A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany Volume I Part 10

CAEN. SOIL. SOCIETY. EDUCATION. A DUEL. OLD HOUSES. THE ABBEY OF ST.

STEPHEN. CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE DE DARNETAL. ABBe DE LA SAINTE TRINITe. OTHER PUBLIC EDIFICES.

I have now resided upwards of a week at Lagouelle's, the _Hotel Royale_, and can tell you something of the place and of the inhabitants of CAEN.

Caen however is still-life after Rouen: but it has been, and yet is, a town exceedingly well-deserving the attention of the lounging traveller and of the curious antiquary. Its ecclesiastical edifices are more ancient, but less vast and splendid, than those of Rouen; while the streets and the houses are much more wide and comfortable. This place is the capital of the department of CALVADOS, or of LOWER NORMANDY: and its population is estimated at forty thousand souls. It has a public library, a school of art, a college, mayoralty, and all the adjuncts of a corporate society.[96]

But I must first give you something in the shape of political economy intelligence. Caen with its arrondiss.e.m.e.ns of _Bayeux, Vire, Falaise, Lisieux, Pont L'Eveque_, is the country of pasturage and of cattle. It is also fertile in the apple and pear; and although at _Argences_ there have been vineyards from time immemorial, yet the produce of the grape, in the character of _wine_,[97] is of a very secondary description. There are beautiful and most abundant market gardens about Caen; and for the last seventy years they have possessed a garden for the growth and cultivation of foreign plants and trees. It is said that more than nine hundred species of plants and trees are to be found in the department of CALVADOS, of which some (but I know not how many or how few) are considered as indigenous. Of forests and woods, the number is comparatively small; and upon that limited number great injuries were inflicted by the Revolution. In the arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Caen itself, there are only 344 _hectares_.[98] The truth is, that in the immediate neighbourhood of populous towns, the French have no idea of PLANTING. They suffer plain after plain, and hill after hill, to be denuded of trees, and make no provision for the supply of those who are to come after them. Thus, not only a great portion of the country about Rouen--(especially in the direction of the road leading to Caen--) is gradually left desolate and barren, but even here, as you approach the town, there is a dreary flatness of country, unrefreshed by the verdure of foliage: whereas the soil, kind and productive by nature, requires only the slightest attention of man to repay him a hundred fold. What they will do some fifty years hence for _fuel_, is quite inconceivable. It is true that the river Orne, by means of the tide, and of its proximity to the sea, brings up vessels of even 200 tons burthen, in which they may stow plenty of wood; but still, the expenses of carriage, and duties of a variety of description--together with the _dependence_ of the town upon such accidental supply--would render the article of fuel a most expensive concern. It is also true that they pretend that the soil, in the department of Calvados, contains _coal_; but the experiments which were made some years ago at _Littry_, in the arondiss.e.m.e.nt of _Bayeux_, should forbid the Caennois to indulge any very sanguine expectations on that score.

In respect to the trade of the town, the two princ.i.p.al branches are _lace_ and _cap_ making. The former trade is divided with Bayeux; and both places together give occupation to about thirty thousand pairs[99] of hands.

People of all ages may be so employed; and the annual gross receipts have been estimated at four millions of francs. In _cap_ making only, at Caen, four thousand people have been constantly engaged, and a gross produce of two millions of francs has been the result of that branch of trade. A great part of this manufacture was consumed at home; but more than one half used to be exported to Spain, Portugal, and the colonies belonging to France.

They pretend to say, however, that this article of commerce is much diminished both in profit and reputation: while that of _table linen_ is gaining proportionably in both.[100] There were formerly great _tanneries_ in Caen and its immediate vicinity, but lately that branch of trade has suffered extremely. The revolution first gave it a violent check, and the ignorance and inattention of the masters to recent improvements, introduced by means of chemistry, have helped to hasten its decay. To balance this misfortune, there has of late sprung up a very general and judiciously directed commercial spirit in the article of _porcelaine_; and if Caen be inferior to its neighbouring towns, and especially to Rouen and Lisieux, in the articles of cloth, stuffs, and lace, it takes a decided lead in that which relates to _pottery_ and _china_: no mean articles in the supply of domestic wants and luxuries. But it is in matters of higher "pith and moment" that Caen may claim a superiority over the towns just noticed.

