whether we are perusing his observations or his transcripts. If he
really saw the inscriptions with his own eyes, it is greatly to be
regretted that he has given us no information respecting the paintings:
did they still exist, they would afford a most genuine and curious
proof of the state of Norman art at that remote period; and possibly, a
search after them among the cottages in the neighborhood might even now
repay the industry of some keen antiquary; for the French revolution may
well he compared to an earthquake: it swallowed up every thing,
ingulphing some so deep that they are lost for ever, but leaving others,
like hidden treasures, buried near the surface of the soil, whence
accident and labor are daily bringing them to light. The descendants of
Walter Giffard are repeatedly mentioned as persons of importance in the
early Norman writers; nor are they less illustrious in England, where
the great family of Clare sprung from one of the daughters; while
another, by her marriage with Richard Granville, gave birth to the
various noble families of that name, of which the present Marquis of
Buckingham is the chief.

Of the Priory, we are told in the _Neustria Pia_[24], that it was
anciently of much opulence, and that a Queen of France contributed
largely to the endowment of the house. Many men of eminence,
particularly three of the Talbot family, were buried within its walls.
Peter Megissier, a prior of Longueville, was in the number of the judges
who passed sentence of death upon the unfortunate Joan of Arc; and the
inscription upon his tomb is so good a specimen of monkish Latinity,
that I am tempted to send it you; reminding you at the same time, that
this barbarous system of rhyming in Latin, however brought to perfection
by the monks and therefore generally called their own, is not really of
their invention, but may be found, though quoted to be ridiculed, in the
first satire of Persius,