ACCOUNT OF A TOUR IN NORMANDY Volume I
by Dawson Turner
LETTERS FROM NORMANDY
ADDRESSED
TO THE REV. JAMES LAYTON, B.A.
OF
CATFIELD, NORFOLK.
UNDERTAKEN CHIEFLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATING THE ARCHITECTURAL
ANTIQUITIES OF THE DUCHY, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS HISTORY, ON THE
COUNTRY, AND ON ITS INHABITANTS.
ILLUSTRATED
WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
VOL. I.
LONDON: 1820.
PREFACE.
The observations which form the basis of the following letters, were
collected during three successive tours in Normandy, in the summers of
1815, 1818, and 1819; but chiefly in the second of these years. Where I
have not depended upon my own remarks, I have endeavored, as far as
appeared practicable and without tedious minuteness, to quote my
authorities for facts; and I believe that I have done so in most
instances, except indeed where I have borrowed from the journals of the
companions of my tours,--the nearest and dearest of my connections,--or
from that of my friend, Mr. Cohen, who, at almost the same time,
travelled through a great part of Normandy, pursuing also very similar
objects of inquiry. The materials obtained from these sources, it has
been impossible to separate from my own; and, interwoven as they are
with the rest of the text, it is only in my power to acknowledge, in
these general terms, the assistance which I have thus received.--We were
proceeding in 1818, to the southern and western districts of Normandy,
when a domestic calamity compelled me to return to England. The tour was
consequently abridged, and many places of note remained unvisited by us.
My narrative is principally addressed to those readers who find pleasure
in the investigation of architectural antiquity. Without the slightest
pretensions to the character either of an architect or of an
antiquarian, engaged in other avocations and employed in other studies,
I am but too conscious of my inability to do justice to the subject. Yet
my remarks may at least assist the future traveller, by pointing out
such objects as are interesting, either on account of their antiquity or
their architectural worth. This information is not to be obtained from
the French, who have habitually neglected the investigation of their
national monuments. I doubt, however, whether I should have ventured
upon publication, if those who have always accompanied me both at home
and abroad, had not produced the illustrations which constitute the
principal value of my volumes. Of the merits of these illustrations I
must not be allowed to speak; but it may be permitted me to observe,
that the fine arts afford the only mode of exerting the talents of
woman, which does not violate the spirit of the precept which the
greatest historian of antiquity has ascribed to the greatest of her
heroes--
[English. Greek in Original] "Great will be your glory in not falling
short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least
talked of among the men whether for good or for bad." Thucydides'
Historiae. (Book 2, Chapter 45, Paragraph 2, Verses 3-5.)
DAWSON TURNER.
YARMOUTH, _13th August_1820.
CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
Arrival at Dieppe--Situation and Appearance of the Town--Costume of the
People--Inhabitants of the Suburb of Pollet.
LETTER II.
Dieppe--Castle--Churches--History of the Place--Feast of the Assumption.
LETTER III. Cæsars Camp--Castle of Arques.
LETTER IV.
Journey from Dieppe to Rouen--Priory of Longueville--Rouen-Bridge of
Boats--Costume of the Inhabitants.
LETTER V.
Journey to Havre--Pays de Caux--St. Vallery--Fécamp--The precious
Blood--The Abbey--Tombs in it--Moutivilliers--Harfleur.
LETTER VI.
Havre--Trade and History of the Town--Eminent Men--Bolbec--Yvetot--Ride
to Rouen--French Beggars.
LETTER VII.
On the State of Affairs in France.
LETTER VIII.
Military Antiquities--Le Vieux Château--Original Palace of the Norman
Dukes--Halles of Rouen--Miracle and Privilege of St. Romain--Château du
Vieux Palais--Petit Château--Fort on Mont Ste. Catherine--Priory
there--Chapel of St. Michael--Devotee.
LETTER IX.
Ancient Ecclesiastical Architecture--Churches of St. Paul and St.
Gervais--Hospital of St. Julien--Churches of Léry, Pavilly, and
Yainville.
LETTER X.