There is a better spirit of _education_ abroad; and, for its size, more science and more literature will be found in it.

This place has been long famous for the education of Lawyers. There are two distinct academies--one for "Science and the Belles-Lettres"--the other for agriculture and commerce. The _Lycee_ is a n.o.ble building, close to the Abbey of St. Stephen: but I wish its facade had been Gothic, to harmonise with the Abbey. Indeed, Caen has quite the air of Oxford, from the prevalent appearance of _stone_ in its public buildings. The environs of the town afford quarries, whence the stone is taken in great blocks, in a comparatively soft state--and is thus cut into the several forms required with the greatest facility. It is then exposed, and every succeeding day appears to add to its white tint and durable quality. I saw some important improvements making in the outskirts of the town,[101] in which they were finis.h.i.+ng shafts and capitals of columns in a manner the most correct and gratifying. Still farther from the immediate vicinity of Caen, they find stone of a closer grain; and with this they make stair-cases, and pavements for the interior of buildings. Indeed the stone stair-cases in this place, which are usually circular, and projecting from the building, struck me as being equally curious and uncommon. It is a.s.serted that they have different kinds of _marble_ in the department of Calvados, which equal that of the south of France. At _Basly_ and _Vieux_ white marble is found which has been judged worthy of a comparison with Parian; but this is surely a little presumptuous. However, it is known that Cardinal Richelieu brought from Vieux all the marble with which he built the chapel in the college of the Sorbonne.

Upon the whole, as to general appearance, and as to particular society, Caen may be preferable to Rouen. The costume and manners of the common people are pretty much, if not entirely, the same; except that, as to dress, the _cauchoise_ is here rather more simple than at Dieppe and Rouen.

The upper fille-de-chambre at our hotel displays not only a good correct model of national dress, but she is well-looking in her person, and well-bred in her manners. Mr. Lewis prevailed upon this good-natured young woman to sit for her likeness, and for the sake of her costume. The girl's eyes sparkled with more than ordinary joy at the proposal, and even an expression of grat.i.tude mingled itself in her manner of compliance. I send you the figure and dress of the fille-de-chambre at the _Hotel Royale_ of Caen.[102]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FILLE DE CHAMBRE, CAEN.]

Caen is called the depot of the English.[103] In truth there is an amazing number of our countrymen here, and from very different causes. One family comes to reside from motives of economy; another from those of education; a third from those of retirement; and a fourth from pure love of sitting down, in a strange place, with the chance of making some pleasant connection, or of being engaged in seeking some strange adventure: Good and cheap living, and novel society, are doubtless the main attractions. But there is desperate ill blood just now between the _Caennois_ (I will not make use of the enlarged term _Francois_) and the English; and I will tell you the cause. Do you remember the emphatic phrase in my last, "all about the duel?" Listen. About three weeks only before our arrival,[104] a duel was fought between a young French law-student, and a young Englishman; the latter the son of a naval captain. I will mention no names; and so far not wound the feelings of the friends of the parties concerned. But this duel, my friend, has been "THE DUEL OF DUELS"--on the score of desperation, and of a fixed purpose to murder. It is literally without precedent, and I trust will never be considered as one. You must know then, that Caen, in spite of all the "boulevers.e.m.e.ns" of the Revolution, has maintained its ancient reputation of possessing a very large seminary, or college for students at law. These students amount to nearly 600 in number. Most young gentlemen under twenty years of age are at times riotous, or frolicsome, or foolish. Generally speaking, however, the students conduct themselves with propriety: but there had been a law-suit between a French and English suitor, and the Judge p.r.o.nounced sentence in favour of our countryman. The hall was crowded with spectators, and among them was a plentiful number of law-students. As they were retiring, one young Frenchman either made frightful faces, or contemptible gestures, in a very fixed and insulting manner, at a young Englishman--the son of this naval captain. Our countryman had no means or power of noticing or resenting the insult, as the aggressor was surrounded by his companions. It so happened that it was fair time at Caen; and in the evening of the same day, our countryman recognised, in the crowd at the fair, the physiognomy of the young man who had insulted him in the hall of justice. He approached him, and gave him to understand that his rude behaviour should be noticed at a proper time and in a proper place: whereupon the Frenchman came up to him, shook him violently by the arm, and told him to "fix his distance on the ensuing morning." Now the habit of duelling is very common among these law-students; but they measure twenty-five paces, fire, and of course ...

