To the eastward of Paris, one first finds the true country atmosphere at

Meaux, famous for its bishops, its grist-mills, and its generally

charming environment.

The picturesque little city is situated on the Marne, some thirty miles

from Paris, amid a verdure which, if not luxuriant, is, at least, a

"fringe of green" that is appealing alike to local pride, and to the

artist or stranger within the gates. It is an ancient bishopric (now

suffragan of Paris), founded in 375 A. D.

[Illustration: ST. ETIENNE _de MEAUX_]

The Cathedral of Saint Etienne de Meaux is called by the French the

"Child of Amiens," and it would have all the dignity of its mother had

but the nave received the same development as the choir. Its general

dimensions are restrained, and it shows in no way any remarkable

architectural ensemble; but, for all that, its power to please is none

the less great. Lacking a certain symmetry, in itself no great fault,

the exterior gives the impression of being to-day much less grand and

imposing than was really planned. Battled by wind and weather, its outer

walls have that scarred and aged look which is a beauty in itself. There

are two towers, one of which is unfinished and capped with an ugly and

angular slate roof, so low that it hardly exists at all, so far as

forming a distinct feature of the facade is concerned. Its companion,

however, rises boldly and in graceful lines to a generous height above

the gable.

The interior plan is regular and simple, with a nave of five bays, the

first two from the west being divided into the infrequent quadruple

range of openings, while the remainder consist of the usual triforium

and clerestory only. The double aisles of the nave are of unusual

height, in order to admit of this double range of openings.

The transepts, if transepts they can be considered, are very shallow,

being merely the depth of the double aisles of the nave and choir, and

are bare and unadorned so far as any notable sculpture or glass is

concerned, though the arched windows which hold the plain glass are of

grand proportions and excellent design as to their framing.

The triforium, throughout, is an arcaded cloister-like effect of slight

arches, supported by slender columns, with a series of glazed windows

behind. It would be a notable and wholly charming arrangement were the

glass of these windows rich in colour, or even old in design.

There is an air of singular lightness, if not actually of grace,

throughout the entire nave and choir, superinduced, perhaps, by the

recent whitening and pointing of the masonry; but the not infrequent

bulging piers, particularly those nearest to the transept crossing, give

a suggestion of ungainliness if not of actual insecurity.

The columns of the choir, supporting a series of firm and gracefully

poised arches, are of unusual height, something over forty feet, it

would appear,--producing a harmony of form and elegance which again

reminds one of Amiens.

There are here copies of the nine Raphael tapestry cartoons, the

originals of which are preserved at South Kensington, also of frescoes

by Guido Reni and Domenichino.

The chief artistic, if not architectural, charm to be seen within the

purlieus of the cathedral is that of the ancient chapter-house, across a

narrow way, to the right of the church itself. This gem of mediaeval

building is perhaps not remarkable as to any of the principles which it

sets forth in its manner of construction, but it takes one back some

hundreds of years, a sheer plunge far beyond the age of the most

prominent features of the main church, and gives a thrill somewhat akin

to the emotion which one feels when he comes across a single leaf torn

from an old illuminated manuscript. This charming ruin, for it is hardly

more than that, being a mere lumber-room, shows in the weathered look of

its covered stairway nearly all of the qualities which the painter loves

to depict,--colour, texture, and, above all, that indescribable charm

which artistic folk, and others who can see as they do, call life.

Clearly, the Cathedral of St. Etienne de Meaux, as an interesting

shrine, may be classed well at the head of the secondary cathedrals of

the third Gothic period.

[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SAINT PIERRE TROYES]

XIII

ST. PIERRE DE TROYES

To the thorough student of English history, Troyes is perhaps first

recalled as being the birthplace of the treaty "_decreeing for ever a

common sovereign for England and France_," a treaty which, it is minded,

"stood no while." Again, some dubious antiquary has put it forward as

the home of that variety of weights "which are not avoirdupois."

The Counts of Champagne had, in the once well-walled city, both a castle

and a palace. Olden-time houses, good Gothic woodwork and Renaissance

stonework, are here in abundance; also, according to the authority of

Fergusson, a well-nigh perfect Gothic church in St. Urbain; likewise a

great cathedral,--rather ugly as to its general outline. All these are

possessed by Troyes, and to-day the reminders and remains of each and

all are exceedingly vivid and substantial.

Certain cathedrals of France show plainly the different phases and

developments of the art of building through which they have passed;

others indicate little, if any, deviation from a certain accepted style.

St. Pierre de Troyes is of the first category. Here is Gothic in all its

variations. Its environment, too, is characteristic of the many varying

moods through which its constituency has passed. A truly mediaeval city

in the picturesqueness of its older portions, Troyes is famed alike in

affairs of Church and State. The dimensions of the Cathedral at Troyes,

which approach those of the grand group, and the general majesty of its

interior only further this opinion.

The main body covers the none too frequent arrangement of five aisles,

which, following through the transept, continue, with the double pair on

each side, to likewise girdle the choir. The splendour of immensity is

further enhanced by its large windows, including two rose openings set

with old glass, and the general richness of its sculptured decorations.

The abside of the choir is ranked among the best Gothic works of the

time.

The choir, begun in 1206, is composed of thirteen arcades, symbolical of

Christ and the twelve apostles, from the chief of whom the cathedral

takes its name. The windows of the triforium are large and divided into

four compartments. The general disposition of the choir, with its

radiating chapels, is superb; and it is exactly this satisfying, though

perhaps undefinable, quality that is ofttimes lacking in an originally

well-planned work which fails to inspire one. The choir contains an iron

_grille_ of the thirteenth century, of very beautiful workmanship, and

is surrounded by five hexagonally sided chapels.

The principal portion of the nave, erected in the fourteenth, fifteenth,

and sixteenth centuries, interrupted now and again by war and civil

distractions, bears indelible impress of its continued centuries of

growth.

The principal facade of the fifteenth century--accredited to one Martin

Chambige and erected just after the nave took form--is of the richness

of Gothic only just previous to its decline. There are three portals,

which are bare of sculptured figures, as indeed is the whole west front.

In arrangement, it resembles the frontispieces of certain of the grand

cathedrals, and, though lacking their sculptured ornateness, is

thoroughly satisfying as a decorative frontage. Had it been executed

fifty years later, it would be hard to imagine to what depths its lines

might not have fallen. As it is, the upper ranges of the tower suggest

the thought. The windows of the aisle and of the clerestory of the nave,

when viewed from the exterior, are grandly traceried and gracefully

coupled by a series of light, firm buttresses, which rise, only from the

gables of the lower set, over the low-lying roof to the spring of the

arch of the upper range. St. Pierre de Troyes suggests, in a mild way,

the "sheer glass walls" so frequently referred to by adulous French

critics when chanting the praises of the highly developed lightness of

their indigenous style. This is further accentuated when one notes the

glazed triforium, a decorative feature reminiscent of that at Seez,

Nevers, Tours, and St. Ouen at Rouen.

Troyes is one of those prominent cathedral cities of Catholic France

whereof the churchman deplores the fact that its men are not of the

church-going class, and that its congregations are mostly of the fair

sex. Be this as it may, except in Brittany, where the whole population

appears unusually devout, the stricture is probably true in a great

measure of all of the north of France; and, be it here said, recent

political edicts will doubtless not tend to increase the propaganda of

piety.

The north gable, with its portal and rose window, is of the fifteenth

century, and, with the "lustrous rose" of the south transept, forms a

pair of brilliant jewels which are hardly excelled elsewhere, not even

by the encircled splendour of the forty-foot openings at Reims and

Amiens, the equally extensive one of the north transept at Rouen, or,

most splendid of all, the galaxy at Chartres. These marvels of French

ingenuity and invention are nowhere more splendidly proportioned or

embellished than at Troyes, and are equally attractive viewed from

either within or without.

The chief "_tresor_" consists of a series of wonderful mediaeval

enamels.

[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SAINT ETIENNE SENS]

XIV

ST. ETIENNE DE SENS

Says the Abbe Bourasse, "One of the most beautiful titles to glory in a

church is the antiquity of its foundation," hence, most French

antiquaries who have written upon the subject of the celebrated

Cathedral of St. Etienne of Sens have enlarged upon its "glorious

antiquity." To prove or verify the fact as to whether St. Savinien or

St. Potentien was the first to preach Christian religion here would be a

laborious undertaking. Evidences and knowledge of Roman works are not

wanting, and early Christian edifices of the Romanesque order must

naturally have followed. One learns that an early church on this site

was entirely destroyed by fire in 970, and that a new edifice had

progressed so far that it was dedicated in 997. This, in turn, was

mostly rebuilt, and, two hundred years later (1168), took the form of

the present cathedral. It was completed, in a rather plain and heavy

ogival style, under the capable direction of the William who came to

Canterbury, in response to a call, to rebuild the choir of that English

church in 1174. It is this link, and possibly a sight of the vestments

of A Becket, now preserved among the "_tresor_" of Sens, that binds its

memory with English contemporary life. Whatever may be the contentions

waged as to the claims of English Gothic, it is universally and

unimpeachably admitted that Guillaume de Sens rebuilt that famous choir

of Canterbury, and built it well, and of a newer order of design than

any previous work in England. So let it stand.

Taken by itself, the Cathedral at Sens is a high example of Christian

art. When, however, it is compared with the grand group, it is relegated

immediately to the second rank. The interior, far more than the

exterior, shows a visible disparity of unified style. Romano-Byzantine,

transition, and ogival are all found in the nave and choir, with the

flamboyant, of the fifteenth century, in the ornamental tracery of the

windows of the transepts.

Some visible remains of the earlier structure are shown, built into the

eleventh century walls. Of the same period are other evidences of a

former erection, to be noted in the aisles. The transept and the greater

part of the nave are of the century following, and of the early

thirteenth, and finally the three arcades, by which the nave is entered,

are something very akin to the full-blown Renaissance of the fifteenth

century.