Early Pointed Architecture--Cathedral--Episcopal Palace.
LETTER XI.
Pointed Ecclesiastical Architecture--Churches of St. Ouen, St. Maclou,
St. Patrice, and St. Godard.
LETTER XII.
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.
LETTER XIII.
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 Brezé, 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.
LETTER I.
ARRIVAL AT DIEPPE--SITUATION AND APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN--COSTUME OF THE
PEOPLE--INHABITANTS OF THE SUBURB OF POLLET.
(_Dieppe, June_, 1818)
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 Fécamp; and they present
an unbroken barrier, of a dazzling white[1], 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.
Dieppe is situated on a low tongue of land, but from the sea appears to
great advantage; characterized as it is by its old castle, an assemblage
of various forms and ages, placed insulated upon an eminence to the west,
and by the domes and towers of its churches. The mouth of the harbor is
narrow, and inclosed by two long stone piers, on one of which stands an
elegant crucifix, raised by the fathers of the mission; to the other has
lately been affixed a stone, with an inscription, stating that the
Duchess d'Angoulême landed there on her return to her native country;
but here is no measure of her foot, no votive pillar, as are to be seen
at Calais, to commemorate a similar honor done to the inhabitants by the
monarch. A small house on the western pier, is, however, more deserving
of notice than either the inscription or the crucifix: it was built by
Louis XVIth, for the residence of a sailor, who, by saving the lives of
shipwrecked mariners, had deserved well of his sovereign and his
country. Its front bears, "A J'n. A'r. Bouzard, pour ses services
maritimes;" but there was originally a second inscription in honor of
the king, which has been carefully erased. The fury of the revolution
could pardon nothing that bore the least relation to royalty; or surely
a monument like this, the reward of courage and calculated to inspire
only the best of feelings[2], might have been allowed to have remained
uninjured. The French are wiser than we are in erecting these public
memorials for public virtues: they better understand the art of
producing an effect, and they know that such gratifications bestowed
upon the living are seldom thrown away. We rarely give them but to the
dead. Capt. Manby, to whom above one hundred and thirty shipwrecked
mariners are even now indebted for their existence, and whose invention
will probably be the means of preservation to thousands, is allowed to
live in comparative obscurity; while in France, a mere pilot, for
having saved the lives of only eight individuals, had a residence built
for him at the public expence, received an immediate gratification of
one thousand francs, enjoyed a pension during his life, and, with his
name and his exploits, now occupies a conspicuous place in the history
of the duchy.
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.
Gâteville. 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.
To a painter Dieppe must be a source of great delight: the situation,
the buildings, the people offer an endless variety; but nothing is more
remarkable than the costume of the females of the middle and lower
classes, most of whom wear high pyramidal caps, with long lappets
entirely concealing their hair, red, blue, or black corsets, large
wooden shoes, black stockings, and full scarlet petticoats of the
coarsest woollen, pockets of some different die attached to the outside,
and not uncommonly the appendage of a key or corkscrew: occasionally too
the color of their costume is still farther diversified by a chequered
handkerchief and white apron. The young are generally pretty; the old,
tanned and ugly; and the transition from youth to age seems
instantaneous: labor and poverty have destroyed every intermediate
gradation; but, whether young or old, they have all the same
good-humored look, and appear generally industrious, though almost
incessantly talking. Even on Sundays or feast-days, bonnets are seldom
to be seen, but round their necks are suspended large silver or gilt
ornaments, usually crosses, while long gold ear-rings drop from either
side of their head, and their shoes frequently glitter with paste
buckles of an enormous size. Such is the present costume of the females
at Dieppe, and throughout the whole Pays de Caux; and in this
description, the lover of antiquarian research will easily trace a
resemblance to the attire of the women of England, in the XVth and XVIth
centuries. As to the cap, which the Cauchoise wears when she appears _en
grand costume_, its very prototype is to be found in _Strutt's Ancient
Dresses_. Decorated with silver before, and with lace streaming behind,
it towers on the head of the stiff-necked complacent wearer, whose locks
appear beneath, arrayed with statuary precision. Nor is its antiquity
solely confined to its form and fashion; for, descending from the great
grandmother to the great grand-daughter, it remains as an heir-loom in
the family from generation unto generation. In my former visit to
Normandy, three years ago, we first saw this head-dress at the theatre
at Rouen, and my companion was so struck with it that he made the
sketch, of which I send you a copy. The costume of the females of
somewhat higher rank is very becoming: they wear muslin caps, opening in
front to shew their graceful ringlets, colored gowns, scarlet
handkerchiefs, and black aprons.
