The work, from which this account of the abbey of Fécamp has been extracted, also contains some details relative to a few of the principal miracles connected with the convent, and relative to the precious blood, to the possession of which Fécamp was indebted for no small portion of its celebrity. But the reader must be referred for all these to the Neustria Pia, where he will find them recorded at great length. The author of that most curious volume, appears to have treated no subject more entirely con amore than Fécamp; and if the more enlightened progeny of the present day incline, in the plentitude of their wisdom, to “think their fathers fools” for listening to such tales, let it at least be recollected, that even these tales, with all their absurdity, are most interesting documents of the progress of the human mind; and, above all, let it never be forgotten, that books of this description contain a mass of materials for the elucidation of the manners and customs of the age, which would in vain be sought for in any other quarter.
The abbatial church of Fécamp is still standing uninjured, and is a work of various ages. Some circular chapels attached to the sides of the choir, are probably remains of the building erected by Duke Richard: the rest is all of the pointed style of architecture; and the earliest part is scarcely anterior to the end of the twelfth century.—The church of St. Stephen, selected [here] for publication, is undeserving of notice, except for its southern portal, which is an elegant specimen of what is called by Mr. Rickman, the decorated English architecture.
FOOTNOTES:
[160] Turner's Tour in Normandy, I. p. 60.
[161] Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques dans l'Ancienne France, I. p. 110.—Seven plates in this work are devoted to the illustration of the religious buildings at Fécamp.
[162] Turner's Tour in Normandy, I. p. 62.
PLATE LXXII.
SCREEN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, AT EU.
