CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE BROWN-PENNELL COLLECTION GIFT OF RALPH M. BROWN, '01 IN MEMORY OF HIS MOTHER ANNA MELIUS BROWN 1941 Date Duet JULl ^il^-^ '^ . JA#^t9=:a 3- ^ I 8^ Cornell University Library DC 611.N848D28 3 1924 028 218 794 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN NORMANDY Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028218794 Rouen : tJie Great Doors, a Study, 1897-1899 Highways and Byways in Normandy BY PERCY DEARMER, M.A. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSEPH PENNELL ILonUon MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1900 All rights teserved A 1- ' 1^1 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTION. — GISORS ...... I CHAPTER H LES ANDELYS AND CHATEAU-GAILLARD ... 21 CHAPTER HI LOUVIERS, EVREUX, CONCHES, UEAUMONT-LE-ROGER, SERQUIGNV, BERNAY . . 42 CHAPTER IV LISIEUX, SAINT-PIERRE-SUR-DIVES, FALAISE, ARGENTAN, ECOUCHE, RANES, LA FERTE-MACE, BAGNOLES . . . 72 C EI AFTER V DOMFRONT, MORTAIN, VIRE , 104 CHAPTER VI MONT-SAINT-MICHEI. . . 126 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER VII AVRANCHES, GRANVILLE, COUTANCES, SAINT-l6 . . . 164 PAGE CHAPTER VIII BAYEUX, CREULLY, FONTAINE-HENRI, THAON, LASSON . . I90 CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CAEN TO HONFLEUR, PONT-AUDEMER, BEC, AND ROUEN . . . 24I CHAPTER XI 267 CHAPTER XII ROUEN TO LE HAVRE. ST. GEORGES DE BOSCHERVILLE, DUCLAIR, JUMIEGES, ST. WANDRILLE, CAUDEBEC, LILLEBONNE, TANCAR- VILLE, HARFLEUR, GRAVILLE 302 CHAPTER XIII LE HAVRE TO DIEPPE. LE HAVRE, ETRETAT, FECAMP, VALMONT, SAINT-VALERY-EN-CAUX, MANOIR D'aNGO, POURVILLE . . . 327 CHAPTER XIV DIEPPE, ARQUES, EU . . . . , 347 INDEX 365 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ROUEN, THE GREAT DOORS, A STUDY, 1897-1899 . Frontispiece pont-de-l'arche ....... I A FOREST road NEAR PONT-DE-l'aRCHE . 5 GISORS CASTLE 9 THE KEEP, GISORS 1 5 ROAD TO LES ANDELYS . 1 9 CHATEAU-GAILLARD FROM THE SEINE VALLEY . 21 CHATEAU-GAILLARD . ... .... 25 CHATEAU-GAILLARD AND PETIT-ANDELY 29 CHATEAU-GAILLARD— THE KEEP ... -31 NEAR PETIT-ANDELY .... -34 THE SEINE NEAR LES ANDELYS . . . . 40 THE SEINE NEAR VERNON . . -42 THE.PORCH, LOUVIERS . .... . . 45 FORTIFIED FARM NEAR CONCHES . . . -55 CONCHES ... ■ • • 59 BEAUMONT-LE-ROGER ... . 6 1 BEAUMOUNT-LE-ROGER : ENTRANCE TO THE ABBEY 56 THIBERVILLE 7° X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CAGE FALAISE CASTLE 72 LISIEUX . . 75 ST. JACQUES, LISIEUX 77 NO. 33 RUE AUX FEVRES 8o SAINT-PIERRE-SUR-DIVES 8l ON THE RIVER DIVES 82 THE LOWER TOWN, FALAISE . 83 WASHING PLACE, FALAISE 84 FALAISE CASTLE: THE TOUR TALBOT. 87 ST. GERVAIS, FALAISE 90 CHATEAU NEAR FALAISE . 93 THE CASTLE, ARGENTAN . 96 ARGENTAN : THE TOWER OF ST. GERMAIN 98 ARGENTAN . . lOO THE ORNE AT ARGENTAN . lOI THE OLD MARKET HALL, ECOUCHfi I02 DOMFRONT : NOTRE-DAME-SUR-L'eAU IO4 CASTLE AND CRAG, DOMFRONT 1 10 MORTAIN ... 114 CHAPEL OF ST. MICHEL, MORTAIN II5 TINCHEBRAV ... VIRE : PORTE-HORLOGE IlS THE CHURCH, VIRE Iig RUINS OE CASTLE, VIRE 120 THE MARKET PLACE, VIRE 122 ChAtEAU AT SAINT-JAMES I23 THE CROSS AT SAINT-JAMES . . . 124 .MONT-SAINT-MICHEL from THE SANDS . 126 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi PAGE MONT-SAINT-MICHEL . . I28 CHEZ POULARD AIn£; I36 PORTE DU ROI, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . T38 THE STREET, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . . ■ '39 CHEMIN DE RONDE, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . . . I4I THE MERVEILLE, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . . . . I44 THE RAMPARTS, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . I45 ENTRANCE TO THE ABBEY, MONT-ST.-MICHEL , . . I49 THE DIGUE, MONT-ST.-MICHEL ... . . 151 TOWN AND ABBEY, MONT-ST.-MICHEL . I55 A PASSAGE, MONT-ST.-MICHEL 160 WITHIN THE GATES . . . 162 AVRANCHES ..... . 164 WASHING PLACE, NEAR AVRANCHES . 166 LE ROC DE GRANVILLE .... 168 OLD TOWN, GRANVILLE . 169 THE HARBOUR, GRANVILLE ... - 170 SPIRE OF ST. PIERRE, COUTANCES . . 173 THE CATHEDRAL, COUTANCES ... 1 74 COUTANCES ...... 175 COUTANCES 177 COUTANCES ... 179 SPIRES OF saint-l6 . . . i8o saint-l6 . . ■ • 181 SAINT-l6 from the RIVER . 183 THE MARKET IN THE PLACE DES BEAUX-REGARDS 184 MAISON DIEU, SAINT-LO . . 185 NOTRE DAME, SAINT-LO . . . . 