[Illustration: Head-Dress of Women of the Pays de Caux]
But nothing connected with the costume or manners of the people at
Dieppe is equally interesting as what refers to the inhabitants of the
suburb called Pollet; and I will therefore conclude my letter, by
extracting from the historian of the place[3] his account of these men,
which, though written many years ago, is true in the main even in our
days, and it is to be hoped will, in its most important respects,
continue so for a length of time to come. "Three-fourths of the natives
of this part of the town are fishermen, and not less effectually
distinguished from the citizens of Dieppe by their name of Poltese,
taken from their place of residence, than by the difference in their
dress and language, the simplicity of their manners, and the narrow
extent of their acquirements. To the present hour they continue to
preserve the same costume as in the XVIth century; wearing trowsers
covered with wide short petticoats, which open in the middle to afford
room for the legs to move, and woollen waistcoats laced in the front
with ribands, and tucked below into the waistband of their trowsers.
Over these waistcoats is a close coat, without buttons or fastenings of
any kind, which falls so low as to hide their petticoats and extend a
foot or more beyond them. These articles of apparel are usually of cloth
or serge of a uniform color, and either red or blue; for they interdict
every other variation, except that all the seams of their dress are
faced with white silk galloon, full an inch in width. To complete the
whole, instead of hats, they have on their heads caps of velvet or
colored cloth, forming a _tout-ensemble_ of attire, which is evidently
ancient, but far from unpicturesque or displeasing. Thus clad, the
Poltese, though in the midst of the kingdom, have the appearance of a
distinct and foreign colony; whilst, occupied incessantly in fishing,
they have remained equally strangers to the civilization and
politeness, which the progress of letters during the last two centuries
has diffused over France. Nay, scarcely are they acquainted with four
hundred words of the French language; and these they pronounce with an
idiom exclusively their own, adding to each an oath, by way of epithet;
a habit so inveterate with them, that even at confession, at the moment
of seeking absolution for the practice, it is no uncommon thing with
them to _swear_ they will be guilty of it no more. To balance, however,
this defect, their morals are uncorrupted, their fidelity is exemplary,
and they are laborious and charitable, and zealous for the honor of
their country, in whose cause they often bleed, as well as for their
priests, in defence of whom they once threatened to throw the Archbishop
of Rouen into the river, and were well nigh executing their threats."
Footnotes:
[1] 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.
[2] _Goube Histoire de Normandie_, III. p. 188.--In _Cadet Gassicourt
Lettres sur Normandie_, I. p. 68, the story of Bouzard is given still
more at length.
[3] _Histoire de Dieppe_, II. p. 56.
[Illustration: Entrance to the Castle at Dieppe]
LETTER II.
DIEPPE--CASTLE--CHURCHES--HISTORY OF THE PLACE--FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION.
(_Dieppe, June_, 1818.)
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.
