Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2 by Dawson Turner
page 13 of 300 (04%)
page 13 of 300 (04%)
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interesting, as deciding a point of some moment towards establishing the
antiquity of that celebrated relic, by setting it beyond a doubt that such helmets were used anterior to the conquest; for it is certain that these basso-relievos are coeval with the building which contains them. This church affords admirable subjects for the pencil. It should be drawn in every part: all is entire; all original; the corbel-stones that support the cornice on the exterior are perfect, as well along the choir and nave, as upon the square central steeple: each of the sides of this latter is ornamented with a double tier of circular arches. The buttresses to the church are, like those of the chapel of St. Julien, shallow and unbroken; and they are ranged, as there, between the windows. At the east end alone they take the shape of small semi-cylindrical columns of disproportionate length. [Illustration: Sculpture upon a capital in the Chapter-House at St. Georges] The monastic buildings, which were probably erected about the year 1700, now serve as a manufactory. Between them and the church is situated the chapter-house, which was built towards the end of the twelfth century, at a period when the pointed architecture had already begun to take place of the circular style. Its date is supplied in the _Gallia Christiana_, where we read, that Victor, the second abbot, "obiit longævus dierum, idibus Martii, seu XVIII calendas Aprilis, ante annum 1211; sepultusque est sub tabulâ marmoreâ in capitulo quod erexerat." We found it in a most ruinous and dilapidated state, yet extremely curious; indeed not less so than the church. Its front to the west |
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