It was a good sign, we thought, when Felix Darley, an American artist on
a tour through Europe (a '5000 dollar run' is, we believe, the correct
expression), on arriving at Liverpool, was content to go quietly down
the Wye, and visit our old abbeys and castles, such as Tintern and
Kenilworth, instead of taking the express train for London; and it is to
the many signs of culture and taste for art, which we meet with daily,
in intercourse with travellers from the western continent, that we look
with confidence to a great revolution in taste and manners.[58]

To these, then (whom we may be allowed to look upon as pioneers of a new
and more artistic civilization), and to our many readers on the other
side of the Atlantic, we would draw attention to the towns in Normandy,
as worthy of examination, before they pass away from our eyes; towns
where 'art is still religion,'--towns that were built before the age of
utilitarianism, and when expediency was a thing unknown. To young
America we say--'Come and see the buildings of old France; there is
nothing like them in the western world, neither the wealth of San
Francisco, nor the culture of its younger generation, can, at present,
produce anything like them. They are waiting for you in the sunlight of
this summer evening; the gables are leaning, the waters are sparkling,
the shadows are deepening on the hills, and the colours on the banners
that trail in the water, are 'red, white, and blue!'

* * * * *

A Word or two here may not be out of place, on some of the modern
architectural features of Normandy. In some towns that we have passed
through it would seem as if the old feeling for form and colour had at
last revived, and that (although perhaps in rather a commonplace way)