The hill on which the castle stands is steep; and the building, as well
from its position, as from its high walls, flanked with towers and
bastions, has an imposing appearance. In its general outline it bears a
resemblance to the castle of Stirling, but it has not the same claims to
attention in an architectural point of view. It is a confused mass of
various æras, and its parts are chiefly modern: nor is there any single
feature that deserves to be particularized for beauty or singularity;
yet, as a whole, a picturesque and pleasing effect results from the very
confusion and irregularity of its towers, roofs, and turrets; and this
is also enhanced by a row of lofty arches, thrown across a ravine near
the entrance, supporting the bridge, and appearing at a distance like
the remains of a Roman aqueduct. What seems to be the most ancient part
is a high quadrangular tower with lofty pointed pannels in the four
walls; and though inferior in antiquity, an observer accustomed only to
the English castellated style, is struck by the variety of numerous
circular towers with conical roofs, resembling those which flanked the
gates of the town. Some of these gates still remain perfect; and one of
them, leading to the sea, now serves as a military prison. It was the
Sieur des Marêts[4], the first governor of the place, who began this
castle shortly after the year 1443, when Louis the XIth, then dauphin,
freed Dieppe from the dominion of the English, attacking in person, and
carrying by assault, the formidable fortress, constructed by Talbot, in
the suburb of Pollet. Of this, not a vestige now remains: the whole was
levelled with the ground in 1689; though, at a period of one hundred and
twenty years after it was originally taken and dismantled, it had again
been made a place of strength by the Huguenots, and had been still
further fortified under Henry IVth, in whose reign the present castle
was completed; for it was not till this time that permission was given
to the inhabitants to add to it a keep. In its perfect state, whilst
defended by this keep, and still further protected by copious out-works
and bomb-proof casemates, its strength was great; but the period of its
power was of short duration; for the then perturbed state of France
naturally gave rise to anxiety on the part of the government, lest
fortresses should serve as rallying points to the faction of the league;
and the castle of Dieppe was consequently left with little more than
the semblance of its former greatness.
Of the churches here, that of St. Jaques is considerably the finest
building, and is indeed an excellent specimen of what has been called
the _decorated English style of architecture_, the style of this church
nearly coinciding in its principal lines with that which prevailed in
our own country during the reigns of the second and third Edward. It was
begun about the year 1260, but was little advanced at the commencement
of the following century; nor were its nineteen chapels, the works of
the piety of individuals, completed before 1350. The roof of the choir
remained imperfect till ninety years afterwards, whilst that of the
transept is as recent as 1628[5]. The most ancient work is discernible
in the transepts, but the lines are obscured by later additions. A
cloister gallery fronted by delicate mullions runs round the nave and
choir, and the extent and arrangement of the exterior would induce a
stranger, unacquainted with the history of the building, to suppose that
he was entering a conventual or cathedral church. The parts long most
generally admired by the French, though they have always been miserable
judges of gothic architecture, were the vaulted roof, and the pendants
of the Lady-Chapel. The latter were originally ornamented with female
figures, representing the Sibyls, made of colored terra cotta, and of
such excellent workmanship, that Cardinal Barberini, when he visited
this chapel in 1647, declared he had seen nothing of the kind, not even
in Italy, superior to them for the beauty and delicacy of their
execution; but they are now gone, and, according to Noel[6], were
destroyed at the time of the bombardment. The state, however, of the
roof does not seem to warrant this observation; and, contrary also to
what he says, the pendants between the Lady-Chapel and the choir are
still perfect, and serve, together with numerous small canopies in the
chapel itself, to give a clear idea of what the whole must have been
originally. One of the most elegant of the decorations of the church is
a spirally-twisted column, elaborately carved, with a peculiarly
fanciful and beautiful capital, placed against a pillar that separates
the two south-eastern chapels of the choir. The richest object is a
stone-screen to a chantry on the north side, which is divide into
several canopies, whose upper part is still full of a profusion of
sculpture, though the lower is sadly mutilated. I could not ascertain
its history or use; but I do not suppose it is of earlier date than the
age of Francis Ist, as the Roman or Italian style is blended with the
Gothic arch. The Chapel of the Sepulchre, is not uncommonly pointed out
as an object of admiration. There is certainly some, handsome sculpture
round the portal; but it is not this for which your admiration is
required: you are told that the chapel was made in 1612, at the expence
of a traveller, then just returned from Palestine, and that it offers a
faithful representation of the Holy Sepulchre itself at Jerusalem; by
which if we are to understand that the wretched, grisly, painted, wooden
figures of the three Maries, and other holy women and holy men,
assembled round a disgusting representation of the dead Saviour, have
their prototype in Judea, I can only add I am sorry for it: for my own
part, putting aside all question of the propriety or effect of
symbolical worship, and meaning nothing offensive to the Romish faith, I
must be allowed to say that most assuredly I can conceive nothing less
qualified to excite feelings of devotion, or more certain to awaken
contempt and loathing, than the images of this description, the
tinselled virgins, and the wretched daubs, nick-named paintings, which
abound in the churches of Picardy and Normandy, the only catholic
provinces which I have yet visited; so that, if the taste of the
inhabitants is to be estimated by the decoration of the religious
buildings, this faculty must be rated very low indeed. The exterior of
the church is as richly ornamented as the inside; and not a buttress,
arch, or canopy is without the remains of crumbled carving, worn by
time, or disfigured by the ruder hand of calvinistic or revolutionary
violence. Tradition refers the erection of this edifice to the English.