187 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS INSIDE THE CHURCH, SAINT-LO . CHATEAU AT ESQUAY . . . AT THE CORNER OF RUE SAINT-MARTIN THE CATHEDRAL, BAYEUX . . A STREET IN BAYEUX . . . CREULLY . ' . A BIT OF CREULLY CASTLE . . FONTAINE HENRI .... LA VILLE AUX CLOCHERS . CAEN : ABBAYE AUX HOMMES A STREET IN CAEN . CAEN : ABBAYE AUX DAMES CAEN : SPIRE OF ST. PIERRE CAEN : ST. PIERRE FROM THE MARCh4 AU BOIS ST. SAUVEUR, CAEN . TROUVILLE, INNER HARBOUR OUISTREHAM ... . . WALLED FARM, NEAR CAEN THE CHURCH AT DIVES TROUVILLE . . THE BEACH, TROUVILLE . LOOKING TOWARDS HAVRE FROM VILLERVILLE HONFLEUR : IN THE OLD HARBOUR THE HARBOUR, HONFLEUR HONFLEUR . . . . TOWER OF ST. CATHERINE, HONFLEUR FISHING FLEET, HONFLEUR HARBOUR CHURCH AND MARKET, PONT-AUDEMER . . . I»S 190 193 197 201 206 208 210 211 217 219 221 225 229 239 241 242 243 244 246 247 248 249 250 254 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE A BY-ROAD . ... . . . , , . . . 256 THE TOWER, EEC HELLOUIN . 260 CHATEAU NEAR LA EOUILLE . 265 THE NEW ROUEN 267 OLD ROUEN . . . 268 THE GROSSE-HORLOGE . 269 STREET OF THE CLOCK, ROUEN 271 TOUR ST. ROMAIN . . . 273 PORTAIL DE LA CALENDE . 275 ROUEN FROM BON SECOURS 279 ROUEN .... 283 STREET IN ROUEN . . 293 THE SEINE BELOW ROUEN 302 THE ABBEY OF ST. GEORGES DE BOSCHERVILLE 304 CLIFF DWELLINGS ON THE SEINE, NEAR DUCLAIR 306 FERRY AT DUCLAIR . . 307 JUMlfeOES 309 JUMlfeOES .... 313 THE SEINE AT CAUDEBEC 314 RUE DE LA BOUCHERIE, CAUDEBEC 315 AT THE FOOT OF THE TOWER . . 3 17 CAUDEBEC, FROM THE LILLEBONNE ROAD 318 THE ROMAN THEATRE, LILLEBONNE . 319 LILLEBONNE .... . . 32O TANCARVILLE CASTLE . . . . .... 32I SEINE NEAR TANCARVILLE . • 323 HARFLEUR ... . . .... . . 324 THE MOUTH OF THE SEINE 32$ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE CHURCH AT GRAVILLE . . ST. JOUIN, NEAR IStRETAT THE h6tEL DE VILLE, HAVRF, OLD HAVRE .... MONTIVILLIERS . . . FALAISE d'aMONT, fiTRETAT . FALAISE D'aVAL, ETRETAT THE BEACH, iTRETAT . . NORMANDY FARM, NEAR ETRETAT THE CHURCHES, Fj^CAMP . ST. VALERY-EN-CAUX FISHING BOATS POPLAR LINED ROAD FISHING BOATS LEAVING DIEPPE THE MARKET, DIEPPE . THE TOWER OF ST. JACQUES DIEPPE .... DIEPPE CASTLE THE CASINO, DIEPPE DIEPPE HARBOUR . ARQUES CASTLE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH, ARQUEb PAGE 326 328 330 331 332 333 335 337 343 344 345 347 349 352 354 355 356 357 359 361 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN NORMANDY Pont de L'Arcke HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN NORMANDY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. — GISORS Every one knows Normandy, and therefore Normandy is hardly known at all. It suffers from being too readily accessible, and is remembered generally for its fashionable watering places, or for one or two of its historic towns. Yet now that the bicycle makes any departure from the main rail- way lines easy for us, there is open even to those with small leisure a new Normandy, a country varied, beautiful, and rich, a series of towns and villages that are less spoilt and not less interesting than the few frequented places. One can stay almost anywhere for a month's holiday without exhausting the number of excursions possible to a moderate cyclist. It would be easy to leave the route that is here suggested 2 UNKNOWN NORMANDY chap. at almost any point and discover fresh country, which I have to leave unmentioned in these limited pages. Indeed, it is with something of p sde that I confess to the omission of a cathedral, and several ancient towns, and the most re- spectable range of hills in Europe. There was no room for them, unless the tour was to become a rush and the book a catalogue. Yet here let me do brief justice to that remote corner of Normandy where are Alengon, Mortagne, the monastery of La Trappe, and the cathedral-village of Sees ; and to the beautiful valley of the Orne below Ecouche (where our route has to leave it) whose venerable and modest hills were as high as our modern Alps, in the age when there were no mountains in Switzerland ; and to that other corner of the province, the Cotentin, with its ancient churches of Lessay and Valognes, and its bristling port of Cherbourg. Should you leave the route which I have sketched at any point, as well you may, you will find interesting churches at nearly every village, and many ancient castles and less ancient chateaux here and there. For these you can always fall back upon Joanne (Guides-Joanne : Normandie : Hachette et Cie., 7 fr. 50) ; and indeed I shall assume that you have this excel- lent guide with you. Its maps alone will save you more money than it costs ; they are extraordinarily complete for the more frequented districts about the Seine and the seaboard towns, and for the remoter parts you can get the best cycling maps anywhere in Normandy. The ordnance maps (Carte de France k a^inJuTj) are of course perfect, and they can be got also at a scale of bottfti but if you want them for the whole of Nor- mandy they make rather a large parcel. Joanne's Guide, which can be divided into pocketable parts, gives very complete information about hotels, places of amusement, and museums. It also