Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume Ii Part 3

[Footnote 21: _d.u.c.h.esne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 1129.]

[Footnote 22: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 20.]

[Footnote 23: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, plates_ 38-41.]

[Footnote 24: _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _d.u.c.h.esne's Scriptores Normanni_, p. 490, 491, 606.]

[Footnote 25: _d.u.c.h.esne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 865.]

[Footnote 26: Some writers say that the real cause of their meeting was to settle a difference of long standing.--Hoveden, as quoted in the _Concilia Normannica_, I. p. 92, tells us, that Henry was upon the point of sailing for England, when tidings were brought him that Philip had collected a great force, with which he threatened to lay Normandy waste, unless the British monarch surrendered to him Gisors with its dependencies, or caused his son Richard, Count of Poitou, to marry Alice, sister of the French king;--"Quod cm regi Angli constaret, reversus est in Normanniam; et, accepte colloquio inter ipsum et Regem Franci inter Gisortium et Trie, XII. Kalendas Februarii, die S. Agnetis V. et Martyris, convenerunt illuc c.u.m Archiepiscopis, et Episcopis et Comitibus, et Baronibus regnoram suorum. Cui colloquio interfuit Archiepiscopus Tyri, qui repletus spiritu sapienti et intellectus, miro modo prdicavit verb.u.m Domini coram regibus et principibus. Et convert.i.t corda eorum ad crucem capiendam; et qui pris hostes erant, illo prdicante, et Deo co-operante, facti sunt amici in illa die, et de manu ejus crucem receperunt: et in eadem hora apparuit super eos signum crucis in c?lo. Quo viso miraculo, plures catervatim ruebant ad susceptionem crucis. Prdicti ver reges in susceptionem crucis, ad cognoscendum gentem suam, signum sibi et suis providerunt. Rex namque Franci et gens sua receperunt cruces rubeas et Rex Angli c.u.m gente sua suscepit cruces virides: et sic unusqnisque ad providendum sibi et itineri suo necessaria, reversus est in regionem suam."]

[Footnote 27: In 1555, an addition was made to this coat of a chief _azure_, charged with three fleurs-de-lys, _or_, by the command of Henry IInd of France, to commemorate his public entry into Gisors.]

LETTER XVII.

ANDELYS--FOUNTAIN OF SAINT CLOTILDA--LA GRANDE MAISON--CHTEAU GAILLARD--ECOUIS.

(_Ecouis, July_, 1818)

Our evening journey from Gisors to Andelys, was not without its inconveniences.--The road, if road it may be called, was sometimes merely a narrow ravine or trench, so closely bordered by trees and underwood, that our vehicle could scarcely force its way; and sometimes our jaded horses labored along a waggon-way which wound amidst an expanse of corn-fields. Our postilion had earnestly requested us to postpone our departure till the following morning; and he swore and cursed most valiantly during the whole of his ride. On our arrival, however, at Andelys, a few kind words from my companions served to mitigate his ire; and as their eloquence may have been a.s.sisted by a few extra sous, presented to him at the same time, his nut-brown countenance brightened up, and all was tranquillity.

Andelys is a town, whose antiquity is not to be questioned: it had existence in the time of the venerable Bede, by whom it is expressly mentioned, under its Latin appellation, _Andilegum_[28]. The derivation of this name has afforded employment to etymologists. The syllable _and_ enters, as it is said, into the composition of the names of sundry places, reported to be founded by Franks, and Saxons, and Germans; and therefore it is agreed that a Teutonic origin must be a.s.signed to Andelys. But, as to the import of this same syllable, they are all of them wholly at a loss.--The history of Andelys is brief and unimportant, considering its antiquity and situation. It was captured by Louis le Gros in the war which he undertook against Henry Ist, in favour of c.l.i.to, heir of the unfortunate Duke Robert; and his son, Louis le Jeune, in 1166, burned Andelys to the ground, thus revenging the outrages committed by the Anglo-Normans in France: in 1197, it was the subject of the exchange which I have already mentioned, between Richard Coeur-de-Lion and Walter, Archbishop of Rouen; and only a few years afterwards it pa.s.sed by capitulation into the possession of Philip Augustus, when the murder of Arthur of Brittany afforded the French sovereign a plausible pretext for dispossessing our worthless monarch of his Norman territory.

