states, that the Queen's bones had been wrapped in a linen
cloth, and enclosed in a leaden box.

The inquiry, however, will not be discontinued[78]: there are still
hopes of success, especially in the crypt, which corresponds in its
architecture with the church above. It is filled with columns placed in
four ranges, each standing only four feet from the other, all of elegant
proportions, with diversified capitals, as those in the choir.--Round
it runs a stone bench, as in the subterraneous chapel in St. Gervais, at
Rouen.

Founded by a queen, the abbey of the Trinity preserved at all times a
constitution thoroughly aristocratical. No individual, except of noble
birth, was allowed to take the veil here, or could be received into the
community. You will see in the series of the abbesses the names of
Bourbon, Valois, Albret, Montmorenci, and others of the most illustrious
families in France. Cecily, the Conqueror's eldest daughter, stands at
the head of the list. According to the _Gallia Christiana_, she was
devoted by her parents to this holy office, upon the very day of the
dedication of the convent, in July 1066.

The black marble slab which covered her remains, was lately discovered
in the chapter-house. A crozier is sculptured upon it. It is delineated
in a very curious volume now in the possession of the Abbe de la Rue,
which contains drawings of all the tombs and inscriptions that formerly
existed in the abbey.

The annual income of the monastery of the Trinity is stated by Gough, in
his _Alien Priories_, at thirty thousand livres, and that of the
monastery of St. Stephen, at sixty thousand; but Ducarel estimates the
revenue of the former at seventy thousand, and of the latter at two
hundred thousand; and I should not doubt but that the larger sums are
nearest the truth; indeed, the grants and charters still in existence,
or noticed by historians, would rather lead to the supposition that the
revenues must have been even greater. Parsimony in the endowment of
religious buildings, was not a prevailing vice in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. Least of all was it likely that it should be
practised in the case of establishments, thus founded in expiation of
the transgressions of wealthy and powerful sinners. Page after page, in
the charters, is filled with the list of those, who, with


"Lands and livings, many a rood,
Had gifted the shrine for their soul's repose."


The privileges and immunities enjoyed by these abbeys were very
extensive. Both of them were from their origin exempted by Pope
Alexander IInd, with the consent of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, from all
episcopal jurisdiction; and both had full power, as well spiritual as
ecclesiastical, over the members of their own communities, and over the
parishes dependent upon them; with no other appeal than to the
archbishop of Rouen, or to the Pope. Express permission was likewise
given to the abbot of St. Stephen's, by virtue of a bull from Pope
Clement VIIth, to wear a gold mitre studded with precious stones, and a
ring and sandals, and other episcopal ornaments.

Many of the monuments and deeds of the greater abbey are now in the
prefecture of the department. The original chartulary or register was
saved by the Abbe de la Rue, and is at this time preserved in his
valuable collection. The charters of the Trinity were hid, during the
revolution, by the nuns, who secreted them beneath the tiling of a barn.
They were discovered there not long since; but damp and vermin had
rendered them wholly illegible.

Lanfranc, whose services at Rome well deserved every distinction that
his sovereign could bestow, was the first abbot of St. Stephen's. Upon
his translation to the see of Canterbury, he was succeeded by William,
who was likewise subsequently honored with an archiepiscopal mitre. The
third abbot, Gislebert, was bishop of Evreux; and, though the series was
not continued through an uninterrupted line of equal dignity, the office
of abbot of this convent was seldom conferred, except upon an individual
of exalted birth. Eight cardinals, two of them of the noble houses of
Medici and Farnese, and three others, still more illustrious, the
cardinals Richelieu, Mazarine, and Fleury, are included in the list,
though in later times the abbacy was held _in commendam_ by these
powerful prelates, whilst all the internal management of the house
devolved upon a prior. Amongst the abbots will also be found Hugh de
Coilly, grandson of King Stephen, Anthony of Bourbon, a natural son of
Henry IVth of France, and Charles of Orleans, who was likewise of royal
extraction.--St. Stephen was selected as the patron of the abbey, in
consequence of the founder having bestowed upon it the head of the
protomartyr, together with one of his arms, and a phial of his blood,
and the stone with which he was killed.

[Illustration: Monastery of St. Stephen, at Caen]

The monastic buildings now serve for what, in the language of
revolutionary and imperial France, was called a _Lycee_, but which has
since assumed the less heathen appellation of a college. They constitute
a fine edifice, and, seen from a short distance, in conjunction with the
east end of the church, they form a grand _tout-ensemble_. The abbey
church, from this point of view, has somewhat of an oriental character:
the wide sweep of the semi-circular apsis, and the slender turrets and
pyramids that rise from every part of the building, recal the idea of
a Mahometan mosque. But the west end is still more striking than the
east; and if, in the interior of the church of the Trinity, we had
occasion to admire the beautiful quality of the Caen stone, our
admiration of it was more forcibly excited here: notwithstanding the
continual exposure to wind and weather, no part appears corroded, or
discolored, or injured. A character of magnificence, arising in a great
measure from the grand scale upon which it is built, pervades this
front. But, to be regarded with advantage, it must be viewed as a whole:
the parts, taken separately, are unequal and ill assorted. The
simplicity of the main division approaches to meanness. Its three
door-ways and double tier of windows appear disproportionally small,
when contrasted with the expanse of blank wall; and their returns are
remarkably shallow. The windows have no mouldings whatever, and the
pillars and archivolts of the doors are very meagre. The front consists
of three compartments, separated by flat buttresses; the lateral
divisions rising into lofty towers, capped with octagon spires. The
towers are much ornamented: three tiers of semi-circular arches surround
the upper divisions; the arches of the first tier have no mouldings or
pillars; the upper vary in pattern, and are enriched with pillars and
bands, and some are pierced into windows.--Twelve pinnacles equally full
of arches, some pointed, others semi-circular, surround each spire.
Similar pinnacles rise from the ends of the transepts and the
choir.--The central tower, which is short and terminates in a conical
roof, was ruined by the Huguenots, who undermined it, thinking that its
fall would destroy the whole building. Fortunately, however, it only
damaged a portion of the eastern end; the reparations done to which have
occasioned a discrepancy of style, that is injurious to the general
effect. But the choir and apsis were previously of a different aera from
the rest of the edifice. They were raised by the Abbot Simon de
Trevieres, in the beginning of the fourteenth century.--I am greatly
mistaken, if a real Norman church ever extended farther eastward than
the choir.

The building is now undergoing a thorough repair, at the expence of the
town. No other revenues, at present, belong to it, except the _sous_
which are paid for chairs during mass.

A friend, who is travelling through Normandy, describes the interior in
the following manner; and, as I agree with him in his ideas, I shall
borrow his description:--"Without doubt, the architect was conversant
with Roman buildings, though he has Normanized their features, and
adopted the lines of the basilica to a _barbaric_ temple. The Coliseum
furnished the elevation of the nave;--semi-circular arches surmounted by
another tier of equal span, and springing at nearly an equal height from
the basis of the supporting pillars. The architraves connecting the
lower rows of pillars are distinctly enounced. The arches which rise
from them have plain bold mouldings. The piers between each arch are of
considerable width. In the centre of each pier is a column, which
ascends as usual to the vault. These columns are alternately simple and
compound. The latter are square pilasters, each fronted by a
cylindrical column, which of course projects farther into the nave than
the simple columns; and thus the nave is divided into bays. This system
is imitated in the gothic cathedral, at Sens. The square pilaster ceases
at about four-fifths of its height: then two cylindrical pillars rise
from it, so that, from that point, the column becomes clustered. Angular
brackets, sculptured with knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are
affixed to the base of these derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted
moulding is continued below the clerestory, whose windows adapt
themselves to the binary arrangement of the bays. A taller arch is
flanked by a smaller one on the right or the left side, as its situation
requires. These are supported by short massy pillars: an embattled
moulding runs round the windows.

"In the choir the arches become pointed, but with Norman mouldings: the
apsis is a re-construction. In that portion of the choir, which seems
original, there are pointed windows formed by the interlacing of
circular arches: these light the gallery.

"The effect produced by the perspective of the interior is lofty and
palatial. The ancient masonry of the exterior is worthy of notice. The
stones are all small, perhaps not exceeding nine or twelve inches: the
joints are about three-quarters of an inch."

At the north-west angle of the nave has been built a large chapel,
comparatively a modern erection; and in the centre of this lies
Matilda's gravestone.--There is no other chapel to the nave, and, as
usual, no monument in any portion of the church; but in front of the
high altar is still to be seen the flat stone, placed there in 1742, in
memory of the Conqueror, and bearing the epitaph--

[Illustration: Epitaph in memory of the Conqueror]


QUI REXIT RIGIDOS NORMANNOS ATQUE BRITANNOS
AVDACTER VICIT FORTITER OBTINVIT
ET CENOMANENSES VIRTVTE COERCVIT ENSES
IMPERIIQVE SVI LEGIBUS APPLICVIT
REX MAGNVS PARVA JACET HIC VILLELMVS IN VRNA
SVFFICIT HAEC MAGNO PARVA DOMVS DOMINO
TER SEPTEM GRADIBVS SE VOLVERAT ATQUE DVOBVS
VIRGINIS IN GREMIO PHOEBVS ET HIC OBIIT
ANNO MLXXXVII
REQVIESCEBAT IN SPE CORPVS BENEFICIENTISSIMI
FVNDATORIS QVVM A CALVINIANIS ANNO MDLXII
DISSIPATA SVNT EIVS OSSA VNVM EX EIS A VIRO NOBILI
QVI TVM ADERAT RESERVATVM ET A POSTERIS ILLIVS
ANNO MDCXLII RESTITVTVM IN MEDIO CHORO DEPOSITVM
FVERAT MOLE SEPVLCHRALI DESVPER EXTRVCTA HANC
CEREMONIARVM SOLEMNITATE MINVS ACCOMMODAM
AMOVERVNT MONACHI ANNO MDCCXLII REGIO
FVLTI DIPLOMATE ET OS QVOD VNVM SVPERERAT
REPOSVERVNT IN CRYPTA PROPE ALTARE
IN QVO IVGITER DE BENEDICTIONIBVS METET
QVI SEMINAVIT IN BENEDICTIONIBVS
FIAT FIAT


The poetical part of this epitaph was composed by Thomas, archbishop of
York, and was engraved upon the original monument, as well as upon a
plate of gilt copper, which was found within the sepulchre when it was
first opened. Many other poets, we are told by Ordericus Vitalis,
exercised their talents upon the occasion; but none of their productions
were deemed worthy to be inscribed upon the tomb. The account of the
opening of the vault is related by De Bourgueville, from whom it has
been already copied by Ducarel; but the circumstances are so curious,
that I shall offer no apology for telling a twice-told tale. From
Ordericus Vitalis also we may borrow some details respecting the funeral
of the Conqueror, which, though strictly appertaining to English
history, have never yet, I believe, appeared in an English dress.

In speaking of the church of St. Gervais at Rouen, I have already
briefly alluded to the melancholy circumstances by which the death of
this monarch was attended. The sequel of the story is not less
memorable.

The king's decease was the signal for general consternation throughout
the metropolis of Normandy. The citizens, panic struck, ran to and fro,
as if intoxicated, or as if the town were upon the point of being taken
by assault. Each asked counsel of his neighbor, and each anxiously
turned his thoughts to the concealing of his property. When the alarm
had in some measure subsided the monks and clergy made a solemn
procession to the abbey of St. Georges, where they offered their prayers
for the repose of the soul of the departed Duke; and archbishop William
commanded that the body should be carried to Caen, to be interred in the
church of St. Stephen, which William had founded. But the lifeless king
was now deserted by all who had participated in his munificence and
bounty. Every one of his brethren and relations had left him; nor was
there even a servant to be found to perform the last offices to his
departed lord. The care of the obsequies was finally undertaken by
Herluin, a knight of that district, who, moved by the love of God and
the honor of his nation, provided at his own expence, embalmers, and
bearers, and a hearse, and conveyed the corpse to the Seine, whence it
was carried by land and water to the place of its destination.

Upon the arrival of the funeral train at Caen, it was met by Gislebert,
bishop of Evreux, then abbot of St. Stephen's, at the head of his monks,
attended with a numerous throng of clergy and laity; but scarcely had
the bier been brought within the gates, when the report was spread that
a dreadful fire had broken out in another part of the town, and the
Duke's remains were a second time deserted. The monks alone remained;
and, fearful and irresolute, they bore their founder "with candle, with
book, and with knell," to his last home. Ordericus Vitalis enumerates
the principal prelates and barons assembled upon this occasion; but he
makes no mention of the Conqueror's son, Henry, who, according to
William of Jumieges, was the only one of the family that attended, and
was also the only one worthy of succeeding to such a father.--Mass had
now been performed, and the body was about to be committed to the
ground, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," when, previously to this closing
part of the ceremony, Gislebert mounted the pulpit, and delivered an
oration in honor of the deceased.--He praised his valor, which had so
widely extended the limits of the Norman dominion; his ability, which
had elevated the nation to the highest pitch of glory; his equity in
the administration of justice; his firmness in correcting abuses; and
his liberality towards the monks and clergy; then, finally, addressing
the people, he besought them to intercede with the Almighty for the soul
of their prince, and to pardon whatsoever transgression he might have
been guilty of towards any of them.--At this moment, one Asselin, an
obscure individual, starting from the crowd, exclaimed with a loud
voice, "the ground upon which you are standing, was the site of my
father's dwelling. This man, for whom you ask our prayers, took it by
force from my parent; by violence he seized, by violence he retained it;
and, contrary to all law and justice, he built upon it this church,
where we are assembled. Publicly, therefore, in the sight of God and
man, do I claim my inheritance, and protest against the body of the
plunderer being covered with my turf."--The appeal was attended with
instant effect; bishops and nobles united in their entreaties to
Asselin; they admitted the justice of his claim; they pacified him; they
paid him sixty shillings on the spot by way of recompence for the place
of sepulture; and, finally, they satisfied him for the rest of the land.

But the remarkable incidents doomed to attend upon this burial, were not
yet at an end; for at the time when they were laying the corpse in the
sarcophagus, and were bending it with some force, which they were
compelled to do, in consequence of the coffin having been made too
short, the body, which was extremely corpulent, burst, and so
intolerable a stench issued from the grave, that all the perfumes which
arose from all the censers of the priests and acolytes were of no avail;
and the rites were concluded in haste, and the assembly, struck with
horror, returned to their homes.

The latter part of this story accords but ill with what De Bourgueville
relates. We learn from this author, that four hundred and thirty years
subsequent to the death of the Conqueror, a Roman cardinal, attended by
an archbishop and bishop, visited the town of Caen, and that his
eminence having expressed a wish to see the body of the duke, the monks
yielded to his curiosity, and the tomb was opened, and the corpse
discovered in so perfect a state, that the cardinal caused a portrait to
be taken from the lifeless features.--It is not worth while now to
inquire into the truth of this story, or the fidelity of the
resemblance. The painting has disappeared in the course of time: it hung
for a while against the walls of the church, opposite to the monument;
but it was stolen during the tumults caused by the Huguenots, and was
broken into two pieces, in which state De Bourgueville saw it a few
years afterwards, in the hands of a Calvinist, one Peter Hode, the
gaoler at Caen, who used it in the double capacity of a table and a
door.--The worthy magistrate states, that he kept the picture, "because
the abbey-church was demolished."

He was himself present at the second violation of the royal tomb, in
1572; and he gives a piteous account of the transaction. The monument
raised to the memory of the Conqueror, by his son, William Rufus, under
the superintendance of Lanfranc, was a production of much costly and
elaborate workmanship: the shrine, which was placed upon the mausoleum,
glittered with gold and silver and precious stones. To complete the
whole, the effigy of the king had been added to the tomb, at some
period subsequent to its original erection.--A monument like this
naturally excited the rapacity of a lawless banditti, unrestrained by
civil or military force, and inveterate against every thing that might
be regarded as connected with the Catholic worship.--The Calvinists were
masters of Caen, and, incited by the information of what had taken place
at Rouen, they resolved to repeat the same outrages. Under the specious
pretext of abolishing idolatrous worship, they pillaged and ransacked
every church and monastery: they broke the painted windows and organs,
destroyed the images, stole the ecclesiastical ornaments, sold the
shrines, committed pulpits, chests, books, and whatever was combustible,
to the fire; and finally, after having wreaked their vengeance upon
eyery thing that could be made the object of it, they went boldly to the
town-hall to demand the wages for their labors.--In the course of these
outrages the tomb of the Conqueror at one abbey, and that of Matilda at
the other, were demolished. And this was not enough; but a few days
afterwards, the same band returned, allured by the hopes of farther
plunder. It was customary in ancient times to deposit treasures of
various kinds in the tombs of sovereigns, as if the feelings of the
living passed into the next stage of existence;--


"... quae gratia currum
Armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentes
Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos."


The bees that adorned the imperial mantle of Napoleon were found in the
tomb of Childeric. A similar expectation excited the Huguenots, at Caen.
They dug up the coffin: the hollow stone rung to the strokes of their
daggers: the vibration proved that it was not filled by the corpse; and
nothing more was wanted to seal its destruction.

De Bourgueville, who went to the spot and exerted his eloquence to check
this last act of violence, witnessed the opening of the coffin. It
contained the bones of the king, wrapped up in red taffety, and still in
tolerable preservation; but nothing else. He collected them, with care,
and consigned them to one of the monks of the abbeys who kept them in
his chamber, till the Admiral de Chatillon entered Caen at the head of
his mercenaries, on which occasion the whole abbey was plundered, and
the monks put to flight, and the bones lost. "Sad doings, these," says
De Bourgueville, "_et bien peu reformez!_"--He adds, that one of the
thigh-bones was preserved by the Viscount of Falaise, who was there with
him, and begged it from the rioters, and that this bone was longer by
four fingers' breadth than that of a tall man. The bone thus preserved,
was re-interred, after the cessation of the troubles: it is the same
that is alluded to in the inscription, which also informs us that a
monument was raised over it in 1642, but was removed in 1742, it being
then considered as an incumbrance in the choir.

