Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume I Part 11

As a building, the fountain of Lisieux, decorated with a bas-relief representing Parna.s.sus, with Apollo, the Muses, and Pegasus, is most frequently pointed out to strangers; a wretched specimen of wretched taste. Infinitely more interesting to us are the Gothic fountains or conduits, which are now wholly wanting in England. Such is the fountain _de la Croix de Pierre_, which, in shape, style, and ornaments, resembles the monumental crosses erected by; our King Edward Ist, for his Queen Eleanor. The water flows from pipes in the bas.e.m.e.nt. The stone statues, which filled the tabernacles, were destroyed during the revolution: they have been replaced by others in wood.--The fountain _de la Crosse_ is of inferior size, and more recent date. It is a polygon, with sides of pannelled work, each compartment occupied by a pointed arch, with tracery in the spandrils. It ends in a short truncated pyramid, which, in Millin's time, was surmounted by a royal crown[114].

Its name is taken from a house, at whose corner it stands, and on whose roof was originally a crozier.

Writing to a friend may be regarded, if we extend to writing the happy comparison which Lord Bacon has applied to conversation, not as walking in a high-road which leads direct to a house, but rather as strolling through a country intersected with a variety of paths, in which the traveller wanders as fancy or accident directs. Hence I shall scarcely apologize for my abrupt transition to another very different subject, the hospitals.--There are at Rouen two such establishments, situated at opposite extremes of the town, the _Hospice General_ and the _Hotel Dieu_, more commonly called _la Madeleine_. The latter is appropriated only to the sick; the former is also open to the aged, to foundlings, to paupers, and to lunatics. For the poor, I have been able to hear of no other provision; and poor-laws, as you know, have no existence in France; yet, even here, in a manufacturing town, and at a season of distress, beggary is far from extreme. These inst.i.tutions, like all the rest at Rouen, are said to be under excellent management.

The annual expences of la Madeleine are estimated at two hundred and forty thousand-francs[115]; out of which sum, no less than forty-seven thousand francs are expended in bread. The number of individuals admitted here, during the first nine months of 1805, the last authentic statement I have been able to procure, was two thousand seven hundred and seventeen: during the same period, two thousand one hundred and fifty-eight were discharged, and two hundred and seventy died. The building is modern and handsome, and situated at the end of a fine avenue. The church, a Corinthian edifice, and indisputably the handsomest building of that description at Rouen, is generally admired.

The Hospice General, dest.i.tute as it is of architectural magnificence, cannot be visited without satisfaction. When I was at this hospital, the old men who are housed there were seated at their dinner, and I have seldom witnessed a more pleasing sight. They exhibited an appearance of cleanliness, propriety, good order, and comfort, equally creditable to themselves and to the inst.i.tution. The number of inmates usually resident in this building is about two thousand; and they consisted, in 1805, of one hundred and sixty aged men, one hundred and eighty aged women, six hundred children, and eight hundred and twenty-five invalids.

Among the latter were forty lunatics. The food here allowed to the helpless poor is of good quality; and, as far as I could learn, is afforded in sufficient quant.i.ty: there are also two work-shops; in one of which, articles are manufactured for the use of the house; in the other, for sale.

The princ.i.p.al towns of France, as was anciently the case in England, have each its mint. The numismatic antiquities of this kingdom are yet involved in considerable obscurity; but it is said that the monetary privileges of the towns were first settled by Charles the Bald[116], who, about the year 835, enacted, that money, which had previously only been coined in the royal palace itself, or in places where the sovereign was present, should be struck in future at Paris, Rouen, Rheims, Sens, Chalons sur Saone, Mesle in Poitou, and Narbonne. At present, the money struck at Rouen is impressed with the letter _B_, indicating that the mint is second only to that of Paris; for the city has remained in possession of the right of coinage throughout all its various changes of masters: it now holds it in common with ten other, cities in the kingdom. Ducarel[117] has figured two very scarce silver pennies, coined here by William the Conqueror, before the invasion of England; and Snelling and Ruding[118] detail ordinances for the regulation of the mintage of Rouen, during the reign of Henry Vth. I have not been able, however, to procure in the city any specimens of these, or of other Norman coins; and in fact the native spot of articles of _virtu_ is seldom the place where they can be procured either genuine or in abundance. Greek medals, I am told, are regularly exported from Birmingham to Athens, for the supply of our travelled gentlemen; and, if groats and pennies should ever rise in the market, I doubt not but that they will find their way in plenty into the old towns of Normandy. There is not, at Rouen, any public collection of the productions of the mint.

