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

With this digression I bid farewell to Yvetot, and its Lilliputian
kingdom; nor will I detain you much longer on the way to Rouen, the road
passing through nothing likely to afford interest in point of historical
recollection or antiquities; though within a very short distance of the
ancient Abbey of Pavilly on the one side, and at no great distance from
the still more celebrated Monastery of Jumieges on the other. The houses
in this neighborhood are in general composed of a framework of wood,
with the interstices filled with clay, in which are imbedded small
pieces of glass, disposed in rows, for windows. The wooden studs are
preserved from the weather by slates, laid one over the other, like the
scales of a fish, along their whole surface, or occasionally by wood
over wood in the same manner. I am told that there are some very ancient
timber churches in Norway, erected immediately after the conversion of
the Northmen, which are covered with wood-scales: the coincidence is
probably accidental, yet it is not altogether unworthy of notice. At one
end the roof projects beyond the gable four or five feet, in order to
protect a door-way and ladder or staircase that leads to it; and this
elevation has a very picturesque effect. A series of villages, composed
of cottages of this description, mixed with large manufactories and
extensive bleaching grounds, comprise all that is to be remarked in the
remainder of the ride; a journey that would be as interesting to a
traveller in quest of statistical information, as it would be the
contrary to you or to me.

Poverty, the inseparable companion of a manufacturing population, shews
itself in the number of beggars that infest this road as well as that
from Calais to Paris. They station themselves by the side of every hill,
as regularly as the mendicants of Rome were wont to do upon the bridges.
Sometimes a small nosegay thrown into your carriage announces the
petition in language, which, though mute, is more likely to prove
efficacious than the loudest prayer. Most commonly, however, there is no
lack of words; and, after a plaintive voice has repeatedly assailed you
with "une petite charite, s'il vous plait, Messieurs et Dames," an
appeal is generally made to your devotion, by their gabbling over the
Lord's Prayer and the Creed with the greatest possible velocity. At the
conclusion, I have often been told that they have repeated them once,
and will do so a second time if I desire it! Should all this prove
ineffectual, you will not fail to hear "allons, Messieurs et Dames, pour
l'amour de Dieu, qu'il vous donne un bon voyage," or probably a
song or two; the whole interlarded with scraps of prayers, and
ave-marias, and promises to secure you "sante et salut." They go through
it with an earnestness and pertinacity almost inconceivable, whatever
rebuffs they may receive. Their good temper, too, is undisturbed, and
their face is generally as piteous as their language and tone; though
every now and then a laugh will out, and probably at the very moment
when they are telling you they are "pauvres petits miserables," or
"petits malheureux, qui n'ont ni pere ni mere." With all this they are
excellent flatterers. An Englishman is sure to be "milord," and a lady
to be "ma belle duchesse," or "ma belle princesse." They will try too to
please you by "vivent les Anglais, vive Louis dix-huit." In 1814 and
1815, I remember the cry used commonly to be "vive Napoleon," but they
have now learned better; and, in truth, they had no reason to bear
attachment to the ex-emperor, an early maxim of whose policy it was to
rid the face of the country of this description of persons, for which
purpose he established workhouses, or _depots de mendicite_, in each
department, and his gendarmes were directed to proceed in the most
summary manner, by conveying every mendicant and vagrant to these
receptacles, without listening to any excuse, or granting any delay. He
had no clear idea of the necessity of the gentle formalities of a
summons, and a pass under his worship's hand and seal. And, without
entering into the elaborate researches respecting the original habitat
of a _mumper_, which are required by the English law, he thought that
pauperism could be sufficiently protected by consigning the specimen to
the nearest cabinet. The simple and rigorous plan of Napoleon was
conformable to the nature of his government, and it effectually answered
the purpose. The day, therefore, of his exile to Elba was a _Beggar's
Opera_ throughout France; and they have kept up the jubilee to the
present hour, and seem likely to persist in maintaining it.

Footnotes:

[41] _Goube, Histoire de la Normandie_, III. p. 127.

[42] "Francois premier, revenant vainqueur de la bataille de Marignan en
1515, crut devoir profiter de la situation avantageuse de la Crique; il
concut le dessin de l'agrandir et d'en faire une place de guerre
importante. Ce prince avoit pris les interets du jeune Roi d'Ecosse,
Jacques V, et ce fut pour se fortifier contre les Anglais qu'il forma la
resolution de leur opposer cette barriere. Pour conduire l'entreprise il
jetta les yeux sur un Gentilhomme nomme Guion le Roi, Seigneur de
Chillon, Vice-Amiral, et Capitaine de Honfleur, et la premiere pierre
fut posee en 1516."--_Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 195.

[43] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 200.

[44] See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 12.--There
is also a general view of the church, and of some of the monastic
buildings from the lithographic press of the Comte de Lasteyrie.

[45] "Sed priusquam a Clotario discedo, illud non praetermittendum reor,
quod, cum maxime cognitu dignum est, mirari licet a nullo Franco
Scriptore litteris fuisse commendatum. Fuit inter familiarissimos
Clotarii aulicos, Galterus Yvetotus, Caletus agri Rothomagensis, apprime
nobilis et qui regii cubiculi primarius cultor esset. Huic pro sua
integritate, de Clotario cum melius meliusque in dies promereretur,
reliqui aulici invident, depravantes quodlibet ab eo gestum, nec
desistunt donec irritatum illi Clotarium pessimis susurris efficiunt;
quamobrem jurat Rex se hominem necaturum. Percepta Clotarii
indignatione, Galterus pugnator illustris cedere Regi irato constituit.
Igitur derelicta Francia in militiam adversus religionis catholicae
inimicos pergit, ubi decem annos multis prospere gestis rebus, ratus
Clotarium simul cum tempore mitiorem effectum, Romam in primis ad
Agapitum Pontificem se contulit: a quo ad Clotarium impetratis litteris,
ad eum Suessione agentem se protinus confert, Veneris die, quae parasceve
dicitur, cogitans religiosam Christianis diem ad pietatem sibi
profuturam. Verum litteris Pontificis exceptis cum Galterum Clotarius
agnovit, vetere ira tanquam recenti livore percitus, rapto a proximo
sibi equite gladio, hominem statim interemit. Tam indignam insignis
atque innocentis hominis necem, religioso loco et die ad Christi
passionem recolendam celebri, pontifex inaequanimiter ferens, confestim
Clotarium reprehendit, monetque iniquissimi facinoris rationem habere,
se alioquin excommunicationis sententiam subiturum. Agapiti monita
reveritus Rex, capto cum prudentibus consilio, Galteri haeredes, et qui
Yvetotum deinceps possiderent, ab omni Francorum Regum ditione atque
fide liberavit, liberosque prorsus fore suo syngrapho et regiis scriptis
confirmat. Ex quo factum est ut ejus pagi et terrae possessor _Regem_ se
Yvetoti hactenus sine controversia nominaverit. Id autem anno christianae
gratiae quingentesimo trigesimo sexto gestum esse indubia fide invenio.
Nam dominantibus longo post tempore in Normannia. Anglis, ortaque inter
Joannem Hollandum, Auglum, et Yvetoti dominum quaestione, quasi
proventuum ejus terrae pars fisco Regis Anglorum quotannis obnoxia esset,
Caleti Propraetor anno salutis 1428, de ratione litis judiciario ordine
se instruens, id, sicut annotatum a me est, comperisse
judicavit."--_Robert Gaguin_, lib. II. fol. 17.

[46] _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_, IV. p. 728.--The
question is also discussed in the _Traite de la Noblesse_, by M. de la
Roque; in the _Mercure de France_, for January, 1726; and in a Latin
treatise by Charles Malingre, entitled "_De falsa regni Yvetoti
narratione, ex majoribus commentariis fragmentum_."

[47] _Precis Analytique des Travaux de l'Academie de Rouen_, 1811, p.
181.




LETTER VII.

ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.


(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

Abandoning, for the present, all discussion of the themes of the elder
day, I shall occupy myself with matters relating to the living world.
The fatigued and hungry traveller, whose flesh is weaker than his
spirit, is often too apt to think that his bed and his supper are of
more immediate consequence than churches or castles. And to those who
are in this predicament, there is a material improvement at Rouen, since
I was last here: nothing could be worse than the inns of the year 1815;
but four years of peace have effected a wonderful alteration, and
nothing can now be better than the Hotel de Normandie, where we have
fixed our quarters. Objection may, indeed, be made to its situation, as
to that of every other hotel in the city; but this is of little moment
in a town, where every house, whatever street or place it may front,
opens into a court-yard, so that its views are confined to what passes
within its own quadrangle; and, for excellence of accommodations,
elegance of furniture, skill in cookery, civility of attendance, nay,
even for what is more rare, neatness, our host, M. Trimolet, may
challenge competition with almost any establishment in Europe. For the
rent of the house, which is one of the most spacious in Rouen, he pays
three thousand francs a year; and, as house-rent is one of the main
standards of the value of the circulating medium, I will add, that our
friend, M. Rondeau, for his, which is not only among the largest but
among the most elegant and the best placed for business, pays but five
hundred francs more. This, then, may be considered as the _maximum_ at
Rouen. Yet Rouen is far from being the place which should be selected by
an Englishman, who retires to France for the purpose of economizing:
living in general is scarcely one-fourth cheaper than in our own
country. At Caen it is considerably more reasonable; on the banks of the
Loire the expences of a family do not amount to one-half of the English
cost; and still farther south a yet more sensible reduction takes place,
the necessaries of life being cheaper by half than they are in Normandy,
and house-rent by full four-fifths.

A foreigner can glean but little useful information respecting the
actual state of a country through which he journeys with as much
rapidity as I have done. And still less is he able to secern the truth
from the falsehood, or to weigh the probabilities of conflicting
testimony. I therefore originally intended to be silent on this subject.
There is a story told, I believe, of Voltaire, at least it may be as
well told of Voltaire as of any other wit, that, being once in company
with a very talkative empty Frenchman, and a very _glum_ and silent
Englishman, he afterwards characterized them by saying, "l'un ne dit que
des riens, et l'autre ne dit rien." Fearing that my political and
statistical observations, which in good truth are very slender, might be
ranked but too truly in the former category, I had resolved to confine
them to my own notebook. Yet we all take so much interest in the
destinies of our ancient rival and enemy, (I wish I could add, our
modern friend,) that, according to my usual habit, I changed my
determination within a minute after I had formed it; for I yielded to
the impression, that even my scanty contribution would not be wholly
unacceptable to you.

France, I am assured on all sides, is rapidly improving, and the
government is satisfactory to all _liberal_ men, in which number I
include persons of every opinion, except the emigrants and those
attached exclusively to the _ancien regime_. Men of the latter
description are commonly known by the name of _Ultras_; and, speaking
with a degree of freedom, which is practised here, to at least as great
an extent as in England, they do not hesitate to express their decided
disapprobation of the present system of government, and to declare, not
only that Napoleon was more of a royalist than Louis, but that the King
is a jacobin. They persuade themselves also, and would fain persuade
others, that he is generally hated; and their doctrine is, that the
nation is divided into three parties, ready to tear each other in
pieces: the _Ministerialists_, who are few, and in every respect
contemptible; the _Ultras_, not numerous, but headed by the Princes, and
thus far of weight; and the _Revolutionists_, who, in point of numbers,
as well as of talents and of opulence, considerably exceed the other
two, and will, probably, ultimately prevail; so that these conflicts of
opinion will terminate by decomposing the constitutional monarchy into a
republic. To listen to these men, you might almost fancy they were
quoting from Clarendon's History of the Rebellion in our own country;
so entirely do their feelings coincide with those of the courtiers who
attended Charles in his exile. Similar too is the reward they receive;
for it is difficult for a monarch to be just, however he may in some
cases he generous.

Yet even the Ultras admit that the revolution has been beneficial to
France, though they are willing to confine its benefits to the
establishment of the trial by jury, and the correction of certain abuses
connected with the old system of nobility. Among the advantages
obtained, they include the abolition of the game laws; and, indeed, I am
persuaded, from all I hear, that this much-contested question could not
receive a better solution than by appealing to the present laws in
France. Game is here altogether the property of the land-owner; it is
freely exposed for sale, like other articles of food; and every one is
himself at liberty to sport, or to authorize his friend to do so over
his property, with no other restriction than that of taking out a
licence, or _port d'armes_, which, for fifteen francs, is granted
without difficulty to any man of respectability, whatever may be his
condition in life. In this particular, I cannot but think that France
has set us an example well worthy of our imitation; and she also shews
that it may be followed without danger; for neither do the pleasures of
the field lose their relish, nor is the game extirpated. The former are
a subject of conversation in almost every company; and, as to the
latter, whatever slaughter may have taken place in the woods and
preserves, at the first burst of the revolution, I am assured that a
good sportsman may, at the present time, between Dieppe and Rouen kill
with ease, in a day, fifty head of game, consisting principally of
hares, quails, and partridges.

But, while these men thus restrict the benefits derived from the
revolution, the case is far different with individuals of the other
parties, all of whom are loud and unanimous in its praises. The good
resulting from the republic has been purchased at a dreadful price, but
the good remains; and those, who now enjoy the boon, are not inclined to
remember the blood which drenched the three-colored banner. Thirty years
have elapsed, and a new generation has arisen, to whom the horrors of
the revolution live only in the page of history. But its advantages are
daily felt in the equal nature and equal administration of the laws; in
the suppression of the monasteries with their concomitant evils; in the
restriction of the powers of the clergy; in the liberty afforded to all
modes of religious worship; and in the abolition of all the edicts and
mandates and prejudices, which secured to a peculiar sect and caste a
monopoly of all the honors and distinctions of the common-wealth; for
now, every individual of talent and character feels that the path to
preferment and power is not obstructed by his birth or his opinions.

The constitutional charter, in its present state, is a subject of pride
to the French, and a sure bulwark to the throne. The representative
system is beginning to be generally appreciated, and particularly in
commercial towns. The deputies of this department are to be changed the
approaching autumn, and the minds of men are already anxiously bent upon
selecting such representatives as may best understand and promote their
local interests. Few acts of the Bourbon government have contributed
more powerfully to promote the popularity of the King, than the law
enacted in the course of last year, which abolished the double election,
and enabled the voters to give their suffrages directly for their
favorite candidate, thus putting a stop at once to a variety of unfair
influence, previously exerted upon such occasions. The same law has also
created a general interest upon the subject, never before known; the
strongest proof of which is, that, of the six or eight thousand electors
contained in this department, nearly the whole are expected now to vote,
whereas not a third ever did so before. The qualifications for an
elector and a deputy are uniform throughout the kingdom, and depending
upon few requisites; nothing more being required in the former case,
than the payment of three hundred francs per annum, in direct taxes, and
the having attained the age of thirty; while an addition of ten years to
the age, and the payment of one thousand francs, instead of three
hundred, renders every individual qualified to be of the number of the
elected. The system, however, is subject to a restriction, which
provides, that at least one half of the representatives of each
department shall be chosen from among those who reside in it.

In the beginning of the revolution, a much wider door was open: all that
was then necessary to entitle a man to vote, was, that he should be
twenty-one years of age, a Frenchman, and one who had lived for a year
in the country on his own revenue, or on the produce of his labor, and
was not in a state of servitude. It was then also decreed, that the
electors should have each three livres a day during their mission, and
should be allowed at the rate of one livre a league, for the distance
from their usual place of residence, to that in which the election of
members for their department is held. Such were the only conditions
requisite for eligibility, either as elector or deputy; except, indeed,
that the citizens in the primary assemblies, and the electors in the
electoral assembly, swore that they would maintain liberty and equality,
or die rather than violate their oath[48].