MISS--and then fancy themselves great heroes ... and there is an end of the affair. Not so upon the present occasion. "Fifteen paces," if you please--said the student, sarcastically, with a conviction of the backwardness of his opponent to meet him. "FIVE, rather"--exclaimed the provoked Englishman--"I will fight you at FIVE paces:"--and it was agreed that they should meet and fight on the morrow, at five paces only asunder.

Each party was under twenty; but I believe the English youth had scarcely attained his nineteenth year. What I am about to relate will cause your flesh to creep. It was determined by the seconds, as _one_ must necessarily _fall_, from firing at so short a distance, that only _one_ pistol should be loaded with _ball_: the other having nothing but _powder_:--and that, as the Frenchman had challenged, he was to have the choice of the pistols.

They parted. The seconds prepared the pistols according to agreement, and the fatal morning came. The combatants appeared, without one jot of abatement of spirit or of cool courage. The pistols lay upon the gra.s.s before them: one loaded only with powder, and the other with powder and ball. The Frenchman advanced: took up a pistol, weighed and balanced it most carefully in his hand, and then ... laid it down. He seized the other pistol, and c.o.c.king it, fixed himself upon the spot from whence he was to fire. The English youth was necessarily compelled to take the abandoned pistol. Five paces were then measured ... and on the signal being given, they both fired ... and the Frenchman fell ... DEAD UPON THE SPOT! The Frenchman had in fact _taken up_, but afterwards _laid down_, the very pistol which was loaded with the fatal _ball_--on the supposition that it was of too light a weight; and even seemed to compliment himself upon his supposed sagacity on the occasion. But to proceed. The ball went through his heart, as I understood. The second of the deceased on seeing his friend a reeking corpse at his feet, became mad and outrageous ... and was for fighting the survivor immediately! Upon which, the lad of mettle and courage replied, that he would not fight a man without a _second_--"But go," said he, (drawing his watch coolly from his fob). I will give you twenty minutes to come back again with your second." He waited, with his watch in his hand, and by the dead body of his antagonist, for the return of the Frenchman; but on the expiration of the time, his own second conjured him to consult his safety and depart; for that, from henceforth, his life was in jeopardy. He left the ground; obtained his pa.s.sport, and quitted the town instantly ... The dead body of his antagonist was then placed on a bier: and his funeral was attended by several hundreds of his companions--who, armed with muskets and swords, threatened destruction to the civil and military authorities if they presumed to interfere. All this has necessarily increased the ill-blood which is admitted to exist between the English and French ... but the affair is now beginning to blow over.[105]

A truce to such topics. It is now time to furnish you with some details relating to your favourite subjects of ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES and BIBLIOGRAPHY. The former shall take precedence. First of the _streets_; secondly of the _houses_; and thirdly of the _public buildings_; ecclesiastical and civil.

To begin with the STREETS. Those of _St. Pierre, Notre Dame_, and _St.

Jean_ are the princ.i.p.al for bustle and business. The first two form one continuous line, leading to the abbey of St. Stephen, and afford in fact a very interesting stroll to the observer of men and manners. The shops are inferior to those of Rouen, but a great shew of business is discernible in them. The street beyond the abbey, and those called _Guilbert_, and _des Chanoines_, leading towards the river, are considered among the genteelest.

