To Robert, in the year of our Lord, 1048, succeeded the celebrated Geoffrey de Montbray, who finally completed the great work commenced by his predecessor. The first stone of the cathedral had been laid in 1030; the dedication took place in 1056, and was performed in the presence of the Duke himself, the archbishop, his suffragans, and a large proportion of the Norman nobility. Some English barons likewise crossed the sea to attend upon the occasion. The vigor of Geoffrey's character was never more strikingly exemplified, than in connection with this fabric.[210] In the earliest years of his prelacy, he undertook a voyage to Apulia, for the express purpose of obtaining from Robert Guischard, and his companions in arms, pecuniary assistance towards the building; and, during the whole course of a long life, he appears to have been unremitting in his endeavors to add whatever might contribute to its dignity, its splendour, and its utility.[211] The following lines, traced by his dying hand, well mark the man himself, and the temper of the age, and the prevalence of the ruling passion:—"Gaufridus, misericordia Dei, Constantiensis episcopus, omnibus sub christiana regeneratione degentibus, tam clericis quam laicis, salutem, prosperitatem et pacem. Constantiensem ecclesiam quam hucusque licet indigne tenueram, tamen miserante Deo, populo meae pravitatis augmentum et honorare studui, et extrema...... eam amplius factis adjuvare nequeo verbis quantum tutari et defensare cupio. Quicumque igitur qui sub christiana professione vocatus, praefatam ecclesiam honorare, consolari et defensare voluerit, auctoritate Domini nostri Jesu Christi ejusque sanctissimae genetricis, in apostolica nostraque confirmatione benedictus, ab eodem Domino nostro Jesu Christo omnium bonorum retributore mercedem recipiat in futuro, et anima ejus inter choros angelorum et archangelorum, apostolorum et martyrum, confessorum et virginum requiem possideat in paradiso. Quod si aliquis irreverens et contumeliosus, avaritiae vel cupiditatis stimulis agitatus, eam de terris suis, sive legibus et consuetudinibus, sive ornamentis absque justa et necessaria eidem ecclesiae ratione et clericorum assensione, minorari et decurtare praesumpserit, ab his omnibus suprascriptis ordinibus maledictus, et perpetuae damnationis anathemate circumseptus, priusquam vita decedat terribilissimi divini examinis judicio prosequente, omnibus in commune tanti sacrilegii violator appareat, et in perpetuum cum Juda traditore, et Herode, Pilato et Caipha, cunctisque sanctae ecclesiae adversariis ignem aeternum possideat, semperque cum diabolo et angelis ejus crucietur, nec ullam in secula seculorum misericordiae scintillam mereatur, nisi priusquam anima illa tenebrosa de corpore exierit resipuerit, et ad satisfactionem venerit. Fiat, amen."

And the clergy were not wanting in their endeavors to do honor to the memory of so noble a benefactor. As the Roman historians and the Mantuan bard concur in attesting the various prodigies that foretold the approaching end of Julius Caesar, so the monkish chroniclers relate that earth and sky united in presaging the death of Geoffrey; and, though they could not succeed in obtaining for his name admission into the calendar, they would allow of no doubt as to his reception into heaven; the details of which were communicated in a vision to one of the monks of Cerisy.—"There appeared to me," said the monk, "a palace of transcendent magnificence, in which a queen was seated, of more than earthly beauty, surrounded by a numerous court; and, while each in his turn was making his obeisance, suddenly a messenger arrived, exclaiming aloud, 'Madam, Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, is here, and is at this moment mounting the steps of the palace.' No sooner were the tidings heard, than she descended from her seat to meet the prelate; and, having welcomed him with a most gracious salutation, caused her attendants to disrobe him of his cope and boots, and then, taking the veil from her own head, wiped the wounds upon his body, and, leading him by the hand, conducted him to her room of state, and placed him near to herself upon the throne." The decease of the prelate, which took place on the following day, left no doubt as to the interpretation or the inspiration of the vision.

Of the identity of the church built by Geoffrey with that now standing, it is impossible to entertain a reasonable doubt. The details, and they are many, contained in the document above quoted, all correspond with the present building. A still more decisive proof is afforded by the silence of succeeding historians, who could never have passed unnoticed so important a fact as the rebuilding of a cathedral, the repairs of which they have recorded on various occasions. The principal of these took place during the prelacy of Sylvester de la Corvelle, and were occasioned by the wars of Edward III. in the course of which, the edifice incurred the most imminent danger, and would probably have been destroyed in 1356, had not the timely arrival of the French troops caused the invading army to raise the siege of the city. A battering ram, used upon that occasion, was still shewed in Coutances, in the beginning of the last century. The king of France bestowed upon the chapter, in 1372, a sum of six hundred livres, in gold, for the express purpose of repairing the church, "bellis attrita et imminuta." At that time the Lady-Chapel was added; the great windows were inserted in the aisles; the exterior part of the choir towards the palace was built; and a portion of the work of the western front, between the towers, was repaired, and probably altered. This last has in particular tended to mislead the antiquary;—but to sum up the account, in the words of M. de Gerville,—"En y regardant plus attentivement, un antiquaire exerce facilement demelera l'ancienne partie de l'edifice, qui est encore de beaucoup la plus considerable. Cette ancienne partie offre un modele bien caracterise de fenetres en lancettes. C'est surtout aux deux tours occidentales qu'on en voit des plus etroites. Celles de la tour, ou lanterne, sont geminees. Ces lancettes, que les antiquaires Anglois rapportent au regne de Henry II. se montrent ici dans un edifice anterieur a ce prince de pres d'un siecle; et, ce qui est encore plus surprenant, elles y sont sans aucun melange d'architecture Romane ou Saxonne."[212]



In the interior of the building, (plate ninety-four) the same uniformity of style prevails as in the exterior; and if, in conjunction with the cathedral of Coutances, be considered that of Lisieux, a contemporary building, and so much alike in character, that it may reasonably be doubted if they were not the production of the same architect, it will scarcely be assuming too much, to say that the date of the introduction of the pointed architecture in France, may safely be placed as early as the middle of the eleventh century.