The general plan is symmetrical, and severe, only the twenty chapels

being ungracefully disposed. Ten of these are in the choir and ten in

the nave. For the antiquary, versed in religious archaeology, the

Cathedral of Sens would appear, from the very inconsistencies and

exuberance of its style, to be of great interest. The fragments that

remain of its former magnificent glass, the sculptured monuments, and

the tombs and curiosities of the "_tresor_," which escaped Revolutionary

spoliation, all combine in a glorious attraction for one who has the

time and inclination to delve into the reminiscence of history and

association of a past age.

The glass of the choir, and of the chapel of St. Savinien, is of the

thirteenth century. The colour is exceedingly brilliant, lively, and

harmonious, with the iridescence of a mosaic of precious stones.

The sixteenth-century glass, none the less than the framing itself, of

the grand rose windows of the north and south transepts, is equally

remarkable as to design and colour. The former represents the

"Glorification of Jesus Christ," and the latter "Events in the Life of

St. Etienne."

The "_tresor_" of the cathedral is very numerous and is considered the

richest in all France. The most notable are a reliquary of gold, set

with sapphires and pearls, containing a fragment of the True Cross,

given by Charlemagne in the year 800; four magnificent tapestries of the

time of Charles V., representing the "Adoration of the Magi;" and the

pontifical robes of St. Thomas (a Becket), chasuble, aube, stole,

manipule, cordon, two mitres, and two collars. This courageous

archbishop, persecuted by Henry II., took refuge in Sens in 1162. An

elaborate tomb (of the eighteenth century), by Constant, is the

mausoleum of the Dauphin, father of Louis XVI.

_PART VI_

_Western Normandy and Brittany_

I

INTRODUCTORY

Most people who have read Ruskin, and most people have done so--in the

past, will undoubtedly concur with his dictum that Rouen's "associated

Norman cities," Bayeux, Caen, Coutances, St. Lo, Lisieux, and Dieppe,

run the entire gamut of mediaeval architectural notes; or, as Ruskin

himself has put it, "from the Romanesque to the flamboyant." He might

well have added, the Renaissance and the pseudo-classicism of a later

day.

Beauties there are in this region, galore; and the examples which no

longer exist, but of which the records tell, point to a still larger

aggregate.

Who thinks to-day of Coutances as of being a "cathedral town?" And yet,

there is within it, as to the general effect of situation and the

magnitude of its towering pinnacles, an edifice which perhaps outranks

all but the very greatest. Most likely no thought is given it at all,

except that Coutances is somewhere on the railway line between Cherbourg

and Paris, or that it is near unto Bayeux; also possessed of a

magnificent cathedral, but whose greatest fame lies in a certain false

sentiment associated with its famous tapestry. Not that this great work

is to be decried,--far from it, but the spirit with which it is so often

viewed should be a matter of scorn for every broad-minded traveller.

Lisieux, too, has a wealth of attraction for those who fondly admire

reeking picturesqueness and old timbered houses, though its cathedral

will not please.

Pugin could not resist depicting many of these delightful old houses of

Lisieux in his book on Normandy, though, unlike Ruskin, he had no eye

for its cathedral; most of us will not have.

So much, then, as a plea for a more sincere and thorough appreciation of

the charms of western Normandy. It is cheap; accessible, and has a

practically inexhaustible store of treasure for the traveller or student

of limited time or money, but who will not make of it the usual mere

"bank-holiday" scamper. The same applies also to Brittany, which is

treated elsewhere, with this proviso, that the tourist afoot or awheel

is far better equipped than he who has to depend upon steam and the

rail, two at least of Brittany's cathedrals being "off the line."

II

NOTRE DAME D'EVREUX

The Cathedral at Evreux is another of those edifices which gives one its

best impression when first seen upon entering the city. Charmingly,

possibly romantically, situated, it lies in a shallow valley with all

the picturesqueness of its varied style limned against the sky in truly

impressionistic fashion. This impression, when viewed from the slight

eminence by which the railway enters the town, is a vista of rambling

roofs and a long, sloping street running gently down to the very foot of

the structure, which, set about and interspersed with verdure, as it is

in the spring and summer months, warrants one in counting his

introduction to this charmingly attractive, though non-consistent, type

of church, as one of the events which will live in memory for years.

[Illustration: _Notre Dame d'Evreux_]

If towering spires and pinnacles were a _sine qua non_ for a great and

imposing architectural style, this church would at once rank as one

of the most delightful examples extant; for these very features, albeit

they are mostly of what we have come to accept as a debased form of art,

are nevertheless possessed of a grandeur and magnificence which in many

worthy examples are entirely lacking. The pair of western towers, of

Romanesque foundation, were developed, not in what one knows as Gothic,

but of the manifest and offensive pseudo-classic order. They are capped,

however, with something more akin to Moorish or an Eastern termination

than Italian. The spire which surmounts the central crossing is, without

question, a reminiscence of much that has been accepted as good Gothic

form in the great central-towered English churches. Up to a certain

point this can hardly be denied; but this rather weak, effeminate spire,

which forms such an unusual attribute of a French cathedral, more than

qualifies its right to a place in the first rank of spires. As for the

rest of the exterior, it is a _melange_ of nearly every known

architectural style. Undeniably fine in parts, like "the curate's egg,"

if a time-worn simile may be permitted, it forms an ensemble which would

preclude its ever being accorded unqualified praise from even the most

liberal-minded and optimistic enthusiast.

By far the most coherent view to be had near by is that from the gardens

of the Archbishop's Palace immediately to the rearward of the choir.

Here the clipped trees, the warm coloured wall, along which the vines

are trained, and what was once a canal, or moat, in the foreground,

combine to present a singularly artistic and pleasing composition.

The north transept, of Bishop le Veneur, is of the superlative degree of

its era (early sixteenth century), bordering upon the profusion of

splayed ornament which so soon after turned to dross, but standing, as

it does, of itself, clearly defined. The gulf was finally crossed when,

less than a half-century later, the incongruous west front with its

ill-mannered towers was built,--in itself a subject worth a deal of

study from the artist who would picture graven stone, but contrasting

unfavourably enough with the heights to which French ecclesiastical

architecture had just previously soared. Here is offered the one unified

Renaissance facade of a French cathedral, welded, as it were, in

unworthy fashion, to a fabric with which it has nothing in common. The

stone-mason here superseded the craftsman; and, with the termination of

the reign of Francois I., and following with that of Henry II., came the

flowering rankness of a degenerate weed, leaving, as evidence of its

contaminating influence in this one example alone, traces of nearly

every classical order, from the simple Doric column to a hybrid which

shall be unnamed.

The interior presents a general array of incongruities quite as

remarkable as those of the exterior. The nave is very narrow; but the

choir widens out perhaps a dozen feet on either side, adding

immeasurably to an effect which is far more impressive than might

otherwise be supposed.

The nave itself shows many varieties of building, ranging from the

Gothic of the early twelfth to the late fifteenth centuries; the lower

part and the easterly bays are Romanesque, or what perhaps has been

popularly accepted as Norman, and date from 1125; the remainder and the

triforium are of a century later.

The choir is of the decorated species of the early fourteenth century,

with its arcaded triforium glazed, whereas in the nave it is without

glass. The lady-chapel, of the time of Louis XI., shows that inevitable

mark of degeneracy, the "_fleur-de-lys_," in the elaborated tracery of

the window framing. The glass here is, however, excellent, in effect at

any rate, with its gorgeous figures of knights, angels, and peers of

France, drawn with a masterly skill which is often lacking in even more

precious glass.

The chapel screens, some twenty in all, are wondrously turned and carved

of wood. This leads one to venture the thought that the similar

decorative embellishments of the Renaissance chateaux of the Loire

country were slowly creeping northward, and leaving their impress upon

the work of the ecclesiastical builder and decorator. Certainly, the

numerous fine examples of the art of the wood-carver, to be seen in this

cathedral, bespeak much for the decorative quality of wood, when used

considerately in conjunction with stone.

There are two rose windows, of the petal species, unquestionably fine as

to framing, but leaving little space for the effect of the glass, which

they hold only in small proportion.

The "treasury," alone, is enclosed with iron bars, and a _grille_ of

graceful late flowing ironwork forms the screen of the choir. Altogether

the Cathedral at Evreux will be remembered quite as much for its

wonderful array of wooden and iron _grilles_ as for any other of the

specific details among its mass of general attributes.

[Illustration: _Window Framing--Evreux_]

[Illustration: _Notre Dame d'Alencon_]

III

NOTRE DAME D'ALENCON

This former capital of the duchy of the same name is a sleepy,

countrified French town, with little but its reputedly valuable and

beautiful lace to commend it to the average observer.

As a cathedral town, of even secondary rank, it will fall far short of

any preconceived ideas which one may be possessed of concerning it,

though its Cathedral of Notre Dame is in many ways one of those

irresistible shrines, which at least promise, and often fulfil, a great

deal more than their lack of magnitude indicates.

Its facade, lacking the conventional towers, advances well into the

roadway, as a sort of forward porch; as at Louviers near by. This porch

is very ornate, with decorations of the late Gothic period of flowing

tracery.

After all, it is an incongruous sort of a building, in that only this

porch and its squat central tower, which is nought but a mere cupola,

are in the least decorative.

The nave, the choir and chevet, and chapels, are all of a bareness which

only exaggerates the floridness of these other appendages. The nave

itself is but one hundred and ten feet long, and perhaps a scant thirty

wide, and dates from the fourteenth century. It contains good glass of

the same period, which luckily escaped the spoliation of the Revolution.

The choir is more modern, and much plainer in treatment, and is but

fifty-five feet in length and of the same width as the nave.

There are no transepts; in short, the chief and most interesting

features of the church are the before mentioned details, which,

unquestionably bordering upon the debasement of Gothic art, are in every

way attractive, with lightness and colour, if such an expression may be

applied to gray stone.

