A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany Volume I Part 4

Next to the Abbey of St. Ouen, "go by all means and see the church _St.

Maclou_"--say your friends and your guides. The Abbe Turquier accompanied me thither. The great beauties of St. Maclou are its tower and its porch.

Of the tower, little more than the lantern remains. This is about 160 English feet in height. Above it was a belfry or steeple, another 110 feet in height, constructed of wood and lead--but which has been nearly destroyed for the sake of the lead,--for the purpose of slaughter or resistance during the late revolution.[57] The exteriors of the porches are remarkable for their elaborate ornaments; especially those in the _Rue Martainville._ They are highly praised by the inhabitants, and are supposed to be after the models of the famous Goujon. Perhaps they are rather enc.u.mbered with ornament, and want that quiet effect, and pure good taste, which we see in the porches of the Cathedral and of the Abbey St. Ouen.

However, let critics determine as they will upon this point--they must at least unite in reprobating the barbarous edict which doomed these delicate pieces of sculptured art to be deluged with an over-whelming tint of staring yellow ochre!

Of the remaining churches, I shall mention only four: two of them chiefly remarkable for their interior, and two for their extreme antiquity. Of the two former, that of _St. Vincent_ presents you with a n.o.ble organ, with a light choir profusely gilded, and (rarer accompaniment!) in very excellent taste. But the stained gla.s.s is the chief magnet of attraction. It is rich, varied, and vivid to a degree; and, upon the whole, is the finest specimen of this species of art in the present ecclesiastical remains of the city.

_St. Vivien_ is the second of these two former. It is a fine open church, with a large organ, having a very curious wooden screen in front, elaborately carved, and, as I conceive, of the very earliest part of the sixteenth century. I ascended the organ-loft; and the door happening to be open, I examined this screen (which has luckily escaped the yellow-ochre edict) very minutely, and was much gratified by the examination. Such pieces of art, so situated, are of rare occurrence. For the first time, within a parish church, I stepped upon the pavement of the choir: walked gently forwards, to the echo of my own footsteps, (for not a creature was in the church) and, "with no unhallowed hand" I would hope, ventured to open the choral or service book, resting upon its stand. It was wide, thick, and ponderous: upon vellum: beautifully written and well executed in every respect, with the exception of the illuminations which were extremely indifferent. I ought to tell you that the doors of the churches, abroad, are open at all times of the day: the ancient or more ma.s.sive door, or portal, is secured from shutting; but a temporary, small, shabby wooden door, covered with dirty green baize, opening and shutting upon circular hinges, just covers the vacuum left by the absence of the larger one.

Of the two ancient churches, above alluded to, that of _St. Gervais_, is situated considerably to the north of where the _Boulevards Cauchoise_ and _Bouvreuil_ meet. It was hard by this favourite spot, say the Norman historians, that the ancient Dukes of Normandy built their country-houses: considering it as a _lieu de plaisance._ Here too it was that the Conqueror came to breathe his last--desiring to be conveyed thither, from his palace in the city, for the benefit of the pure air.[58] I walked with M. Le Prevost to this curious church: having before twice seen it. But the _Crypt_ is the only thing worth talking about, on the score of antiquity.

The same accomplished guide bade me remark the extraordinary formation of the capitals of the pillars: which, admitting some perversity of taste in a rude, Norman, imitative artist, are decidedly of Roman character.

"Perhaps," said M. Le Prevost, "the last efforts of Roman art previous to the relinquishment of the Romans." Among these capitals there is one of the perfect Doric order; while in another you discover the remains of two Roman eagles. The columns are all of the same height; and totally unlike every thing of the kind which I have seen or heard of.

We descended the hill upon which _St. Gervais_ is built, and walked onward towards _St. Paul_, situated at the further and opposite end of the town, upon a gentle eminence, just above the Banks of the Seine.[59] M. Le Prevost was still our conductor. This small edifice is certainly of remote antiquity, but I suspect it to be completely Norman. The eastern end is full of antiquarian curiosities. We observed something like a Roman mask as the centre ornament upon the capital of one of the circular figures; and Mr. Lewis made a few slight drawings of one of the grotesque heads in the exterior, of which the hair is of an uncommon fashion. The _Saxon whiskers_ are discoverable upon several of these faces. Upon the whole, it is possible that parts of this church may have been built at the latter end of the tenth century, after the Normans had made themselves completely masters of this part of the kingdom; yet it is more probable that there is no vestige left which claims a more ancient date than that of the end of the eleventh century. I ought just to notice the church of _St. Sever_,[60]

supposed by some to be yet more ancient: but I had no opportunity of taking a particular survey of it.

