stately oaks. It was not built till 1460, when the long agony of the
war was over, and nothing remained of the English save their empty
nests in the rock, and their hated name.

A modern chapel, very white and not congruous with its surroundings, is
perched above the road on a terrace under Le Roc Perce, so named from a
natural cavern, very round, drilled through it, as though wrought by a
giant's boring tool.

At Cuzorn, on the line from Perigueux to Agen, are very fine rocks in a
meander of the Lemance, starting out of woods, and these contain
caverns that have been, and some still are, inhabited. In this region
are many quarries, not open to the sky, but forming halls and galleries
under the hill, and some of these have been taken possession of and
turned into habitations.

At Brantome on the Dronne a good many of the houses are against the
rock, the caves built up in front with the usual window and door to
each. More have their workshops in grottoes, in them blacksmiths have
their forges, carpenters their planing benches, tinkers, tailors,
cobblers carry on their business in comparative obscurity. The superior
stratum of rock is of so hard and tenacious a quality that it holds
together with very few piers to support it. When a citizen wants to
enlarge his premises, he merely digs deeper into the hill; he has no
ground-rent to pay. Some caves open a hundred feet wide without a
support.

[Illustration: GRIOTEAUX. A hamlet under overhanging rocks and with
chambers excavated in the rock. Above is a cave used as a place of
refuge, and notches that indicate where was a gallery reached by a rope