have not depended upon my own remarks, I have endeavored, as far as
appeared practicable and without tedious minuteness, to quote my
authorities for facts; and I believe that I have done so in most
instances, except indeed where I have borrowed from the journals of the
companions of my tours,--the nearest and dearest of my connections,--or
from that of my friend, Mr. Cohen, who, at almost the same time,
travelled through a great part of Normandy, pursuing also very similar
objects of inquiry. The materials obtained from these sources, it has
been impossible to separate from my own; and, interwoven as they are
with the rest of the text, it is only in my power to acknowledge, in
these general terms, the assistance which I have thus received.--We were
proceeding in 1818, to the southern and western districts of Normandy,
when a domestic calamity compelled me to return to England. The tour was
consequently abridged, and many places of note remained unvisited by us.

My narrative is principally addressed to those readers who find pleasure
in the investigation of architectural antiquity. Without the slightest
pretensions to the character either of an architect or of an
antiquarian, engaged in other avocations and employed in other studies,
I am but too conscious of my inability to do justice to the subject. Yet
my remarks may at least assist the future traveller, by pointing out
such objects as are interesting, either on account of their antiquity or
their architectural worth. This information is not to be obtained from
the French, who have habitually neglected the investigation of their
national monuments. I doubt, however, whether I should have ventured
upon publication, if those who have always accompanied me both at home
and abroad, had not produced the illustrations which constitute the
principal value of my volumes. Of the merits of these illustrations I
must not be allowed to speak; but it may be permitted me to observe,
that the fine arts afford the only mode of exerting the talents of