NOTES:

[204] Abrege de l'Histoire des Eveques de Coutances, p. 48.

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

[206] The following are the words of Robertus Cenalis upon this subject:—"Carolo, Ludovici XI. germano, quorundam procerum principumque suggestione ducatum Normanniae non precario, sed vi impense ambiente, cum via sibi per posticum episcopalis domus aperta esset, rex idcirco indignatus incolis qui a fide defecerant, cavit decreto suo in poenam criminis, quod funditus a solo everterentur civitatis moenia, quae nulla vel pretii, vel precum sollicitatione restitui potuerunt."—Cenalis then proceeds to say,—"Habet in templi sui meditullio merito suspiciendum spectaculum mirae architecturae contextum, e cujus abside si quis lapillum dejecerit, nunquam a puncto designato ultra citrave dimovebitur instar laternae vitreae in sublime erectum: vitream arcem merito dixeris, opus sane venustum et elegans. Urbem praeterea insigniter ornat aquaeductus ad milliaris semissem, ingenti impensa et opera arcuatim suppositis fornicibus longo ductu protensus, cujus artificii ope civitas alluitur et rigatur. Denique si moenibus conclusa foret, quis vetet civitatem illam Constantinopolim Neustriae maritimae appellari!"—Gallia Christiana, p. 863.

[207] In the following part of the description of the church of Coutances, considerable use has been made of a manuscript dissertation, kindly communicated by M. de Gerville to the author, who only laments that the limits of this publication would not allow him to insert it entire.

[208] Among the Instrumenta Ecclesiae Constantiensis, p. 218.

[209] "Hujus tamen temporibus incoepta et ex parte constructa est Constantiensis ecclesia, fundante et coadjuvante Gonorra comitissa, auxiliantibus etiam canonicis, reditibus medietatis altaris ad tempus operi concessis, cooperantibus quoque baronibus et parochianis fidelibus, quod usque hodie contestantur aliquot ipsorum nomina insculpta lapidibus in ecclesiae arcubus."—Gallia Christiana, Inst. p. 218.

[210] "Anno igitur Dominicae Incarnationis, MXLVIII. duodecim tantum diebus ipsius anni restantibus, id est IV idus Aprilis, indictione II, venerandus Gaufridus post Robertum Constantiensis episcopus Rotomagi consecratur, nobilium baronum prosapia ortus, statura procerus, vultu decorus, prudentia consilioque providus, quanquam saepissime curialibus negotiis regiisque obsecundationibus irretitus, tamen ad aedificationem et incrementum ecclesiae suae omni nisu et voluntate per noctem erat et per diem, qui ut eandem ecclesiam celebrem gloriosamque restitueret, in Apuliam et Calabriam adire Robertum cognomine Guischardum parochianum suum, aliosque barones consanguineos suos, et alumnos, et notos peregre profectus, multum in auro, et argento, et gemmis, et palliis variisque divitiarum donariis acquisivit, tresque asportavit phialas plenas puro opobalsamo, aliaque pretiosissima quibus postea praefatam ecclesiam intus et extus locupletavit, majoremque crucifixum largis sumtibus et tempore longo construxit. Cum autem non haberet in civitate, sive in suburbio tantum possessionis ecclesia, ubi maneret episcopus, vel proprius equus ejus posset stabulari, sed neque propriam domum, nisi quoddam appendicium humile, quod pendebat de parietibus ecclesiae, ipse prudentia sua et probitate valentiorem medietatem civitatis, suburbii, et telonei, et vectigalis, cum molendinis et multa Grimoldi viaca a Guillelmo invictissimo duce Normannorum, postea quoque glorioso rege Anglorum trecentis libris comparavit et acquietavit. Postea vero episcopalem aulam et reliquas officinas construxit, virgultum et vineam non modicam plantavit, capitium navis ecclesiae cum area, et hinc inde duo majora capitia nobiliora et ampliora construxit. Duas turres posteriores a fundamentis, tertiamque supra chorum opere spectabili sublimavit, in quibus classicum consonans et pretiosum imposuit, et haec omnia plumbo cooperuit."—Gallia Christiana, Inst. p. 218.

[211] The instrument, above quoted, abounds in examples of this spirit. Among the rest, after detailing at length various estates which he had purchased or obtained as presents for the enriching of his church, it proceeds to say,—"Caeterum ornamenta ecclesiastica et ustencilia, calices, cruces, capsas, phylacteria, candelabra, thuribula, bacinos, siculam et ampullas aurea contulit et argentea, casulas quoque, dalmaticas, tunicas, planetas, albas, cappas mirifici operis, necnon dorsalia serica et lanea, cortinas et tapeta, sed et bibliothecas, passionales, omeliares, missales aureis litteris duos sufficientesque et competentes libros subrogavit: super haec omnia pretiosum famosumque clerum, quo nihil pretiosius in ecclesia et utilius in officium et servitium divini cultus delegavit, septemque canonicos quos episcopus Hugo Rotomagi in ecclesia S. Laudi irregulariter constituerat, apostolica auctoritate ecclesiae matri revocavit, itemque duos alios adjecit. Cantorem quoque, et succentorem, et rectorem scholarum, et custodes ecclesiae, clericos quoque praebendarios, aurifabros, fabrumque ferrarium, carpentarios et magistrum coementarium in opus ecclesiae constituit. O virum prudentem et domui suae bene praesidentem, qui de vivis et electis lapidibus domum suam composuit, et mirabilibus columnis eam sustentavit!"—Gallia Christiana, Inst. p. 219.