With this detail I close my letter. The melancholy end of the Conqueror,
the strange occurrences at his interment, the violation of his grave,
the dispersion of his remains, and the demolition and final removal of
his monument, are circumstances calculated to excite melancholy emotions
in the mind of every one, whatever his condition in life. In all these
events, the religious man traces the hand of retributive justice; the
philosopher regards the nullity of sublunary grandeur; the historian
finds matter for serious reflection; the poet for affecting narrative;
the moralist for his tale; and the school-boy for his theme.--Ordericus
Vitalis sums the whole up admirably. I should spoil his language were I
to attempt to translate it; I give it you, therefore, in his own
words:--"Non fictilem tragoediam venundo, non loquaci comoedia
cachinnantibus parasitis faveo: sed studiosis lectoribus varios eventus
veraciter intimo. Inter prospera patuerunt adversa, ut terrerentur
terrigenarum corda. Rex quondam potens et bellicosus, multisque populis
per plures Provincias metuendus, in area jacuit nudus, et a suis, quos
genuerat vel aluerat, destitutus. Aere alieno in funebri cultu indiguit,
ope gregarii pro sandapila et vespilionibus conducendis eguit, qui tot
hactenus et superfluis opibus nimis abundavit. Secus incendium a
formidolosis vectus est ad Basilicam, liberoque solo, qui tot urbibus et
oppidis et vicis principatus est, caruit ad sepulturam. Arvina ventris
ejus tot delectamentis enutrita cum dedecore patuit, et prudentes ac
infrunitos, qualis sit gloria carnis, edocuit[79]."

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 76: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 77: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t.
24-33.]

[Footnote 78: A detailed account of the proceedings on this occasion, is
given in the _Journal Politique du Departement du Calvados_, for March
21, and May 6, 1819.--The first attempt at the discovery of Matilda's
coffin, was made in March, 1818, and was confined to the chapter-house:
the matter then slept till the following March, when Count de
Montlivault, attended by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mr. Spencer Smythe, and
other gentlemen, prosecuted his inquiries within the church itself, and,
immediately under the spot where her monument stood, discovered a stone
coffin, five feet four inches long, by eleven inches deep, and varying
in width from twenty inches to eleven. Within this coffin was a leaden
box, soldered down; and, in addition to the box, the head of an effigy
of a monk, in stone, and a portion of a skull-bone filled with aromatic
herbs, and covered with a yellowish-white membrane, which proved, upon
examination, to be the remains of a linen cloth. The box contained
various bones, that had belonged to a person of nearly the same height
as Matilda is described to have been. No doubt seemed to remain but that
the desideratum was discovered. The whole was therefore carefully
replaced; and the prefect ordered that a new tomb should be raised,
similar to that which was destroyed at the revolution; and that the
slab, with the original epitaph, should be laid on the top; that copies
of the former inscription, stating how the queen's remains had been
re-interred by the abbess, in 1707, should be added to two of the sides;
that to the third should be affixed the ducal arms of Normandy; and that
the fourth should bear the following inscription:--


"Ce tombeau renfermant les depouilles mortelles
de l'illustre Fondatrice de cette Abbaye,
renverse pendant les discordes civiles,
et deplace depuis une longue serie d'annees,
a ete restaure, conformement au voeu des
amis de la religion, de l'antiquite et des arts,
1819.
Casimir, comte de Montlivault, conseiller d'etat, prefet.
Lechaude d'Anisy, directeur de l'Hospice."


The ceremony of the re-interment was performed with great pomp on the
fifth of May; and the Bishop of Bayeux pronounced a speech on the
occasion, that does him credit for its good sense and affecting
eloquence.]

[Footnote 79: _Hist. Normannorum Scriptores_, p. 662.]




LETTER XXVI.

PALACE OF THE CONQUEROR--HERALDIC TILES--PORTRAITS OF WILLIAM AND
MATILDA--MUSEUM--PUBLIC LIBRARY--UNIVERSITY--ACADEMY--EMINENT
MEN--HISTORY OF CAEN.


(_Caen, August_, 1818.)

Within the precincts of the abbey of St. Stephen are some buildings,
which do not appear to have been used for monastic purposes. It is
supposed that they were erected by William the Conqueror, and they are
yet called his palace. Only sixty years ago, when Ducarel visited Caen,
these remains still preserved their original character.

He describes the great guard-chamber and the barons' hall, as making a
noble appearance, and as being perhaps equally worth the notice of an
English antiquary as any object within the province of Normandy. The
walls of these rooms are standing, but dilapidated and degraded; and
they have lost their architectural character, which, supposing Ducarel's
plate to be a faithful representation, must have been very decisive. It
is scarcely possible to conceive how any man, with such a specimen of
the palace before his eyes, could dream of its being coeval with the
Norman conquest: every portion is of the pointed style, and even of a
period when that style was no longer in its purity. Possibly, indeed,
other parts of the edifice may have been more ancient; such certainly
was the "Conqueror's kitchen," a singular octagon building, with four
tall slender chimneys capped with perforated cones. This was destroyed
many years ago; but Ducarel obtained an original drawing of it, which he
has engraved. Amongst the ruins there is a chimney which perhaps
belonged to this building.--The guard-chamber and barons' hall are noble
rooms: the former is one hundred and ninety feet in length and ninety in
breadth. You remember how admirably the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ opens
with a description of such a hall, filled with knights, and squires, and
pages, and all the accompaniments of feudal state. I tried, while
standing by these walls, to conjure up the same pictures to my
imagination, but it was impossible; so desolate and altered was every
thing around, and so effectually was the place of baronial assemblage
converted into a granary. The ample fire-place still remains; but, cold
and cheerless, it looks as if had been left in mockery of departed
splendor and hospitality. I annex a sketch of it, in which you will also
see a few scattered tiles, relics of the magnificent pavement that once
covered the floor.

[Illustration: Fireplace in the Conqueror's Palace, at Caen]

This pavement has been the subject of much learned discussion; because,
if the antiquity of the emblazoned tiles could be established, (which it
certainly cannot) we should then have a decisive proof of the use of
armorial bearings in the eleventh century. Nearly the whole of these
tiles are now removed. After the abbey was sold, the workmen entirely
destroyed the tiles, breaking them with their pick-axes. The Abbe de la
Rue, however, collected an entire set of them; and others have been
preserved by M. Lair, an antiquary of Caen.--Ducarel thus describes the
pavement when perfect: "The floor is laid with tiles, each near five
inches square, baked almost to vitrification. Eight rows of these
tiles, running from east to west, are charged with different coats of
arms, said to be those of the families who attended Duke William in his
invasion of England. The intervals between each of these rows are filled
up with a kind of tessellated pavement, the middle whereof represents a
maze or labyrinth, about ten feet in diameter, and so artfully contrived
that were we to suppose a man following all the intricate meanders of
its volutes, he could not travel less than a mile before he got from one
end to the other. The remainder of the floor is inlaid with small
squares of different colors, placed alternately, and formed into draught
or chess-boards, for the amusement of the soldiers while on guard."

Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2)
by
Dawson Turner





In the midst of this level country, in which even apple-trees are
scarce, stands the ancient capital of Lower Normandy, extending from
east to west in so long a line, that on our approach it appeared to
cover as much ground as Rouen, which is in fact double its size.--From a
distance, the view of Caen is grand; not only from the apparent
magnitude of the town, but from the numerous spires and towers, that,
rising from every part of it, give it an air of great importance. Those
of the abbeys of St. Stephen and the Trinity, at opposite extremities,
constitute the principal features in the view.--The same favorable
impressions continue when you enter the town. The streets are wide, and
the houses of stone; and a stone city is a pleasing sight to eyes long
accustomed to the wooden buildings of Rouen, Bernay, and
Lisieux.--Besides, there is a certain degree of regularity in the
construction of the buildings, and some care is taken in keeping them
clean.--Lace-making is the principal occupation of females of the lower
class in Caen and the neighborhood; the streets, as we passed along,
were lined almost uninterruptedly on either side, with a row of
lace-makers; and boys were not uncommonly working among the women. It is
calculated that not fewer than twenty thousand individuals, of all ages,
from ten or twelve years old and upwards, are thus employed; and the
annual produce of their labor is estimated at one hundred and seventy
thousand pounds sterling. Caen lace is in high estimation for its beauty
and quality, and is exported in considerable quantities.

The present population of Caen amounts to about thirty-one thousand
individuals. The town, no longer the capital of Lower Normandy, is still
equally distinguished as the capital of the department of the Calvados.
The prefect resides here; and the royal court of Caen comprises in its
jurisdiction, not only the department more especially appertaining to
it, but also those of the Manche and the Orne.--The situation of the
town, though at the confluence of the Orne and the Odon, is not such as
can be regarded favorable to extensive trade. The united rivers form a
stream, which, though navigable at very high tides for vessels of two
hundred tons burthen, will, on other occasions, admit only of much
smaller ones; while the channel, nearer to its mouth, is obstructed by
rocks that render the navigation difficult and dangerous. Many plans
have been projected and attempted for the purpose of improving and
enlarging the harbor, but little or no progress has yet been made.
Vauban long since pointed out the mouth of the Orne as singularly well
adapted for a naval station; and Napoleon, in pursuance of this idea,
actually commenced the excavation of a basin under the walls of the
town, and intended to deepen the bed of the river, thinking it best to
make a beginning in this direction. All idea, however, of prosecuting
such a plan is for the present abandoned.--Other engineers have proposed
the junction of the Orne with the Loire by means of a canal, which would
be of the greatest importance to France, not only by facilitating
internal commerce, but by saving her vessels the necessity of coasting
Capes Finisterre, and la Hogue, and thus enabling them to avoid a
navigation, which is at all times dangerous, and in case of war
peculiarly exposed.

For minor purposes, however, for mills and manufactories of different
kinds, Caen is certainly well situated; being in almost every direction
intersected with streams, owing to the repeated ramifications of the
Odon, some of which are artificial, and of as early a date as the
eleventh century. The same circumstance contributes materially to the
pleasantness of the town; for the banks of the river are in many places
formed into walks, and crowned by avenues of noble trees.

[Illustration: Head-Dress of Females, at Caen]

The _grand cours_ at Caen is almost as fine a promenade as that at
Rouen. On Sunday evening it was completely crowded. The scene was full
of life and gaiety, and very varied. All the females of the lower rank,
and many of the higher orders, were dressed in the costume of the
country, which commonly consists of a scarlet gown and deep-blue apron,
or _vice versa_. Their hair, which is usually powdered, is combed
entirely back from every part of their faces, and tucked up behind. The
snow-white cap which covers it is beautifully plaited, and has longer
lappets than in the Pays de Caux. Mr. Cotman sketched the _coiffure_ of
the chamber-maid, at the Hotel d'Espagne, in grand costume, and I send
his drawing to you.--The men dress like the English; but do not
therefore fancy that you or I should have any chance of being mistaken
for natives, even if we did not betray ourselves by our accent. Here, as
every where else, our countrymen are infallibly known: their careless
slouching gait is sure to mark them; and the police keep a watchful eye
upon them. Caen is at present frequented by the English: those indeed,
who, like the Virgilian steeds, "stare loco nesciunt," seldom shew
themselves in Lower Normandy; but above thirty British families have
taken up their residence in this town: they have been induced to do so
principally by the cheapness of living, and by the advantages held out
for the education of their children. A friend of mine, who is of the
number of temporary inhabitants, occupies the best house in the place,
formerly the residence of the Duc d'Aumale; and for this, with the
garden, and offices, and furniture of all kinds, except linen and plate,
he pays only nine pounds a month. For a still larger house in the
country, including an orchard and garden, containing three acres, well
stocked with fruit-trees, he is asked sixty pounds from this time to
Christmas. But, cheap as this appears, the expence of living at
Coutances, or at Bayeux, or Valognes, is very much less.

Were I obliged to seek myself a residence beyond the limits of our own
country, I never saw a place which I should prefer to Caen. I should not
be tempted to look much farther before I said,


"Sis meae sedes utinam senectae:"--


The historical recollections that are called forth at almost every turn,
would probably have some influence in determining my choice; the noble
specimens of ancient architecture which happily remain, unscathed by
wars and Calvinists and revolutions, might possibly have more; but the
literary resources which the town affords, the pleasant society with
which it abounds, and, above all, the amiable character of its
inhabitants, would be my great attraction.--At present, indeed, we have
not been here sufficiently long to say much upon the subject of society
from our own experience; but the testimony we receive from all quarters
is uniform in this point, and the civilities already shewn us, are of a
nature to cause the most agreeable prepossessions. It is not our
intention to be hurried at Caen; and I shall therefore reserve to my
future letters any remarks upon its history and its antiquities. To a
traveller who is desirous of information, the town is calculated to
furnish abundant materials.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: The following were among the articles of the decree:--"No
individual to leave his _arrondissement_ without a passport.--No person
to receive a stranger in his house, or suffer one to quit it, without
apprising the police.--The inhabitants to carry their arms of all kinds
to the Hotel de Ville.--No plays to be performed, except first approved
by the officers of the police.--The manager of the theatre to give
notice every Friday to the mayor, of the pieces intended to be acted the
following week.--The actors to read nothing, and say nothing, which is
not in the play.--The performance to begin precisely at six, and close
at ten.--Only a certain interval to be allowed between the different
pieces, or between the acts of each.--Every person to be uncovered,
except the soldiers on duty.--No weapons of any kind, nor even sticks or
umbrellas, to be taken into the theatre."]




LETTER XXIV.

HISTORIANS OF CAEN--TOWERS AND FORTIFICATIONS--CHATEAU DE LA
GENDARMERIE--CASTLE--CHURCHES OF ST. STEPHEN, ST. NICHOLAS, ST. PETER,
ST. JOHN, AND ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES.


(_Caen, August,_ 1818.)

France does not abound in topographical writers; but the history and
antiquities of Caen have been illustrated with singular ability, by men
to whom the town gave birth, and who have treated their subject with
equal research and fidelity--these are Charles de Bourgueville, commonly
called the Seigneur de Bras, and the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches.

De Bourgueville was a magistrate of Caen, where he resided during almost
the whole of the sixteenth century. The religious wars were then raging;
and he relates, in a most entertaining and artless manner, the history
of the events of which he was an eye-witness. His work, as is justly
observed by Huet, is a treasure, that has preserved the recollection of
a great variety of the most curious details, which would otherwise have
been neglected and forgotten. Every page of it is stamped with the
character of the author--frankness, simplicity, and uprightness. It
abounds in sound morality, sage maxims, and proofs of excellent
principles in religion and politics; and, if the writer occasionally
carries his _naivete_ to excess, it is to be recollected that the book
was published when he was in his eighty-fifth year, a period of life
when indulgence may reasonably be claimed. He died four years
subsequently, in 1593.--In Huet's work, the materials are selected with
more skill, and are digested with more talent. The author brought to his
task a mind well stored with the learning requisite for the purpose, and
employed it with judgment. But he has confined himself, almost wholly,
to the description of the town; and the consequence is, that while the
bishop's is the work most commonly referred to, the magistrate's is that
which is most generally read. The dedication of the former to the town
of Caen, does honor to the feelings of the writer: the portrait of the
latter, prefixed to his volume, and encircled with his quaint motto,
_"L'heur de grace use l'oubli,"_ itself an anagram upon his name,
bespeaks and insures the good will of the reader.

The origin of Caen is uncertain.--Its foundation has been alternately
ascribed to Phoenicians, Romans, Gauls, Saxons, and Normans. The
earliest historical fact connected with the town, is recorded in an old
chronicle of Normandy[71], written in 1487, by William de Talleur, of
Rouen. The author, in speaking of the meeting between Louis d'Outremer,
King of France, and Richard Ist, Duke of Normandy, about the year 945,
enumerates Caen among the good towns of the province. Upon this, Huet
observes that, supposing Caen to have been at that time only recently
founded, it must have acquired importance with much rapidity; for, in
the charter, by which Richard IIIrd, Duke of Normandy, granted a dowery
to Adela, daughter of Robert, King of France, whom he married in 1026,
Caen is not only stated as one of the portions of the dower, but its
churches, its market, its custom-house, its quay, and its various
appurtenances are expressly mentioned; and two hundred years afterwards,
Brito in his _Philippiad_, puts Caen in competition with Paris,


"Villa potens, opulenta situ, spatiosa, decora,
Fluminibus, pratis, et agrorum fertilitate,
Merciferasque rates portu capiente marino,
Seque tot ecclesiis, domibus et civibus ornans,
Ut se Parisio vix annuat esse minorem."--


Caen is designated in Duke Richard's charter, by the appellation of "in
Bajocensi comitatu villa quae dicitur _Cathim_, super fluvium
Olnae."--From _Cathim_, came _Cahem_; and _Cahem_, in process of time,
was gradually softened into _Caen_. The elision that took place in the
first instance, is of a similar nature to that by which the Italian
words _padre_ and _madre_, have been converted into _pere_ and _mere_;
and the alteration in the latter case continued to be indicated by the
diaeresis, which, till lately, separated the two adjoining
vowels.--Towards the latter part of the eleventh century, Caen is
frequently mentioned by the monkish historians, in whose Latin, the town
is styled _Cadomus_ or _Cadomum_.--And here ingenious etymologists have
found a wide field for conjecture: Cadomus, says one, was undoubtedly
founded by Cadmus; another, who hesitates at a Phoenician antiquity,
grasps with greater eagerness at a Roman etymon, and maintains that
_Cadomus_ is a corruption from _Caii domus_, fully and sufficiently
proving that the town was built by Julius Caesar.

Robert Wace states, in his _Roman de Rou_, that, at the time
immediately previous to the conquest of England, Caen was an open
town.--


"Encore ert Caen sans Chatel,
N'y avoit mur, ny quesnel."--


And Wace is a competent witness; for he lived during the reign of Henry
Ist, to whom he dedicated his poem. Philip de Valois, in 1346, allowed
the citizens to surround the town with ditches, walls, and gates. This
permission was granted by the king, on the application of the
inhabitants, Caen, as they then complained, being still open and
unfortified. Hence, the fortifications have been considered to be the
work of the fourteenth century, and, generally speaking, they were
unquestionably, of that time; but it is equally certain, that a portion
was erected long before.

