Footnotes:
[80] Engravings of the same tiles, and of some others, chiefly with fanciful patterns, are to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1789, LIX. p. 211, plates 2, 3. The subjects of the latter plate are those tiles which were hung in a gilt frame, on the walls of the cloister of the abbey, with an inscription, denoting whence they were taken.
[81] Monumens de la Monarchie Française, I. p. 402, t. 55.
LETTER XXVII.
VIEUX--LA MALADERIE--CHESNUT TIMBER--CAEN STONE--HISTORY OF BAYEUX--TAPESTRY.
(Bayeux, August, 1818.)
Letters just received from England oblige us to change our course entirely: their contents are of such a nature, that we could not prolong our journey with comfort or satisfaction. We must return to England; and, instead of regretting the objects which we have lost, we must rejoice that we have seen so much, and especially that we have been able to visit the cathedral and tapestry of Bayeux.
At the same time, I will not deny that we certainly could have wished to have explored the vicinity of Caen, where an ample harvest of subjects, both for the pen and pencil, is to be gathered; but the circumstances that control us would not even allow of a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of la Délivrande, on the border of the English Channel, or of an excursion to the village of Vieux, in the opposite direction.--Antiquaries have been divided in opinion, concerning the nature and character of the buildings which anciently occupied the site of this village.--The remains of a Roman aqueduct are still to be seen there, and the foundations of ancient edifices are distinctly to be traced. In the course of the last century, a gymnasium was likewise discovered, of great size, constructed according to the rules laid down by Vitruvius, and a hypocaust, connected with a fine stone basin, twelve feet in diameter, surrounded by three rows of seats. Abundance of medals of the upper empire, among others, of Crispina, wife to Commodus, and Latin inscriptions and sarcophagi, are frequently dug up among its ruins[[82]]. Hence, a belief has commonly prevailed that during the Roman dominion in Gaul, Vieux was a city, and that Caen, which is only six miles distant, arose from its ruins. This opinion was strenuously combated by Huet; yet it subsequently found a new advocate in the Abbé Le Beuf[[83]]. The bishop contends that the extent of the buildings rather denotes the ruins of a fortified camp, than of a city; and he therefore considers it most probable, that Vieux was the site of an encampment, raised near the Orne, for the purpose of defending the passage of the river, at the point where it was crossed by the military road that led from the district of the Bessin, to that of the Hiesmois.--Portions of the causeway, may still be traced, constructed of the same kind of brick as the aqueduct; and the name of the village so far tends to corroborate the conjecture, that Vieux originally denoted a ford; and the word Vé, which is most probably a corruption from it, retains this signification in Norman French.--The Abbé, at the same time that he does not pretend to contradict the argument deduced from etymology, maintains that a careful comparison of the position of Vieux, with the distances marked on the Tabula Peutingeriana, and with what Ptolemy relates of certain towns adjoining the Viducassian territory, will support him in the assertion, that Vieux was the ancient Augustodurum the Viducassian capital; and that Bayeux was probably the site of Arigenus another of the towns of that tribe.--The red, veined marble of Vieux is much esteemed in France; as are also the other marbles of this department, which vary in color from a dull white, through grey, to blue. The quarries, as is generally believed, were first opened and worked by the Romans. Vieux marble is to be seen at Paris, where it was employed by Cardinal Richelieu, in the construction of the chapel of the Sorbonne.