Ducarel p.r.o.nounced the _houses_ of Caen "mean in general, though usually built of stone;" but I do not agree with him in this conclusion. The open parts about the _Lycee_ and the _Abbey of St. Stephen_, together with the _Place Royale_, where the library is situated, form very agreeable s.p.a.ces for the promenade of the ladies and the exercise of the National Guard. The _Courts_ are full of architectural curiosities, but mostly of the time of Francis I. Of _domestic_ architecture, those houses, with elaborate carvings in wood, beneath a pointed roof, are doubtless of the greatest antiquity. There are a great number of these; and some very much older than others.

A curious old house is to the right hand corner of the street _St. Jean_: as you go to the Post Office. But I must inform you that the residence of the famous MALHERBE yet exists in the street leading to the Abbey of St.

Stephen. This house is of the middle of the sixteenth century: and what Corneille is to _Rouen_, Malherbe is to _Caen_. "ICI NAQUIT MALHERBE," &c.

as you will perceive from the annexed view of this house, inscribed upon the front of the building. Malherbe has been doomed to receive greater honours. His head was first struck, in a series of medals, to perpetuate the resemblances of the most eminent literary characters (male and female) in France: and it is due to the amiable Pierre-Aime Lair to designate him as the FATHER of this medallic project.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In perambulating this town, one cannot but be surprised at the absence of _Fountains_--those charming pieces of architecture and of street embellishment. In this respect, Rouen has infinitely the advantage of Caen: where, instead of the trickling current of translucent water, we observe nothing but the partial and perturbed stream issuing from ugly _wells_[106]

as tasteless in their structure as they are inconvenient in the procuring of water. Upon one or two of these wells, I observed the dates of 1560 and 1588.

The PUBLIC EDIFICES, however, demand a particular and appropriate description: and first of those of the ecclesiastical order. Let us begin therefore with the ABBEY OF ST. STEPHEN; for it is the n.o.blest and most interesting on many accounts. It is called by the name of that Saint, inasmuch as there stood formerly a chapel, on the same site, dedicated to him. The present building was completed and solemnly dedicated by William the Conqueror, in the presence of his wife, his two sons Robert and William, his favourite Archbishop Lanfranc, John Archbishop of Rouen, and Thomas Archbishop of York--towards the year 1080: but I strongly suspect, from the present prevailing character of the architecture, that nothing more than the west front and the towers upon which the spires rest, remain of its ancient structure. The spires (as the Abbe De La Rue conjectures, and as I should also have thought) are about two centuries later than the towers.

The outsides of the side aisles appear to be of the thirteenth, rather than of the end of the eleventh, century. The first exterior view of the west front, and of the towers, is extremely interesting; from the grey and clear tint, as well as excellent quality, of the stone, which, according to Huet, was brought partly from Vaucelle and partly from Allemagne.[107] One of the corner abutments of one of the towers has fallen down; and a great portion of what remains seems to indicate rapid decay. The whole stands indeed greatly in need of reparation. Ducarel, if I remember rightly,[108] has made, of this whole front, a sort of elevation, as if it were intended for a wooden model to work by: having all the stiffness and precision of an erection of forty-eight hours standing only. The central tower is of very stunted dimensions, and overwhelmed by a roof in the form of an extinguisher. This, in fact, was the consequence of the devastations of the Calvinists; who absolutely sapped the foundation of the tower, with the hope of overwhelming the whole choir in ruin--but a part only of their malignant object was accomplished. The component parts of the eastern extremity are strangely and barbarously miscellaneous. However, no good commanding exterior view can be obtained from the _place_, or confined square, opposite the towers.