A proof of the antiquity of the fortifications may perhaps be found in
the name of the tower called _la Tour Guillaume le Roi_, which stands
immediately behind St. Peter's, and was intended to protect the river at
the extremity of the walls, dividing the town from the suburb of
Vaugeux. This tower is generally supposed to be the oldest in the
fortifications. Its masonry is similar to that of the wall with which it
is connected, and which is known to have been built about the same time
as the abbey of St. Stephen. The appearance of it is plain, massy, and
rugged; and it forms a picturesque object. Such also is the _Tour au
Massacre_, which is situated at the confluence of the Orne and Odon. The
tower in question is said to have received its gloomy title from a
massacre, of which our countrymen were guilty, at the time when the town
was taken in 1346. There is, however, reason to believe that this tale
is a mere fiction. Huet, at the same time that he does not venture so
far to oppose popular belief, as altogether to deny the truth of the
story of the massacre, adds, that the original name of the tower was _la
Tour Machart_, and suspects its present appellation to be no more than a
corruption of the former one. Renauld Machart was bailiff of Caen two
years prior to the capture of the place by Edward IIIrd; and the
probability is, that the tower was erected by him in those times of
alarm, and thus took his name. It has been supposed that the figure
sculptured upon it, may also be intended for a representation of Machart
himself.

Caen contains another castellated building, which might easily mislead
the studious antiquarian. The _Chateau de Calix_, as it is sometimes
called, is situated at the extremity of the suburb known by that name;
and the curious inhabitants of Caen usually suppose that it was erected
for the purpose of commanding the river, whilst it flowed in its
ancient, but now deserted, bed; or, at least, that it replaces such a
fortification. According to the learned Abbe de la Rue, however, and he
is a most competent authority, no real fortification ever existed here;
but the castle was raised in conformity to the caprice of Girard de
Nollent, the wealthy owner of the property, who flourished towards the
beginning of the sixteenth century.--Girard de Nollent's mansion is now
occupied by a farmer. It has four fronts. The windows are
square-headed, and surrounded by elegant mouldings; but the mullions
have been destroyed. One medallion yet remains over the entrance; and it
is probable that the walls were originally covered with ornaments of
this kind. Such, at least, is the case with the towers and walls, which,
surrounding the dwelling, have given it a castellated aspect. The
circular tower nearest the gate forms the subject of the accompanying
sketch: it is dotted on all sides with busts in basso-relievo, enclosed
in medallions, and of great diversity of character. One is a frowning
warrior, arrayed in the helmet of an emperor of the lower empire;
another, is a damsel attired in a ruff; a third, is a turbaned turk. The
borders of the medallions are equally diversified: the _cordeliere_,
well known in French heraldry, the vine-leaf, the oak-leaf, all appear
as ornaments. The battlements are surmounted with two statues,
apparently Neptune, or a sea-god, and Hercules. These heathen deities
not being very familiar to the good people of Caen, they have converted
them, in imagination, into two gens-d'armes, mounting guard on the
castle; and hence it is frequently called the _Chateau de la
Gendarmerie_. Some of the busts are accompanied by inscriptions--"Vincit
pudicitiam mors;" "Vincit amor pudicitiam;" "Amor vincit mortem;" and
all seem to be either historical or allegorical. The battlements of the
curtain-wall are ornamented in the same manner. The farther tower has
less decoration, and is verging to decay. I have given these details,
because the castle of Calix is a specimen of a style of which we have no
fair parallel in England, and the workmanship is far from being
contemptible.

[Illustration: Tower in the _Chateau de Calix_, at Caen]

In the Rue St. Jean is a house with decorations, in the same style, but
more sumptuous, or, perhaps I ought rather to say, more perfect. Both of
them are most probably of nearly the same date: for it was principally
during the reigns of Charles VIIIth and Louis XIIth, that the practice
prevailed in France, of ornamenting the fronts of houses with
medallions. The custom died away under Francis Ist.

I must now return to more genuine fortifications.--When the walls of
Caen were perfect, they afforded an agreeable and convenient promenade
completely round the town, their width being so great, that three
persons might with ease walk abreast upon them. De Bourgueville tells us
that, in his time, they were as much frequented as the streets; and he
expatiates with great pleasure upon the gay and busy prospect which they
commanded,

The castle at Caen, degraded as it is in its character by modern
innovation, is more deserving of notice as an historical, than as an
architectural, relic. It still claims to be ranked as a place of
defence, though it retains but few of its original features. The
spacious, lofty, circular towers, known by the names of the black, the
white, the red, and the grey horse, which flanked its ramparts, have
been brought down to the level of the platform. The dungeon tower is
destroyed. All the grandeur of the Norman castle is lost; though the
width of its ditches, and the thickness of its walls, still testify its
ancient strength. I doubt whether any castle in France covers an equal
extent of ground. Monstrelet and other writers have observed, that this
single fortress exceeded in size the towns of Corbeil or of Montferrand;
and, indeed, there are reasons for supposing that Caen, when first
founded, only occupied the site of the present castle; and that, when it
became advisable to convert the old town into a fortress, the
inhabitants migrated into the valley below. Six thousand infantry could
be drawn up in battle-array within the outer ballium; and so great was
the number of houses and of inhabitants enclosed within its area, that
it was thought expedient to build in it a parochial church, dedicated to
St. George, besides two chapels.

One of the chapels is still in existence, though now converted to a
store-house; and the Abbe de la Rue considers it as an erection anterior
to the conquest, and, belonging to the old town of Caen. Its choir is
turned towards the west, and its front to the east.--The religious
edifices upon the continent do not preserve the same uniformity as our
English ones, in having their altars placed in the direction of the
rising sun; but this at Caen is a very remarkable instance of the
position of the entrance and the altar being completely reversed[72].
The door-way is a fine semi-circular arch: the side pillars supporting
it are very small, but the decorations of the archivolt are rich: they
consist principally of three rows of the chevron moulding, enclosed
within a narrow fillet of smaller ornaments, approaching in shape to
quatrefoils. Collectively, they form a wide band, which springs from
flat piers level with the wall, and does not immediately unite with the
head of the inner arch. The intermediate space is covered by a
reticulated pattern indented in the stone. Above the entrance is a
window of the same form, its top encircled by a broad chequered band, a
very unusual accompaniment to this style of architecture. The front of
the chapel presents in other respects, a flat uniform surface, unvaried,
except by four Norman buttresses, and a string-course of the simplest
form, running round the whole building, at somewhat less than
mid-height. The sides of the chapel are lighted by a row of
circular-headed windows, with columns in the angles; and between these
windows are buttresses, as in the chapel of the lazar-house of St.
Julien, at Rouen.

Huet endeavours to prove that the first fortress which was built at
Caen, was erected by William the Conqueror, who frequently resided here
with his Queen Matilda, and who was likely to find some protection of
this nature desirable, as well to guard his royal residence against the
mutinous disposition of the lords of the Bessin, as to command the
navigation of the Orne. The castle was enlarged and strengthened by his
son Henry; but it is believed that the four towers, just mentioned, and
the walls surrounding the keep, were added by our countrymen, during
that short period when the Norman sceptre was again wielded by the
descendants of the Norman dukes. Under Louis XIIth and Francis Ist, the
whole of the castle, but particularly the dungeon, underwent great
repairs, by which the original form of the structure was entirely
changed.--From that period history is silent respecting the fortress. I
cannot, however, take leave of it without reminding you, that Sir John
Fastolf, whilom our neighbour at Castor, was for some time placed in
command here, as Lieutenant to the Regent Duke of Bedford. You, who are
acquainted with the true character of the knight, need scarcely be told,
that even his enemies concur in bearing testimony to his ability, his
vigilance, and his valor: it is to be regretted that he has not met with
equal justice at home. Not one individual troubles himself about
history, whilst a thousand read the drama; and the stains which
Shakspeare's pen has affixed to the name of Fastolf, are of a nature
never to be wiped away; thus disproving the distich of the satyrist, who
indeed, by his own works, has effectually falsified his own maxim,
that--


"Truth will survive when merry jokes are past;
For rising merit must buoy up at last."


As usual, the buildings dedicated to religion are far more numerous and
valuable than the relics of military architecture. Of these, the first
which salutes the stranger who enters by the great high road, is the
Hotel Dieu, which is almost intact and unaltered. The basement story
contains large and deep pointed arches, ornamented with the chevron
moulding, disposed in a very peculiar manner.--From the style of the
building, there is every reason to believe that it is of the beginning
of the thirteenth century, at which time William, Count of Magneville,
appropriated to charitable purposes the ground now occupied by this
hospital, and caused his donation to be confirmed by a bull from Pope
Innocent IIIrd, dated in April, 1210.

The abbeys, the glories of Caen, will require more leisure: at present
let us pass on to the parochial churches. Of these, the most ancient
foundation is _St. Etienne le Vieil_; and tradition relates that this
church was dedicated by St. Renobert, bishop of Bayeux, in the year
350.--But, though the present edifice may stand upon the site of an
ancient one, there would be little risk in affirming, that not one stone
of it was laid upon another till after the year 1400. The building is
spacious, and its tower is not devoid of beauty. The architecture is a
medley of debased gothic and corrupted Roman; but the large pointed
windows, decorated by fanciful mouldings and scroll-work, have an air of
richness, though the component parts are so inharmonious.

Attached to the wall of the choir of this church is still to be seen an
equestrian statue[73], part of the celebrated group supposed to
represent William the Conqueror making his triumphal entry into Caen. A
headless horse, mounted by a headless rider, and a figure, which has
lost all shape and form, beneath the feet of the steed, are all that now
remain; but De Bourgueville, who knew the group when perfect, says, that
there likewise belonged to it a man and woman upon their knees, as if
seeking some explanation for the death of their child, or
rather, perhaps, in the act of imploring mercy.--I have already pointed
out the resemblance between these statues and the bas-relief, of which I
have sent you a sketch from St. Georges. One of the most learned
antiquaries of the present time has found a prototype for the supposed
figure of the Duke, among the sculptures of the Trajan column. But this,
with all due deference, is far from a decisive proof that the statue in
question was not intended for William. Similar adaptations of the
antique model, "mutato nomine," frequently occur among the works of the
artists of the middle ages; and there is at least a possibility that,
had the face been left us, we might have traced some attempt at a
portrait of the Norman Duke. Upon the date of the sculpture, or the
style of the workmanship, I dare not venture an opinion. There are
antiquaries, I know, (and men well qualified to judge,) who believe it
Roman: I have heard it pronounced from high authority, that it is of the
eleventh century, others suspect that it is Italian, of the thirteenth
or fourteenth centuries; whilst M. Le Prevost and M. De Gerville
maintain most strenuously that it is not anterior to the fifteenth. De
Bourgueville certainly calls it "une antiquite de grand remarque;" but
we all know that any object which is above an hundred years old, becomes
a piece of antiquity in the eye of an uncritical observer; and such was
the good magistrate.

The church of St. Nicholas, now used as a stable, was built by William
the Conqueror, in the year 1060, or thereabouts. Desecrated as it is, it
remains entire; and its interior is remarkable for the uniformity of the
plan, the symmetry of the proportions. All the capitals of the pillars
attached to the walls are alike; and those of the arches, which very
nearly resemble the others, are also all of one pattern. In the
side-aisles there is no groining, but only cross vaulting. The vaulting
of the nave is pointed, and of late introduction. Round the choir and
transepts runs a row of small arches, as in the triforium.--The west end
was formerly flanked by two towers, the southern of which only remains.
This is square, and well proportioned: each side contains two lancet
windows. The lower part is quite plain, excepting two Norman buttresses.
The whole of the width of the central compartment, which is more than
quadruple that of either of the others, is occupied below by three
circular portals, now blocked up.--Above them are five windows, disposed
in three tiers. In the lowest are two not wider than loop-holes: over
these two others, larger; another small one is at the top. All these
windows are of the simplest construction, without side pillars or
mouldings.--The choir of the church ends in a semi-circular apsis,
divided into compartments by a row of pillars, rising as high as the
cornice: in the intercolumniation are windows, and under the windows
small arches, each of which has its head hewn out of a single
stone.--The roof of the choir is of stone, and the pitch of it is very
high.

Here, then, we have the exact counterpart of the Irish stone-roofed
chapels, the most celebrated of which, that of Cormac, in Cashel
Cathedral, appears, from all the drawings and descriptions I have seen
of it, to be altogether a Norman building. Ledwich asserts that "this
chapel is truly Saxon, and was erected prior to the introduction of the
Norman, and gothic styles[74]." If, we agree with him, we only obtain a
proof that there is no essential difference between Norman and Saxon
architecture; and this proposition, I believe, will soon be universally
admitted. We now know what is really Norman; and a little attention to
the buildings in the north of Germany, may terminate the long-debated
questions, relative to Saxon architecture and the origin of the
stone-roofed chapels in the sister isle.

In the burial-ground that surrounds the church of St. Nicholas, are
several monumental inscriptions, all of them posterior to the
commencement of the reign of Napoleon, and all, with one single
exception, commemorative of females. The epitaphs are much in the same
tone as would be found in an English church-yard. The greater part,
however, of the tomb-stones, are uninscribed. They are stone coffins
above-ground, sculptured with plain crosses, or, where they have been
raised to ecclesiastics, with an addition of some portion of the
sacerdotal dress.

[Illustration: Tower and Spire of St. Peter's Church, at Caen]

Among the churches of comparatively modern erection, St. Peter deserves
most attention. From every part of the town and neighborhood, its lofty
spire, towering above the surrounding buildings, forces itself upon your
view. It is not easy to carry accurate ideas of height in the memory;
but, as far as recollection will serve me, I should say that its
elevation is hardly inferior to that of the spire of Salisbury
cathedral. I have no hesitation in adding, that the proportions of the
tower and spire of the church at Caen, are more pleasing. Elegance,
lightness, and symmetry, are the general characters of the whole, though
the spire has peculiar characters of its own.--The tower, though built a
century later than that of Salisbury, is so much less ornamented, that
it might be mistaken for an earlier example of the pointed style. The
lowest story is occupied wholly by a portal: the second division is
surrounded by pointed arches, beneath crocketed gables: the third is
filled by four lancet arches, supported by reeded pillars, so lofty,
that they occupy nearly two-thirds of the entire height of the tower.
The flanking arches are blanks: the two middle ones are pierced into
windows, divided by a central mullion. The balustrade at the top of the
tower is of a varied pattern, each side exhibiting a different tracery.
Eight crocketed pinnacles are added to the spire, which is octangular,
and has a row of crockets at each angle. From the base to the summit it
is encircled, at regular distances, with broad bands of stone-work,
disposed like scales; and, alternating with the bands, are perforations
in the form of cinquefoils, quatrefoils, and trefoils, diminishing as
the spire rises, but so disposed, that the light is seen distinctly
through them. The effect of these perforations was novel and very
pleasing.

[Illustration: Sculpture upon a Capital in St. Peter's Church at Caen]

This tower and spire were built in the year 1308, under the directions
of Nicolle L'Anglois, a burgher of Caen, and treasurer of the
church.--How far we are at liberty to infer from his name, as Ducarel
does, that he was an Englishman, may admit of some doubt. He was buried
here; and De Bourgueville has preserved his epitaph, which recounts
among his other merits, that


"Et par luy, et par sa devise
Fut la tour en sa voye mise
D'estre faicte si noblement."--


But the name of the architect who was employed is unrecorded.--The rest
of the church was erected at different periods: the northern aisle in
1410; the opposite one some time afterwards; and the eastern extremity,
with the vaulted roof of the choir and aisles, in 1021.--With this
knowledge, it is not difficult to account for the diversity of styles
that prevails in the building.--The western front contains much good
tracery, and well disposed, apparently as old as the tower.--The
exterior of the east end, with its side-chapels, is rather Italian than
gothic.--The interior is of a purer style: the five arches forming the
apsis are perhaps amongst the finest specimens of the luxuriant French
gothic: roses are introduced with great effect amongst the tracery and
friezes, with which the walls are covered. The decorations of the
chapels round the choir, although they display a tendency towards
Italian architecture, are of the most elaborate arabesque. The niches
are formed by escalop shells, swelling cylinders of foliage, and
scrolls: some of the pendants from the roofs are of wonderfully varied
and beautiful workmanship.--The nave has nothing remarkable, saving the
capital of one of the side pillars. Its sculptures, with the exception
of one mutilated group, have been drawn by Mr. Cotman.--The subjects are
strangely inappropriate, as the ornaments of a sacred edifice. All are
borrowed from romance.--Aristotle bridled and saddled by the mistress
of Alexander. Virgilius, or, as some say, Hippocrates, hanging in the
basket. Lancelot crossing the raging flood.--The fourth, which is not
shewn in the sketch, is much defaced, but seems to have been taken from
the _Chevalier et la Charette_. According to the usual fate of ancient
sculpture, the _marguilliers_ of the parish have so sadly encumbered it
with white-wash, that it is not easy to make out the details; and a
friend of mine was not quite certain whether the bearded figure riding
on the lion, was not a youthful Cupid. No other of the capitals has at
present any basso-relievo of this kind; but I suspect they have been
chopped off. The church suffered much from the Calvinists; and
afterwards, during the revolution, when most of the bas-reliefs of the
portal were destroyed.

[Illustration: Tower of St. John's Church, at Caen]

The neighboring church of St. John appears likewise to be the work of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This building and St. Peter's
agree in general character: their towers are nearly the counterparts of
each other. But, in St. John's, the great tower is placed at the west
end of the edifice, the principal portal being beneath it. This is not
very usual in the Norman-gothic churches, though common in England. The
tower wants a spire; and, at present, it leans considerably out of the
perpendicular line, so that some apprehensions are entertained for its
safety. It was originally intended that the church should also be
surmounted by a central tower; and, as De Bourgueville says, the
beginning was made in his time; but it remains to the present day
incomplete, and has not been raised sufficiently high to enable us to
form a clear idea of the design of the architect, though enough remains
to shew that it would have been built in the Romanizing-gothic
style.--The inside is comparatively plain, excepting only the arches in
the lower open part of the tower. These are richly ornamented; and a
highly-wrought balustrade runs round the triforium, uniform in its
pattern in the nave and choir, but varying in the transepts.--In the
other ecclesiastical buildings at Caen, we saw nothing to interest
us.--The chapel of St. Thomas l'Abattu, which, according to Huet, "had
existed from time immemorial," and which, to judge from Ducarel's
description and figure, must have been curious, has now entirely
disappeared.

Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2)
by
Dawson Turner






LETTER XXII.

SITE AND RUINS OF THE CAPITAL OF THE LEXOVII--HISTORY OF
LISIEUX--MONASTERIES OF THE DIOCESE--ORDERICUS VITALIS--M.
DUBOIS--LETTER FROM THE PRINCESS BORGHESE.


(_Lisieux, July_, 1818.)

Lisieux represents one of the most ancient capitals of the primitive
tribes of Gaul. The Lexovii, noticed by Julius Caesar, in his
_Commentaries_, and by other authors, who were almost contemporary with
the Roman conqueror, are supposed by modern geographers to have occupied
a territory nearly co-extensive with the bishopric of Lisieux; and it
may be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics of France
were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces and prefectures.

The capital of the Lexovii was called the _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus
Lexoviorum_; and no doubt ever was entertained but that the present city
occupied the same site, till an accidental discovery, in the year 1770,
proved the contrary to be the fact.--About that time a _chaussee_ was
formed between Lisieux and Caen; and, in the course of some excavations,
which were made under the direction of M. Hubert, the superintending
engineer, for the purpose of procuring stone, the laborers opened the
foundations of some ruined buildings scattered over a field, called _les
Tourettes_, about three-quarters of a mile from the former town. The
character of these foundations was of a nature to excite curiosity: they
were clearly the work of a remote age, and various specimens of ancient
art were dug up amongst the ruins. The extent of the foundations, which
spread over a space four times as large as the plot occupied by modern
Lisieux left no doubt but that Danville, and all other geographers, must
have been mistaken with respect to the position assigned by them to the
ancient Neomagus. M. Hubert drew a plan of the ruins, and accompanied it
with an historical memoir; but unfortunately he was a man little capable
of prosecuting such researches; and though M. Mongez, in his report to
the National Institute[66], eulogized the map as exact, and the memoir
as excellent, they were both of them extremely faulty. It was reserved
for M. Louis Dubois, of whom I shall have occasion to speak again before
I close this letter, to repair the omissions and rectify the mistakes of
M. Hubert, and he has done it with unremitting zeal and extraordinary
success. The researches of this gentleman, among the remains of Neomagus
Lexoviorum, have already brought to light a large number of valuable
medals, both in silver and bronze, as well as a considerable quantity of
fragments of foreign marble, granite, and porphyry, some of them
curiously wrought. The most important of his discoveries has been
recently made: it is that of a Roman amphitheatre, in a state of great
perfection, the grades being covered only by a thin layer of soil, which
a trifling expence of time and labor will effectually remove.

Such vestiges prove that Neomagus must have been a place of importance;
and, like the other Gallo-Roman cities, it would probably have
maintained its honors under the Franks; but about the middle of the
fourth century, the Saxons, swarming from the mouths of the Elbe and
Weser, laid waste the coasts of Belgium and of Neustria, and finally
established themselves in that portion of northern Gaul called the
_Secunda Lugdunensis_, which thence obtained, in the _Notitia Imperii_,
the title of the _Littus Saxonicum_.--In the course of these incursions,
it is supposed that Neomagus was utterly destroyed by the invaders. None
of the medals dug up within the precincts of the town, or in its
neighborhood, bear a later date than the reign of Constantine; and,
though the city is recorded in the _Itinerary of Antoninus_, no mention
of it is to be found in the curious chart, known by the name of the
_Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reign of Theodosius the Great;
so that it then appears to have been completely swept away and
forgotten.

The new town of Lisieux and the bishopric most probably arose together,
towards the close of the sixth century; and the city, like other
provincial capitals in Gaul, took the name of the tribe by whom the
district had been peopled. It first appears in history under the
appellation of _Lexovium_ or _Lexobium_: in the eleventh century, when
Ordericus Vitalis composed his history, it was called _Luxovium_; and
soon after it became _Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, which, gallicised,
naturally passed into _Lyzieulx_, or, as it is now written, _Lisieux_.
The city was ravaged by the Normans about the year 877, in the course of
one of their predatory excursions from Bayeux: it again felt their
vengeance early in the following century, when Rollo, after taking
Bayeux by storm, sacked Lisieux at the head of his army on his way to
Rouen. The conqueror was not put in possession of the Lexovian territory
by Charles the Simple till 923, eleven years after the rest of Neustria
had been ceded to him.

United to the duchy, Lisieux enjoyed a short respite from the calamities
of war; nor does it appear to have borne any prominent part in the
transactions of the times. The name, indeed, of the city occurs as the
seat of the council held for the purpose of degrading Malgerius from the
primacy of Normandy; but, except on this occasion, Lisieux is scarcely
mentioned till the first year of the twelfth century, when it was the
seat of rebellion. Ralph Flambart, bishop of Durham, a prelate of
unbounded arrogance, had fled from England, and joined Duke Robert, then
in arms against his brother. Raising the standard of insurrection, he
fixed himself at Lisieux, took forcible possession of the town, and
invested his son, only twelve years old, with the mitre[67], while he
himself exercised despotic authority over the inhabitants. At length, he
purchased peace and forgiveness, by opening the gates to his lawful
sovereign, after the battle of Tinchbray.--In the middle of October, in
the same year, Henry returned to Lisieux, and there held an assembly of
the Norman nobility and prelates, who proclaimed peace throughout the
duchy, enacted sundry strict regulations to prevent any infringement of
the laws, and decreed that Robert, the captive duke, should be consigned
to an English prison.--Two years subsequently, another council was also
assembled at Lisieux, by the same sovereign, and for nearly the same
objects; and again, in 1119, Henry convened his nobles a third time at
Lisieux, when this parliament ratified the peace concluded at Gisors,
six years previously, and witnessed the marriage[68] of the king's son,
William Adelin, with Matilda, daughter of Fulk, earl of Anjou.

Historical distinction is seldom enviable:--in the wars occasioned by
the usurpation of Stephen, Lisieux once more obtained an unfortunate
celebrity. The town was attacked in 1136, by the forces of Anjou, under
the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband of the Empress Maud, joined
by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and the garrison, consisting of
Bretons, seeing no hope of effectual resistance or of rescue, set fire
to the place to the extreme mortification of the invaders, who, in the
language of the chronicles of the times, "when they beheld the city and
all its wealth a prey to the flames, waxed exceedingly wroth, at being
deprived of the spoil; and grieved sorely for the loss of the booty
which perished in the conflagration."--The town, however, was not so
effectually ruined, but that, during the following year, it served King
Stephen as a rallying point, at which to collect his army to march
against his antagonist.--In 1169, it was distinguished by being selected
by Thomas a Becket, as the place of his retirement during his temporary
disgrace.

History from this time forward relates but little concerning Lisieux.
Though surrounded with walls during the bishopric of John, who was
promoted to the see early in the twelfth century, the situation of the
town, far from the coast or from the frontiers of the province, rendered
the inhabitants naturally unwarlike, and caused them in general to
submit quietly to the stronger party.--Brito, in his _Philippiad_, says
that, when Philip Augustus took Lisieux, in 1213, the Lexovians,
destitute of fountains, disputed with the toads for the water of the
muddy ditches. His mentioning such a fact is curious, as shewing that
public fountains were at that early period of frequent occurrence in
Normandy.--Our countrymen, in the fifteenth century, acted with great
rigor, to use the mildest terms, towards Lisieux. Henry, after landing
at Touques, in 1417, entered the town, in the character of an enraged
enemy, not as the sovereign of his people: he gave it up to plunder; and
even the public archives were not spared. The cruelty of our English
king is strongly contrasted by the conduct of the Count de Danois,
general of the army of Charles VIIth, to whom the town capitulated in
1449. Thomas Basin, then bishop, negociated with such ability, that,
according to Monstrelet, "not the slightest damage was done to any
individual, but each peaceably enjoyed his property as before the
surrender."

The most celebrated monasteries within the diocese of Lisieux were the
Benedictine abbeys of Bernay, St. Evroul, Preaux, and
Cormeilles.--Cormeilles was founded by William Fitz-Osborne, a relation
to William the Conqueror, at whose court he held the office of sewer,
and by whom he was promoted to the earldom of Hereford. Its church and
monastic buildings had so far gone to ruin, in the last century, as to
call forth a strong remonstrance from Mabillon[69]: they were afterwards
repaired by Charles of Orleans, who was appointed abbot in 1726.--The
abbey of Preaux is said to have existed prior to the invasion of the
Normans; but its earliest records go no farther back than the middle of
the eleventh century, when it was restored by Humphrey de Vetulis, who
built and inclosed the monastery about the year 1035, at which time Duke
Robert undertook his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This abbey, according
to the account given by Gough, in his _Alien Priories_, presented to
thirty benefices, and enjoyed an annual revenue of twenty thousand
livres.--Among its English lands which were considerable, was the priory
of Toft-Monks in our own immediate vicinity: the name, as you know,
remains, though no traces of the building are now in existence.

The third abbey, that of St. Evrau or St. Evroul, called in Latin,
_Monasterium Uticense_, was one of the most renowned throughout
Normandy. The abbey dates its origin from St. Evroul himself, a
nobleman, who lived in the reign of Childebert, and was attached to the
palace of that monarch, "from which," to use the words of the
chronicles, "he made his escape, as from shipwreck, and fled to the
woods, and entered upon the monastic life."--The legend of St. Ebrulfus
probably savors of romance, the almost inseparable companion of
traditional, and particularly of monastic, history: it is safer,
therefore, to be contented with referring the foundation of the
monastery to the tenth century, when William Gerouis, after having been
treacherously deprived of his sight and otherwise maimed, renounced the
world; and, uniting with his nephews, Hugh and Robert de Grentemaisnil,
brought considerable possessions to the endowment of this abbey. The
abbey was at all times protected by the especial favor of the kings of
France. No payment or service could be demanded from its monks; they
acknowledged no master without their own walls, besides the sovereign
himself; they were entitled to exemption from every kind of burthen; and
they had the privilege of being empowered to castellate the convent, and
to compel the people of the surrounding district to contribute their
assistance for the purpose.

St. Evroul, however, principally claims our attention, as the sanctuary
where Ordericus Vitalis, to use his own expressions, "delighted in
obedience and poverty."--This most valuable writer was an Englishman;
his native town being Attingesham, on the Severn, where he was born in
the year 1075. He was sent to school at Shrewsbury, and there received
the first rudiments, both of the _humanities_ and of ecclesiastical
education. In the tenth year of his age, his father, Odelerius,
delivered the boy to the care of the monk Rainaldus. The weeping father
parted from the weeping son, and they never saw each other more.
Ordericus crossed the sea, and arrived in Normandy, an exile, as he
describes himself, and "hearing, like Joseph in Egypt, a language which
he understood not." In the eleventh year of his age, he received the
tonsure from the hands of Mainerius, the abbot of St. Evroul. In the
thirty-third year of his age, he was ordained a priest; and
thenceforward his life wore away in study and tranquillity. Aged and
infirm, he completed his _Ecclesiastical History_, in the sixty-seventh
year of his age; and this great and valuable work ends with his
auto-biography, which is written in an affecting strain of simplicity
and piety.--The Ecclesiastical History of Ordericus is divided into
parts: the first portion contains an epitome of the sacred and profane
history of the world, beginning with the incarnation, and ending with
Pope Innocent IInd. The second, and more important division, contains
the history of Normandy, from the first invasion of the country, down
to the year 1141.--Though professedly an ecclesiastical historian, yet
Ordericus Vitalis is exceedingly copious in his details of secular
events; and it is from these that his chronicle derives its importance
and curiosity. It was first published by Duchesne, in his collection of
Norman historians, a work which is now of rare occurrence, and it has
never been reprinted.

Valuable materials for a new edition were, however, collected early in
the eighteenth century, by William Bessin, a monk of St. Ouen; and
these, before the revolution, were preserved in the library of that
abbey. Bessin had been assisted in the task by Francis Charles Dujardin,
prior of St. Evroul, who had collated the text, as published in the
collection of Norman historians, with the original manuscript in his own
monastery, to which latter Duchesne unfortunately had not access, but
had been obliged to content himself with a copy, now in the Royal
Library at Paris. It is to be hoped, that the joint labors of Bessin and
Dujardin may still be in existence, and may come to light, when M.
Liquet shall have completed the task of arranging the manuscripts in the
public library at Rouen. The manuscript which belonged to St. Evroul,
and was always supposed to be an autograph from the hands of Ordericus
Vitalis himself, was discovered during the revolution among a heap of
parchments, thrown aside as of no account, in some buildings belonging
to the former district of Laigle. It is now deposited in the public
library of the department of the Orne, but unfortunately, nearly half
the leaves of the volume are lost. The earliest part of what remains is
towards the close of the seventh book, and of this only a fragment,
consisting of eight pages, is left. The termination of the seventh book,
and the whole of the eighth are wanting. From the ninth to the
thirteenth, both of these inclusive, the manuscript is perfect. A page
or two, however, at the end of the work, which contained the author's
life, has been torn out.--At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the
manuscript was complete; for it is known that, at that time, a monk of
St. Evroul made a transcript of it, which extended through four volumes
in folio. These volumes were soon dispersed. Two of them found their way
to Rouen, where they were kept in the library of St. Ouen: the other two
were in that of the abbey of St. Maur de Glandefeuille, on the Loire. A
third, though incomplete, copy of the original manuscript was also known
to exist in France before the revolution. It formerly belonged to
Coaslin de Camboret, Bishop of Metz, by whom it was presented, together
with four thousand manuscripts, to the monks of St. Germain des Pres at
Paris. But the greater part of the literary treasures of this abbey fell
a prey to the flames in July, 1793, and it is feared that the copy of
Ordericus perished at that time.

The original code from St. Evroul, was discovered by M. Louis Dubois,
whom I have already mentioned in connection with the ruins of Neomagus.
He is an antiquary of extensive knowledge and extraordinary zeal. His
_History of Lisieux_, which he has long been preparing for the press,
will be a work of great curiosity and interest. The publication of it is
for the present suspended, whilst he superintends an edition of the
_Vaux-de-Vires_, or _Vaux de villes_, of Olivier Basselin, an early
Norman poet. Meanwhile, M. Dubois still continues his researches among
the foundations of the ancient city, from which he has collected a
number of valuable relics. Some of the most pleasant and instructive
hours of my tour have been spent in his society; and, whilst it was
under his guidance that I visited the antiquities of Lisieux, his
learning assisted me in illustrating them. M. Dubois likewise possesses
a large collection of original autograph letters, which I found much
pleasure in perusing.

During the reign of Napoleon, he held the office of librarian of
Alencon, a situation that afforded him the opportunity of meeting with
many literary curiosities of this nature. Among others, which thus fell
into his hands, was the following letter, written by the Princess
Borghese, sister to the Emperor, and addressed to the Empress
Marie-Louise, by whom it was received, while on a tour through the
western departments. I annex a transcript of this epistle; for, although
it has no immediate connection with the main subject of our
correspondence, it yet is a very singular contribution towards the
private history of the dynasty of Napoleon.--The odd mixture of
caudle-cup compliment and courtly flattery, is sufficiently amusing. I
have copied it, word for word, letter for letter, and point for point;
for, as we have no other specimen of the epistles of her imperial
highness, I think it right to preserve all the peculiarities of the
original; and, by, way of a treat for the collectors of autographs, I
have added a fac-simile of her signature.

Madame et tres chere SA"ur,

je recois par le Prince Aldobrandini la lettre de V.M. et la belle tasse
dont elle a daigne, le charger pour moi au nom de L'empereur, je
remercie mille fois votre aimable bonte, et j'ose vous prier ma tres
chere sA"ur d'Atre aupres de L'empereur l'interprete de ma reconnaissance
pour cette marque de souvenir.--je fais parler beaucoup le Prince et la
Princesse Aldobrandini sur votre sante, sur votre belle grossesse, je ne
me lasse pas de les interroger, et je suis heureuse d'apprendre que vous
vous portes tres bien, que rien ne vous fatigue, et que vous aves la
plus belle grossesse qu'il soit possible de desirer, combien je desire
chere sA"ur que tous nos vA"ux soient exaucA(C)s, ne croyA(C)s cependant pas
que si vous nous donnes une petite Princesse je ne l'aimerais pas. non,
elle nous serait chere, elle resemblerait a V.M. elle aurait sa douceur,
son amabilite, et ce joli caractere qui la fait cherir de ceux qui out
le bonheur de la Conaitre--mais ma chA"re sA"ur j'ai tort de m'apesantir
sur les qualites dont serait douee cette auguste princesse, vous nous
donneres d'abord un prince un petit Roi de Rome, juges combien je le
desire nos bons toscans prient pour vous, ils vous aiment et je n'ai pas
de peine a leur inspirer ce que je sens si vivement.

je vous remercie ma tres chere sA"ur de l'interest que vous prenez a mon
fils, tout le monde dit qu'il ressemble a L'empereur. cela me Charme il
est bien portant a present, et j'espere qu'il sera digne de servir sous
les drapeaux de son auguste oncle.--adieu ma chere sA"ur soyA(C)s assA(C)s
bonne pour Conserver un souvenir a une sA"ur qui vous est tendrement
attachee. Napoleon ne cesse de lire la lettre pleine de bonte que V.M. a
daigne lui ecrire, cela lui a fait sentir le plaisir qu'il y avait a
savoir lire, et l'encourage dans ses etudes--je vous embrasse et suis,

Madame et tres chere SA"ur

de V.M.

La plus attachee

[Illustration: Autograph of the Princess Borghese]

Pitti le 18 janvier 1811

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 66: See _Magazin Encyclopedique, for_ 1802, III. p. 504.]