The wisdom and prudence of the subsequent alterations, few will be
disposed to question: the system, in its present state, appears to me
admirably qualified to attain the object in view; and such seems the
general character of the French _Constitutional Charter_, which unites
two excellent qualities, great clearness and great brevity. The whole is
comprised in seventy-four short articles; and, that no Frenchman may
plead ignorance of his rights or his duties, it is usually found
prefixed to the almanacks. Some persons might, indeed, be inclined to
deem this station as ominous; for, since the revolution began, the frame
of the French government has sustained so many alterations, that,
considering that several of their constitutions never outlived the
current quarter, they may be fairly said to have had a new constitution
in each year. How far the Bourbon charter will answer the purpose of
serving as the basis of a code of laws for the government of an
extensive kingdom, time only can determine. At present, it has the
charm of novelty to recommend it; and there are few among us with whom
novelty is not a strong attraction. Our friends on this side of the
water are greatly belied, if it be not so with them.

The finances of the French municipalities are administered with a degree
of fairness and attention, which might put many a body corporate, in a
certain island, to the blush. Little is known in England respecting the
administration of the French towns: the following particulars relating
to the revenue and expences of Rouen, may, therefore, in some measure,
serve as a scale, by which you may give a guess at the balance-sheet of
cities of greater or lesser magnitude.--The budget amounted for the last
year to one million two hundred thousand francs. The proposed items of
expenditure must be particularized, and submitted to the Prefect and the
Minister of the Interior, before they can be paid. In this sum is
comprised the charge for the hospitals, which contain above three
thousand persons, including foundlings, and for all the other public
institutions, the number and excellence of which has long been the pride
of Rouen. You must consider too, that every thing of this kind is, in
France, national: individuals do nothing, neither is it expected of
them; and herein consists one of the most essential differences between
France and England. To meet this great expenditure, the city is provided
with the rents of public lands, with wharfage, with tolls from the
markets and the _halles_; and, above all, with the _octroi_, a tax that
prevails through France, upon every article of consumption brought into
the towns, and is collected at the barriers. The _octroi_, like
turnpike-tolls or the post-horse duty with us, is farmed; two-thirds are
received by the government, and the remaining one-third by the town. In
Rouen it produced the last year one million four hundred and fifty
thousand francs.--If, now, this sum appears to you comparatively greater
than that of our large cities in England, you must recollect that, with
us, towns are not liable to similar charges: our corporations support no
museums, no academies, no learned bodies; and our infirmaries, and
dispensaries, and hospitals, are indebted, as well for their existence
as their future maintenance, to the piety of the dead, or the liberality
of the living. Nor must we forget that, even in this great kingdom,
Rouen, at present, holds the fifth place among the towns; though it was
far from being thus, when Buonaparte, uniting the imperial to the iron
crown, overshadowed with his eagle-wings the continent from the Baltic
to Apulia; and when the mural crowns of Rome and Amsterdam stood beneath
the shield of the "good city" of Paris.

The population of Rouen is estimated at eighty-seven thousand persons,
of whom the greater number are engaged in the manufactories, which
consist principally of cotton, linen, and woollen cloths, and are among
the largest in France. At present, however, "trade is dull;" and hence,
and as the politics of a trader invariably sympathize with his cash
account, neither the peace, nor the English, nor the princes of the
Bourbon dynasty, are popular here; for the articles manufactured at
Rouen, being designed generally for exportation, ranged almost
unrivalled over the continent, during the war, but now in every town
they meet with competitors in the goods from England, which are at once
of superior workmanship and cheaper. The latter advantage is owing very
much to the greater perfection of our machinery, and, perhaps, still
more to the abundance of coals, which enables us, at so small an
expence, to keep our steam-engines in action, and thus to counterbalance
the disproportion in the charge of manual labor, as well as the many
disadvantages arising from the pressure of our heavy taxation.--But I
must cease. An English fit of growling is coming upon me; and I find
that the Blue Devils, which haunt St. Stephen's chapel, are pursuing me
over the channel.

Footnotes:

[48] _Moore's Journal of a Residence in France_, I. p. 82.




LETTER VIII.

MILITARY ANTIQUITIES--LE VIEUX CHATEAU--ORIGINAL PALACE OF THE NORMAN
DUKES--HALLES OF ROUEN--MIRACLE AND PRIVILEGE OF ST. ROMAIN--CHATEAU DU
VIEUX PALAIS--PETIT CHATEAU--FORT ON MONT STE. CATHERINE--PRIORY
THERE--CHAPEL OF ST. MICHAEL--DEVOTEE.


(_Rouen, June,_ 1818)

My researches in this city after the remains of architectural antiquity
of the earlier Norman aera, have hitherto, I own, been attended with
little success. I may even go so far as to say, that I have seen nothing
in the circular style, for which it would not be easy to find a parallel
in most of the large towns in England. On the other hand, the perfection
and beauty of the specimens of the pointed style, have equally surprised
and delighted me. I will endeavor, however, to take each object in its
order, premising that I have been materially assisted in my
investigations by M. Le Prevost and M. Rondeau, but especially by the
former, one of the most learned antiquaries of Normandy.

Of the fortifications and castellated buildings in Rouen very little
indeed is left[49], and that little is altogether insignificant; being
confined to some fragments of the walls scattered here and there[50],
and to three circular towers of the plainest construction, the remains
of the old castle, built by Philip Augustus in 1204, near to the Porte
Bouvreuil, and hence commonly known by the name of the _Chateau de
Bouvreuil_ or _le Vieux Chateau_.--It is to the leading part which this
city has acted in the history of France, that we must attribute the
repeated erection and demolition of its fortifications.

An important event was commemorated by the erection of the _old castle_,
it having been built upon the final annexation of Normandy to the crown
of France, in consequence of the weakness of our ill-starred
monarch,--John Lackland. The French King seems to have suspected that
the citizens retained their fealty to their former sovereign. He
intended that his fortress should command and bridle the city, instead
of defending it. The town-walls were razed, and the _Vieille Tour_, the
ancient palace of the Norman Dukes, levelled with the ground.--But, as
the poet says of language, so it is with castles,--

... "mortalia facta peribunt,
Nec _castellorum_ stet honos et gratia vivax;"

and, in 1590, the fortress raised by Philip Augustus experienced the
fate of its predecessors; it was then ruined and dismantled, and the
portion which was allowed to stand, was degraded into a jail. Now the
three[51] towers just mentioned are alone remaining, and these would
attract little notice, were it not that one of them bears the name of
the _Tour de la Pucelle_, as having been, in 1430, the place of
confinement of the unfortunate Joan of Arc, when she was captured before
Compiegne and brought prisoner to Rouen.

It must be stated, however, that the first castle recorded to have
existed at Rouen, was built by Rollo, shortly after he had made himself
master of Neustria. Its very name is now lost; and all we know
concerning it is, that it stood near the quay, at the northern extremity
of the town, in the situation subsequently occupied by the Church of St.
Pierre du Chatel, and the adjoining monastery of the Cordeliers.

After a lapse of less than fifty years, Rouen saw rising within her
walls a second castle, the work of Duke Richard Ist, and long the
residence of the Norman sovereigns. This, from a tower of great strength
which formed a part of it, and which was not demolished till the year
1204, acquired the appellation of _la Vieille Tour_; and the name
remains to this day, though the building has disappeared.

The space formerly occupied by the scite of it is now covered by the
_halles_, considered the finest in France. The historians of Rouen, in
the usual strain of hyperbole, hint that their _halles_ are even the
finest in the world[52], though they are very inferior to their
prototypes at Bruges and Ypres. The hall, or exchange, allotted to the
mercers, is two hundred and seventy-two feet in length, by fifty feet
wide: those for the drapers and for wool are, each of them, two hundred
feet long; and all these are surpassed in size by the corn-hall, whose
length extends to three hundred feet. They are built round a large
square, the centre of which is occupied by numberless dealers in
pottery, old clothes, &c.; and, as the day on which we chanced to visit
them was a Friday, when alone they are opened for public business, we
found a most lively, curious, and interesting scene.

It was on the top of a stone staircase, the present entry to the
_halles_, that the annual ceremony[53] of delivering and pardoning a
criminal for the sake of St. Romain, the tutelary protector of Rouen,
was performed on Ascension-day, according to a privilege exercised, from
time immemorial, by the Chapter of the Cathedral.

The legend is romantic; and it acquires a species of historical
importance, as it became the foundation of a right, asserted even in our
own days. My account of it is taken from Dom Pommeraye's History of the
Life of the Prelate[54].--He has been relating many miracles performed
by him, and, among others, that of causing the Seine, at the time of a
great inundation, to retire to its channel by his command, agreeably to
the following beautiful stanza of Santeuil:--

"Tangit exundans aqua civitatem;
Voce Romanus jubet efficaci;
Audiunt fluctus, docilisque cedit
Unda jubenti."

Our learned Benedictine thus proceeds:--"But the following miracle was
deemed a far greater marvel, and it increased the veneration of the
people towards St. Romain to such a degree, that they henceforth
regarded him as an actual apostle, who, from the authority of his
office, the excellence of his doctrine, his extreme sanctity, and the
gift of miracles, deserved to be classed with the earliest preachers of
our holy faith. In a marshy spot, near Rouen, was bred a dragon, the
very counterpart of that destroyed by St. Nicaise. It committed
frightful ravages; lay in wait for man and beast, whom it devoured
without mercy; the air was poisoned by its pestilential breath, and it
was alone the cause of greater mischief and alarm, than could have been
occasioned by a whole army of enemies. The inhabitants, wearied out by
many years of suffering, implored the aid of St. Romain; and the
charitable and generous pastor, who dreaded nothing in behalf of his
flock, comforted them with the assurance of a speedy deliverance. The
design itself was noble; still more so was the manner by which he put it
in force; for he would not be satisfied with merely killing the monster,
but undertook also to bring it to public execution, by way of atonement
for its cruelties. For this purpose, it was necessary that the dragon
should be caught; but when the prelate required a companion in the
attempt, the hearts of all men failed them. He applied, therefore, to a
criminal condemned to death for murder; and, by the promise of a pardon,
bought his assistance, which the certain prospect of a scaffold, had he
refused to accompany the saint, caused him the more willingly to lend.
Together they went, and had no sooner reached the marsh, the monster's
haunt, than St. Romain, approaching courageously, made the sign of the
cross, and at once put it out of the power of the dragon to attempt to
do him injury. He then tied his stole around his neck, and, in that
state, delivered him to the prisoner, who dragged him to the city, where
he was burned in the presence of all the people, and his ashes thrown
into the river.--The manuscript of the Abbey of Hautmont, from which
this legend is extracted, adds, that such was the fame of this miracle
throughout France, that Dagobert, the reigning sovereign, sent for St.
Romain to court, to hear a true narrative of the fact from his own lips;
and, impressed with reverent awe, bestowed the celebrated privilege upon
him and his successors for ever."

The right has, in comparatively modern times, been more than once
contested, but always maintained; and so great was the celebrity of the
ceremony, that princes and potentates have repeatedly travelled to
Rouen, for the purpose of witnessing it. There are not wanting, however,
those[55] who treat the whole story as allegorical, and believe it to be
nothing more than a symbolical representation of the subversion of
idolatry, or of the confining of the Seine to its channel; the winding
course of the river being typified by a serpent, and the word
_Gargouille_ corrupted from _gurges_. Other writers differ in minor
points of the story, and alledge that the saint had two fellow
adventurers, a thief as well as a murderer, and that the former ran
away, while the latter stood firm. You will see it thus figured in a
modern painting on St. Romain's altar, in the cathedral; and there are
two persons also with him, in the only ancient representation of the
subject I am acquainted with, a bas-relief which till lately existed at
the Porte Bouvreuil, and of which, by the kindness of M. Riaux, I am
enabled to send you a drawing.

[Illustration: Bas-Relief, representing St. Romain]

To keep alive the tradition, in which Popish superstition has contrived
to blend Judaic customs with heathen mythology, the practice was, that
the prisoner selected for pardon should be brought to this place, called
the chapel of St. Romain, and should here be received by the clergy in
full robes, headed by the archbishop, and bearing all the relics of the
church; among others, the shrine of St. Romain, which the criminal,
after having been reprimanded and absolved, but still kneeling, thrice
lifted, among the shouts of the populace, and then, with a garland upon
his head and the shrine in his hands, accompanied the clergy in
procession to the cathedral[56].--But the revolution happily consigned
the relics to their kindred dust, and put an end to a privilege
eminently liable to abuse, from the circumstance of the pardon being
extended, not only to the criminal himself, but to all his accomplices;
so that, an inferior culprit sometimes surrendered himself to justice,
in confidence of interest being made to obtain him the shrine, and thus
to shield under his protection more powerful and more guilty
delinquents. The various modifications, however, of latter times, had so
abridged its power, that it was at last only able to rescue a man guilty
of involuntary homicide[57]. We may hope, therefore, it was not
altogether deserving the hard terms bestowed upon it by Millin[58] who
calls it the most absurd, most infamous, and most detestable of all
privileges, and adduces a very flagrant instance of injustice committed
under its plea.--D'Alegre, governor of Gisors, in consequence of a
private pique against the Baron du Hallot, lord of the neighboring town
of Vernon, treacherously assassinated him at his own house, while he was
yet upon crutches, in consequence of the wounds received at the siege of
Rouen. This happened during the civil wars; in the course of which,
Hallot had signalized himself as a faithful servant, and useful
assistant to the monarch. The murderer knew that there were no hopes for
him of royal mercy; and, after having passed some time in concealment
and as a soldier in the army of the league, he had recourse to the
Chapter of the Cathedral of Rouen, from whom he obtained the promise of
the shrine of St. Romain. To put full confidence, however, even in this,
would, under such circumstances, have been imprudent. The clergy might
break their word, or a mightier power might interpose. D'Alegre,
therefore, persuaded a young mam, formerly a page of his, of the name of
Pehu, to surrender himself as guilty of the crime; and to him the
privilege was granted; under the sanction of which, the real culprit,
and several of his accomplices in the assassination, obtained a free
pardon. The widow and daughter of Hallot, in vain remonstrated: the
utmost that could be done, after a tedious law-suit, was to procure a
small fine to be imposed upon Pehu, and to cause him to be banished from
Normandy and Picardy and the vicinity of Paris. But regulations were in
consequence adopted with respect to the exercise of the privilege; and
the pardons granted under favor of it were ever afterwards obliged to be
ratified under the high seal of the kingdom.

The _Chateau du Vieux Palais_ and _le petit Chateau_ like the edifices
which I have already noticed, have equally yielded to time and violence.
M. Carpentier has furnished us with representations of both these
castles, drawn and etched by himself, in the _Itinerary of Rouen_. The
first of them has also been inaccurately figured by Ducarel, and
satisfactorily by Millin, in the second volume of his _Antiquites
Nationales_; where, to the pen of this most meritorious and
indefatigable writer, of whom, as of our Goldsmith, it may be justly
said, that "nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit, nullum quod tetigit
non ornavit," it affords materials for a curious memoir, blended with
the history of our own Henry Vth, and of Henry IVth, of France. The
castle was the work of the first of these sovereigns, and was begun by
him in 1420, two years after a seven months' siege had put him in
possession of the city, long the capital of his ancestors, and had thus
rendered him undisputed master of Normandy. This was an event worthy of
being immortalised; and it may easily be imagined that private feelings
had no little share in urging him to erect a magnificent palace,
intended at once as a safeguard for the town, and a residence for
himself and his posterity. The right to build it was an express article
in the capitulation he granted to Rouen, a capitulation of extreme
severity[59], and purchased at the price of three hundred thousand
golden crowns, as well as of the lives of three of the most
distinguished citizens; Robert Livret, grand-vicar of the archbishop,
John Jourdain, commander of the artillery, and Louis Blanchard, captain
of the train-bands. The two first of these were, however, suffered to
ransome themselves; the last, a man of distinguished honor and courage,
was beheaded; but Henry, much to his credit, made no farther use of his
victory, and even consented to pay for the ground required for his
castle. He selected for the purpose, the situation where, defence was
most needed, upon the extremity of the quay, by the side of the river,
near the entrance from Dieppe and Havre. A row of handsome houses now
fills the chief part of the space occupied by the building, which, at a
subsequent period, was again connected with English history[60], as the
residence of our James IInd, after the battle of La Hague; before his
spirit was yet sufficiently broken to suffer him to give up all thoughts
of the British crown, and to accept the asylum offered by Louis XIVth,
in the obscure tranquillity of Saint Germain's. It continued perfect
till the time of the revolution, and was of great extent and strength,
defended by massy circular towers, surrounded by a moat, and
approachable only by a draw-bridge.