But let us return to the west-front; and opening the unfastened green-baize covered door, enter softly and silently into the venerable interior--sacred even to the feelings of Englishmen! Of this interior, very much is changed from its original character. The side aisles retain their flattened arched roofs and pillars; and in the nave you observe those rounded pilasters--or alto-rilievo-like pillars--running from bottom to top, which are to be seen in the abbey of Jumieges. The capitals of these long pillars are comparatively of modern date. To the left on entrance, within a side chapel, is the burial place of MATILDA, the wife of the Conqueror. The tombstone attesting her interment is undoubtedly of the time. Generally speaking, the interior is cold, and dull of effect. The side chapels, of which not fewer than sixteen encircle the choir, have the discordant accompaniments of Grecian bal.u.s.trades to separate them from the choir and nave. There is a good number of _Confessionals_ within them; and at one of these I saw, for the first time, _two_ women, kneeling, in the act of confession to the _same priest_. "C'est un peu fort," observed our guide in an under-voice, and with a humourous expression of countenance! Meanwhile Mr. Lewis, who was in an opposite direction in the cathedral, was exercising his pencil in the following delineation of a similar subject.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

To the right of the choir (in the sacristy, I think,) is hung the huge portrait, in oil, within a black and gilt frame, of which Ducarel has published an engraving, on the supposition of its being the portrait of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. But nothing can be more ridiculous than such a conclusion. In the first place, the picture itself, which is a palpable copy, cannot be older than a century; and, in the second place, were it an original performance, it could not be older than the time of Francis I:--when, in fact, it purports to have been executed--as a faithful copy of the figure of King William, seen by the Cardinals in 1522, who were seized with a sacred phrenzy to take a peep at the body as it might exist at that time! The costume of the oil-painting is evidently that of the period of our Henry VIII.; and to suppose that the body of William--even had it remained in so surprisingly perfect a state as Ducarel intimates, after an interment of upwards of four hundred years--could have presented such a costume, when, from Ducarel's own statement, another whole-length representation of the same person is _totally different_--and more decidedly of the character of William's time--is really quite a reproach to any antiquary who plumes himself upon the possession even of common sense.

In the middle of the choir, and just before the high altar, the body of the Conqueror was entombed with great pomp; and a monument erected to his memory of the most elaborate and costly description. Nothing now remains but a flat black marble slab, with a short inscription, of quite a recent date.

In the present state of the abbey,[109] and even in that of Ducarel's time, there is, and was, a great dearth of sepulchral monuments. Indeed I know not whether you need be detained another minute within the interior; except it be, to add your share of admiration to that which has been long and justly bestowed on the huge organ[110] at the west end of the nave, which is considered to be the finest in all France. But Normandy abounds in church decorations of this kind. Leaving therefore this venerable pile, endeared to the British antiquary by a thousand pleasing a.s.sociations of ideas, we strike off into an adjoining court yard, and observe the ruins of a pretty extensive pile of building, which is called by Ducarel the _Palace of the Conqueror_. But in this supposed palace, in its _present_ state, most a.s.suredly William I. _never_ resided: for it is clearly not older than the thirteenth century: if so ancient. Ducarel saw a great deal more than is now to be seen; for, in fact, as I attempted to gain entrance into what appeared to be the princ.i.p.al room, I was stopped by an old woman, who a.s.sured me "qu'il n'y avoit rien que du chauff.a.ge." It was true enough: the whole of the untenanted interior contained nothing but wood fuel. Returning to the princ.i.p.al street, and making a slight digression to the right, you descend somewhat abruptly by the side of a church in ruins, called _St.

Etienne le Vieil_. In Ducarel's time this church is described as entire. On the exterior of one of the remaining b.u.t.tresses is a whole length figure, about four English feet in height (as far as I could guess by the eye) of a man on horseback--mutilated--trampling upon another man at its feet.

