Chapter 11

After the union of the convent of St. Julien to the Magdalen, the superior of the hospital was in the habit of keeping a monk at the priory, as a superintendant over the religious duties of the occupants and temporal possessions of the foundation; and this state of things continued till 1600, when, upon the destruction of the abbey upon Mont Ste Catherine, the friars of the latter establishment obtained from the hospital the cession of the deserted monastery, and occupied it for sixty-seven years. They then also in their turn resigned it, and it fell into the hands of the Carthusians of Gaillon, who, uniting with their brethren of the same order at Rouen, formed a very opulent community, and resided here till the period when all monastic institutions ceased throughout France.

Architecturally considered, the chapel is a building of great interest.[78] A more pure, or more perfect specimen of the Norman æra, is perhaps no where to be found. Without spire or tower, and divided into three parts of unequal length and height, the nave, the choir, and the circular apsis, it resembles one of the meanest of our parish churches in England. In its design, it is externally quite regular, being divided throughout its whole length, into small compartments, by a row of shallow buttresses, which rise from the ground to the eaves of the roof, without any partition into splays. Those on the south side, (see _plate forty-two_) are all, except the most eastern, still in their primeval state; but a buttress of a subsequent, though not very recent, date, has been built up against almost every one of the original buttresses on the north side, by way of support to the edifice. Each division contains a single narrow circular-headed window; beneath which is a plain moulding, continued uninterruptedly over the buttresses as well as the wall. Another plain moulding runs nearly on a level with the tops of the windows, and takes the same circular form; but it is confined to the spaces between the buttresses. There are no others.--The entrance was by circular-headed doors, at the west end and south side, both of them very plain; but particularly the latter. The few ornaments of the western are as perfect and as sharp, as if the whole were the work of yesterday. This part of the church has, however, been exposed to considerable injury, owing to its having joined the conventual buildings.

The interior of the chapel, however degraded from its original purpose, continues, like the exterior, almost perfect; but it is much more rich, uniting to the common ornaments of Norman architecture capitals of great labor. The ceiling is covered with paintings of scriptural subjects, which still remain. This discrepance of style between the outside of the building and the inside, might lead to a suspicion that they had been erected at different times; but there really seems to be no sufficient ground for such an opinion. Those who attempt to decide upon the dates of Norman edifices, judging from the character of their ornaments, or the comparative profusion of their decorations, will do well to reflect, that almost every building contains in itself a medley of what is barbarous and classical, while no two can well vary more in the quantity of their ornaments, than the two abbatial churches of Caen; and yet they were both of them, beyond dispute, productions of the self-same æra.--It deserves remark likewise, that two theories of directly opposite tendency, both of them perhaps equally plausible, have been started upon this point. The partisans of one of these maintain, that the Normans, on their arrival in the more southern parts of Europe, found highly ornamented buildings, and, being themselves altogether ignorant of art, were content with copying what already existed; so that their progress in art was in a retrograde direction, from a classical style, to one comparatively barbarous. On the other hand, it is averred, that these reputed savages really imported with them the kind of architecture now generally known by their name; and, in proportion as they improved in wealth, luxury, and refinement, drew nearer and nearer to the Roman model, either by dint of their own observations, or by the importation of Italian artists. The balance of probability appears at the first glance to incline in favor of the latter of these opinions, as most consonant to the general march of human affairs. Perhaps, however, upon a more attentive consideration, the former may appear nearer to the truth: it is certain, that the style in architecture, which immediately succeeded what is commonly called Norman, is still farther removed from the Roman or the Greek; and it is equally certain, that the Norman itself has different characters in different parts of Europe. That of England varies to a certain degree from what is seen in Normandy: the latter still more so from the German, and the German from that of the south of France; while, in the north of Italy, and in Sicily, it is again found with features unlike those of other countries, and equally unlike those of each other. In all, the discrepancies most probably arise from the styles peculiar to the several nations, previously to the irruptions of the northern hordes. The subject is, at all events, deserving of investigation and reflection.

NOTES:

[73] Vol. V. p. 370.

[74] _Concilia Normannica_, II. p. 72.

[75] _Ibidem_, p. 239.

[76] _Ibidem_, p. 545.

[77] _Ibidem_, I. p. 175.

[78] The greater part of what follows is borrowed from _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 128.

PLATES XLIV.--XLVI.

CHURCH OF LÉRY.

