Normandy | Page 7

escarpment of chalk hills. There are
wharves by the river-side which give the place a thriving aspect, for a
considerable export trade is carried on in dairy produce.
After following the river-side for a time, the road begins to cut across
the neck of land between two bends of the Seine. It climbs up towards
the forest of Roumare and passes fairly close to the village of St Martin
de Boscherville where the church of St George stands out
conspicuously on its hillside. This splendid Norman building is the
church of the Abbey built in the middle of the eleventh century by
Raoul de Tancarville who was William's Chamberlain at the time of the
conquest of England. The abbey buildings are now in ruins but the
church has remained almost untouched during the eight centuries and
more which have passed during which Normandy was often bathed in
blood, and when towns and castles were sacked two or three times over.
When the forest of Roumare, has been left behind, you come to

Canteleu, a little village that stands at the top of a steep hill,
commanding a huge view over Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy.
You can see the shipping lying in the river, the factories, the spire of
the cathedral, and the many church towers as well as the light
framework of the modern moving bridge. This is the present day
representative of the fantastic mediaeval city that witnessed the tragedy
of Joan of Arc's trial and martyrdom. We will pass Rouen now,
returning to it again in the next chapter.
The river for some distance becomes frequently punctuated with islands.
Large extents of forest including those of Rouvray, Bonde and Elbeuf,
spread themselves over the high ground to the west. The view from
above Elbeuf in spite of its many tall chimney shafts includes such a
fine stretch of fertile country that the scene is not easily forgotten.
Following the windings of the river through Pont-de-L'Arche and the
forest of Louviers we come to that pleasant old town; but although
close to the Seine, it stands on the little river Eure. Louviers remains in
the memory as a town whose church is more crowded with elaborately
carved stone-work than any outside Rouen. There is something rather
odd, in the close juxtaposition of the Hotel Mouton d'Argent with its
smooth plastered front and the almost overpowering mass of detail that
faces it on the other side of the road. There is something curious, too, in
the severe plainness of the tower that almost suggests the unnecessarily
shabby clothing worn by some men whose wives are always to be seen
in the most elaborate and costly gowns. Internally the church shows its
twelfth century origin, but all the intricate stone-work outside belongs
to the fifteenth century. The porch which is, if possible, richer than the
buttresses of the aisles, belongs to the flamboyant period, and actually
dates from the year 1496. In the clerestory there is much sixteenth
century glass and the aisles which are low and double give a rather
unusual appearance.
The town contains several quaint and ancient houses, one of them
supported by wooden posts projects over the pavement, another at the
corner of the Marche des Oeufs has a very rich though battered piece of
carved oak at the angle of the walls. It seems as if it had caught the

infection of the extraordinary detail of the church porch. Down by the
river there are many timber-framed houses with their foundations
touching the water, with narrow wooden bridges crossing to the
warehouses that line the other side. The Place de Rouen has a shady
avenue of limes leading straight down to a great house in a garden
beyond which rise wooded hills. Towards the river runs another avenue
of limes trimmed squarely on top. These are pleasant features of so
many French towns that make up for some of the deficiencies in other
matters.
We could stay at Louviers for some time without exhausting all its
attractions, but ten miles away at the extremity of another deep loop of
the Seine there stands the great and historic Chateau-Gaillard that
towers above Le Petit-Andely, the pretty village standing invitingly by
a cleft in the hills. The road we traverse is that which appears so
conspicuously in Turner's great painting of the Chateau-Gaillard. It
crosses the bridge close under the towering chalk cliffs where the ruin
stands so boldly. There is a road that follows the right bank of the river
close to the railway, and it is from there that one of the strangest views
of the castle is to be obtained. You may see it thrown up by a blaze of
sunlight against the grassy heights behind that are all dark beneath the
shadow of a