[Footnote 67: This transaction appears to have been peculiarly flagrant:
a long detail of the circumstances, accompanied by several letters, very
characteristic of the feeling and church-government of the times, is
preserved in the _Concilia Normannica_, p. 520.--The account concludes
in the following words:--"Exhorruit ad facinus, non Normannia solum et
Anglia, quibus maledicta progenies notissima erat, sed et universa
Gallia, et a singulis ad Apostolicum Paschalem delatum est. Nec tamen
utrique simul ante quinquienniuin sordes de domo Dei propulsare
praevaluerunt. Ceteris ferventius institit Yvo Carnotensis Antistes,
conculcatae disciplinae ecclesiasticae zelo succensus; in tantum ut
Neustriacos Praesules quasi desides ac pusillanimes coarguere veritus non
sit: sed ea erat Ecclesiae sub ignavo Principe sors per omnia
lamentabilis, ut ipsemet postmodum cum laude non invitus agnovit."]

[Footnote 68: Sandford, in his _Genealogical History of the Kings of
England_, says, that this marriage was solemnized at Luxseul, in the
county of Burgundy; but he refers for his authority to Ordericus
Vitalis, by whom it is stated to have been at Luxovium, the name by
which he always calls Lisieux; and he, in the same page, mentions the
assembly of the nobles also held there.]

[Footnote 69: _Annal_, IV. p. 599.]




LETTER XXIII.

FRENCH POLICE--RIDE FROM LISIEUX TO CAEN--CIDER--GENERAL APPEARANCE AND
TRADE OF CAEN--ENGLISH RESIDENT THERE.


(_Caen, August_, 1818.)

Our reception at Caen has been somewhat inauspicious: we had scarcely
made the few necessary arrangements at the hotel, and seated ourselves
quietly before the _caffe au lait_, when two gens-d'armes, in military
costume, stalked without ceremony into the room, and, taking chairs at
the table, began the conversation rather abruptly, with "Monsieur, vous
etes sous arret."--My companions were appalled by such a salutation, and
apprehended some mistake; but the fact turned out to be, that our
passport did not bear the signature of the mayor of Rouen, and that this
ignorance of the regulations of the French police had subjected us to so
unexpected a visit. It was too late in the day for the deficiency to be
then supplied; and therefore, after a few expostulations, accompanied
with observations, on their part, that we had the good fortune to have
fixed ourselves at an _honnete hotel_, and did not wear the appearance
of suspicious persons, the soldiers took their leave, first exacting
from me a promise, that I would present myself the next morning before
the proper officer, and would in the meanwhile consider myself a
prisoner upon my parole.

The impression which this occurrence could not fail to make upon our
minds, was, that the object of the gens-d'armes had been either to
extort from us money, or to shew their consequence; but I have since
been led to believe that they did no more than their duty.--We have
several acquaintance among the English who reside here, and we find from
the whole of them, that the utmost strictness is practised in all
matters relating to passports, and not less towards natives than
foreigners. No Frenchman can quit his _arrondissement_ unprovided with a
passport; and the route he intends to take, and the distance he designs
to travel, must also be specified. A week or two ago the prefect of the
police himself was escorted back to Caen, between a couple of
gens-d'armes, because he inadvertently paid a visit to a neighboring
bathing-place without his passport in his pocket. This is a current
story here: I cannot vouch for its authenticity; however it is certain,
that since the discovery of the late plot contrived by the ultras, a
plot whose existence is generally disbelieved, the French police is more
than usually upon the alert.

When I presented myself at the Hotel de Ville, to redeem my promise, a
recent decree was pointed out to me, containing a variety of regulations
which shew extraordinary uneasiness on the part of the government, and
which would seem to indicate that they are in possession of intelligence
respecting projects, that threaten the public tranquillity[70]. To judge
from all official proceedings, it seems as if we were walking upon a
smothered volcano, and yet we are told by every body that there is not
the slightest room for apprehension of any kind.

This interruption has thrown me out of the regular course of my
narration.--My last letter left me still at Lisieux, from which city to
Caen the road lies through a tract of country altogether without
interest, and in most places without beauty. During the first half of
the ride, we could almost have fancied ourselves at home in
Norfolk.--About this part of the way, the road descends through a hollow
or dale, which bore the ominous name of "_Coupe Gorge_." When Napoleon
was last in Normandy, he inquired into the origin of the
appellation.--The diligences, he was answered, "had often been stopped
and robbed in this solitary pass."--Napoleon then said, "If one person
can be made to settle here, more will follow, for it is conveniently
situated between two good towns. Let the prefect buy a little plot of
ground and build a house upon it, and give it to an old soldier, upon
condition that he shall constantly reside in it with his family." The
orders of Napoleon were obeyed. The old soldier opened an inn, other
houses arose round it, and the cut-throat pass is now thoroughly secure.
The conductor and the post-boy tell the tale with glee whilst they drive
through the hamlet; and its humble dwellings will perhaps recal the
memory and fame of Napoleon Buonaparte when the brazen column of the
grand army, and the marble arch of the Thuilleries, shall have been long
levelled with the ground.--As to the character of the landscape, I must
add, that though it makes a bad picture, there are great appearances of
care in the agriculture, and of comfort in the population. The country,
too, is sufficiently well wooded; and apple and pear trees every where
take the place of the pollard oaks and elms of our hedge-rows.

Norman cider is famous throughout France: it is principally, however,
the western part of the province that produces it. Throughout the whole
of that district, the lower classes of the inhabitants scarcely use any
other beverage. Vines, as I have already had occasion to mention, were
certainly cultivated, in early times, farther to the north than they are
at present. The same proofs exist of vineyards in the vicinity of Caen
and Lisieux, as at Jumieges. Indeed, towards the close of the last
century, there was still a vineyard at Argence, only four miles
south-east of Caen; and a kind of white wine was made there, which was
known by the name of _Vin Huet_. But the liquor was meagre; and I
understand that the vineyard is destroyed.--Upon the subject of the
early use of beer in Normandy, tradition is somewhat indistinct. The
ancient name of one of the streets in Caen, _rue de la Cervoisiere_,
distinctly proves the habit of beer-drinking; and, when Tacitus speaks
of the beverage of the Germans, in his time, as "humor ex hordeo vel
frumento in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus," it seems highly
improbable but that the same liquor should have been in use among the
cognate tribes of Gaul. Brito, however, expressly says of Flanders, that
it is a place where,


"Raris sylva locis facit umbram, vinea nusquam:
Indigenis potus Thetidi miscetur avena,
Ut vice sit vini multo confecta labore."


And the same author likewise tells us, that the Normans of his time were
cider-drinkers--


"... _Siceraeque_ potatrix
Algia tumentis ...
Non tot in autumni rubet Algia tempore _pomis_
Unde liquare solet _siceram_ sibi _Neustria_ gratam."


Huet is of opinion, that the use of cider was first introduced into
Neustria by the Normans, who had learned it of the Biscayans, as these
latter had done from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Africa.

We did not find the Norman cider at all palatable: it is extremely sour,
hard, and austere. The inhabitants, however, say that this is not its
natural character, but is attributable to the late unfavorable seasons,
which have prevented the fruit from ripening properly.--The apple-tree
and pear-tree in Normandy, far from being ugly, and distorted, and
stunted in their growth, as is commonly seen in England, are trees of
great beauty, and of extreme luxuriance, both in foliage and
ramification. The _Coccus_, too, which has caused so much destruction
among our orchards at home, is fortunately still unknown here.

The only place at which we stopped between Lisieux and Caen, was
Croissanville, a poor village, but one that possesses a degree of
historical interest, as the spot where the battle was fought between
Aigrold, King of Denmark, and Louis d'Outremer, King of France; a battle
which seated Richard Fearnought upon the throne of Normandy.--The
country about Croissanville is an immense tract of meadow-land; and from
it the Parisian market draws a considerable proportion of its supplies
of beef. The cattle that graze in these pastures are of a large size,
and red, and all horned; very unlike those about Caen, which latter are
of small and delicate proportions, with heads approaching to those of
deer, and commonly with black faces and legs.

From Croissanville to Caen the road passes through a dead flat, almost
wholly consisting of uninclosed corn-fields, extending in all
directions, with unvaried dull monotony, as far as the eye can reach.
Buck-wheat is cultivated in a large proportion of them: the inhabitants
prepare a kind of cake from this grain, of which they are very fond, and
which is said to be wholesome. Tradition, founded principally upon the
French name of this plant, _sarrazin_, has given rise to a general
belief, that buck-wheat was introduced into France by the Moors; but
this opinion has, of late, been ably combated. The plant is not to be
found in Arabia, Spain, or Sicily; the countries more particularly
inhabited by Mahometans; and in Brittany, it still passes by the Celtic
appellation, _had-razin_, signifying _red-corn_, of which words
_sarrazin_ may fairly be regarded a corruption, as _buck-wheat_, in our
own tongue, ought unquestionably to be written _beech-wheat_; a term
synonymous to what it is called in Latin and German. The present name
may well appear inexplicable, to those who are unacquainted with the
Anglo-Saxon and its cognate dialects.

Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2)
by
Dawson Turner




LETTER XXI.

BERNAT--BROGLIE--ORBEC--LISIEUX--CATHEDRAL--ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.


(_Lisieux, July_, 1818.)

Instead of pursuing the straight road from Brionne to this city, we
deviated somewhat to the south, by the advice of M. Le Prevost; and we
have not regretted the deviation.

Bernay was once celebrated for its abbey, founded in the beginning of
the eleventh century, by Judith, wife of Richard IInd, Duke of Normandy.
Some of the monastic buildings are standing, and are now inhabited: they
appear to have been erected but a short time before the revolution, and
to have suffered little injury.--But the abbey church, which belonged to
the original structure, is all desolate within, and all defaced without.
The interior is divided into two stories, the lower of which is used as
a corn market, the upper as a cloth hall. Thus blocked up and
encumbered, we may yet discern that it is a noble building: its
dimensions are grand, and in most parts it is a perfect specimen of the
semi-circular style, except the windows and the apsis, which are of
later dates. The pillars in the nave and choir are lofty, but massy: the
capitals of some of them are curiously sculptured. On the lower member
of the entablature of one capital there are still traces of an
inscription; but it is so injured by neglect and violence, that we were
unable to decipher a single word. The capital itself is fanciful and not
devoid of elegance.

[Illustration: Capital]

The convent was placed under the immediate protection of the sovereign,
by virtue of an ordinance issued by Philip Augustus[61], in 1280, at
which time Peter, Count of Alencon, attempted to establish a claim to
some rights affecting the monastery. He alleged a grant from a former
monarch to one of his predecessors, by whom he asserted that the convent
had been founded; and, in support of his claim, he urged its position
within the limits of his territory. The abbot and monks resisted: they
gave proof that the abbey of Bernay was really founded by the duchess;
and therefore the king, after a full and impartial hearing, decided
against the count, and declared that the advocation of the monastery was
thenceforth to belong to himself and his successors in the dukedom for
ever.--Judith died before the convent was entirely built, and the task
of completing it devolved upon her widowed husband, whose charter,
confirming the foundation, is still in existence. It begins by a recital
of the pious motives[62] which urged the duchess to the undertaking; it
expressly mentions her death while the building was yet unfinished; and,
after detailing the various lands and grants bestowed on the abbey, it
concludes by denouncing the anger of God, and a fine of two hundred
pounds weight of gold upon those who disturb the establishment, "that
they may learn to their confusion that the good deeds of their
ancestors, undertaken for the love of God, are not to be undone with
impunity."

The parochial church at Bernay is uninteresting. The sculptures,
however, which adorn the high altar, are relics saved from the
destruction of the abbey of Bec. The Virgin Mary and Joseph are
represented, contemplating the infant Jesus, who is asleep. The statues
are all of the natural size. We saw many grave-stones from the same
abbey, nine or ten feet long, and covered with monumental figures of the
usual description, indented in the stone. These memorials were standing
by the side of the church door, not for preservation, but for sale! And
at a small chapel in the burial-ground near the town, we were shewn
twelve statues of saints, which likewise came from Bec. They are of
comparatively modern workmanship, larger than life, and carved in a
good, though not a fine, style. In the same chapel is kept the common
coffin for the interment of all the poor at Bernay.

The custom of merely putting the bodies of persons of the lower class
into coffins, when they are brought to the burial-ground, and then
depositing them naked in their graves, prevails at present in this part
of France as it did formerly in England.--In a place which must be the
receptacle for many that were in easy, and for not a few that were in
affluent, circumstances, it was remarkable that all lay indiscriminately
side by side, unmarked by any monumental stone, or any sepulchral
record.--Republican France proscribed distinctions of every description,
and those memorials which tended to perpetuate distinctions beyond the
limits of mortal existence, were naturally most unpardonable in the eyes
of the apostles of equality. But doctrines of this nature have fallen
into disrepute for more than twenty years; and yet the country
church-yard remains as naked as when the guillotine would have been the
reward of opposition to the tenets of the day. There are few more
comfortless sights, than such a cemetery: it looks as if those by whom
it is occupied regarded death as eternal sleep, and thought that the
memory of man should terminate with the close of his life. However
unlettered the muse, however hackneyed the rhyme, however misapplied
the text, it is consolatory to see them employed. Man dwells with a
melancholy satisfaction upon the tomb-stones of his relations and
friends, and not of them alone, but of all whom he has known or of whom
he has heard.--A mere _hic jacet_, with the name and years of him that
sleeps beneath, frequently recals the most lively impressions; and he
who would destroy epitaphs would destroy a great incitement to
virtue.--In other parts of France tomb-stones, or crosses charged with
monumental inscriptions, have re-appeared: at Bernay we saw only two;
one of them commemorated a priest of the town; the other was erected at
the public expence, to the memory of three gendarmes, who were killed at
the beginning of the revolution, and before religion was proscribed, in
the suppression of some tumult.

At less than a mile from Bernay, in the opposite direction, is another
church, called Notre Dame de la Couture, a name borrowed from the
property on which it stands. We were induced to visit it, by the
representation of different persons in the town, who had noticed our
architectural propensities. Some assured us that "C'est une belle
piece;" others that "C'est une piece qui n'est pas vilaine;" and all
concurred in praising it, though some only for the reason that "les
processions vont tout autour du choeur."--We found nothing to repay the
trouble of the walk.

Bernay contains upwards of six thousand inhabitants, the greater part of
whom are engaged in manufacturing coarse woollen and cotton cloths; and
the manufactures flourish, the goods made being principally for home
consumption. It is the chief place of the _arrondissement_, and the
residence of a sub-prefect.--Most of the houses are like those at Rouen,
merely wooden frames filled with mortar, which, in several instances, is
faced with small bricks and flints, disposed in fanciful patterns: here
and there the beams are carved with a variety of grotesque figures. The
lower story of all those in the high street retires, leaving room for a
wooden colonnade, which shelters the passenger, though it is entirely
destitute of all architectural beauty. The head-dress of the females at
Bernay is peculiar, and so very archaic, that our chamber-maid at the
inn appeared to deserve a sketch, full as much as any monumental effigy.

[Illustration: Head-dress of females of Bernay]

On our road between Bernay and Orbec, we stopped at the village of
Chambrais, more commonly called Broglie. Before the revolution, it
belonged to the noble family of that name, and it thence derived its
familiar appellation. The former residence of the Seigneurs of Broglie,
which is still standing, apparently uninjured, upon an adjoining
eminence, has lately been restored to the present Marechal Duc de
Broglie. It looks like an extensive parish work-house, or like any thing
rather than a nobleman's seat.--The village church is very ancient and
still curious, though in parts considerably modernized. Unlike most
churches of great antiquity, it is not built in the form of a cross, but
consists only of a nave and choir, with side-aisles and an apsis, all on
a small scale[63]. Towards the north, the nave is separated from the
aisle by some of the largest and rudest piers I ever saw. They occupy
full two-thirds of the width of the intervening arches, which are five
feet wide, elliptic rather than semi-circular, and altogether without
ornament of any kind. Above each of these arches is a narrow,
circular-headed window, banded with a cylindrical pilaster; and, in most
instances, a row of quatrefoils runs between the pillar and the window.
The bases of the windows rest upon a string-course that extends round
the whole building; and on this also, alternating with the windows, rest
corbels, from which spring very short, clustered columns, intended to
support the groinings of the roof. On the south side, the massy piers
have been pared into comparatively slender pillars; and the arches are
pointed, as are all the lower windows in the church.--The font is of
stone, and ancient: it consists of a round basin, on a quadrangular
pedestal, like many in England.--The west front of the church is
peculiar. It is entered by a very wide, low, semi-circular door-way, of
rude architecture, and quite unornamented. Above is a window
corresponding with those in the clerestory; and, still higher, a row of
interlaced arches, also semi-circular. A pointed arch, the receptacle
for the statue of a saint, surmounts the whole; but this is, most
probably, of a later aera, as evidently are the two lateral
compartments, which terminate in slender spires of slate, and are
separated from the central division by Norman buttresses.

We stopped to dine at Orbec, a small and insignificant country town,
formerly an appendage of the houses of Orleans and Navarre, with the
title of a barony; but, more immediately before the revolution, the
domain of the family of Chaumont. Its church is a most uncouth edifice:
the plan is unusual; the entrance is in the north transept, which ends
in a square high tower.

Bernay, Orbec, and Lisieux, communicate only by cross roads, scarcely
passable by a carriage, even at this season of the year. From Orbec to
Lisieux the road runs by the side of the Touques, which, at Orbec, is no
more than a rivulet. The beautiful green meadows in the valley, appear
to repay the great care which is taken in the draining and irrigating of
them. They are every where intersected by small trenches, in which the
water is confined by means of sluices.--In this part of the country, we
passed several flocks of sheep, the true _moutons du pays_, a large
breed, with red legs and red spotted faces. Their coarse wool serves to
make the ordinary cloth of the country, but is inapplicable to any of a
finer texture. To remedy this deficiency, and, if possible, improve the
local manufactures, some large flocks of Merino sheep were imported at
the time when the French occupied Spain; and they are said to thrive.
But it is only of late years that any attempts, have been made of the
kind.--The Norman farmer, however careful about the breed of his horses,
has altogether neglected his sheep; and this is the more extraordinary,
considering that the prosperity of the province is inseparably connected
with that of the manufactures, and that much of the value of the produce
must of necessity depend upon the excellence of the material. His pigs
are the very perfection of ugliness: it is no hyperbole to say, that, in
their form, they partake as much of a greyhound as of an English
pig.--These animals are sure to attract the gaze of our countrymen; and
poor Trotter, in his narrative of the journey of Mr. Fox, expressed his
marvel so often, as to call down upon himself the witty vengeance of one
of our ablest periodical writers.