It is not in the vicinity of Rouen, nor indeed in any portion of the district formerly known under the denomination of _Upper Normandy_, that the curious traveller must seek for the most interesting remains of early ecclesiastical architecture in the province. The village churches, throughout this portion of the duchy, are for the most part small and insignificant, and of comparatively modern erection; while, in the vicinity of Caen, and indeed in the whole of the departments of Calvados and of La Manche, a large proportion of them are unquestionably referable to the times of Norman dominion, and exhibit some of the purest specimens of real Norman art. The solution of this question must in all probability be sought for in the political state of the province; and no more obvious answer seems to present itself, than is afforded by a reference to the local character of its two great divisions, of which, Upper Normandy, consisting greatly of a border country, exposed to the continual ravages of warfare from its more powerful neighbor, with difficulty preserved such of its public buildings as were defended by the walls of the fortresses; and often gladly compounded for the secure existence of these, by the sacrifice of the harvest, the cottage, and the parochial church.

Yet, even here, some of the ecclesiastical buildings have escaped the hand of time and violence; and among these, few, if any, more completely than that of Léry, a village situated upon the right bank of the Eure, at a distance of about two miles from Pont de l'Arche, and nearly the same from Louviers.

Léry gives its name to the adjoining _commune_; and it may reasonably be inferred, that it was in former times a place of more importance, than would be imagined from its present appearance. The ingenious and estimable M. Langlois, of Rouen, in a work[79] which he commenced upon the antiquities of Normandy, and in which he has figured the west front of this church, tells us, that but a few years since, Léry could boast of several specimens of domestic architecture of unusual size and embellishment. Of one of these, an engraving has lately been given by M. Willemin, in his exquisite _Monumens Inédits de la France_. It was known by the name of the Palace of Queen Blanche; and if, by the Blanche in question, is to be understood the Princess of Navarre, consort of Philip VI. who died in 1350, there is nothing in the exterior of the building to prevent its being ascribed to that æra. It was entered by a flat door-way, under a wide, pointed, crocketed arch; the transom-stone enriched with a trefoil-headed moulding; and the whole portal surmounted with a balustrade of quatrefoils. But, unfortunately, nothing more can now be said of the building, than is supplied by the plate in question. It had, in its earlier time, repeatedly suffered from the effects of fire; and a similar calamity completed its ruin, during the month of June, 1814. The lower part of the walls and the gothic portal are all that are left standing, to attest the original size and magnificence of the palace.

The church of Léry is referred by M. Langlois to the æra of the Carlovingian dynasty, a period that extended from the middle of the seventh century, to the concluding years of the tenth. Its claim to so extraordinarily high a degree of antiquity, is founded, in his opinion, upon the resemblance borne by the columns and capitals of the west front, particularly those of the windows, to the same parts in the crypt of the abbey of St. Denis, generally supposed to be the joint work of Pepin and of Charlemagne. But these latter decidedly partake more of the character of the classical model,[80] while every member throughout the whole front of Léry, (_see plate forty-five_) may find a parallel in other Norman churches; or, if an exception is to be made to so sweeping an assertion, it can only be in favor of the second and largest moulding in the archivolt of the portal, which is very peculiar. The two lateral pointed windows are obviously an introduction of a subsequent period; and a doubt may likewise perhaps be entertained with regard to the buttresses. This front is small indeed, but elegant: it is more richly ornamented than that of the chapel in the castle at Caen;[81] and, though less so than that of the abbey church of St. Georges de Bocherville, yet can it scarcely be said to be inferior in beauty. A recent tourist[82] has remarked, with much apparent probability, that the churches of St. Georges and of Léry may, from the general conformity in the style of both, reasonably be regarded as of nearly the same æra,--the time of the Norman conquest; and he goes on to add that, through these, the English antiquary may be enabled to fix the date to a specimen of ancient architecture in his own country, more splendid than either,--the church of Castle-Rising,[83] in Norfolk, whose west front is so much on the same plan, that it can scarcely have been erected at a very different period.

The church of Léry (_see plate forty-four_) is built in the form of a cross, having in the centre a short square tower, to which has been attached, in modern times, a wretched wooden spire. This Mr. Cotman has very judiciously omitted, as adding nothing to the interest of the plate, and merely tending to deform what is otherwise seen in nearly the same state in which it left the hands of the original builders. The corbel-table, observable immediately under the top of the tower, and in some parts of the choir and transepts, exhibits the same description of monsters, as in the church of St. Paul at Rouen, of the Holy Trinity at Caen, and other Norman religious buildings.--Two peculiarities attending upon the exterior of the church are, that the east end is flat, and that the transepts are altogether without buttresses.