The castle, which still remains to be described, and whose smaller size
is sufficiently denoted by its name, was also built by the same monarch,
but it was raised upon the ruins of a similar edifice that had existed
since the days of King John. Being situated at the foot of the bridge,
the older castle had been selected as the spot where it was stipulated
that the soldiers, composing the Anglo-Norman garrison, should lay down
their arms, when the town surrendered to Philip Augustus.--It was known
from very early time by the appellation of the _Barbican_, a term of
much disputed signification as well as origin: if we are to conclude,
according to some authorities, that it denoted either a mere
breast-work, or a watch-tower, or an appendage to a more important
fortress, it would appear but ill applied to a building like the one in
question. I should rather believe it designated an out-post of any kind;
and I would support my conjecture by this very castle, which was neither
upon elevated ground, nor dependent on any other. It consisted of two
square edifices, similar to what are called the _pavillions_ of the
Thuilleries, flanked by small circular towers with conical roofs, and
connected by an embattled wall. Not more than fifty years have passed
since its demolition; yet no traces of it are to be found.

A few rocky fragments, appearing now to bid defiance to time, indicate
the scite of the fortress, which once arose on the summit of Mont Ste.
Catherine, and which, though dismantled by Henry IVth, and reduced to a
state of dilapidation, was still suffered to maintain its ruined
existence till a few years ago. Its commanding situation, upon an
eminence three hundred and eighty feet high and immediately overhanging
the city, could not but render it of great importance towards the
defence of the place; and we accordingly find that Taillepied, who
probably wrote before its demolition, gives it as his opinion, that
whoever is in possession of Mont Ste. Catherine, is also master of the
town, if he can but have abundant supplies of water and provisions;--no
needless stipulation! At the same time, it must be admitted that the
fort was equally liable to be converted into the means of annoyance.
Such actually proved the case in 1562, at which time it was seized by
the Huguenots; and considerations of this nature most probably prevailed
with the citizens, when they declined the offer made by Francis Ist, who
proposed at a public meeting to enlarge the tower into an impregnable
citadel. In the hands of the Protestants, the fortress, such as it was,
proved sufficient to resist the whole army of Charles IXth, during
several days.--Rouen was stoutly defended by the reformed, well aware of
the sanguinary dispositions of the bigotted monarch. They yielded, and
he sullied his victory by giving the city up to plunder, during
twenty-four hours; and we are told, that it was upon this occasion he
first tasted heretical blood, with which, five years afterwards, he so
cruelly gorged himself on the day of St. Bartholomew. Catherine of
Medicis accompanied him to the siege; and it is related that she herself
led him to the ditches of the ramparts, in which many of their
adversaries had been buried, and caused the bodies to be dug up in his
presence, that he might be accustomed to look without horror upon the
corpse of a Protestant!

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

Painters and sculptors also often introduced this ancient allegory of
the balance of good and evil, in their representations of the last
judgment: it was even employed by Lucas Kranach.

The other capital which I send to you is ornamented with groups of
Centaurs or Sagittaries. Astronomical sculptures are frequently found
upon the monuments of the middle ages. Two capitals, forming part of a
series of zodiacal sculptures, are preserved in the _Musee des Monumens
Francais_; and, speaking from memory, I think they bear a near
resemblance in style to that which is here represented.

[Illustration: Capital with Centaurs or Sagittaries]

Montivilliers itself is a neat little town, beautifully situated in a
valley, with a stream of clear water running through it. At this time
its trade is trifling; but the case was otherwise in former days, when
its cloths were considered to rival those of Flanders, and the
preservation of the manufacture was regarded of so much consequence,
that sundry regulations respecting it are to be found in the royal
ordinances. One of them in particular, of the fourteenth century,
notices the frauds committed by other towns in imitating the mark of the
cloth of Montivilliers.

The general appearance of Harfleur is much like that of Montivilliers;
but numerous remains of walls and gates denote that it was once of
still greater comparative importance. The ancient trade of the place is
now transferred to Havre de Grace, the situation of the latter town
being far more elegible.

The Seine no longer rolls its waves under Harfleur; and the desiccated
harbor is now seen as a verdant meadow. Without the aid of history,
therefore, you would in vain inquire into the derivation of the name, in
connection with which, the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches[39], calls
upon us to remark, that the names of many places in Normandy end in
_fleur_, as Barfleur, Harfleur, Honfleur, Fiefleur, Vitefleur, &c.; and
that, if, as it is commonly supposed, this termination comes from
_fluctus_, it must have passed through the Saxon, in which language
_fleoten_ signifies _to flow_. Hence we have _flot_, and from _flot,
fleut_ and _fleur_, the last alteration being warranted by the genius of
the French language. The bishop further states, that there are two
facts, affording a decisive proof of this origin: the one, that the
names now terminating in _fleur_, ended anciently _flot_, Barfleur being
Barbeflot, Harfleur Hareflot, and Honfleur Huneflot; the other, that all
places so called are situated where they are washed by the tide. Such is
also the position of the towns in Holland, whose names terminate in
_vliet_, and of those in England, ending in _fleet_, as Purfleet,
Byfleet, &c. The Latin word _flevus_ is of the same kind, and is derived
from the same source; for, instead of Hareflot and Huneflot, some old
records have Hareflou and Huneflou, and some others Barfleu, terms
approaching _flevus_, which is also called by Ptolemy, _fleus_, and by
Mela, _fletio_. It is highly improbable, that these two last terms
should have been coined subsequently to the time of the Romans becoming
masters of Gaul, and it is equally unlikely that the Saxon _fleoten_
should be derived from the Latin. Thus far, therefore, the languages
appear to have had a common origin, and they are insomuch allied to the
Celtic, that those towns in Britanny, in whose names are found the
syllables _pleu_ and _plou_, are also invariably placed in similar
situations.

If, however, I am fairly embarked in the sea of etymological conjecture,
I know not where I shall be carried; and therefore, instead of urging
the probability that the root of the Celtic _pleu_ is apparently to be
found in the Pelasgic [Greek in original] sail or float, I shall return
to Harfleur and its history. Whilst Harfleur was in its glory, it was
considered the key of the Seine and of this part of France. In 1415 it
opposed a vigorous resistance to our Henry Vth, who had no sooner made
himself master of it, than, with a degree of contradiction, which
teaches man to regard the performance of his duty to God as no reason
for his performing it to his fellow-creatures, "the King uncovered his
feet and legs, and walked barefoot from the gate to the parish church of
St. Martin, where he very devoutly offered up his prayers and
thanksgivings for his success. But, immediately afterwards he made all
the nobles and the men at arms that were in the town his captives, and
shortly after sent the greater part out of the place, clothed in their
jerkins only, taking down their names and surnames in writing, and
obliging them to swear by their faith that they would surrender
themselves prisoners at Calais on Martinmas-day next ensuing. In like
manner were the townsmen made prisoners, and obliged to ransom
themselves for large sums of money. Afterwards did the King banish them
out of the town, with numbers of women and children, to each of whom
were given five sols and a portion of their garments." Monstrelet[40],
from whom I have transcribed this detail, adds, that "it was pitiful to
hear and see the sorrow of these poor people, thus driven away from
their homes; the priests and clergy were likewise dismissed; and, in
regard to the wealth found there, it was not to be told, and appertained
even to the King, who distributed it as he pleased." Other writers tell
us that the number of those thus expelled was eight thousand, and that
the conqueror, not satisfied with this act of vengeance, publicly burned
the charters and archives of the town and the title-deeds of
individuals, re-peopled Harfleur with English, and forbad the few
inhabitants that remained to possess or inherit any landed property.
After a lapse, however, of twenty years, the peasants of the neighboring
country, aided by one hundred and four of the inhabitants, retook the
place by assault. The exploit was gallant; and a custom continued to
prevail in Harfleur, for above two centuries subsequently, intended to
commemorate it; a bell was tolled one hundred and four times every
morning at day-break, being the time when the attack was made. In 1440,
the citizens, undismayed by the sufferings of their predecessors,
withstood a second siege from our countrymen, whom the town resisted
four months, and in whose possession it remained ten years, when Charles
VIIIth permanently united it to the crown of France. Notwithstanding
these calamities, it rose again to a state of prosperity, till the
revocation of the edict of Nantes gave the death-blow to its commerce;
and intolerance completed the desolation which war had begun. At
present, it is only remarkable for the elegant tower and spire of its
church, connected by flying buttresses of great beauty, the whole of
rich and elaborate workmanship.

[Illustration: Tower and Spire of Harfleur Church]

At a short distance from Harfleur, the Seine comes in view, flowing into
the sea through a fine rich valley; but the wide expanse of water has no
picturesque beauty. The hills around Havre are plentifully spotted with
gentlemen's houses, few only of which have been seen in other parts in
the ride. The town itself is strongly fortified; and, having conducted
you hither, I shall leave you for the present, reserving for another
letter any particulars respecting Havre, and the rest of the road to
Rouen.

Footnotes:

[25] _Antiquites de Normandie_, p. 53.

[26] _Dumoulin, Geographie de la France_, II p. 80.

[27] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 109.

[28] Heylin notices the familiarity of the approach of the French
servants, in his delineation of a Norman inn. An extract may amuse those
who are not familiar with the works of this quaint yet sensible writer.
"There stood in the chamber three beds, if at the least it be lawful so
to call them; the foundation of them was straw, so infinitely thronged
together, that the wool-packs which our judges sit on in the Parliament,
were melted butter to them; upon this lay a medley of flocks and
feathers sewed up together in a large bag, (for I am confident it was
not a tick) but so ill ordered that the knobs stuck out on each side
like a crab-tree cudgel. He had need to have flesh enough that lyeth on
one of them, otherwise the second night would wear out his bones.--Let
us now walk into the kitchen and observe their provision. And here we
found a most terrible execution committed on the person of a pullet; my
hostess, cruel woman, had cut the throat of it, and without plucking off
the feathers, tore it into pieces with her hands, and afterwards took
away skin and feathers together: this done, it was clapped into a pan
and fried for supper.--But the principal ornaments of these inns are the
men-servants, the raggedest regiment that ever I yet looked upon; such a
thing as a chamberlain was never heard of amongst them, and good clothes
are as little known as he. By the habits of his attendants a man would
think himself in a gaol, their clothes are either full of patches or
open to the skin. Bid one of them make clean your boots, and presently
he hath recourse to the curtains.--They wait always with their hats on,
and so do all servants attending on their masters.--Time and use
reconciled me to many other things, which, at the first were offensive;
to this most irreverent custom I returned an enemy; _neither can I see
how it can choose but stomach the most patient_ to see the worthiest
sign of liberty usurped and profaned by the basest of slaves."--Peter
then has a learned _excursus de jure pileorum_, wherein _Tertullian de
Spectaculis, Erasmus_ his _Chiliades_, and many other reverent
authorities are adduced; also, giving an account of his successful
exertions, as to "the licence of putting on our caps at our public
meetings, which privilege, time, and the tyranny of the vice-chancellor,
had taken from." After which, he still resumes in ire,--"this French
sauciness hath drawn me out of the way; an impudent familiarity, which,
I confess, did much offend me; and to which I still profess myself an
open enemy. Though Jacke speak French, I cannot endure Jacke should be a
gentleman."

[29] _Geographie de la France_, II. p. 115.

[30] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 94.

[31] P. 196, 203, 204.

[32] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 90.--Some other writers
date the foundation A.D. 666.

[33] _Gough's Alien Priories_, I. p. 9.

[34] This important part of its treasures, we may hope, from the
following passage in Noel, has been in a measure preserved. "On m'a
assure que cette derniere partie des richesses litteraires de notre pays
etoit heureusement conservee: puisse aujourd'hui ce depot, honorant les
mains qui le possedent, parvenir integre jusqu'aux tems properes ou le
genie de l'histoire pourra utiliser sa possession."--_Essais sur la
Seine Inferieure_, II. p. 21.

[35] I do not know if it be wholly destroyed; for the author of the
Description of Upper Normandy and Goube both speak of the existence of a
square tower within the precincts of the abbey, part of the old palace,
and known by the name of the _Tower of Babel_.

[36] _Noel, Essais sur la Seine Inferieure_, II. p. 11.

[37] Vol. I. p. 389.

[38] This name, in Latin, is _Monasterium Villare_; in old French
records it is called _Monstier Vieil_.

[39] _Origines de Caen, 2nd edit._ p. 300.

[40] Vol. II. p. 78.




LETTER VI.

HAVRE--TRADE AND HISTORY OF THE TOWN--EMINENT MEN--BOLBEC--YVETOT--RIDE
TO ROUEN--FRENCH BEGGARS.


(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

To Fecamp and the other places noticed in my last letter, a more
striking contrast could not easily be found than Havre. It equally wants
the interest derived from ancient history, and the appearance of misery
inseparable from present decay. And yet even Havre is now suffering and
depressed. A town which depends altogether upon foreign commerce, could
not fail to feel the effects of a long maritime war; and we accordingly
find the number of its inhabitants, which twenty years ago was estimated
at twenty-five thousand, now reduced to little more than sixteen
thousand.

The blow, which Havre will with most difficulty recover is the loss of
St. Domingo; for, before the revolution, it almost enjoyed a monopoly of
the trade of this important colony, in which upwards of eighty ships,
each of above three hundred tons burthen, were constantly employed. With
Martinique and Guadaloupe it had a similar, though less extensive,
intercourse. As the natural outlet for the manufactures of Rouen and
Paris, it supplied the French islands in the West Indies with the
principal part of their plantation stores; and the situation of the port
was equally advantageous for the importation of their produce. Guinea
and the coast of Africa afforded a second and important branch of
commerce; and this also is little likely entirely to recover. We may
add that, happily it is not so; for it depended principally upon the
slave-trade, the profits of which were such, that it was calculated a
vessel might clear upon an average nearly eight thousand pounds by each
voyage[41]. Its whale-fishery has, for more than a century, ceased to
exist. This pursuit began with spirit and at as early a period as the
year 1632, when the merchants of this port, in conjunction with those of
Biscay, fitted out the expedition commanded by Vrolicq, seized upon a
station near Spitzbergen, where they would have obtained a permanent
establishment, had they not been violently expelled by the Danes and
Dutch. But the coasting-trade with the various ports of France, and the
communication with the other countries of Europe, is now again in full
vigor; and it is to these sources that Havre is chiefly indebted for the
life and spirit visible in its quays and public places.

The appearance of bustle and activity is a striking, at the same time
that it is a most pleasing, character, of every great and commercial
sea-port, in every part of the world: it is especially so in a climate
which is milder than our own, and where not only the loading and
unloading of the ships, with the consequent transport of merchandize, is
continually taking place before the spectator; but the sides of the
shops are commonly set open, sail-makers are pursuing their business in
rows in the streets, and almost every handicraft and occupation is
carried on in the open air. An acute traveller might also conjecture
that the mildness of the atmosphere is comfortable and congenial to the
parrots, perroquets, and monkeys, which are brought over as pets and
companions by the sailors. Great numbers of these exotic birds and
brutes are to be seen at the windows, and they almost give to the town
of Havre the appearance of a tropical settlement.

