Brittany & Its Byways

Brittany & Its Byways
by Fanny Bury Palliser
Edition 02 , (November 9, 2007)
BRITTANY & ITS BYWAYS
some account of its inhabitants and its antiquities; during a residence in that country.
BY MRS. BURY PALLISER
with numerous illustrations
London
1869


Henry II. held his court in the castle with his empress-mother in great splendour; it had formerly been tenanted by Duke William of Normandy before his invasion of England, and, within its enclosure, he built a church also, in consequence of a vow made during a serious illness. There are few objects of interest in the town of Cherbourg. The women all wear the large Normandy cap. In the Place d'Armes is a bronze equestrian statue of the Emperor Napoleon I., and on the pedestal is inscribed J'avois résolu de renouveler à Cherbourg les merveilles de l'Egypte. In the Library is a curiously sculptured chimney-piece of the fifteenth century, coloured and gilt, removed from a room of the abbey. The principal church, La Trinité, is a strange jumble of architecture. There is some beautiful tracery in the windows, and a fine boss (clef pendante) in the south porch, now restored. On a board in the church is an inscription, setting forth it was built in consequence of a vœu solennel des habitans de Cherbourg en 1450 de la délivrance de la domination étrangère —that is, from the English, whose defeat the same year at Formigny, by the Constable de Richemont, expelled them for ever from Normandy.