What Andelys wants, however, in secular interest, it makes up in sanct.i.ty. Saint Clotilda founded a very celebrated monastery here, which was afterwards destroyed by the Normans.--If we now send our ripening daughters to France, to be schooled and accomplished, the practice prevailed equally amongst our Anglo-Saxon ancestors; and we learn from Bede, that Andelys was then one of the most fas.h.i.+onable establishments[29]. However, we must not forget that the fair Elfleda, and the rosy lfgiva, were so taught in the convent, as to be fitted only for the embraces of a celestial husband--a mode of matrimony which has most fortunately become obsolete in our days of increasing knowledge and civilization.

After the destruction of the monastery by the Normans, it was never rebuilt; yet its sanct.i.ty is not wholly lost. At the behest of Clotilda, the waters of the fountain of Andelys were changed into wine for the relief of the weary labourer, and the tutelary saint is still wors.h.i.+pped by the faithful.

It was our good fortune to arrive at Andelys on the vigil of the festival of Saint Clotilda. The following morning, at early dawn, the tolling bell announced the returning holiday; and then we saw the procession advance, priests and acolytes bearing crosses and consecrated banners and burning tapers, followed by a joyous crowd of votaries and pilgrims. We had wished to approach the holy well; but the throng thickened around it, and we were forced to desist. We could not witness the rites, whatever they were, which were performed at the fountain; and long after they had concluded, it was still surrounded by groups of women, some idling and staring, some asking charity and whining, and some conducting their little ones to the salutary-fountain. Many are the infirmities and ailments which are relieved through the intercession of Saint Clotilda, after the patient has been plunged in the gelid spring.

A Parisian sceptic might incline to ascribe a portion of their cures to cold-bathing and ablution; but, at Andelys, no one ever thought of diminis.h.i.+ng the veneration, inspired by the Christian queen of the founder of the monarchy. Several children were pointed out to us, heretical strangers, as living proofs of the continuance of miracles in the Catholic church. They had been cured on the preceding anniversary; for it is only on Saint Clotilda's day that her benign influence is shed upon the spring.

Andelys possesses a valuable specimen of ancient domestic architecture.

The _Great House_[30] is a most sumptuous mansion, evidently of the age of Francis Ist; but I could gain no account of its former occupants or history. I must again borrow from my friend's vocabulary, and say, that it is built in the "Burgundian style." In its general outline and character, it resembles the house in the _Place de la Pucelle_, at Rouen. Its walls, indeed, are not covered with the same profusion of sculpture; yet, perhaps, its simplicity is accompanied by greater elegance.--The windows are disposed in three divisions, formed by slender b.u.t.tresses, which run up to the roof. They are square-headed, and divided by a mullion and transom.--The portal is in the centre: it is formed by a Tudor arch, enriched with deep mouldings, and surmounted by a lofty ogee, ending with a crocketed pinnacle, which transfixes the cornice immediately above, as well as the sill of the window, and then unites with the mullion of the latter.--The roof takes a very high pitch.--A figured cornice, upon which it rests, is boldly sculptured with foliage.--The chimneys are ornamented by angular b.u.t.tresses.--All these portions of the building a.s.similate more or less to our Gothic architecture of the sixteenth century; but a most magnificent oriel window, which fills the whole of the s.p.a.ce between the centre and left-hand divisions, is a specimen of pointed architecture in its best and purest style. The arches are lofty and acute. Each angle is formed by a double b.u.t.tress, and the tabernacles affixed to these are filled with statues. The bas.e.m.e.nt of the oriel, which projects from the flat wall of the house, after the fas.h.i.+on of a bartizan, is divided into compartments, studded with medallions, and intermixed with tracery of great variety and beauty. On either side of the bay, there are flying b.u.t.tresses of elaborate sculpture, spreading along the wall.--As, comparatively speaking, good models of ancient domestic architecture are very rare, I would particularly recommend this at Andelys to the notice of every architect, whom chance may conduct to Normandy.--This building, like too many others of the same cla.s.s in our own counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, is degraded from its station. The _great house_ is used merely as a granary, though, by a very small expence, it might be put into habitable repair. The stone retains its clear and polished surface; and the ma.s.sy timbers are undecayed.--The inside corresponds with the exterior, in decorations and grandeur: the chimney-pieces are large and elaborate, and there is abundance of sculpture on the ceilings and other parts which admit of ornament.

The French, in speaking of Andelys, commonly use the plural number, and say, _les Andelys_, there being a smaller town of the same name, within the distance of a mile: hence, the larger, all inconsiderable as it is, and though it scarcely contains two thousand inhabitants, is dignified by the appellation of _le Grand Andelys_.