Certainly the play of sunlight on gracefully carven stone is indicative

of a brilliancy which might be termed an effect of colour; and it is

with respect to that quality that the west facade of Notre Dame

d'Alencon appeals; more than as an otherwise grand or even highly

interesting structure.

[Illustration: _St. Pierre de Lisieux_]

IV

ST. PIERRE DE LISIEUX

Lisieux, the city of the Lexavii, taken by Caesar and besieged by

Geoffrey Plantagenet; its old houses; its crooked streets and

picturesque decay; with its former Cathedral of St. Pierre (M. H.),

memorable as the marriage place of Henry III. and Eleanor of Guienne;

all go to make up the formula of one of the stock sights of Normandy.

It is scarcely an attractive town, in spite of its picturesque

sordidness, made the more so by the smoke arising from many belching

factory chimneys. In fact, one has difficulty in thinking of it as a

cathedral town at all; and, as such, it hardly claims more than a brief

resume of its important features. A much more interesting, impressive,

and commanding church is that of St. Jacques, which at least has the

stamp of a personality, which in the cathedral itself is entirely

wanting, so far as one's latent sympathies are concerned. In spite of

the purity of that which is Gothic in its fabric, it has little of that

quality which arouses admiration, and which, regardless of the edict of

a certain seer and prophet, is mostly that for which we revere a great

monument,--its power to sway us impressively.

Mr. Ruskin has taken great pains to commend the southern portal as being

"one of the most quaint and pleasing doors in all Normandy,"--a

non-committal enough statement, most will admit, and one with which we

are not obliged to agree. A broader-minded observer would have said that

the main body of the church presents a unity of design, very unusual in

a mediaeval work,--excelled by no other example in France. The greater

part of the nave, choir, and transepts is the work of one epoch only;

and, as some writers have it, of one man, Bishop Odericus Vitalis, who

died shortly after its completion, in the latter part of the eleventh

century. As a style, it may be said to be either the last of the

transition or of the very earliest Gothic. Certainly this is something

in its favour; but the general charm of its immediate surroundings is

lacking, and the effect of its interior, with the diminutive windows of

the nave and clerestory, does not tend to satisfy, or even gratify, one

with the sense of pleasure which perhaps its more creditable features

deserve. These are not wholly wanting; for, of course, one must not

forget that doorway of Ruskin's nor the quite idyllic proportions of the

nave with its uniform massive pillars.

The lady-chapel was founded in the fifteenth century by the rascally

Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who, with his brother, prelate of

Winchester, so gleefully burned Joan of Arc. This much he did in

expiation of "_his false judgment_," though, except as a memorial of his

significant remorse, the chapel itself would hardly be remarkable. The

clerestory of nave and choir is considerably later. The transepts vary

as to their windows, and the triforium arches are here at a different

level from those in the nave.

The general exterior view of the cathedral is hardly satisfactory from

any point. On three sides it is almost entirely hemmed in by surrounding

structures, and the frontage, on the great open Place Thiers, is the

first and the last opportunity of an unobstructed view. As the Abbe

Bourasse wrote of the Cathedral at Arras, it is best seen from a

distance, about that, we should say, from which the accompanying drawing

was made. The gardens of the Sous-Prefecture, formerly the Bishop's

Palace, should form in a way a cool green setting for the church; but,

as a matter of fact, they do nothing of the sort, since the enormous

mass of a none too good Renaissance facade extends along quite

two-thirds of the length of the cathedral on the north, and blankets it

thoroughly, scarcely more than the rather stubby tower of the west front

being visible above the roof of the other structure.

Lisieux apparently never ranked as an important see, but depended for

the prominence which it attained previous to the Revolution, when the

see was abolished, on its association with Rouen, to which it was

attached. The neighbouring Cathedrals of Seez, Bayeux, and Coutances far

outrank St. Pierre de Lisieux in size, beauty, and importance.

[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de SEEZ_ ...]

V

NOTRE DAME DE SEEZ

The ancient Civitas Sagiorum of the Romans is now a bishopric, suffragan

of Rouen. This ancient Gallic stronghold, which fared hardly in the

Anglo-Norman wars, presents to-day the impression of being a town

somewhat smaller than the usual small town of France. It also has this

advantage,--it is comparatively unknown to tourists, and likewise to

some map-makers; all of which is decidedly in its favour. Seldom is Seez

included in the itinerary of the tourist, even though it is situated in

the heart of the "popular province."

Except for the fact that its charming cathedral is not of the generous

proportions first impressed upon one, it is difficult to realize that

such a noble architectural memorial should so often be overlooked and

apparently neglected by those who might find a great deal of pleasure,

and incidental profit, from a contemplation thereof.

As a town of celebrated history, Seez is of far more relative rank than

its cathedral, which, in spite of its many beauties and charm of detail,

has suffered perhaps more than any other in France, and yet kept a

fairly pure early Gothic style; referring to the many additions and

repairs made necessary by crumbling walls and sinking foundations.

The worst that has arisen from this unhappy state of affairs is, not

that there has been any serious admixture of style, but rather that one

gross interpolation has been foisted upon an otherwise symmetrical

whole,--the enormous advancing buttresses which flank the portal of the

western facade; an addition of the fourteenth century, neither graceful

nor decorative, and only made necessary by a tottering wall. A pity it

is that some other equally effective method was not adopted.

The cathedral is, in a way, a satisfying representation of the cathedral

of our imagination. From a distance, at least, and in comparison with

the low-lying structures round about, it certainly appears as of great

proportions, uniform and complete in itself. Immediate contact with it

somewhat dispels these charms.

All things considered, one finds here, in this idyllic, countrified

setting, a very attractive and fairly consistent Mediaeval Gothic church

of the epoch contemporary with that of the best work of the northern

builders, showing unmistakable evidence of having been laid down on good

lines, and after a good design, in spite of the structural defects of

its foundations. From any direction it may be viewed across a quarter of

a mile of ploughed fields. The great national highroad, from the Channel

to Bordeaux, passes straight as a die through the town, and the

cross-country line of the _Chemin de-Fer de Ouest_ ambles slowly

northward or southward; with little occurring to break the quietude of

local ease. The native is for the most part engaged in garnering from

his truck farm, or in carrying its product to the railway, to be

transported to market, and pays little attention to the stray traveller

who occasionally wanders in to study the architectural offering of the

town.

A completed church was here in 1050, having been erected by a monk, Azon

by name. This was burned to the ground in an attempt to drive out a

robber band which had taken shelter therein. Leo IX. engaged Yves, Count

of Bellene and the Bishop of Alencon, to rebuild it, and restore its

former splendour. This was in the twelfth century, but, later, owing to

the insecure foundations, it was pulled down and rebuilt again. Now

nothing remains of the former twelfth and thirteenth century work but

the lady-chapel of the choir.

The interior of the nave is, at present, entirely filled with

scaffolding, which looks as though it might not be removed for years. As

a restorative policy this is commendable and was necessary, but it

detracts from one's intimate acquaintance with details. About the only

lasting impression of the nave that can now be obtained is that its

proportions are superb, and that its cylindrical pillars, with their

foliaged capitals, would be notable anywhere.

In general effect the choir is charming, having gone through the

restorative process and apparently suffered little thereby. It presents

the unusual basilica form of setting the altar forward on a platform

raised a few steps.

The transepts are of quite idyllic proportions, each possessing an ample

rose window which makes up in design and framing what it may lack in the

quality of glass with which it is set. These transepts, too, have

undergone the usual restoration, and have come safely through with

little sad effect. It is to be hoped that these continued restorations

will be carried out with the same good taste, and in a like consistent

manner. If so, there will be presented for the delectation of

generations of the near future one of the most pleasing of the smaller

cathedrals in all France. The triforium of the choir, and of the nave so

far as it can be observed through the obstructing scaffolding, is

singularly light and graceful, and the window framing throughout, though

entirely lacking notable glass, is of manifest good design.

In fine, then, the general effect of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Seez

is one of lightness and grace, and it may be considered as an

extraordinarily fine architectural monument, in spite of the anomalies

of its west front.

The twin spires rise gracefully for perhaps two hundred and fifty feet,

and are after the best manner of the great Gothic builders; of true

proportions, and of the dwindling pyramidal form so much approved.

The facade, between the towers and the extraordinary buttresses, is

completely filled with an ample Gothic portal, which, though entirely

destitute of sculpture, or indeed carving of any sort, offers a

significant opportunity for some future efforts in this direction.

[Illustration: _CATHEDRAL of NOTRE DAME BAYEUX_]

VI

NOTRE DAME DE BAYEUX

The magnificently impressive Cathedral of Notre Dame is perhaps less

intimately associated with Bayeux in the average mind than is the

wonderful story-telling tapestry which is domiciled in the same city. As

for this treasure of the past, it is a subject so vast, and of such

great significance, in both history and art, that it has many times been

made the subject of weighty consideration. A well-known English amateur,

the Honourable E. J. Lowell, has stated that popular tradition has

credited it as the handiwork of Matilda, Queen of William the

Conqueror, who worked it to commemorate his glorious achievements. If

this be really so, the queen was probably assisted largely by the ladies

of her court, as the extensive work, measuring some hundred and sixty

odd feet, could hardly have been accomplished single-handed. Professor

Freeman assigns it to a similar period, but worked, as he thinks, by

English workmen, for Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's

half-brother.

A previous acquaintance with the great cathedrals of the Isle of France

will tend somewhat to nullify the effect which is produced by Notre Dame

de Bayeux, although, in point of size and general arrangements, at

least, it fulfils its functions perhaps more acceptably than many a more

renowned edifice. Its situation, on the side of a steep slope, produces

a curious effect, first, with respect to the choir chevet, which is thus

shown as rather gaunt and bare in its lower elongated stages, though

undeniably a fine work in itself; secondly, in the general interior view

where, from the western entrance, one comes upon the nave pavement a

dozen or more steps below the portal, and again meets with the same

effect further on at the transept crossing. There would appear to have

been no other way but this of placing above ground what might otherwise

have been the crypt; adding immeasurably to the fine appearance of the

interior, the nave and choir appearing to lengthen out interminably by

reason of the western elevation from which they are viewed.