In the interior (_plate forty-six_) it is impossible not to be struck with the extraordinary simplicity and solidity of the whole. The only aim of the architect appears to have been to erect an edifice that should last for ever. A double row of pillars and arches separates the nave into three parts of unequal width; and another arch, of greater span, divides it from the chancel. The arches are in every instance devoid of mouldings; the capitals are altogether without ornamental sculpture of any description; and the pillars are even unsupported by bases. Indeed, the pillars are nothing more than rounded piers; and they are not less remarkable for their proportions, than for their simplicity, their diameter being equal to full two-thirds of their height. Hence it is scarcely possible not to entertain the suspicion that the floor may have been raised; but there is nothing in the appearance of the church to justify such an idea. It is scarcely necessary to mention, that the figures of saints placed upon brackets against the spandrils of the arches, are all modern. Their execution is wretched; and its imperfection is rendered but the more apparent, by their having been painted in imitation of living nature. The string-course, which runs immediately above their heads, is placed in a very uncommon situation. It is composed of the nail-head ornament, in itself a sufficient proof of its antiquity; and also, as is observed by Mr. Cotman, of such rarity in Normandy, that he does not recollect to have met with another instance of it.

The windows of the church of Léry were formerly filled with painted glass, representing very curious subjects, taken from the life of St. Louis; but every vestige of the kind has now disappeared. From the church-yard, which stands upon a considerable elevation, immediately above the banks of the Eure, are seen, upon an opposite hill beyond the river, the ruins of the once celebrated convent, known by the name of the _Priory of the Two Lovers_.

NOTES:

[79] _Recueil de quelques vues de sites et Monumens de la France, spécialement de Normandie, et des divers Costumes des Habitans de cette Province._--Of this work, the first number, containing eight plates, appeared in Rouen, in 1816; but, unfortunately, it did not meet with sufficient encouragement to be ever followed by a second.

[80] See _Howlett's Plan and Views of the Abbey Royal of St. Denis_, plate 6.

[81] See plate 48.

[82] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 188.

[83] _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk_, plate 35.

PLATE XLVII.

CHURCH OF COLOMBY.

The church of Colomby, to use the language of M. de Gerville, is one of the last of the religious edifices built by those powerful barons, whose sway extended equally over Normandy and England. No records, indeed, are left either as to the actual time of its erection, or the name of its founder. With respect, however, to the former, the style of the architecture is sufficiently decisive; and there is as little cause for hesitation in referring its origin to a nobleman allied to the family of the Conqueror.

Baldwin de Brionis, or de Molis, who accompanied that monarch in his expedition against England, and was afterwards married to his niece, was rewarded by him for his services, with the barony of Okehampton, where he resided, as well as with the custody of the county of Devon, and the government of Exeter castle, in fee. The earldom of the same county, together with a grant of the Isle of Wight, was conferred by Henry I. upon the son of Baldwin, Richard de Redvers; and, either in the same or the following generation, this powerful family obtained a still farther accession to its riches and honors, in the possession of Néhou, a considerable portion of the barony of St. Sauveur le Vicomte, which Néel, Viscount of the Cotentin, had forfeited in 1047. The domain of Néhou included a collegiate church; and one of the prebends of this was attached to the second portion of the church of Colomby.

It appears from three inquiries instituted at different times by the bishops of Coutances, with a view to ascertain the value of the livings in their diocese, that, in the years 1255, 1666, and 1737, Colomby was under two separate ministers; one of them nominated by the lord, the other by the abbey of Montbourg.[84]

Almost all the noblemen of the family of Redvers, who, after the conquest of England, commonly assumed the additional name of Vernon, were distinguished by the baptismal appellation of Baldwin, William, or Richard. The first of the Richards laid the foundation of the monastery of Montbourg. He died there in 1107, after having enriched his rising convent with numerous donations, and, among others, with the second portion of Colomby. Baldwin, his son and successor, confirmed the donations: he took arms against King Stephen, and was forced by that monarch to flee from England in 1136; shortly after which time he completed the abbey begun by his father, and caused it to be dedicated in 1152: three years subsequently, he died. A second Richard, who succeeded him in his honors, as Earl of Devonshire and Lord of Néhou, died in 1162; and a third of the same name, in 1184. This last, not content with merely confirming the donations made by his ancestors to Montbourg, materially increased them: he also added to the collegiate church of Néhou, a fifth prebend, which he conferred upon one of the ministers of Colomby; and it was by him, according to the opinion of M. de Gerville, that the church, the subject of the present article, was built.