As the French seldom neglect the memory of their eminent men, I was rather disappointed at not finding any tribute to the glory of Poussin, nor any object which could recal his name.--The great master of the French school was born at Andelys, in 1594, of poor but n.o.ble parents.

The talents of the painter of the _Deluge_ overcame all obstacles. Young Poussin, with barely a sufficiency to buy his daily bread, found means of making his abilities known in the metropolis to such advantage, as enabled him to proceed to Rome, where the patronage of the Cavaliere Marino smoothed his way to that splendid career, which terminated only with his life.--And yet I doubt if the example of Poussin has, on the whole, been favorable to the progress of French art. Horace Walpole, in his summary of the excellencies and defects of great painters, observed with much justice, that "t.i.tian wanted to have seen the antique; Poussin to have seen t.i.tian." The observation referred princ.i.p.ally to the defective coloring, which is admitted to exist in the greater part of the works of the painter of Andelys. But Poussin, considered as a model for imitation, and especially as a model for the student, is liable to a more serious objection.--He was a total stranger to real nature:--cla.s.sical taste, indeed, and knowledge, and grace, and beauty, pervade all his works; but it is a taste, and a knowledge, and a grace, and a beauty, formed solely upon the contemplation of the antique.

Horace's adage, that "decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile," has been remarkably verified in the case of Poussin; and I am mistaken, if the example set by him, which has been rigorously followed in the French school, even down to the present day, has not contributed more than any thing else to that statuary style in forms, and that coldness in coloring, which every one, who is not born in France, regrets to see in the works of the best of their artists.--The learned Adrian Turnebus was also a native of Andelys; and the church is distinguished as the burial-place of Corneille.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Distant View of Chteau Gaillard]

I doubt, however, whether we should have travelled hither, had we not been attracted by the celebrity of the castle, called _Chteau Gaillard_, erected by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, in the immediate vicinity of Le Pet.i.t Andelys.--Our guide, a st.u.r.dy old dame, remonstrated strongly against our walking so far to look at a mere heap of stones, nothing comparable to the fine statue of Clotilda, of which, if we would but have a little patience, we might still procure a sight.--Our expectations respecting the castle were more than answered. Considered as to its dimensions and its situation, it is by far the finest castellated ruin I ever saw. Conway, indeed, has more beauty; but Chteau Gaillard is infinitely superior in dignity. Its ruins crown the summit of a lofty rock, abruptly rising from the very edge of the Seine, whose sinuous course here shapes the adjoining land into a narrow peninsula. The chalky cliffs on each side of the castle, are broken into hills of romantic shape, which add to the impressive wildness of the scene. The inclosed sketch will give you an idea, though a very faint one, of the general appearance of the castle at a distance. Towards the river, the steepness of the cliff renders the fortress una.s.sailable: a double fosse of great depth, defended by a strong wall, originally afforded almost equal protection on the opposite side.

The circular keep is of extraordinary strength; and in its construction it differs wholly from any of our English dungeon-towers.--It may be described as a cylinder, placed upon a truncated cone. The ma.s.sy perpendicular b.u.t.tresses, which are ranged round the upper wall, from which they project considerably, lose themselves at their bases in the cone from which they arise. The building, therefore, appears to be divided into two stories. The wall of the second story is upwards of twelve feet in thickness. The base of the conical portion is perhaps twice as thick.--It seldom happens that the military buildings of the middle ages have such a _talus_ or slope, on the exterior face, agreeing with the principles of modern fortification, and it is difficult to guess why the architect of Chteau Gaillard thought fit to vary from the established model of his age. The masonry is regular and good. The pointed windows are evidently insertions of a period long subsequent to the original erection.

The inner, ballium is surrounded by a high circular wall, which consists of an uninterrupted line of bastions, some semi-circular and others square.--The whole of this part of the castle remains nearly perfect.

There are also traces of extensive foundations in various, directions, and of great out-works. Chteau Gaillard was in fact a citadel, supported by numerous smaller fortresses, all of them communicating with the strong central hold, and disposed so as to secure every defensible post in the neighborhood. The wall of the outer ballium, which was built of a compact white and grey stone, is in most places standing, though in ruins. The original facing only remains in those parts which are too elevated to admit of its being removed with ease.--Beneath the castle, the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, not intended for mere pa.s.sages or vaults, as at Arques and in most other places, but forming s.p.a.cious crypts, supported by pillars roughly hewn out of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman's chisel.