A portion of the western towers, and the crypt which is beneath the

choir, are thought to date from as early as the eleventh century, having

been built by Odo, the half-brother of William the Norman. The

splendidly proportioned Norman nave, with its decorated spandrels and

archivolts, a worthy decorative embellishment developed before the days

of coloured glass, possesses that bright and fresh appearance which is

usually associated with a recent work, whereas, as a matter of fact, it

can hardly be, in its five circular arches at least, later than the late

eleventh or early twelfth century. If it were true that modern

restorative processes commonly disfigured no more than this, it is a

pity that the dust and cobwebs, and a little of the grime of ages, were

not more often removed. Here is the very excess of dog-tooth, arabesque,

and grotesque carving, never found in connection with a building which

is constructively decorative. Here also is an ornate frieze of no great

depth and possessing none of the beauties of the two other distinct

elements. As there is no triforium in the nave proper, this decoration

is, of course, intended merely as a relief to a bareness which, on

account of the generous height, would otherwise exist.

In the choir, the triforium, which is omitted in the nave, springs into

being in beautiful and ornate form. The lower arches, with the supports,

the attributed work of an English architect, are of the usual Gothic

form, in contra-distinction to the rounded heads of those of the nave.

The clerestory, though delicate and graceful, is somewhat curtailed from

the dimensions of that of the west end of the church.

The transepts are unusually bright and cheerful, with a series of

windows more beautifully designed than those of either the choir or

nave. The choir stalls are of oak, carved in the best manner of the

Renaissance.

The charming tower group of this cathedral is as effective, perhaps, as

any among all the northern churches. The central belfry, albeit of a

base, though pretentious, rococo design, follows no accepted style, but

adds imposingly to the general outline. (Its height is over three

hundred feet.) In this tower, as in the window tracery, the

_fleur-de-lys_, always a sign of the decadent in Gothic style, is to be

seen. The western towers, with their spires, follow the truest pyramidal

form, and, though carrying both pointed and round-arched openings, are

in every way representative of the best work of their period. The

northwesterly tower has an elongated turret, extending from the lower

ranges, which, when seen from a distance over the roof of the nave,

appears as a protuberance not unlike a dove-cote. This contains the

spiral staircase up which visitors are earnestly implored, by the

caretaker, to wend their way and participate in the view from the

heights above. This view, though undeniably wider in range than are most

elevated view-points, is hardly of interest to one who seeks the

beauties of the structure itself. There are three porches on the west

facade, all fairly well filled with foliaged ornament and bas-reliefs.

They are of the thirteenth century, and of a thoroughly florid order.

Included in the "_tresor_" are two gifts from St. Louis, the chasuble of

St. Regnobert, and an ivory and enamel casket.

[Illustration: _CATHEDRAL of NOTRE DAME SAINT LO_]

VII

NOTRE DAME DE ST. LO

This picturesquely situated city of the Cotentin, St. Lo, is so named

from the Bishop St. Laud, who lived in the neighbourhood in the sixth

century. Later, it became a Huguenot stronghold, and was ably, though

unsuccessfully, defended by Colombiers. It forms, with its former

Cathedral of Notre Dame crowning its height, another of those ensembles

which will always linger in the memory of the traveller who first comes

upon it clad in spring and summer verdure. The rippling Vire at its very

feet gives at once the note; it not only binds and enwraps it like the

setting of a precious stone, but adds that one feature which, lacking,

would be a chord misplaced. Perhaps no other cathedral in all France,

with regard to its bijou setting, certainly no other so accessible to

the English tourist, has more dainty charm than this not very grand, but

graceful, church at St. Lo. Its towers, though not uniform as to size,

are of apparently the same gradual proportions, and, if not the most

impressive, are at least the most beautiful in Normandy. They rise high

above the wooded crest which encircles their base in true picture-book

fashion. The attraction of the river, here, is unusual, in that it

presents no accustomed "slummy" picturesqueness, but winds slowly, amid

its green, to the very base of the cliff which upholds the chief portion

of the town and its cathedral.

The facade presents a _melange_ of the work of at least three epochs, a

not unusual feature in some of the smaller cathedrals. It has a mean

little house built into its northwest corner, a crude and ugly

clock-face stuck unmeaningly on its facade, and a general air of

dilapidation, with respect to the statues originally contained in its

archivolts and niches, which, to say the least, is not creditable to

those who have been responsible for its care. It would seem that so

lively and important a centre of local activity might have devoted a

little more thought and care to the maintenance of this charming

building.

Built up from a foundation of which but little, if any portion, visibly

remains, Notre Dame shows a debasement of design and decoration of its

facade which is not only not admirable, but is, in addition, sadly

disfigured. The one detail, for the most part good in style, is a not

unduly florid arcade, which plainly indicates its superiority over the

rest of the building.

On the north side is an open-air pulpit of stone overhung with a canopy,

a highly interesting detail, though, of course, not a unique one. Unable

to command admiration as an absolute novelty, it is assuredly a charming

feature, and is delicately and profusely sculptured. It suggests much in

conjunction with the busy life of the rather squalid neighbouring

market-place, whose only picturesque attribute is when it is crowded

with the gaiety of a market or a fete day. By far the most compelling

interest in the building, after an inspection of its interior, is the

view to be had from a distance.

The nave is late Gothic, and widens out in curious fashion toward the

east; otherwise the interior arrangements are not remarkable. One

bulbous chapel on the south side supplants the usual transept.

There is no triforium either in choir or nave, the lighting principally

being effected by the large windows of the aisles.

It is pertinent to recall here that one of Charlemagne's own foundations

of the ninth century, destroyed by the barbarians, was situated near by,

the famous Abbey of St. Croix.

[Illustration: _Notre Dame de Coutances_]

VIII

NOTRE DAME DE COUTANCES

Like many another town of western Normandy, like Falise, Domfront, St.

Lo, Granville, Avranches, and Mont St. Michel itself, Coutances rises

high above the surrounding plain and stands dominant in the landscape

for miles on either hand. Of perhaps more magnitude, as to area, than

any of the other examples, the city has the added attribute of three

towered ecclesiastical edifices, which rise nobly in varying stages far

over the neighbouring roof-tops of the town itself and the tree-clad

slopes which embank it.

The oldest of the Norman Gothic cathedrals, and that which partakes the

most of local character, is Notre Dame de Coutances. Certain French

archaeologists have said that the main body of the church is actually

that of the eleventh century. It is more likely, however, that none of

the building at present in view is earlier than the thirteenth century,

the epoch during which contemporaneous Gothic first grew to its

maturity. In any event, such building and construction was going on from

1208 to 1233 as would indicate that it was the entire present edifice

which was being planned at that time. In this case it is quite possible

that the rebuilding was going on slowly, foot by foot, in a manner which

not only encompassed and absorbed the older building, but in reality

eradicated every vestige of it. Says a French writer of enthusiasm, "The

Cathedral of Coutances, as it now stands, is one of the most noble and

grand religious edifices in France, with all the qualities of a monument

of the first order, of perfect dimension, beauty of plan, unity of

workmanship, and distinction of form." Any one of these attributes, were

it literally so, might well turn a commonplace structure into an

unapproachable masterpiece. In a measure, all of his eulogy is quite

true, and the pity is that more do not know of its fascination and

charm.

The facade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame is of the indigenous

Norman-Gothic type. The fine towers, in addition to combining the

symmetrical elements of Gothic, have, each, as well, a flanking

towerlet, attached to their outer sides, enclosing a spiral stairway.

These extend to quite the full height of the tower proper; and, though

by no means a wholly attractive feature, are not as offensive as might

at first be supposed. It is doubtful, in fact, if the general strength

and impressiveness of the entire structure would not be impaired were

the arrangements otherwise.

The present ogival structure is built on the remains of a Romanesque

church erected by a famous Bishop of Coutances, Geoffroy de Montbray,

with funds supplied by Guillaume Bras-de-Fer, Odon, Roger, Onfroy, and

Robert, sons of Tancrede-de-Hauteville, the Norman conquerors of Sicily

and Calabria, whose names have been given fabled prominence in more than

one epic poem. The early structure was consecrated in 1056, in the

presence of William, then Duke of Normandy, a few years before he became

the Conqueror. Supposedly none of this former church remains; in fact,

what fragments, if any, exist, are doubtless covered in the present

foundations.

Mainly, the present structure is thirteenth-century work, with a

lady-chapel of the fourteenth century.

An unusual, and exceedingly beautiful, effect is given by the Gothic

window mullions, between the chapels, in reality a series of

geometrical window-frames, without glass. No florid ornament either

inside or out is to be found to offend against accepted ideals. In

short, "the whole is of a piece complete." The parapets of triforium and

clerestory, with foliaged carvings, are about the only ornate

decorations to be seen.

The central tower, of great proportions, but incomplete as to the

addition of a spire, is a marvel of strength and power. Its interior,

elaborately decorated, forms a lantern at the crossing. Here, as at

Bayeux, the choir is raised a few steps above its aisles, giving a

certain impressiveness beyond what might otherwise exist.

The interior, generally, is admirable. Clustered columns, as they are

commonly called,--in reality they are clustered pillars, if word

derivations are to be considered,--separate both nave and choir from the

aisles; and, in case of the choir, a series of elongated circular

pillars are coupled, one behind the other, an unquestionably unique

arrangement.

The transepts are practically non-existent, as the widening does not

extend beyond the extent of the nave chapels. This leaves the

ground-plan, at least, a mere parallelogram with a rounded eastern end.

Notre Dame de Coutances is one of the few really great Gothic churches

not possessing an example of those French masterworks, the rose window.

Again referring to the fine tower group, it is probably true that, were

the huge central tower properly spired, the ensemble would rival Laon in

regard to its impressive situation and elaborate pinnacles.