Melons are cultivated on a great scale in the country about Lisieux.
They grow here in the natural soil, occupying whole fields of
considerable size, and apparently without requiring any extraordinary
pains.--As we approached the city, the meadows, through which we passed,
were mostly occupied as extensive bleaching-grounds. Lisieux is an
industrious manufacturing town. Its ten thousand inhabitants find their
chief employment in the making of the ordinary woollen cloths, worn by
the peasantry of Normandy and of Lower Brittany. Linen and flannels are
also manufactured here, though on a comparatively trifling scale. For
trade of this description, Lisieux is well situated upon the banks of
the Touques, a small river, which, almost immediately under the walls of
the town, receives the waters of a yet smaller stream, the Orbec. A
project is in agitation, and it is said that it may be carried into
effect at an inconsiderable expence, of making the Touques navigable to
Lisieux. At present, it is so no farther than the the little town of the
same name as the river; and even this derives no great advantage from
the navigation; for, however near its situation is to the mouth of the
stream, it is approachable only by vessels of less than one hundred tons
burthen.--It was at Touques that Henry Vth landed in France, in the
spring of 1417, when the monarch, flushed with a degree of success as
extraordinary as it was unexpected, quitted England with the
determination of returning no more till the whole kingdom of France
should be subjugated.

The greater part of the houses in Lisieux are built of wood; and many of
them are old, and most of them are mean; yet, on the whole, it is
picturesque and handsome. Its streets are spacious, and contain several
large buildings: it is surrounded with pleasant _boulevards_; and its
situation, like that of most other Norman towns, is delightful.--In
consequence of the revolution, the city has lost the privilege of being
an episcopal see. Even when Napoleon, by virtue of the concordat of
1801, restored the Gallican church to its obedience to the the supreme
Pontiff, the see of Lisieux was suppressed. The six suffragan bishops of
ancient Normandy were at that time reduced to four, conformably to the
number of the departments of the province; and Lisieux and Avranches
merged in the more important dioceses of Bayeux and Coutances.

The cathedral, now the parish church of St. Peter, derived, however, one
advantage from the revolution. Another church, dedicated to St. Germain,
which had previously stood immediately before it, so as almost to block
up the approach, was taken down, and the west front of the cathedral was
made to open upon a spacious square.--Solid, simple grandeur are the
characters of this front, which, notwithstanding some slight anomalies,
is, upon the whole, a noble specimen of early pointed architecture.--It
is divided into three equal compartments, the lateral ones rising into
short square towers of similar height. The southern tower is surmounted
by a lofty stone spire, probably of a date posterior to the part below.
The spire of the opposite tower fell in 1553, at which time much injury
was done to the building, and particularly to the central door-way,
which, even to the present day, has never been repaired.--Contrary to
the usual elevation of French cathedrals, the great window over the
principal entrance is not circular, but pointed: it is divided into
three compartments by broad mullions, enriched with many mouldings. The
compartments end in acute pointed arches.--In the north tower, the whole
of the space from the basement story is occupied by only two tiers of
windows. Each tier contains two windows, extremely narrow, considering
their height; and yet, narrow as they are, each of them is parted by a
circular mullion or central pillar. You will better understand how high
they must be, when told that, in the southern tower, the space of the
upper row is divided into three distinct tiers; and still the windows do
not appear disproportionately short. They also are double, and the
interior arches are pointed; but the arches, within which they are
placed, are circular. In this circumstance lies the principal anomaly in
the front of the cathedral; but there is no appearance of any disparity
in point of dates; for the circular arches are supported on the same
slender mullions, with rude foliaged capitals, of great projection,
which are the most distinguishing characteristics of this style of
architecture.

The date of the building establishes the fact of the pointed arch being
in use, not only as an occasional variation, but in the entire
construction of churches upon a grand scale, as early as the eleventh
century.--Sammarthanus tells us that Bishop Herbert, who died in 1049,
began to build this church, but did not live to see it completed; and
Ordericus Vitalis expressly adds, that Hugh, the successor to Herbert,
upon his death-bed, in 1077, while retracing his past life, made use of
these words:--"Ecclesiam Sancti Petri, principis apostolorum, quam
venerabilis Herbertus, praedecessor meus, coepit, perfeci, studiose
adornavi, honorifice dedicavi, et cultoribus necessariisque divino
servitio vasis aliisque apparatibus copiose ditavi."--Language of this
kind appears too explicit to leave room for ambiguity, but an opinion
has still prevailed, founded probably upon the style of the
architecture, that the cathedral was not finished till near the
expiration of the thirteenth century. Admitting, however, such to be the
fact, I do not see how it will materially help those who favor the
opinion; for the building is far from being, as commonly happens in
great churches, a medley of incongruous parts; but it is upon one fixed
plan; and, as it was begun, so it was ended.--The exterior of the
extremity of the south transept is a still more complete example of the
early pointed style than the west front: this style, which was the most
chaste, and, if I may be allowed to use the expression, the most severe
of all, scarcely any where displays itself to greater advantage. The
central window is composed of five lancet divisions, supported upon
slender pillars: massy buttresses of several splays bound it on either
side.

The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of the
building. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond the
aisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, and
plain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is also
sculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support are
acute.--The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but the
capitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obvious
imitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smaller
ones. In the clerestory the windows are modern.--The transepts appear
the oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case;
whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being less
used in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objects
of subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisle
on the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of the
nave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender
and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute.--The Lady-Chapel,
which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for his
steady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see,
in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fell
into the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for the
invidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orleans.
Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct,
according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a high
mass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers, in
order, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the false
judgment which he pronounced[64].--The two windows by the side of the
altar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to the
effect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, through
the long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir,
the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing.--The central tower is open
within the church to a considerable height: it is supported by four
arches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, of
the same character as the rest of the building; and, still higher, on
each side, are two lancet-windows.--The vaulting of the roof is very
plain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved.

[Illustration: Ancient Tomb in the Cathedral at Lisieux]

At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus,
so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated with
the edifice, at the period when it was raised. The style of the
medallions which adorn it will be best understood by consulting the
annexed sketch, which is very faithful, though taken under every
possible disadvantage. The transept is now used as a school; and the
little filthy imps, who are there taught to drawl out their catechisms,
continued swarming round the feverish artist, during the progress of the
drawing. The character of the heads, the crowns, and the disposition of
the foliage, may be considered as indicating that it is a production, at
least of the Carlovingian period, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I
believe it is traditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint,
perhaps St. Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate
in the recollection of the name.--Above are two armed statues, probably
of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by
Willemin, in his useful work, _Les Monumens Francais_, under the title
of _Two Armed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral at Lisieux_; and
both are there figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great
many details which do not exist, and never could have existed, though at
the same time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of the
statues, one of which is yet nearly entire.--This may be reckoned among
the innumerable proofs of the disregard of accuracy which pervades the
works of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples to
sacrifice accuracy to what he considers effect.--Willemin describes the
monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he has
availed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this and
many other instances. It is evident that originally the statues were
recumbent; but I cannot ascertain when they changed their position.--No
other tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised to
Hannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop,
William d'Estouteville, founder of the _College de Lisieux_ at Paris,
that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, were
destroyed during the revolution.

The diocese of Lisieux was a more modern establishment than any other in
Normandy. Even those who are most desirous to honor it by antiquity, do
not venture to date its foundation higher than the middle of the sixth
century. Ordericus Vitalis, a monk of the province, suggests with some
reason that we ought not to be hasty in forming our judgment upon these
subjects; for that, owing to the destruction caused by the Norman
pirates and the abominable negligence (_damnabilis negligentia_) of
those to whom the care of the records of religious houses had
subsequently been intrusted, many documents had been irretrievably
lost.--The see of Lisieux was also peculiarly unfortunate, in having
twice been in a state of anarchy, and on each occasion for a period of
more than a century. The series of its prelates is interrupted from the
year 670 to 853, and again from 876 to 990.

It is rather extraordinary, that no one of the Lexovian bishops was ever
admitted by the church into the catalogue of her saints. Many of them
were prelates of unquestionable merit. Freculfus, in the ninth century,
was a patron of literature, and himself an author; Hugh of Eu, grandson
of Richard, Duke of Normandy, was one of the most illustrious
ecclesiastics of his day; Gilbert is described by Ordericus Vitalis as
having been a man of exemplary charity, and deeply versed in all
sciences, though it is admitted that he was somewhat too much addicted
to worldly pleasures, and not averse from gambling; and Arnulf, whose
letters and epigrams are preserved among the manuscripts of the Vatican,
was a prelate who would have done honor to St. Peter's chair.--All these
were bishops of Lisieux, during the ages when canonization was not
altogether so unfrequent as in our days. Arnulf particularly
distinguished himself by taking a leading part in the principal
transactions of the times. He accompanied the crusaders to the holy land
in 1147; five years subsequently he officiated at the marriage of Henry
Plantagenet with Eleanor of Guyenne, the repudiated wife of Louis le
Jeune, which was performed in his cathedral; he assisted at the
coronation of the same king, by whom he was shortly afterwards employed
in a mission of great importance at Rome; and he interposed to settle
the differences between that sovereign and Thomas a Becket; and though
he espoused the part of the prelate, he had the good fortune to retain
the favor of the monarch. A life thus eventful ended with the conviction
that all was vanity!--Arnulf, disgusted with sublunary honors, abdicated
his see and retired to a monastery at Paris, where he died.--One of the
immediate successors of this prelate, William of Rupierre, was the
ambassador of Richard Coeur-de-Lion to the Pope; and he pleaded the
cause of his sovereign against Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, on the
occasion of the differences that originated from the building of Chateau
Gaillard. He also resisted the power usurped by King John within the
city and liberties of Lisieux, and finally obtained a sentence from the
Norman court of exchequer, whereby the privileges of the dukes of the
province were restricted to what was called the _Placitum Spathae_,
consisting of the right of billetting soldiers, of coining money, and of
hearing and determining in cases of appeal. The decision is honorable
both to the independence of the court, and the vigor of the prelate.--In
times nearer to our own, a bishop of Lisieux, Jean Hennuyer, obtained a
very different distinction. Authors are strangely at variance whether
this prelate is to be regarded as the protector or the persecutor of the
protestants. All agree that his church suffered materially from the
excesses of the Huguenots, in 1562, and that, on the following year, he
received public thanks from the Cardinal of Bourbon, for the firmness
with which he had opposed them; but the point at issue is, whether,
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, ten years subsequently, he
withstood the sanguinary orders from the court to put the Huguenots to
the sword, or whether he endeavored, as far as lay in his power, to
forward the pious labor of extirpating the heretics, but was himself
effectually resisted by the king's own lieutenant.--Sammarthanus tells
us that the first of these traditions rests solely upon the authority
of Anthony Mallet[65] but it obtained general credence till within the
last three years, when a very well-informed writer, in the _Mercure de
France_, and subsequently in the article _Hennuyer_ in the
_Bibliographie Universelle_, espoused, and has apparently established,
the opposite opinion.

We visited only one other of the churches in Lisieux, that of St.
Jacques, a large edifice, in a bad style of pointed architecture, and
full of gaudy altars and ordinary pictures. On the outside of the stalls
of the choir towards the north is some curious carving; but I should
scarcely have been induced to have spoken of the building, were it not
for one of the paintings, which, however uninteresting as a piece of
art, appears to possess some historical value. It represents how the
bones of St. Ursinus were miraculously translated to Lisieux, under the
auspices of Hugh the Bishop, in 1055; and it professes, and apparently
with truth, to be a copy, made in the seventeenth century, from an
original of great antiquity. The legend relating to the relics of this
saint, is noticed by no author with whom I am acquainted, nor do I find
him mentioned any where in conjunction with the church of Lisieux, or
with any other Norman diocese.--But the extraordinary privilege granted
to the canons of the cathedral, of being Earls of Lisieux, and of
exercising all civil and criminal jurisdiction within the earldom, upon
the vigil and feast-day of St. Ursinus, in every year, is most probably
connected with the tradition commemorated by the picture. The actual
existence of the privilege, in modern times, we learn from Ducarel; who
also details at length the curious ceremonies with which the claim of it
was accompanied. The exercise of these rights was confirmed by a compact
between the canons and the bishop, who, prior to the revolution, united
the secular coronet of an earl with the episcopal mitre, and bore
supreme sway in all civil and ecclesiastical polity, during the
remaining three hundred and sixty-three days in the year.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: This ordinance is preserved by Du Monstier in the
_Neustria Pia_, p. 400.]

[Footnote 62: The preamble of the charter is as follows:--"Nulli dubium
videri debet futuros esse haeredes Regni coelestis, et cohaeredes Dei,
qui Christum haeredem sui facientes, eorum, quae in hujus vitae
peregrinatione, quasi a quadam paterna haereditate possident, locis ea
Divino cultui deditis mancipare non dubitant. Ad quam rem, nostram
firmat fidem calix aquae frigidae, qui, juxta Evangelicum verbum, suo
pollet munere. Non ergo divini muneris gratia privari credendi sunt, qui
Ecclesiasticis obsequiis, etsi officio non intersunt, rerum tamen suarum
admistratione, Divini officii sustentant ministros: ea spe temporalem
subministrantes alimoniam, ut sic solummodo coelestibus reddant
intentos, qui coelestis Regis assiduo constituuntur invigilare obsequio,
participes fiant ejusmodi beneficii omnimodo."--_Neustria Pia_, p. 398.]

[Footnote 63: The following are the dimensions of the building, in
English feet:--

LENGTH. WIDTH.
Nave 54 15
Choir 45 15
North aisle 7
South ditto 15

]

[Footnote 64: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47.]

[Footnote 65: "Sed ne quid omittam eorum etiam quae unum Antonium
_Mallet_ habent auctorem, anno 1572, cum prorex urbis Lexoviensis
Livarotus a Carolo rege literas accepisset, quibus qui Lexovii infecti
erant haeresi occidi omnes jubebantur per eos dies quibus princeps
civitas cruore ejus insaniae hominum commaduerat, easque communicasset
episcopo: Neque sum passurus, inquit praesul, oves meas, et quamquam
evagatas Christi caula, meas tamen adhuc, necdum desperatas, gladio
trucidari. Referente contra prorege imperio se mandatoque urgeri
principis; quod si posthabeatur, omnem esse periculi aleam in caput suum
moriendique necessitatem redituram: Et polliceor, inquit episcopus, illa
te eximendum, postulantique cautionem, praesul consignatum manu sua
scriptum tradidit, fidem datam confirmans. Qua illico publicata
clementia, et ad errantes oves perlata, sollicitudine praesulis
vigilantis circa gregis commissi sibi salutem et conservationem, rediere
sensim in ecclesiae sinum omnes quotquot Lexovii per ea tempora novum
istud fataleque delirium dementarat, nec ultra ibidem diu visi qui a
recta fide aberrarent."--_Gallia Christiana_, p. 802.]

Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2)
by
Dawson Turner

St. Ouen, the principal church in the place, is a poor edifice. It
bears, however, some tokens of remote age: such are the circular arches
in the choir, and a curious capital, on which are represented two
figures in combat, of rude sculpture.--A second church, that of Notre
Dame des Pres, now turned into a tan-house, exhibits an architectural
feature which is altogether novel. Over the great entrance, it has a
string-course, apparently intended to represent a corbel-table, though
it does not support any superior member; and the intermediate spaces
between the corbels, instead of being left blank, as usual, are filled
with sculptured stones, which project considerably, though less than the
corbels with which they alternate. There is something of the same kind,
but by no means equally remarkable, over the arcades above the west
door-way of Castle-Acre Priory[49]. Neither Mr. Cotman's memory, nor my
own, will furnish another example.--The church of Notre Dame des Pres is
of the period when the pointed style was beginning to be employed. The
exterior is considerably injured: to the interior we could not obtain
admission.

The suburbs of Pont-Audemer furnish another church dedicated to St.
Germain, which would have been an excellent subject for both pen and
pencil, had it undergone less alteration. The short, thick, square,
central tower has, on each side, a row of four windows, of nearly the
earliest pointed style; many of the windows of the body of the church
have semi-circular heads; the corbels which extend in a line round the
nave and transepts are strangely grotesque; and, on the north side of
the eastern extremity, is a semi-circular chapel, as at St.
Georges.--The inside is dark and gloomy, the floor unpaved, and every
thing in and about it in a state of utter neglect, except some dozen
saints, all in the gayest attire, and covered with artificial flowers.
The capitals of the columns are in the true Norman style. Those at St.
Georges are scarcely more fantastic, or more monstrous.--Between two of
the arches of the choir, on the south side of this church, is the effigy
of a man in his robes, coifed with a close cap, lying on an altar-tomb.
The figure is much mutilated; but the style of the canopy-work over the
head indicates that it is not of great antiquity. The feet of the statue
rest upon a dog, who is busily occupied in gnawing a marrow-bone.--Dogs
at the base of monumental effigies are common, and they have been
considered as symbols of fidelity and honor; but surely the same is not
intended to be typified by a dog thus employed; and it is not likely
that his being so is a mere caprice of the sculptor's.--There is no
inscription upon the monument; nor could we learn whom it is intended to
commemorate.

At but a short distance from Pont-Audemer, higher up the Risle, lies the
yet smaller town of Montfort, near which are still to be traced, the
ruins of a castle,[50] memorable for the thirty days' siege, which it
supported from the army of Henry Ist, in 1122; and dismantled by Charles
Vth, at the same time that he razed the fortifications of Pont-Audemer.
The Baron of Montfort yet ranks in our peerage; though I am not aware
that the nobleman, who at present bears the title, boasts a descent from
any part of the family of _Hugh with a beard_, the owner of Montfort at
the time of the conquest, and one of the Conqueror's attendants at the
battle of Hastings.

From Pont-Audemer we proceeded to Honfleur: it was market-day at the
place which we had quitted, and the throng of persons who passed us on
the road, gave great life and variety to the scene. There was scarcely
an individual from whom we did not receive a friendly smile or nod,
accompanied by a _bon jour_; for the practice obtains commonly in
France, among the peasants, of saluting those whom they consider their
superiors. Almost all that were going to market, whether male or female,
were mounted on horses or asses; and their fruit, vegetables, butchers'
meat, live fowls, and live sheep, were indiscriminately carried in the
same way.