It is no doubt a curious and uncommon ornament. But, would you believe it?

this figure also, in the opinion of Bourgueville,[111] was intended for William the the Conqueror--representing his triumphant entry into Caen! As an object of art, even in its present mutilated state, it is highly interesting; and I rejoice that Mr. Cotman is likely to preserve the little that remains from the hazard of destruction by the fidelity of his own copy of it.[112] It is quite clear that, close to the figure, you discover traces of style which are unequivocally of the time of Francis I. The interior of what remains of this consecrated edifice is converted "horresco referens" into a receptacle for ... carriages for hire. Not far from this spot stood formerly a magnificent CROSS--demolished during the memorable visit of the Calvinists.[113] In the way to the abbey of the Trinity, quite at the opposite or eastern extremity of the town, you necessarily pa.s.s along the _Rue St. Pierre_, and enter into the market-place, affording an opening before the most beautiful church in all Normandy. It is the church of _St. Pierre de Darnetal_ of which I now speak, and from which the name of the street is derived. The tower and spire are of the most admirable form and workmans.h.i.+p.[114] The extreme delicacy and picturesque effect of the stone tiles, with which the spire is covered, as well as the lightness and imposing consequence given to the tower upon which the spire rests, are of a character peculiar to itself. The whole has a charming effect. But severe criticism compels one to admit that the body of the church is defective in fine taste and unity of parts. The style is not only florid Gothic, but it is luxuriant, even to rankness, if I may so speak. The parts are capriciously put together: filled, and even crammed, with ornaments of apparently all ages: concluding with the Grecian mixture introduced in the reign of Francis I. The b.u.t.tresses are, however, generally, lofty and airy.

In the midst of this complicated and corrupt style of architecture, the tower and spire rise like a structure built by preternatural hands; and I am not sure that, at this moment, I can recollect any thing of equal beauty and effect in the whole range of ecclesiastical edifices in our own country. Look at this building, from any part of the town, and you must acknowledge that it has the strongest claims to unqualified admiration.[115] The body of the church is of very considerable dimensions.

I entered it on a Sunday morning, about eleven o'clock, and found it quite filled with a large congregation, in which the _cauchoise_, as usual, appeared like a broad white ma.s.s--from one end to the other. The priests were in procession. One of the most magnificent organs imaginable was in full intonation, with every stop opened; the voices of the congregation were l.u.s.tily exercised; and the offices of religion were carried on in a manner which would seem to indicate a warm sense of devotion among the wors.h.i.+ppers. There is a tolerably good set of modern paintings (the best which I have yet seen in the interior of a church) of the _Life of Christ_, in the side chapels. The eastern extremity, or the further end of _Our Lady's Chapel_, is horribly bedaubed and over-loaded with the most tasteless specimens of what is called Gothic art, perhaps ever witnessed!

The great bell of this church, which has an uncommonly deep and fine tone, is for ever

Swinging slow with solemn roar!

that is to say:--it is tolling from five in the morning till ten at night; so incessantly, in one side-chapel or another, are these offices carried on within this maternal parish church.[116]

I saw, with momentary astonishment, the leaning tower of a church in the _Rue St. Jean_,[117] which is one of the princ.i.p.al streets in the town: and which is terminated by the _Place des Cazernes_, flanked by the river Orne.

In this street I was asked, by a bookseller, two pounds two s.h.i.+llings, for a thumbed and cropt copy of the _Elzevir-Heinsius Horace_ of 1629; but with which demand I did not of course comply. In fact, they have the most extravagant notions of the prices of Elzevirs, both here and at Rouen.

You must now attend me to the most interesting public building, perhaps all things considered, which is to be seen at Caen. I mean, the _Abbey of the Holy Trinity_, or L'ABBAYE AUX DAMES.[118] This abbey was founded by the wife of the Conqueror, about the same time that William erected that of St.

Stephen. Ducarel's description of it, which I have just seen in a copy of the _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, in a bookseller's shop, is sufficiently meagre. His plates are also sufficiently miserable: but things are strangely altered since his time. The nave of the church is occupied by a manufactory for making cordage, or twine; and upwards of a hundred lads are now busied in their _flaxen_ occupations, where formerly the nun knelt before the cross, or was occupied in auricular confession. The entrance at the western extremity is entirely stopped up: but the exterior gives manifest proof of an antiquity equal to that of the Abbey of St. Stephen.