St. Pierre, of the fifteenth century, and St. Nicolas, of the

fourteenth, complete the trinity of fine churches which Coutances

possesses. The latter contains the unusual arrangement in a Continental

church of pews in place of chairs, although formerly, it is said, this

feature was not uncommon in Normandy.

The somewhat considerable remains of a Roman acqueduct, near by, are

sufficiently remarkable to warrant passing consideration, even by the

"mere lover of churches."

[Illustration]

IX

ST. PIERRE D'AVRANCHES

There is little to recount concerning the See of Avranches. Its

bishopric and its cathedral were alike destroyed during the parlous

times of the bickerings and ravages of Royalists and Republicans of the

Revolutionary period. All that remains to-day is a trifling heap of

stones which would hardly fill a row-boat,--a fragment of a shaft on

which is a tablet reading:

"ON THIS STONE,

HERE AT THE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL OF AVRANCHES,

AFTER THE MURDER OF THOMAS A BECKET,

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,

HENRY II.,

KING OF ENGLAND AND DUKE OF NORMANDY,

RECEIVED ON HIS KNEES,

FROM THE LEGATES OF THE POPE,

THE APOSTOLIC ABSOLUTION,

ON SUNDAY, 22D MAY 1172."

At its feet is another slab, the aforementioned door-step, on which,

before the papal legate, the remorseful monarch did penance before his

later expiation at Canterbury.

A little farther on is a small heap consisting of shafts and capitals of

columns, a stone sarcophagus and a brass plate stating that they are the

"Derniers restes de la cathedrale d'Avranches; commencee vers 1090 et

consacree par l'eveque Turgis en 1121." The nave having fallen in, the

rest of the edifice had to be taken down in 1799.

Because of its picturesque environment and situation, Avranches is

perhaps a more than ordinarily attractive setting for a shrine, and it

is well worthy of the attention of the passing traveller, in spite of

its ancient cathedral being now but a heap of stones. Apart from this

it is of little interest, and hence, to most, it will probably remain,

in the words of a French traveller, a mere "silhouette in the distance."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: _CATHEDRAL of S. SAMSON DOL_]

X

ST. SAMSON, DOL-DE-BRETAGNE

The one-time Cathedral of St. Samson, at Dol, is, says an unusually

expressive Frenchman, "a grand, noble, and severe church, now widowed of

its bishops. Its aspect is desolate and abandoned, as if it were but a

ruin _en face sur la grande place_, of itself, but a mere desert of

scrub." This is certainly a vivid and forceful description of even a

wholly unprepossessing shrine. This St. Samson is not, and due allowance

should be made for verbal modelling which, in many cases, is but the

mere expression of a mood _pro tempo_. There is, however, somewhat of

truth in the description. About the granite walls there is a grimness

and gauntness of decay; of changed plans and projects; of devastation;

of restoration; and, finally, of what is, apparently, submission to the

inevitableness of time.

The enormous northwesterly tower is stopped suddenly, with the daylight

creeping through its very framework. Its facade is certainly bare of

ornament, and gives a thorough illustration of paucity of design as well

as of detail. There is, indeed, nothing in the west facade to compel

admiration, and yet there is a fascination about it that to some will be

irresistible.

A sixteenth-century porch, of suggested Burgundian style, forms the main

entrance to the church, and is situated midway along the south side.

Almost directly opposite, on the north, is the curiously contrasting

feature of a crenelated battlement, a reminder of the time when the

church was doubtless a temporal as well as a spiritual stronghold.

The interior, as the exterior, is gloomy and melancholy. One has only to

contemplate the collection of ludicrously slender clustered columns of

the nave, bound together with markedly visible iron strands, to realize

the real weakness of the means by which the fabric has been kept alive.

The nave itself is of true proportions, and, regardless of the severity

of its lines, and the ludicrous pillars, is undeniably fine in effect.

A curiously squared choir-end, but with the small apsed lady-chapel

extending beyond, is another of those curious details which stand out in

a way to be remarked in a French church. In this squared end, and above

the arch made by the pillars of the choir aisle, is a large pointed

window filled with ancient glass which must have been inserted soon

after the church was reconstructed after the fire in the twelfth

century.

The general effect of the nave and aisles is one of extreme narrowness,

which perhaps is not so much really the case when actual measurements

are taken.

In general, the church is supposed by many to resemble the distinct type

of Gothic as it is known across the Channel; and, admitting for the

nonce that possibly many of the Brittany structures were the work of

English builders, this church, in the absence of any records as to who

were its architects, may well be counted as of that number.

The stalls of the choir are of delicately carved wood, before which is

placed a monumental bishop's throne, with elaborate armorial

embellishments. A Renaissance tomb of the sixteenth century, by a pupil

of Michel Colomb, now much injured in its sculptured details of angels

and allegorical figures, is locally considered the "show-piece" of the

church.

[Illustration: _S. MALO & S. SERVAN_]

[Illustration: _TREGUIER_]

XI

ST. MALO AND ST. SERVAN

Welshmen throughout the world rejoice that it was one of their

countrymen, a monk of the sixth century, who gave his name as founder to

the "walled city of St. Malo by the sea." With its outlying and

contiguous towns of St. Servan, Dinan, and Parame, St. Malo is a

paradise for the mere lover of pleasure resorts. Further, with respect

to the first three places mentioned, there is present not a little of

the romance and history of the past, reflected as it were in a modern

mirror. Not but that the old town of St. Malo, within the walls, is

ancient and picturesque enough, and dirty, too, if one be speciously

critical; but the fact is that the modern Pont Roulant, and the omnific

toot of the steam-tram, ever present in one's sight and hearing, are

forcible reminders of the march of time.

St. Servan, so far as its cathedral is concerned, may be dismissed in a

word. The ancient see of St. Pierre d'Aleth had, at one time, its

dignity vested in a bishop who enthroned himself in a cathedral, the

remains of which exist to-day only as a fragment built into the

fortifications. The bishopric was removed in 1142 to St. Malo.

With St. Malo a difference exists. Its cathedral, now degenerated to a

parish church, is a Gothic work mainly of the fifteenth century, and,

regardless of its unimposing qualities, is one of those fascinating old

buildings which, in its environment and surroundings, appeals perhaps

more largely to us as a component of a whole than as a feature to be

admired by itself. The church, safely sheltered from the ravage of gale

and storm, sits amid narrow winding streets, whose buildings are so

compressed as to rise to heights unusual in the smaller Continental

towns.

The edifice is mainly of the fifteenth century, but has been variously

renovated and restored. Gothic, Renaissance, and the transition between

the two are plainly discernible throughout. Perhaps the best art to be

noted is that found in the interior of the choir, with its fine

triforium and clerestory windows above. Here, again, is to be observed

the squared east end of the English contemporary church, a further

reminder, if it be needed, of the influences which were bound to be more

or less exchanged with regard to the arts and customs of the time, on

both shores of _La Manche_.

A few features of passing interest are here, an ivory crucifix, a few

tombs, and some indifferent paintings.

The spire is modern, but gives a suggestion, at least, in viewing the

city from a distance, of something of what a mediaeval walled seaport,

with its population huddled close beneath the shadow of the church, and

within the city walls, must have been like. The best example of this

which ever existed in mediaeval France, and which exists to-day in a more

than ordinary remarkable state of preservation, is the famous Mount St.

Michel, a few miles only to the eastward, and famed of all, historian,

ecclesiast, artist, and mere pleasure-seeker, alike. Most writers are

pleased to refer to the confiding attitude of mine host, who conducts

the principal hostelry on the Mount, and who guilelessly asks the wary

traveller (ofttimes they _are_ wary) what he has partaken of during his

stay, and makes up the account accordingly. This is, perhaps, not the

least of attributive charms, though it should be a minor one where this

wonderful and real Mount, which takes its name from legendary St.

Michel, is concerned. Indeed, leaving the cathedrals at Rouen, Chartres,

and Le Mans out of the question, it is doubtful if the Abbey of Mont St.

Michel is not the chief remaining architectural glory of the middle

ages, west of Paris.

It is but a short distance from St. Malo to St. Servan, but what a

difference! It is called by the French themselves the daughter of St.

Malo,--the "faubourg grown into a city."

Rabida's "Bretagne" states that there are "nombreux des Anglais a St.

Servan, des jeunes gens vivant dans les pensions brittaniques--des

familles venant l'ete faire en Bretagne une cure d'economies pour

l'hiver." Continuing, this discerning author says: "Bathers, bicyclists,

golfists, promenaders, and excursionists abound." Better then let them

hold forth here to their hearts' content; there is little that the lover

of churches will gain from what remains to-day of the town's former

Cathedral of St. Pierre.

XII

TREGUIER

This old cathedral city, at the junction of two small streamlets, a

short distance from the sea, lies perhaps a dozen miles away from the

nearest railway. With St. Pol de Leon and St. Brieuc it is, in local

characteristics and customs alike, a something apart from any other

community in northern France. The Bretons are commonly accredited as

being a most devout race, and certainly devotion could take no more

marked turn than the many evidences here to be seen in this "land of

Calvaries." St. Brieuc is a bishopric, suffragan of Rennes, whose

cathedral is a hideous modern structure of the early nineteenth century

quite unworthy as a shrine; but Treguier's power waned with the

Revolution. Its fourteenth-century church, however, is sufficiently

remarkable by reason of its situation and surroundings, none the less

than in its fabric, to warrant a deviation from well-worn roads in

order to visit it. Chiefly of a late period, it possesses in the Tour de

Hasting, named after the Danish pirate (though why seems obscure), which

enfolds the north transept, a work of the best eleventh-century class.