From the certainty with which a date may be assigned to almost every
part, it is very interesting to the lover of architecture. The
Lady-Chapel is also perhaps one of the last specimens of Gothic art, but
still very pure, except in some of the smaller ornaments, such, as the
niches in the tabernacles, which end in escalop shells.
[Illustration: Font in the Church of St. Remi, at Dieppe]
The other church is dedicated to St. Remi, and is a building of the
XVIIth century; though, judging from some of its pillars, it would be
pronounced considerably more ancient. Those of the transept and of the
central tower are lofty and clustered, and of extraordinary thickness;
the rest are circular and plain, and not very unlike the columns of our
earliest Norman or Saxon churches, though of greater proportionate
altitude. The capitals of those in the choir are singularly capricious,
with figures, scrolls, &c.; but it is the capriciousness of the gothic
verging into Grecian, not of the Norman. On the pendants of the nave are
painted various ornaments, each accompanied by a mitre. The eastern has
only a mitre and cross, with the date 1669; the western the same, with
1666; denoting the æra of the edifice, which was scarcely finished, when
a bomb, in 1694, destroyed the roof of the choir, and this remains to
the present hour incomplete. The most remarkable object in the church is
a _bénitier_ of coarse red granite, on whose basin is an inscription, to
me illegible. The annexed sketches will give you some idea of it:
[Illustration: Sketch of inscription]
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.
Dieppe itself is, by its own historians[7], said to boast an origin as
early as the days of Charlemagne[8], who is reported to have built a
fortress on the scite of the present town, and to have called it
Bertheville, in honor of the Berthas, his mother and his daughter.
Bertheville was one of the first places taken by the Normans, by whom
the appellation was changed to Dyppe or Dieppe, a word which in their
language is said to signify a good anchorage. Other writers[9], however,
treat the whole of the early chronicle of Dieppe as a fiction, and
maintain, that even at the beginning of the XIth century the town had no
existence, and the place was only known as the port of Arques, within
whose territory it was comprehended; nor was it till the end of the same
century that the inhabitants of Arques were, partly from the convenience
of the fisheries, and partly from the advantages of the salt trade,
induced to form this settlement. Whatever date may be assigned to the
foundation of Dieppe, it is frequently contended that William the
Conqueror embarked here for the invasion of England, and it seems
undoubted that he sailed hence for his new kingdom in the next year,
agreeably to the following passage from Ordericus Vitalis, (p. 509) by
which you will observe, that the river had at that time the same name as
the town, "Deinde sextâ nocte Decembris ad ostium amnis Deppæ ultra
oppidtim Archas accessit, primâque vigiliâ gelidæ noctis Austro vela
dedit, et mane portum oppositi littoris, (quem Vvicenesium vocitant)
prospero cursu arripuit." In 1188, our Henry II built a castle upon the
same hill on which the present fortress stands. This strong hold,
however, afforded little protection; for we find that, in 1195, Philip
Augustus of France, entering Normandy with an hostile army, laid siege
to Dieppe, and set fire not only to the town, but also to the shipping
in the harbor. Two years subsequently to this event, Dieppe ceased to
form a part of the demesne of the Sovereign of the Duchy. Richard the
Ist had given great offence to Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, by
persisting in the erection of Château Gaillard, in the vicinity of
Andelys, which belonged to the archbishop in right of his see; and
though our lion-hearted monarch was not appalled either by the papal
interdict or by the showers of blood that fell upon his workmen, yet at
length he thought it advisable to purchase at once the forgiveness of
the prelate and the secular seignory of Andelys, by surrendering to him,
as an equivalent, the towns and lordships of Dieppe and Louviers, the
land and forest of Alihermont, the land and lordship of Bouteilles, and
the mills of Rouen. This exchange was regarded as so great a subject of
triumph to the archbishop, that he caused the memory of it to be
perpetuated by inscriptions upon crosses in various parts of Rouen, some
of which remained as late as 1610, when Taillepied wrote his _Recueil
des Antiquitéz et Singularitéz de la Ville de Rouen_. The following
lines are given as one of these inscriptions in the _Gallia
Christiana_[10]:
"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 hæc Regis Richardi jura fuere;
Hæc rex sancivit, hæc papa, tibique tuere[11]."