The quays are strongly edged and faced with granite: the streets, of
which there are forty, are all built in straight lines, and chiefly at
right angles with each other. In them are several fountains, round which
picturesque groups of women are continually collected, employed with
Homeric industry in the task of washing linen. The churches are ugly,
their style is a miserable caricature of Roman architecture, the
interiors are incumbered by dirty and dark chapels, filled up with wood
carvings. The principal church has figures of saints, of wretched
execution, but of the size of life, ranged round the interior. The
harbor is calculated to contain three hundred vessels. The houses are
oddly constructed: they are very narrow, and very lofty, being commonly
seven stories high, and they are mostly fronted with stripes of tiled
slate, and intermediate ones of mortar, so fantastically disposed, that
two are rarely seen alike.

Notwithstanding what is alledged by the author of the _Memoires sur
Havre_, in his endeavors to give consequence to his native place, by
maintaining its antiquity, it appears certain that no mention is made of
the town previously to the fifteenth century. Even so late as 1509, its
scite was occupied by a few hovels, clustered round a thatched chapel,
under the protection of Notre Dame de Grace, from whom the place derived
the name of Havre de Grace. Francis Ist, who was the real founder[42]
of Havre, was desirous of changing this name to _Francoisville_ or
_Franciscopole_. But the will of a sovereign, as Goube very justly
observes, most commonly dies with him: in our days, the National
Convention, aided by the full force of popular enthusiasm, has equally
failed in a similar attempt. The jacobins tried in vain to banish the
recollections of good St. Denis, by unchristening his vill under the
appellation of _Franciade_. Disobedience to the edict, exposed, indeed,
the contravener to the chance of experiencing the martyrdom of the
bishop; yet the mandate still produced no effect. Nor was Napoleon more
successful; and history affords abundant proof, that it is more easy to
build a city, or even to conquer a kingdom, than to alter an established
name.

Viewed in its present condition, no town in France unites more
advantages than Havre: it is one of the keys of the kingdom; it commands
the mouth of the river that leads direct to the metropolis; and it is at
once a great commercial town and a naval station. Possessing such claims
to commercial and military pre-eminence, it may appear matter of
surprise that it should be of so recent an origin; but the cause is to
be sought for in the changes which succeeding centuries have induced in
the face of the country--

"Vidi ego quae fuerat quondam durissima tellus
Esse fretum; vidi factas ex aequore terras."

The sea continually loses here, and, without great efforts on the part
of man to retard the operation of the elements, Havre may, in process of
time, become what Harfleur is. At its origin it stood immediately on the
shore; the consequence of which was, that, within a very few years, a
high tide buried two-thirds of the houses and nearly all the
inhabitants. The remembrance of this dreadful calamity is still annually
renewed by a solemn procession on the fifteenth of January.

With regard to historical events connected with Havre, there is little
to be said. It was the spot whence our Henry VIIth embarked, in 1485,
aided by four thousand men from Charles VIIIth, of France, to enforce
his claim to the English crown. The town was seized by the Huguenots,
and delivered to our Queen Elizabeth, in 1562. But it was held by her
only till the following year, when Charles IXth, with Catherine of
Medicis, commanded the siege in person, and pressed it so vigorously,
that the Earl of Warwick was obliged to evacuate the place, after having
sacrificed the greater part of his troops. At the end of the following
century, after the bombardment and destruction of Dieppe, an attack was
made upon Havre, but without success, owing to the strength of the
fortifications, and particularly of the citadel. For this, the town was
indebted to Cardinal Richelieu, who was its governor for a considerable
time, and who also erected some of its public buildings, improved the
basin, and gave a fresh impulse to trade, by ordering several large
ships of war to be built here. As ship-builders, the inhabitants of
Havre have always had a high character: they stand conspicuous in the
annals of the art, for the construction of the vessel called _la Grande
Francoise_, and justly termed _la grande_, as having been of two
thousand tons burthen. Her cables are said to have been above the
thickness of a man's leg; and, besides what is usually found in a ship,
she contained a wind-mill and a tennis-court[43]. Her destination was,
according to some authors, the East Indies; according to others, the
Isle of Rhodes, then attacked by Soliman IInd; but we need not now
inquire whither she was bound; for, after advantage had been taken of
two of the highest tides, the utmost which could be done was to tow her
to the end of the pier, where she stuck fast, and was finally obliged to
be cut to pieces. Her history and catastrophe are immortalized by
Rabelais, under the appellation of _la Grande Nau Francoise_.

It were unpardonable to take leave of Havre without one word upon the
celebrated individuals to whom it has given birth; and you must allow me
also, from our common taste for natural history, to point it out to your
notice as a spot peculiarly favorable for the collecting of fossil
shells, which are found about the town and neighborhood in great numbers
and variety. The Abbe Dicquemare, a naturalist of considerable eminence,
who resided here, may possibly be known to you by his observations on
this subject, or still more probably by those upon the Aetiniae; the
latter having been translated into English, and honored with a place in
the Transactions of our Royal Society. Of more extensive, but not more
justly merited, fame, are George Scudery and his sister Magdalen: the
one a voluminous writer in his day, though now little known, except for
his _Critical Observations upon the Cid_; the other, a still more
prolific author of novels, and alternately styled by her contemporaries
the Sappho of her age, and "un boutique de verbiage;" but unquestionably
a writer of merit, notwithstanding the many unmanly sneers of Boileau,
whose bitter pen, like that of our own illustrious satirist, could not
even consent to spare a female that had been so unfortunate as to
provoke his resentment. She died in 1701, at the advanced age of
ninety-four. The last upon my list is one of whom death has very
recently deprived the world, the excellent Bernardin de Saint Pierre; a
man whose writings are not less calculated to improve the heart than to
enlarge the mind. It is impossible to read his works without feeling
love and respect for the author. His exquisite little tale of _Paul and
Virginia_ is in the hands of every body; and his larger work, the
_Studies of Nature_, deserves to be no less generally read, as full of
the most original observations, joined to theories always ingenious,
though occasionally fanciful: the whole conveyed in a singularly
captivating style, and its merits still farther enhanced by a constant
flow of unaffected piety.

The road from Havre to Rouen is of a different character, and altogether
unlike that from Dieppe; but what it gains in beauty of landscape it
loses in interest. And yet, perhaps, it is even wrong to say that it
gains much in point of beauty; for, though: trees are more generally
dispersed, though cultivation is universal, and the soil good, and
produce luxuriant, and though the mind and the eye cannot but be pleased
by the abundance and verdure of the country, yet in picturesque effect
it is extremely deficient. Monotony, even of excellence, displeases. I
am speaking of the road which passes through Bolbec and Yvetot: there is
another which lies nearer to the banks of the Seine, through Lillebonne
and Caudebec, and this, I do not doubt, would, in every point of view,
have been preferable.

At but a short distance from Havre, to the left, lies the church,
formerly part of the priory, of Graville, a picturesque and interesting
object. Of the date of its erection we have no certain knowledge, and it
is much to be regretted that we have not, for it is clearly of Norman
architecture; the tower a very pure specimen of that style, and the end
of the north transept one of the most curious any where to be seen, and
apparently; also one of the most ancient[44]. I should therefore feel no
scruple in referring the building to a more early period than the
beginning of the thirteenth century, where our records of the
establishment commence; for it was then that William Malet, Lord of
Graville, placed here a number of regular canons from Ste. Barbe en
Auge, and endowed them with all the tythes and patronage he possessed in
France and England. The act by which Walter, Archbishop of Rouen,
confirmed this foundation, is dated in 1203. _Stachys Germanica_, a
plant of extreme rarity in England, grows abundantly here by the
road-side; and apple-trees are very numerous, not only edging the road,
but planted in rows across the fields.

The valley by which you enter Bolbec is pretty and varied; full of trees
and houses, which stand at different heights upon the hills on either
side. The town itself is long, straggling, and uneven. Through it runs a
rapid little stream, which serves many purposes of extensive business,
connected with the cotton manufactory, the preparation of leather,
cutlery, &c. This stream, of the same name with the town, afterwards
falls into the Seine, near Lillebonne, one of the most ancient places in
Normandy, and formerly the metropolis of the Caletes, but now only a
wretched village. Tradition refers its ruin to the period of the
invasion of Gaul by the Romans; but it revived under the Norman Dukes,
who resided here a portion of the year, and it was a favorite seat of
William the Conqueror. To him, or to one of his immediate predecessors
or successors, it is most probable that the castle owes its existence.
Mr. Cotman found the ruins of it extensive and remarkable. The
importance of the place, at a far more early date, is proved by the
medals of the Upper and Lower Empire, which are frequently dug up here,
and not less decisively by the many Roman roads which originate from the
town. Bolbec can lay claim to no similar distinction; but it is full of
industrious manufacturers. Twice in the last century it was burned to
the ground; and, after each conflagration, it has arisen more
flourishing from its ashes. At the last, which happened in 1765, Louis
XVth made a donation to the town of eighty thousand livres, and the
parliament of Normandy added a gratuity of half as much more, to assist
the inhabitants in repairing their losses.

Yvetot, the next stage, possesses no visible interest, and furnishes no
employment for the pencil. The town is, like Bolbec, a residence for
manufacturers; and the curious stranger would seek in vain for any
traces of decayed magnificence, any vestiges or records of a royal
residence. And yet, it is held that Yvetot was the capital of a
_kingdom_, which, if it really did exist, had certainly the distinction
of being the smallest that ever was ruled on its own account. The
subject has much exercised the talents and ingenuity of historians. It
has been maintained by the affirmants, that an actual monarchy existed
here at a period as remote as the sixth century; others argue that,
though the Lords of Yvetot may have been stiled _Kings_, the distinction
was merely titular, and was not conferred till about the year 1400;
whilst a third, and, perhaps, most numerous, body, treat the whole as
apocryphal.

Robert Gaguin[45], a French historian of the fifteenth century, prefaces
the anecdote by observing, that he is the first French writer by whom
it is recorded; and, as if sensible that such a remark could not fail to
excite suspicion, he proceeds to say, that it is wonderful that his
predecessors should have been silent. Yet he certainly was not the first
who stated the story in print; for it appears in the Chronicles of
Nicholas Gilles, which were printed in 1492, whilst the earliest edition
of Gaugin was published in 1497.--According to these monkish historians,
Clotharius, of France, son of Clovis, had threatened the life of his
chamberlain, Gaultier, Lord of Yvetot, who thereupon fled the kingdom,
and for ten years remained in voluntary exile, fighting against the
infidels. At the end of this period, Gaultier hoped that the anger of
his sovereign might be appeased, and he accordingly went to Rome, and
implored the aid of the Supreme Pontiff. Pope Agapetus pitied the
wanderer; and he gave unto him a letter addressed to the King of the
Franks, in which he interceded for the supplicant. Clotharius was then
residing at Soissons, his capital, and thither Gaultier repaired on
Good-Friday, in the year 536, and, availing himself of the moment when
the King was kneeling before the altar, threw himself at the feet of the
royal votary, beseeching pardon in the name of the common Savior of
mankind, who on that day shed his blood for the redemption of the human
race. But his prayers and appeal were in vain: he found no pardon;
Clothair drew his sword, and slew him on the spot. The Pope threatened
the monarch with apostolical vengeance, and Clothair attempted to atone
for the murder, by raising the town and territory of Yvetot into a
kingdom, and granting it in perpetuity to the heirs of Gaultier.

Such is the tradition. There is a very able dissertation upon the
subject, by the Abbe de Vertot[46], who endeavors to disprove the whole
story: first by the silence of all contemporary authors; then by the
fact, that Yvetot was not at that time under the dominion of Clothair;
then by an anachronism, which the story involves as to Pope Agapetus;
and finally by sundry other arguments of minor importance. Even he,
however, admits, that in a royal decree, dated 1392, and preserved among
the records of the Exchequer of Normandy, the title of _King_ is given
to the Lord of Yvetot; and he is obliged to cut the knot, which he is
unable to untie, by stating it as his opinion, that at or about this
period Yvetot was really raised into a sovereignty, though, on what
occasion, for what purpose, and with what privileges, no document
remains to prove. As a parallel case, he instances the Peers of France,
an order with whose existence every body is acquainted, while of the
date of the establishment nothing is known. It is surprising, that so
clear-sighted a writer did not perceive that he was doing nothing more
than illustrating, as the logicians say, _obscurum per obscurius_, or,
rather, making darkness more dark; as if it were not considerably more
probable, that so strange a circumstance should have taken place in the
sixth century, and have been left unrecorded, when society was unformed,
anomalies frequent, and historians few, than that it should have
happened in the fourteenth, a period when the government of France was
completely settled in a regular form, under one monarch, when literature
was generally diffused, and when every remarkable event was chronicled.
Besides which, the inhabitants of the little kingdom continued, in some
measure, independent of his Most Christian Majesty, even until the
revolution. At least, they paid not a sou of taxes, neither _aides_, nor
_tenth-penny_, nor _gabelle_. It was a sanctuary into which no farmer
of the revenue dared to enter. And it is hardly to be doubted, but that
there must have been some very singular cause for so singular and
enviable a privilege. In our own days, M. Duputel[47], a member of the
academy of Rouen, has entered the lists against the Abbe; and between
them the matter is still undecided, and is likely so to continue. For
myself, I have no means of throwing light upon it; but the impression
left upon my mind, after reading both sides of the question, is, that
the arguments are altogether in favor of Vertot, while the greater
weight of probabilities is in the opposite scale. I shall leave you,
however, to poise the balance, and I shall not attempt to cause either
end of the beam to preponderate, by acting the part of Old Nick as
before exhibited to you; though I decidedly believe that Gaguin had some
authority for his tale, but, by neglecting to quote it, he has left the
minds of his readers to uncertainty, and his own veracity to suspicion.

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

LETTER V.

JOURNEY TO HAVRE--PAYS DE CAUX--ST. VALLERY--FECAMP--THE PRECIOUS
BLOOD--THE ABBEY--TOMBS IN IT--MONTIVILLIERS--HARFLEUR.


(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

Lest I should deserve to be visited with the censure which I have taken
the liberty of passing upon Ducarel's tour, I shall begin by premising
that my account of the present state of the tract, intended for the
subject of this and the following letter, is wholly derived from the
journals of my companions. Their road by Fecamp, Havre, Bolbec, and
Yvetot, has led them through the greater part of the Pays de Caux, a
district which, in the time of Caesar, was peopled by the Caletes or
Caleti. Antiquaries suppose, that in the name of this tribe, they
discover the traces of its Celtic origin, and that its radical is no
other than the word _Kalt_ or _Celt_ itself. As a proof of the
correctness of this etymology, Bourgueville[25] tells us that but little
more than two hundred years have passed since its inhabitants, now
universally called _Cauchois_, were not less commonly called _Caillots_
or _Caillettes_; a name which still remains attached to several
families, as well as to the village Gonfreville la Caillotte, and,
probably, to some others. I shall, however, waive all Celtic theory,
"for that way madness lies," and enter upon more sober chorography.

The author of the Description of Upper Normandy states, that the
territory known by that appellation was limited to the Pays de Caux and
the Vexin: the former occupying the line of sea-coast from the Brele to
the Seine, together with the governments of Eu and Havre and the Pays de
Brai; the latter comprising the Roumois, and the French as well as the
Norman Vexin. All these territorial divisions have, indeed, been
obliterated by the state-geographers of the revolution; and Normandy,
time-honored Normandy herself, has disappeared from the map of the
dominions of the French king. The ancient duchy is severed into the five
departments of the Seine Inferieure, the Eure, the Orne, Calvados, and
the Manche. These are the only denominations known to the government or
to the law, yet they are scarcely received in common parlance. The
people still speak of Normandy, and they still take a pleasure in
considering themselves as Normans: and, I too, can share in their
attachment to a name, which transmits the remembrance of actual
sovereignty and departed glory.