Since the annexation of the duchy to the crown of France, no coins have been struck here, except the common silver currency of the kingdom: the manufacture of medals and of gold coins is exclusively the privilege of the Parisian mint. The establishment is under the care of a commissary and a.s.say-master, appointed by the crown, but not salaried. Their pay depends upon the amount of money coined, on which they are allowed one and a half per cent., and are left to find silver where they can; so that, in effect, it is little more than a private concern. The work is performed by four die-presses, moved by levers, each of which requires ten men; and about twenty thousand pieces can be produced daily from each press. But this method of working is attended with unequal pressure, and causes both trouble and uncertainty: it is even necessary that each coin should be separately weighed. The extreme superiority of the machinery of our own mint, where the whole operation is performed by steam, with a rapidity and accuracy altogether astonis.h.i.+ng, affords Just reason for exultation to an Englishman.--It is true, that the execution of our bank paper rather counterbalances such feelings of complacency.

Footnotes:

[105] This appears from the following inscription now upon a silver tablet placed near it.--"Ce tableau est celui qui fut donne par Louis XII, en 1499, a l'Exchiquier, lorsqu'il le rendit permanent. C'est le seul de tous les ornemens de ce palais qui ait echappe aux ravages de la revolution: il a ete conserve par les soins de M. Gouel, graveur, et par lui remis a la cour royale de Rouen qui l'a fait placer ici, comme un monument de la piete d'un roi, a qui sa bonte merita le surnom de pere du peuple, et dont les vertus se reproduisent aujourd'hui dans la personne non moins cherie que sacree de sa majeste tres chretienne, Louis XVIII, 15 Janvier, 1816."

[106] Du Cange, (I. p. 24.) quoting from a book printed at Rouen, in 1587, under the t.i.tle of _Les Triomphes de l'Abbaye des Conards_, &c.

gives the following curious mock patent from the abbot of this confraternity, addressed to somebody of the name of De Montalinos.--

"Provisio Cardinalatus Rothomagensis Julianensis, &c.

"Paticherptissime Pater, &c.

"Abbas Conardorum et inconardorum ex quac.u.mque Natione, vel genitatione sint aut fuerint: Dilecto nostro filio naturali et illegitimo Jacobo a Montalinasio salutem et sinistram benedictionem.

Tua talis qualis vita et sancta reputatio c.u.m bonis servitiis ... et quod diffidimus qud postea facies secundum indolem adolescentiae ac sapientiae tuae in Conardicis actibus, induxenunt nos, &c. Quocirca mandamus ad amicos, inimicos et benefactores nostros qui ex hoc saeculo transierunt vel transituri sunt ... quatenus habeant te ponere, statuere, instalare et investire tam in choro, chordis et organo, quam in cymbalis bene sonantibus, faciantque te jocundari et ludere de libertatibus franchisiis, &c.... Voenundatum in tentorio nostro prope sanctum Julianum sub annulo peccatoris anno pontificatus nostri, 6. Kalend. fabacearum, hora ver noctis 17. more Conardorum computando, &c."

[107] The music of this hymn, or _prose_, as it is termed in the Catholic Rituals, is given in the Atlas to Millin's Travels through the Southern Departments of France, _plate_ 4.

[108] See under the article _Abbas Conardorum_, I. p. 24.

[109] _Antiquites Nationales_, III. No. 36.

[110] Vol. II. No. 9.

[111] Vol. IV. t. 29, 30, 31.

[112] _Antiquites Nationales_, III. No. 30.

[113] This ceased to be the case almost immediately after this remark was made; for, on my return to France, in 1819, I observed on the whole road from Dieppe to Paris, the letters P A C I, or others, equally meaning _pour a.s.surance contre l'incendie_, painted upon the fronts of the houses.

[114] _Antiquites Nationales_, III. article 30, p. 26.--(In the figure, however, which accompanies this article, the summit is mutilated, as I saw it.)

[115] _Peuchet, Description Topographique et Statistique de la France, Departement de la Seine Inferieure_, p. 33.

[116] _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 94.

[117] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 33. t. 3.

[118] _Annals of the Coinage of Britain_, I. p. 505-507.

LETTER XIII.

MONASTIC INSt.i.tUTIONS--LIBRARY--Ma.n.u.sCRIPTS--MUSEUM--ACADEMY--BOTANIC GARDEN--THEATRE--ANCIENT HISTORY--EMINENT MEN.