[212] The following remarks upon the architecture of the cathedral of Coutances, transcribed from the journal of a most able friend of the author's, cannot fail to be acceptable to the reader:—"The cathedral is most singular in its aspect. It is pointed throughout, except the circular arches in the vaulting over the side-chapels, and one or two segments of circles which form the door-ways, within the porches on the north and south sides. It is really a difficult task to come at any conclusion respecting the aera of the building, from an inspection of it. If it is of the Norman age, then the pointed style arose at once from a transfusion of Arabian or Tartarian architecture. The whole is of a piece, complete in conception and execution; and there are no intersecting arches from which a pointed arch may have arisen. The circles in the spandrils are in the same oriental style as at Bayeux. The peculiarities of the cathedral are—the side-porches close behind the towers; the screens of mullioned tracery, which divide the side-chapels; and the excessive height of the choir, which, having no triforium, has only a balustrade just before the clerestory windows. The centre tower is wonderfully fine in the exterior: it is apparently an expansion of the plain Norman lantern, as at Caen; but most airy and graceful. There is a double aisle round the ambit and altars are placed in the bays, as if they were distinct chapels, for which purpose they were originally intended; but the line continues unbroken. The perspective of these aisles, and also of the choir, seen from the Lady-Chapel, is very fine. The round pillars of the choir are double, as at Canterbury and Senlis. The apsis is half a duodecagon. The pointed windows above are in two lancet divisions, surmounted by a trefoil; but the dividing masonry is not a mullion: it is the unperforated part of the wall. This perhaps is arabesque. There is a second arch within, which is really divided by a mullion or small pillar. A curious leaf projects above. Some of the painted glass is in the oldest style: dispersed patterns in a black outline, on a grey ground. In a side-chapel are painted tiles, brown and yellow as usual, displaying knots and armorial bearings. In the same chapel are fresco paintings: many more are on the east side of the wall that divides the last choir-aisle from the south transept. They represent St. Michael and the Devil, the Deity between angels, &c. In all of them, the outline is formed by a thick black line."



PLATE XCV. AND XCVI.

MOUNT ST. MICHAEL.



Religion, history, poetry, and painting, have all united in giving celebrity to St. Michael's Mount. The extraordinary sanctity of its monastery, the striking peculiarities of its form and situation, and the importance acquired by the many sieges it supported, or the almost endless pilgrimages it received, have so endeared it to the man of taste and the philosopher, that scarcely a spot is to be found in Europe, more generally known, or more universally interesting.

The legendary mist with which St. Michael's Mount is now densely involved, has continued, from a period of remote antiquity, to float around its summit. Tradition delights in relating how, in times prior to the Christian aera, it was devoted to the worship of the great luminary of heaven, under his Gallic name of Belenus,[213] a title probably derived from the Hebrew Baal, and the Assyrian Belus. The same tradition recounts how, at a more recent epoch, it reared its majestic head, embosomed in a spacious tract of woods and thickets, while the hermits who had fixed themselves upon its summits, received their daily bread from the charity of the priest of the neighboring parish of Beauvoir; an ass spontaneously undertaking the office of conveying it to them, till on the road he fell a prey to a wolf, who was then constrained by Providence to devote himself to the same pious labor.

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

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

History, from this period, assumes a character of comparative authenticity. The Norman conquest threatened for awhile the extinction of Christianity: the baptism of Rollo, rekindling its dying embers, made them blaze forth with a light and warmth unknown before. The duke himself, on the fourth day after he had presented himself at the holy font, endowed the monastery of St. Michael, then styled "ecclesiam in periculo maris supra montem positam."—No further mention occurs of the convent, during the reign of this monarch, or of his son, William Longue-Epee; but their immediate successor, Richard I. amply atoned for any neglect on their part. He built, according to Dudo of St. Quentin, a church of wondrous size, together with spacious buildings, for a body of monks of the Benedictine order, whom he established there in 988, displacing the regular canons, whose irregular lives had been the subject of much scandal. This munificence on the part of Richard, has even caused him to be regarded by some writers as the founder of the convent.—His son and successor, of the same name, selected St. Michael's Mount, as the favored spot, where, in the beginning of his reign, he received the hand of the fair Judith, sister to Geoffrey, one of the principal counts of Brittany. An opportunity was almost immediately afterwards afforded him of testifying at once his liberality and his devotion, as well as his love; for, on the first year of the eleventh century, the church, which had then been completed only five years, was burned to the ground. The prince, however, appears to have been somewhat tardy on the occasion; no attempt was made towards replacing the loss, till Hildebert II. succeeded as abbot. During his prelacy, in 1022, the foundations of a new church were laid, upon a still more extensive scale.—Twenty-six years more were suffered to elapse, and the abbatial mitre had adorned the brows of four successive abbots, when Ralph de Beaumont witnessed the completion of the work.

