century, bestowed much pains upon the preservation of the abbey; but the
last of this noble family was scarcely dead, when the convent was
exposed to all the calamities of war. It was repeatedly pillaged by the
contending parties, and was finally almost destroyed by the orders of
King Edward III. who foreseeing, from the unfortunate complexion of
affairs, that the French would be likely soon to besiege the castle, was
desirous at least to deprive them of the advantage they might derive
from having possession of the monastery. The heterogeneous character of
the architecture of the church, is attributable to the injuries received
on this occasion, and to those inflicted during the wars in the
following century. The lower portion of the building, most probably,
remained for a considerable length of time in the same ruined and
neglected state in which it had been left after the execution of the
orders of Edward III.; the clerestory and arches above, were not added
till the return of a tranquil æra.
Indeed, it is matter of historical notoriety, that the finances of the
monastery were, at this period, in the same state of dilapidation as the
walls; insomuch, that Thomas du Bigard, who was elected abbot in 1376,
and held the post for fourteen years, lay all that time under a papal
interdict for the non-payment of his annats; nor did his successor,
Denis Loquet, venture to accept the crozier, till he had made a journey
to Avignon, and obtained, from Clement VII. the remission of what was
due, as well on the election of his predecessor, as on his own. In 1422,
the official of Valognes was charged by the three states of Normandy,
assembled at Vernon, with the consent of the Duke of Bedford, to make
inquiry into the losses sustained by the abbey. His report upon the
subject is a curious historical document, little known, and,
unfortunately, nearly twenty feet long. M. de Gerville has kindly
supplied the following extracts from it. "Sylvester de la Cervelle, Yvon
de Galles, and Bertrand de Glesquin, were, with the admiral, John de
Vienne, in command of the army, at the siege of the castle of St.
Sauveur, A.D. 1375.--The English had, previously to the siege, destroyed
the abbey and the adjacent buildings, lest their enemies should
establish themselves there, and annoy them.--The monks of St. Sauveur
had, at first, taken refuge in the abbey of the Vow, near Cherbourg, and
afterwards in Jersey, where the convent had some property: certain among
them had also retired to foreign monasteries, there to seek a
subsistence, which their own could no longer afford them.--At their
return, the abbot and the clergy found their buildings destroyed; and,
at the period of the inquisition, notwithstanding all their efforts and
the money they could raise, they were still obliged to celebrate divine
service in the refectory.--The monks and abbot, who had sought shelter
at Jersey, had been obliged to quit that retreat, because the King of
England put their property there under sequestration.--Those who
returned first to the monastery, built themselves sheds against a wall,
and there made a fire to dress, their victuals, while, for
lodging-places, they had recourse to some vaults that were still
left.--So great was their poverty, that it is stated by one of the
witnesses, in his deposition, that they had not wherewithal to buy
_peciam mutonis vel aliarum carnium_.--Another deposes that, during the
siege, the French fired with such violence at one of the towers, that it
was destroyed, _fueruntque combustæ novæ campanæ, quarum una habebat
octo buccellos ad mensuram Sti. Salvatoris_."
After the final expulsion of the English, John Caillot, who was
appointed abbot in 1451, "rebuilt," to use the words of the _Gallia
Christiana_, the monastery destroyed by our countrymen; and the credit
must be given him of having endeavoured to make his additions in a style
conformable to the original. But the difference in the workmanship is
obvious to the eye; and various ornaments have been added, inconsistent
with the simplicity of early times.
The length of the church was about two hundred French feet.--A list of
forty-three abbots is given in the _Gallia Christiana_;[17] and, from
the time of the publication of that work, till the breaking out of the
revolution, there were two others, of whom M. de Nicolai was the last.
NOTES:
[17] XI. p. 923.
PLATE XV.
HOUSE AT GREAT ANDELYS.
[Illustration: Plate 15. GREAT HOUSE.
_Andelys._]
About forty miles, in a south-westerly direction from Rouen, upon the
right bank of the Seine, and on the western frontiers of the ancient
duchy of Normandy, stands the town of Great Andelys, so called, not by
reason of its own positive magnitude, but to distinguish it from a
village of the same name, situated in its immediate vicinity.
