Read Ebook: Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume 1 by Turner Dawson

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Ebook has 285 lines and 69061 words, and 6 pages

Arrival at Dieppe--Situation and Appearance of the Town--Costume of the People--Inhabitants of the Suburb of Pollet.

Dieppe--Castle--Churches--History of the Place--Feast of the Assumption.

Journey from Dieppe to Rouen--Priory of Longueville--Rouen-Bridge of Boats--Costume of the Inhabitants.

Journey to Havre--Pays de Caux--St. Vallery--F?camp--The precious Blood--The Abbey--Tombs in it--Moutivilliers--Harfleur.

Havre--Trade and History of the Town--Eminent Men--Bolbec--Yvetot--Ride to Rouen--French Beggars.

On the State of Affairs in France.

Military Antiquities--Le Vieux Ch?teau--Original Palace of the Norman Dukes--Halles of Rouen--Miracle and Privilege of St. Romain--Ch?teau du Vieux Palais--Petit Ch?teau--Fort on Mont Ste. Catherine--Priory there--Chapel of St. Michael--Devotee.

Ancient Ecclesiastical Architecture--Churches of St. Paul and St. Gervais--Hospital of St. Julien--Churches of L?ry, Pavilly, and Yainville.

Early Pointed Architecture--Cathedral--Episcopal Palace.

Pointed Ecclesiastical Architecture--Churches of St. Ouen, St. Maclou, St. Patrice, and St. Godard.

Palais de Justice--States, Exchequer, and Parliament of Normandy--Guild of the Conards--Joan of Arc--Fountain and Bas-Relief in the Place de la Pucelle--Tour de la Grosse Horloge--Public Fountains--Rivers Aubette and Robec--Hospitals--Mint.

Monastic Institutions--Library--Manuscripts--Museum--Academy--Botanic Garden--Theatre--Ancient History--Eminent Men.

LIST OF PLATES. Plate 01 Head-Dress of Women of the Pays de Caux.

Plate 02 Entrance to the Castle at Dieppe.

Plate 03 Font in the Church of St. Remi, at Dieppe.

Plate 04 Plan of Caesar's Camp, near Dieppe.

Plate 05 General View of the Castle of Arques.

Plate 06 Tower of remarkable shape in ditto.

Plate 07 Church at Arques.

Plate 08 View of Rouen, from the Grand Cours.

Plate 09 Tower and Spire of Harfleur Church.

Plate 10 Bas-Relief, representing St. Romain.

Plate 11 Sculpture, supposed Roman, in the Church of St. Paul, at Rouen.

Plate 12 Circular Tower, attached to the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen.

Plate 13 Interior of the Church at Pavilly.

Plate 14 Monumental Figure of Rollo, in Rouen Cathedral.

Plate 15 Ditto of an Archbishop, in ditto.

Plate 16 Monument of ditto.

Plate 17 Equestrian Figure of the Seneschal de Brez?, in Rouen Cathedral.

Plate 18 Tower of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen.

Plate 19 South Porch of ditto.

Plate 20 Head of Christ, in ditto, seen in profile.

Plate 21 Ditto, in ditto, seen in front.

Plate 22 Stone Staircase in the Church of St. Maclou, at Rouen.

Plate 23 Sculpture, representing the Feast of Fools.

Plate 24 Bas-Relief, from the representations of the Champ du Drap d'or.

Plate 25 Initial Letter from a MS. of the History of William of Jumieges.

LETTERS FROM NORMANDY.

ARRIVAL AT DIEPPE--SITUATION AND APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN--COSTUME OF THE PEOPLE--INHABITANTS OF THE SUBURB OF POLLET.

MY DEAR SIR,

You, who were never at sea, can scarcely imagine the pleasure we felt, when, after a passage of unusual length, cooped up with twenty-four other persons in a packet designed only for twelve, and after having experienced every variety that could he afforded by a dead calm, a contrary wind, a brisk gale in our favor, and, finally, by being obliged to lie three hours in a heavy swell off this port, we at last received on board our French pilot, and saw hoisted on the pier the white flag, the signal of ten feet water in the harbor. The general appearance of the coast, near Dieppe, is similar to that which we left at Brighton; but the height of the cliffs, if I am not mistaken, is greater. They vary along the shores of Upper Normandy from one hundred and fifty to seven hundred feet, or even more; the highest lying nearly mid-way between this town and Havre, in the vicinity of F?camp; and they present an unbroken barrier, of a dazzling white, except when they dip into some creek or cove, or open to afford a passage to some river or streamlet. Into one of these, a boat from the opposite shores of Sussex shot past us this afternoon, with the rapidity of lightning. She was a smuggler, and, in spite of the army of Douaniers employed in France, ventured to make the land in the broad face of day, carrying most probably a cargo, composed principally of manufactured goods in cotton and steel. The crew of our vessel, no bad authority in such cases, assured us, that lace is also sent in considerable quantities as a contraband article into France; though, as is well known, much of it likewise comes in the same quality into England, and there are perhaps few of our travellers, who return entirely without it. On the same authority, I am enabled to state, what much surprised me, that the smuggled goods exported from Sussex into Normandy exceed by nearly an hundred fold those received in return.