It will afford some satisfaction to the antiquary to find, that the present appearance of the castle corresponds in every important particular with the description given by Willelmus Brito, who beheld it within a few years after its erection, and in all its pride. Every feature which he enumerates yet exists, unaltered and un.o.bliterated:--

"Huic natura loco satis insuperabile per se Munimeu dederat, tamen insuperabiliorem Arte quidem multa Richardus fecerat illum.

Duplicibus muris extrema clausit, et altas Circuitum docuit per totum surgere turres, A se distantes spatiis altrinsecus quis; Eruderans utrumque latus, ne scandere quisquam Ad muros possit, vel ab ima repere valle.

Hinc ex transverso medium per planitiei Erigitur murus, multoque labore cavari Cogitur ipse silex, fossaque patere profunda, Faucibus et latis aperiri vallis ad instar; Sic ut quam subito fiat munitio duplex Qu fuit una modo muro geminata sequestro.

Ut si forte pati partem contingeret istam Altera municipes, queat, et se tuta tueri.

Inde rotundavit rupem, qu celsior omni Planitie summum se tollit in aera sursum; Et muris sepsit, extremas desuper oras Castigansque jugi scrupulosa cac.u.mina, totum Complanat medium, multque capacia turb Plurima c.u.m domibus habitacula fabricat intus.

Umboni parcens soli, quo condidit arcem.

Hic situs iste decor, munitio talis honorem Gaillard rupis per totum prdicat orbem."

The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty. We ventured to scale it; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which we gained. The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rock in large lazy windings: the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and well wooded: on the opposite sh.o.r.es, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly, crowned with dark forests.

I have already once had occasion to allude to the memorable strife occasioned by the erection of Chteau Gaillard, which its royal founder is reported to have so named by way of mockery. In possession of this fortress, it seemed that he might laugh to scorn the attacks of his feudal liege lord.--The date of the commencement of the building is supposed to have been about the year 1196, immediately subsequent to the treaty of Louviers, by which, Richard ceded to Philip Augustus the military line of the Epte, and nearly the whole of the Norman Vexin. By an express article of the treaty, neither party was allowed to repair the fortifications of Andelys; and Philip was in possession of Gisors, as well as of every other post that might have afforded security to the Normans. Thus the frontiers of the duchy became defenceless; but Richard, like other politicians, determined to evade the spirit of the treaty, adhering nevertheless to its letter, by the erection of this mighty bulwark.--The building arose with the activity of fear. Richard died in 1199, yet the castle must have been completely habitable in his life-time, for not a few of his charters are dated from Chteau Gaillard, which he terms "his beautiful castle of the rock."--Three years only had elapsed from the decease of this monarch, when Philip Augustus, after having reduced another castle, erected at the same time upon an island opposite the lesser Andelys, encamped before Chteau Gaillard, and commenced a siege, which from its length, its horrors, and the valor shewn on either side, has ever since been memorable in history.--Its details are given at great length by Father Daniel; and Du Moulin briefly enumerates a few of the stratagems to which the French King was obliged to have recourse; for, as the reverend author observes, "to have attempted to carry the place by force, would have been to have exposed the army to certain destruction; while to have tried to scale the walls, would have required the aid of Ddalus, with the certainty of a fall, as fatal as that of Icarus;" and without the poor consolation of

".... vitreo daturus Nomina ponto."--

The castle, commanded by Roger de Lacy, defied the utmost efforts of Philip for six successive months.--So great was its size; that more than two thousand two hundred persons, who did not form a part of the garrison, were known to quit the fortress in the course of the siege, compelled to throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers. But they found none; and the greater part of these unfortunate wretches, alternately suppliants to either host, perished from hunger, or from the weapons of the contending parties. At length the fortress yielded to a sudden a.s.sault. Of the warriors, to whose valor it had been entrusted, only thirty-six remained alive. John, ill requiting their fidelity, had already abandoned them to their fate.

Margaret of Burgundy, the queen of Louis Xth, and Blanche, the consort of his brother, Charles le Bel, were both immured in Chteau Gaillard, in 1314. The scandalous chronicle of those times will explain the causes of their imprisonment. Margaret was strangled by order of her husband.

