little pamphlet sold in the church), 'un des premiers objets qui durent
appeler mes soins c'était le rétablissement d'une chaire à precher.' The
pulpit and staircase are elaborately carved and decorated with
statuettes, bas-reliefs, &c., which the pamphlet describes at length,
ending with the information that it is not yet paid for.

The most interesting and characteristic buildings in Caen, its
historical monuments in fact, are the two royal abbeys of William the
Conqueror--_St. Étienne_, called the 'Abbaye aux Hommes,' and _la Ste.
Trinité_, the 'Abbaye aux Dames'--both founded and built in the eleventh
century; the first (containing the tomb of the Conqueror) with two
plain, massive towers, with spires; and an interior remarkable for its
strength and solidity--'a perfect example of Norman Romanesque;'
adorned, it must be added, with twenty-four nineteenth-century
chandeliers with glass lustres suspended by cords from the roof; and
with gas brackets of a Birmingham pattern.

The massive grandeur, and the 'newness,' if we may use the word, of the
interior of _St. Étienne_, are its most remarkable features; the plain
marble slab in the chancel, marking the spot where William the
Conqueror was buried and disinterred (with the three mats placed in
front of it for prayer), is shewn with much ceremony by the custodian of
the place.

The Abbaye aux Dames is built on high ground at the opposite side of the
town, and is surrounded by conventual buildings of modern date. It
resembles the Abbaye aux Hommes in point of style, but the carving is
more elaborate, and the transepts are much grander in design; the
beautiful key-pattern borders, and the grotesque carving on the capitals
of some of the pillars, strike the eye at once; but what is most