The upper part of the towers are palpably of the fifteenth, or rather of the early part of the sixteenth century. I had no opportunity of judging of the neat pavement of the floor of the nave, in white and black marble, as noticed by Ducarel, on account of the occupation of this part of the building by the manufacturing children; but I saw some very ancient tomb-stones (one I think of the twelfth century) which had been removed from the nave or side aisles, and were placed against the sides of the north transept. The nave is entirely _walled up_ from the transepts, but the choir is fortunately preserved; and a more perfect and interesting specimen of its kind, of the same antiquity, is perhaps no where to be seen in Normandy. All the monuments as well as the altars, described by Ducarel, are now taken away. Having ascended a stone staircase, we got into the upper part of the choir, above the first row of pillars--and walked along the wall. This was rather adventurous, you will say: but a more adventurous spirit of curiosity had nearly proved fatal to me: for, on quitting daylight, we pursued a winding stone staircase, in our way to the central tower--to enjoy from hence a view of the town. I almost tremble as I relate it. There had been put up a sort of temporary wooden staircase, leading absolutely to ... nothing: or, rather, to a dark void s.p.a.ce. I happened to be foremost in ascending, yet groping in the dark--with the guide luckily close behind me. Having reached the topmost step, I was raising my foot to a supposed higher or succeeding step ... but there was _none_. A depth of eighteen feet at least was below me. The guide caught my coat, as I was about to lose my balance--and roared out "Arretez--tenez!" The least balance or inclination, one way or the other, is sufficient, upon these critical occasions: when luckily, from his catching my coat, and pulling me in consequence slightly backwards, my fall ... and my LIFE ... were equally saved! I have reason from henceforth to remember the ABBAYE AUX DAMES at Caen.

I gained the top of the central tower, which is not of equal alt.i.tude with those of the western extremity, and from thence surveyed the town, as well as the drizzling rain would permit. I saw enough however to convince me that the site of this abbey is fine and commanding. Indeed it stands nearly upon the highest ground in the town. Ducarel had not the glorious ambition to mount to the top of the tower; nor did he even possess that most commendable of all species of architectural curiosity, a wish to visit the CRYPT. Thus, in either extremity--I evinced a more laudable spirit of enterprise than did my old-fas.h.i.+oned predecessor. Accordingly, from the summit, you must accompany me to the lowest depth of the building. I descended by the same (somewhat intricate) route, and I took especial care to avoid all "temporary wooden stair-cases." The crypt, beneath the choir, is perhaps of yet greater interest and beauty than the choir itself. Within an old, very old, stone coffin--at the further circular end--are the pulverized remains of one of the earliest Abbesses.[119] I gazed around with mixed sensations of veneration and awe, and threw myself back into centuries past, fancying that the shrouded figure of MATILDA herself glided by, with a look as if to approve of my antiquarian enthusiasm! Having gratified my curiosity by a careful survey of this subterraneous abode, I revisited the regions of day-light, and made towards the large building, now a manufactory, which in Ducarel's time had been a nunnery. The revolution has swept away every human being in the character of a nun; but the director of the manufactory shewed me, with great civility, some relics of old crosses, rings, veils, lachrymatories, &c. which had been taken from the crypt I had recently visited. These relics savoured of considerable antiquity. Tom Hearne would have set about proving that they _must_ have belonged to Matilda herself; but I will have neither the presumption nor the merit of attempting this proof. They seemed indeed to have undergone half a dozen decompositions. Upon the whole, if our Antiquarian Society, after having exhausted the cathedrals of their own country, should ever think of perpetuating the princ.i.p.al ecclesiastical edifices of Normandy, by means of the _Art of Engraving_, let them begin their labours with the ABBAYE AUX DAMES at Caen.