Thus much, or rather thus little, respecting the ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES of Rouen. They merit indeed a volume of themselves. This city could once boast of upwards of _thirty parish churches_; of which very nearly a _dozen_ have been recently (I mean during the Revolution) converted into _warehouses_. It forms a curious, and yet melancholy melange--this strange misappropriation of what was formerly held most sacred, to the common and lowest purposes of civil life! You enter these warehouses, or offices of business, and see the broken shaft, the battered capital, and half-demolished altar-piece--the gilded or the painted frieze--in the midst of bales of goods--casks, ropes, and bags of cotton: while, without, the same spirit of demolition prevails in the fractured column, and tottering arch way. Thus time brings its changes and decays--premature as well as natural: and the noise of the car-men and injunctions of the clerk are now heard, where formerly there reigned a general silence, interrupted only by the matin or evening chaunt! I deplored this sort of sacrilegious adaptation, to a respectable-looking old gentleman, sitting out of doors upon a chair, and smoking his pipe--"c'est dommage, Monsieur, qu'on a converti l'eglise a"--He stopped me: raised his left hand: then took away his pipe with his right; gave a gentle whiff, and shrugging up his shoulders, half archly and half drily exclaimed--"Mais que voulez vous, Monsieur?--ce sont des evenemens qu'on ne peut ni prevoir ni prevenir.

Voila ce que c'est!" Leaving you to moralize upon this comfortable morceau of philosophy, consider me ever, &c.

[36] A most ample and correct view of this west front will be found in Mr.

_Cotman's Norman Antiquities_.

[37] It is about 180 English feet in width, by about 150 in the highest part of its elevation. The plates which I saw at Mr. Frere's, bookseller, upon the Quai de Paris, from the drawings of Langlois, were very inadequate representations of the building.

[38] The ravages committed by the Calvinists throughout nearly the whole of the towns in Normandy, and especially in the cathedrals, towards the year 1560, afford a melancholy proof of the effects of RELIGIOUS ANIMOSITY. But the Calvinists were bitter and ferocious persecutors.

Pommeraye, in his quarto volume, _Histoire de l'Eglise Cathedrale de Rouen_, 1686, has devoted nearly one hundred pages to an account of Calvinistic depredations.

[39] [Mr. Cotman has a plate of the elevation of the front of this south transept; and a very minute and brilliant one will be found in the previous edition of this Tour--by Mr. Henry le Keux: for which that distinguished Artist received the sum of 100 guineas. The remuneration was well merited.]

[40] [Mons. Licquet says each cl.u.s.tered pillar contains thirty-one columns.]

[41] This chapel is about ninety-five English feet in length, by thirty in width, and sixty in heighth. The sprawling painting by Philippe de Champagne, at the end of it, has no other merit than that of covering so many square feet of wall. The architecture of this chapel is of the XIVth century: the stained gla.s.s windows are of the latter end of the XVth. On completing the circuit of the cathedral, one is surprised to count not fewer than _twenty-five_ chapels.

[42] [Mons. Licquet is paraphrastically warm in his version, here. He renders it thus: "les atteintes effroyables du vandalisme revolutionaire," vol. i. p. 64.]

[43] Sandford, after telling us that he thinks there "never was any portraiture" of the Duke, thus sums up his character. "He was justly accounted one of the best generals that ever blossomed out of the royal stem of PLANTAGENET. His valour was not more terrible to his enemies than his memory honourable; for (doubtful whether with more glory to him, or to the speaker) King Lewis the Eleventh being counselled by certain envious persons to deface his tomb (wherein with him, saith one, was buried all English men's good fortune in France) used these indeed princely words: 'What honour shall it be to 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 your progenitors, with all their puissance, were once able to make flie a foot backwarde? who, by his strength, policy and wit kept them all out of the princ.i.p.al dominions of France, and out of this n.o.ble duchy of Normandy? Wherefore, I say first, G.o.d SAVE HIS SOUL; and let his body now lie in rest, which when he was alive, would have disquieted the proudest of us all. And for THIS TOMB, I a.s.sure you it is not so worthy or convenient as his honour and acts have deserved.'" p. 314-5, Ed. 1707[A] The famous MISSAL, once in the possession of this celebrated n.o.bleman, and containing the only authenticated portrait of him (which is engraved in the _Bibliog. Decameron_, vol. i. p.

cx.x.xvii.) is now the property of John Milner, Esq. of York Place, Portman Square, who purchased it of the Duke of Marlborough. The Duke had purchased it at the sale of the library of the late James Edwards, Esq. for 687l. 15s.