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 famâ celeberrimus atque
Villa potens opibus."
These historians, however, of former days are not always the most
accurate; but from this period the annals of the place are preserved,
and at certain epochs it is far from unimportant in French history: as,
when Talbot raised in 1442 the fortress called the Bastille, a defence
so strong and in so well-chosen a situation, that even Vauban honored
its memory by lamenting its destruction; when the inhabitants fought
with the Flemings in the channel, in 1555; when Henry IVth, with an army
of less than four thousand men, fled hither in 1589, as to his last
place of refuge, winning the hearts of the people by his frank
address:--"Mes amis, point de cérémonie, je ne demande que vos coeurs,
bon pain, bon vin, et bon visage d'hôtes;" and when, as I have already
mentioned, the town sustained from our fleet a bombardment of three
days' duration, and was reduced by it to ashes.
For the excellence of its sailors, Dieppe has at all times been
renowned: no less an authority than the President de Thou has pronounced
them to be men, "penes quos præcipua rei nauticæ gloria semper fuit;"
and they have proved their claims to this encomium, not only by having
supplied to the navy of France the celebrated Abraham Du Quesne, the
successful rival of the great Ruyter, but still more so by having taken
the lead in expeditions to Florida[12]; by having established a colony
for the promotion of the fur trade in Canada, if indeed they were not
the original discoverers of that country; and by having been the first
Christians who ever made a settlement on the coast of Senegal. This
last-mentioned event took place, according to French writers, at as
early a period as the XIVth century; and, though the establishment was
not of long duration, its effects have been permanent; for it is owing
to the consignments of ivory then made to Dieppe, that many of the
inhabitants were induced to become workers in that substance; a trade
which they preserve to the present time, and carry the art to such
perfection that they have few rivals. This and the making of lace are
the principal employments of such of the natives as are not engaged in
the fishery. In the earlier ages of the Duchy, the inhabitants of the
Pays de Caux found a more effectual and important employment in the
salt-works which were then very numerous on the coast, but which have
long since been suffered to fall into decay. Ancient charters, recorded
in the _Neustria Pia_, trace these works on the coast of Dieppe, and at
Bouteilles on the right of the valley of Arques, to as remote a period
as 1027; and they at the same time prove the existence of a canal
between Dieppe and Bouteilles, by which in 1390 vessels loaded with salt
were wont to pass. But here, as in England, such works have been
abandoned, from the greater facility of communication between distant
places, and of obtaining salt by other means.
At present the only manufacture on the beach is that of kelp, for which
a large quantity of the coarser sea-weeds is burned; but the fisheries,
which are not carried on with equal energy in any other port of France,
are the chief support of the place. The sailors of Dieppe were not
confined to their own seas; for they used to pursue the cod fishery on
the coast of Newfoundland with considerable success. The herring fishery
however was a greater staple; and previously to the revolution, when
alone a just estimate could be formed of such matters, the quantity of
herrings caught by the boats belonging to Dieppe averaged more than
eight thousand lasts a year, and realized above £100,000. This fishery
is said to have been established here as early as the XIth century[13].