sketches the history of every town, and goes into detail about the churches. This particularity I have avoided, con- ceiving it my duty rather to notice the special points of interest and beauty in old churches ; but with castles I have , A DULL page 3 ventured more into detail, since they do not afford the obvious features of the ecclesiastical plan, and are never adequately explained in guide books. In the case of painted glass, which is one of the special glories of Normandy, I think that travellers need for its due enjoyment more description than has hitherto been vouchsafed to them. Not much need be said in the way of practical advice. France is for the traveller a civilised country as compared with England. Here we have to fight for our luggage on the platform at a journey's end ; there we hand up a ticket to the hotel-porter and it appears. Here we have to pay exorbitant charges for the carriage of a bicycle ; there it costs only a penny (for registration) from one end of France to the other, and the machine is neither lost nor damaged. As for hotels, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that in France one is treated twice as well and charged half as much as in England. The roads in Normandy are splendid for cycling, the only dis- advantage being that the straightness of many main routes hides the beauty of the country, for which reason it is often a good plan, when time is not an object, to pick out the byways on the map. This is the easier, because not only are the byways excellently kept, but the name of a French village is plainly written up, and one does not have ridiculous difficulty (as sometimes in England) in finding out where one is. Sign- posts and milestones are abundant, and the decimal system renders them perfectly simple and exact. It need hardly be said that the small stones represent hundreds of yards (counting the yard as a metre, though, strictly, loo metres = 109-36 yards) and the milestones represent kilometres, or thousands of yards. Nevertheless, it is often a long time before English travellers with English cyclometers become used to reckoning distances by this unit ; therefore it is convenient to remember that 5 kilometres are about 3 miles. ^ ' The exact figures are: — \ kilomUre=\o^T, yards i foot 11 inches; 5 kilometres = 3 miles 1 88 yards 7 inches ; 8 kUomitres are just under the 5 miles ; 50 come to 3 1 miles, B 2 4 WAYS CHAP. Most English people are taught enough French to under- stand a guide-book in that language, but few know enough to ask properly, and politely, for the simplest things. Swan's Traveller's Colloquial French (Nutt, ij-.) is an excellent little book for this necessity. It can be supplemented by Nutt's tiny Conversation Dictionary {2s. 6d.), and a French-English dictionary is also worth packing. The C T. C. Handbook, Foreign Edition (Cyclists' Touring Club, 47, Victoria Street, S.W., \s. 6d.) should be taken, not so much for the occasional prospect of discount, as for its hints on touring and the exact prices which it gives for a large number of hotels. It is certainly worth while to join the C.T.C., both for the sake of the information it gives, and because the ticket of membership acts for a passport at the Customs and Post Office. With regard to luggage, it must always be a matter of taste whether one prefers a laden machine with complete independ- ence, or a light machine and a fixed stopping-place. But it is well for the untravelled cyclist to know that he can send his luggage on by train from the hotel cheaply, safely, and easily. I have found it very convenient to combine the two methods, fixing on the stopping-place one or two days ahead, and carrying only enough on my machine for the requirements of a night or two ; very often, when a day's run was quite settled, I have packed my bicycle bag with the luggage and ridden with nothing but tools and a lamp. Bicycles are carried very tenderly on French railways, and any sort of protection for them is an intolerable nuisance. It is not, of course, necessary to increase one's luggage with things that can be easily bought ; there is an abundance of shops in France, cycling shops especially. The one exception is tobacco, and the Customs will let you pass a pound if you declare it. Money is best carried in the shape of bank-notes, which will be changed at any large or small town at the same rate as English gold. Fresh supplies of bank-notes can be sent out from one's banker in registered envelopes to a hotel, or to a Poste Restante, where a passport or C-T.C. ticket is required to prove one's identity. If one AND MEANS A Forest Rond near Pont-de-l' Arche takes a portmanteau, it is easy to carry a sufficient change of clothes, including