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

During the reign of the ill-starred John, St. Michael's Mount passed, in common with the rest of Normandy, under the sceptre of France, and suffered severely upon the occasion. Guy of Thouars, then in alliance with Philip-Augustus, advanced against it at the head of an army of Britons; and, experiencing on the part of the inhabitants but a feeble resistance, set fire to the palisades, the principal defence of the place. The flames communicated to the houses; and the church also fell a prey to them. To use the words of Brito,

"vis ignea sursum Scandit, et ecclesiae decus omne, locumque sacratum, Resque monasterii cremat insatiabilis omnes."

Philip lamented the injury, and did all in his power to repair it; but, considering that one great source of the misfortunes of the holy place had sprung from the impiety of the Anglo-Norman monarchs, in placing their trust in ramparts made by human hands, rather than in the protection of the archangel, he levelled with the ground the few works of defence that remained.[216] His pious successor, the sainted Louis, was far from entertaining a similar feeling. On the other hand, when his devotion led him to the shrine of St. Michael, after returning from his unfortunate expedition to Damietta, the chronicles expressly state, that he placed, with his own hand, a considerable sum of money upon the altar, for the purpose of repairing the fortifications. And it appears probable that, at a period not very distant, the money thus expended stood the crown of France in good stead; for, during the war at the beginning of the fifteenth century, St. Michael's Mount was the only place that successfully resisted the English arms. The siege it supported upon that occasion, is one of the few brilliant events that give lustre to a period of French history, generally dark and gloomy. Two cannon, of prodigious size, constructed for the discharge of stone balls, above a foot in diameter, testify to the present moment the heroic defence of the garrison, and the defeat of the assailants.

At a subsequent period of French history, during the times when party, under the mask of pious zeal, deluged the kingdom with blood, and virtuous men of every creed joined in the lamentation, that "tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum," the Huguenots made many and most brave and memorable, though vain, attempts to render themselves masters of St. Michael's Mount. From that time forward, the rock has been suffered to continue in tranquillity, though still retaining its character as a fortification. Its designation of late has been a departmental prison: during the reign of terror, it was applied to the disgraceful purpose of serving as a receptacle for three hundred ecclesiastics, whose age or infirmities would not allow of their being transported; and who, with cruel mockery, were incarcerated within the walls, long gladdened with the comforts, dignified with the pomp, and sanctified with the holiness of religion. Prisoners of importance, especially those charged with crimes against the state, were chiefly confined here before the revolution, when the iron cage, and the vaults, known by the ominous names of the Oubliettes, or the In Pace, gave the mount a melancholy notoriety.

In this short outline of the history of St. Michael's Mount, mention has been repeatedly made of French sovereigns who have proceeded thither in pilgrimage. The task were long to enumerate all those princes and monarchs who distinguished it with this mark of their veneration. But there is one other instance too important in its consequences to be passed over in silence. Louis XI. after having expelled the rebellious Britons from Normandy in 1463, not content with paying his devotions to the archangel at his shrine, and bestowing upon the monks a donation of six hundred crowns of gold, sent them the image of St. Michael, together with the golden chain that he had himself worn upon his neck; and directed that the three escalop shells, formerly borne upon the abbatial shield, should be enriched by the addition of four others, and three lilies. Nor satisfied with this, he, six years afterwards, still further testified his devotion, by various privileges granted to the community, and by the institution of the noble military order of St. Michael,[217] whose collar was composed of silver escalop shells, while the medal bore a representation of the archangel trampling upon the dragon, with the legend, "Immensi tremor oceani."—Even in this enlightened age, the concourse of pilgrims to the mount is by no means at an end: they are still to be seen repairing to the church; and, if the female Druids have ceased for many a century to sell to the sailors their enchanted arrows, of power to still the angry ocean, when hurled into its waves by a maiden hand, the Pythonesses of the present day find a no less plentiful source of emolument in their chaplets, and rosaries, and crosses, and medals, of St. Michael. The annals of the world abound in details of the changes of form and feature which superstition has assumed in different ages; but it is humiliating to human nature to reflect, that the conquests obtained by philosophy over her great adversary, are in reality very small. Superstition, like the fabled Proteus, appears under an endless variety of forms; but she is also, like the god, still one and the same.

The list of abbots of St. Michael's Mount, contains names of the highest consequence in France: the Cardinal d'Estouteville, and the still more illustrious Cardinal de Joyeuse, Henry of Lorraine, son of the Duke de Guise, and Charles Maurice, of the noble family of Broglio, have, in times comparatively modern, presided over the community. The privileges and honorary distinctions attached to the office, were also considerable. The names of the superiors of the monastery stand recorded on various occasions, as men selected for important trusts; and they were formally empowered, by a bull of Pope Clement VII. dated from Avignon, to bestow the benediction, even in the church of Avranches, and in the presence of the bishop or the metropolitan himself, and to wear the mitre, and all other episcopal insignia. The powers and immunities of the convent were likewise extensive and important. Its annual income was estimated by the author of the Alien Priories, in the middle of the last century, at forty thousand livres; but it is at the same time stated in that work, that, at an earlier period, it was far more considerable. Among the transmarine possessions of the abbey, was its namesake in Cornwall, which was annexed to it by Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, before the year 1085, and was also renowned for its sanctity at a very remote epoch. The coincidence in form and situation between the two is most remarkable.

