On his journey towards Rouen he dilates on the excellence and cheapness of the Norman cider; nor does he forget to indulge in reflexions on the romantic history of William the Conqueror, who breathed his last in this splendid and populous capital of the province : sed ejus Abrupit stamen medium objice villa superbo Indeed, he must be a dull traveller who can behold without emotion the magnificent approach to this noble city, lying, with its rich Gothic towers and spires, embosomed in picturesque hills, and smiling over its broad and tributary stream. Our traveller's attention is first directed to the ruins of a magnificent stone bridge, (once consisting of thirteen arches, built by the Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I. king of England;) and next to its ingeniously-constructed substitute of massive timber, placed over nineteen barges, the undulatory motion of which, and its rise or fall with the tide are thus described : -quem non excisi cautibus orbes Obsequitur; nunc elatus torrente superbo Assurgit, mox deprimitur cum gurgite manco: &c. - Leaving the banks of the Seine, he enters the picturesque old town which even now carries the traveller back, and places him amongst the habitations of men who existed in the sixteenth century, unprofaned by modern improve ments. Here his eye is attracted by the splendid mansions of the archbishop and the nobility; by the fine market-place, lautitiasque fori grandes luxusque macelli; and by that curious specimen of Gothic architecture, which holds a middle station between ecclesiastic and domestic, the far-famed Palais de Justice. Heylin, who also saw the building in perfection, thus describes its grand hall: "it is so gallantly and richly built, that I must needs confess it surpasseth all that ever I saw in my life. The palace of the Louvre hath nothing in it comparable; the ceiling is all inlaid with gold, yet doth the workmanship exceed the matter:" and Barrow's account corresponds with the foregoing, when he speaks of the præclara palatia Legum, Coelatas auro cameras, serpentia muris Lilia, quà vario celebratur curia cœtu. From hence he proceeds to the churches, amongst which that glory of Gothic architecture, St. Ouen,* stands preeminent, though he leaves it undescribed, attracted by the The lightness, the elegance, the beautiful proportions, and the appropriate ornaments, of this church are, as far as my experience goes, quite unrivalled. To omit its magnificent rose-windows, its airy columns, and its finely-vaulted roof, it has one feature peculiar to itself, which covers the architect with glory. I allude to the fine open gallery which runs round the whole church, nave transepts and choir, in place of a triforium, and which allows an unusual altitude to the noble windows, whose painted glass is seen through the tracery. The length of this church in French feet is 416; that of the transepts 130: its breadth is 78, and the height of the vaulted roof 100. The central tower is 240 feet high. superior external magnificence of the cathedral and its ambitious spire, which will not suffer itself to be so neglected: nec de se sinit ambitiosa taceri Quæ sola ex tribus a trunco surgentibus uno Eminet, atque impellit acuta cuspide nubes.* In describing the ornaments and fine monuments in this edifice, he falls into the common error of supposing most of them to have been executed whilst the English had possession of the province; and when he notices this as the burial-place of the Regent Duke of Bedford, who must be consigned to eternal infamy as the base murderer of the heroic Joan of Arc, he notices also the high-minded answer of Louis XI. who, when he was counselled by envious persons to deface the tomb of his antagonist, used * This tower, which fell a few years since by a conflagration, was 380 French feet in height. The length of the cathedral is 408 feet, its breadth 83, and the height of its vaulted roof 84. Its great western front is perhaps the most gorgeous façade that any church possesses, uniting vastness and variety of outline, with richness of ornament, and picturesque effect, to a marvellous degree : its highest point of elevation is about 250 feet, and its breadth 180: its two flanking towers are noble structures, particularly that at the S.W. corner, which almost rivals the central tower of St. Ouen in height and richness of decoration: it is sometimes called the tour de beurre, from the impost on that article granted for its erection, or tour d'Amboise, from the distinguished prelate under whom it was begun and finished, and who placed therein his enormous bell: the three deep porches and pediments of this façade are filled with innumerable statues of popes, emperors, kings, cardinals, bishops, &c. Probably the north and south porches of this cathedral are equally unrivalled; but its interior is as inferior to that of St. Ouen as St. Paul's is to St. Peter's. these princely words: "What honor shall it be for us, or you, to break this monument, and to pull out of the ground the bones of him, whom in his life-time neither my father nor his progenitors, with all their puissance, were once able to make fly a foot backward? who by his strength, policy, and wit, kept them all out of the principal dominions of France, and out of this noble duchy of Normandy? Wherefore I say first, God save his soul! and let his body now lie in rest, which, when he was alive, could have disquieted the proudest of us all. And for this tomb, I assure you it is not so worthy or convenient as his honor and acts have deserved."* Herois monumenta rapi, manesque lacessi Judice me, dixit, meruit post fata quietem. Yet the tomb, after all, had disappeared, and Barrow was disappointed in his search for it:-tumulum spes irrita quærit. He was not aware that the French Calvinists, who were quite as malignant as the English Puritans, destroyed it in their merciless attacks on ecclesiastical architecture • Sandford, Ed. 1707. p. 315. "There is a curious chapter," says Dr. Dibdin, "in Pommeraye's 'Histoire de l'Eglise Cath. de Rouen,' p. 203, respecting this duke's taking the habit of a canon of the cathedral, attending with his first wife, Anne of Burgundy, and throwing himself on the liberality and kindness of the monks, to be received by them as one of their order." This almost matches the act of Lady Margaret foundress of St. John's Coll. Camb., who made herself a vestal, and took the vows, in her old age, and after having had three husbands. in the sixteenth century, when, besides other atrocities, they disinterred the bodies of St. Ouen, St. Nicaise, and St. Remi, burned them in the very church, and scattered their ashes to the winds. But though Barrow is unable to discover the sepulcre of his countryman,* he sees and describes with admiration the sumptuous monument erected to the great minister Cardinal d'Amboise, by his nephew, who succeeded him in the archbishopric of Rouen. The labor of seven years was expended on this superb work; Quà merito minor Ambosius sub marmore clausus Marmora quid loquor? hunc resonabit buccina major, Is posset clamor cunctas perrumpere sphæras, &c. * On a lozenge behind the altar is the following inscription: AD DEXTRUM ALTARIS LATUS JACET JOHANNES DUX BEDFORDI NORMANNIÆ PROREX. MCCCCXXXV. In a chapel of this cathedral is the tomb of Rollo, first duke of Normandy, and in one opposite is that of his son William Longsword: the effigies of both are still preserved. The tombs that once adorned the choir, those of Charles V. of France, of Richard Coeur-de-Lion (whose heart was buried here), and of William son |