some linen shirts and collars, and also that most precious boon, a folding india-rubber bath. It is most important to wear nothing but woollen clothes for cycling, 6 GISORS CHAP. and if one does this I do not think it is worth while carrying a mackintosh. There is no place in Normandy where one cannot wear a knickerbocker suit with an easy conscience. Gisors is for many reasons a good starting place for Norman travel. From Paris, it is the natural gateway into the province ; and the traveller from Dieppe will, I think, find it pleasanter to go straight through Rouen, and make his start right away in the country at Gisors ; he will probably be quite glad to reach Rouen later on, when he has spent some weeks in remoter places. However, many people will prefer to break the journey, at least for the night, at Rouen, and perhaps to take to the road afterwards. Those who wish to ride the whole way will find the highway from Dieppe to Rouen through Totes perfectly direct and rather dull, the only point of interest being the beautiful parlour of the inn on the high road at Totes. From Dieppe, the road goes through Boos, which has a pigeon- house finer even than that of the Manoir d'Ango (ch. 13), Fleury, Ecouis, and Etrapagny. Some people may care to lengthen the ride by going round to Pont-de-l'Arche, as the road from Rouen to this place is a great favourite for its beauty ; but really the banks of the Seine are beautiful every- where. Gisors was the key to Normandy in the days when French fought with English for the duchy. William Rufus foresaw the struggle and fortified the stronghold. Philippe Auguste, the royal warrior who added Normandy to the kingdom of France, did much fighting at Gisors, and when it came into his hands he built on to the castle a round tower like those at Falaise and Rouen. The place where the rivals used to discuss terms is now covered by the railway that runs through the outskirts of the town. It was called the Champ Sucre because of an incident that happened during the fever of the Third Crusade, when, on a wintry day of 11 88, our Henry H. embraced his foe under the great elm-tree that marked the spot. Henry and Philippe both received the cross from 1 PHILIPPE AUGUSTE 7 the Papal Legate ; as they did so, the sign appeared miracu- lously in the sky, and all the soldiers raised a great shout, '' Bieu k volt! La Croix ! La Croix I" But the reconciliation did not last a year, and the kings soon met again under the famous " Elm of Conferences." This time the weather was hot, and the English knights happened to be standing within the elm's shadow, while the French were exposed to the sun ; whence arose taunts and mockeries on the part of the English, and threats from the French that they would destroy the tree. Then Henry ordered bands of iron to be fixed round the trunk ; and when this was done the French grew more furious than ever. In the end they were victorious : Philippe ordered the iron-clad tree to be cut down, and only its memory re- mained in a name that was given to the holy field — Champ de r Ormeteau Ferre. Philippe, who carried through his policy of creating France with cold, unswerving enthusiasm from boyhood to death, took advantage of the treason of John and the imprisonment of Richard Cceur-de-Lion to secure Gisors ; and it was as a result of this encroachment that Richard built Chateau-Gaillard, whose history will be told in the next chapter. It was at this time that Philippe nearly lost his life at Gisors by an accident that is recalled in one of the modern painted windows of the church. He was retreating from the town by the Paris gate, when the wooden bridge gave way and threw him into the river. Weighted with armour and entangled with his horse, the king caught sight of an image of our Lady which stood over the gateway (for she is patroness of the town, and under her feet it was named to her for gift, Gisortium Virginis Donariu!?i), and he cried to her for succour. After- wards, in memory of his escape from the waters, he placed a golden robe upon the image, and caused the iron-gate beneath it to be gilded. Thenceforward the gate was called the Forte Dork, and the bridge, rebuilt then and often since, retains the name of Font Dore to this day. S THE CHURCH OF ST, GERVAIS chap, i A cure of Gisors in the time of Louis XIV. commemorated the escape in Latin verse, which begins : " Anglum debellans, aliquando Philippus in Eptam Cursu prsscipiti, ponte ruente cadit. Auratam Augustus pinxit sub Virgine portam " and so on. To-day an old statue of our Lady of Gisors in gilded bronze perpetuates the story; in 1856 this image was rescued from an obscure closet in the church tower and solemnly set up by the Archbishop