In early times, few places could boast to a greater degree than Andelys,
"the odor of sanctity." It was indebted for its celebrity, and, probably
also, for its existence, to a nunnery, founded here by St. Clotilda,
which, in the seventh century, the time of the venerable Bede, enjoyed
the highest reputation. But its fame was short-lived: it fell during the
incursions of the Normans, and, unlike most others, seems to have
possessed none of the phoenix-power of reviviscence. In its place, arose
afterwards, a collegiate church, which M. de Harlay, Archbishop of
Rouen, by a formal act, dated 1634, honored with the title of first
collegiate church of the diocese. The distinction, thus obtained, was
due not only to its antiquity, but to the unusual number of its
ecclesiastics, particularly those who composed its chapter.
Though St. Clotilda's convent, however, was destroyed, the inhabitants
of Andelys continued to enjoy her especial protection. The church was
under her invocation; but her favor was more eminently vouchsafed to an
ancient chapel and an adjacent fountain, both of which bore her name.
The latter was, from the earliest times, celebrated for its miraculous
qualities in the cure of various disorders; and it continues to be so to
the present day. St. Clotilda, at the period of the erection of the
monastery, turned its waters into wine, for the benefit of the fainting
workmen. The clergy of Andelys, in commemoration of the miracle, used
annually, before the revolution, upon the return of her festival, to
pour large pitchers of wine into the spring. During the revolutionary
fervor, St. Clotilda, together with the rest of the Romish hierarchy,
lost her credit in France. She is now rapidly recovering it: miracles
are again wrought at her shrine; and, in all probability, the time is
not far distant, when the belief will be as strong, the processions as
splendid, the throng of votaries as great, and the cures as certain, as
ever. It is only to be hoped, that the good sense and the superior
morality of the age, may prevent the recurrence of those indecent and
scandalous scenes, which, we are told by eye-witnesses, were formerly
too often practised on the occasion. Human nature must be strangely
altered, before the mind of man will cease to prefer the surfeit of
superstition, to the wholesome diet of sound religion: no one, but a
fool or a rogue, would ever advise it to have recourse to the starvation
of infidelity.
At the close of the eleventh century, Andelys appears with some
historical notoriety, in the well-known exchange made between Richard
Coeur-de-Lion and Walter, Archbishop of Rouen; when the king, desirous,
as he states, to prevent the incursions of the enemy into his duchy,
purchased of the prelate the town and manor of Andelys, by the cession
of the towns of Dieppe, Bouteilles and Louviers, together with the
forest of Aliermont, and the mills of Rouen. The bargain was a hard
one; but the erection of Château Gaillard, in the immediate vicinity of
Andelys, proved the correctness of the monarch's views. A subsequent
treaty,[18] executed in the year 1200, between King John and the same
archbishop, confirmed the exchange.
In modern times, Andelys has been celebrated on no other account, than
as the birth-place of Poussin and Adrian Turnebus, and as the
burial-place of Corneille.
The _Great House_ at Andelys, the subject of the plate, existed in 1818,
as it is here represented, shorn, indeed, of much of its ancient
splendor, reduced from the residence of a nobleman to a granary, and
most probably curtailed of full two-thirds of its size, as retaining
apparently little more than that portion of the square which fronted the
court-yard, together with a small part of one of its wings. It can now
(in 1821) only be spoken of as a building that did exist: last year saw
it levelled with the ground. The following description of it is
transcribed from Mr. Turner's _Tour in Normandy_:[19] "Andelys possesses
a valuable specimen of ancient domestic architecture. The _Great House_
is a most sumptuous mansion, evidently of the age of Francis I.; but I
could gain no account of its former occupants or history. I must again
borrow from my friend's vocabulary, and say, that it is built in the
'Burgundian style.' In its general outline and character, it resembles
the house in the _Place de la Pucelle_, at Rouen. Its walls, indeed, are
not covered with the same profusion of sculpture: yet, perhaps, its
simplicity is accompanied by greater elegance.--The windows are disposed
in three divisions, formed by slender buttresses, which run up to the
roof. They are square-headed, and divided by a mullion and transom.--The
portal is in the centre: it is formed by a Tudor arch, enriched with
deep mouldings, and surmounted by a lofty ogee, ending with a crocketed
pinnacle, which transfixes the cornice immediately above, as well as in
the sill of the window, and then unites with the mullion of the