Blanche, after seven years' captivity, was transferred to the convent of Maubuisson, near Pontoise, where she continued a recluse till her death--In 1331, David Bruce, compelled to flee from the superior power of the third Edward, found an asylum in Chteau Gaillard; and here, for a time, maintained the pageantry of a court.--Twenty-four years subsequently, when Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, was sent as a captive from Rouen to Paris, he was confined here, during one night, by order of the dauphin, who had made him his prisoner by treachery, whilst partaking of a banquet.--In the following century Chteau Gaillard braved the victorious arms of Henry Vth; nor was it taken till after a siege of sixteen months. The garrison only consisted of one hundred and twenty men; yet this scanty troop would not have yielded, had not the ropes, by which they drew up their water-buckets[31], been worn out and destroyed.--During the same reign, it was again taken and lost by the French, into whose hands it finally fell in 1449, when Charles VIIth commanded the siege in person. Even then, however it stood a long siege; and it was almost the last of the strong-holds of Normandy, which held out for the successors of the ancient dukes. After the re-union of the duchy, it was not destroyed, or suffered to fall into decay, like the greater number of the Norman fortresses: during the religious wars, it still continued to be a formidable military post, as well as a royal palace; and it was honored by the residence of Henry IVth, whose father, Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562.--Its importance ceased in the following reign.--The inhabitants of the adjacent country requested the king to order that the castle should be dismantled. They dreaded, lest its towers should serve as an asylum to some of the numerous bands of marauders, by whom France was then infested. It was consequently undermined and reduced to its present state of ruin.

We did not again attempt to pay our devotions at the shrine of Saint Clotilda, and we found no interesting object in the church of Andelys which could detain us. We therefore proceeded without delay to Ecouis, where we were a.s.sured that the church would gratify our curiosity.--This building has an air of grandeur as it is seen rising above the flat country; and it is of a singular shape, the ground-plan being that of a Greek cross. The exterior is plain and offers nothing remarkable: the interior retains statues of various saints, which, though not very ancient or in very good taste, are still far from being inelegant. Saint Mary, the Egyptian, who is among them, covered with her tresses, which may easily be mistaken for a long plaited robe, is a saint of unfrequent occurrence in this part of France. In the choir are several tomb-stones, with figures engraved upon them, their faces and hands being inlaid with white marble.--In this part of the building also remains the tomb of John Marigni, archbishop of Rouen, with his effigy of fine white marble, in perfect preservation. The face is marked with a strong expression of that determined character, which he unquestionably possessed. When he was sent as an amba.s.sador to Edward IIIrd, in 1342, he made his appearance at the English court in the guise of a military man, and not as a minister of peace; and we may doubt whether his virtues qualified him for the mitre. If even a Pope, however, in latter days, commanded a sculptor to pourtray him with a sword in his hand, the martial tendency of an archbishop may well be pardoned in more turbulent times. The following distich, from his epitaph, alludes to his achievements:--

"Armis prcinctus, mentisque charactere cinctus, Dux fuit in bellis, Anglis virtute rebellis."

The unfortunate Enguerrand de Marigni, brother of the archbishop, and lord treasurer under Philip the Fair, was the founder of this church. At the instigation of the king's uncle, Enguerrand was hanged without trial, and his family experienced the most bitter persecution. His body, which had at first been interred in the convent of the Chartreux, at Paris, was removed hither in 1324; and his descendants obtained permission, in 1475, to erect a mausoleum to his memory. But the king, at the same time that he acceded to their pet.i.tion, added the express condition[32], that no allusion should be made to Marigni's tragical end. The monument was destroyed in the revolution; but the murder of the treasurer is one of those "d.a.m.ned spots," which will never be washed out of the history of France.--Charles de Valois soon felt the sting of remorse; and within a year from the wreaking of his vengeance, he caused alms to be publicly distributed in the streets of Paris, with an injunction to every one that received them, "to pray to G.o.d for the souls of Enguerrand de Marigni, and Charles de Valois, taking care to put the subject first[33]."--In the church at Ecouis, was formerly the following epitaph, whose obscurity has given rise to a variety of traditions:--

"Ci gist le fils, ci gist la mere, Ci gist la soeur, ci gist le frre, Ci gist la femme, et le mari; Et ci ne sont que deux ici[34]."

Other inscriptions of the same nature are said to have existed in England. Goube[35] supposes that this one is the record of an incestuous connection; but we may doubt whether a less sinful solution may not be given to the enigma.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 28: Andelys is also called in old deeds _Andeleium_ and _Andeliac.u.m_.]

[Footnote 29: "Seculo septimo, c.u.m pauca essent in regione Anglorum monasteria, hunc morem in ill gente fuisse, ut multi ex Britanni, monastiae conversationis grati, Francorum monasteria adirent, sed et filias suas eisdem erudiendas ac sponso coelesti copulandas mitterent, maxim in Brigensi seu S. Farae monasterio, et in Calensi et in _Andilegum_ monasterio."--_Bede, Hist_. lib. III. cap. 8.]