About a league before we arrived at Honfleur, a distant view of the
eastern banks of the river opened upon us from the summit of a hill, and
we felt, or fancied that we felt, "the air freshened from the wave." As
we descended, the ample Seine, here not less than nine miles in width,
suddenly displayed itself, and we had not gone far before we came in
sight of Honfleur. The mist occasioned by the intense heat, prevented us
from seeing distinctly the opposite towns of Havre and Harfleur: we
could only just discern the spire of the latter, and the long projecting
line of the piers and fortifications of Havre. The great river rolls
majestically into the British Channel between these two points, and
forms the bay of Honfleur. About four miles higher up the stream where
it narrows, the promontories of Quilleboeuf and of Tancarville close the
prospect.--Honfleur itself is finely situated: valleys, full of meadows
of the liveliest green, open to the Seine in the immediate vicinity of
the town; and the hills with which it is backed are beautifully clothed
with foliage to the very edge of the water. The trees, far from being
stunted and leafless, as on the eastern coast of England, appear as if
they were indebted to their situation for a verdure of unusual
luxuriancy. A similar line of hills borders the Seine on either side, as
far as the eye can reach.

It was unfortunate for us, that we entered the town at low water, when
the empty harbor and slimy river could scarcely fail to prepossess us
unfavorably. The quays are faced with stone, and the two basins are fine
works, and well adapted for commerce. This part of Honfleur reminded us
of Dieppe; but the houses, though equally varied in form and materials,
are not equally handsome.--Still less so are the churches; and a
picturesque castle is wholly wanting.--In the principal object of my
journey to Honfleur, my expectations were completely frustrated. I had
been told at Rouen, that I should here find a very ancient wooden
church, and our imagination had pictured to us one equally remarkable
as that of Greensted, in Essex, and probably constructed in the same
manner, of massy trunks of trees. With the usual anticipation of an
antiquary, I imagined that I should discover a parallel to that most
singular building; which, as every body knows, is one of the greatest
architectural curiosities in England. But, alas! I was sadly
disappointed. The wooden church of Honfleur, so old in the report of my
informant, is merely a thing of yesterday, certainly not above two
hundred and fifty years of age; and, though it is undeniably of wood,
within and without, the walls are made, as in most of the houses in the
town, of a timber frame filled with clay. There is another church in
Honfleur, but it was equally without interest. Thus baffled, we walked
to the heights above the town: at the top of the cliff was a crowd of
people, some of them engaged in devotion near a large wooden crucifix,
others enjoying themselves at different games, or sitting upon the neat
stone benches, which are scattered plentifully about the walks in this
charming situation. The neighboring little chapel of Notre Dame de Grace
is regarded as a building of great sanctity, and is especially resorted
to by sailors, a class of people who are superstitious, all the world
over. It abounds with their votive tablets. From the roof and walls


"Pendono intorno in lungo ordine i voti,
Che vi portaro i creduli divoti."


Among the pictures, we counted nineteen, commemorative of escape from
shipwreck, all of them painted after precisely the same pattern: a
stormy sea, a vessel in distress, and the Virgin holding the infant
Savior in her arms, appearing through a black cloud in the corner,--In
the Catholic ritual, the holy Virgin, is termed _Maris Stella_, and she
is II+-I"' I muI3/4I?II.I1/2 [English. Not in Original: pre-eminently, especially,
above all] the protectress of Normandy.

Honfleur is still a fortified town; but it does not appear a place of
much strength, nor is it important in any point of view. Its trade is
inconsiderable, and its population does not amount to nine thousand
inhabitants. But in the year 1450, while in the hands of our countrymen,
it sustained a siege of a month's duration from the king of France; and,
in the following century, it had the distinction, attended with but
little honor, of being the last place in the kingdom that held out for
the league.

From Honfleur we would fain have returned by Sanson-sur-Risle and
Foullebec, at both which villages M. Le Prevost had led us to expect
curious churches; but our postillion assured us that the roads were
wholly impassable. We were therefore compelled to allow Mr. Cotman to
visit them alone, while we retraced a portion of our steps through the
valley of the Risle, and then took an eastern direction to Bourg-Achard
in our way to Rouen.

Bourg-Achard was the seat of an abbey, built by the monks of Falaise, in
1143: it was originally dedicated to St. Lo; but St. Eustatius, the
favorite saint of this part of the country, afterwards became its
patron. Before the revolution, his skull was preserved in the sacristy
of the convent, enchased in a bust of silver gilt[51]; and even now,
when the relic has been consigned to its kindred dust, and the shrine to
the furnace, and the abbey has been levelled with the ground, there
remains in the parochial church a fragment of sculpture, which evidently
represented the miracle that led to Eustatius' conversion.--The knight,
indeed, is gone, and the cross has disappeared from between the horns of
the stag; but the horse and the deer, are left, and their position
indicates the legend.--The church of Bourg-Achard has been materially
injured. The whole of the building, from the transept westward, has been
taken down; but it deserves a visit, if only as retaining a _benitier_
of ancient form and workmanship, and a leaden font. Of the latter, I
send you a drawing. Leaden fonts are of very rare occurrence in
England[52], and I never saw or heard of another such in France: indeed,
a baptismal font of any kind is seldom to be seen in a French church,
and the vessels used for containing the holy water, are in most cases
nothing more than small basins in the form of escalop shells, affixed to
the wall, or to some pillar near the entrance.--It is possible that
the fonts were removed and sold during the revolution, as they were in
our own country, by the ordinance of the houses of parliament, after the
deposition of Charles Ist; but this is a mere conjecture on my own part.
It is also possible that they may be kept in the sacristy, where I have
certainly seen them in some cases. In earlier times, they not only
existed in every church, but were looked upon with superstitious
reverence. They are frequently mentioned in the decrees of
ecclesiastical councils; some of which provide for keeping them clean
and locked; others for consigning the keys of them to proper officers;
others direct that they should never be without water; and others that
nothing profane should be laid upon them[53].

[Illustration: Leaden Font at Bourg-Achard]

As we were at breakfast this morning, a procession, attended by a great
throng, passed our windows, and we were invited by our landlady to go to
the church and see the wedding of two of the principal persons of the
parish, We accepted the proposal; and, though the same ceremony has been
witnessed by thousands of Englishmen, yet I doubt whether it has been
described by any one.--The bride was a girl of very interesting
appearance, dressed wholly in white: even her shoes were white, and a
bouquet of white roses, jessamine, and orange-flowers, was placed in her
bosom.--The mayor of the town conducted her to the altar. Previously to
the commencement of the service, the priest stated aloud that the forms
required by law, for what is termed the civil marriage, had been
completed. It was highly necessary that he should do so; for, according
to the present code, a minister of any persuasion, who proceeds to the
religious ceremonies of marriage before the parties have been married by
the magistrate, is subject to very heavy penalties, to imprisonment, and
to transportation. Indeed, going to church at all for the purpose of
marriage, is quite a work of supererogation, and may be omitted or not,
just as the parties please; the law requiring no other proof of a
marriage, beyond the certificate recorded in the municipal registry.
After this most important preliminary, the priest exhorted every one
present, under pain of excommunication, to declare if they knew of any
impediment: this, however, was merely done for the purpose of keeping up
the dignity of the church, for the knot was already tied as fast as it
ever could be. He then read a discourse upon the sanctity of the
marriage compact, and the excellence of the wedded state among the
Catholics, compared to what prevailed formerly among the Jews and
Heathens, who degraded it by frequent divorces and licentiousness. The
parties now declared their mutual consent, and his reverence enjoined
each to be to the other "comme un epoux fidele et de lui tenir fidelite
en toutes choses."--The ring was presented to the minister by one of the
acolytes, upon a gold plate; and, before he directed the bridegroom to
place it upon the finger of the lady, he desired him to observe that it
was a symbol of marriage.--During the whole of the service two other
acolytes were stationed in front of the bride and bridegroom, each
holding in his hands a lighted taper; and near the conclusion, while
they knelt before the altar, a pall of flowered brocade was stretched
behind them, as emblematic of their union. Holy water was not forgotten;
for, in almost every rite of the Catholic church, the mystic
sanctification by water and by fire continually occurs.--The ceremony
ended by the priest's receiving the sacrament himself, but without
administering it to any other individual present. Having taken it, he
kissed the paten which had contained the holy elements, and all the
party did the same: each, too, in succession, put a piece of money into
a cup, to which we also were invited to contribute, for the love of the
Holy Virgin.--They entered by the south door, but the great western
portal was thrown open as they left the church; and by that they
departed.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 47: _Masson de St. Amand, Essais Historiques sur Evreux_, I.
p. 39.]

[Footnote 48: _Johnes' Translation_, 8vo, IV. p. 292.]

[Footnote 49: See _Britten's Architectural Antiquities_, III. t. 2.]

[Footnote 50: _Goube, Histoire de Normandie_, III. 249.]

[Footnote 51: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 319.]

[Footnote 52: Mr. Gough, (See _Archaeologia_, X. p. 187.) whose attention
had been much directed to this subject, seems to have known only four
fonts made of lead, in the kingdom;--at Brookland in Kent, Dorchester in
Oxfordshire, Wareham in Dorsetshire, and Walmsford in Northamptonshire;
but there are in all probability many more. We have at least four in
Norfolk. He says, "they are supposed to be of high antiquity; and that
at Brookland may have relation to the time of Birinus himself. To what
circumstance the others are to be referred, or from what other church
brought, does not appear."--The leaden fonts which I have seen, have all
been raised upon a basis of brick or stone, like this at Bourg-Achard,
and are all of nearly the same pattern.]

[Footnote 53: See _Concilia Normannica_, II. pp. 56, 117, 403, 491, 508,
&c]




LETTER XX.

MOULINEAUX--CASTLE OF ROBERT THE DEVIL--BOURG-THEROUDE--ABBEY OF
BEC--BRIONNE.


(_Brionne, July_, 1818.)

Having accomplished the objects which we had proposed to ourselves in
Rouen and its vicinity, we set out this morning upon our excursion to
the western parts of the province. Our first stage, to Moulineaux, was
by the same road by which we returned a few days ago from Bourg-Achard.
It is a delightful ride, through the valley of the Seine, here of great
width, stretching to our left in an uninterrupted course of flat open
country, but, on our right hand, bordered at no great distance by the
ridge of steep chalky cliffs which line the bank of the river. The road
appears to have been a work of considerable labor: it is every where
raised, and in some places as high as fifteen feet above the level of
the fields on either side.--Agriculture in this district is conducted,
as about Paris, upon the plan called by the French _la petite culture_:
the fields are all divided into narrow strips; so that a piece of not
more than two or three acres, frequently produces eight or ten different
crops, some of grain, others of culinary vegetables, at the same time
that many of these portions are planted with apple and cherry trees. The
land is all open and uninclosed: not a fence is to be seen; nor do there
even appear to be any balks or head-marks. Strangers therefore who come,
like us, from a country entirely inclosed, cannot refrain from frequent
expressions of surprise how it is that every person here is enabled to
tell the limits of his own property.

Moulineaux is a poor village, a mere assemblage of cottages, with mud
walls and thatched roofs. But the church is interesting, though
desecrated and verging to ruin. Even now the outside alone is entire.
The interior is gutted and in a state of absolute neglect.--The building
is of the earliest pointed style: its lancet-windows are of the plainest
kind, being destitute of side pillars: in some of the windows are still
remains of handsome painted glass.--Either the antiquaries in France are
more honest than in England, or they want taste, or objects of this kind
do not find a ready market. We know too well how many an English church,
albeit well guarded by the churchwardens and the parson, has seen its
windows despoiled of every shield, and saint, and motto; and we also
know full well, by whom, and for whom, such ravages are committed. In
France, on the contrary, where painted glass still fills the windows of
sacred buildings, now employed for the meanest purposes, or wholly
deserted, no one will even take the trouble of carrying it away; and the
storied panes are left, as derelicts utterly without value.--The east
end of the church at Moulineaux is semi-circular; the roof is of stone,
handsomely groined, and the groinings spring from fanciful corbels. On
either side of the nave, near the choir, is a recess in the wall, carved
with tabernacle-work, and serving for a piscina. Recesses of this kind,
though of frequent occurrence in English churches, do not often appear
in France. Still less common are those elaborate screens of carved
timber, often richly gilt or gorgeously painted, which separate the nave
from the chancel in the churches of many of our smaller villages at
home. The only one I ever recollect to have seen in France was at
Moulineaux.--I also observed a mutilated pillar, which originally
supported the altar, ornamented with escalop shells and fleurs-de-lys in
bold relief. It reminded me of one figured in the _Antiquarian
Repertory_, from Harold's chapel, in Battle Abbey[54].

Immediately after leaving Moulineaux, the road winds along the base of a
steep chalk hill, whose brow is crowned by the remains of the famous
castle of Robert the Devil, the father of Richard Fearnought. Robert the
Devil is a mighty hero of romance; but there is some difficulty in
discovering his historical prototype. Could we point out his _gestes_ in
the chronicle, they would hardly outvalue his adventures, as they are
recorded in the nursery tale. Robert haunts this castle, which appears
to have been of great extent, though its ruins are very indistinct. The
walls on the southern side are rents, and covered with brush-wood; and
no architectural feature is discernible. Wide and deep fosses encircle
the site, which is undermined by spacious crypts and subterraneous
caverns.--The fortress is evidently of remote, but uncertain, antiquity:
it was dismantled by King John when he abandoned the duchy. The
historians of Normandy say that it was re-fortified during the civil
wars; and the fact is not destitute of probability, as its position is
bold and commanding.

Bourg-Theroude, our next stage, is one of those places which are
indebted to their names alone for the little importance they possess. At
present, it is a small assemblage of mean houses, most of them inns; but
its Latin appellation, _Burgus Thuroldi_, commemorates no less a
personage than one of the preceptors of William the Conqueror, and his
grand constable at the time when he effected the conquest of
England.--The name of Turold occurs upon the Bayeux tapestry,
designating one of the ambassadors dispatched by the Norman Duke to Guy,
Earl of Ponthieu; and it is supposed that the Turold there represented
was the grand constable[55].--The church of Bourg-Theroude, which was
collegiate before the revolution, is at present uninteresting in every
point of view.

About half way from this place to Brionne, we came in sight of the
remains of the celebrated abbey of Bec, situated a mile and half or two
miles distant to our right, at the extremity of a beautiful valley. We
had been repeatedly assured that scarcely one stone of this formerly
magnificent building was left upon another; but it would have shewn an
unpardonable want of curiosity to have passed so near without visiting
it: even to stand upon the spot which such a monastery originally
covered is a privilege not lightly to be foregone:--


"The pilgrim who journeys all day,
To visit some far distant shrine;
If he bear but a relic away,
Is happy, nor heard to repine."--


And _happiness_ of this kind would on such an occasion infallibly fall
to your lot and to mine. A love for botany or for antiquities would
equally furnish _relics_ on a similar _pilgrimage_.

As usual, the accounts which we had received proved incorrect. The
greater part of the conventual edifice still exists, but it has no kind
of architectural value. Some detached portions, whose original use it
would be difficult now to conjecture, appear, from their wide pointed
windows, to be of the fifteenth century. The other buildings were
probably erected within the last fifty years.--The part inhabited by the
monks is at this time principally employed as a cotton-mill; and, were
it in England, nobody would suspect that it ever had any other
destination. Of the church, the tower[56] only is in existence. I find
no account of its date; though authors have been unusually profuse in
their details of all particulars relating to this monastery. I am
inclined to refer it to the beginning of the seventeenth century, in
which case it was built shortly after the destruction of the nave. Its
character is simple, solid elegance. Its ornaments are few, but they are
selected and disposed with judgment. Each corner is flanked by two
buttresses, which unite at top, and there terminate in a crocketed
pinnacle. The buttresses are also ornamented with tabernacles of saints
at different heights; and one of the tabernacles upon each buttress,
about mid-way up the tower, still retains a statue as large as life, of
apparently good workmanship. They were fortunately too high for the
democrats to destroy with ease. The height of the tower is one hundred
and fifty feet, as I found by the staircase of two hundred steps, which
remains uninjured, in a circular turret attached to the south side. The
termination of this turret is the most singular part of the structure:
it is surmounted by a cap, considerably higher than the pinnacles, and
composed, like a bee-hive, of a number of circles, each smaller than the
one below it. A few ruined arches of the east end of the church, and of
one of the side chapels are also existing. The rest is levelled with the
ground, and has probably been in a great measure destroyed lately; for
piles of wrought stones are heaped up on all sides.

If historical recollections or architectural beauty could have proved a
protection in the days of revolution, the church of Bec had undoubtedly
stood. Ducarel, who saw it in its perfection, says it was one of the
finest gothic structures in France; and his account of it, though only
an abridgement of that given by Du Plessis, in his _History of Upper
Normandy_, is curious and valuable.--Mr. Gough states the annual income
of the abbey at the period of the revolution, to have exceeded twenty
thousand crowns. Its patronage was most extensive: the monks presented
to one hundred and sixty advowsons, two of them in the metropolis; and
thirty other ecclesiastical benefices, as well priories as chapels, were
in their gift[57].--Its possessions, as we may collect from the various
charters and donations, might have led us to expect a larger revenue.
The estates belonging to the monastery in England, prior to the
reformation, were both numerous and valuable.