From sixty to eighty boats, each of about thirty tons and carrying
fifteen men, were annually sent to the eastern coast of England about
the end of August; and then, again, in the middle of October nearly
double the quantity of vessels, but of a smaller size, were engaged in
the same pursuit on their own shores, where the fish by this time
repair. The mackerel fishery was an object of scarcely less importance
than that of herrings, producing in general about one hundred and
seventy thousand barrels annually. Great quantities of these fish are
eaten salted and dried, in which state they afford a general article of
food among the lower classes in Normandy. Surely this would be deserving
of the attention and imitation of our merchants at home. During the war
with England this branch of trade necessarily suffered; but Napoléon did
every thing in his power to assist the town, by giving it peculiar
advantages as to ships sailing under licences. He succeeded in his
views; and, thus patronized, Dieppe flourished exceedingly, and the
gains brought in by the privateers connected with the port, added not a
little to its prosperity. Hence to this hour the inhabitants regret the
peace, although the town cannot fail to be benefitted by the fresh
impulse given to the fisheries, and the quantity of money circulated by
the travellers who are continually passing. Napoléon intended also to
bestow an additional boon upon the place. A canal had been projected
many years ago, in the time of the Maréchal de Vauban, and was to have
extended to Pontoise, through the fertile districts of Gournay and
Neufchâtel, and to have communicated by different branches with the
Seine and Oise. This plan, which had been forgotten during so many
reigns, Napoléon determined to carry into effect, and the excavations
were actually begun under his orders. But the events which succeeded his
Russian campaign put a stop to this, as to all similar labors: the plan
is now, however, again in agitation, and, if performed, Dieppe will soon
become one of the most important ports in France.
By the revolution Dieppe was emancipated from the dominion of the
Archbishop of Rouen, who, by virtue of the cession made by Richard Coeur
de Lion, exercised a despotic sway, even until the dissolution of the
_ancien régime_. His privileges were oppressive, and he had and made use
of the right of imposing a variety of taxes, which extended even to the
articles of provision imported either by land or sea. Yet it must be
admitted that the progress of civilization had previously done much
towards the removal of the most obnoxious of the abuses. The times,
happily, no longer existed, when, as in the XIIth century, the prelate,
with a degree of indecency scarcely to be credited, especially under an
ecclesiastical government, did not scruple to convert the wages of sin
into a source of revenue, as scandalous in its nature as it must have
been contemptible in its amount, by exacting from every prostitute a
weekly tax of a farthing, for liberty to exercise her profession[14].
Many uncouth and frivolous ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies of the
middle ages, which good sense had banished from most other parts of
France, where they once were common, still lingered in the archbishop's
seignory. Thus, at no very remote period, it was customary on the Feast
of Pentecost to cast burning flakes of tow from the vaulting of the
church; this stage-trick being considered as a representation of the
descent of the fiery tongues. The Virgin, the great idol of popery, was
honored by a pageant, which was celebrated with extraordinary splendor;
and as I must initiate you in the mysteries of Catholicism, I think you
will be well pleased to receive a detailed account of it. The ceremony I
consider as curiously illustrative of the manners of the rulers, of the
ruled, and of the times; and I will only add, by way of preface, that it
was instituted by the governor, Des Marêts, in 1443, in honor of the
final expulsion of the English, and that he himself consented to be the
first master of the _Guild of the Assumption_, under whose auspices and
direction it was conducted.--About Midsummer the principal inhabitants
used to assemble at the Hôtel de Ville, and there they selected the girl
of the most exemplary character, to represent the Virgin Mary, and with
her six other young women, to act the parts of the Daughters of Sion.