[A] [Upon this, Mons. Licquet, with supposed shrewdness and success, remarks,--"All very well: but we must not forget that the innocent Joan of Arc was burnt alive--thanks to this said Duke of Bedford, as every one knows!"]

[44] [A different tale may be told of ONE of his Successors in the same Anglo-Norman pursuit. The expenses attending the graphic embellishments alone of the previous edition of this work, somewhat exceeded the sum of _four thousand seven hundred pounds._ The risk was entirely my own. The result was the loss of about 200l.: exclusively of the expences incurred in travelling about 2000 miles. The _copper-plates_ (notwithstanding every temptation, and many entreaties, to _multiply_ impressions of several of the subjects engraved) were DESTROYED. There may be something more than a mere negative consolation, in finding that the work is RISING in price, although its author has long ceased to partake of any benefit resulting from it.]

[45] A plate of this Monument is published in the Tour of Normandy by Dawson Turner, Esq.

[46] The Cardinal died in his fiftieth year only; and his funeral was graced and honoured by the presence of his royal master. Guicciardini calls him "the oracle and right arm of Louis." Of eight brothers, whom he left behind, four attained to the episcopal rank. His nephew succeeded him as Archbishop. See also _Historia Genealogica Magnatum Franciae_; vol. vii. p. 129; quoted in the _Gallia Christiana_, vol.

xi. col. 96.

It was during the archiepiscopacy of the successor of the nephew of Amboise--namely, that of CHARLES of BOURBON--that the _Calvanistic persecution_ commenced. "Tunc vero coepit civitas, dioecesis, universaque provincia lamentabilem in modum conflictari, saevientibus ob religionis dissidia plusquam civilibus bellis," &c. But then the good Archbishop, however bountiful he might have been towards the poor at _Roncesvalles_, (when he escorted Philip II.'s first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II. to the confines of Spain, after he had married her to that wretched monarch) should not have inflamed the irritated minds of the Calvinists, by BURNING ALIVE, in 1559, _John Cottin_, one of their most eminent preachers, by way of striking terror into the rest! Well might the Chronicler observe, as the result, "novas secta illa in dies acquirebat vires." About 1560-2, the Calvinists got the upper hand; and repaid the Catholics with a vengeance. Charles of Bourbon died in 1590: so that he had an arduous and agitated time of it.

[47] How long will this monument--(matchless of its kind)--continue unrepresented by the BURIN? If Mr. Henry Le Keux were to execute it in his best style, the world might witness in it a piece of Art entirely perfect of its kind. But let the pencils of Messrs. Corbould and Blore be first exercised on the subject. In the mean while, why is GALLIC ART inert?

[48] The choir was formerly separated from the surrounding chapels, or rather from the s.p.a.ce between it and the chapels, by a superb bra.s.s grating, full of the most beautiful arabesque ornaments--another testimony of the magnificent spirit of the Cardinal and Prime Minister of Louis XII.: whose arms, as well as the figure of his patron, St.

George, were seen in the centre of every compartment ... The Revolution has not left a vestige behind!

[49] [In this edition, I put the above pa.s.sage in _Italics_,--to mark, that, within three years of writing it, the spire was consumed by LIGHTNING. The newspapers of both France and England were full of this melancholy event; and in the year 1823, Monsieur Hyacinthe Langlois, of Rouen, published an account of it, together with some views (indifferently lithographised) of the progress of the burning.

"It should seem (says Mons. Licquet) that the author had a presentiment of what was speedily to take place:--for the rest, the same species of destruction threatens all similar edifices, for the want of conductors." I possess a fragment of the lead of the roof, as it was collected after a state of _fusion_--and sent over to me by some friend at Rouen. The fusion has caused portions of the lead to a.s.sume a variety of fantastic shapes--not _altogether_ unlike a gothic building.]

[50] Let me add that the whole length of the cathedral is about four hundred and forty feet; and the transept about one hundred and seventy-five; English measure. The height of the nave is about ninety, and of the lantern one hundred and sixty-eight feet, English. The length of the nave is two hundred and twenty-eight feet.

[51] He died in 1531. Both the ancient and yet existing inscriptions are inserted by Gilbert, from Pommeraye and Farin; and formerly there was seen, in the middle of the monument, the figure of the Seneschal habited as a Count, with all the insignia of his dignity. But this did not outlive the Revolution.