(_Rouen, June_, 1818.)

The laws of France do not recognize monastic vows; but of late years, the clergy have made attempts to re-establish the communities which once characterized the Catholic church. To a certain degree they have succeeded: the spirit of religion is stronger than the law; and the spirit of contradiction, which teaches the subject to do whatever the law forbids, is stronger than either. Hence, most towns in France contain establishments, which may be considered either as the embers of expiring monachism, or the sparks of its reviving flame. Rouen has now a convent of Ursulines, who undertake the education of young females. The house is s.p.a.cious; and for its neatness, as well as for the appearance of regularity and propriety, cannot be surpa.s.sed. On this account, it is often visited by strangers. The present lady-abbess, Dame Cousin, would do honor to the most flouris.h.i.+ng days of the hierarchy: when she walks into the chapel, Saint Ethelburgha herself could not have carried the crozier with greater state; and, though she is somewhat short and somewhat thick, her pupils are all wonderfully edified by her dignity.

She has upwards of dozen English heretics under her care; but she will not compromise her conscience by allowing them to attend the Protestant service. There are also about ninety French scholars, and the inborn antipathy between them and the _insulaires_, will sometimes evince itself. Amongst other specimens of girlish spite, the French fair-ones have divided the English damsels into two _genera_. Those who look plump and good-humored, they call _Mesdemoiselles Rosbifs_; whilst such as are thin and graver acquire the appellation of the _Mesdemoiselles G.o.ddams_, a name by which we have been known in France, at least five centuries ago.--This story is not trivial, for it bespeaks the national feeling; and, although you may not care much about it, yet I am sure, that five centuries hence, it will be considered as of infinite importance by the antiquaries who are now babes unborn. The Ursulines and _soeurs d'Ernemon_, or _de la Charite_, who nurse the sick, are the only two orders which are now protected by government. They were even encouraged under the reign of Napoleon, who placed them under the care of his august parent, _Madame Mere_.--There are other sisterhoods at Rouen, though in small numbers, and not publickly patronized.

Nuns are thus increasing and multiplying, but monks and friars are looked upon with a more jealous eye; and I have not heard that any such communities have been allowed to re-a.s.semble within the limits of the duchy, once so distinguished for their opulence, and, perhaps, for their piety and learning.

The libraries of the monasteries were wasted, dispersed, and destroyed, during the revolution; but the wrecks have since been collected in the princ.i.p.al towns; and thus originated the public library of Rouen, which now contains, as it is said, upwards of seventy thousand volumes. As may be antic.i.p.ated, a great proportion of the works which it includes relate to theology and scholastic divinity; and the Bollandists present their formidable front of fifty-four ponderous folios.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Initial Letter from a MS. of the History of William of Jumieges]

The ma.n.u.scripts, of which I understand there are full eight hundred, are of much greater value than the printed books. But they are at present unarranged and uncatalogued, though M. Licquet, the librarian, has been for some time past laboring to bring them into order. Among those pointed out to us, none interested me so much as an original autograph; of the _Historica Normannorum_, by William de Jumiegies, brought from the very abbey to which he belonged. There is no doubt, I believe, of its antiquity; but, to enable you to form your own judgment upon the subject, I send you a tracing of the first paragraph.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Historica Normannorum tracing of autograph]

I also add a fac-simile of the initial letter of the foregoing epistle, illuminated by the monk, and in which he has introduced himself in the act of humbly presenting his work to his royal namesake. I am mistaken, if any equally early, and equally well authenticated representation of a King of England be in existence. The _Historia Normannorum_ is incomplete, both at the beginning and end, and it does not occupy more than one-fifth of the volume: the rest is filled with a comment upon the Jewish History.

The articles among the ma.n.u.scripts, most valued by antiquaries, are a _Benedictionary_ and a _Missal_, both supposed of nearly the same date, the beginning of the twelfth century.

The Abbe Saas, who published, in 1746, a catalogue of the ma.n.u.scripts belonging to the library of the cathedral of Rouen, calls this Benedictionary, which then belonged to the metropolitan church, a _Penitential_; and gives it as his opinion, that it is a production of the eighth century, with which aera he says that the character of the writing wholly accords. Montfaucon, who never saw it, follows the Abbe; but the opinion of these learned men has recently been confuted by M.