Sammarthanus, author of the _Gallia Christiana_, says, in speaking of
Bec, that, whether considered as to religion or literature, there was
not, in the eleventh century, a more celebrated convent throughout the
whole of Neustria. The founder of the abbey was Hellouin, sometimes
called Herluin, a nobleman, descended by the mother's side from the
Counts of Flanders, but he himself was a native of the territory of
Brionne, and educated in the castle of Gislebert, earl of that district.
Hellouin determined, at an early age, to withdraw himself from the court
and from the world: it seems he was displeased or affronted by the
conduct of the earl; and we may collect from the chroniclers, that it
was not a very easy task in those times for an individual of rank,
intent upon monastic seclusion, to carry his purpose into effect, and
that still greater difficulties were to be encountered if he wished to
put his property into mortmain. Hellouin was obliged to counterfeit
madness, and at last to come to a very painful explanation with his
liege lord; and, when he finally succeeded in obtaining the permission
he craved, his establishment was so poor, that he was compelled to take
upon himself the office of abbot, from an inability to find any other
person who would accept it.--The monkish historians lavish their praises
upon Hellouin. They assign to him every virtue under heaven; but they
particularly laud him for his humility and industry: all day long he
worked as a laborer in the building of his convent, whilst the night was
passed in committing the psalter to memory. At this period of his life,
a curious anecdote is recorded of him: curious in itself, as
illustrative of the character of the man; and particularly curious, in
being quoted as matter of commendation, and thus serving to illustrate
the feelings of a great body of the community.--His mother, who shared
in the pious disposition of her son, had attached herself to the convent
to assist in the menial offices; and one day, while she was thus
engaged, the building caught fire, and she perished in the flames; upon
which, Hellouin, though bathed in tears, lifted up his hands to heaven,
and gave thanks to God that his parent had been burned to death in the
midst of an occupation of humility and piety!

During the life of Hellouin, the abbey was twice levelled with the
ground: on each occasion it rose more splendid from its ruins, and on
each the site was changed, till at length it was fixed upon the spot
from which its ruins are now vanishing. The whole of Normandy would
scarcely furnish a more desirable situation. Under the prelacy of
Hellouin, Bec increased rapidly in celebrity, and consequently in the
number of its inmates: it was principally indebted for this increase to
an accidental circumstance. Lanfranc, a native of Pavia, a lawyer in
Italy, but a monk in France, after having visited various monasteries,
and distinguished himself by defending the doctrine of the real
presence, then impugned by Berengarius, established himself here in the
year 1042, and immediately opened a school, which, to judge from the
language of Ordericus Vitalis[58], seems to have been the first ever
known in Normandy. Scholars from France, from England, and from
Flanders, hastened to place themselves under his care; his fame,
according to William of Malmesbury, went forth into the outer parts of
the earth; and Bec, under his auspices, became a most celebrated resort
of literature. To borrow the more copious account given by William of
Jumieges--"report quickly spread the glory of Bec, and of its abbot,
Hellouin, through every land. The clergy, the sons of dukes, the most
eminent schoolmasters, the most powerful of the laity, and the nobility,
all hastened hither. Many, actuated by love for Lanfranc, gave their
lands to the convent. The abbey was enriched with ornaments, with
possessions, and with noble inmates. Religion and learning increased;
property of all kinds abounded; and the monks, who but a few years
before, could scarcely command sufficient ground for the site of their
own building, now saw their estates extend for many miles in a
lengthening line."--Promotion followed the fame of Lanfranc, who soon
became abbot of the royal monastery of St. Stephen, at Caen, and thence
was translated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.

It was the rare good fortune of Bec, that the abbey furnished two
successive metropolitans to the English church, both of them selected
for their erudition, Lanfranc and Anselm. It is not a little remarkable,
too, that both were Italians. Lanfranc, whilst archbishop of Canterbury,
presided in the year 1077, at the dedication of the third church built
at Bec. We may judge how far the abbey had at that time increased in
consequence; for five bishops, one of them brother to the Conqueror,
honored the ceremony with their presence; and the nobles and ladies of
France, Normandy, and England crowded to the spot, to refresh their
bodies by the pleasures of the festival, and their souls by endowments
to the convent.

In the fifteenth century, when our Henry Vth brought his victorious
armies into France, the monks of Bec were reduced to a painful
alternative. It was apprehended by the French monarch, that the
monastery might be converted into a depot by the English; and they were
commanded either to demolish the church, or to fortify it against the
invaders. They naturally regarded the latter as the lesser evil; and the
consequence was, that the abbey was scarcely put into a state of
defence, when it was attacked by the enemy, and, after sustaining a
siege for a month, was obliged to surrender. A great part of the
monastic buildings were levelled to the ground; and the fortifications
which had been so strangely affixed to them were also razed: meanwhile
the monks suffered grievously from the contending parties: their
sacristy was plundered; their treasury emptied; and they were themselves
exposed to a variety of personal hardships. At the same time, also, the
tomb of the Empress Maud[59], which faced the high altar, was destroyed,
after having been stripped of its silver ornaments.

Considering the number of illustrious persons who were abbots or
patrons of Bec, and who had been elected from it to the superintendance
of other monasteries, the church does not appear to have been rich in
monuments. We read indeed of many individuals who were interred here
belonging to the house of Neubourg, a family distinguished among the
benefactors of the convent; and the records of the abbey speak also of
the tomb of Richard of St. Leger, Bishop of Evreux; but the Empress was
the only royal personage who selected this convent as the resting-place
for her remains; and she likewise appears to have been the only eminent
one, except Hellouin, the founder, who lay in the chapter-house, under a
slab of black marble, with various figures of rude workmanship[60]
carved upon it. His epitaph has more merit than the general class of
monumental inscriptions:--


"Hunc spectans tumulum, titulo cognosce sepultum;
Est via virtutis nosse quis ipse fuit.
Dum quater hic denos aevi venisset ad annos,
Quae fuerant secli sprevit amore Dei.
Mutans ergo vices, mundi de milite miles
Fit Christi subito, Monachus ex laico.
Hinc sibi, more patrum, socians collegia fratrum,
Cura, qua decuit, rexit eos, aluit.
Quot quantasque vides, hic solus condidit aedes,
Non tam divitiis quam fidei meritis.
Quas puer haud didicit scripturas postea scivit,
Doctus ut indoctum vix sequeretur eum.
Flentibus hunc nobis tulit inclementia mortis
Sextilis quina bisque die decima.
Herluine pater, sic cA"lica scandis ovantA"r;
Credere namque tuis hoc licet ex meritis."


In number of inmates, extent of possessions, and possibly, in
magnificence of buildings, other Norman monasteries may have excelled
Bec: none equalled it in the prouder honor of being a seminary for
eminent men and especially for those destined to the highest stations in
the church. Lanfranc and Anselm were not the only two of its monks who
were seated on the archiepiscopal throne at Canterbury. Two others,
Theobald and Hubert obtained the same dignity in the following century;
and Roger, the seventh abbot of Bec, enjoyed the still more enviable
distinction of having been unanimously elected to fill the office of
metropolitan, but of possessing sufficient firmness of mind to resist
the attractions of wealth, and rank, and power. The sees of Rochester,
Beauvais, and Evreux were likewise filled by monks from Bec; and it was
here that many monastic establishments, both Norman and foreign, found
their pastors. Three of our own most celebrated convents, those of
Chester, Ely, and St. Edmund's Bury, received at different epochs their
abbots from Bec; and during the prelacy of Anselm, the supreme pontiff
himself selected a monk of this house as the prior of the distant
convent of the holy Savior at Capua.--The village of Bec, which adjoins
the abbey, is small and unimportant.

I was returning to our carriage, when a soldier invited me to walk to a
part of the monastic grounds (for they are very extensive) which is
appropriated to the purpose of keeping up the true breed of Norman
horses. The French government have several similar establishments: they
consider the matter as one of national importance; and, as France has
not yet produced a Duke of Bedford or a Mr. Coke, the state is obliged
to undertake what would be much better effected by the energy of
individuals.--A Norman horse is an excellent draft horse: he is strong,
bony, and well proportioned. But the natives are not content with this
qualified praise: they contend that he is equally unrivalled as a
saddle-horse, as a hunter, and as a charger. In this part of the country
the present average price of a hussar's horse is nineteen pounds; of a
dragoon's thirty-four pounds; and of an officer's eighty pounds.--These
prices are considered high, but not extravagant. France abounds at this
time in fine horses. The losses occasioned by the revolutionary wars,
and more especially by the disastrous Russian campaign, have been more
than compensated by five years of peace, and by the horses that were
left by the allied troops. An annual supply is also drawn from
Mecklenburg and the adjacent countries. Importations of this kind are
regarded as indispensable, to prevent a degeneration in the stock. A
Frenchman can scarcely be brought to believe it possible; that we in
England can preserve our fine breed of horses without having recourse to
similar expedients; and if at last, by dint of repeated asseverations,
you succeed in obtaining a reluctant assent, the conversation is almost
sure to end in a shrug of the shoulders, accompanied with the
remark--"Ah, vous autres Anglais, vous voulez toujours voler de vos
propres ailes."

As we approached Brionne, the face of the country became more uneven;
and we passed an extensive tract of uncultivated chalk hills, resembling
the downs of Wiltshire.--Brionne itself lies in a valley watered by the
Risle: the situation is agreeable, and advantageous for trade. The
present number of its inhabitants does not amount to two thousand; and
there is no reason to apprehend that the population has materially
decreased of late years. But in the times of Norman rule, Brionne was a
town of more importance: it had then three churches, besides an abbey
and a lazar-house. At present a single church only remains; and this is
neither large, nor handsome, nor ancient, nor remarkable in any point of
view. We found in it a monument of the revolution, which I never saw
elsewhere, and which I never expected to see at all. The age of reason
was a sadly irrational age.--The tablet containing the rights and duties
of man, disposed in two columns, like the tables of the Mosaic law, is
still suffered to exist in the church, though shorn of all its
republican dignity, and degraded into the front of a pew.

On the summit of a hill that overhangs the town, stood formerly the
castle of the Earls of Brionne; and a portion of the building, though it
be but an insignificant fragment, is still left. The part now standing
consists of little more than two sides of the square dungeon, The walls,
which are about fifty feet in height, appear crumbling and ragged, as
they have lost the greater part of their original facing. Yet their
thickness, which even now exceeds twelve feet, may enable them to bid
defiance for many a century, to "the heat of the sun, and the furious
winter's rages."--Nearly the half of one of the sides, which is seventy
feet long, is occupied by three flat Norman buttresses, of very small
projection. No arched door-way, no window remains; nor any thing, except
these buttresses, to give a distinct character to the architecture: the
hill is so overgrown with brush-wood, that though traces of foundation
are discernible in almost every part of it, no clear idea can be formed
of the dimensions or plan of the building. Its importance is
sufficiently established by its having been the residence of a son or
brother of Richard IInd, Duke of Normandy, on whose account, the town of
Brionne, with the adjacent territory, was raised into an earldom.
Historians speak unequivocally of its strength. During the reign of
William the Conqueror, it was regarded as impregnable. This king was
little accustomed to meet with disappointment or even with resistance;
but the castle of Brionne defied his utmost efforts for three successive
years. Under his less energetic successor, it was taken in a day. Its
possessor, Robert, Earl of Brionne, felt himself so secure within his
towers, that he ventured, with only six attendants, to oppose the whole
army of the Norman Duke; but the besiegers observed that the fortress
was roofed with wood; and a shower of burning missiles compelled the
garrison to surrender at discretion.--The castle was finally dismantled
by the orders of Charles Vth.

Brionne is known in ecclesiastical history as the place where the
council of the church was held, by which the tenets of Berengarius were
finally condemned. It appears that the archdeacon of Angers, after some
fruitless attempts to make converts among the Norman monks, took the
bold resolution of stating his doctrines to the duke in person; and that
the prince, though scarcely arrived at years of manhood, acted with so
much prudence on the occasion, as to withhold any decisive answer, till
he had collected the clergy of the duchy. They assembled at Brionne, as
a central spot; and here the question was argued at great length, till
Berengarius himself, and a convert, whom he had brought with him,
trusting in his eloquence, were so overpowered by the arguments of their
adversaries, that they were obliged to renounce their errors. The
doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament, was thus
incontrovertibly established; and it has from that time remained an
undisputed article of faith in the Roman Catholic church.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 54: Vol. III. p. 187.--The engraving in the _Antiquarian
Repertory_ was made from a drawing in the possession of the late Sir
William Burrell, Bart.]

[Footnote 55: The word _Turold_, in the tapestry, stands immediately
over the head of a dwarf, who is holding a couple of horses; and it has
therefore been inferred by Montfaucon, (_Monumens de la Monarchie
Francaise_, I. p. 378.) that he is the person thus denominated. But M.
Lancelot, in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_, VI. p. 753,
supposes Turold to be the ambassador who is in the act of speaking; and
this seems the more probable conjecture. The same opinion is still more
decidedly maintained by Father Du Plessis, in his _Histoire de la Haute
Normandie_, II. p. 342.--"Sur une ancienne tapisserie de l'Eglise de
Baieux, que l'on croit avoir ete faite par ordre de la Reine Mathilde
femme du Conquerant, pour representer les circonstances principales de
cette memorable expedition, on lit distinctement le mot _Turold_ a cote
d'un des Ambassadeurs, que Guillaume avoit envoiez au Comte de Ponthieu;
et je ne doute nullement que ce Turold ne soit le meme que le
Connetable. Le scavant Auteur des Antiquitez de notre Monarchie croit
cependant que ce mot doit se rapporter a un Nain qui tient deux chevaux
en bride derriere les Ambassadeurs; et il ajoute que ce Nain devoit etre
fort connu a la Conr du Duc de Normandie. On avoue que si c'est lui en
effet qui doit s'appeller Turold, il devoit tenir aussi a la Cour de son
Prince un rang distingue; sans quoi on n'auroit pas pris la peine de le
designer par son nom dans la tapisserie. On avoue encore que le nom de
Turold est place la de maniere qu'on peut a la rigueur le donner au Nain
aussi bien qu'a l'un des deux Ambassadeurs; et comme le Nain est
applique a tenir deux chevaux en bride, on pourrait croire enfin que
c'est le Connetable, dont les titres de l'Abbaie de Facan nous ont
appris le nom: _Signum Turoldi Constabularii_. Mais le Nain est tres-mal
habille, il a son bonnet sur la tete, et tourne le dos au Comte de
Ponthieu, pendant que les deux Ambassadeurs noblement vetus regardent ce
Prince en face, et lui parlent decouverts: trois circonstances qui ne
peuvent convenir, ni au Connetable du Duc, ni a toute autre personne de
distinction qui auroit tenu compagnie, ou fait cortege aux
Ambassadeurs."]

[Footnote 56: This tower is figured, but very inaccurately, by Gough, in
his _Alien Priories_, I. p. 22.--The cupola which then surmounted it is
now gone; and the cap to the turret, which served as the staircase, has
strangely changed its shape.]

[Footnote 57: _Alien Priories_, I. p. 24.]

[Footnote 58: "Nam antea, sub tempore sex ducum vix ullus Normannorum
liberalibus studiis adhaesit; nec doctor inveniebatur, donec provisor
omnium, Deus, Normannicis oris Lanfrancum appulit. Fama peritiae illius
in tota ubertim innotuit Europa, unde ad magisterium ejus multi
convenerunt de Francia, de Wasconia, de Britannia, necne
Flandria."--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 519.]

[Footnote 59: A question always existed, whether the Empress was really
buried here, or at the abbey of Ste Marie des Pres, at Rouen. Hoveden
expressly says, that she was interred at Rouen: the chronicle of Bec, on
the other hand, is equally positive in the assertion that her body was
brought to Bec, and entombed with honor before the altar of the Virgin.
The same chronicle adds that, in the year 1273, her remains were
discovered before the high altar, sewed up in an ox's hide.--Still
farther to substantiate their claim, the monks of Bec maintained that,
in 1684, upon the occasion of some repairs being done to this altar, the
bones of the empress were again found immediately under the lamp (which,
in Catholic churches, is kept constantly burning before the holy
sacrament,) and that they were deposited once more in the ground in a
wooden chest, covered with lead.--The Empress was a munificent endower
of monasteries, and was at all times most liberal towards Bec. William
of Jumieges says, that it would be tedious to enumerate the presents she
made to the abbey, but that the sight of them gave pleasure to those
strangers who have seen the treasures of the most noble churches. His
remarks on this matter, and his account of her arguments with her
father, on the subject of her choice of Bec, as a place of her
interment, deserve to be transcribed.--"Transiret illac hospes Graecus
aut Arabs, voluptate traheretur eadem. Credimus autem, et credere fas
est, aequissimum judicem omnium non solum in futuro, verumetiam in
praesenti seculo, illi centuplum redditurum, quod seruis suis manu sicut
larga, ita devota gratanter impendit. Ad remunerationem vero instantis
temporis pertinere non dubium est, quod, miserante Deo, sopita adversa
valetudine, sanctitatem refouit, et Monachos suos, Monachos Beccenses,
qui prae omnibus, et super omnes pro ipsius sospitate, jugi labore
supplicandi decertando pene defecerant, aura prosperae valetudinis ejus
afflatos omnino redintegravit.--Nec supprimendum illud est silentio,
imo, ut ita dicatur, uncialibus literis exaratum, seculo venturo
transmittendum; quod antequam convalesceret postulaverat patrem suum, ut
permitteret eam in CA"nobio Beccensi humari. Quod Rex primo abnuerat,
dicens non esse dignum, ut filia sua, Imperatrix Augusta, quae semel et
iterum in urbe Romulea, quae caput est mundi, per manus summi Pontificis
Imperiali diademate processerat insignita, in aliquo Monasterio, licet
percelebri et religione et fama, sepeliretur; sed ad civitatem
Rotomagensium, quae metropolis est Normannorum, saltem delata, in
Ecclesia principali, in qua et majores ejus, Rollonem loquor et
Willelmum Longamspatam filium ipsius, qui Neustriam armis subegerunt,
positi sunt, ipsa et poneretur. Qua deliberatione Regis percepta, illi
per nuncium remandavit, animam suam nunquam fore laetam, nisi compos
voluntatis suae in hac duntaxat parte efficeretur.--O femina macte
virtutis et consilii sanioris, paruipendens pompam secularem in corporis
depositione! Noverat enim salubrius esse animabus defunctorum ibi
corpora sua tumulari, ubi frequentius et devotius supplicationes pro
ipsis Deo offeruntur. Victus itaque pater ipsius Augustae pietate et
prudentia filiae, qui ceteros et virtute et pietate vincere solitus erat,
cessit, et voluntatem, et petitionem ipsius de se sepelienda Becci fieri
concessit. Sed volente Deo ut praefixum est, sanitati integerrimae
restituta convaluit."--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 305.]

[Footnote 60: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p, 281.]