This should place the church, at once, within the scope of the

designation of a "transition" type. In this tower the windows and

pilasters are of the characteristic round variety of the period. The

south porch is the most highly developed feature as to Mediaeval style,

but the attraction lies mainly in its ensembled massiveness, with its

two sturdy towers and a ridiculously spired south _clocher_. Beyond a

certain grimness of fabric the church fails, not a little, to impress

one with even simple grandeur, even when one takes into consideration

the charms of its florid but firmly designed cloister, which, with the

church itself, is classed by the _Departement des Beaux Arts_ as one of

the twenty-three hundred "_Monumentes Historiques_." Nevertheless, the

building proves more than ordinarily gratifying, though by no stretch of

the imagination could it be classed as grand.

Loftiness and grandeur are equally lacking in the interior, and there is

great variation of style with respect to the pillars of nave and choir.

This is also the case with the windows, which play the gamut from the

severe round-headed Romanesque to the latest flamboyant development, a

feature which not only disregards most conventions, but, as every one

will admit, most flagrantly offends, with sad results, against the

general constructive elements. A plain triforium, in the nave, blossoms

out, in the south transept and choir, in no hesitating manner, into

exceeding richness. The choir has an apsidal termination and contains

carved wooden stalls which are classed as work of the mid-seventeenth

century, though appearing much more time-worn.

The really popular attribute of the church lies in the reconstructed

monument to St. Yves, the patron saint of advocates, and commonly

considered the most popular in all the Brittany calendar.

Born near Treguier in 1253, St. Yves' "unheard-of probity and

consideration for the sick and the poor" gained such general respect

that, with his death on the nineteenth of May, 1303, there was

inaugurated a great feast which to-day is yearly celebrated, and all

grieving against a real or fancied wrong have recourse promptly to the

supposedly just favour of this universal patron of the law.

[Illustration: S. BRIEUC]

XIII

ST. BRIEUC

Unlike many of the smaller towns which contain cathedral churches, St.

Brieuc is a present day bishopric; hence the Cathedral takes on,

perhaps, more significance than it would, were it but an example of a

Mediaeval church.

In reality it is not a very wonderful structure, and the guide-books

will tell one practically nothing about it. The town itself is a dull

place, a tidal port, at some little distance from the sea, which flushes

in upon it twice during the round of the clock.

A monastery was founded here in the fifth century by St. Brieuc, from

whom the town itself and the present cathedral take their name. He was a

Celtic monk from Wales, who, upon being expelled from his native land,

located his establishment here, on the site of a former Gallo-Roman

town. The patronal feast of St. Brieuc is held each year on the first of

May and is a curious survival of a mediaeval custom.

Some remains of an early church are built into the choir walls, but in

the main this not very grand edifice is of the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries.

The tower, with its loopholes, would supposedly indicate that the church

was likewise intended as somewhat of a fortification. The apse is

rounded in the usual form, and on either side extend transepts to the

width of two bays.

Within, the Cathedral is more attractive than without. The elements of

construction and embellishment, while perhaps not ranking with those of

the really great churches, are sufficiently vivid and lively to indicate

that the work was consciously and enthusiastically undertaken. The

lady-chapel is of the thirteenth century, and the transept rose is of

the fifteenth, as is also the Chapel of St. Guillaume, named for the

monk of Dijon who built so many of the monasteries throughout Brittany

and who, it is to be presumed, planned or built the original structure,

the remains of which are found in the present choir.

The windows throughout are either of not very good modern glass, or of

plain leaded lights, which, in the majority of cases, may be considered

as no less an attraction. An elaborate rose is in the western gable.

There are, in the church, various monuments and tombs to former

bishops.

XIV

ST. POL DE LEON

In the midst of that land which furnishes the south of England with most

of its cauliflowers, artichokes, onions, and asparagus, truly off the

beaten track, in that it is actually off the line of railway, is the

strange and melancholy city of St. Pol de Leon, its _clochers_

dominating, by day at least, both land and sea. It contains the famous

"Kreisker," a name which sounds as though it were Dutch or North German,

which it probably is along with other place names on the near-by coast,

such as Grouin, St. Vaast, Roscoff, and La Hougue.

The tower and spire of this wonderful "Kreisker" rise boldly, from the

transept crossing, in remarkable fashion, and as a marvel of

construction may be said to far outrank the cathedral structure itself.

"Curious and clever" well describes it. As for the former cathedral over

which the Kreisker throws its shadow, it is one of those majestic

twin-towered structures not usually associated with what, when compared

with the larger French towns, must perforce rank as a mere village.

There is much to be said in favour of these little-known near-by places,

namely, that the charm of their attractions amply repays one for any

special labour involved in getting to them, with the additional

advantage, regardless of the fact that a stranger appears somewhat to

the native as a curiosity, that they are "good value for the money

paid." Perhaps the cheapest Continental tour, of say three weeks, that

could be taken, amid a constantly changing environment, if one so

choose, would comprehend this land of Calvaries.

The two cathedral towers of early Gothic flank a generous porch. There

is good glass throughout the church, the circular "rose" of the transept

being a magnificent composition in a granite framing. The nave is of

thirteenth-century Gothic, from the south aisle of which projects a

large chapel dedicated to St. Michael. The double-aisled choir is

garnished with sculptured stalls of the fifteenth century, and,

separated from its aisles by a stone screen, is of much larger

proportions than the nave, and likewise of a later epoch of building.

The apse is flamboyant, as are also the windows of the south transept.

In the chapels are various vaults and tombs, remarkably well preserved,

but of no special moment. In one of these chapels, however, is a curious

painting in the vaulting, representing a "Trinity" possessing three

faces, disposed in the form of a trefoil with three eyes only. A ribbon

or "_banderalle_" bears an inscription in Gothic characters; in the

Breton tongue, "_Ma Donez_" (Mon Dieu).

XV

ST. CORENTIN DE QUIMPER

"C'est Quimper, ce melange du passe et du present." A true enough

description of most mediaeval cities when viewed to-day; but with no

centre of habitation is it more true than of this city by the

sea,--though in reality it is not by the sea, but rather of it, with a

port always calm and tranquil. It takes rank with Brest as the western

outpost of modern France.

For centuries unconquered, and possessing an individuality of its very

own, this now important prefecture has much to remind us of its past.

History, archaeology, and "mere antiquarian lore" abound, and, in its

grandiose Cathedral of St. Corentin, one finds a large subject for his

appreciative consideration.

[Illustration: ST. CORENTIN _de QUIMPER_ ...]

It is of the robust and matured type that familiarity has come to regard

as representative of a bishopric; nothing is impoverished or

curtailed. Its fine towers with modern spires, erected from the proceeds

of a "butter tax," are broad of base and delicately and truly

proportioned. Its ground-plan is equally worthy, though the choir is not

truly orientated. Its general detail and ensemble, one part with

another, is all that fancy has told us a great church should contain,

and one can but be prepared to appreciate it when it is endorsed, and

commented on, by such ardent admirers as De Caumont, Viollet-le-Duc,

Corroyer, and Gonse, those four accomplished Frenchmen, who probably

knew more concerning Mediaeval (Gothic) architecture than all the rest of

the world put together.

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century there grew up here a work

embracing the ogival and the flamboyant, neither in an undue proportion,

but as well as in any other single structure known. This well shows the

rise, development, and apogee of the style which we commonly call

Gothic, but which the French prefer to call "ogival," and which should

really, if one is to fairly apportion credit where it is due, be best

known as French Mediaeval architecture.

Its west facade, with its generous lines, is strongly original. The two

towers, pierced with enormously heightened lancets, are indubitably

graceful and impressive, while a flanking pair of flying buttresses,

with their intermediate piers, form an unusual arrangement in the west

front of a French cathedral.

Above the western gable is a curiously graven effigy of King Grollo in

stone.

Considered as a whole, the exterior is representative of the best

contemporary features of the time, but contains few if any which are so

distinctly born of its environment as to be otherwise notable.

The interior vies with the outer portion of the fabric in the general

effect of majesty and good design. The triforium is remarkably beautiful

and is overtopped by a range of clerestory windows which to an

appreciable extent contain good early glass. The easterly end is the

usual semicircular apse.

Among the relics of the Cathedral is a crucifix which is supposed to

emit drops of blood when one perjures himself before it. It is, perhaps,

significant that the people of Finistere, the department which claims

Quimper as its capital, have the repute of being honest folk.

The Bishops of Quimper were, by virtue of the gift of _le roi Grodlon le

Grave_, the only seigneurs of the city during the middle ages.

XVI

VANNES

Vannes was the ancient capital of the Celtic tribe of the Veneti, its

inhabitants being put to rout by Caesar in 57 B. C. Afterward it became

the Roman town of Duriorigum, and later reverted back to a corruption of

its former name. Christianity having made some progress, a council was

held, and a bishop appointed to the city, and from that time onward its

position in the Christian world appears to have been assured. For

centuries afterward, however, it was the centre of a maelstrom of

internal strife, in which Armoricans, Britons, Franks, and Romans appear

to have been inextricably involved. Then came the Northmen, who burned

the former Cathedral of St. Peter. This was rebuilt in the eleventh

century, and in no small measure forms the foundation of the present

structure, which to-day is the seat of a bishop, suffragan of Rennes.

From this early architectural foundation, to the most florid and

flamboyant of late Gothic, is pretty much the whole range of Mediaeval

architectural style. By no means has a grand or even fine structure

resulted. The old choir, suffering from the stress of time, was pulled

down and rebuilt as late as 1770. Thus, this usually excellently

appointed and constructed detail is here of no worthy rank whatever. The

nave and transepts were completed within the hundred years following

1452, and show the last flights of Gothic toward the heights from which

it afterward fell. Transformation and restoration have frequently been

undertaken, with the result that nowhere is to be seen perhaps greater

inconsistencies. The latest of these examples of a perverted industry is

seen in the nineteenth-century additions to the tower and the west

facade. The result is not, be it said, to the credit of its projectors.

THE END.

_Appendices_

I

_The Architectural Divisions of France_

It is quite possible to construct an ethnographic map of a country from

its architectural remains,--but there must always be diverse and varying

opinions as to the delimitation of one school, as compared with another

lying contiguous thereto.