Gourdin[119], who has bestowed considerable pains upon the elucidation of the history and contents of this curious relic. He states that a sum of fifteen thousand francs had been offered for it, by a countryman of our own; but I should not hesitate to cla.s.s this tale among the numberless idle reports which are current upon the continent, respecting the riches and the folly of English travellers. The famous Bedford Missal, at a time when the bibliomania was at its height[120], could hardly fetch a larger sum; and this of Rouen is in no point of view, except antiquity, to be put in compet.i.tion with the English ma.n.u.script.

Its illuminations are certainly beautiful; but they are equalled by many hundreds of similar works; and they are only three in number, the _Resurrection_, the _Descent of the Holy Ghost_, and the _Death of the Virgin_.--The volume appears to have been originally designed for the use of the cathedral of Canterbury; as it contains the service used at the consecration of our Anglo-Saxon sovereigns.

The Missal, which is also the object of M. Gourdin's dissertation, is from the convent of Jumieges. Its date is established by the circ.u.mstance of the paschal table finis.h.i.+ng with the year 1095. It contains eleven miniatures, inferior in execution to those in the Benedictionary; and it ends with the following anathema, in the hand-writing of the Abbot Robert, by whom it was given to the monastery:--"Quem si quis vi vel dolo seu quoque modo isti loco subtraxerit, animae suae propter quod fecerit detrimentum patiatur, atque de libro viventium deleatur et c.u.m justis non scribatur."

As a memorial of a usage almost universal in the earlier ages of the church, the _Diptych_, commonly called the _Livre d'Ivoire_, is a valuable relic. The covers exhibit figures of St. Peter and of some other saint, in a good style of workmans.h.i.+p, perhaps of the lower empire. The book contains the oaths administered to each archbishop of Rouen and his suffragans, upon their entering on their office, all of them severally subscribed by the individuals by whom they were sworn. It begins at a very early period, and finishes with the name of Julius Basilius Ferronde de la Ferronaye, consecrated Bishop of Lisieux, in 1784. In the first page is the formula of the oath of the archbishop.--"Juramentum Archiepiscopi Rothomagensis jucundo adventu receptionis suae.--Primo dicat et p.r.o.nuntiet Deca.n.u.s vel alius de Majoribus verba quae sequentur in introitu atrii;--Adest, reverende pater, tua sponsa, nostra mater, haec Rothom. ecclesia, c.u.m maximo gaudio recipere te parata, ut eam regas salubriter, potenter protegas et defendas.--Responsio Archiepiscopalis;--Haec, Deo donante, me facturum promitto.--Iterum Deca.n.u.s vel alius;--Firma juramento quae te facturum promittis.--Ego, Dei patientia, bujus Rothom. ecclesiae minister, juro ad haec sancta Dei evangelia quod ipsam ecclesiam contra quoslibet tam in bona quam in personas ipsius invasores et oppressores pro posse protegam viriliter et defendam, atque etiam ipsius ecclesiae jura, libertates, privilegia, statuta et consuetudines apostolicas servabo fideliter. Bona ejusdem ecclesiae non alienabo nec alienari permittam, quin pro posse, si quae alienata fuerint, revocabo. Sic me Deus adjuvet et sancta Dei evangelia."

The oath of the bishops and abbots was nothing more than a promise of constant respect and obedience on their parts to the church and archbishop of Rouen. You will find it in the _Voyages Liturgiques_[121]; in which you will also meet with a great deal of curious matter touching the peculiar customs and ceremonies of this cathedral. The different metropolitan churches of France before the revolution, like those of our own country prior to the reformation, varied materially from one another in observances of minor importance; at the same time that their rituals all agreed in what may be termed the doctrinal ceremonies of the church.

The last ma.n.u.script which I shall mention, is the only one that is commonly shewn to strangers: it is a _Graduel_, a very large folio volume, written in the seventeenth century, and of transcendent beauty.

Julio Clovio himself, the Raphael of this department of art, might have been proud to be considered the author of the miniatures in it. The representations of lapis lazuli are even more wonderful than the flowers and insects. The whole was done by a monk, of the name of Daniel D'Eaubonne, and is said to have cost him the labor of his entire life.