Until the re-union of feudal Normandy to the crown of its liege lord,
the duke was one of the twelve peers of the kingdom; and to his hands
that kingdom entrusted the sacred Oriflamme, as often as it was
expedient to unfurl it in war. Normandy also contained several titular
duchies, ancient fiefs held of the King as Duke of Normandy, but which,
out of favour to their owners, were "erected," as the French lawyers
say, into duchies, after the province had reverted to the crown. This
erection, however, gave but a title to the noble owner, without
increasing his territorial privileges; nor could any of our Richards, or
our Henries, have allowed a liege man to write himself duke, like his
proud feudal suzerein. The recent duchies were Alencon, Aumale,
Harcourt, Damville, Elbeuf, Etouteville, and Longueville, and three of
them were included in the Pays de Gaux, the inhabitants of which, from
the titles connected with it, were accustomed to dignify it with the
epithet of _noble_. Their claim to the epithet is thus given by an
ancient Norman poet of the fifteenth century; and if, according to the
old tradition, which Voltaire has bantered with his usually incredulity,
we could admit that Yvetot was ever really a kingdom, it must be allowed
that few provinces could produce such a titled terrier:

"Au noble Pays de Caux
Y a quatre Abbayes royaux,
Six Prieures conventionaux,
Et six Barons de grand arroi,
Quatre Comtes, trois Ducs, un Roi."

The soil of the district is generally rich; but the farmers frequently
suffer from drought, especially in its western part, where they are
obliged almost constantly to have recourse to artifical irrigation. The
houses and villages are all surrounded with hedges, thickly planted, and
each village is also belted in the same manner. These inclosures, which
are peculiar to the Pays de Caux, give a monotonous appearance to the
landscape, but they are highly beneficial, for they break the force of
the winds, and furnish the inhabitants with fuel. If my memory does not
deceive me, the towns either of the ancient Gauls or Teutons, are
described as being thus encompassed in primitive times; but I cannot
name my authorities for the assertion.

St. Vallery, the first stage beyond Dieppe, is situated in a valley; and
there is an obscure tradition that this valley was once watered by a
river, which disappeared some centuries ago. It is conjectured, from the
name of the town, that it claims an origin as high as the seventh
century, when the disciples of St. Vallery were obliged to quit their
original monastery and take refuge elsewhere. Yet, according to other
authorities[26], it did not receive its present appellation till 1197,
when Richard Coeur de Lion, after having destroyed the town and abbey of
St. Vallery sur Somme, carried off the relics of the patron saint, and
deposited them in this town. My reporters tell me that it has an air of
antiquity and gloom, but that it contains nothing worthy of notice
except a crucifix in the churchyard, of stone, richly wrought, dated
1575, and a _benitier_ of such simple form and rude workmanship, as to
appear of considerable antiquity. The place itself is only a wretched
residence for four or five thousand fishermen; but still it has a
name[27] in history. Hence William sailed for the conquest of England;
and its harbor, all poor and small as it is, has always been considered
of importance to the country; there being no other between Havre and
Dieppe capable of affording shelter to vessels of even a moderate size.

The road to Fecamp passes through the little town of Cany, situated in a
beautiful valley; and there my family met the Archbishop of Rouen, who,
at this moment, is in progress through his diocese, for the purpose of
confirmation. The approach of his eminence gave the appearance of a fair
to every village: young and old of both sexes were collected in the
highways to welcome the prelate. He travelled in considerable state,
attended by a military escort of twenty men; and arrayed in the scarlet
robe of a Roman Cardinal, with the brilliant "decoration" of the Legion
of Honor conspicuous upon his breast. For the archbishop is a grand
officer of that brotherhood of bastard chivalry; and this ornament,
conjoined to his train of whiskered warriors, seemed to render him a
very type of the church militant. His eminence is extremely bulky; and
my pilgrims were wicked enough to be much amused by the oddity of his
pomp and pride. Nor did the postillion spare his facetiousness on the
occasion; for you are aware that in France, as in most other parts of
the continent, the servile classes use a degree of familiarity in their
intercourse with their betters, to which we are little accustomed in
England, and which has given rise to the Italian proverb, that "Il
Francese e fedele, l'Italiano rispettoso, l'Inglese schiavo[28]."

Throughout this part of France, large flocks of sheep are commonly seen
in the vicinity of the sea, and, as the pastures are uninclosed, they
are all regularly guarded by a shepherd and his black dog, whose
activity cannot fail to be a subject of admiration. He is always on the
alert and attentive to his business, skirting his flock to keep them
from straggling, and that, apparently, without any directions from his
master. In the night they are folded upon the ploughed land; and the
shepherd lodges, like a Tartar in his _kibitka_, in a small cart roofed
and fitted up with doors.

Fecamp, like other towns in the neighborhood, is imbedded in a deep
valley; and the road, on approaching it, threads through an opening
between hills "stern and wild," a tract of "brown heath and shaggy
wood," resembling many parts of Scotland. The town is long and
straggling, the streets steep and crooked; its inhabitants, according to
the official account of the population of France, amount to seven
thousand, and the number of its houses is estimated at thirteen hundred,
besides above a third of that quantity which are deserted, and more or
less in ruins[29].

Fecamp appeared desolate and decaying to its visitors, but they
recollected that its very desolation was a voucher of the antiquity from
which it derives its interest. It claims an origin as high as the days
of Caesar, when it was called _Fisci Campus_, being the station where
the tribute was collected.

It is in vain, however, to expect concord amongst etymologists; and, of
course, there are other right learned wights who protest against this
derivation. They shake their heads and say, "no; you must trace the
name, Fecamp, to _Fici Campus_;" and they strengthen their assertion by
a sort of _argumentum ad ecclesiam_, maintaining that the _precious
blood_, for which Fecamp was long celebrated, corroborates and confirms
their tale. A chapel in the abbey church attests the sanctity of this
relic. The legend states that Nicodemus, at the time of the entombment
of our Saviour, collected in a phial the blood from his wounds, and
bequeathed it to his nephew, Isaac; who afterwards, making a tour
through Gaul, stopped in the Pays de Caux, and buried the phial at the
root of a fig-tree[30].

Nor is this the only miracle connected with the church. The monkish
historians descant with florid eloquence upon the white stag, which
pointed out to Duke Ansegirus the spot where the edifice was to be
erected; the mystic knife, inscribed "in nomine sanctae et individuae
trinitatis," thus declaring to whom the building should be dedicated;
and the roof, which, though prepared for a distant edifice, felt that it
would be best at Fecamp, and actually, of its own accord, undertook a
voyage by sea, and landed, without the displacing of a single nail, upon
the sea-coast near the town. All these _contes devots_, and many others,
you will find recorded in the _Neustria Pia_[31]. I will only detain you
with a few words more upon the subject of the _precious blood_, a matter
too important to be thus hastily dismissed. It was placed here by Duke
Richard I.; but was lost in the course of a long and turbulent period,
and was not found again till the year 1171, when it was discovered
within the substance of a column built in the wall. Two little tubes of
lead originally contained the treasure; but these were soon inclosed in
two others of a more precious metal, and the whole was laid at the
bottom of a box of gilt silver, placed in a beautiful pyramidical
shrine. Thus protected, it was, before the revolution, fastened to one
of the pillars of the choir, behind a trellis-work of copper, and was an
object of general adoration. I know not what has since become of it;
but, as they are now managing these matters better in France, we may
safely calculate upon the speedy reappearance of the relic. Nor must you
refer this legend to the many which protestant incredulity is too apt to
class with the idle tales of all ages, the

"... quicquid Graecia mendax
Audet in historia;"

for no less grave an authority than the faculty of theology at Paris
determined, by a formal decree of the 28th of May, 1448, that this
worship was very proper; for that, to use their words, "Non repugnat
pietati fidelium credere quod aliquid de sanguine Christi effuso tempore
passionis remanserit in terris."

The abbey, to which Fecamp was indebted for all its greatness and
celebrity, was founded in 664[32] for a community of nuns, by Waning,
the count or governor of the Pays de Caux, a nobleman who had already
contributed to the endowment of the Monastery of St. Wandrille. St.
Ouen, Bishop of Rouen, dedicated the church in the presence of King
Clotaire; and, so rapidly did the fame of the sanctity of the abbey
extend, that the number of its inmates amounted in a very short period
to three hundred or more. The arrival, however, of the Normans, under
Hastings, in 841, caused the dispersion of the nuns; and the same story
is related of the few who remained at Fecamp, as of many others under
similar circumstances, that they voluntarily cut off their noses and
their lips, rather than be an object of attraction to the lust of their
conquerors. The abbey, in return for their heroism, was levelled with
the ground, and it did not rise from its ashes till the year 988, when
the piety of Duke Richard I. built the church anew, under the auspices
of his son, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen; but, departing from the
original foundation, he established therein a chapter of regular canons,
who, however, were so irregular in their conduct, that within ten years
they were doomed to give way to a body of Benedictine Monks, headed by
an Abbot, named William, from a convent at Dijon. From his time the
monastery continued to increase in splendor. Three suffragan abbies,
that of Notre Dame at Bernay, of St. Taurin at Evreux, and of Ste.
Berthe de Blangi, in the diocese of Boullogne, owned the superior power
of the abbot of Fecamp, and supplied the three mitres which he proudly
bore on his abbatial shield. Kings and princes in former ages frequently
paid the abbey the homage of their worship and their gifts; and, in a
period nearer to our own, Casimir of Poland, after his voluntary
abdication of the throne, selected it as the spot in which he sought for
repose, when wearied with the cares of royalty. The English possessions
of Fecamp (for like most of the great Norman abbeys, it held lands in
our island) do not appear to have been large; but, according to an
author of our own country[33] the abbot presented to one hundred and
thirty benefices, some in the diocese of Rouen, others in those of
Bayeux, Lisieux, Coutances, Chartres, and Beauvais; and it enjoyed so
many estates, that its income was said to be forty thousand crowns per
annum. Fecamp moreover could boast of a noble library, well stored with
manuscripts[34], and containing among its archives many original
charters, deeds, &c. of William the Conqueror, and several of his
successors.

This magnificent church is three hundred and seventy feet long and
seventy high; the transept, including the Chapel of the Precious Blood,
one hundred and twenty feet long; the tower two hundred feet high. A
portion of it was burned in 1460, but soon repaired. William de Ros,
third abbot, rebuilt all the upper part in a better taste, and enlarged
the nave, which was not finished till 1200. A successor of his at the
beginning of the next century completed the chapels round the choir. The
screen was begun by one of the monks about 1500, who erected the chapel
dedicated to the death of the Virgin, a master-piece of architecture and
adorned with historical carving. The cloister was built so late as 1712.
Cathedral service was performed in the church, in which were the tombs
of the first and second of the Richards of Normandy; of Richard, infant
son of the former, and of William, third son of the latter; of Margaret,
betrothed to Robert, son of William the Conqueror, who died 1060; of
Alard, third Earl of Bretagne, 1040; of Archbishop Osmond, and of a
Lady Judith, whose jingling epitaph has given rise to a variety of
conjectures, whether she was the wife of Duke Richard IInd, or his
daughter, or some other person.--

"Illa solo sociata, mariti at jure soluta,
Judita judicio justificata jacet;
Et quae, dante Deo, sed judice justificante,
Primo jus subiit sed modo jura regit."

As to Duke Richard Ist, he caused a sarcophagus of stone to be made and
placed within this church; and so long as he lived, it was filled with
wheat on every Friday, and the grain, together with five shillings,
distributed weekly among the poor. And when his death approached, he
expressly charged his successor, "Bury not my body within the church,
but deposit it on the outside, immediately under the eaves, that the
dripping of the rain from the holy roof may wash my bones as I lie, and
may cleanse them of the spots of impurity contracted during a negligent
and neglected life."

Our party could not ascertain whether any of the historical monuments
were yet in existence. The church, at the time they were there, was
wholly occupied with preparations for the approaching confirmation.
Young girls in their best dresses, all in white, and holding tapers in
their hands, filled the nave, while the chapels were crowded with
individuals at prayer, or still more with females waiting for an
opportunity of confessing themselves, previously to receiving the
expected absolution from the archbishop. Under such circumstances
nothing could be examined; but there appeared to be in the chapels five
or six fine, though mutilated, altar tombs: to whom, however, they
belonged, or what was their actual state, it was impossible to tell.
Accompanying them are also some curious pieces of sculpture. For the
same reason no farther remark could be made upon the interior of the
building, except that its architecture is imposing, and its roof,
supported by tall clustered pillars, has much the general effect of the
nave of our cathedral at Norwich, one of the purest specimens of Norman
architecture in England. Externally the tower is handsome, and of nearly
the earliest pointed style; not altogether so, as its arches, though
narrow, contain each a double arch within. The rest of the building
seems to have suffered much from alterations and dilapidation; and
whatever tracery there may have been originally has disappeared from the
windows; nor are there saints or even niches remaining above the doors.

The exterior of the church of St. Etienne, one of the ten parochial
churches of Fecamp, before the revolution, is considerably more
imposing; but upon this I will not detain you, as you will see it
engraved in Mr. Cotman's _Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, from a
sketch taken by him last year.

Henry IInd, of England, made a donation of the town to the abbey, whose
seignorial jurisdiction also extended over many other parishes, as well
in this as in the adjoining dioceses. Its exclusive privileges were
likewise ample. Under the first and second race, Fecamp was the seat of
government of the Pays de Caux, and the residence of the counts of the
district: it was also a residence of the Norman Dukes. Their castle was
rebuilt by William Longue-Epee, with a degree of magnificence which is
said to have been extraordinary. This duke took particular pleasure in
the place, and he and his immediate successors frequently lived here.
But the palace has long since disappeared[35]: the continual increase of
the monastic buildings gradually occupied its place; and they, in their
turn, are now experiencing the revolutions of fortune, the inhabitants
being at this very time actively employed in their demolition.

The town is at present wholly supported by the fisheries, in which are
employed about fourteen hundred sailors[36]. The herrings of Fecamp have
always had the same high character in France, as those of Lowestoft and
Yarmouth in England. The armorial lion of our own town ends, as you
know, with the tail of a herring; and I really have been often inclined
to affix the same appendage to the rump of the lion of Normandy. You are
not much of an epicure, nor are you very likely to search in the
_Almanach des Gourmands_ for dainties; if you did, you would probably
find there the following proverb, which has existed since the thirteenth
century,--

"Aloses de Bourdeaux;
Esturgeons de Blaye;
Congres de la Rochelle;
Harengs de Fecamp;
Saumons de Loire;
Seches de Coutances."

The fortifications of Fecamp are destroyed; but, upon the cliffs which
command the town, there still remain some slight vestiges of a fort,
erected in the time of Henry IVth, when the inhabitants espoused the
party of the league. The capture of this fort was one of those gallant
exploits which the historian delights in recording; and it is detailed
at great length in Sully's Memoirs[37].

From Fecamp to Havre the country is well wooded, and much applied to the
cultivation of flax, which flourishes in this neighborhood, and has
given rise to considerable linen manufactories. The trees look well in
masses, but individually they are trimmed into ugliness. Near Havre the
road goes through Montivilliers, and, still nearer, through Harfleur.