One may wander from province to province, and continually find

reminders, of another manner of building, from that which is recognized

as the characteristic local species. This could hardly be otherwise. In

the past, as in the present, imitators were not few, and if the adoption

of new, or foreign, ideas was then less rapid, it was no less sure.

Still, in the main, there is a cohesiveness and limitation of

architectural style in France; which, as is but natural to suppose, is

in no way more clearly defined than by the churches which were built

during the middle ages, the earliest types retaining the influence of

massive forms, and the later again debasing itself to a heavy classical

order, neither a copy of anything of a pre-Gothic era, or a happy

development therefrom. Between the two, in a period of scarcely more

than three hundred years, there grew up and developed the ingenious and

graceful pointed style, in all its fearlessness and unconvention.

Political causes had, perhaps, somewhat to do with the confining of a

particular style well within the land of its birth, but on the other

hand, warfare carried with it invasion and conquest of new sections, and

its followers, in a measure, may be said to have carried with them

certain of their former arts, accomplishments, and desires; and so grew

up the composite and mixed types which are frequently met with.

There are a dozen or more architectural styles in what is known as the

France of to-day. The Provencal (more properly, says Fergusson, it

should be called "Gallia Narbonese,") one of the most beautiful and

clearly defined of all; the Burgundian, with its suggestion of

luxuriance and, if not massiveness, at least grandeur; the Auvergnian,

lying contiguous to both the above, with a style peculiarly its own,

though of an uncompromising southern aspect; Acquitanian, defining the

style which lies between Provence, the Auvergnat and the Pyrenees, and a

type quite different from either. The Angevinian, which extends

northward from Limoges to Normandy and Brittany, and northeasterly

nearly to Orleans, is a species difficult to place--it partakes largely

of southern influence, but is usually thought to merit a nomenclature of

its own, as distinct from the type found at Anjou. Turning now to the

northern or Frankish influence, as distinct from the Romance countries;

Brittany joins to no slight degree influences of each region; Normandy

partakes largely of the characteristics of the type of Central France,

which is thoroughly dominated by that indigenous to the Isle of France,

which species properly might include the Bourbonnais and Nivernoise

variants, as being something of a distinct type, though resembling, in

occasional details, southern features. This list, with the addition of

French Flanders, with its Lowland types, completes the arrangement, if

we except Alsace and Lorraine, which favour the German manner of

building rather more than any of the native French types.

II

_A List of the Departments of France, and of the Ancient Provinces from

which they have been evolved._

_Provinces and date of _Departements_ _Chefs-Lieux_

union with France_

Ile de France, with La Seine Paris

Brie, etc. Always held Seine-et-Oise Versailles

by the Crown Seine-et-Marne Melun

Oise Beauvais

Aisne Laon

Picardie. Louis XIV, 1667 Somme Amiens

Artois and Boulonnais. Pas-de-Calais Arras

1640

Flandre and Hainault Nord Lille

Francais. Louis XIV.

1667-1669

Normandie. Philippe Seine-Inferieure Rouen

Auguste, 1204 Eure Evreux

Calvados Caen

Orne Alencon

Manche Saint-Lo

Bretagne. Francois I. Ille-et-Vilaine Rennes

1532 Cotes-du-Nord Saint-Brieux

Finisterre Quimper

Morbihan Vannes

Loire-Inferieure Nantes

Orleanais. Louis XII. Loiret Orleans

1498 Loir-et-Cher Blois

Beauce and Pays Chartrain Eure-et-Loire Chartres

Maine. Louis XI. 1481 Sarthe Le Mans

Mayenne Laval

Anjou. Louis XI. 1481 Maine-et-Loire Angers

Touraine. Henri III. 1584 Indre-et-Loire Tours

Poitou. Charles VI. 1416 Vendee Bourbon-Vendee

Deux-Sevres Niort

Vienne Poitiers

Berri. Philippe I. 1100 Indre Chateauroux

Cher Bourges

Marche. Francois I. 1531 Creuse Gueret

Limousin. Charles V. Haute-Vienne Limoges

1370 Correze Tulle

Angoumois. Charles V. Charente Angouleme

1370

Saintonge and Aunis. Charente-Inferieure La Rochelle

1370

Guienne and Gascogne. Dordogne Perigueux

Charles VII. 1451 Gironde Bordeaux

Lot-et-Garonne Agen

Lot Cahors

Tarn-et-Garonne Montauban

Aveyron Rodez

Gers Auch

Hautes-Pyrenees Tarbes

Landes Mont-de-Marsan

Bearn and French Navarre. Basses-Pyrenees Pau

Louis XIII.

Comte de Foix. Louis XIII. Ariege Foix

Roussillon. 1659 Pyrenees-Orientales Perpignan

Languedoc. John, 1361 Haute-Garonne Toulouse

Tarn Albi

Aude Carcassonne

Herault Montpellier

Gard Nimes

Vivarais Ardeche Privas

Gevaudan Lozere Mende

Velay Haute-Loire Le Puy

Comtat Venaissin, Orange, Vaucluse Avignon

etc. Louis XIV. 1713

Provence. Louis XI. 1481 Bouches-du-Rhone Marseille

Var Draguignan

Basses-Alpes Digne

Dauphine. Philippe de Isere Grenoble

Valois, 1343 Drome Valence

Hautes-Alpes Gap

Lyonnais and Beaujolais Rhone Lyon

Forez Loire St. Etienne

Auvergne. Philippe Auguste, Puy-de-Dome Clermont

1210 Cantal Aurillac

Bourbonnais. Louis XII. Allier Moulins

1505

Nivernais. Charles VII. Nievre Nevers

1457

Bresse, Bugey, etc. Ain Bourg

Bourgogne (duche). Louis Saone-et-Loire Macon

XI. 1477 Cote-d'Or Dijon

Yonne Auxerre

Comte de Bourgogne, or Doubs Besancon

Franche-Comte. Peace Jura Lons-le-Saulnier

of Nimeguen, 1678 Haute-Saone Vesoul

Champagne. Philippe le Aube Troyes.

Bel, 1284 Marne Chalons-sur-Marne

Haute-Marne Chaumont

Ardennes Mezieres

Lorraine.[*] On the death Meurthe and Moselle Nancy

of Stanislas Leczinsky, Meuse Bar-le-Duc

1766 Vosges Epinal

Alsace.[*] Louis XIV. 1648 Territory of Belfort Belfort

Haut-Rhin Colmar

Corsica. 1794. Corse Ajaccio

Comte de Nice. 1861 Alpes Maritimes Nice

Savoy Savoie Chambery

Haute-Savoie Annecy

[*] The greater part of these provinces as they formerly stood

were ceded to Germany, May 10, 1871.

III

_The Church in France_

_La France Catholique_ is to-day divided into eighty-four dioceses,

administered, as to spiritual affairs, by seventeen archbishops and

sixty-seven bishops. To each diocese is attached a seminary for the

instruction of those who aspire to the priesthood. Each chief town of a

canton has its _cure_, each parish its _desservant_.

_Archbishops and Bishops_ _Dioceses_

PARIS Seine

Chartres Eure-et-Loire

Meaux Seine-et-Marne

Orleans Loiret

Blois Loir-et-Cher

Versailles Seine-et-Oise

CAMBRAI Nord

Arras Pas-de-Calais

LYON-ET-VIENNE Rhone, Loire

Autun Saone-et-Loire

Langres Haute-Marne

Dijon Cote-d'Or

Sainte Claude Jura

Grenoble Isere

BOURGES Cher-et-Indre

Clermont Puy-de-Dome

Limoges Haute-Vienne et Creuse

Le Puy Haute-Loire

Tulle Correze

Saint Flour Cantal

ALBI Tarn

Rodez Aveyron

Cahors Lot

Meude Lozere

Perpignan Pyrenees-Orientales

BORDEAUX[*] Gironde

Agen Lot-et-Garonne

Angouleme Charente

Poitiers Vienne-et-Deux Sevres

Perigueux Dordogne

La Rochelle Charente-Inferieure

Lucon Vendee

AUCH Gers

Aire Landes

Tarbes Hautes-Pyrenees

Bayonne Basses-Pyrenees

TOULOUSE-NARBONNE Haute-Garonne

Montauban Tarne-et-Garonne

Pamiers Ariege

Carcassonne Aude

ROUEN Seine-Inferieure

Bayeux Calvados

Evreux Eure

Seez Orne

Coutances Manche

SENS ET AUXERRE Yonne

Troyes Aube

Nevers Nievre

Moulins Allier

REIMS Arr. de Reims-et-Ardennes

Soissons Aisne

Chalons-sur-Marne Marne except Arrond. de Reims

Beauvais Oise

Amiens Somme

TOURS Indre-et-Loire

Le Mans Sarthe

Angers Maine-et-Loire

Nantes Loire-Inferieure

Laval Mayenne

AIX, ARLES, AND EMBRUN Bouches-du-Rhone except Marseilles

Marseilles Arr. de Marseilles

Frejus and Toulon Var

Digne Basses-Alpes

Gap Hautes-Alpes

Nice Alpes-Maritimes

Ajaccio Corse

BESANCON Doubs et Haute-Saone

Verdun Meuse

Belley Ain

St. Die Vosges

Nancy Meurthe

AVIGNON Vaucluse

Nimes Gard

Valence Drome

Viviers Ardeche

Montpellier Herault

RENNES Ille-et-Vilaine

Quimper Finisterre

Vannes Morbihan

St. Brieuc Cotes-du-Nord

CHAMBERY

Annecy Haute-Savoie

Tarentaise Val-de-Tarentaise (Savoie)

Maurienne Val-de-Maurienne (Savoie)

[*] The Archbishop of Bordeaux has three suffragans outside

France: St. Denis and La Reunion, St. Pierre and Fort de France

(Martinique), Basseterre (Guadaloupe).

IV

_A List of the Larger French Churches which were at one time Cathedrals

and usually referred to as such._

NOTE.--Those marked H. M. are classed as Les Monuments Historiques by La

Commission de la Conservation des Monuments Historiques.

