DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

ROUEN

On the sunlit slopes that went down to the swamps by the Seine, where stands the Rouen of to-day, there were Celtic inhabitants in remote times; and when the advancing sway of Rome brought civilization to the north of France, the light of history illuminates the spot, and reveals the presence of a town called Ratuma, the chief centre of the tribe of the Veliocassians. The Romans modified the name to Rotomagus, and in the second century it is believed to have received the first seeds of Christianity. From South Wales, the home of so much evangelizing enthusiasm, there arrived, about the year 260, a missionary called St. Mellon, who became in time the first Bishop of Rouen. This may, perhaps, sound a far-away piece of information, belonging too much to what is legendary to be of much service as a guide to the antiquities of Rouen; but it is not so, for beneath the Church of St. Gervais, a building in the modern Norman style, there can still be seen, in a crypt of the fourth or fifth century, the tomb in which was laid the body of that early missionary. The crypt was probably built soon after the year 404 by St. Victrice, the sixth to succeed St. Mellon, and the body must, therefore, have been placed there more than a century after his death. It remained there until 1562, when the Huguenots opened the tomb and removed the remains.

The Cathedral.—Building Dates

St. Victrice was the first to put up any church on the site of the present cathedral, and the numerous Bishops who succeeded him rebuilt and enlarged the Early Christian structure until it must have been something far removed from the simple rudeness of the first building. Rouen, however, was destined to frequent disaster. A fire in 556 was followed by a plague, and the city suffered much in the disorder which followed the death of Charles the Great. Therefore, in the year 841, when the Northmen began their raids upon the north of France, they found only a lean city to plunder; and when Rollo became first Duke of Normandy, and was converted to Christianity, he had almost to refound the capital of his new dominion. It is therefore in no way surprising that the crypt of St. Gervais is the sole survival yet discovered of the buildings of the earlier city.

After the paralysis of fear which gripped Christendom at the approach of the year 1000 had passed off, with the unchanged procession of normal days and nights brought in by the new century, there came so great an enthusiasm for church building that the cathedral of Rouen was reconstructed on a larger and finer scale. The new structure was consecrated on October 1, 1063, by Archbishop Maurilius, in the presence of William the Norman.

It is quite possible that this church was of greater magnificence than those of JumiÈges or St. Georges de Boscherville, and perhaps even more perfect than St. Étienne at Caen; but whatever theories one may care to form must be built upon the style of the lower portion of the north-west tower—the Tour St. Romain—for in the year 1200 a disastrous fire destroyed the great building, and all that now exists of the Norman church is this portion of a tower and some indications of Romanesque work that can be discovered in a few other places. The havoc a fire can work in a Norman church even at the present time, in spite of modern fire extinguishing appliances, has been very forcibly illustrated by the recent burning of the abbey church of Selby, in Yorkshire, in which the terrific heat burnt halfway through stone piers of enormous thickness.

The reconstruction of the cathedral appears to have been undertaken soon after the disaster, and was commenced at the east end, where one finds that the chapels of the apse and transepts were built first and the choir soon afterwards, for it was finished in the Early French style. Between 1202 and 1220 the nave, choir, transepts, and central tower would appear to have been built, and before St. Louis (IX.) visited the cathedral in 1255, the magnificent church, as it is to be seen to-day, had assumed an appearance of completeness.

The embellishment of the great pile continued right through the centuries that followed, until the influence of the Renaissance shows itself in the central porch of the west front. In the fourteenth century the Lady-chapel was built, and in the fifteenth the Tour de Beurre climbed upwards, while the money provided by the indulgences sold, giving permission to eat butter in Lent, was helping to provide the funds. This tower, therefore, together with the uppermost portion of the Tour St. Romain, the western rose-window, and a good deal of decoration on each of the porches, belong to the Flamboyant period, corresponding to the Perpendicular of English architecture.

At the base of the Tour St. Romain there still stands the lodge of the porter, whose duties from very early times right up to 1700 included the care of the fierce watch-dogs who were at night let loose in the cathedral to guard its many precious treasures from robbers. How much would we give for a glimpse of one of those porters walking through the cavernous gloom of the echoing aisles, with his lamp throwing strange shadows from the great slouching dogs!

The misereres of the choir-stalls were carved between 1457 and 1469, and should be seen for the vivid details they reveal of nearly every trade and employment, as well as the costumes of the period when the Flamboyant style was in vogue.

The tombs in the cathedral bring one into close touch with the Dukes of Normandy and their successors on the throne of England. In the easternmost chapels on either side of the nave are the tombs of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, and his son, William Longsword, who was murdered in 943. The statues were made in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and have been restored. The inscription on Rollo’s tomb says:

A thirteenth-century effigy of Richard Coeur de Lion, discovered in 1838, lies outside the southern railing of the choir. The heart was found in a triple casket of lead, wood, and silver. Some of the dust can be seen in the Museum of Antiquities, whither the original effigy of Henry II.’s eldest son, Henry Plantagenet, has also been taken, the one in the cathedral being modern. On the left side of the high altar is the tomb of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent under Henry VI., and on the north side of the choir is the mutilated effigy of Archbishop Maurice, who died in 1235.