The first of these is, like Fecamp, a place of antiquity, and derived
its name[38] and importance from a monastery which was founded at the
end of the seventh century. Its history is headed by the chapter which
begins the records of most of the ecclesiastical foundations of the
duchy: when the invading heathen Normans reached Montivilliers, it
shared the common fate of destruction, and when they withdrew, the
common piety recalled it to existence. Richard IInd bestowed it upon
Fecamp, but the same sovereign restored it to its independence, at the
request of his aunt, Beatrice, who retired hither as abbess, at the head
of a community of nuns. A convent, over which an abbess of royal blood
had presided, could not fail to enjoy considerable privileges; and it
retained them to the period of the revolution. The tower of the church
still remains, a noble specimen of the Norman architecture of the
eleventh century, at which period the building is known to have been
erected. The rest of the edifice, though handsome as a whole, is the
work of different aeras. The archives of the monastery furnish an account
of large sums expended in additions and alterations in the years 1370
and 1513. The interior contains some elegant stone fillagree-work in the
form of a small gallery or pulpit, attached to the west end near the
roof, and probably intended to receive a band of singers on high
festivals. A gallery of a similar nature, but of wood, and to which the
foregoing purpose was assigned by the learned wight, John Carter, is yet
remaining at the north-west corner of Westminster Abbey. You and I, who
are sadly inclined to admire ugliness and antiquity, would have been
better pleased with the capitals of the pillars, which are evidently
coeval with the tower. Drawings were made of some of these capitals, and
I have selected two which appeared to be the most singular.

[Illustration: Capital with angel]

In this you observe an angel weighing the good works of the deceased
against his evil deeds; and, as the former are far exceeding the
avoirdupois upon which Satan is to found his claim, he is endeavoring
most unfairly to depress the scale with his two-pronged fork.

This allegory is of frequent occurrence in the monkish legends.--The
saint, who was aware of the frauds of the fiend, resolved to hold the
balance himself.--He began by throwing in a pilgrimage to a miraculous
virgin.--The devil pulled out an assignation with some fair mortal
Madonna, who had ceased to be immaculate.--The saint laid in the scale
the sackcloth and ashes of the penitent of Lenten-time.--Satan answered
the deposit by the vizard and leafy-robe of the masker of the
carnival.--Thus did they still continue equally interchanging the
sorrows of godliness with the sweets of sin, and still the saint was
distressed beyond compare, by observing that the scale of the wicked
thing (wise men call him the correcting principle,) always seemed the
heaviest. Almost did he despair of his client's salvation, when he
luckily saw eight little jetty black claws just hooking and clenching
over the rim of the golden basin. The claws at once betrayed the craft
of the cloven foot. Old Nick had put a little cunning young devil under
the balance, who, following the dictates of his senior, kept clinging to
the scale, and swaying it down with all his might and main. The saint
sent the imp to his proper place in a moment, and instantly the burthen
of transgression was seen to kick the beam.

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

In the general plan a great resemblance is to be traced between many
castles in Wales and its frontiers, especially Goodrich Castle, and this
at Arques. Yet I do not think that any of ours are of an equal extent;
nor can you well conceive a more noble object than this, when seen at a
distance: and it is only then that the eye can comprehend the vast
expanse and strength of the external wall, with the noble keep towering
high above it.

[Illustration: Church at Arques]

Until the revolution, the decaying town of Arques was not wholly
deprived of all the vestiges of its former honours: the standards of the
weights and measures of Upper Normandy were deposited here. It was the
seat of the courts of the Archbishop of Rouen, and, though the actual
session of the municipal courts took place at Dieppe, they bore the
legal style and title of the courts of Arques. Since the revolution
these traces of its importance have wholly disappeared, nor is there any
outward indication of the consequence once enjoyed by this poor and
straggling hamlet.

The church is a neat and spacious building, of the same kind of
architecture as that of St. Jacques, at Dieppe; and, as it is a good
specimen of the florid Norman Gothic, (I forbid all cavils respecting
the employment of this term) I have added a figure of it. My slender
researches have not enabled me to discover the date of the building, but
it may, have been erected towards the year 1350. A most elegant bracket,
formed by the graceful dolphin, deserves the attention of the architect;
and I particularize it, not merely on account of its beauty, but
because, even at the risk of exhausting your antiquarian patience, I
intend to point out all architectural features which cannot be retraced
in our own structures; and this is one of them. By the way, Arques
contributed to increase the bulk of our herbal as well as of our
sketch-book, for under the walls of the church is found the rare
_Erodium moschatum_; and near the castle grow _Astragalus glycyphyllos_
and _Melissa Nepeta_.

The field of battle is to the southward of the town. A small walk under
the south wall of the castle, near the east end, adjoining a covered way
which led to a postern-gate or draw-bridge, is still called the walk of
Henry the IVth, because it was here that this monarch was wont to
reconnoitre the enemy's forces from below.

Napoleon, towards the conclusion of his reign, visited the field of
battle at Arques; he ascertained the position of the two armies, and
pronounced that the King ought to have lost the day, for that his
tactics were altogether faulty. I am willing to suppose that this
military criticism arose merely from military pedantry, though it is now
said that Napoleon was envious of the veneration, which, as the French
believe, they feel for the memory of Henri quatre. Napoleon is accused
of having given the title of _le Roi de la Canaille_ to the Bourbon
Monarch. And when Napoleon was in full-blown pride, he might have had
the satisfaction of hearing the rabble of Paris chaunt his comparative
excellence in a parody of the old national song--

"Vive Bonaparte, vice ce conquerant,
Ce diable a quatre a bien plus de talent
Que ce Henri quatre et tous ses descendans,"

Footnotes:

[15] _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_, X. p. 403. tab. 15.

[16] Such are the Abbe's principal arguments; but he goes on to say,
that the height of the ramparts proves almost to demonstration their
having been erected since the use of fire-arms, a mode of reasoning that
would, I fear, be equally conclusive against the antiquity of a very
celebrated earth-work, the Devil's-Ditch, in Cambridgeshire, whose agger
is of about the same elevation, but of whose modern origin nobody ever
yet dreamed;--that the ramparts opposite Dieppe could only be of use
against cannon, another position equally untenable;--that, were the camp
Roman, there would be platforms on the agger for the reception of wooden
towers, as if time would not wear away vestiges of this nature;--that
the disposition is not in regular order like that of a Roman encampment,
a matter equally liable to be defaced;--and, finally, that the out-works
to the west are fully decisive of a more modern aera, as if intrenchments
were not, like buildings, frequently the objects of subsequent
alterations;--In his inferences he is followed, and, apparently without
any question as to their authenticity, by Ducarel, whom I suspect from
his description never to have visited the place. The Abbe Fontenu, in a
paper in the same volume, gives it as his opinion that, from the term
_Civitas Limarum_, it might safely be believed there was a _city_ in
this place; and he tries to persuade himself that he can trace the
foundations of houses.

[17] _Noel, Essais sur le Department de la Seine Inferieure_, I. p. 88.

[18] The same is also notoriously the case in our own country: popular
tradition, by a metonymy very easily to be accounted for, from a desire
of adding importance to its objects, attributes whatever is Roman to
Julius Caesar, as the most illustrious of the Roman generals in England;
just as we daily hear smatterers in art referring to Raphael any
painting, however ordinary, that pretends to issue from the schools of
Rome or Florence, every Bolognese one to Guido or Annibal Carracci,
every Kermes to Ostade or Teniers, &c.

[19] _Noel, Essais sur la Seine Inferieure_, I. p. 98.

[20] Sully, who was himself in this battle, and bore a conspicuous part
in it, dwells upon its details completely _con amore_, and evidently
regards the issue of this day as decisive of the fate of the monarch,
who is reported to have said of himself shortly before the battle, that
"he was a king without a kingdom, a husband without a wife, and a
warrior without money."--I. p. 204.

[21] In justice to my readers, I must not here omit to say that such is
the opinion of a most able friend of mine, Mr. Cohen, who visited this
castle nearly at the same time with myself, and who writes me on the
subject: "I feel convinced that the brick coating of the _wedge-tower_
at Arques is recent. Such was the impression I had upon the spot; and
now I cannot remove it. It appeared to me that the character of the
brick-work, and of the stone cordons or fillets, was entirely like that
of the fortifications of the XVIth century; and I also thought, perhaps
erroneously, that the _wedge_ or _bastion_ was _affixed to_ the round
tower of the castle, and that it was an after-construction. At the south
end of the castle, you certainly see very ancient and singular masonry.
The diagonal or herring-bone courses are found in the old church of St.
Lo, and in the keep at Falaise; not in the front of the latter, but on
the side where you enter, and on the side which ranges with Talbot's
Tower. The same style of masonry is also seen, according to Sir Henry
Englefield, at Silchester, which is most undoubtedly a pure Roman
relic."--It abounds likewise in Colchester Castle.




LETTER IV.

JOURNEY FROM DIEPPE TO ROUEN--PRIORY OF LONGUEVILLE--ROUEN--BRIDGE OF
BOATS--COSTUME OF THE INHABITANTS.


(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

I arrived alone at this city: my companions, who do not always care to
keep pace with my constitutional impatience, which sometimes amuses, and
now and then annoys them, made a circuit by Havre, Bolbec, and Yvetot,
while I proceeded by the straight and beaten track. What I have thus
gained in expedition, I have lost in interest. During the whole of the
ride, there was not a single object to excite curiosity, nor would any
moderate deviation from the line of road have brought me within reach of
any town or tower worthy of notice, except the Priory of Longueville,
situate to the right of the road, about twelve miles from Dieppe. I did
not see Longueville, and I am told that the ruins are quite
insignificant, yet I regret that I did not visit them. The French can
never be made to believe that an old rubble wall is really and truly
worth a day's journey: hence their reports respecting the notability of
any given ruin can seldom be depended upon. And at least I should have
had the satisfaction of ascertaining the actual state of the remains of
a building, known to have been founded and partly built in the year
1084, by Walter Giffard[22], one of the relations and companions of the
Conqueror, in his descent upon England, and therefore created Earl of
Buckingham, or, as the French sometimes write it, _Bou Kin Kan_. The
title was held by his family only till 1164 when, upon the decease of
his son without issue, the lands of his barony were shared among the
collateral female heirs. He himself died in 1102, and by his will
directed that his body should be brought here, which was accordingly
done; and he was buried, as Ordericus Vitalis[23] tells us, near the
entrance of the church, having over him an epitaph of eight lines, "in
maceria picturis decorata." You will find the epitaph, wherein he is
styled "templi fundator et aedificator," copied both in the _Neustria
Pia_ and in _Ducarel's Anglo-Norman Antiquities_. The latter speaks of
it as if it existed in his time; but the doctor seldom states the extent
of his obligations towards his predecessors. And in consequence of this
his silent gratitude, we can never tell with any degree of certainty
whether we are perusing his observations or his transcripts. If he
really saw the inscriptions with his own eyes, it is greatly to be
regretted that he has given us no information respecting the paintings:
did they still exist, they would afford a most genuine and curious
proof of the state of Norman art at that remote period; and possibly, a
search after them among the cottages in the neighborhood might even now
repay the industry of some keen antiquary; for the French revolution may
well he compared to an earthquake: it swallowed up every thing,
ingulphing some so deep that they are lost for ever, but leaving others,
like hidden treasures, buried near the surface of the soil, whence
accident and labor are daily bringing them to light. The descendants of
Walter Giffard are repeatedly mentioned as persons of importance in the
early Norman writers; nor are they less illustrious in England, where
the great family of Clare sprung from one of the daughters; while
another, by her marriage with Richard Granville, gave birth to the
various noble families of that name, of which the present Marquis of
Buckingham is the chief.

Of the Priory, we are told in the _Neustria Pia_[24], that it was
anciently of much opulence, and that a Queen of France contributed
largely to the endowment of the house. Many men of eminence,
particularly three of the Talbot family, were buried within its walls.
Peter Megissier, a prior of Longueville, was in the number of the judges
who passed sentence of death upon the unfortunate Joan of Arc; and the
inscription upon his tomb is so good a specimen of monkish Latinity,
that I am tempted to send it you; reminding you at the same time, that
this barbarous system of rhyming in Latin, however brought to perfection
by the monks and therefore generally called their own, is not really of
their invention, but may be found, though quoted to be ridiculed, in the
first satire of Persius,

"Qui videt hunc lapidem, cognoscat quod tegit idem
Petrum, qui pridem conventum rexit ibidem
Annis bis senis, tumidis Leo, largus egenis,
Omnibus indigenis charus fuit atque alienis."

I believe it is always expected, that a traveller in France should say
something respecting the general aspect of the country and its
agriculture. I shall content myself with remarking, that this part of
Normandy is marvellously like the country which the Conqueror conquered.
When the weather is dull, the Normans have a sober English sky,
abounding in Indian ink and neutral tint. And when the weather is fine,
they have a sun which is not a ray brighter than an English sun. The
hedges and ditches wear a familiar livery, and the land which is fully
cultivated repays the toil of the husbandman with some of the most
luxuriant crops of wheat I ever saw. Barley and oats are not equally
good, perhaps from the stiffness of the soil, which is principally of
chalk; but flax is abundant and luxuriant. The surface of the ground is
undulated, and sufficiently so to make a pleasing alternation of hill
and dale; hence it is agreeably varied, though the hills never rise to
such a height as to be an obstacle to agriculture. There is some
difficulty in conjecturing where the people by whom the whole is kept in
cultivation are housed; for the number of houses by the road-side is
inconsiderable; nor did we, for the first two-thirds of the ride, pass
through a single village, excepting Totes, which lies mid-way between
Dieppe, and Rouen, and is of no great extent. Yet things in France are
materially altered in this respect since 1814, when I remember that, in
going through Calais by the way of the Low Countries to Paris, and
returning by the direct road to Boullogne, the whole journey was made
without seeing a single new house erecting in a space of four hundred
miles. This is now far from being the case; there is every where an
appearance of comparative prosperity, and, were it not for the coins, of
which the copper bear the impress of the republic, and the gold and
silver chiefly that of Napoleon, a stranger would meet with but few
visible marks of the changes experienced in late years by the government
of France. Much has been also done of late towards ornamenting the
chateaux, of which there are several about Totes, though in the opinion
of an Englishman, much also is yet wanting. They are principally the
residences of Rouen merchants.

Upon approaching Malaunay, about nine miles from Rouen, the scene is
entirely changed. The road descends into a valley, inclosed between
steep hills, whose sides are richly and beautifully clothed with wood,
while the houses and church of the village beneath add life and variety
to the plain at the foot. Here the cotton manufactories begin, and, as
we follow the course of the little river Cailly, the population
gradually increases, and continues to become more dense through a series
of manufacturing villages, each larger than the preceding, and all
abounding in noble views of hill, wood, and dale; while the tracts
around are thickly studded with picturesque residences of manufacturers,
and extensive, often picturesque, manufactories. Such indeed was the
country, till we found ourselves at Rouen, shortly before entering which
the Havre road unites to that from Dieppe, and the landscape also
embraces the valley of the Seine, as well as of the Cailly the former
broader by far, and grander, but not more beautiful.

Rouen, from this point of view, is seen to considerable advantage, at
least by those who, like us, make a _detour_ to the north, and enter it
in that direction: the cathedral, St. Ouen, the hospital and church of
La Madeleine, and the river, fill the picture; nor is the impression in
any wise diminished on a nearer approach, when, through a long avenue,
formed by four rows of lofty elms, you advance by the side of a stream,
at once majestic from its width and eminently beautiful from its winding
course.