St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy, is situated near the extremity of the province, towards Brittany; to the south of Granville, the south-west of Avranches, and the north of Pontorson and Dol. It is a conical mass of granite, which, from a base of about one-fourth of a league in circumference, towers to the height of above four hundred feet, including the buildings that crown its summit. It stands insulated and alone, except the neighboring rock of Tombeleine, in the midst of a dreary level of white sand, that presents a surface of more than twelve square leagues, extending on all sides, almost as far as the eye can reach, and unvaried, unless where it is intersected with branches of different rivers. The whole of this space is at high water entirely covered with the sea, while the receding tide leaves it bare; yet still so, that it is difficult and dangerous to traverse it without a guide. The base of the mount is surrounded with high thick walls, flanked with semi-circular towers all machicolated, and bastions. Towards the west and north, its sides present only steep, black, bare, pointed rocks: the portions that lie in an opposite direction, incline in a comparatively easy slope, and are covered with houses that follow in successive lines, leaving but a scanty space for some small gardens, in which the vine, the fig-tree, and the almond, flourish in great luxuriance. The walls of the castellated abbey impend, and jut out in bold decided masses; and the whole is crowned by the florid choir of the abbey church. The architects of the latter time seemed to have wished to adapt this glorious building to its site. All its divisions of parts, windows, and pinnacles, are narrower and more lofty than usual; and the projections are bolder, so as to be distinctly visible from below. The stranger is admitted to the mount by a gate, of the time of Louis XII. or Francis I. He proceeds along the walls, which continue leading upwards; and, traversing desolate towers, and staircases above staircases, hanging on the sides of the rock, all forlorn, grassy, and mouldering, he is conducted to the gate of the abbey. The outside of the first gate-way has round towers: the second has a pointed arch. One pile of buildings has a row of small arches round the top. The present population of the town amounts to about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, who derive their chief support from the fishery.

Of the church itself, a view is given in the Bayeux tapestry; rude indeed, but curious, as coeval.—The following is a short chronological summary of the principal events connected with the building:—

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

In 1350, a fresh injury was sustained from a tempest; but so great was the zeal employed in repairing it, that the monastery is said to have been, a very short time subsequently, in a better state than it had almost ever been before: it raised its head, however, above these misfortunes, only to experience new ones, and from the same source, in 1370. The damage was then greater, but was soon repaired; and the chapel of St. Catherine was erected. This happened during the prelacy of Geoffrey de Servin. Peter le Roy, the following abbot, is ranked among the greatest benefactors to the convent: no one contributed more to the diffusion of its fame, or the increase of learning within its precincts; but he does not appear to have done any thing to its buildings. His successor, Robert Jolivet, surrounded the mount with the walls and towers that now remain, with the view of defending it against the English, whom he afterwards joined.

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

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

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

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

The shortening of the nave has destroyed the western front. The cloister, according to the observations of a friend of the author, is strangely moresque in its appearance. The position of the pillars in it he regards as quite unique.

The Knights' Hall, (see plate ninety-six,) is an arched chamber, ninety-eight feet in length, by sixty-eight in width, noble and church-like in its aspect. Its groined stone roof rests upon eighteen cylindrical columns, with bases and capitals; the latter, in very high relief, of beautiful design and delicate execution.

NOTES:

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

[214] The tradition of the mount speaks of the monster that haunted the drowned forest; and when the author's friend, Mr. Cohen, visited St. Michael's Mount in 1819, his guide, Jacques Du Pont, referred to the subject, and called the beast "a monster of a Turk that ate the Christians." The figure represented on the wrapper of this work, was pointed out as a figure of the identical monster. It was formerly on the outside of the wall in a niche; it is now just within the gate. "There," said Jacques, "look at his teeth and his claws; how savage he is."—The tradition is certain; but the image is nothing more than a griffin grasping a shield charged with an armorial bearing; its date 15..

[215] A. D. 1759.

[216] Of old, says Brito, the place

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

The author goes on to add, that the king

...... "ne fiat eis deinceps injuria talis, Praecipit ut pereat munitio toto Johannis; Et sua militiae coelesti castra resignans, Humanis bonus excubiis locra sacra resignat, Largifluaque manu monachos juvat in renovando Sarta tecta, libros, et caetera quae furor ignis Solverat in cinerem, quae nobiliore paratu Quam prius extiterant jam restaurata videmus."

Phillip. lib. 8, l. 114.

[217] In the preamble of the statutes of this order, the monarch expresses himself in the following terms—"Nous, a la gloire de Dieu, notre createur Tout-puissant, et reverence de glorieuse Vierge Marie, et en l'honneur de Monseigneur St.-Michel Archange, premier Chevalier, qui pour la querelle de Dieu, d'estoc et de taille, se battit contre l'ennemi dangereux de l'humain lignage, et du Ciel le trebucha, et qui en son lieu et oratoire appelle Mont-St. Michel a toujours particulierement garde, preserve et defendu, sans etre pris, subjugue, ni mis es mains des anciens ennemis de notre royaume, et afin que tous bons et nobles courages soient excites et plus particulierement emus a toutes vertueuses oeuvres; le 1er. jour d'Aout de l'an 1469 avons cree, institue et ordonne, et par ces presentes creons, constituons et ordonnons un Ordre de fraternite ou amiable compagnie de certain nombre de Chevaliers, jusqu'a trente six, lequel nous voulons etre nomme l'Ordre de Saint-Michel."



PLATE XCVII.

ABBEY CHURCH OF CERISY.



