LETTER X.

CAUDEBEC. LILLEBONNE. BOLBEC. TANKARVILLE. MONTMORENCI CASTLE. HAVRE DE
GRACE.


My last concluded with our entrance into Caudebec. The present opens with a
morning scene at the same place. For a miracle I was stirring before nine.
The church was the first object of attraction. For the size of the place,
it is really a noble structure: perhaps of the early part of the sixteenth,
or latter part of the fifteenth century.[85] I speak of the exterior
generally, and of a great portion of the interior. A little shabby
green-baise covered door (as usual) was half open, and I entered with no
ordinary expectations of gratification. The painted glass seemed absolutely
to warm the place--so rich and varied were its colours. There is a great
abundance of it, and especially of figures of family-groups
kneeling--rather small, but with great appearance of portrait-like
fidelity. They are chiefly of the first half of the sixteenth century: and
I own that, upon gazing at these charming specimens of ancient painting
upon glass, I longed to fix an artist before every window, to bear away
triumphantly, in a portfolio of elephantine dimensions, a faithful copy of
almost every thing I saw. In some of the countenances, I fancied I traced
the pencil of LUCAS CRANACH--and even of HANS HOLBEIN.

This church has numerous side chapels, and figures of patron-saints. The
entombment of Christ in white marble, (at the end of the chapel of the
Virgin,) is rather singular; inasmuch as the figure of Christ itself is
ancient, and exceedingly fine in anatomical expression; but the usual
surrounding figures are modern, and proportionably clumsy and inexpressive.