feeble husband. The territory[10] had previously borne the name of
Jumieges, or, in Latin, Gemeticum, a term whose origin has puzzled
etymologists. Those who hold it disgraceful to be ever at a loss on
points of this nature, and who prefer displaying a learned to an
unlearned ignorance, derive Gemeticum, either from _gemitus_, because,
"pro suis offensis illìc gemunt, qui in flammis ultricibus non erunt
gemituri;" or from _gemma_, conformably to the following distich,--


"Gemmeticum siquidem a gemmâ dixere priores;
Quòd reliquis gemmæ, præcelleret instar Eoæ."


The ground upon which the abbey was erected was previously occupied by
an ancient encampment. The author of the Life of St. Philibert, who
mentions this circumstance, has also preserved a description of the
original church. These authentic accounts of edifices of remote date,
which frequently occur in hagiology, are of great value in the history
of the arts[11].--The bounty of the queen was well employed by the
saint; and the cruciform church, with chapels, and altars, and shrines,
and oratories, on either side, and with its high altar hallowed by
relics, and decked out with gold and silver and precious stones, shews
how faithfully the catholics, in their religious edifices of the present
day, have adhered to the models of the early, if not the primitive, ages
of the church.

Writers of the same period record two facts in relation to Jumieges,
which are of some interest as points of natural history.--Vines were
then commonly cultivated in this place and neighborhood;--and fishes of
so great a size, that we cannot but suppose they must have been whales,