of Rouen. There are two buildings of the first importance to be seen at Gisors. One is the castle, a splendid example of ancient mihtary architecture ; the other is the church which lays at our feet the history of the French Renaissance. As we go from the Trois Poissons inn along the Rue Fosse- aux-Tanneurs, we pass on our left a curious old sculptured house, whereon acrobats are mingled with sacred subjects : on our right is the river Epte, clear beneath the scum of soap which diligent washerwomen are spreading ; on the further side of it a trellis of vine protects a garden of purple phlox. The turning to the right, at the end of the pleasant street, brings us to the east end of the church of St. Gervais, and at once we see that it is like no other church. It is the chevet that is before us, bristling with jovial gargoyles, formidable with many buttresses ; but it is square in plan, and as we look at the eastern side (for it does not look like an east end) we might fancy it was part of an hotel-de-ville. It is, in fact, a late casing of chapels and rooms thrown up round a thirteenth- century choir that was built by the mother of St. Louis. Looking up, we can see the old tower of the same period, and a great nave built right up to its summit, with the evident intention of swallowing the modest tower whenever the new choir should be built. The latest gothic is trying to devour the earliest. We pass round to the west front, and here we are face to Gisors Castle. face with one of the most interesting monuments in France. It is strange at first sight, and perhaps a httle desolate and repellant ; but let us consider what it means. Gisors was the centre of a Renaissance school which had a lo THE RENAISSANCE AT GISORS chap. style of its own, quite different, as you can see, to that of Rouen, and different also to that of Caen, which you will be able, later on, to compare with it. A notable family of archi- tects lived at Gisors, the Grappin, whose influence was widely felt. Jumel had already begun the transformation of St. Gervais with the chevcf, which he completed between 1497 and 1503. Robert Grappin took on the work with the nave, which he built c. 1530. He was too bold; for it fell down ten years afterwards with an awful noise, and had to be rebuilt. After Robert came Jean Grappin the First, and then the second Jean. Thus in these three men we have the very last Gothic, the first stage of the Renaissance in the picturesque Frangois- Premier style, and its final development in Vitruvianism. The north tower belongs to the period of Frangois I. It is classical only in detail. In spirit it is Gothic, a Gothic broadened by the use of the new forms of ornament which so delighted the men of that time. We see here how the transition became possible to the architects who had just been "revelling in the picturesque freedom of the Flamboyant style : they evidently did not foresee that their new plaything would become so heavy- handed a master, crushing all their freedom with antiquarian rules. The north tower is full of fancy, full of charming caprice ; it has long belfry windows like any older tower, and some of the round oculi have pretty busts in them. On the upper story is an octagonal lantern, above it a little drum, and on the drum a tiny cupola. \Ye shall see the whole effect better when we walk up to the castle : even here we can realise how pretty it is, how original, how picturesque. But the south tower is by Jean Grappin the Second ; Frangois Premier's reign is near its end, and the Renaissance is passing into the influence of Vitruvius ; the long age of the formal and the correct has begun, an age that has lasted down to our own time. The tower, of ungainly and unprecedented breadth, is built up in orders : the first story is of the Doric order ; the second has the horned capitals of the Ionic, and the architect was t PALPABLE ORTHODOXY ii going to complete the tale when the Governor of Gisors inter- vened. " If this tower is built any higher," said he, " any one could mount cannon on its platform and bombard the castle.'' So the orders were unfolded no further. Yet the long hand of Vitruvius has not quite crushed the soul out of the last of the Grappin. He binds round the tower a great through-cut wreath of foliage, which is all his own. The central part of the facade is inferior to the south tower, which indeed is, in spite of its faults, infinitely superior to anything that could have been done in the golden age of Louis XIV. The curious vault over the carving of Jacob's dream does not attract me, nor does the heavy and meaningless arcade above it. This upper part was begun by Jean the Second in 1562. It was before the west porch that Henri