ARCHITECTURAL
ANTIQUITIES
OF
NORMANDY,
BY
JOHN SELL COTMAN;
ACCOMPANIED BY
HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES
BY
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ. F.R. and A.S.
VOLUME THE FIRST.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL;
AND J. S. COTMAN, YARMOUTH.
MDCCCXXII.
PREFACE.
An artist, engaged in the illustration of the Architectural Antiquitiesof England, could scarcely do otherwise than often cast a wistful looktowards the opposite shores of Normandy; and such would particularly bethe case, if, like Mr. Cotman, to a strong attachment to his professionand the subject, he should chance to add a residence in Norfolk. Thisportion of the kingdom of the East-Angles, in its language and in itscustoms, but especially in the remains of its ancient ecclesiasticalarchitecture, abounds in vestiges of its Teutonic colonists. The richlyornamented door-ways of its village churches have, in particular, longbeen the theme of admiration among antiquaries. Bred up in the midst ofthese, and warmly partaking in the admiration of them, Mr. Cotmandevoted his pencil and his graver to the diffusion of their fame. Commonreport, aided by the suffrages of the learned, and in some degree bylocality, designated them as Saxon: at the same time, when they werecompared with what is left in Britain, of workmanship avowedly Norman,the points of dissimilarity appeared trifling or altogether vanished.Was it then to be inferred that, between Norman and Saxon architecture,there was really no difference; and, carrying the inference one stepfarther, that the hordes of barbarians denominated by these differentappellations, although they might not have embarked at the same port,were only cognate tribes of one common origin, if not in reality thesame? The solution of the first of these questions, the only oneimmediately in view, seemed best to be sought in that province ofFrance, where the Norman power had been most permanently established,and where it was therefore reasonably to be expected, that genuineproductions of Norman art might, if any where, be found. With this view,Mr. Cotman crossed the channel; and the result of three successivejournies, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1820, is here submitted to thepublic.
Those who find pleasure in inquiries of this description, will join inthe regret, that an undertaking like the present was so long delayed.Incalculable had been the advantages, had it but commenced previously[iv]to the period of the French revolution. That fearful storm burst withtremendous violence upon the castles of barons, the palaces of kings,and the temples of religion. Many of the most sumptuous edifices, whichhad mocked the hand of time, and had been respected amidst the ravagesof foreign or domestic