A few years only elapsed after the decease of this chieftain, before Normandy became re-united to the crown of France; and one of the first acts of Philip-Augustus, who then sat upon the throne, was to register the fiefs of his new province, their several possessors, and the service owed by each. This took place in the year 1207; and Néhou, which was bound to furnish the monarch with five horse-soldiers, was at that time in the possession of Richard of Vernon, a nobleman of whom no notice is to be found in the genealogy of the lords of the Isle of Wight. The register records the fact in the following terms:--"Ric. de Vernon tenet baroniam de Neahou per servicium quimque militum. Guillelmus de Vernon tenet inde duo feoda et dimidium."--

The church of Colomby is in perfect preservation, unspoiled and undefaced by modern alterations or additions, saving only that of a porch at the western extremity. For simplicity and uniformity it cannot be surpassed; nor can any building be better qualified to afford a specimen of the religious architecture of the times. Though destitute both of transept and aisles, the tower is central: the east end terminates in a flat wall. The columns within are clustered and light; formed of stone, which unites, in an eminent degree, the advantage of great strength with that of yielding easily to the chisel, and which is dug from the quarries of Yvetot, near Valognes. The same quarries also furnished the principal part of the stone employed in the construction of the cathedral of Coutances. The plate exhibits at C. the elevation of the south side of the church; to which have been added, for the more complete understanding of the subject,

A. _The west front._ B. _East end._ D. _South door-way to the chancel._ E. _A single window._

NOTES:

[84] The words used upon this subject in the Inquisition of 1255, made by Jean d'Essey, then bishop of Coutances, are as follows:--"Eccliæ de Colombeo patronus Abbas Montisburgi pro medietate et percipit duas garbas de portione sua. Rector percipit terciam cum altalagio. Gulielmus de Rivers patronus pro alia medietate. Rector percipit omnia."--The two following inquisitions state in express terms, that the first portion was under the patronage of the lord.

PLATE XLVIII.

CHAPEL IN THE CASTLE AT CAEN.

The Castle at Caen was built by William the Conqueror, whose son, Henry I. though commonly reputed its founder, in reality confined himself to raising the walls and adding the keep, which latter was levelled with the ground, by virtue of a decree of the National Convention, dated 6th August, 1793. By the same decree, it was still farther enacted, that the castle itself should be demolished; but the wisdom of the representatives of the sovereign people failed in this, as in many other instances, by not duly appreciating the difficulties attendant upon the execution of their edict: these proved to be so great, that the workmen were compelled to desist, when comparatively but little progress had been made in the work of destruction.

It is expressly stated in the _Norman Chronicle_, that a castle, though of smaller size, previously existed upon the same spot. In opposition, however, to this assertion, we are told by Robert Wace, that at the time when Henry I. of France, in his expedition against the Conqueror, in 1054, advanced with his army as far as the banks of the Seville, he traversed the town of Caen without resistance: "it being _sans chastel_, and the Duke not having yet surrounded it with walls." But may not this apparent contradiction be reconciled, by admitting that the words of the historian are only to be taken in a comparative sense? It is possible, that Wace intended to convey no farther meaning than that the town was not then fortified, as in his time; and such a supposition would cause every difficulty to vanish.

The Castle, as early as the eleventh century, was placed under the superintendance of a constable; and the office was, in 1106, made hereditary in the family of Robert Fitz-Hamon, Lord of Creuly, by whom, and his heirs, it continued to be held till the closing year of the same century. Under the reign of the last of the Norman Dukes, the keep had a governor of its own, distinct from that of the castle; and he was dignified with the title of _Constable of the Tower of Caen_; but, upon the reduction of the province by Philip-Augustus, Caen itself, together with the castle and its dungeon, was all committed to the charge of a single officer, denominated the _Captain_. Such also appears to have continued the case, except during the reign of Louis XI. when one Raymond d'Argeau is recorded to have been the _Garde particulier du Donjon_. The timid policy of a suspicious prince might naturally suggest the idea of greater safety, in not allowing the power over so important a fortress to be vested in any single hand.

The Castle at Caen was the place on which the different lordships, attached to the dignity of Viscount of Caen, directly or indirectly, depended. Almost all of them were held upon the condition of some annual contribution, consisting either of arrows, or quivers, or bows, or swords, or cuirasses, or other description of ancient armor. In time of war, the vassals of these different lords were likewise bound to mount guard at the castle; but most of the parishes purchased an exemption from this service, by means of a pecuniary payment. Thus it is upon record that, in the year 1383, the parish of Méry compounded for fifty-six livres annually, and that of Cléville for thirty-two livres ten sols. By the tenure of others among the dependencies of the bailiwick, it was stipulated, according to M. de Bourgueville, that they should supply the castle with provisions, in the event of war.