[52] It must be admitted that Diana, when she caused the verses

_Indivulsa tibi quondam et fidissima conjux Vt fuit in thalamo, sic erit in tumulo_.

to be engraved upon the tomb of the Seneschal, might well have "moved the bile" of the pious Benedictine Pommeraye, and have excited the taunting of Ducarel, when they thought upon her subsequent connexion, in the character of mistress, with Henry the Second of France. Henry however endeavoured to compensate for his indiscretions by the pomp and splendor of his processions. Rouen, so celebrated of old for the entries of Kings and n.o.bles, seems to have been in a perfect blaze of splendor upon that of the Lover of Diana--"qui fut plus magnifique que toutes celles qu'on avoit vu jusqu'alors:" see _Farin's Hist. de la Ville de Rouen_, vol. i. p. 121, where there is a singularly minute and gay account of all the orders and degrees of citizens--(with their gorgeous accoutrements of white plumes, velvet hats, rich brocades, and curiously wrought taffetas) of whom the processions were composed.

It must have been a perfectly dramatic sight, upon the largest possible scale. It was from respect to the character or the memory of DIANA, that so many plaster-representations of her were erected on the exteriors of buildings: especially of those within small squares or quadrangles. In wandering about Rouen, I stumbled upon several old mansions of this kind.

[53] The inscription is this:

_Si quem sancta tenet meditandi in lege voluntas, Hic poterit residens, sacris intendere libris_.

Pommeraye has rather an interesting gossiping chapter [Chap. xxii.]

"De la Bibliotheque de la Cathedrale;" p. 163: to which FRANcOIS DE HARLAY, about the year 1630, was one of the most munificent benefactors.

[54] _Christian interment_.]--"Les Religieux de Saint Ouen touchez de compa.s.sion envers ce malheureux artisan, obtinrent son corps de la justice, et pour reconnoissance des bons services qu'il leur avoit rendus dans la construction de leur eglise, non.o.bstant sa fin tragique, ne laisserent pas de luy fair l'honneur de l'inhumer dans la chapelle de sainte Agnes, ou sa tombe se voit encore auec cet Epitaphe:

_Cy gist_ M. ALEXANDRE DE BERNEUAL, _Maistre des oeuvres de Ma.s.sonnerie._

[55] Even Dr. Ducarel became warm--on contemplating this porch! "The porch at the south entrance into the church (says he) is much more worthy of the spectator's attention, being highly enriched with architectonic ornaments; particularly two beautiful cul de lamps, which from the combination of a variety of spiral dressings, as they hang down from the vaulted roof, produce a very pleasing effect." p. 28.

[56] Consult the account given by M. Le Prevost in the "_Precis a.n.a.lytique des Travaux de l'Academie, &c. de Rouen_," for the year 1816, p. 151, &c.

[57] Farin tells us that you could go from the top of the lantern to the cross, or to the summit of the belfry, "outside, without a ladder; so admirable was the workmanship." "Strangers (adds he) took models of it for the purpose of getting them engraved, and they were sold publicly at Rome." _Hist. de la Ville de Rouen_, 1738, 4to. vol. ii. p. 154.

There are thirteen chapels within this church; of which however the building cannot be traced lower than quite the beginning of the XVIth century. The extreme length and width of the interior is about 155 by 82 feet English. Even in Du Four's time the population of this parish was very great, and its cemetery (adds he) was the first and most regular in Rouen. He gives a brief, but glowing description of it--"on va tout autour par des galeries couvertes et pavees; et, deux de ces galeries sont decorees de deux autels," &c. p. 150.

Alas! time--or the revolution--has annihilated all this. Let me however add that M. COTMAN has published a view of the _staircase_ in the church of which I am speaking.

[58] Ordericus Vitalis says, that the dying monarch requested to be conveyed thither, to avoid the noise and bustle of a populous town.

Rouen is described to be, in _his_ time, "populosa civitas."

Consult d.u.c.h.esne's _Historiae Normannor. Scrip. Antiq._ p.656.

[59] A view of it is published by M. Cotman.

[60] _St. Sever_. This church is situated in the southern fauxbourgs, by the side of the Seine, and was once surrounded by gardens, &c. As you cross the bridge of boats, and go to the race-ground, you leave it to the right; but it is not so old as _St. Paul_--where, Farin says, the worship of ADONIS was once performed!

LETTER VI.