Rouen is now unfortified; its walls, its castles, are level with the
ground. But, if I may borrow the pun of which old Peter Heylin is guilty
when, describing Paris, Rouen is still a _strong_ city, "for it taketh
you by the nose." The filth is extreme; villainous smells overcome you
in every quarter, and from every quarter. The streets are gloomy,
narrow, and crooked, and the houses at once mean and lofty. Even on the
quay, where all the activity of commerce is visible, and where the
outward signs of opulence might be expected, there is nothing to fulfil
the expectation. Here is width and space, but no _trottoir_; and the
buildings are as incongruous as can well be imagined, whether as to
height, color, projection, or material. Most of them, and indeed most in
the city, are merely of lath and plaster, the timbers uncovered and
painted red or black, the plaster frequently coated with small grey
slates laid one over another, like the weather-tiles in Sussex. Their
general form is very tall and very narrow, which adds to the singularity
of their appearance; but mixed with these are others of white brick or
stone, and really handsome, or, it might be said, elegant. The contrast,
however, which they form only makes their neighbors look the more
shabby, while they themselves derive from the association an air of
meanness. The merchants usually meet upon a small open plot, situated
opposite to the quay, inclosed with palisades and fronted with trees.
This is their exchange in fine weather; but adjoining is a handsome
building, called _La Bourse a couvert_, or _Le Consulte_, to which
recourse is always had in case of rain. It was here that Napoleon and
Maria Louisa, a very short time previous to their deposition, received
from the inhabitants of Rouen the oath of allegiance, which so soon
afterwards found a ready transfer to another sovereign.

About the middle of the quay is placed the bridge of boats, an object of
attraction to all strangers, but more so from the novelty and
singularity of its construction than from its beauty. Utility rather
than elegance was consulted by the builder. This far-famed structure is
ugly and cumbrous, and a passenger feels a very unpleasing sensation if
he happens to stand upon it when a loaded waggon drives along it at low
water, at which time there is a considerable descent from the side of
the suburbs. An undulatory motion is then occasioned, which goes on
gradually from boat to boat till it reaches the opposite shore. The
bridge is supported upon nineteen large barges, which rise and fall with
the tide, and are so put together that one or more can easily be
removed as often as it is necessary to allow any vessel to pass. The
whole too can be entirely taken away in six hours, a construction highly
useful in a river peculiarly liable to floods from sudden thaws; which
sometimes occasion such an increase of the waters, as to render the
lower stories of the houses in the adjacent parts of the city
uninhabitable. The bridge itself was destroyed by a similar accident, in
1709, for want of a timely removal. Its plan is commonly attributed to a
monk of the order of St. Augustine, by whom it was erected in 1626,
about sixty years after the stone bridge, built by the Empress Matilda
in 1167, had ceased to be passable. It seems the fate of Rouen to have
_wonderful_ bridges. The present is dignified by some writers with the
high title of a _miracle of art_: the former is said by Taillepied, in
whose time it was standing, to have been "un des plus beaux edifices et
des plus admirables de la France." A few lines afterwards, however, this
ingenuous writer confesses that loaded carriages of any kind were seldom
suffered to pass this _admirable edifice_, in consequence of the expence
of repairing it; but that two barges were continually plying for the
transport of heavy goods. The delay between the destruction of the stone
bridge, and the erection of the boat bridge, appears to have been
occasioned by the desire of the citizens to have a second similar to the
first; but this, after repeated deliberations, was at last determined to
be impracticable, from the depth and rapidity of the stream. Napoleon,
however, seems to have thought that the task which had been accomplished
under the auspices of the Empress Matilda, might be again repeated in
the name of the daughter of the Caesars and the wife of the successor
of Charlemagne; and he actually caused Maria-Louisa to lay the first
stone of a new bridge, at some distance farther to the east, where an
island divides the river into two. This, I am told, will certainly he
finished, though at an enormous expence, and though it will occasion
great inconvenience to many inhabitants of the quay, whose houses will
be rendered useless by the height to which it will be necessary to raise
the soil upon the occasion. My informant added, that, small as is the
appearance yet made above water, whole quarries of stone and forests of
wood have been already sunk for the purpose.

From the scite of the projected bridge, the view eastward is
particularly charming. The bold hill of St. Catherine presents its steep
side of bare chalk, spotted only in a few places with vegetation or
cottages, and seems to oppose an impassable barrier; the mixture of
country-houses with trees at its base, makes a most pleasing variety;
and, still nearer, the noble elms of the _boulevards_ add a character of
magnificence possessed by few other cities. The _boulevards_ of Rouen
are rather deficient in the Parisian accompaniments of dancing-dogs and
music-grinders, but the sober pedestrian will, perhaps, prefer them to
their namesakes in the capital. Here they are not, as at Paris, in the
centre of the town, but they surround it, except upon the quay, with
which they unite at each end, and unite most pleasingly; so that,
immediately on leaving this brilliant bustling scene, you enter into the
gloom of a lofty embowered arcade, resembling in appearance, as well as
in effect, the public walks at Cambridge, except that the addition of
females in the fanciful Norman costume, and of the Seine, and the fine
prospect beyond, and Mont St. Catherine above, give it a new interest.
On the opposite side of the Seine, the inhabitants of Rouen have another
excellent promenade in the _grand cours_, which, for a considerable
space, occupies the bank of the river, turning eastward from the bridge.
Four rows of trees divide it into three separate walks, of which the
central one is by far the widest, and serves for horses and carriages;
the other two are appropriated exclusively to foot passengers. In these,
on a summer's evening, are to be seen all classes of the inhabitants of
Rouen, from the highest to the lowest; and the following sketch, which
you will easily perceive to be from a pencil more delicate than mine,
gives a most lively and faithful picture of them. It may indeed be in
some measure in the nature of a treatise _de re vestiaria_, yet such
details of gowns and petticoats never fail to interest, at least to
interest me, when proceeding from a wearer.

[Illustration: View of Rouen, from the Grand Cours]

"Our carriage had scarcely stopped when we were surrounded with beggars,
principally women with children in their arms. The poor babes presented
a most pitiable appearance, meagre, dirty to the utmost degree, ragged
and flea-bitten, so that round the throat there was not the least
portion of "carnation" appearing to be free from the insect plague.
Their hair, too, is seldom cut; and I have seen girls of eight or ten
years of age, bearing a growing crop which had evidently remained
unshorn, and I may add, uncombed, from the time of their birth. It is
impossible not to dread coming into contact with these imps, who, when
old, are among the ugliest conceivable specimens of the human race. The
women, even those who inhabit the towns, live much in the open air:
besides being employed in many slavish offices, they sit at their doors
or windows pursuing their business, or lounge about, watching passengers
to obtain charity. Thus their faces and necks are always of a copper
color, and, at an advanced age, more dusky still; so that, for the
anatomy and coloring of witches, a painter needs look no further. Their
wretchedness is strongly contrasted by the gaiety of the higher classes.
The military, who, I suppose, as usual in France, hold the first place,
appear in all possible variety of keeping and costume, with their
well-proportioned figures, clean apparel, decided gait, martial air, and
whiskered faces. Here and there we see gliding along the well-dressed
lady (not well dressed, indeed, as far as becomingness goes, but
fashionably), with a gown of triple flounces, whose skirt intrudes even
upon the shoulders, obliterating the waist entirely, while her throat is
lost in an immense frill of four or more ranks; and sometimes a large
shawl over all completes the disguise of the shape. The head of the dame
or damsel is usually enveloped in a gauze or silk bonnet, sufficiently
large to spread, were it laid upon a table, two feet in diameter, and
trimmed with various-colored ribbons and artificial flowers: in the hand
is seen the ridicule, a never-failing accompaniment. The lower orders of
women at Rouen usually wear the Cauchoise cap, or an approach to it,
rising high to a narrowish point at top, and furnished with immense ears
or wings that drop on the shoulder, then opening in front so as to allow
to be seen on the forehead a small portion of hair, which divides and
falls in two or three spiral ringlets on each side of the face. The
remainder of the dress is generally composed of a colored petticoat,
probably striped, an apron of a different color, a bodice still
differing in tint from the rest, and a shawl, uniting all the various
hues of all the other parts of the dress. Some of the peasants from the
country look still more picturesque, when mounted on horseback bringing
vegetables: they keep their situation without saddle or stirrup, and
seem perfectly at ease. But the best figures on horseback are the young
men who take out their masters' horses to give them exercise, and who
are frequently seen on the _grand cours_. They ride without hat, coat,
saddle, or saddle-cloth, and with the shirt sleeves rolled up above the
elbow. Their negligent equipment, added to their short, curling hair,
and the ease and elasticity they display in the management of their
horses, gives them, on the whole, a great resemblance to the Grecian
warriors of the Elgin marbles. Men, as well as women, are frequently
seen without hats in the streets, and continually uncravatted; and when
their heads are covered, these coverings are of every shape and hue;
from the black beaver, with or without a rim, through all gradations of
cap, to the simple white cotton nightcap. A painter would delight in
this display of forms and these sparkling touches of color, especially
when contrasted with the grey of the city, and the tender tints of the
sky, water, and distance, and the broad coloring of the landscape."

Footnotes:

[22] "He was son of Osborne de Bolebec and Aveline his wife, sister to
Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy, great-grandmother to the Conqueror, and
was one of the principal persons who composed the general survey of the
realm, especially for the county of Worcester. In 1089 he adhered to
William Rufus, against his brother Robert Courthose, and forfeited his
Norman possessions on the king's behalf, of whose army there he was a
principal commander, and behaved himself very honorably. Yet, in the
time of Henry Ist, he took the part of the said Courthose against that
king, but died the year following,"--_Banks' Extinct Baronage_, III. p.
108.

[23] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 809.

[24] P. 668.

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

By the revolution Dieppe was emancipated from the dominion of the
Archbishop of Rouen, who, by virtue of the cession made by Richard Coeur
de Lion, exercised a despotic sway, even until the dissolution of the
_ancien regime_. His privileges were oppressive, and he had and made use
of the right of imposing a variety of taxes, which extended even to the
articles of provision imported either by land or sea. Yet it must be
admitted that the progress of civilization had previously done much
towards the removal of the most obnoxious of the abuses. The times,
happily, no longer existed, when, as in the XIIth century, the prelate,
with a degree of indecency scarcely to be credited, especially under an
ecclesiastical government, did not scruple to convert the wages of sin
into a source of revenue, as scandalous in its nature as it must have
been contemptible in its amount, by exacting from every prostitute a
weekly tax of a farthing, for liberty to exercise her profession[14].

Many uncouth and frivolous ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies of the
middle ages, which good sense had banished from most other parts of
France, where they once were common, still lingered in the archbishop's
seignory. Thus, at no very remote period, it was customary on the Feast
of Pentecost to cast burning flakes of tow from the vaulting of the
church; this stage-trick being considered as a representation of the
descent of the fiery tongues. The Virgin, the great idol of popery, was
honored by a pageant, which was celebrated with extraordinary splendor;
and as I must initiate you in the mysteries of Catholicism, I think you
will be well pleased to receive a detailed account of it. The ceremony I
consider as curiously illustrative of the manners of the rulers, of the
ruled, and of the times; and I will only add, by way of preface, that it
was instituted by the governor, Des Marets, in 1443, in honor of the
final expulsion of the English, and that he himself consented to be the
first master of the _Guild of the Assumption_, under whose auspices and
direction it was conducted.--About Midsummer the principal inhabitants
used to assemble at the Hotel de Ville, and there they selected the girl
of the most exemplary character, to represent the Virgin Mary, and with
her six other young women, to act the parts of the Daughters of Sion.
The honor of figuring in this holy drama was greatly coveted; and the
historian of Dieppe gravely assures us, that the earnestness felt on the
occasion mainly contributed to the preservation of that purity of
manners and that genuine piety, which subsisted in this town longer than
in any other of France! But the election of the Virgin was not
sufficient: a representative of St. Peter was also to be found among the
clergy; and the laity were so far favored that they were permitted to
furnish the eleven other apostles. This done, upon the fourteenth of
August the Virgin was laid in a cradle of the form of a tomb, and was
carried early in the morning, attended by her suite of either sex, to
the church of St. Jacques; while before the door of the master of the
guild was stretched a large carpet, embroidered with verses in letters
of gold, setting forth his own good qualities, and his love for the holy
Mary. Hither also, as soon as _Laudes_ had been sung, the procession
repaired from the church, and then they were joined by the governor of
the town, the members of the guild, the municipal officers, and the
clergy of the parish of St. Remi. Thus attended, they paraded the town,
singing hymns, which were accompanied by a full band. The procession was
increased by the great body of the inhabitants; and its impressiveness
was still farther augmented by numbers of the youth of either sex, who
assumed the garb and attributes of their patron saints, and mixed in the
immediate train of the principal actors. They then again repaired to the
church, where _Te Deum_ was sung by the full choir, in commemoration of
the victory over the English, and high mass was performed, and the
Sacrament administered to the whole party. During the service, a scenic
representation was given of the Assumption of the Virgin. A scaffolding
was raised, reaching nearly to the top of the dome, and supporting an
azure canopy intended to emulate the "spangled vault of heaven;" and
about two feet below the summit of it appeared, seated on a splendid
throne, an old man as the image of the Father Almighty, a representation
equally absurd and impious, and which could alone be tolerated by the
votaries of the worst superstitions of popery. On either side four
pasteboard angels of the size of men floated in the air, and flapped
their wings in cadence to the sounds of the organ; while above was
suspended a large triangle, at whose corners were placed three smaller
angels, who, at the intermission of each office, performed upon a set of
little bells the hymn of "_Ave Maria gratia Dei plena per Secula_," &c.
accompanied by a larger angel on each side with a trumpet. To complete
this portion of the spectacle, two others, below the old man's feet,
held tapers, which were lighted as the services began, and extinguished
at their close; on which occasions the figures were made to express
reluctance by turning quickly about; so that it required some dexterity
to apply the extinguishers. At the commencement of the mass, two of the
angels by the side of the Almighty descended to the foot of the altar,
and, placing themselves by the tomb, in which a pasteboard figure of the
Virgin had been substituted for her living representative, gently raised
it to the feet of the Father. The image, as it mounted, from time to
time lifted its head and extended its arms, as if conscious of the
approaching beatitude, then, after having received the benediction and
been encircled by another angel with a crown of glory, it gradually
disappeared behind the clouds. At this instant a buffoon, who all the
time had been playing his antics below, burst into an extravagant fit of
joy; at one moment clapping his hands most violently, at the next
stretching himself out as if dead. Finally, he ran up to the feet of the
old man, and hid himself under his legs, so as to shew only his head.
The people called him _Grimaldi_, an appellation that appears to have
belonged to him by usage, and it is a singular coincidence that the
surname of the noblest family of Genoa the Proud, thus assigned by the
rude rabble of a sea-port to their buffoon, should belong of right to
the sire and son, whose _mops_ and _mowes_ afford pastime to the upper
gallery at Covent-Garden.

Thus did the pageant proceed in all its grotesque glory, and, while--

"These labor'd nothings in so strange a style
Amazed the unlearned, and made the learned smile,"

the children shouted aloud for their favorite Grimaldi; the priests,
accompanied with bells, trumpets, and organs, thundered out the mass;
the pious were loud in their exclamations of rapture at the devotion of
the Virgin; and the whole church was filled with "un non so che di rauco
ed indistinto".--But I have told you enough of this foolish story, of
which it were well if the folly had been the worst. The sequel was in
the same taste and style, and ended with the euthanasia of all similar
representations, a hearty dinner.

Footnotes:

[4] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 130.

[5] _Histoire de Dieppe_, II. p. 86.

[6] _Essals sur le Departement de la Seine Inferieure_, I. p. 119.

[7] _Histoire de Dieppe_, I. p. 1.

[8] Another author, mentioned by the Abbe Fontenu, in the _Memoires de
l'Academie des Inscriptions_, X. p. 413, carries the antiquity of the
place still eight centuries higher, representing it as the _Portus
Ictius_, whence Julius Caesar sailed for Britain.

[9] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 125.

[10] Vol. XI. p. 55.