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

The convent, which was at all times of the Benedictine order, is said to have been founded as early as the year 560. It was under the invocation of St. Vigor, ninth bishop of Bayeux; and, according to some authors, was established by that saint himself. Du Monstier, in the Neustria Pia, recites the history of its origin at great length: how the prelate, moved by the entreaties of a rich man, of the name of Volusian, destroyed, by virtue of the sign of the cross, a monstrous serpent that ravaged the country; and how Volusian, in gratitude, ceded to him the domain of Cerisy, upon which he immediately erected a monastery, and endowed it with the revenues of the property. The annals of the convent being lost, what is recorded of its history is very short. After the general destruction of religious establishments by the Saxons and Normans, that of Cerisy appears to have been left in its ruins far longer than most others. No hand is said to have been lifted towards its restoration, till the reign of Robert, father of the Conqueror. By him the monastic writers all agree that a beginning was made towards the rebuilding of this monastery; and one of them, William of Jumieges, adds, that his care of it suffered no diminution from time or distance; for that, during his wars in the Holy Land, when the patriarch of Jerusalem rewarded his pious zeal with a present of some precious relics, he immediately directed them to be here deposited. His more illustrious successor, in one of the first years of his reign, completed and richly endowed the convent begun by his father, whose remains he commanded should be brought from Palestine, for the express purpose of their being interred at Cerisy. But they were allowed to proceed no further than Apulia. In the Neustria Pia is preserved a charter of King Charles VI. dated 1398, in which the various donations conferred upon the abbey of Cerisy, by the Norman Dukes, Robert, William, and Henry, are enumerated and confirmed. Its annual income, in the middle of the eighteenth century, was estimated by De Masseville at twenty thousand livres. The only property it appears ever to have possessed in England, was a priory of Benedictine monks at West Shirburne, in Hampshire.

Architecturally considered, the church of Cerisy is an interesting relic of Norman workmanship. The certainty of its date, not far removed from the year 1032, and the comparatively few alterations it has undergone, render it one of those landmarks, by the aid of which the observer of the present day can alone attain to any certainty in his inquiries into ancient art. And yet, in the portion here selected for engraving, the upper row of windows is of an aera posterior to the rest; and the great arch in front has evidently changed its semi-circular form for a pointed one. Its height is unusual and impressive. Both taken collectively and in its parts, the church bears a strong resemblance to that nearly coeval at St. Georges; like which, it is now appropriated to parochial purposes, and is still of great size,[218] though the whole of the portion originally parochial, and which extended one hundred and twenty-four feet beyond what remains of the nave, has been recently pulled down. The principal front of the building, which faced the north, its position being north and south, has been consequently destroyed. The style of the edifice is characterized by a noble and severe simplicity: the capitals of the columns are, indeed, enriched with sculptured foliage or animals, or occasionally with small heads placed in the middle of a surface otherwise plain; but elsewhere the decorations are very sparingly distributed. They are confined to the chevron and billet mouldings; the latter the most ancient and most rare among the Norman ornaments. Both the transepts are parted off, as at St. Georges, by screens near the extremities: these screens at Cerisy are surmounted by an elegant parapet of semi-circular arches, a singular and very beautiful addition.

NOTES:

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

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

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



PLATE XCVIII.

CHURCH AT OYESTRAHAM.



Oyestraham, or, as it is more commonly written, Estreham, is a village situated upon the left bank of the Orne, near its confluence with the channel. Its name, derived from the Saxon,[219] seems to point it out as a settlement made by those daring invaders: its church, one of the first objects that presents itself to the English traveller, on his entering France in the direction of Caen, is well calculated to impress him with a forcible idea of the magnificence of the Norman lords of the duchy. That it was built in the time of their sway, is a fact which cannot be doubted; but, in an architectural point of view, it is so full of anomalies, that opinions would be likely to vary considerably with regard to the actual date of its erection. And here, unfortunately, no records remain to guide the judgment. In the western front, indeed! (the subject of the plate) the whole is of the semi-circular style, and uniform. The upper tier of arches will find a parallel in the towers of the abbey of Jumieges, built during the reign of the Conqueror; and most of the other members and decorations are of frequent occurrence in erections of the same aera. A peculiarity is alone observable in the smaller arches of the second row, in which the artist has indulged himself in what may be termed an architectural conceit, lengthening, to a very disproportionate degree, and almost in the moorish fashion, the part above the capital, in order that the whole might range in a line with the larger arch in the centre. The truncated appearance of the wall on either side, leads to the obvious inference, that either this front had originally towers, like the church of St. Nicholas, at Caen, or that it was intended there should have been such. A central tower now alone remains, of square form, with massive buttresses of unusual size, projecting towards the south. This tower, as well as the portion of the church to the east of it, exhibits the Norman and Gothic architecture mixed in a very uncommon manner. Of three rows of arches, the lowest and highest belong to the latter style; the central one only to the former. In the nave, all is Norman, excepting only two lancet windows of the upper tier, placed near the west end, on the south side, and excepting also the flying buttresses that extend from between the windows of the clerestory to the projecting aisles below. Within the choir, the trefoil-headed arch takes, in some instances, the place of the pointed in the lower row, which is wholly blank; and the capitals of the pillars, according to Mr. Cotman, shew an extraordinary playfulness of design. The arches above them are pierced for windows. Both the semi-circular ones of the second tier, and the pointed ones above, are extremely narrow, seen from without, but widen greatly within; the wall being of more than ordinary thickness. The piers of the nave are six feet five inches in diameter, while the intervening spaces scarcely exceed ten feet.