The honor of figuring in this holy drama was greatly coveted; and the
historian of Dieppe gravely assures us, that the earnestness felt on the
occasion mainly contributed to the preservation of that purity of
manners and that genuine piety, which subsisted in this town longer than
in any other of France! But the election of the Virgin was not
sufficient: a representative of St. Peter was also to be found among the
clergy; and the laity were so far favored that they were permitted to
furnish the eleven other apostles. This done, upon the fourteenth of
August the Virgin was laid in a cradle of the form of a tomb, and was
carried early in the morning, attended by her suite of either sex, to
the church of St. Jacques; while before the door of the master of the
guild was stretched a large carpet, embroidered with verses in letters
of gold, setting forth his own good qualities, and his love for the holy
Mary. Hither also, as soon as _Laudes_ had been sung, the procession
repaired from the church, and then they were joined by the governor of
the town, the members of the guild, the municipal officers, and the
clergy of the parish of St. Remi. Thus attended, they paraded the town,
singing hymns, which were accompanied by a full band. The procession was
increased by the great body of the inhabitants; and its impressiveness
was still farther augmented by numbers of the youth of either sex, who
assumed the garb and attributes of their patron saints, and mixed in the
immediate train of the principal actors. They then again repaired to the
church, where _Te Deum_ was sung by the full choir, in commemoration of
the victory over the English, and high mass was performed, and the
Sacrament administered to the whole party. During the service, a scenic
representation was given of the Assumption of the Virgin. A scaffolding
was raised, reaching nearly to the top of the dome, and supporting an
azure canopy intended to emulate the "spangled vault of heaven;" and
about two feet below the summit of it appeared, seated on a splendid
throne, an old man as the image of the Father Almighty, a representation
equally absurd and impious, and which could alone be tolerated by the
votaries of the worst superstitions of popery. On either side four
pasteboard angels of the size of men floated in the air, and flapped
their wings in cadence to the sounds of the organ; while above was
suspended a large triangle, at whose corners were placed three smaller
angels, who, at the intermission of each office, performed upon a set of
little bells the hymn of "_Ave Maria gratiâ Dei plena per Secula_," &c.
accompanied by a larger angel on each side with a trumpet. To complete
this portion of the spectacle, two others, below the old man's feet,
held tapers, which were lighted as the services began, and extinguished
at their close; on which occasions the figures were made to express
reluctance by turning quickly about; so that it required some dexterity
to apply the extinguishers. At the commencement of the mass, two of the
angels by the side of the Almighty descended to the foot of the altar,
and, placing themselves by the tomb, in which a pasteboard figure of the
Virgin had been substituted for her living representative, gently raised
it to the feet of the Father. The image, as it mounted, from time to
time lifted its head and extended its arms, as if conscious of the
approaching beatitude, then, after having received the benediction and
been encircled by another angel with a crown of glory, it gradually
disappeared behind the clouds. At this instant a buffoon, who all the
time had been playing his antics below, burst into an extravagant fit of
joy; at one moment clapping his hands most violently, at the next
stretching himself out as if dead. Finally, he ran up to the feet of the
old man, and hid himself under his legs, so as to shew only his head.
The people called him _Grimaldi_, an appellation that appears to have
belonged to him by usage, and it is a singular coincidence that the
surname of the noblest family of Genoa the Proud, thus assigned by the
rude rabble of a sea-port to their buffoon, should belong of right to
the sire and son, whose _mops_ and _mowes_ afford pastime to the upper
gallery at Covent-Garden.
Thus did the pageant proceed in all its grotesque glory, and, while--
"These labor'd nothings in so strange a style
Amazed the unlearned, and made the learned smile,"
the children shouted aloud for their favorite Grimaldi; the priests,
accompanied with bells, trumpets, and organs, thundered out the mass;
the pious were loud in their exclamations of rapture at the devotion of
the Virgin; and the whole church was filled with "un non so che di rauco
ed indistinto".--But I have told you enough of this foolish story, of
which it were well if the folly had been the worst. The sequel was in
the same taste and style, and ended with the euthanasia of all similar
representations, a hearty dinner.
Footnotes:
[4] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 130.
[5] _Histoire de Dieppe_, II. p. 86.
[6] _Essals sur le Département de la Seine Inférieure_, I. p. 119.
[7] _Histoire de Dieppe_, I. p. 1.