latter.--The roof takes a very high pitch.--A figured cornice, upon
which it rests, is boldly sculptured with foliage.--The chimneys are
ornamented by angular buttresses.--All these portions of the building
assimilate more or less to our Gothic architecture of the sixteenth
century; but a most magnificent oriel window, which fills the whole of
the space between the centre and the left-hand divisions, is a specimen
of pointed architecture in its best and purest style. The arches are
lofty and acute. Each angle is formed by a double buttress, and the
tabernacles affixed to these are filled with statues. The basement of
the oriel, which projects from the flat wall of the house, after the
fashion of a bartizan, is divided into compartments, studded with
medallions, and intermixed with tracery of great variety and beauty. On
either side of the bay, there are flying buttresses of elaborate
sculpture, spreading along the wall.--As, comparatively speaking, good
models of ancient domestic architecture are very rare, I would
particularly recommend this at Andelys to the notice of every architect,
whom chance may conduct to Normandy.--This building, like too many
others of the same class in our own counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, is
degraded from its station. The _great house_ is used merely as a
granary, though, by a very small expense, it might be put into habitable
repair. The stone retains its clear and polished surface; and the massy
timbers are undecayed.--The inside corresponds with the exterior, in
decorations and grandeur: the chimney pieces are large and elaborate,
and there is abundance of sculpture on the ceilings and other parts
which admit of ornament."
NOTES:
[18] Copies of both these instruments are preserved in the _Gallia
Christiana_, XI. _Inst._ pp. 27 and 30.
[19] II. p. 55.--In a note to this passage, Mr. Turner states an
intention, on the part of Mr. Cotman, to devote a second plate to this
building, for the purpose of doing more justice to the beauty and
elaborate decorations of the oriel window; and it is very much to be
desired that such should be the case; but it is feared that the number
and importance of other subjects, will prevent the intention from being
realized.
PLATE XVI.
CHURCH OF THAN.
(ELEVATION AND DETAILS.)
[Illustration: Plate 16. CHURCH OF THAN.
_Elevation and details._]
The small village of Than lies about ten miles distant from Caen, in a
north-easterly direction, in a valley washed by the diminutive stream,
the Meu, a little to the north of the road which leads to Bayeux. Of its
"short and simple annals," few have come to the knowledge of the writer
of this article; and for those few, he is wholly indebted to the
kindness of M. de Gerville, who, last year, discovered at Mortain the
book containing the charters of the abbey of Savigny, many of which make
mention of the church of Than. The following is an extract from the most
important among them: the deed itself is without a date, but is clearly
of the time of Henry I. Its being anterior to 1135, is distinctly proved
by the title of Earl of Mortain, which it gives to Stephen of
Blois.--"In nomine Ste et individue trinitatis, notum sit universis tam
presentibus quam futuris, qd. ego Guillelmus de Sto Claro, concedente
Hamone fratre meo et cis, dono et concedo in perpetuam elimosinam ecclie
Ste trinitatis de Savigneio et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus totam
possessionem de Thaun, quam ego et antecessores mei, sive in terra
dominica sive in hominibus sive in quibuslibet aliis rebus, unquam
habuimus omnino quietam, ab omni consuetudine absolutam, perpetuo jure
ab eadem ecclesia possidendam. Predictam autem donacionem concessit et
ab omnib. consuetudinibus absolutam confirmavit Stephanus Comes
Moritonii, ad cujus feodum predicta possessio pertinet, &c."--In
addition to the information contained in the above charter, there is
only to be added, that Cardinal Le Moine, when dean of Bayeux, at the
close of the thirteenth century, founded here a chapel, dedicated to St.
John; and that a lord of Than was among the companions of the Conqueror
in his descent upon England.
The church has been selected by Mr. Cotman as a specimen of a religious
edifice in the true Norman style, unaltered, and also uninjured, except
by the loss of the southern aisle; and the removal of this is so far
fortunate, as it affords an opportunity of shewing the form and
disposition of the columns and arches of the nave, seen, as they are, in
the lower part of the left-hand side of the plate, imbedded in the
modern wall, which now constitutes the exterior of the building.
Subjects like this, however necessary for a work expressly devoted to
architectural antiquities, obviously afford no room for picturesque
beauty, or for an attempt, on the part of the artist, to produce what is
called _effect_. Horace's line is altogether applicable to them, that
"Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri."