NOTES:

[219] On this subject, see Huet, Origines de Caen, p. 299.—"Estreham est le nom d'un bourg situe a l'embouchure de l'Orne, et d'un autre dans le Bessin. Mr. Bochart le faisoit, venir d'Easter, Deesse des anciens Saxons. Et comme il avoit entrepris de rapporter les anciennes origines a la langue et a la doctrine des Pheniciens il pretendoit que cette Easter etoit la meme qu'Astarte. Ses sacrifices se faisoient au commencement du printems; et de la vient que les Saxons appellerent Easter le mois auquel se celebre la Paque. Skinnerus ne s'eloigne pas beaucoup de ce sentiment dans son Etymologique de la langue Angloise. Mr. Valois tire le nom d'Estreham du Latin Strata, et de l'Allemand Hamum, pour marquer une Demeure batie sur un chemin public, ou au bout d'un chemin public, comme si le bourg d'Estreham etoit sur un grand chemin, ou au bout d'un chemin public: et qu'il ne fut pas sur une extremite de terre qui ne mene a rien, ayant la mer d'un cote, et l'embouchure de la riviere d'Orne de l'autre: ou comme si tous les villages du monde ne pouvoient pas etre censez terminer des grand chemins. Mais ces opinions sont detruites par l'ancienne orthographe du nom d'Estreham, qui est constamment ecrit dans les vieux Titres, et par Mr. de Bras, Oistreham, pour Westerham, c'est-a-dire, Village Occidental: car il se trouve place a l'West de l'embouchure de l'Orne."



PLATE XCIX. AND C.

CATHEDRAL CHURCH AT SEEZ.



The city of Seez, though dignified by being the seat of a bishopric, is in itself small and unimportant, its population not exceeding five thousand five hundred inhabitants. Of the early history of either the town or the diocese, little is known with certainty; and authors have scarcely felt it worth their while to exercise their ingenuity, or to display their learning, upon a subject ill calculated to add dignity to their researches. Those who have entered upon the inquiry, have given it as their opinion, that the Civitas Sagiorum, mentioned in the earliest Notitia Galliae, as the fifth in rank among the cities of the province, Lugdunensis Secunda, was no other than the modern Seez; and, carrying their conjecture one step farther, they have inferred from locality, that the Sagii, otherwise called Saii, must have been the Sesuvii of Caesar's Commentaries. Hence, in more modern Latinity, Seez has generally acquired the name of Sagium; though Ordericus Vitalis occasionally calls it Salarium, and Magno, Saius. In some maps it is likewise styled Saxia, whence an idea has arisen that it owed its origin to the Saxons; and that the words, Saii and Sagii, were in reality nothing more than a corruption of Saxones or Sassones.

The favorers of this opinion have brought Seez within the limits of the Otlingua Saxonia, a district in Normandy, whose situation and extent has been the subject of much literary controversy. The learned Huet, alluding to this very point,[220] observes, with great justice, that "it is more easy to tell what is not, than what is; and that, though the limits of bishoprics serve in general to mark the divisions of the ancient Gallic tribes, yet length of time has introduced many alterations. Able men," he adds, "have been of opinion, that Hiesmes was originally an episcopal see, and that its diocese was afterwards dismembered into three archdeaconries; one of them fixed at Seez, a second at Lisieux, and a third at Bayeux." Such, however, he says, is not his own belief; but he thinks that Hiesmes was originally the seat of the bishopric of Seez. A report to the same effect will be found in the Concilia Normannica; and it is adopted by Rouault,[221] who argues in its favor; first, that Seez was too insignificant, at the time of the preaching of the gospel in Neustria, to be dignified with the presence of a bishop; the apostles and earliest popes having directed that bishops should only be appointed to considerable towns: and, secondly, that Hiesmes was really then a place of importance, and probably continued so till the nineteenth year of the reign of King Henry I. of England, when that prince destroyed it, as a punishment upon the inhabitants for their revolt.

Ecclesiastical history refers the establishment of the bishopric of Seez to the fourth or fifth century. The earliest, however, of the prelates, of whom any certain mention is to be found, is Litaredus, whose name appears, under the title of Oximensis Episcopus, subscribed to the council of Orleans in 511. Azo, who succeeded to the mitre in one of the last years of the tenth century, erected the first cathedral that is upon record at Seez. William of Jumieges relates of him, that he destroyed the walls of the city, and with their stones built a church in honor of St. Gervais, the martyr, "ubi sedes episcopalis longo post tempore fuerat." The same author tells that, in consequence of this church having been turned into a place of refuge by some rebels, about fifty years afterwards, Ivo, the third from Azo upon the episcopal throne, set fire to the adjoining houses for the purpose of dislodging them, and the church fell a victim to the flames. The act, though unintentional, brought upon the prelate a severe reprimand from the pope; and Ivo, to repair his fault, undertook a journey to his relatives and friends in Apulia and Constantinople, whence he returned, loaded with rich presents, by the aid of which he undertook the erection of a new church upon so large a scale, that "his successors, Robert, Gerard, and Serlo, were unable to complete it in fifty years." The cathedral then raised is said to be the same as is now standing; and, according to what has already been recorded of the cathedrals of Lisieux and Coutances, there is nothing in its architecture to discredit such an opinion. The first stone was laid about the year 1053: the dedication took place in 1126. Godfrey, archbishop of Rouen, performed the ceremony in the presence of Henry, then duke, who, at the same time, endowed the church with an annual income of ten pounds.

The diocese of Seez is surrounded by those of Lisieux, Evreux, Mans, and Bayeux. According to De Masseville,[222] it extended, before the revolution, twenty-five leagues in length, and from eight to ten in width, comprising the districts of le Houme, les Marches, and a part of le Perche. The towns of Seez, Alencon, Argentan, Falaise, Hiesmes, Mortagne, and Belleme, together with several smaller towns, and five hundred villages, were also included in its limits; as were five archdeaconries, six rural deaneries, and many abbeys and other religious houses. The episcopal revenue was estimated at only ten thousand livres. The late concordat, by reducing the number of the Norman dioceses, has of course added to the extent of those that remained.