IV. was required to give a further proof of his newly acquired orthodoxy, soon after he had decided that Paris was worth a Mass. The king entered Gisors, and presented himself before the church ; but the Cure, Pierre Neveu, was a noted pillar of the faith, and he remem- bered certain heretical doings of Henri during a former visit : so he shut the gates in the king's face. But Henri of Navarre was not the man to be put out by trifles : " Make me do," he said, "all that is necessary to please God and the people." " Kneel, Sire, and adore the Cross of our Lord," said the Cure ; and this the king did with much devotion. " Vive k roil" cried the people. The gates flew open, and Henri entered, saying with his indomitable gaiety, " Ventre saint-gris I So now I am King of Gisors ! " If you pass in through the central doorway and turn round to the right, you are inside the unfinished tower. It is a strangely shaped chapel, with a heavy, noticeable vault, and a high spiral staircase in the corner that is admirable in its way. Just outside this chapel is the famous Pilier des Marchands, a pleasant fantasy with its little figures of drapers, shoemakers, tanners, and other marchands, and its legend above the heads 12 INSIDE THE CHURCH chap. of the top series of figures, " Je — -fus — id — mis — Ian — 1526." Beyond it are two other strangely decked pillars : the further is covered with twisted panelling. On the upper part are dolphins most decoratively arranged, the " dauphin " having the same meaning to a Frenchman of that time as the Prince of Wales' feathers have to us. The nearer pillar has a very subtle twist in it, and is ornamented with a ring of pearls and a row of cockle-shells. And now let us take a general view of the nave, which, you will remember, was being rebuilt (after its fall) at the time when the architects of the west front had bidden good-bye to their Gothic mother. Its pier-arches are high and graceful, and the shafts on the piers have become mere mouldings ; it has very large clerestory windows, and is flanked by a double row of light aisles on either side. In front of us is the thirteenth- century choir : we turn round and face the classical organ gallery, far too ornate, but a successful essay in pomp for all that. We will pass up the southernmost aisle, noticing the charming bits of old glass in the windows, and come to the south transept gallery, a handsome bit of work, supported by a cornice boldly carved with naturalistic leaves. When we have taken in sufficiently the spirit of this very pleasant interior, we can go out by the north transept door, and look at the north porch, which marks the first appearance of the Grappin in the person of Robert (c. 1520). It is a riot of pretty ornament, and the angels who excitedly play upon musical instruments are the prettiest of all. The panels of the door are typical Frangois-Preniier work. You will notice that on one leaf is the Adoration of the Magi, and on the other the Annunciation : each figure stands separate in its panel, which gives a structural completeness to the whole and enhances the quaintness of the story-telling, especially where the dandy St. Gabriel addresses the stolid Madonna. I make bold to put this door consider- ably above the more celebrated ones at St. Maclou (ch. 11). For one thing it is a real door. GISORS CASTLE 13 From the east end of the church we will go across the High Street, and through the narrow passage between the houses on its further side, to the castle. It is important not to go into the castle any other way, for we are now to get our first idea of a feudal stronghold. At Rouen you will be able to see in the restoration of the Tour Jeanne-d'Arc one principle of early defence, the use of wooden hoards. At Chateau-Gaillard you may examine the system of defence in further detail. Here at Gisors you can get an excellent general idea of a splendid castle. We go up first through a small gate and winding stair- case into the barbican, or small outer court protecting the entrance. Now the principle of medieval defence was the opposite to that of modern times. With our present artillery, the be- siegers make a breach, and the fortress is taken. In medieval warfare, the defenders opposed to the attacking force a series of obstacles : each was a separate fortress, and when one had been taken the siege had to be begun again under renewed difliculties in a cramped space, where there was little room for the engines of attack. So here, having won your way into the barbican, you would still have the main entrance before you, and from the little recess above the doorway various unpleasant projectiles would be showered upon you. Inside is the chamber for working the