The exterior of the church of St. Etienne, one of the ten parochial
churches of Fécamp, before the revolution, is considerably more
imposing; but upon this I will not detain you, as you will see it
engraved in Mr. Cotman's _Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, from a
sketch taken by him last year.

Henry IInd, of England, made a donation of the town to the abbey, whose
seignorial jurisdiction also extended over many other parishes, as well
in this as in the adjoining dioceses. Its exclusive privileges were
likewise ample. Under the first and second race, Fécamp was the seat of
government of the Pays de Caux, and the residence of the counts of the
district: it was also a residence of the Norman Dukes. Their castle was
rebuilt by William Longue-Epeé, with a degree of magnificence which is
said to have been extraordinary. This duke took particular pleasure in
the place, and he and his immediate successors frequently lived here.
But the palace has long since disappeared[35]: the continual increase of
the monastic buildings gradually occupied its place; and they, in their
turn, are now experiencing the revolutions of fortune, the inhabitants
being at this very time actively employed in their demolition.

The town is at present wholly supported by the fisheries, in which are
employed about fourteen hundred sailors[36]. The herrings of Fécamp have
always had the same high character in France, as those of Lowestoft and
Yarmouth in England. The armorial lion of our own town ends, as you
know, with the tail of a herring; and I really have been often inclined
to affix the same appendage to the rump of the lion of Normandy. You are
not much of an epicure, nor are you very likely to search in the
_Almanach des Gourmands_ for dainties; if you did, you would probably
find there the following proverb, which has existed since the thirteenth