The great hope to be entertained is, that they may be rendered
intelligible; and this, it is trusted, will be effected by means of the
following references; though the multitude of parts that it seemed
necessary to introduce, may have given rise to an appearance of
confusion, which the author could only have avoided, by subjecting his
subscribers to the expense of an additional plate.
* * * * *
A.A.A. _Elevation of the tower, nave, and chancel._
The roof of the tower is of stone; and the angles are faced with slender
cylindrical columns, as in the part below, terminating, in both
instances, in little hooks, beneath which, the pillars are banded to the
part adjoining. This kind of termination, or, as it might almost be
denominated, decoration, is in itself remarkable, and perhaps unique;
but it is rendered considerably more interesting, if regarded as the
probable origin of the crocket, one of the most distinguished ornaments
in the decorated style of pointed architecture. The date of the
introduction of the crocket, and the source whence it sprung, have been
the subject of many inquiries among antiquaries: neither Mr Cotman, nor
the writer of these remarks, recollects to have seen any other approach
to it in Norman buildings; though the towers of many churches in Lower
Normandy are capped with stone roofs of similar form, and of undoubted
antiquity. Such, in particular, are those of Haute Allemagne, of Basse
Allemagne, and of St. Michel de Vaucelles, at Caen: such also is the
roof at the east end of the church of St. Nicholas, in the same town;
and, in the three last-mentioned specimens, the angles are edged with
the same small pillars by way of moulding.
It is farther to be observed of this church, that the windows of the
tower are simple, bold, and, for the elegance of their proportions,
scarcely to be surpassed by those of any other Norman building; that the
capitals of the pillars throughout the church are destitute of
sculpture; and that the walls of the clerestory are altogether without
buttresses. This last peculiarity is likewise observable in the nave of
the church at Tollevast, an edifice of the plainest and earliest
architecture. At Than, the clerestory is externally decorated with
twenty-nine arches, of which every sixth (reckoning from the westward,)
is narrower than the rest, and is pierced with a window. The surface of
the blank ones is cut into squares, which are alternately depressed. On
the corbels are not only represented grotesque heads, but some of the
simplest heraldic charges, as the chief, chief indented, pale, bend,
bendlets undy, fess, saltier, crosses of various kinds, chevron, &c.
Such ordinaries occasionally occur in similar situations on other Norman
religious edifices, but only on the most ancient. They are to be seen at
Tollevast, Martinvast, the church of St. Croix at St. Lo, St. Matthieu,
and Octeville. At St. Matthieu, they are found in conjunction with other
sculptures, fit only for a temple dedicated to Priapus; and at
Octeville, with what is probably the earliest representation of the
Lord's Supper, that is known to exist from the hand of a Norman artist.
B. _Elevation of the west front._
The lower part of the door-way is considerably sunk in the ground.
C. _Elevation of the east end._
The irregularity of the architecture of this part of the building
requires to be noticed. In the two lower compartments, the southern
portion is left quite plain, while the northern is decorated with a
double tier of arches, very much resembling those which still exist in
the outer wall of the chancel, and which, most probably, were originally
continued along the wall of the nave that is now destroyed. The broad
shallow buttress which divides the east end into two parts, is not
placed in the centre. Here, and indeed throughout the building, each
small arch is hewn out of a single block of stone. One of the upper ones
in this front, is surmounted with a broad square band, made in the
imitation of a drip-stone, composed of quatrefoils, of a form not known
to exist in Norman architecture, though of common occurrence in the
succeeding style.
D. _Portion of the clerestory in the nave._
E. _Portion of the clerestory in the chancel._
F. _Capital and part of the arch of the western door-way._
G.G.G. _String-mouldings._
PLATE XVII.
CHURCH OF TAMERVILLE.
[Illustration: Plate 17. CHURCH OF TAMERVILLE.]
This church is situated at the distance of half a league from the town
of Valognes, near the road which leads to Barfleur and La Hougue.