The foregoing, my dear friend, are the princ.i.p.al ecclesiastical buildings in this place. There are other public edifices, but comparatively of a modern date. And yet I should be guilty of a gross omission were I to neglect giving you an account, however superficial, of the remains of an apparently CASTELLATED BUILDING, a little beyond the Abbaye aux Dames--or rather to the right, upon elevated ground, as you enter the town by the way we came. As far as I can discover, this appears to have escaped Ducarel.[120] It is doubtless a very curious relic. Running along the upper part of the walls, there is a series of ba.s.so-relievo heads, medallion-wise, cut in stone, evidently intended for portraits. They are a.s.suredly not older than the reign of Francis I. and may be even as late as that of Henry II. Among these rude medallions, is a female head, with a ferocious-looking man on each side of it, either saluting the woman, or whispering in her ear. But the most striking objects are the stone figures of two men, upon a circular tower, of which one is in the act of shooting an arrow, and the other as if holding a drawn sword. I got admittance within the building; and ascending the tower, found that these were only the _trunks_ of figures,--and removable at pleasure. I could only stroke their beards and shake their bodies a little, which was of course done with impunity. Whether the present be the _original_ place of their destination may be very doubtful. The Abbe de la Rue, with whom I discoursed upon the subject yesterday morning, is of opinion that these figures are of the time of Louis XI.: which makes them a little more ancient than the other ornaments of the building. As to the interior, I could gather nothing with certainty of the original character of the place from the present remains.

The earth is piled up, here and there, in artificial mounds covered with gra.s.s: and an orchard, and rich pasture land (where I saw several women milking cows) form the whole of the interior scenery. However the _Caennois_ are rather proud of this building.

Leaving you to your own conclusions respecting the date of its erection, and "putting the colophon" to this disquisition respecting the princ.i.p.al public buildings at Caen, it is high time to a.s.sure you how faithfully I am always yours.

[96] ["Besides her numerous public schools, Caen possesses two Schools of Art--one for design, the other for Architecture and Ornament--where the Students are _gratuitously_ instructed." LICQUET.]

[97] It is called _Vin Huet_--and is the last wine which a traveller will be disposed to ask for. When Henry IV. pa.s.sed through the town, he could not conceive why such excellent grapes should produce such execrable wine. I owe this intelligence to Mons. LICQUET.

[98] Somewhere about 150 English acres.

[99] [I had before said _twenty_--but Mons. Licquet observes, I might have said--thirty thousand pairs of hands.]

[100] Caen was celebrated for its table linen three centuries ago. Consult BOURGUEVILLE: _Antiquitez de Caen_; 1588, 8vo. p. 26.

[101] The fauxbourgs of Caen, in the present day, wear a melancholy contrast to what they appear to have done in the middle of the XVIth century. Consult the pleasantly penned description of these fauxbourgs by the first topographer of the place, BOURGUEVILLE: in his _Antiquitez de Caen_, pp. 5, 6, 26.

It may be worth subjoining, from the same interesting authority, that long after the time even of the publication just referred to, the town of Caen was surrounded by lofty and thick stone walls--upon the tops of which three men could walk a-breast: and from thence the inhabitants could discern, across those large and beautiful gardens, "the vessels sailing in the river Orne, and unloading their cargoes by the sides of walls." It appears indeed to have been a sort of lounge, or fas.h.i.+onable promenade--by means of various ladders for the purposes of ascent and descent.

Among the old prints and bird's-eye views of Caen, which I saw in the collection of DE BOZE at the Royal Library at Paris, there is one accompanied by three pages of printed description, which begins with the lines of Guillaume Breton "Villa potens, opulenta, situ spatiosa decora." See First Edition, vol. i. p. 274. Evelyn, in 1644, thus describes the town of Caen. "The whole town is handsomely built of that excellent stone so well knowne by that name in England. I was lead to a pretty garden, planted with hedges of Alaternus, having at the entrance, at an exceeding height, accurately cut in topiary worke, with well understood architecture, consisting of pillars, niches, freezes, and other ornaments, with greate curiosity, &c. _Life and Writings of J. Evelyn_, 1818, 4to. vol. i. p. 52.

[102] See the OPPOSITE PLATE.