In earlier times, a similar occupation was regarded as peculiarly meritorious[122].--There died a friar, a man of irregular life, and his soul was brought before the judgment-seat to receive its deserts. The evil spirits attended, not antic.i.p.ating any opposition to the claim which they preferred; but the guardian angels produced a large book, filled with a transcript from holy writ by the hand of the criminal; and it was at length agreed that each letter in it should be allowed to stand against a sin. The tale was carefully gone through: Satan exerted his utmost ingenuity to substantiate every crime of omission or commission; and the contending parties kept equal pace, even unto the last letter of the last word of the last line of the last page, when, happily for the monk, the recollection of his accuser failed, and not a single charge could be found to be placed in the balance against it. His soul was therefore again remanded to the body, and a farther time was allotted to it to correct its evil ways.--The legend is pointed by an apposite moral; for the brethren are exhorted to "pray, read, sing, and write, always bearing in mind, that one devil only is allowed to a.s.sail a monk who is intent upon his duties, but that a thousand are let loose to lead the idle into temptation."

The library is open every day, except Sundays and Thursdays, from ten to two, to everybody who chooses to enter. It is to the credit of the inhabitants of Rouen, that they avail themselves of the privilege; and the room usually contains a respectable a.s.semblage of persons of all cla.s.ses. The revenue of the library does not amount to more than three thousand francs per annum; but it is also occasionally a.s.sisted by government. The French ministers of state consider that it is the interest of the nation to promote the publication of splendid works, either by pecuniary grants to the authors, or, as more commonly happens, by subscribing for a number of copies, which they distribute amongst the public libraries of the kingdom.--I could say a great deal upon the difference in the conduct of the governments of France and England in this respect, but it would be out of place; and I trust that our House of Commons will not be long before they expunge from the statute-books, a law which, under the shameless pretence of "encouraging learning," is in fact a disgrace to the country.

The museum is also established at the Hotel-de-Ville, where it occupies a long gallery and a room adjoining. It is under the superintendence of M. Descamps, son of the author of two very useful works, _La Vie des Peintres Flamands_ and _Le Voyage Pittoresque_. The father was born at Dunkirk, in 1714, but lived princ.i.p.ally at Paris, till an accidental circ.u.mstance fixed him at Rouen, in 1740. On his way to England, he here formed an acquaintance with M. de Cideville, the friend of Voltaire, who, anxious for the honor of his native town, persuaded the young artist to select it as the place of his future residence. The event fully answered his expectation; for the ability and zeal of M. Descamps soon gave new life to the arts at Rouen. A public academy of painting was formed under his auspices, to which he afforded gratuitous instruction; and its celebrity increased so rapidly, that the number of pupils soon amounted to three hundred; and Norman authors continued to antic.i.p.ate in fancy the creation of a Norman school, which should rival those of Bologna and Florence, until the very moment when the revolution dispelled this day-dream. Descamps died at the close of the last century. To his son, who inherits his parent's taste, with no small portion of his talent, we were indebted for much obliging attention.

The museum is open to the public on Sundays and Thursdays; but daily to students and strangers. It contains upwards of two hundred and thirty paintings. Of these, the great ma.s.s is undoubtedly by French artists, comparatively little known and of small merit, imitators of Poussin and Le Brun. Such paintings as bear the names of the old Italian masters, are in general copies; some of them, indeed, not bad imitations. Among them is one of the celebrated Raphael, commonly called the _Madonna di San Sisto_, a very beautiful copy, especially in the head of the virgin, and the female saint on her left hand. It is esteemed one of his finest pieces; but few of his pictures are less generally known: there is no engraving of it in Landon's eight volumes of his works.

Looking to the unquestionable originals in the collection, there are perhaps none of greater value than Jouvenet's finished sketches for the dome of the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris. They represent the twelve apostles, each with his symbol, and are extremely well composed, with a bold system of light and shadow. The museum has five other pictures by the same master; in this number are his own portrait, a vigorous performance, as well in point of character as of color; and the _Death of St. Francis_, which has generally been considered one of his happiest works. Both these were painted with his left hand. The death of St.

Francis is said to have been his first attempt at using the brush, after he was affected with paralysis, and to have been done by way of model for his scholar, Restout, whom he had desired to execute the same subject for him. A _Christ bearing his Cross_, by Polemburg; is a little piece of high finish and considerable merit; an _Ecce h.o.m.o_, by Mignard, is excellent; and a _St. Francis in Extasy_, by Annibal Caracci, is a good ill.u.s.tration of the true character of the Bolognese school: it is a fine and dignified picture, depending for its excellence upon a grand character of expression and drawing, and light and shade, and not at all on bright or varied coloring, to which it makes no pretension.