Normandy | Page 2

is the low coast-line of Normandy, and on the right appears the islet of
Tombelaine.
DISTANT VIEW OF MONT ST MICHEL
THE LONG MAIN STREET OF COUTANCES In the foreground is
the Church of St Pierre, and in the distance is the Cathedral.
THE GREAT WESTERN TOWERS OF THE CHURCH OF NOTRE
DAME AT ST LO They are of different dates, and differ in the
arcading and other ornament.
THE NORMAN TOWERS OF BAYEUX CATHEDRAL
ST PIERRE, CAEN
OUISTREHAM

LIST OF LINE ILLUSTRATIONS
THE FORTIFIED FARM NEAR GISORS
A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE AT ARGENTAN
THE OLD MARKET HOUSE AT ECOUCHE
ONE OF THE TOWERS IN THE WALLS OF DOMFRONT
THE CHËTELET AND LA MERVFILLE AT MONT ST MICHEL
The dark opening through the archway on the left is the main entrance
to the Abbey. On the right can be seen the tall narrow windows that
light the three floors of Abbot Jourdain's great work.
AN ANCIENT HOUSE IN THE RUE ST MALO, BAYEUX
THE GATEWAY OF THE CHATEAU

THE DISUSED CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS AT CAEN
A COURTYARD IN THE RUE DE BAYEUX AT CAEN
CHAPTER I
Some Features of Normandy
Very large ants, magpies in every meadow, and coffee-cups without
handles, but of great girth, are some of the objects that soon become
familiar to strangers who wander in that part of France which was at
one time as much part of England as any of the counties of this island.
The ants and the coffee-cups certainly give one a sense of being in a
foreign land, but when one wanders through the fertile country among
the thatched villages and farms that so forcibly remind one of
Devonshire, one feels a friendliness in the landscapes that scarcely
requires the stimulus of the kindly attitude of the peasants towards les
anglais.
If one were to change the dark blue smock and the peculiar peaked hat
of the country folk of Normandy for the less distinctive clothes of the
English peasant, in a very large number of cases the Frenchmen would
pass as English. The Norman farmer so often has features strongly
typical of the southern counties of England, that it is surprising that
with his wife and his daughters there should be so little resemblance.
Perhaps this is because the French women dress their hair in such a
different manner to those on the northern side of the Channel, and they
certainly, taken as a whole, dress with better effect than their English
neighbours; or it may be that the similar ideas prevailing among the
men as to how much of the face should be shaved have given the
stronger sex an artificial resemblance.
In the towns there is little to suggest in any degree that the mediaeval
kings of England ruled this large portion of France, and at Mont St
Michel the only English objects besides the ebb and flow of tourists are
the two great iron michelettes captured by the French in 1433.
Everyone who comes to the wonderful rock is informed that these two
guns are English; but as they have been there for nearly five hundred

years, no one feels much shame at seeing them in captivity, and only a
very highly specialised antiquary would be able to recognise any
British features in them. Everyone, however, who visits Normandy
from England with any enthusiasm, is familiar with the essential
features of Norman and early pointed architecture, and it is thus with
distinct pleasure that the churches are often found to be strikingly
similar to some of the finest examples of the earlier periods in England.
When we remember that the Norman masons and master-builders had
been improving the crude Saxon architecture in England even before
the Conquest, and that, during the reigns of the Norman kings,
"Frenchmen," as the Saxons called them, were working on churches
and castles in every part of our island, it is no matter for surprise to find
that buildings belonging to the eleventh, twelfth, and even the
thirteenth century, besides being of similar general design, are often
covered with precisely the same patterns of ornament. When the period
of Decorated Gothic began to prevail towards the end of the thirteenth
century, the styles on each side of the Channel gradually diverged, so
that after that time the English periods do not agree with those of
Normandy. There is also, even in the churches that most resemble
English structures, a strangeness that assails one unless familiarity has
taken the edge off one's perceptions. Though not the case with all the
fine churches and cathedrals of Normandy, yet with an unpleasantly
large proportion--unfortunately including the magnificent Church of St
Ouen at Rouen--there is beyond the gaudy tinsel that crowds the altars,
an untidiness that detracts from the sense of reverence that stately
Norman or