[11] The deed itself under which this exchange was made is also
preserved in _Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni_, and in the _Gallia
Christiana_, XI. _Instr_. p. 27, where it is entitled "_Celebris
commutatio facta inter Richardum I, regem Angliae et Walterium
Archiepisc. Rotomagensem_." It is worth remarking, in illustration of
the feudal rights and customs, how much importance is attached in this
instrument to the mills and the seignorage for grinding: the king
expressly stipulates that every body "tam milites quam clerici, et omnes
homines, tam de feodis militum quam de prebendis, sequentur molendina de
_Andeli_, sicut consueverunt et debent, et moltura erit nostra.
Archiepiscopus autem et homines sui de _Fraxinis_ (a manor specially
reserved,) molent ubi idem Archiepiscopus volet, et si voluerit molere
apud _Andeli_, dabunt molturas suas, sicut alii ibidem molentes. In
escambium autem ... concessimus ... omnia molendina quae nos habuimus
Rotomagi, quando haec permutatio facta fuit, integre cum omni sequela et
moltura sua, sine aliquo retinemento eorum quae ad molendinam pertinent
vel ad molturam, et cum omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus
quas solent et debent habere. Nec alicui alii licebit molendinum facere
ibidem ad detrimentum praedictorum molendinorum; et debet Archiepiscopus
solvere eleemosinas antiquitus statutas de iisdem molendinis."

[12] A very copious and interesting account of the nautical discoveries
made by the inhabitants of Dieppe, and of their merits as sailors, is
given by Goube, in his _Histoire du Duche de Normandie_, III, p.
172-178.

[13] _Goube, Histoire de Normandie_, III, p. 170.

[14] _Noel, Essais sur le Departement de la Seine Inferieure_, I. p.
194.




LETTER III.

CAESAR'S CAMP--CASTLE OF ARQUES.


(_Dieppe, June_, 1818)

After having explored Dieppe, I must now conduct you without the walls,
to the castle of Arques and to Caesar's camp, both of which are in its
immediate neighborhood. At some future time you may thank me for
pointing out these objects to you, for should you ever visit Dieppe,
your residence may be prolonged beyond your wishes, by the usual
mischances which attend the traveller. And in that case, a walk to these
relics of military architecture will furnish a better employment than
thumbing the old newspaper of the inn, or even than the contemplation of
the diligences as they come in, or of the packets as they are not going
out, for I am anticipating that you are becalmed, and that the pennons
are flagging from the mast. With respect to my walk, let me be allowed
to begin by introducing you to a friend of mine at Dieppe, M. Gaillon,
an obliging, sensible, and well-informed young man, as well as an ardent
botanist, my companion in this walk, and the source of much of the
information I possess respecting these places. The intrenchment,
commonly known by the name of Caesar's camp, or even more generally in
the country by that of "_la Cite de Limes_," and in old writings, of
"_Civitas Limarum_," is situated upon the brink of the cliff, about two
miles to the east of Dieppe, on the road leading to Eu, and still
preserves in a state of perfection its ancient form and character;
though necessarily reduced in the height of its vallum by the operation
of time, and probably also diminished in its size by the gradual
encroachments of the ocean. Upon its shape, which is an irregular
triangle, it may be well to make a preliminary observation, that this
was necessarily prescribed by the scite; and that, however the Romans
might commonly prefer a square outline for their temporary encampments,
we have abundant proofs that they only adhered to this plan when it was
perfectly conformable to the nature of the ground, but that when they
fortified any commanding position, upon which a rectangular rampart
could not be seated, their intrenchments were made to follow the
sinuosities of the hill. In the present instance the northern side, the
longest, extending nearly five thousand feet, fronts the channel, and it
required no other defence than was afforded by the perpendicular face of
the cliff, here more than two hundred feet in height. The western side,
the second in length, and not greatly inferior to the first, after
running about three thousand feet from the sea, in a tolerably straight
line southward, suddenly bends to the east, and forms two semi-circles,
of one of which the radius is turned from the camp, and of the other
into it. The third side is scarcely more than half the length of the
others, and runs nearly straight from south to north, where it again
unites with the cliff. Of the two last-mentioned sides the first is
difficult of access; from its position at the summit of a steep hill;
but it is still protected by a vallum from thirty to forty feet high,
and between the sea and the entrance nearest to it, a length of about
three hundred yards, by a wide exterior ditch with other out-works, as
well as by an inner fosse, faint traces of which only now remain. Hence
to the next and large entrance is a distance of about two thousand feet;
and in this space the interior fosse is still very visible; but the
great abruptness of the hill forbade an outer one.

You, who are not a stranger to the pleasures of botany, would have
shared my delight at finding upon the perpendicular side of this
entrance the beautiful _Caucalis grandiflora_, growing in great
luxuriance upon almost bare chalk, and with its snowy flowers
resembling, as you look down to it, the common species of _Iberis_ of
our gardens. The _Asperula cynanchica_, and other plants peculiar to a
chalky soil, are also found here in plenty, together with the _Eryngium
campestre_, a vegetable of extreme rarity in England, but most abundant
throughout the north of France. _Papaver hybridum_ is likewise common in
the neighboring corn fields round.

Returning from this short botanical digression, let me tell you that the
position considered by some as the southern side of the fortification,
but which I have described as the sinuous part of the western, has its
ramparts of less height. Not so the eastern: on this, as being the most
destitute of all natural defence, (for here there is no hill, and the
eye ranges over an immense level tract, stopped only by distant woods,)
is raised an agger, full forty-five feet in height, and, at a further
distance, is added an outward trench nearly fifty feet wide, though in
its present state not more than three feet deep, and now serving for a
garden.

Such is the external appearance of this camp, which, seen from the sea,
or on the approach either by the west or south, cannot fail to strike
from the boldness of its position; but the effect of the interior is
still more striking; for here, while on one side the horizon is lost in
the immensity of the ocean, on the other two the view is narrowly
circumscribed by the lofty bulwark, at whose feet are almost every where
discernible the remains of the trenches I have already noticed, more
than thirty feet in width. Nor is this the only remarkable circumstance;
for it is still more unaccountable to observe, extending nearly across
the encampment, the traces of an ancient fosse not less than one hundred
and fifty feet wide, and, though in most places shallow, terminating
towards the sea in a deep ravine. Internally the camp appears to have
been also divided into three parts, in one of which it has been
supposed, from a heap of stones which till lately remained, that there
was originally a place of greater strength; while in another,
distinguished by some irregular elevations, it is conjectured that there
was a wall, the defence probably to the keep.

[Illustration: Plan of Caesar's Camp, near Dieppe]

But I must tell you that these conjectures are none of my own, nor could
I have had any opportunity of making them; the stones and the hillocks
having disappeared before the operations of the plough. Such as they
are, I have borrowed them from a dissertation by the Abbe de
Fontenu[15], a copy of whose engraving of the place I insert. Indebted
as I am to him for his hints, I can, however, by no means subscribe to
his reasoning, by which he labors with great erudition to prove that,
neither the popular tradition which ascribes this camp to Caesar, nor
its name, evidently Roman, nor some coins and medals of the same nation
that have been found here, are at all evidences of its Latin origin; but
that, as we have no proof that Caesar was ever in the vicinity of
Dieppe, as the whole is in such excellent preservation, (a point I beg
leave to deny,) and as the vallum is full thrice the height of that of
other Roman encampments in France[16], we are bound to infer it is a
work of far more modern times, and probably was erected by Talbot, the
Caesar of the English[17], while besieging Dieppe in the middle of the
XVth century.

This opinion of the learned Abbe I quote, principally for the purpose of
shewing how far a man of sense and acquirements maybe led astray from
truth and probability in support of a favorite theory. Nothing but the
love of theory could surely have induced him to suppose that this strong
hold was erected for a purpose to which it could in no wise be
applicable, as the intervening ground prevents all possibility of seeing
any part of Dieppe from the camp, or to ascribe it to times when
earth-works were no longer used. In Normandy and Picardy are other
camps, more evidently of Roman construction, which are likewise ascribed
to Caesar[18]; with much the same reason perhaps as every thing
wonderful in Scotland is referred to Fingal, to King Arthur in Cornwall,
and in the north of England and Wales to the devil.

[Illustration: General View of the Castle of Arques]

Upon the origin of the castle of Arques, it is somewhat unfortunate for
the learned that there is not an equal field for ingenious conjecture,
its antiquity being incontestible. Du Moulin, the most comprehensive,
though the most credulous of Norman historians, one who, not content
with dealing in miracles by wholesale, tells us how the devil changed
himself into a postillion, to apprize an alehouse-keeper of the fate of
the posterity of Rollo, may still be entitled to credit, when the theme
is merely stone and mortar; and from him we may conclude that Arques
was a place of importance at the time of William the Conqueror, as it
gave the title of Count to his uncle, who then possessed it, and who,
confiding perhaps in the strength of his fortress, and secretly
instigated by Henry Ist, of France, usurped the title of Duke of
Normandy, but was defeated by his nephew, and finally obliged to
surrender his castle. This, however, was not till, after a long siege,
in which Arques proved itself impregnable to every thing but famine. In
the following reign, we again find mention made of Arques, as a portion
given by Robert, Duke of Normandy, to induce Helie, son of Lambert of
St. Saen, to marry his illegitimate daughter, and join him in defending
the Pays de Caux against the English. From this period, during the
reigns of the Anglo-Norman Sovereigns, it continues to be occasionally
noticed. Before the walls of Arques, according to William of Malmesbury,
Baldwin, Count of Flanders, received the wound which afterwards proved
fatal. Arques was the last castle which held out in Normandy for King
Stephen. It was taken in 1173, by our Henry IInd, and then repaired; was
seized by Philip Augustus during the captivity of Richard Coeur de Lion;
was restored to its legitimate sovereign at the peace in 1196; and was a
source of disgrace to its former captor, when in 1202 he laid siege to
it with a powerful army, and was obliged to retreat from its walls.
Under the reign of our third Edward, we find it again return to the
British crown, as one of the castles specified to be surrendered to the
English, by the treaty of Bretigny, in 1359; after which, in 1419, it
was taken by Talbot and Warwick, and was finally given up to France by
one of the articles of the capitulation of Rouen in 1449. More
recently, in 1584[19], it was captured by a party of soldiers disguised
like sailors, who, being suffered to approach without distrust, put the
sentinels to the sword, and made themselves masters of the fortress;
while in 1589 it obtained its last and most honorable distinction, as
the chief support of Henry IVth, at the time of his being received at
Dieppe, and as having by the cannon from its ramparts, materially
contributed to the glorious defeat of the army of the league, commanded
by the Duke de Mayenne, when thirty thousand were compelled to retire
before one tenth of the number. I have already mentioned to you the
address of this king to the citizens of Dieppe: still more magnanimous
was his speech to his prisoner, the Count de Belin, previously to this
battle, when, on the captive's daring to ask, how with such a handful of
men, he could expect to resist so powerful an army, "Ajoutez," he
answered, "aux troupes que vous voyez, mon bon droit, et vous ne
douterez plus de quel cote sera la victoire."

In _Sully's Memoirs_[20], as well as in the history of the town of
Dieppe, you will find these transactions described at much length, and
the warrior, as well as the historian, expatiates on the strength of the
castle of Arques; but how much longer it remained a place of
consideration I have no means of knowing: most probably the alteration
introduced into the art of war by the use of cannon, caused it to be
soon after neglected, and dismantled, and suffered to fall gradually
into its present state of ruin. It is now the property of a lady
residing in the neighboring town of Arques, who purchased it during the
revolution, and by her good sense and feeling it has been preserved from
further injury. The castle is situated at the extremity of a ridge of
chalk hills, which, commencing to the west of Dieppe, run nearly
parallel to the sea, and here terminate to the east, so that it has a
complete command over the valley. Standing by its walls, you have to the
north-west a full view of the town of Dieppe; in an opposite direction
the eye ranges uncontrolled over a rich vale of corn and pasturage; and
in front, immediately at your feet, lies the town of Arques itself,
backed by the hills that are covered by the forest of the same name.
Either this forest, or the neighboring one of Eavy, is supposed to have
been the ancient Arelanum. The little river called the Arques flows
through the valley, and beneath the walls of the castle is lost in the
Bethune, under which name the united waters continue their course to
Dieppe, after receiving the tribute of a third, yet smaller, stream, the
Eaulne.

Of the power of the castle an idea may be formed from the extent of the
fosse, little less than half a mile in circumference. The outline of the
walls is irregularly oval, and the even front is interrupted by towers
of various sizes, and placed at unequal distances. On the northern side,
where the hill is steepest, there are no towers; but the walls are still
farther strengthened by square buttresses, so large that they indeed
look like bastions, and with a projection so great as to indicate an
origin posterior to the Norman aera. The two towers which flank the
western entrance, and the towers which stand behind each of the flanking
towers in the retiring line of the wall, are much larger than any of the
rest. One of the latter towers is of so extraordinary a shape, that I
consider it as a non-descript; but, as I should tire both you and myself
by endeavoring to describe it, I think it most prudent to refer you to a
sketch: perhaps its angular parts may not be coeval with the rest of the
building[21]: on this it would be impossible to decide positively, so
shattered, impaired, and defaced are the walls, and so evidently is
their coating the work of different periods. I fancied that in some
parts I could discern a mode of construction, in layers of brick and
stone, similar to that of Roman buildings in our own country, while
many of the bricks, from their texture and shape, appear also to be
Roman. Tradition, if we follow that delusive guide, teaches us that we
are contemplating a work of the middle of the eighth century, and of one
of the sons of Charles Martel. If we follow William of Jumieges, the
Chronicle of St. Vandrille, and William of Poitiers, we ascribe it to
the uncle and rival of the Conqueror; other writers tell us that the
ruins arose under Henry IInd. I dare not decide amongst such reverend
authorities, but I think I may infer, without the least disrespect
towards monks and chroniclers, that the Norman Arques now occupies the
place of a far more early structure, and that a portion of the walls of
this latter was actually left in existence. Taken, however, as a whole,
the castle is evidently a building of different aeras; and it would be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to define the parts belonging to
each.

[Illustration: Tower of remarkable shape in Castle of Arques]

The principal entrance is to the west, between the two towers first
mentioned, over a draw-bridge, whose piers still remain, and through
three gateways, whose arches, though now torn and dislocated into
shapeless rents, seem to have been circular, and probably of Norman
erection. One of the towers of the gate-way appears formerly to have
been a chapel. Hence you pass into a court, whose surface, uneven with
the remains of foundations, marks it to have been originally filled with
apartments, and, at the opposite end of this, through a square
gate-house with high embattled walls, a place evidently of great
strength, and leading into a large open space that terminated in the
quadrangular and lofty keep. This, which is externally strengthened by
massy buttresses, similar to those of the walls, is within divided into
two apartments, each of them about fifty feet by twenty. In one of them
is a well, communicating with a reservoir below, which is filled by the
water of the river, and was sufficiently capacious for watering the
horses of the garrison. The greatest part, if not the whole, of the
walls seems to have been faced with brick of comparatively modern date.
The keep also was coated with brick within, and with stones carefully
squared without. The windows are so battered, that no idea can be formed
of their original style. The walls of the keep are filled with small
square apertures. At Rochester, and at many other castles in England, we
observe the same; and unless you can give a better guess respecting
their use, you must content yourself with mine: that is to say, that
they are merely the holes left by the scaffolding. At the foot of the
hill to the west is a gate-house, by no means ancient, from which a wall
ascends to the castle; and another similar wall connects the fortress
with the ground below, on the north-eastern side; but the extent or
nature of these out-works can no longer be traced. Still less possible
would it be to say any thing with certainty as to the excavations, of
the length of which, tradition speaks, as usual, in extravagant terms,
and mixes sundry marvellous and frightful tales with the recital.