The first approach to Dieppe is extremely striking. To embark in the evening at Brighton, sleep soundly in the packet, and find yourself, as is commonly the case, early the next morning under the piers of this town, is a transition, which, to a person unused to foreign countries, can scarcely fail to appear otherwise than as a dream; so marked and so entire is the difference between the air of elegance and mutual resemblance in the buildings, of smartness approaching to splendor in the equipages, of fashion in the costume, of the activity of commerce in the movements, and of newness and neatness in every part of the one, contrasted in the other with a strong character of poverty and neglect, with houses as various in their structure as in their materials, with dresses equally dissimilar in point of color, substance, and style, with carriages which seem never to have known the spirit of improvement, and with a general listlessness of manner, the result of indolence, apathy, and want of occupation. With all this, however, the novelty which attends the entrance of the harbor at Dieppe, is not only striking, but interesting. It is not thus at Calais, where half the individuals you meet in the streets are of your own country; where English fashions and manufactures are commonly adopted; and where you hear your native tongue, not only in the hotels, but even the very beggars follow you with, "I say, give me un sou, s'il vous please." But this is not the only advantage which the road by Dieppe from London to Paris possesses, over that by Calais. There is a saving of distance, amounting to twenty miles on the English, and sixty on the French side of the water; the expence is still farther decreased by the yet lower rate of charges at the inns; and, while the ride to the French metropolis by the one route is through a most uninteresting country, with no other objects of curiosity than Amiens, Beauvais, and Abbeville; by the other it passes through a province unrivalled for its fertility and for the beauty of its landscape, and which is allowed by the French themselves to be the garden of the kingdom. Rouen, Vernon, Mantes, and St. Germain, names all more or less connected with English history, successively present themselves to the traveller; and, during the greater part of his journey, his path lies by the side of a noble stream, diversified beyond almost every other by the windings of its channel, and the islands which stud its surface. The only evil to counterbalance the claims of Dieppe is, that the packets do not sail daily, although they profess and actually advertise to that effect; but wait till what they consider a sufficient freight of passengers is assembled, so that, either at Dieppe or Brighton, a person runs the risk of being detained, as has more than once happened to myself, a circumstance that never occurs at Dover. There is still a third point of passage upon our southern coast, and one that has of late been considerably frequented, from Southampton to Havre; but this I never tried, and do not know what it has to recommend it, except to those who are proceeding to Caen or to the western parts of France. The voyage is longer and more uncertain, the distance by land between London and Paris is also greater, nor does it offer equal facilities as to inns and public carriages.

Within the piers, the harbor widens into a stone basin, capable of holding two hundred vessels, and full of water at the flow of the tide; but at the ebb exhibiting little more than a sheet of mud, with a small stream meandering through it. Round the harbor is built the town, which contains above twenty thousand inhabitants, and is singularly picturesque, as well from its situation, backed as it is by the steep cliff to the east, which, instead of terminating here abruptly, takes an inland direction, as from the diversity in the forms and materials of the houses of the quay, some of which are of stone, others of grey flint, more of plaster with their timbers uncovered and painted of different colors, but most of brick, not uncommonly ornamented, with roofs as steep as those of the Thuilleries, and full of projecting lucarnes. This remark, however, applies only to the quay: in its streets, Dieppe is conspicuous among French towns for the uniformity of its buildings. After the bombardment in 1694, when the English, foiled near Brest, wreaked their vengeance upon Dieppe, and reduced the whole to ashes, the town was rebuilt on a regular plan, agreeably to a royal ordinance. Hence this is commonly regarded as one of the handsomest places in France, and you will find it mentioned as such by most authors; but the unfortunate architect who was employed in rebuilding it, got no other reward than general complaints and the nickname of M. G?teville. The inconveniences arising from the arrangements of the houses which he erected must have been serious; for we find that sixty years afterwards an order of council was procured, allowing the inhabitants to make some alterations that they considered most essential to their comfort. Upon the quay there is occasionally somewhat of the activity of commerce; but elsewhere it is as I have observed before, as well with the people as the buildings. As far as the houses are concerned, a little care and paint would remove their squalid aspect: to an English eye it is singularly offensive; but it cannot possibly be so to the French, among whom it seems almost universal.

Footnotes:

The chalk in the cliff, in the immediate vicinity of Dieppe, is divided at intervals of about two feet each by narrow strata of flint, generally horizontal, and composed in some cases of separate nodules, which are not uncommonly split, in others of a continuous compressed mass, about two or three inches thick and of very uncertain extent, but the strata are not regular.

DIEPPE--CASTLE--CHURCHES--HISTORY OF THE PLACE--FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION.

The bombardment of this town, alluded to in my last, was so effectual in its operation, that, excepting the castle and the two churches, the place can boast of little to arrest the attention of the antiquary, or of the curious traveller. These three objects were indeed almost all that escaped the conflagration; and for this they were indebted to their insulated situations, the first on an eminence unconnected with the houses of the place, the other two in their respective cemeteries.

In the letters one looks naturally for a date: the figures that alternate with them are probably mitres, and, like those on the roof, indicate the supreme jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Rouen in the place.

"Vicisti, Galtere, tui sunt signa triumphi Deppa, Locoveris, Alacris-mons, Butila, molta, Deppa maris portus, Alacris-mons locus amoenus, Villa Locoveris, rus Butila, molta per urbem. Hactenus haec Regis Richardi jura fuere; Haec rex sancivit, haec papa, tibique tuere."

Nor was this the only memorial of the fact; for the advantages of the exchange were so generally recognized, that the name of Walter became proverbial; and to this day it is said in Normandy of a man who over-reaches another, "c'est un fin Gautier." It might be inferred from the terms of the bargain in which Dieppe merely appears as one of the items of the account, that it was then a place of little consequence; yet, one of the old chroniclers speaks of it at the time it was taken by the French under Philip Augustus, as

"portus fam? celeberrimus atque Villa potens opibus."

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