The whole building is ancient, with the exception of the western portal
and a chapel to the north of the choir. Its general style of
architecture, the columns which support the tower, the buttresses, the
corbels, and the small windows of the nave, especially those fronting
the north, are all indicative of a production of the early days of
Norman rule, and, probably, of the period immediately preceding the
descent upon England. This period of comparative peace and tranquillity
was a time, when, to use the language of two nearly contemporary
historians, "the noblemen of Normandy emulated each other in erecting
churches upon their domains: they thus filled their continental
territory; and they shortly afterwards did the same in England."
The steeple represented in the plate is in excellent preservation: it is
of beautiful proportions; and, to an architect, is peculiarly
interesting for the cylindrical buttress, which runs nearly to the top
of the first story on the southern side, and is probably the only
instance of the kind known to exist.[20] To an English antiquary,
however, it may be allowed to have a claim to greater interest, on
account of its general shape and proportions. In these respects it
forcibly recalls the round-towered churches of Norfolk and Suffolk, most
of them surmounted by octagonal lanterns. Two of the churches of the
former county, those at Toft-Monks, and at Bokenham,[21] preserve the
octagonal shape down to the ground; but, in both instances, it is in
conjunction with early pointed architecture; and the church of
Tamerville, it is feared, would not be of itself sufficient, as being an
insulated specimen, to justify the assigning of a Norman origin to those
just mentioned. No churches with round towers have yet come under the
author's knowledge in Normandy; and yet they might certainly have been
expected in the duchy, if there be any truth in the tradition which
ascribes those in England to the Danes. On the other hand, supposing
such report to be altogether void of foundation, it seems quite
unaccountable that not one of them probably exists, which does not
retain some traces of Norman architecture.
In early times, the barons of this great province seldom, if ever, used
a family name. Like the chieftains of the Scottish clans of our own
days, they generally adopted for their surname, that of their parish or
fief. The fief or manor of Tamerville had, from before the conquest,
borne the appellation of Cyfrevast, or Sifrevast, (Sifredi Vassum;) and
down to the period of the revolution, the possessors of that fief were
patrons of the advowson of the parochial church. One of them, and,
probably, the very one who built the church now standing, followed the
Conqueror into England, and obtained from him considerable grants in
Oxfordshire and in Dorsetshire. In the latter county, the family
continued long to flourish. Hutchins states, that the branch of them,
established at More-Crichel, bore for their arms, _argent, three bars
gemels azure_; and he quotes the epitaph of one of them, who died in
1581, from which the following is an extract:--
"Intombed here one Cyfrevast does lie,
Whom nature caused by death to yealde his due.
. . . . . . .
Lord of More-Crichel was he by ----
_Three hundred yeares possessed by line and descent._"
Another of the same family, named John Cyfrevast, represented
Dorsetshire in parliament, during the seventh, sixteenth, and eighteenth
years of Edward II.; and Robert Cyfrevast had the same honor in the
eighteenth and twentieth years of the following reign. About 1424, the
fief of Chiffrevast at Tamerville, passed, by marriage, into the house
of Anneville, which had also supplied a companion to the Conqueror; and
this family continued to possess it till the moment of the revolution,
the epoch of the abolition of all feudal rights.
In the burial-ground at Tamerville, have been found many coffins made of
volcanic tuff: similar ones are by no means of unfrequent occurrence
throughout the diocese of Coutances; but they are never met with, except
in places which were formerly held in particular veneration.
NOTES:
[20] The reader will observe, that this pillar is probably imperfect;
for that there seems reason to believe, that it was originally
surmounted by a capital, which united with the moulding above.
[21] See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk_, plate 37.
PLATES XVIII. AND XIX.
CHURCH OF ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES, AT CAEN.
(CENTRAL TOWER AND NORTH PORCH.)
[Illustration: Plate 18. TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES,
CAEN.]
The Abbé De la Rue, in his excellent publication upon the town of
Caen,[22] does not furnish the satisfactory information which might have
been hoped, relative to the date of the erection of the church of St.
Michael, in the suburb of Vaucelles. He contents himself with
observing,[23] that it is a work of different æras: that the tower and
its supporting pillars belong to a primitive church, of which no account
remains; that a part of the nave may be seen, from the circular form of
the arches having been obviously altered into pointed, to have belonged
to the same church; that the choir was raised and increased during the
sixteenth century; that the aisles are partly of the same century, and
partly of the preceding; and that the other portion of the nave and the
new tower, are productions of our own days.