portcullis. Away on the right is a formidable round tower, called now the Tour du Prisonnier. From its summit the mangonel, or some other engine, would emphasise the fact that the door is not always the best place by which to enter an enemy's castle. Nowadays we can pass through the little side gate that a complaisant municipality has left open for us. We stand in the outer court, a vast enclosure, capable of housing a considerable body of men. It is laid out as a public garden, &jardin anglais, and children play about among the luxuriant trees, while the peaceful inhabitants of Gisors circulate round a band-stand and listen to the martial strains they love. How far off seem the 14 MEDIEVAL WARFARE chap. days of war ! Yet those grey-haired men who are chatting ander the laburnum remember how, not thirty years ago, Gisors was the headquarters of a Prussian invading force. But you must pass out of the gate on the opposite side and look at the waUs : their height cannot be realised from within. It is only when you walk up the sides of the moat and notice that the trees which grow in it hardly overtop the battlements that you realise how formidable they are. Yet here would be a better place for the attack, if we were back in medieval times. We should throw countless faggots into the moat till it was filled at the point we had chosen : then we should run close up to the wall a great wooden tower, with ladders on the outside, and up these our soldiers would climb and throw themselves on the parapet of the wall ; but first we should have bombarded with stones from our great mangonel the wooden hoards on the wall, so that they could no longer shelter the defenders. Even now we might be driven back by the con- centrated arrows, darts, and stones from battlement and towers, or our tower might be burnt by the enemy. Then we should have to make a breach by the approved methods practised at Chateau-Gaillard (p. 29). Suppose that after days of patient sapping a part of the wall tumbles in and the breach is made. The defenders will have prepared for this by throwing up a wooden palisade behind the threatened bit of wall, like a patch on a bicycle tyre. So as we entered through the breach we should be met by a shower of arrows from behind the palisade. After some hand-to-hand fighting we might force this also, and become possessors of the great court, though our army would be smaller now than it was. But what avails it ? In the midst of the court rises a huge mound, an artificial hill. It is crowned by a buttressed wall of many sides which encloses the inner bailey. Its parapets would be manned by the enemy, and we should have to climb up the steep sides of the mound under a shower of molten lead to storm it. If we succeeded, we should only find it A TREASURE LEGEND IS empty, and our enemy comfortably lodged in the central and topmost tower of all, the donjon or keep. Possibly the enemy might have disappeared altogether by one of the underground passages that were so valuable in ancient warfare. Gisors has one called the Souterrmn de la reine Blanche which is said to communicate with Neaufles The Keep, Gisors. Castle which you can see some three miles away. No one has ever explored the recesses of this passage, for it is blocked up ; but everybody in the Vexin knows that it conceals somewhere a treasure that passes the dreams of avarice, — could one but reach the cavern where the fiends guard it ! Unfortunately, however, the natural difficulties connected with blocked passages and fiends are increased in this case by the fact that the demon in charge snatches a few moments of well-earned rest only once in the year. This is at Christmas, during the midnight Mass, at the time when the priest reads the long Genealogy, and many who are not demons feel the assaults of slumber. While the Genealogy is a-reading, says the local tradition, the demon sleeps, the subterranean flames die down, i6 A STRATEGIC QUEEN chap. and the diabolic protection is in great measure removed. That is time for the treasure-seeker : but at the completion of the Genealogy, the demon wakes up, and, if the explorer is still within the labyrinths of this under-world, he never sees the light again. The story goes that Queen Blanche of Castille, the mother of St. Louis, and builder of the choir of Gisors church, gave her name to the passage through a strange feat of war. She was besieged in Gisors, and one day, having made too rash a sortie, found herself cut off with her little force, and unable to make her way back to the town. Then, as the twilight gathered, she led her followers to the little hill where stood the dismantled castle of Neaufles. The night fell as the Queen's men disappeared into the ruin ; the enemy gathered round, and waited for the dawn which should make the Queen of France their prisoner. At the first rays of the sun they crept up to the old castle, but no arrows flew from the lichened loopholes, and the entrance gaped before them undefended. Within, all was open and all empty ; not a sound was heard but their own cries of vexation and the clattering of their own armour. The Queen and her men had vanished like the night. For Blanche had led her knights back to Gisors by the secret passage. And now, while her assailants were seeking for some explanation of the mystery within the castle of Neaufles, she marched out from Gisors with a larger force, and pounced upon her foes, whose confusion gave place to abject terror at the sight of this new marvel, so that they fled incon- tinently before the Queen. Such was medieval warfare. But in an age when the defence of a walled city is merely a vigorous protest against the inevit- able, we can see no terrors in these bulwarks. They are only picturesque in their garment of lilac and periwinkle ; and we will get the lady at the corps-de-garde to open the little wooden gate for us. As we enter the inner bailey, we see on the left I THE INNER BAILEY 17 the well without which the castle would have been soon reduced ; and near the well are two arches with a gargoyle of unusual shape between them. Its purpose was also unusual ; through it was poured the lead that had been melted on a fire in one of the arched recesses. On the right of the bailey are the remains of a Norman chapel, of interest to us because it was the chapel of St. Thomas, de Cantorbery whom we call Becket. We can creep up the side of the keep by the stair turret that gave admittance into its various stories, and from the top we shall have a magnificent view. The turret was a later convenience ; the keep itself was the creation of Robert of Bellesme — ingeniosus artifex, Orderic calls him — who built it c. 1097 for William Rufus. Our Henry I. added the bailey walls, and the tower and walls of the city beyond ; and Henry II. completed the work. For do not let us forget that we are standing on the frontier of what was once part of the English Kingdom. These walls were built to keep out the French, though they failed in the end. But we must follow our guide along the wall to the great round tower on the East and learn why it is called the Tour du Prisonnier. It is in excellent preservation and its shape is characteristic of the age of Philippe Auguste. We walk straight into a vaulted chamber, where there is a brick oven, then we can mount by a staircase in the thickness of the wall to the platform on the top, where we discover what a perilous height this tower is on the outside. Underneath the chamber by which we entered is another, and underneath this we reach with the aid of candles the cachot or dungeon, which is famous for its pathetic carvings, scratched out slowly with a nail on the three parts of the wall that receive some little light from the loopholes. They are excellently done ; for amateur art requires a whole-hearted attention, and this at least the prisoners could give. Many unfortunates must have lived in this cell, for the carvings are traced by more than one hand. But one name C i8 THE PRISONER OF GISORS chap. occurs, that of Nicolas Poulain, and he is the Prisoner from whom the tower takes its title and throws up its legends. As a matter of history, it seems that Poulain or Polham was a gentleman in the service of Mary of Burgundy. Taken prisoner at the Battle of Guinegate by Louis XI., he was to have been hanged with several others of his party on a conspicuous tree, but an order coming for his reprieve through the kind officers of the Duchess of Burgundy, he was brought to Gisors, where he lay for four years until Louis was dead. Old legend and modern novelists have delighted in the Prisoner of Gisors. His name was Poulain, that is the one fact which fiction accepts. He was a page of Queen Blanche of Evreux, whom he rescued from a fire ; the old King Philip of Valois found his wife with Poulain at her feet, and threw him into the prison at Gisors. Poulain escaped, was wounded by an arrow, and eventually died in the arms of his beloved. All this is told of him, and much else. By the Rue de Paris, on the way to Gisors-Ville station, there is a little stream called the Reveillon, concerning which there is a touching superstition that whoever drinks of its water must, however far he may wander, come back and end his life at Gisors. And so, when conscripts have been taken away from this quiet place to the bloody wars of which they knew so little, they would kneel down and drink the magic water, A longs traits Us buz