Long before one reaches Verneuil he remarks a great tower looming high
above the surrounding house-tops, a tower so commanding as to seem to
beckon us from afar, and then later when we have reached its foot, to
make us halt awhile in its shadow to enjoy the innumerable delicate
details of its architecture, which render a near view as delightful as
the distant prospect is imperious. It is not often in France that one
sees so striking a landmark, which must have been vastly more
significant still in those battleworn years of the middle ages when
Verneuil was for so long an important post on the frontier between
France and the territory held by the English. There may still be seen
one of the massive round towers of the ancient fortifications, its great
size bearing witness to the importance attached to the possession and
defence of the city. Nor is Verneuil lacking in other and more homely
charms, for it preserves many of its old timbered houses, as well as
others of stone and brick decorated at one corner by a gracefully carved
tourelle. On making our way to the centre of the town we find that the
great tower belongs to the church of La Madeleine, which occupies one
end of the spacious market-place. No more ill-assorted collection of
incongruous elements were ever found in one edifice. The lofty uplift of
the choir and transepts rises so much above the low roof-tree of the
nave, that viewed from a little distance, there seems no connecting link
between the eastern portion of the church and the great tower at the
western end. The transepts are so short as to extend but little beyond
the sides of the choir, and furthermore there are two sets of transepts,
side by side, and opening into each other. It is to the eastern and
loftier part of the edifice that we must repair. Here about the choir
and the two parallel chapels that adjoin it are a dozen windows
containing fifteenth century canopies, mostly arranged in two tiers, one
above the other. Note that it is groups rather than single figures that
appear within the enframing niches, and that the stories told by these
panels are more elaborate, even if less effective than their grander
contemporaries in the transepts. These latter are fine tall-pinnacled
examples, each canopy enclosing a single figure, and are found in three
of the four great embrasures that light the end walls of the transepts.
The fourth contains Renaissance canopies. Throughout all this fifteenth
century glass the deepness of the tones used in the figures within the
niches is most noticeable.
There are also several sixteenth century windows, the most noteworthy
one being a Tree of Jesse in the east end of the southerly chapel. A
large figure of the Virgin holding the Infant Jesus is shown standing on
the vine just at the point where the branches separate. Jesse's
descendants, drawn to a smaller scale, are emerging from blossoms all
about the Virgin, whom they are intently regarding.
Although the fifteenth century glass in La Madeleine is not so splendid
as some we have seen elsewhere, it is in such quantity and variety as to
afford valuable facilities for comparison and study. There is also good
glass to be seen in the church of Notre Dame. The picturesque old-world
flavour of Verneuil will perhaps make it a greater favourite with us
than some towns possessing more important windows.
On leaving Verneuil, whether we decide to return to Paris via Chartres,
or to link this trip on to the next by passing directly to Evreux and
thence to Rouen, we may, by means of a slight detour, go through
Nonancourt. If we do, we should delay there long enough to enter the
church to see the low fifteenth century windows along the nave aisles,
as well as the larger Renaissance ones that stretch in a long row around
the whole length of the clerestory. It will be worth the few additional
kilometres to the automobilist, although hardly demanding the breaking
of a railway journey.