Agde _Herault_ H. M.

Alais _Garde_

Alencon _Orne_ Notre Dame H. M.

Alet _Aude_ Notre Dame H. M.

Apt _Vaucluse_ H. M.

Arles _Bouches-du-Rhone_ St. Trophimus H. M.

Arras St. Vaast

Auxerre _Yonne_ St. Etienne H. M.

Auxonne _Cote-d'Or_ Notre Dame

Avranches _Manche_ (remains only) H. M.

Bazas _Gironde_ St. Jean H. M.

Bethleem (There was once a Bishop of

Bethleem whose see was the

village of Clamecy only, but

no cathedral.)

Beziers _Herault_ St. Nazaire H. M.

Boulogne _Pas-de-Calais_ Notre Dame

Bourg _Ain_ Notre Dame

Brioud _Haute-Loire_ H. M.

Cambrai Notre Dame

Carcassonne _Aude_ St. Nazaire H. M.

Carpentras _Vaucluse_ St. Siffrein H. M.

Castres _Tarn_ St. Benonit

Cavaillon _Vaucluse_ St. Veran H. M.

Condom _Gers_ H. M.

Conserons _Ariege_ (See St. Lizier)

Die _Drome_ H. M.

Dinan _Cotes-du-Nord_ St. Saveur H. M.

Dol _Ille-et-Vilaine_ St. Samson H. M.

Elne _Pyrenees-Orientales_ H. M.

Embrun _Hautes-Alpes_ H. M.

Glandeves _Basses-Alpes_ (Bishopric transferred

to Entrevaux)

Grasse _Alpes-Maritimes_ (Bishopric in XIVth

century)

Laon _Aisne_ Notre Dame H. M.

Lavaur _Tarn_ (Bishopric in XIVth

century)

Lectours _Gers_ (Bishopric in Xth century)

Lescar _Basses-Pyrenees_ H. M.

Lisieux _Calvados_ St. Pierre

Lodeve _Herault_ St. Fulcran H. M.

Lombez _Gers_ H. M.

Macon _Saone-et-Loire_ St. Vincent H. M.

Mallezais _Vendee_

Mirepoix _Ariege_ (Bishopric in XIVth

century)

Noyon _Oise_ Notre Dame H. M.

Oloron _Basses-Pyrenees_ H. M.

Orange _Vaucluse_ Notre Dame

Perigueux _Dordogne_ St. Etienne

St. Bertrand _Haute-Garonne_ H. M.

de Comminges

St. Die _Vosges_

St. Lizier _Ariege_ H. M.

St. Lo _Manche_ Notre Dame H. M.

St. Malo _Ille-et-Vilaine_

Ste. Marie _Basses-Pyrenees_

St. Omer _Pas-de-Calais_ Notre Dame H. M.

St. Papoul _Aude_ H. M.

St. Paul Trois _Drome_ H. M.

Chateaux

St. Pol de Leon _Finisterre_ H. M.

St. Servan _Ille-et-Vilaine_ St. Pierre d'Aleth

Sarlat _Dordogne_ H. M.

Seez _Orne_ Notre Dame H. M.

Senez _Basses-Alpes_ H. M.

Senlis _Oise_ Notre Dame H. M.

Sisteron _Basses-Alpes_

Soissons _Aisne_ Notre Dame H. M.

St. Gervais

St. Protais

Tarbes _Hautes-Pyrenees_ Eglise de la Sede H. M.

Toul _Meurthe_ St. Etienne H. M.

Toulon _Var_ Ste. Marie-Majeur

Treguier _Cotes-du-Nord_ H. M.

Uzes _Gard_ St. Thierry

Vabres _Aveyron_

Vaiso _Vaucluse_ H. M.

Versailles _Seine-et-Oise_ St. Louis

Vence _Alpes-Maritimes_ H. M.

Vienne _Isere_ St. Maurice H. M.

V

_Chronology of the chief styles and examples of church building in the

north of France from the Romano-Byzantine period to that of the

Renaissance_

1050-1075 Nevers St. Etienne Distinct round-arch

1075-1100 Bayeux Notre Dame style

Caen St. Etienne

1125-1150 Autun St. Lazare Pointed arch in

St. Denis (choir) vaulting and

1150-1175 Angers St. Maurice larger works, with

Paris Notre Dame the retaining of

Sens St. Etienne the round in the

smaller

1200-1225 Reims Notre Dame General adoption

Auxerre St. Etienne of the ogival

Troyes Sts. Peter and Paul style

1225-1250 Amiens Notre Dame The completed

Dijon St. Benigne ogival style

Bourges St. Etienne

1250-1275 Noyon Notre Dame (cloisters)

1300-1325 Rouen Notre Dame (lady-chapel)

1350-1375 Chartres Notre Dame

1425-1450 Auxerre St. Etienne (N. transept) Introduction of

Renaissance detail

1450-1475 Evreux Notre Dame (transepts in Italy and

and tower) elaboration of

Gothic in France

1475-1500 Rouen Notre Dame (S. W. Renaissance firmly

tower) grafted in Italy

Nevers St. Etienne (S. porch) and gradually

1500-1525 Beauvais St. Pierre (S. transept) appearing in the

Chartres Notre Dame (N. W. Gothic of France

spire)

1525-1550 Beauvais St. Pierre (N. transept)

Amiens Notre Dame (fleche)

1550-1575 Beauvais St. Pierre (central tower Renaissance firmly

since destroyed) established

1600-1625 Orleans Ste. Croix

VI

_Dimensions and Chronology_

NOTRE DAME D'AMIENS

[Illustration: _Notre Dame d'Amiens_]

_Dimensions_

Length of nave and choir, 469 feet

Width including transepts, 214 feet

Width of nave, 59 feet

Width of aisles, 33-1/2 feet

Height of nave, 141 or 147 feet, estimated variously

Height of aisles, 65 feet

Length of choir, 135 feet

Width of nave including aisles, 150 feet

Length of transepts, 194 feet

Width of transepts, 36 feet, 6 inches

Height of spire, 422 feet

Superficial area, 70,000 square feet (approx.)

_Chronology_

Nave and choir, 1220-1288

Choir stalls, 1520

Western towers completed, 1533

Lateral chapels of nave, XVIth century

Choir chapels, XIIIth century

ST. MAURICE D'ANGERS

[Illustration]

_Dimensions_

Length of nave and choir, 300 feet

Width of transepts, 40 feet

Height of transepts, 80 feet

Height of nave, 110 feet

Width of nave, 53 feet

Height of spires, 225 feet

_Chronology_

Lower walls, Romano-Byzantine

Main body completed, 1240

Choir, XIIth century

Bishop's Palace, XIIth century

Arras tapestries, XIVth century

Choir doorway, XIIIth century

(Recently restored by Viollet-le-Duc)

ST. VAAST D'ARRAS

_Dimensions_

Length of nave and choir, 302 feet

Height of nave, 66-1/2 feet

Width of nave, 49 feet

Height of tower, 154 feet

_Chronology_

Former Cathedral of Notre Dame begun, end of XIIth century

Former Cathedral of Notre Dame completed, 1499

Present Cathedral of St. Vaast, 1755-1833

Triptych of Bellegambe in present Cathedral, 1528

Former Abbey of St. Vaast, now Episcopal Palace since 1754

ST. LAZARE D'AUTUN

_Dimensions_

Height of spire, 325 feet

_Chronology_

Transition portion constructed by Robert I.,

Duke of Burgundy, 1031-1076

Spire, XVth century

Sculpture of choir, XVIth century

Flamboyant chapels, XVIth century

AUXERRE

_Chronology_

Crypt (remains of early work), XIth century

Choir and glass, 1215-1234

Western portals, XIIIth century

Nave, 1334-1373

North transept, 1415-1513

N. W. tower, 1525-1530

Iron _grille_ of choir, XVIIIth century

NOTRE DAME DE BAYEUX

_Dimensions_

Central belfry, 300 feet

Length interior, 335 feet

Height interior, 74 feet, 9 inches

Height of western towers, 252 feet

_Chronology_

Odo's crypt, XIth century

Circular arches of nave, late XIth or early XIIth century

Portals of west facade, XIIIth century

Chasuble of St. Regnobert, gift of St. Louis, 1226

Date of tapestry (in inventory of church property), 1476

ST. PIERRE DE BEAUVAIS

_Dimensions_

Height of nave, 150 feet

Height of original spire, which fell in 1573, 486 feet

Area of choir, about 28,000 square feet

_Chronology_

The Basse OEuvre, VIth to VIIIth centuries

Present building begun, 1225

Dedicated, 1272

Roof fell, 1284

South transept begun, 1500

North transept begun, 1530

North transept finished, 1537

Central spire fell, 1573

Ancient Bishop's Palace, now Palais de Justice,

XIVth to XVIth centuries

ST. ETIENNE DE BOURGES

[Illustration: _St. Etienne de Bourges_]

_Dimensions_

Length, 405 feet

Width, 135-1/2 feet

Height of nave, 124-1/2 feet

Height of inner aisle, 66 feet

Height of outer aisle, 28 feet

Height north tower, 217-1/2 feet

Height south tower, 176 feet

Superficial area, 73,170 square feet (approx.)

_Chronology_

Dedicated, 1324

Sepulchre, 1336

Crypts, XIIth century

North tower, 1508-1538

Tower St. Etienne completed, 1490

Tower St. Etienne fell, 1506

Choir stalls, 1760

ST. ETIENNE DE CHALONS-SUR-MARNE

_Chronology_

Tower next north door, Romano-Byzantine

Part of nave and choir, Ogival primaire

Aisle and chapels of apse, XIVth century

Apse restored, after fire, in 1672

NOTRE DAME DE CHARTRES

_Dimensions_

Length nave and choir, 430 feet

Width, 110 feet

Length nave only, 121 feet

Width nave, 46 feet

Width nave aisles, 19 feet

Height nave, 106 feet