The two grandest monuments are facing one another in the Lady-chapel. The finer is that of Louis de BrÉzÉ, who was Grand Seneschal of Normandy. It is an extremely good example of early Renaissance work, carried out in black marble and alabaster. The splendid equestrian figure in the upper part gives the monument a most imposing character. At the head of the recumbent effigy is the figure of Diane de Poitiers, who raised the memorial to her husband after his death in 1531. She subsequently left her name written prominently on the page of history by becoming the mistress of the Dauphin, afterwards Henri II. At the castle of Chenonceaux and at Fontainebleau we shall see the homes of this famous widow (see Section V.).

On the west side of the great monument is the beautiful canopied recess of the Flamboyant period, where the effigies of Pierre de BrÉzÉ and his wife lay until they were removed in 1769. Pierre was the first Grand Seneschal of Normandy when the province was restored to France, as a result of the work of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the favourite of Charles VII., and was prominent in the reconquest of Normandy, finally losing his life in the Battle of MontlhÉry in 1465.

Opposite is the tomb of the famous Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, whose lifelike figure is shown kneeling under a beautiful canopy. He was made Bishop of Montauban when he was only fourteen, and was elected Archbishop of Rouen at the early age of thirty-three. The story of his election is interesting. On the death of Archbishop Robert de Croixmare, Charles VIII. hinted that he would like the canons to choose the Duke of Orleans, and by so doing gave some annoyance. However, on August 21, 1493, when the crowds in Rouen were wondering what was going to happen, the canons retired to the chapter-house, as was their custom, and each took the oath to vote according to conscience. Then, all kneeling down, they sang the Veni Creator Spiritus, and prayed that they might make the right choice, after which all rose to their feet as one man, saying, ‘Georges d’Amboise shall be Archbishop.’ This remarkable unanimity was based on the wonderful promise the Cardinal showed even at that age, and to Rouen he became a benefactor, for whose wisdom and equity in administration and for the splendour of whose gifts the city has still reason for gratitude. If he had lived earlier in the century, it is conceivable that his influence would have prevented the tragedy of the death of Jeanne d’Arc. He was the builder of the splendid Tour de Beurre and the Flamboyant work of the west front of the cathedral, and he improved the city’s supply of water, as well as its sanitation. Further than that, he became, as Prime Minister under the easy-going Louis XII., the virtual ruler of France; for the King was always ready to let the wise Cardinal act for him, usually saying, ‘Leave it to George.’ He died in 1510.

The other figure on the tomb is that of the second Cardinal of the same name, who was a nephew of the statesman.

The great bell which was given by the Archbishop to be hung in the Tour de Beurre, and was named Georges d’Amboise, was in 1793 melted down to make cannon for the Republicans. The thirteenth-century glass in the sacristy and the two adjoining windows is a foretaste of the glories of Chartres.

The erection of the great spire of open ironwork on the central tower began in 1827, replacing the wooden spire finished in 1550, and destroyed by lightning in 1822. It is one of the tallest spires in the world, and is considered by many writers to be a hideous excrescence on the great Gothic pile; but although it cannot have the romance or charm of stone, its effect at a distance, in spite of its curious finial, is quite the reverse of unpleasing, and when one is near at hand it has a way of hiding itself, or, if it shows at all, it appears so vast and tremendous that its dimensions suppress the criticisms that would flow readily if the spire were half its height.

The Church of St. Ouen.—To the north-east of the cathedral (see plan) stands the great abbey church of St. Ouen, in the wide open space of the Place de l’HÔtel de Ville—as great a contrast to the narrow streets that crowd up to the cathedral as could be imagined. It is for this reason that St. Ouen from without does not call up with any vividness the romance of a medieval church packed into the small space which was all that the encircling defensive walls could afford. But the church of St. Ouen is the most perfect and the most beautiful of the abbey churches of France, and there might be legitimate cause for grumbling if it were impossible to get a clear view of it. There is only space to tell the story of the building in the following list of dates:

St. Ouen.—Building Dates

The Church of St. Maclou stands back a few paces from the east side of the Rue de la RÉpublique, and one comes upon its wondrous display of delicately carved stone all of a sudden. It is an exquisite example of the Flamboyant style, having been commenced in 1436 and completed about 1480. The present spire was only finished in 1868, the previous one, covered with lead, having suffered much through a storm, and later during the Revolution.

The wonderful doors, with their remarkable carving, and the splendid tympanum above the central one, date between the years 1527 and 1560. In that period it is possible that some of the carving was executed by Jean Goujon, who was afterwards killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. St. Maclou was a Scotsman who went to Brittany, was made Bishop of Aleth, and died in 561. The first church dedicated to him was built in the tenth century outside the walls of Rouen. A passage on the north side of the Rue Martainville (which runs from the north side of St. Maclou) leads into the AÎtre St. Maclou, a picturesque little cloister built in 1526, surrounding a paved courtyard, which was a burial-ground at the time of the plague of 1348—the Black Death that claimed 100,000 victims in the city.

Jeanne d’Arc.—The tragedy of the

THE TOWERS OF ST. OUEN AT ROUEN.

St. Ouen is, next to the Cathedral, the finest church of Rouen.