Seven of the early bishops of Seez are inscribed among the saints of the Roman calendar: in later times, no names appear of greater eminence than those of Frogerius and John de Bertaut. The first of these prelates was much in the confidence of Henry II. to whom he rendered acceptable service in his unfortunate disputes with Thomas-a-Becket. He was not only one of the very few bishops who then preserved their fidelity to their sovereign inviolate, but he undertook a mission to the French king, for the purpose of remonstrating upon the favorable reception given to the primate, on which occasion he received the following memorable answer:—"Tell your master, that if he cannot submit to the abolition of the ordinances, which he designates as the customs of his ancestors, because he thinks it would compromise the dignity of his crown, although, as it is reported, they are but little conformable to the will of God, still less can I consent to sacrifice a right that has always been enjoyed by the kings of France. I mean the right of giving shelter to all persons in affliction, but principally to those who are exiled for justice sake, and of affording them, during their persecution, all manner of protection and assistance."—John de Bertaut lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century: he was principal almoner to Mary de Medicis, and was afterwards in high favor with Henry IV. to whose conversion he is said to have mainly contributed. He likewise distinguished himself as a poet.—A third bishop of Seez, Serlo, already mentioned, was a man of such commanding eloquence, that, when he had the honor of preaching before Henry I. and his court, at Carentan, in 1106, he declaimed with so much effect against the effeminate custom of wearing long beards and long hair, that the sovereign declared himself a convert, and the bishop, "extractis e mantica forcipibus, primo regem tum caeteros optimates attondit."[223]



The church of Seez may be compared in its architecture with those of Coutances and of Lisieux: they are unlike, indeed, but by no means different. The points of resemblance exceed those of a contrary description.

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

Severe simplicity characterizes Lisieux: Coutances is distinguished by elegance, abounding in decoration: Seez, at the same time that it unites the excellencies of both, can rival neither in those which are peculiarly its own. On the first view of the church, its mean and insignificant western tower strikes the spectator with an unfavorable impression, which, on a nearer approach, the mutilated and encumbered state of the western front is by no means calculated to remove. And yet this western front, all degraded as it is, cannot fail to derive importance from the great depth of the central door-way, which is no less than forty-seven feet,[224] a projection exceeding that of the galilee of Peterborough cathedral. It is in the interior that the beauty of the church of Seez is conspicuous. The noble lofty arches below; the moresque ornament, like those at Bayeux and at Coutances, in the spandrils; the double lancet arches of the triforium placed in triplets; and the larger pointed arches above, arranged two or three together, and encircled with arches of the Norman form, though not of the Norman style;—all these beauties, added to the enrichments of the sculptured walls and windows of the aisles, render the cathedral, if not the first of Norman religious buildings, at least in the number of those of the first class,

"Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores."

NOTES:

[220] Origines de Caen, p. 5.

[221] Abrege de la Vie des Eveques de Coutances, p. 40.

[222] Etat Geographique de Normandie, p. 304.

[223] Gallia Christiana, XI. p. 684.

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

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



THE END.



LEICESTER:

PRINTED BY THOMAS COMBE, JUNIOR.



INDEX OF PLATES.

NO. OF PLATE. Andelys, Great House 15 Anisy, Church 67 Arques, Castle 1 Bieville, Church 58, 59 Bocherville, St. Georges de, Church 5-11 Briquebec, Castle 70 Caen, Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity 24-33 ——— Abbey Church of St. Stephen 21-23 ——— Chapel in the Castle 48 ——— Church of St. Nicholas 55, 56 ——— Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles 18, 19 ——— House in the Rue St. Jean 65 Cerisy, Abbey Church 97 Chateau Gaillard 80, 81 Cheux, Church 57 Colomby, Church 47 Coutances, Cathedral 92-94 Creully, Church 91 Dieppe, Castle 34 ———— Church of St. Jacques 35, 36 Eu, Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence 72 Falaise, Castle 89, 90 Fecamp, Church of St. Stephen 71 Fontaine-le-Henri, Chateau 62, 63 —————————- Church 60, 61 Foullebec, Western door-way of Church 84 Gournay, Church of St. Hildebert 38-41 Graville, Church 12 Haute Allemagne, Tower of Church 37 Jumieges, Abbey Church 2-4 Lery, Church 44-46 Lillebonne, Castle 69 Lisieux, Church of St. Peter 73-75 Louviers, South porch of Church 79 Matilda, Queen, Tombstone of 33* Montivilliers, Abbey Church 82 Mount St. Michael 95, 96 Oyestraham, Church 98 Perriers, Church 68 Rouen, Cathedral 49-52 ———- Chapel in the Hospital of St. Julien 42, 43 ———- Church of St. Ouen 76 ———- Church of St. Paul 54 ———- Crypt in the Church of St. Gervais 53 ———- Fountain of the Stone Cross 77 ———- House in the Place de la Pucelle 64 ———- Palace of Justice 78 St. Lo, Church of the Holy Cross 87, 88 St. Sanson sur Rille, Ruins of the Church 83 St. Sauveur le Vicomte, Abbey Church 14 ———————————— Castle 13 Seez, Cathedral 99, 100 Tamerville, Church 17 Tancarville, Castle 85, 86 Than, Church 16 Treport, Church 66 William the Conqueror, Statue of 20



TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

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

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

THE END